Back to the Future

Men I am teaching a 6-message series on End Times prophecy next week during our spring break. Topics include: Rapture, Glorification, Tribulation, Great White Throne Judgment, Millennial Kingdom, and Heaven (Eternal State). One of the keys to teaching is great illustrations so I am throwing this out there to any of you who have taught this before or who have some killer illustrations you can send my way. Thanks ahead of time for your input. You can post to the P to P blog or email me at wcostello23@gmail.com. Thanks guys.

The Writing Shepherd

The items in life that bring me joy, besides my wife and dog :), are reading and writing. My wife picked up a book for me. Once I creased the first page, I could not put it down. Rather than being a book on the nuances of grammar, style, composition, etc., this book is very similar to a spiritual disciplines book. Gearing the mind for a life-style of writing, Douglas Wilson, in Wordsmithy: Hot Tips for the Writing Life, was playing the role of Jiminy Cricket to my already attuned soul.

One thing Seminary provided for me was the constant demand to write. Now that I’m in a different program, the demands of writing have subsided for a short while. However, I was still finding the urge to pick up the pen (or keyboard) and start writing.

Writing aids my thinking in a number of ways and has been a means of grace in my life. This was not always the case, but writing has provided much solace to a vexed soul or great joys over a finished product. I’m never viewed myself as the “go-getter” (except for dating my wife, I wanted to marry her and quickly :). However, Wilson stated a few things in his book that have ignited a flame within me.

1. Do what you would love to be able to do someday.

2. Concert pianists can do what they do because they practiced scales for years. Be at peace with being lousy for a while. Nothing worthwhile ever comes without practice.

Why wait until tomorrow for aspirations, desires, dreams, etc. that you feel, yes subjectively feel, God has given you. You can rationalize all you want about the inability or un-“fitness” of your strengths; what you would like to accomplish tomorrow, start today.

Publishing is not the goal. Writing to aid my thinking is the goal. Clarity in writing demands clarity in thinking, which will aid clear communication. Similar to Pastor-to-Pastor, another group of my friends decided to begin a public-forum designed for theological thinking and writing as the pastor-theologian to help each other think through our current development of theological/biblical thinking. It is an attempt to do Theology in Community. The first post will be up tomorrow morning at 8am if you would like to enjoy the musings of another blog! shepherdthesheep.com

The Doctrine of Imputation

I am attempting to teach my students on the imputation of Christ’s righteousness. I have been preaching through Phil. 3:4-11 and I am beginning to see that they don’t understand the concept of imputation. Forgiveness is an easy concept; imputation is easy as well but just not understood. Here is a graph I believe may help teach them on what happens in justification and the difference between forgiveness of sin and imputation of righteousness.

What do you think of it? Is it biblically sound? If forgiveness is the removal or cancelling of sin, we are back to zero, not in the positive. We need to get into the positive for entrance into heaven. Only Christ’s righteousness, his obedience to God’s laws and death on the cross, give us the merit we need for entrance.

How Long Should a Pastor Preach - Graph

Goldilocks Would Approve

As pastors, we love teaching and preaching. We have studied all week, learned a ton, and have a lot of great info to teach our students. Each time we get in front of our students however, we are faced with the question- how long should we teach for?

I must confess that I tend to go on the long side. I am a TMS grad that many times gives TMI. My conscience is afflicted because I kick myself or going too long (sometimes 45 minutes). Am I wrong? I want to find a balance, get convictions, and stick to that.

How long is too long? How long do you men teach your students for?

What do you men think is a duration that would be "just right"?

20min.?

30min.?

More?

Don't Be a Lazy Pastor

“Some pastors and preachers are too lazy and no good. They rely on these and other good books to get a sermon out of them. They do not pray; they do not study; they do not read; they do not search the Scripture. It is just as if there were no need to read the Bible for this purpose.

They use books as offer them homiletical helps in order to earn their yearly living; they are nothing but parrots and jackdaws, which learn to repeat without understanding, though our purpose and the purpose of these theologians is to direct preachers to Scripture with such books and exhort them to plan to defend our Christian faith after death, against the devil, the world, and the flesh…

Therefore the call is: Watch, study, attend to reading. In truth, you cannot read too much in Scripture; and what you read you cannot read too carefully, and what you read carefully you cannot understand to well, and what you understand well you cannot teach too well, and what you teach well you cannot live too well.

Believe a man who has found this out. It is the devil, it is the world, it is our flesh that are raging and raving against us. Therefore, dear sirs and brethren, pastors and preachers, pray, read, study, be diligent. Truly, this evil, shameful time is not the season for being lazy, for sleeping and snoring. Use the gift that has been entrusted to you, and reveal the mystery of Christ.” 

