I am reading Phillip Yancey's book titled " The Bible Jesus Read" and this week I am reading chapter two titled" Job: Seeing in the Dark ". I know that Sean and Tyler have already read this book so I may have questions for them.
This chapter is a very revealing chapter about Job and his situations,his friends, and the God he serves,not to mention his character,integrity and his faith.Job's faith made a difference in his circumstances and that is what impressed me the most. I shutter at the thought that God would allow Satan to test me in the way Job was tested, I'm afraid I would fail that test miserably and maybe we're not as strong as we would like to think ourselves to be. Job was unique in his faith, "the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away blessed be the name of the Lord", rare words from a guy who has just lost every possesion that he has. That my friends is faith.
I agree Roger, the more you read Job the more you see it as a wisdom book. I'm thankful that there's a book that is cut & dry as this book when you're in a trial. Its actually not easy to accept this when you're going thru one. But there's no other thing I would want to put my trust in except the God we serve, who chose to accept the cup, in the garden, the Love & Mercy that was shown, and defeated Death! Who else would you want to?
Something else that comes to mind, have you ever been praying and asked for patience or even to be closer to God, and then then feared what you asked for because this might come in the form of a crisis? I have, I've probobly posted this before but after I came out of my surgery and everybody was happy because it went went well and things were looking good after about a month of uncertainty. But I still had this nagging feeling of sadness because I realized that now that I was going to live on, and in living, you will see more troubles. I got past these feelings but it was interesting because I hadnt really thought of life that way before. The only answer that I could conclude to was that you live now, the sad part is that I still catch myself worrying about things I cant control, but it only goes so far before I'm reminded. Everything comes back around to what the Bible says to do. But we seem to have to experience it before we learn it. Thats the difference to me between wisdom & knowledge.
Right on, Sean! I agree with what you said in that post. To me that is why we must, must, must have Jesus in our lives. The troubles WILL come in life. The only thing that will help in those times is Him.
I am glad you are reading this on Job. I only got a little over half-way through the book when I started preaching through it. As you know, I divided the Bible into six sections: three from the Old Testament, and three from the New Testament. I would preach several messages from one of those sections, and then move to the other Testament, do the same there, and then go back.
Sometimes the hardest thing to do in ministry is to figure out what to preach about. This plan has really helped me, and it makes me study. It also causes me to deal with topics I might otherwise want to avoid. So, as I have often said, if I am not strongly impressed to do something else, I will preach on something from the next chapter. (In the case of the New Testament, I try to get an average of two sermons from one chapter.) I do ask the Lord to show me what He wants, but it seems to me, for me, that often what is in the next chapter is what He wants. Another thing about doing this is that you can come to something that will really hit hard on some members of your congregation. When you are just preaching through the Bible it doesn't look like you have just singled them out.
Anyway, you and I have gone through half of Job together in our time at Unity. I pray this book will be a blessing to you as you get to the end of the story!
P.S. The reason why this post looked like a duplicate of the main post for today was that I wrote this one first, and that gave me the idea for the other one. :)
You will notice some posts below that relate to various topics of discussion by our online community of preachers.
One of the purposes of Preachers' Meeting is to provide a place for young ministers or those recently called to preach to interact around the principles in a course of study recommended by our local group of preachers in the Southern Illinois area.
We invite you to look in on our conversations. If you would like to add comments as a guest, you are welcome to do so. If this looks interesting to you, you may join us as we start a new session. You can look in the side bar (or sometimes it is moved to right below this post) to see the weekly requirements. We start new courses every 8 or 9 weeks. As already mentioned, you are welcome to comment as a guest before that time.
Below these posts, you will see the word, "comments." Just click on it, and you will see a box on the right side of the screen where you may add your comments.
Look around. Enjoy yourself, and come back often!
Weekly Requirements
Here is a review of the general requirements for each week.
You have three assignments each week
(1) Make at least two initial posts in your posting area. The first one will be the name of the course, and the names (or numbers of the DVD's) of the chapters or lectures you will be covering during the week. The second one will be a comment on one of those chapters. You will receive one point for getting the first post in on Tuesday or Wednesday. You will also get a point for getting at least one more initial post in.
