One of the things that seminary instilled in me was a love for reading. Growing up in California, I was always more likely to be outside playing sports than indoors reading a book. Sure I read a few books growing up, mostly novels with a good story plot, but I was never a "Reader". I skimmed my way through books in college and hit the eject button on some of the information that I learned for the tests and papers after I was done. The one book I did read in college, however, was the Bible. That was the one book that I couldn't get enough of. In fact, my good friend Donald, and I would literally spend hours in our apartment reading and sharing about all we were learning from God's Word as we devoured it day after day. Those conversations and that time spent with God and my friend Donald have kept he and I close to this day, even though we are on opposite ends of the country.
Yesterday, I started a new book about church health and leadership called, "The Deliberate Church". This book was written by a well known pastor in Washington D.C. named Mark Dever and his friend Paul Alexander. It is a follow-up book to Dever's previous (and highly recommended book), "Nine Marks of a Healthy Church". The first thing that Pastor Dever mentions is the centrality of the Word of God in the life of the church. He told the search committe when his church was in the process of calling him to be the next pastor that he would be "happy to see every aspect of my public ministry fail if it needed to...except for the preaching of God's Word." This is because God's Word is what the Lord uses to give people understanding of who He is and who we are in comparison to Him, convict people of their sin, instill in the lives of people true faith, repentance, and spiritual life and gives people instructions on how they are to live their lives for His glory and name's sake.
Dever says, "God's Word is His supernatural power for acoomplishing His supernatural work. That's why our eloquence, innovation, and programs are so much less important than we think; that's why we as pastors must give ourselves to preaching, not programs; and that's why we need to be teaching our congregations to value God's Word over programs." It is the Word of God that transforms me and those around me. It is vital that we as the people of God spend time in His Word so as to know Him and to make Him known throughout the world!
Because of this truth about the centrality of the Word of God in the life of Christians and the Church, we in our church have begun in the past year MasterLife groups where we group several men together or several ladies together in a small group as a way to go through life together, not just a 6 week Bible study. The goal is for us to grow together towards Christlikeness. Several of the main things that the MasterLife study pushes is having a daily quiet time with the Lord in His Word and in prayer as well as weekly memorizing and meditating on a Scripture verse. The Christian life can only be lived out if we stay plugged into our Lord through His Word and through prayer! These foundational disciplines will spur us on to love God and love others so that the other areas of our lives will be effected in such a way as to glorify God in all that we say and all that we do (1 Corinthians 10:31).
My hope and prayer is that we would all spend time in the Word of God this week so that we may know Him and make Him known!
Yesterday, I started a new book about church health and leadership called, "The Deliberate Church". This book was written by a well known pastor in Washington D.C. named Mark Dever and his friend Paul Alexander. It is a follow-up book to Dever's previous (and highly recommended book), "Nine Marks of a Healthy Church". The first thing that Pastor Dever mentions is the centrality of the Word of God in the life of the church. He told the search committe when his church was in the process of calling him to be the next pastor that he would be "happy to see every aspect of my public ministry fail if it needed to...except for the preaching of God's Word." This is because God's Word is what the Lord uses to give people understanding of who He is and who we are in comparison to Him, convict people of their sin, instill in the lives of people true faith, repentance, and spiritual life and gives people instructions on how they are to live their lives for His glory and name's sake.
Dever says, "God's Word is His supernatural power for acoomplishing His supernatural work. That's why our eloquence, innovation, and programs are so much less important than we think; that's why we as pastors must give ourselves to preaching, not programs; and that's why we need to be teaching our congregations to value God's Word over programs." It is the Word of God that transforms me and those around me. It is vital that we as the people of God spend time in His Word so as to know Him and to make Him known throughout the world!
Because of this truth about the centrality of the Word of God in the life of Christians and the Church, we in our church have begun in the past year MasterLife groups where we group several men together or several ladies together in a small group as a way to go through life together, not just a 6 week Bible study. The goal is for us to grow together towards Christlikeness. Several of the main things that the MasterLife study pushes is having a daily quiet time with the Lord in His Word and in prayer as well as weekly memorizing and meditating on a Scripture verse. The Christian life can only be lived out if we stay plugged into our Lord through His Word and through prayer! These foundational disciplines will spur us on to love God and love others so that the other areas of our lives will be effected in such a way as to glorify God in all that we say and all that we do (1 Corinthians 10:31).
My hope and prayer is that we would all spend time in the Word of God this week so that we may know Him and make Him known!
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