–Martin Luther, What Luther Says: An Anthology, comp. Ewald M. Plass (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1959), entry no. 3547, 1110.

The Other Side of Thankfulness

As Americans, it is during this time of year that our minds focus upon giving thanks. However, such an attitude of gratitude should not be seasonal for Christians. Thankfulness is to continually and habitually mark the follower of Christ all year round.

True thanksgiving is joyfully offering praise to God in acknowledgement of His hand in our lives. It is the attitude of a true worshiper- one who knows that all good things come from God (James 1:17), but also knows that none of those good things whatsoever is deserved.

God commands a grateful attitude. The Apostle Paul wrote that giving thanks is to be done “in” everything we experience, “in everything give thanks.” Such gratefulness is “God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 5:18). Not only that, but Paul commands us in Ephesians 5:20, “always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father;” Putting those verses together, we are to give thanks in everything, at all times, for all things! There is no situation we are in, either “good” or “bad” in which we are not to offer thanks to God for His abundant and unmerited kindness in each circumstance.

God has given believers so much and done so much for which we should be thankful. But is there anything that He has withheld or withdrawn that should be a cause for thanksgiving? Is there anything that God does NOT do to us or for us that we should thank Him for? 

Indeed there is. Here is a sampling of the “other side” of thankfulness- not what we should be thankful for that God has given us, but what we should be thankful for…that God has NOT given to us. 

First, we should be thankful to God that He will NOT punish us as our sins deserve. Scripture repeatedly affirms that we are sinners. If we could see each of our sins collected and written down in a book, there would be libraries full of the records! Due to our sin, there is an eternal rift between us and God. We are at enmity with Him in our natural state and each of us should be immediately and eternally damned for breaking His laws. 

Second Corinthians 5:19 says, “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.”  This verse shows what God has “not” done in order to bring about forgiveness and reconciliation-“not counting” men’s sins against them. The word for “counting” is an accounting term that means “put something down on someone’s account.” When we trust Christ for salvation, God no longer sees our “account” with a long list of our trespasses by which He should punish us. We are no longer viewed as having a library of books full of our sin, but are instead counted with the righteous deeds of Christ. Our sin is not simply overlooked but paid for by a Substitute. In Christ He withholds His rightful judgment on us and punishes Christ in our stead.

The prophet Isaiah writes of the Lord, “I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions for My own sake, and I will not remember your sins.” (Isaiah 43:25). Again in Jeremiah 31:34, the Lord declares that He will, “forgive their iniquity, and their sin [He] will remember no more.” In both passages God is said to not “remember” our sins. God’s omniscience requires Him not to forget anything as if it never happened. In forgiveness, God does not forget, He chooses not to remember.

Through faith in Christ, “He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.” (Psalm 103:10) and thus there is “now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1). We can be thankful that through the sacrifice of Christ, God has not counted, not remembered, and thus not condemned us due to our sin.

Second, we can be thankful to God for NOT leaving us. In Hebrews 13:5, the author quotes the OT and writes, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” This sweet promise is repeated multiple times throughout Scripture (Gen. 28:15; Deut. 31:6, 8; Joshua 1:5-7; 1 Chr. 28:20) and signifies God’s faithfulness and assured presence with His people. It was first given to Jacob as he searched for a wife (Gen. 28), then also to Joshua as he took leadership of Israel and so on. In each case, God’s children were in a position of uncertainty and were offered assurance of God’s presence to comfort them. He would NOT leave them.

Similarly, God will not leave us to fend for ourselves when we encounter temptations and trials. In 1 Corinthians 10:13 Paul writes, “No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.”

The word for temptation is translated both trial as well as temptation. The difference is seen in the fact that God sends trials to test us; Satan sends temptations to trap us.

Our temptations are not unique. Nothing happens to us but what is common to human experience. Millions of other men and women of history have been tempted in similar ways just as we are. The details may change but the challenges are the same.

Though temptations and trials are unavoidable, they are not unbearable. We serve a God whose faithfulness guarantees His strength to counter any temptation successfully. A temptation will not be more than can be handled, because His grace will be more than enough to assist. Through His presence and help we may find strength for endurance, not an escape hatch to avoid the trial. No temptation or trial is stronger than our spiritual resources that are close at hand. 

We can be thankful that God is reliable and will not leave us, will not forsake us, and will not abandon us so that we are unable to persevere in trials.

As you think about what to be thankful for this next year, consider the other side. We should be grateful for what our gracious Father has done but also rejoice in what He has NOT done and what He will NOT do for His children.