Showcase: Assorted Treats

  • My Soul Cries Out in Worship +

    Over the past ten years, Vicki Yohe has written some of the most popular songs sung in churches. This song Read More
  • Worship Matters: A blog by Bob Kauflin +

    Worship Matters is a blog by Bob Kauflin. Good, inspired food for one's soul. http://www.worshipmatters.com/ Read More
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Don  Carson

http://www.biblestudytools.com/rsv/2-kings/12.html

http://www.biblestudytools.com/rsv/2-timothy/2.html

http://www.biblestudytools.com/passage/?q=hosea+3;+hosea+4

http://www.biblestudytools.com/psalms/passage/?q=psalm+119:121-144

2 Kings 12; 2 Timothy 2; Hosea 3–4; Psalm 119:121–144

ONE OF THE MANY PRACTICAL DECISIONS a busy pastor has to face is whether to engage some particular error that rears its head.

The factors that go into that sort of decision are many. How many people are actually being affected by it? Is it threatening to split the church, or is it the fixation of only one or two people? Is it about some relatively peripheral matter, or does it go to the heart of the Gospel? Is it something about which the Bible is really quite clear, or does it concern something on which the Bible does not pronounce anything very substantial? Moreover, even when the issue is clearly important, one must make sober decisions about how much time and energy you should devote to it. Too little, and many of your flock may be adversely affected; too much, and you are being drawn away from what should be the primary focus of your ministry; you will gradually get sucked into a sea so vast you will never again see the shore.

Over the years I have been invited to address any number of "problems" or "interpretations" that have lasted no more than a few months or a few years. It may be expedient to do the studying necessary to engage a few of them; anything more is a waste of time. Just a month or so before the "Heaven's Gate" mass suicide, this cult sent me (and doubtless many others) one of their videos and a great deal of literature. I spent all of ten minutes scanning the literature to see where it was going. It was such unadulterated rubbish I filed it away, hoping I would never have to respond to this particular brand of nonsense. A few weeks later, most of the adherents were dead.

Two years ago a pastor phoned me and berated me because I had not yet responded with anything substantive to Michael Drosnin's book, The Bible Code. Out of interest I had accumulated a fairly substantial file, but that was not enough for this pastor: he felt that the people in his church were terribly vulnerable, and he insisted that I spend some time working on it. I refused. Two months later I discovered that the person in his church most fixated by this problem was the pastor himself, who could not leave the subject alone.

What a welcome contrast, then, to hear Paul telling Timothy what to say to new generations of pastors: "Warn them before God against quarreling about words; it is of no value, and only ruins those who listen" (2 Tim. 2:14). Or again: "Don't have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels" (2 Tim. 2:23). Answer when you must; never fixate on the peripheral; do not lose the focus on what is primary; do not be enticed into stupid arguments. The real issues are simply too important.

http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/loveofgod/

Reflections to Consider

  • Warfare Spirituality

    The Trinity function as farmers of our souls, actively caring for God’s creation: an ongoing, radical reclamation of His creation. Read More
  • Corporate Spirituality

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Publications

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Music

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Audio & Video

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Favorites

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    Look inside the mysterySee the empty crossSee the risen SaviorVictorious and strong Read More
  • Paul's Prayers +

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Hidden Blessings

  • Joy Will Find A Way: Bruce Cockburn +

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  • Shepherd's Joy by Luther Jackson Middle School Advanced Chorus +

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    Joy to the World , the Lord is come!Let earth receive her King;Let every heart prepare Him room,And Heaven and nature Read More
  • The joy of the Lord is my strength by Douglas Miller +

    The joy of the LORD is my strengthThe joy of the LORD is my strengthThe joy of the LORD is Read More
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