Monday, September 28, 2009

Blogging BCM: A Passionate Charge

Last Tuesday night Dan spoke on 1 Timothy 1:18-20 in a message entitled A Passionate Charge. For me the title was completely fitting to the message that Dan gave. There were so many things Tuesday that challenged and deeply convicted me. At one point Dan shared:

We must fight because so many things in this world are contrary to the Word of God.
How true is this statement. How often do we as believers stand up and fight against the things that are contrary to God's Word. To be quite honest, how many of us even read and study God's Holy Word so that we'll know what's contrary and what needs to be fought against?

For me this is what stuck...it is what I believe we all need to ask ourselves. Do you cling to the Word of God, like that of the Psalmist in Psalm 119? Do you seek God's Word so that you may discern what the constant contradictions the world is bombarding us with? Do you value your opinion more in regards to culture, politics and education or do you compare all of these things to the Word of God and base the things you stand on upon His Truth?

The prophet Isaiah said very powerfully; "The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever" (Isaiah 40:8) Seasons come and seasons pass, the shifting winds of our culture and it's current trends and political landscape will be gone before we know it, but God's word will last and endure beyond all time. Are you willing to stand up and be a fighter, fighting for the things of God's Word and standing firm against everything that is contrary? The Bible warns very harshly against those that stray from God's word and preach a false gospel. No where is this more evident than the passage that Dan preached on Tuesday night. Let us all make an effort to plant our feet upon the Word of God and dig down so deep that no power of this world can pull us away from the conviction and foundation that God gives us in His word.

Thoughts For Daily Devotions:
1. Read and study 1 Timothy 1:18-20, Isaiah 40 and Luke 11

2. In what areas of your life do you see a need to center yourself more upon God's Word?

3. What areas of your life might God be calling you to stand up and fight, holding fast to His Word and in repentance of your sinful nature that by His grace He has redeemed you from?
As always if you have any questions, feel free to talk to Tim, Mike or myself.

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Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Blogging BCM: Proclaiming the Gospel

This week due to schedule difficulties, Dan Hardesty agreed to guest blog on Tim's message from last night.

Last night, we had the opportunity to hear Tim teach on 1 Timothy 1:12-17. During our time together, Tim stressed the importance of being able to proclaim the Gospel and live out the Gospel in our lives. In the midst of this passage we see the great truth of the Gospel “that Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners” (verse 15). We find this section of scripture situated where Paul is talking about his own sinfulness. Let’s look a little bit more at the facts behind the sinfulness of Paul.

As Tim mentioned, Paul “was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent” of God and the glorious Gospel. Paul was a man who was so truly opposed to what God had done in Christ that he was willing to go to the extreme to make sure that this move was limited. But God still worked around Him, and ultimately through Him. He became an apostle to the Gentiles (Romans 11:13). In spite of all of his past and his own predisposition against Jesus, God saved Paul and Paul impacted much of world in some way for Christ.

Paul though refers to himself as the foremost of sinners – and not in a past tense way. “Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.” Why does he refer to himself in the present tense as being the foremost of sinners? Was Paul being humble in his sinful past? Was Paul owning and admitting his sin? Could Paul have possibly been continuing in this sin?

Tim rightly asserted that Paul was being humble in his sinful past. In doing so, he gave hope to all of the sinners this world has seen. Now to say that Paul was the “worst” of sinners would be a stretch. We could bring up countless examples of other ruthless men and women in the world who have done terrible deeds, some of them even in the name of a god. However Paul’s salvation gives hope that God will save many different types of people, people from all sort of sinful and not-so-sinful backgrounds. Therefore we have hope that He will use us to help save some from all backgrounds.

Paul was also owning his sin. Just this past week there have been multiple incidents of public scrutiny in the world of sports, music, and politics. Now it is easy to criticize in these situations, so I will try not to be harsh. But it has taken some of these erring individuals multiple times and interviews for them to say anything more than “my passion got in the way” or “I handled it poorly.” Few of them have actually taken the time to apologize to the people that they wronged, and if they have, it has taken multiple days and too much time for them to own up to their sin. I know little of these individuals’ spiritual lives, but I do know that we, as Christians, are to own our sin, as Paul has done in this passage.

