Expositional Preaching

Ok, so this is not intended to be a full-on defense of expositional preaching nor a total bash of topical preaching.  This is just a few thoughts on the matter.

Expositional preaching is the term for preaching that moves thru the scriptures systematically text by text.  The aim is to bring to light what each verse, chapter and passage are intending on communicating.  This method is over and against topical preaching in which a topic is selected and all the verses related to that are discussed.

There is a time and a place for topical preaching I believe.  But in our modern day where there are more heresies in our churches than hairs on the collective neighborhood’s heads the need to allow the bible to speak for itself is very evident.  As we preach systematically thru the word the topics we need to address will be.  But also the “other” verses, the ones we usually dont hear preached on, are brought out.   The whole teaching of the word, beginning to end, is what we hear, rather than what our preacher decides to speak on.  Not to question our pastors; they have a high calling and are to be honored.  But to allow God to speak for Himself both is most faithful to His word and takes the weight off of our pastors shoulders to “fix” us by addressing what we perceive to be our needs.

Viva la Expositional Preaching!!!

TOOOO LOOONNG!

I must apologize for totally dropping the ball on keeping up this blog.  I intend on doing so a bit more consistently in the coming days.

The past couple weeks I have been in Mexico and Ohio and all places in between assisting the Rameys, my “girlfriend’s” family make the move back up here after three years of working down there in a home for children.

So the past little bit has been pretty interesting in many ways.  Hard, but God is ever faithful to walk with and to keep His people safe and on the path that He designs for them.

I will be posting more soon, but must get off now as in fifteen minutes we are leaving Zanesville ohio to head to akron ohio to preach there all day on a college campus.

May Christ be glorified!!!

Rules for Courting

As a preface to this post I do want to say that these rules are not reflective of our courtship.  I am very, very thankful for the loving leadership of bnoth sets of parents here in this courtship.  These rules are the result of a few minds just being goofy so some credit for this is due to the parents of my dear little lady who thru their joking inspired me.  Hope you enjoy them.  :)

1.  ABSOLUTELY NO physical contact (if this rule is even accidentally violated the offender is tarred and feathered quicker than you can blink).

2.  It is often said to leave room for Jesus when sitting next to each other.  But we prefer you to leave room for Fred, who is a five hundred pound middle-aged balding man with body odor and a bad case of the measles.

3.  Emotional intimacy is to be always carefully measured via the intimeter.  If the couple leave the safe ‘stoic zone’ and enter the danger zone the young woman is to be confined in her room for a year on bread and water and the young man is to brought to a remote frozen river and dumped thru a small hole in the ice.

4.  There is to be no direct eye contact.  Upon the first violation of this rule the left eye of both will be plucked out.  Upon the second violation… we will need to teach you braille so don’t do it again.

5.  Chaperoning.  Imagine a five foot bubble zone around every member of the family the couple happens to be with at the time.  If the courting couple steps outside of this five foot bubble zone the entire family must grab a stick and beat them.  Yardsticks for the girl; four by fours for the guy.  Also every family member must be equipped with a tape measure to monitor for violations.

6.  The following is a list of words prohibited til marriage.  Love, beautiful, marriage, children, handsome, care, how, are, you, doing, kids, pretty, etc.  If any synonyms of these words are even thought immediate recompensation for your error will be made.

And beware, young courtiers, this is only a partial list.  Many, many, many more rules are soon forthcoming.

God’s justice in justifying sinful men

The third article I wrote for a Indian magazine.  Just throwing it up here for whoever might be interested.

“…whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” Romans 3:25, 26

These are in my opinion among the most important verses in the bible. Paul begins early in chapter 3 to emphasize our sin against God, that none are righteous, no one understands, no one seeks after God and so on. He has already labored thru chapters one and two to build up to this point. There is no one good. We have “all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” In the light of this Paul then turns and reveals to us why God sent Christ.

To propitiate means to appease or to make peace between. Here we see God setting forth Christ to make propitiation between Himself and man. For what reason? There is a problem we have and that is sin. God had passed over our sin but now needed to demonstrate His righteousness. He must punish sin. Else He would not be just.

So, as the passage says, to be just and yet still justify the one who has faith in Jesus, God set forth Christ. So, what does this all mean? It means that God had a desire to redeem man back to himself but because He is so holy and we are so sinful He could not just forgive. He must be just in His forgiveness of men. So the holy God sent a holy Lamb, Jesus Christ, to bear the punishment that we deserve. God maintains justice and forgives! There is peace with God because of God’s salvation!

