Archive for June 2012
The Open Door Policy for Aliens & Strangers — the Letter to Philadelphia
Have you ever felt like you weren’t wanted? Like a fifth wheel? Has a religious crowd ever made you feel like a stranger? Like everyone else was extended brotherly love, but you?
Jesus promises never to let His people feel like outsiders.
Jesus will not withhold His friendliness, favor, brotherly love or praise for His faithful.
Jesus opens the door wide into Heaven for His people. In the New Jerusalem the faithful will never feel like a fifth wheel. With Jesus we will never feel like a stranger. 
We might feel like an alien in this world, but when we approach Heaven, we will find an open door. We will be greeted by Jesus and the saints!
Read MoreThe Open Door Policy for Aliens & Strangers — the Letter to Philadelphia
Have you ever felt like you weren’t wanted? Like a fifth wheel? Has a religious crowd ever made you feel like a stranger? Like everyone else was extended brotherly love, but you?
Jesus promises never to let His people feel like outsiders.
Jesus will not withhold His friendliness, favor, brotherly love or praise for His faithful.
Jesus opens the door wide into Heaven for His people. In the New Jerusalem the faithful will never feel like a fifth wheel. With Jesus we will never feel like a stranger.
We might feel like an alien in this world, but when we approach Heaven, we will find an open door. We will be greeted by Jesus and the saints!
Read MoreThe Open Door Policy for Aliens & Strangers — the Letter to Philadelphia
Have you ever felt like you weren’t wanted? Like a fifth wheel? Has a religious crowd ever made you feel like a stranger? Like everyone else was extended brotherly love, but you?
Jesus promises never to let His people feel like outsiders.
Jesus will not withhold His friendliness, favor, brotherly love or praise for His faithful.
Jesus opens the door wide into Heaven for His people. In the New Jerusalem the faithful will never feel like a fifth wheel. With Jesus we will never feel like a stranger.
We might feel like an alien in this world, but when we approach Heaven, we will find an open door. We will be greeted by Jesus and the saints!
Read MoreThe Powerful Legacy of William Tyndale
A hundred years ago a comet made of frozen gas entered our atmosphere and made impact in Russia, in a swampy forest in western Siberia. When an ice comet travels through Earth’s atmosphere, the friction melts and atomizes the frozen gas into a trail of flammable vapor that spreads from the Earth’s crust all the way back to the highest parts of our stratosphere. When the explosion happens on the surface of the earth, the fire ball has the potential to reach thousands of miles high with the explosive power of a thousand atomic bombs.
The shock wave from that explosion flattened 80 million trees over 800 square miles. The center of the impact left all the trees standing straight up with no branches.
The fireball stretched back into the outer atmosphere, as high as there is burnable oxygen to ignite the trial of gas left in the wake of the comet’s path. This produced so much light that a day later Londoners could read their newspapers under the night sky.
The comet struck at 7:17 am on June 30, 1908. Just over a hundred years ago.
But the energy from that event pales in significance to another explosion that happened 500 years ago in London, an explosion of light that set the world ablaze, and still shines today. That light is the glory of the Son of God shining forth from the pages of Holy Writ. That light wasn’t shining very well for a thousand years before Tyndale.
Read MoreFive Confessions of a Failed Church Planter — by John Thomas
There are five major–and painful–confessions that I am ready to own up to: Prayerlessness, Lack of Personal Focus, Lack of Gospel Centeredness, Lack of Honest Critique, Lack of Partnership.
Looking back, any one of these errors was enough to sink the ship. There are dozens of other failures that I could note. These seem to be the most egregious; the ones that had they been dealt with at the time would likely have made the difference between failure and viability.
It’s my hope and prayer that these confessions will help those who are in the throes of leading a plant or those who will lead a plant in the future, not to make the same mistakes I made along the way. It is also my hope that the Lord will continue to raise up an army of men who will, in spite of the odds, take up the banner of church planting for the glory of God!
Read MoreThe Church of the Living Dead — Sardis
Gospel passions build great organizations, but carelessness let’s them slide into Christian obscurity and Kingdom irrelevance.
Consider the Kingdom Mission of Harvard, Dartmouth, Princeton and Yale. Gospel passion made them grow, but carelessness left them useless for the Kingdom of Christ. The current fight within the ARP over Erskine is a work of sweat and prayer to keep our Denominational College and Seminary off the list of the spiritually irrelevant.
The Church at Sardis was fast becoming irrelevant to Christ’s Kingdom.
Evangelistic zeal had dried up. Fervent prayer was marginalized. A commitment to discipleship was replaced with commitments to programs and fruitless busy-ness.
