Gospel Living

I'm impressed by the improvements BLB has made. The free tools online continue to grow, proving that poor Bible students do not need to drop hundreds of dollars into software to take advantage of the computer age. Here are a few updates of interest: They've updated their search feature. Here's a video describing it: BLB Comparison: Old Search vs. New Search from BLB Seth on Vimeo . They've included a " preferred Bible " feature. Now you don't have to do your searches in the KJV and then click a link to compare to the reading of the Bible you use. Nice. Their language tools are getting awesomer. Check this out: They no longer use little square images to accomplish Greek and Hebrew text. Granted, that method had it's advantages on the net, but look... it's not 2004 anymore. The Hebrew text has the option of cantillation marks. The version of the BHS I have in Logos right now doesn't even have this (I know, I'm old-school)! OT l...

Pastor Harris brought us to Genesis on Sunday, reading through the creation account and the Fall.  I noticed a little note I placed in the margin of my Bible from Hebrew class you may find interesting. Genesis 3:6 reads, " So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her , and he ate. " I've heard a few messages on how men should protect their wives that come down to this verse for inspiration.  There's Eve, chatting it up with the deceiver, and Adam is apparently standing idly by.  Maybe he was thinking about that fruit, as well, but he certainly wasn't defending Eve from this spiritual onslaught. While there may be some truth to that, we cannot know that from this verse. There are two Hebrew words that roughly translate "with." If I understand the vowel pointings...

A few weeks ago a person at church asked how we as Christians should treat the Law. One extreme is to ignore it. The other is to try to put Christians under it. The third option is to see it in light of the New Covenant. Consider this: we learn about the God we serve through the Law. For instance, nearly half (48%) of occurrences of the Hebrew word for holy, qodesh , occurs in the first five books of the Bible —the Law. Since the primary revealed attribute (not to be confused with saying that He has "greater" or "lesser" attributes) is His holiness, it's instructive that the concentration of OT teaching on holiness comes in the Law . Further, the command in Leviticus to " be holy " comes on the basis that God is holy (19:2; 20:7). The command is even repeated for NT believers in 1 Peter 1:16. If holiness is revealed in the Law, then we can discover invaluable truths about holy living in the Law. The problem is that we are not under the Law (for i...

Continued from Part 1 . 2. The Gospel calls us to be unified in purity While we’re on the topic of judging rightly, it seems that Paul wants us to consider the petty divisions that sometimes develop between the saints of God. Paul is speaking of professing Christians who run back to the world whenever there is a dispute between believers. They didn’t keep their disagreements in-house, they published them. For the sake of Christ, Paul asks in verse 7, “ Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? ” If the dispute was so bad, then surely someone in the church would have the wherewithal to arbitrate with the situation. I found out about the Florida woman’s story because she decided to go to the local news. The church was hurting her, but she was now going to hurt the church. What does this do for the name of Jesus Christ among unbelievers? T his is the mark of a selfish culture. Today, people sue at the drop of a hat, a sign that we feel entitled to whatever...

I first heard this story on Wretched Radio, but couldn't find it online. HT to the Rebelution for posting it. It was a documentary posted on BBC3 on 10 March, 2009. I really recommend youth as well as parents watch this for some possible inspiration. I've posted all six parts below to save you the temptation of reading the comments left on the YouTube videos. According to the YouTube blurb: Documentary about 13-year-old Deborah Drapper, who, unlike other British teens has never heard of Britney Spears or Victoria Beckham. She has been brought up in a deeply Christian family and her parents have tried to make sure she and her ten brothers and sisters have grown up protected from the sins of the outside world. Deborah is a bright, confident girl who has big ambitions for her life and the film spends a summer with her as she ventures out in the world to see what life outside her family could be and starts putting her beliefs forward to a wider audience. Part 1: Part 2: Part 3:...

Based on the message from  1 Corinthians 5–7 that  I was asked to deliver yesterday at the Pasadena City College Koinonia Bible Club. Introduction I was given the surprising task of covering four chapters from 1 Corinthians in about thirty-five minutes time. There are so many rich truths to camp around and mine in these chapters, but I want to see a larger theme present that ties the text together. There are two things I want to bring out of the text today, both of which are probably obvious from my title. One of them is sex, and the other is the Gospel. More to the point, I want to look at what these chapters have to say about sex and other periphery issues in light of the Gospel. So, why the Gospel? Though the word “Gospel” does not occur within these chapters, I want to promote is a view of the Bible that says life is to be lived in light of the Gospel. By contrast, I could stand here and give you a list of “do’s and don’ts” about sex. However, we should vie...

Yep , I couldn't make something like that up. (HT: Dan Phillips )

Pulpit Magazine has posted the full transcript of Phil Johnson's "What is an Evangelical?" P1: What Is an Evangelical? P2: Scripture and Evangelical Conviction P3: The History of Evangelicalism (Part 1) P4: The History of Evangelicalism (Part 2) P5: Where Evangelicalism Went Astray (Part 1) P6: Where Evangelicalism Went Astray (Part 2) On a related note, they have also posted the full transcript of his address on course language in the pulpit: Sound Doctrine, Sound Words (Part 1) Sound Doctrine, Sound Words (Part 2) Sound Doctrine, Sound Words (Part 3)

Last updated: March 21, 2011 A lot has changed at the Shepherd's Conference site since this March 2009 posting, with the current result being improved usability. For instance, new users no longer need to create a Shepherds' Fellowship account in order to download media. If this trend continues, I believe this post is will become obsolete. I'm okay with that... really . Yet, this still remains among the most popular posts on " Pisteuo ," possibly because the format may be more clear to some. As such, I am cleaning up what remained of the 2010 info and will begin the process of posting 2011. Of course, I had a bit of trouble when I first created this post in that I could not link to the audio files for 2001-09, though there are direct links to the notes. Since many messages are repeated and updated throughout the years, I have let this sit as is. If there is a message you see here that you want to revisit, browse "the vault" by year for the respectiv...