(2) Go to your fellow student's posting areas, and ask them a question or make comments about their intial posts. You will recieve one point for completing this assignment before 12:00 a.m. on Friday morning (that would be before midnight on Thursday).
(3) Answer the questions asked.
(4) On Fridays, I will also give directions for making remaining posts during the week. Be sure and read those, and take them into account when making at least one of your remaining posts.
In all, we want to make at least nine posts during the week. You will receive points for that as follows:
9 or more posts - 12 points
6-8 posts - 10 points
3-5 posts - 6 points
1-2 posts - 3 points
You will have the extra points you had accumulated by getting things in on time. Those are bonus points that will be used only to move your grade closer to 100 if you need them. They will be awarded each week if needed to move your grade up to 12 for the week. If you do not need them for that week, they will be carried over to the next week(s). Remember the posts that count for points will be at least three sentences long.
Thoughts on Application
Roger gave some good thoughts on application:
"Chapter 75, titled: 'Apply Within' is a lesson in application. The writer explains why it is sometimes difficult applying a sermon to real life situations. I will list some of the reasons application is not applied to our lives.
"First it is "hard work", it is hard to find application to every situation in the congregation,
"second, is wrong assumptions, assuming the audience is able to apply any and all biblical truths is totally a wrong assumption,
"third, is fear, fear of being to deep or to simplistic in the text and failing at application, and then there is training or lack thereof,
"many preachers know the text, and the history and the order of things but are totally untrained in application. One gentleman said it this way," how can you be a good football player when you can pass the ball, or when you can kick the ball, or when you can run with the ball but you don't know the rules of the game."
If you live in the souther Illinois area, we would like to invite you to a Couples' Marriage Enrichment Seminar on Saturday, February 27. It starts at 6:00 p.m and will run to 9:00 p.m.
After the welcome, there will be a dinner. Then there will be an opening session, followed by two breakout sessions, then a short closing.
The Keynote Speaker is Dr. Randy Carney (That's me :)!) and Roger and Janet Dutton will be speaking during the breakout sessions (That's Roger, who is commenting on this blog during this term!). Randy and Rhonda (my wife!) Carney will also have a breakout session discussing "Keys to Marital Bliss."
The Keynote Address will be on the topic of "The Way to a Successful Marriage: The Shocking and Surprising Truth."
Roger and Janet will be talking about "Hope for Restoring your marriage."
The cost is $15.00 per couple and that includes a dinner and all seminar materials. A nursery and childcare will be available. (Please indicate that you need these services when you register.) A book table with resources from Handfuls on Purpose Christian Bookstore will be available.
The seminar is for couples of all ages, ranging from newlyweds to marriage veterans!
To register, call 618-627-2228 to let the church know how may will be attending. Payment can be made at the event. (Make checks to TFBC.) For more information, call the church at 618-627-2228.
The Greatest Love
Since Valentine's Day falls on Sunday this year, I imagine there will be a ton of sermons going out on the topic of love.
Paul talked about love and respect in marriage (Ephesians 5), but he was really saying that that was an illustration of the relationship between Christ and the church.
Christ
Left Heaven to come to this earth.
He
Overcame adversity while here. He even conquered death!
He
Valued mankind so much that He gave Himself on the cross.
He desires fellowship with us. He reconciled the world to Himself, so that people could have an
Intimate realtionship with Him.
He meets all of our
Needs.
He is the supreme example of
Giving.
Do you see the word, LOVING, there? That is what He is--our LOVING Savior! Because of that, we should love one another.
Course 11 Week 4
Scroll down to the week 4 area to begin commenting.
Dealing with the Closed American Mind
One of the chapters Roger is reading is entitled, (something like) "Dealing with the Closed American Mind." I don't know if it is mentioned in the chapter, but I suspect that if you tak about something where a person has a felt need, you can gain their hearing somewhat.
What are your thoughts?
You may scroll down and comment in the week 3 comments area. Visitors are welcome to comment also.
Connecting with Postmoderns
This is something most preachers do every Sunday. If you have young unchurched visitors in your church, you will be trying to reach postmoderns. Even some of your church youth are more influenced by postmodernism than by their previous Sunday school teaching.