None of these things were concerns for the Church at Sardis. They had become content with previous spiritual victories. They made their boast in their glorious history, not the Lord, and they lost Christ’s vision for their community.
They looked alive, but Jesus said they were dead. They had a reputation for being alive, but they were spiritually dead. They were the church of the living dead.
Read MoreThe Deep Things of Satan . . . in the Church of Thyatira
Christians in Thyatira felt pressure from the trade guilds. We would call them Unions.
Imagine yourself living in Chicago as an electrician. If you are willing to join a Union and vote for the local politicians then you’re fine.
But let’s say you’re a Tea Party radical and a conservative political activist. Could you get employment as an electrician in Chicago?
The Unions in Thyatira were teaching immoral and corrupting values. Each guild worshipped a deity who promised financial success and good health.
Worship was like a Mardi Gras Party. The guilds sponsored immoral festivals like what you might see in Rio de Janeiro. Union members were expected to participate or possibly lose their benefits.
Christians faced a huge dilemma. They could attend these festivals and eat the meat offered to the idols, or boycott the festivals and damage their careers. Some Christians did speak out and call the society to repentance. Others, within the church, argued that participation was fine. Jesus calls these church people Jezebels.
Read MoreCan We Negotiate a Ceasefire with Satan? — Revelation 2:12-17
Abraham Kuyper said that, “There is not a square inch in heaven or on earth or under the earth in which there is peace between Christ and Satan.”
Jesus said that Satan lived in Pergamum. Does Satan dwell in your town?
You can tell be answering this question — “Do your neighbors publicly express their animosity toward God without shame?”
Is homosexuality celebrated? Are cults and witchcraft treated as acceptable religious options? Does the culture treat abortion as a morally neutral decision? Is living together without the benefit of marriage considered moral? Is pornographic material readily available?
How much animosity against God can citizens flaunt without being shunned? Can people be publically sinful and not become social outcasts?
Answering these questions will measure the level at which Satan is allowed to feel at home within your own community.
Do you help Satan feel comfortable by going along to get along? Have you lost your saltiness? Have you negotiated a ceasefire with Satan to protect your own skin? Jesus calls this the error of Balaam.
Read MoreManuscript of the Incoming Moderator’s Address — What’s Eating at the Fabric of the ARP Church?
by Steve Suits
Fathers and brothers, last year Moderator Andy Putnam laid before us a statistical picture of the health of our denomination. His presentation made it quite clear that the trajectory of the ARPC in terms of numbers is not positive. Now, the Strategic Planning Committee (SPC) identifies in its report to us this year what is eating at the fabric of the ARPC, echoing to a large degree what was said by the Vision Committee over five years ago.
Not only are we experiencing declining membership, diminishing giving, and dying congregations, but, according to what these two committees have reported, apathy and mediocrity characterize much of the attitude of our work, at least in the sphere of denominational affairs. Coming out of this is what the SPC called, “blame-shifting and conflict for control.”
Such negative attributes are probably not as apparent to those among us who do not spend much time in denominational activities, but rather are working hard to serve their local congregations. Nevertheless, this is what has been said by the members of these two committees, who have thought long and hard about our condition. What underlying problems are responsible for this state of affairs?
Why a Synod in the first place?
When I looked to our Confession of Faith for guidance, I found that a Synod is for the better government and further edification of the Church. How does a synod provide for better government and further edification of the Church?
Read MoreSynod 2012 — Items of Interest for ARP Churches
Can your church organize a fundraising team to raise $1,000 between now and next year? Contact me to inquire how to help.
Click to read the Synod Packet located at Google Docs.
June 07, 2012 at 7:24 pm – Due to a lack of delegates (lacking 6 elders and 15 ministers), Synod was suspended and all business was shelved.
June 07, 2012 at 4:48 pm – Synod affirms that Marriage is only defined as between a Man and a Woman.
June 07, 2012 at 4:27 pm – Synod funding for Erskine will continue, with love and patience, as the College Board of Trustees works through the new information that was brought to light within the Minority Report.
June 07, 2012 at 2:47 pm – That a season of prayer and fasting for Erskine College and Seminary be held in the churches of the presbyteries in the ARP Synod.
June 07, 2012 at 12:10 pm – Pacific (Korean) Presbytery was not dissolved, but their inclusion within the ARP was referred back to the Executive Board
June 07, 2012 at 11:03 am – Voted to Affirm the Historicity of Adam & Eve
June 07, 2012 at 9:45 am – New Moderator Elect for 2013-2014
June 06, 2012 at 10:45 am – Moderator’s Address by Dr. Steve Suits entitled “What’s Eating at the Fabric of the ARP Church? — by Dr. Steve Suits”
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