This is certainly not to say that Paul continued in his blasphemy, persecution, and opposition to the Gospel. On the contrary, Paul became the biggest advocate for Christ that we see in the scriptures. Paul’s sinful past was now truly wiped away and he was living for a different reason and different cause. He was truly “sold out” for Christ. “As for me (Paul) to live is Christ, but to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21). He was no longer living for his own desires of persecuting the Way of Christ. He was no longer living for any other sin in his life. He was living for the only thing that truly matters, our faith in God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

In his life we see a great truth. He shares it with us in Romans 8:9, “You, however, are not in the flesh” (the sinful nature) “but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.” We are living and running and going by the Spirit of God if we are in Christ. We are empowered to live differently than we did before we came to Christ. That is not to say that we will not struggle with sin – Paul deals with this in Romans 7. But our sin is no longer who we are and how we live – that is Christ.

Finally Paul says that he “received mercy because (he) had acted ignorantly” (verse 13). The root word for ignorant and agnostic is the same. An agnostic is literally someone “without knowledge.” Much of this world is without knowledge of our one true God found in Christ. How will the people gain knowledge of our God? Ultimately the two main channels are through His word (if they are so inclined), but maybe even more so, through His people.

Through your devotions this week:

1. Read about the life of Paul. Examine especially those passages Tim shared Tuesday night, Acts 9:1-22, Acts 22:1-21, and Acts 26:9-18.

2. Read Romans 7 and 8. What implications does this have for you as a believer in Christ?


3. Pray for opportunities to share what God has done in your life, and ultimately, the Gospel. Target certain individuals as God directs you. If you aren’t a believer, get together and talk to a BCM leader about their faith.
As always, if you have any further questions, you can always talk to Josh, Tim, or Mike.

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Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Where Are The Faithful Young Men?

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Don't Waste Your Church

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Josh Harris on Resisting Temptation

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Which Direction Are You Pointing In?



HT: Josh Harris

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The Importance of Memorizing Scripture

John Piper on why we must memorize Scripture:

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Why We Love The Church Video



HT: T4G

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Thursday, September 10, 2009

Blogging BCM: Sound Doctrine

Tuesday night Tim shared from 1 Timothy 1:3-11 a message entitled Sound Doctrine. He stressed the importance of sitting under sound doctrine in the church and called out many churches today who lack sound, Word-centered teaching. He also cited this flaw as one of the main reasons many are turned off by or have had bad experiences in the church. In addition, Tim talked about the fruits of sound doctrine and walking with a good conscience. In this post, I want to dig deeper into a certain verse from these passages. As is the purpose with this series of posts throughout each semester, I want to take a passage that, due to time, was not able to fully be examined and and look at it in more detail. Paul writes in 1 Timothy 1:5:

The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.
What Paul states in this one verse is absolutely crucial to understanding our need for sound doctrine and why he presses it so much throughout his letters to Timothy. As stated in the beginning, this is the whole aim (or goal) of this specific section of Scripture. He says that the aim of their charge is love. The charge Paul is speaking of is seen in verse 3, stating that Timothy is to charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine. So therefore, the charge is to not teach anything contrary to the sound doctrine that has been entrusted to Timothy. So the goal of not teaching any different doctrine is love. Love therefore, should pour out of sitting under sound teaching. How does this love come from enduring sound doctrine?

Paul continues writing that this love:
issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.
What the conclusion of this verse shows us is that when we sit under and endure sound teaching, we will develop a pure heart, a good conscience and a sincere faith, therefore resulting in love. We might ask, "well how is this possible?" When we seek out and long for sound teaching, when we listen to sermons that are doctrinally sound and find churches that preach in a Word-centered way, we will be transformed by the Truth of God's Word. We will be thoroughly convicted, be challenged to repent of our sins and therefore develop consciences that are no longer laden with guilt. We will grow in sanctification and our minds will be transformed by the renewing power of His Word (Romans 12:2) in a way that we will no longer seek the desires of our flesh, but seek to glorify God in all that we say and do, therefore developing a pure heart. Through the power of His Word being taught in a doctrinally sound manner, we will be challenged to not only speak Christ and Him crucified, but to live it out with a complete, sincere faith.