No longer can men or the devil accuse God of being unjust in walking with sinful men. Now these sinful men are forgiven because the wrath of almighty God was propitiated.

Now, in the light of this, we should live as we are. Justice is satisfied. We are redeemed. Let us go on and glorify the King of kings! Live for the God who alone saves!

Goin’ Courtin’!!!

Just a few random things I have learned since beginning this Courtship.  In no particular order and of no particular importance.

1.  Aaaaaaaaggggghhhhhh!!!  This person is a different person than me!  And SHE (imagine that) has different thoughts than me!   And she has different desires than me!  And she responds to things differently than me!  Still getting over the craziness of having someone else to care for and think about other than selfish me.  And even someone as awesome as Gennavieve still bursts my bubble often.  But, I am very glad for that.

2.  Point 1 leads directly to point 2.  I have learned that I am much more of a sinner than I previously thought.  I am a selfish snob.  And for that statement I don’t think I need to make any clarifications, redactions or do any back-pedaling.  It stands true as stated.  I am a selfish snob.  And since I am one, I dont really care to put flesh on that statement to let y0u know in what ways I am a selfish snob.   But rest assured that my God is in the process of sanctifying me.

3.  Gennavieve Ramey (hopefully soon gennavieve elaine ramey green) is a wonderful, godly, sweet, loving, happy, mature, cheerful, wise, respectful and downright awesome young woman.  It is my daily prayer that I will have the privilege to pray for her daily as her husband for the rest of my life.

4.  People asking when ‘the big date’ is can get annoying.  No offense to those of you who have already asked, but at times, early on in a courtship where things are still a little unsteady and you are still struggling to get the ball rolling, it can get a little irksome.  I would never have thought so previously but, here I be, and those are my two cents.

5.  I am courting her.  And she is courting me.  We are courting each other.  There is an each-otherness or rather a togetherness that I have not experienced ever before in my life and is really weird.  Different may be a better term to describe what it is like.  Or perhaps DIFFERENT would describe it even better.  Being identified as Genna’s young man and having her identified as Caleb’s young lady is definitely an odd phenomenon for me and for her as well.

6.  Have you ever seen Mark Gungor’s, “Laugh your way to a better marriage”?  If you have not then you should.  It is perhaps tantamount to heresy to abdicate your responsibility to see this film before marriage.  JK.  Anyways, he is very funny but yet shows incredible wisdom on how to relate to your spouse (or courting partner) in an understanding way.  Every day I see situations that he described unfolding before my eyes and it makes me want to laugh.

I am so glad for the things that God has taught me thru this.  I am so happy for the privilege that God has given me in being able to court Gennavieve.  I pray that God will continue to break me  of my sin and selfishness so I can fulfill this calling.

I love you so much Gennavieve!!!

For the King,

Caleb

Advice from Tim Challies on Porn

Guys, if you are a young man dealing with porn or if you have dealt with it in the past, then you need to read this article.  This is serious stuff.  If God is going to entrust us with His daughters some day then we need to deal with our hearts to prepare them to love a woman as God calls us to.

http://www.challies.com/christian-living/sexual-detox-i-pornifying-the-marriage-bed

God and Evil in 1 Kings 22

“And the LORD said, ‘Who will persuade Ahab to go up, that he may fall at Ramoth Gilead?’ So one spoke in this manner, and another spoke in that manner.  Then a spirit came forward and stood before the LORD, and said, ‘I will persuade him.’ The LORD said to him, ‘In what way?’ So he said, ‘I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ And the LORD said, ‘You shall persuade him, and also prevail. Go out and do so.’   Therefore look! The LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these prophets of yours, and the LORD has declared disaster against you.”

1 Kings 22:20-23

Hey folks.  Just wanting to stir up a little discussion about this.  The passage above has been on my mind a good bit over the past few months.

So what are your thoughts?   How can a christian reconcile the fact that God is intimately involved in a sinful act with the fact that God is everywhere held up as absolutely morally impeccable.  He cannot sin.

There are other passages which present conundrums quite similar to this one.

What I am looking for is an answer that is both faithful to the text (it cannot twist the passage) and that is faithful to the holiness of God (he cannot sin).  This is a hard question.  I look forward to your thoughts.