Here is my reply to one of Roger's posts:
"Roger, what tips stand out to you for commecting with postmoderns? I think the term modern referred to an age in history that related to new thoughts in science, etc. (If I am off base, refresh my memory.) Post modern refers to the time following that era. Connecting with postmoderns is something you have to do, whether you realize it or not, almost every time you preach."
I will post some of his answers here if he sees the question in time.
Preaching--Proclamation of God's Word
Preaching, by one definition, is the proclamation of God's Word. As such, a person, can take the Scriptural passage and find some of its main points and emphasize those points.
While I believe we should learn all we can about the grammatical construction of the words of Scripture, and that we should learn all we can about the historical setting for when those words were originally spoken; the nice thing about proclaiming the Word is that you can just take what the text says and emphasize it. Then the Word will not return void.
People with all different types of backgrounds have been called to preach throughout the centuries. Some very "unlearned" (as the world would put it) men have had great results by simply taking the main ideas of Scripture and simply emphasizing them. As long as we do not twist the meaning, this simply shows the amazing power of the Word of God.
New Format
I am going to try putting my comments for each day in this left sidebar. The comments areas for the remaining weeks are displayed to the right. That is where you will place your comments for each week.
7 comments:
I am reading Phillip Yancey's book titled " The Bible Jesus Read" and this week I am reading chapter two titled" Job: Seeing in the Dark ". I know that Sean and Tyler have already read this book so I may have questions for them.
This chapter is a very revealing chapter about Job and his situations,his friends, and the God he serves,not to mention his character,integrity and his faith.Job's faith made a difference in his circumstances and that is what impressed me the most. I shutter at the thought that God would allow Satan to test me in the way Job was tested, I'm afraid I would fail that test miserably and maybe we're not as strong as we would like to think ourselves to be. Job was unique in his faith, "the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away blessed be the name of the Lord", rare words from a guy who has just lost every possesion that he has. That my friends is faith.
I agree Roger, the more you read Job the more you see it as a wisdom book. I'm thankful that there's a book that is cut & dry as this book when you're in a trial. Its actually not easy to accept this when you're going thru one. But there's no other thing I would want to put my trust in except the God we serve, who chose to accept the cup, in the garden, the Love & Mercy that was shown, and defeated Death! Who else would you want to?
Something else that comes to mind, have you ever been praying and asked for patience or even to be closer to God, and then then feared what you asked for because this might come in the form of a crisis? I have, I've probobly posted this before but after I came out of my surgery and everybody was happy because it went went well and things were looking good after about a month of uncertainty. But I still had this nagging feeling of sadness because I realized that now that I was going to live on, and in living, you will see more troubles.
I got past these feelings but it was interesting because I hadnt really thought of life that way before. The only answer that I could conclude to was that you live now, the sad part is that I still catch myself worrying about things I cant control, but it only goes so far before I'm reminded. Everything comes back around to what the Bible says to do. But we seem to have to experience it before we learn it. Thats the difference to me between wisdom & knowledge.
Right on, Sean! I agree with what you said in that post. To me that is why we must, must, must have Jesus in our lives. The troubles WILL come in life. The only thing that will help in those times is Him.
Hey, Roger,
I am glad you are reading this on Job. I only got a little over half-way through the book when I started preaching through it. As you know, I divided the Bible into six sections: three from the Old Testament, and three from the New Testament. I would preach several messages from one of those sections, and then move to the other Testament, do the same there, and then go back.
Sometimes the hardest thing to do in ministry is to figure out what to preach about. This plan has really helped me, and it makes me study. It also causes me to deal with topics I might otherwise want to avoid. So, as I have often said, if I am not strongly impressed to do something else, I will preach on something from the next chapter. (In the case of the New Testament, I try to get an average of two sermons from one chapter.) I do ask the Lord to show me what He wants, but it seems to me, for me, that often what is in the next chapter is what He wants. Another thing about doing this is that you can come to something that will really hit hard on some members of your congregation. When you are just preaching through the Bible it doesn't look like you have just singled them out.
Anyway, you and I have gone through half of Job together in our time at Unity. I pray this book will be a blessing to you as you get to the end of the story!
P.S. The reason why this post looked like a duplicate of the main post for today was that I wrote this one first, and that gave me the idea for the other one. :)
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