Paul cannot stress to us enough the importance of seeking and undergoing sound teaching. If we do not sit under teaching that convicts and encourages us in our faith and that is doctrinally sound, we ultimately will not be able to love to our fullest capacity in Christ. The goal of our need to sit and endure sound doctrine is that we may love by the grace of God to our fullest potential through the developing of a pure heart, good conscience and sincere faith as a result of the sound doctrine we absorb. There is a lot riding on who we listen to and where we attend church. Our spiritual maturity is at stake. Our spiritual growth is at stake. Our ability to love others is at stake. Paul stresses it. God's Word demands it. We must seek out and endure sound teaching.

Throughout Your Daily Devotions:
1. Read and Study 1 Timothy 1:3-11, Galatians 5:16-26 and Romans 12

2. Are you currently sitting under sound doctrine that is centered upon God's Word?

3. In what areas of your personal life do you need to seek to be more doctrinally sound?
As always if you have any questions, or need help finding a church body that is Biblical and doctrinally sound, feel free to talk to Tim, Mike or myself.

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Sunday, September 6, 2009

Blogging BCM: Introduction to Timothy

Tuesday night, Tim shared a message introducing us to the subject of Paul's letters we will be studying throughout the semester. The part that stood out most to me, was when Tim shared the characteristics of Timothy and how Paul wrote these letters to encourage, enrich and train Timothy in the ministry God called him to. Tim shared that Timothy was called to be a messenger and how we are all called to be messengers ourselves. Therefore this journey that we are embarking on this semester, will prepare and strengthen us as messengers, just as Paul's letters prepared and strengthened him throughout his missionary journey.

Through this post, I want to focus on three of the key aspects of Timothy's life Tim touched on and how as messengers, like that of Timothy, we are called to display these characteristics in our lives as well.

First, Tim shared that we must have hope. If we are going to be true messengers of Christ, we must have hope in our Lord and Savior and the mission that He has called us to. God's Word speaks of this hope we are to have and how we received it (Colossians 1:27), as well as exhorts and calls us to be ready at any moment to speak for the hope we have. One of our greatest assets as a follower of Christ in reaching people for His purpose, is the hope that we are to display and our answer when people ask about our hope.

Next, we learned that Timothy was faithful to the Lord. If we are to be messengers for Christ, we must, as Timothy did, remain steadfast and faithful to what God has called us to do, no matter what direction He may take us in or what trials may arise. God rewards those who are faithful, and will work more fully through us the more faithful we remain to His purpose and calling in our lives.

Finally, as messengers of Christ like Timothy, we must not only show a deep concern for the lost, but a deep concern for God's people as well (Philippians 2:20-22). Throughout this semester we will discover that Timothy's role as a messenger and his ministry in Jesus Christ, calls him to have a deep concern for the people of God. If we are to be messengers ourselves, we must first and foremost have a deep concern for our brothers and sisters in Christ, because if we cannot love and care for them, then there is no way we will be able to love and care for the lost in a way that reaches them to a saving faith in Jesus Christ.

As we take step on this journey together through the teaching of Tim through Jesus Christ, it is my hope and prayer that we all heed this calling to be true messengers of Christ, and look for ways in studying His Word to grow in the characteristics God calls us to have as His messengers.

Things To Consider During Your Devotions:

1. Study 1 Timothy 1:1-2, Colossians 1 and Philippians 2:20-22.

2. In what ways do these Scriptures give us an example of how to have hope, remain faithful and have a concern for God's people.

3. Think about the ways you may need to work on these areas in your life in order to be a greater messenger by God's grace for Jesus Christ.
As always, if there are any questions you may have or you need someone to talk to; feel free to contact Tim, Mike or myself.

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About Standing Firm

Standing Firm was created to be a source of theological truth in a world that is filled with philosophies and empty deceit. God's Word is filled with charges to those that are called by His name to stand firm and to not be conformed to this world. We must heed the charge of the Apostle Paul to the church in Rome: "I appeal to you therefore brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a spiritual sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, so that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good, acceptable and perfect" (Romans 12:1-2).

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