Pst Joy and I are in Surabaya to minister in 2 Churches and to speak for a Youth Camp for another. You are in good hands today and Pst Rishi will be preaching a timely and important sermon. We are blessed to have great Pastors and Staff!
Next week, I will preach the second to last sermon in our series covering the entire book of James. Please familiarize yourself with James 5:1-12 in your personal devotion time.
Speaking of personal devotion time, allow me to encourage you to persist in receiving God’s Word into your life everyday. A friend of mine recently told me that many of the members in the Church he Pastors have become upset that he strongly encourages them to read the Bible every day. They have become hyper obsessed with one of the latest popular teachings about grace… many people world-wide have. They now believe that because of God’s grace, that they don’t need to be so devoted & are angry that he is "placing guilt" on them. But God’s Word balances its teaching on grace by stating, “3Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. 4For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord. 5Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe." (Jude 1:3-5 NIV)
Friends, we will not maintain our relationship with Christ and we will not grow in discipleship without regular, daily meditation on His Word. I pray that receiving hard copies of the sermon notes has been a help for you and that you have been using them to truly get the Word of God WORKING in you. I have not sensed an urgency so strong to help our congregation to understand the Word of God as strongly as I have for our entire congregation to understand the book of James. It is imperative. Thank you so very much for being students of the Good Book and for your devotion and loyalty to Jesus, the Author and Finisher of your faith!
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Pastors Pen 14September2008
ICCJ is a household of believers united by a vision to have a hand in Indonesia becoming a nation of Great Commission Disciples. I believe that God will hold us as a Church, accountable not only for individuals but also for this great nation which all believers here have been called to transform.
Psalms 9:17 (NLT) “The wicked will go down to the grave. This is the fate of all the nations who ignore God.”
God holds all people accountable individually… but during the time that He will judge the earth, there will be an accounting regarding which nations acknowledged the one and true living God and which nations did not. Even if a nation is judged to go down to the grave, individuals can be saved from that judgment because God will save some from every tribe, tongue, people and nation. (Revelation 5:9) The reverse is also true. One could be a part of a nation which serves God but not accompany their countrymen into eternity united with God unless they had forged a personal saving relationship with Jesus Christ.
So if it is an individual decision and our fate is ultimately an individual one, then why is this idea of saving a nation so important? There are two answers… the scriptural and the practical. The spiritual is simply because Jesus said to go and make disciples not only of all men, but of all nations. I believe he did not imply to go and just make a few disciples out of every nation, but to actually pursue the majority of every nation. (Matthew 28:19 “of” and not “from”) Jesus always spoke of evangelism in terms of the Kingdom of God being here on earth, inside of us, and more... The practical answer is simply that to affect society to the point that a nation becomes predominantly made up of Christ followers, is to ensure that more people will enter into eternity knowing Jesus then otherwise. It is both a matter of practical mathematics and the command of the Great Commission.
For a Church to believe that evangelism is merely something that we reserve for touching individual lives is to fall into a trap of very small thinking and action.
Psalms 9:17 (NLT) “The wicked will go down to the grave. This is the fate of all the nations who ignore God.”
God holds all people accountable individually… but during the time that He will judge the earth, there will be an accounting regarding which nations acknowledged the one and true living God and which nations did not. Even if a nation is judged to go down to the grave, individuals can be saved from that judgment because God will save some from every tribe, tongue, people and nation. (Revelation 5:9) The reverse is also true. One could be a part of a nation which serves God but not accompany their countrymen into eternity united with God unless they had forged a personal saving relationship with Jesus Christ.
So if it is an individual decision and our fate is ultimately an individual one, then why is this idea of saving a nation so important? There are two answers… the scriptural and the practical. The spiritual is simply because Jesus said to go and make disciples not only of all men, but of all nations. I believe he did not imply to go and just make a few disciples out of every nation, but to actually pursue the majority of every nation. (Matthew 28:19 “of” and not “from”) Jesus always spoke of evangelism in terms of the Kingdom of God being here on earth, inside of us, and more... The practical answer is simply that to affect society to the point that a nation becomes predominantly made up of Christ followers, is to ensure that more people will enter into eternity knowing Jesus then otherwise. It is both a matter of practical mathematics and the command of the Great Commission.
For a Church to believe that evangelism is merely something that we reserve for touching individual lives is to fall into a trap of very small thinking and action.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Chad is Married!!!
This is a 1st picture of our son Chad's wedding to Krystal!
This may come as a surprise to some of you but they have been courting a long time already. Due to a decision to move to Vancouver, Washington together from San Diego, they decided to marry right away and this small ceremony will be followed by a larger ceremony which all family will be able to attend within the next year.
In the meanwhile, they are finding housing, getting settled in new jobs, and they have already made a decision on a great Church in the area which happens to be where my brother Doug and his family also attend.
Please pray for them as they embark on their new life together and on the transition to Vancouver, quite a different environment from San Diego.
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