Archive for October 2007
Stewardship Resources
Posted on Wednesday, October 31, 2007 at 8:47 AM by David Zavadil
We are starting our Stewardship Month here at EPC. Here are some links to various articles and resources that should be of help in your personal quest for good stewardship.
Arthur Pink has written on the the best booklets on Tithing . You need to read this!
Redeemer PCA has some great resources on Stewardship
I am convinced that one of the reasons people give so poorly to God's work is that they manage so poorly at home. Here are some sites to help get your finances back in order.
Consumer Credit Counseling Services
Question (s) for the week. Was tithing part of the OT civil law, moral law, or ceremonial law? How do we apply the teaching of tithing today? This should get some interesting discussion going.
Edited on: Wednesday, October 31, 2007 7:51 PMCarpe Blogdom
Posted on Thursday, October 25, 2007 at 8:41 AM by David Zavadil
A favorite author of mine, Horatius Bonar, answers the question, What is a Christian?
Wendy Alsup on the The Resurgence website posts an interesting article on The Ideal Christian Woman
Here is an interesting article on Cultural Engagement
Since we are looking at The Fear of God , check out this link to Bunyan's Treatise on the Fear of God
Edited on: Thursday, October 25, 2007 8:46 AMPosted in Just For Fun (RSS)
The Fear of God is
Posted on Tuesday, October 23, 2007 at 2:52 PM by David Zavadil
Ps 19:9 the fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the LORD are true, and righteous altogether.
Ps 111:10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever!
Pr 1:7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Pr 8:13 The fear of the LORD is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate.
Pr 9:10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.
Pr 14:27 The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, that one may turn away from the snares of death.
Pr 15:33 The fear of the LORD is instruction in wisdom, and humility comes before honor.
Isa 33:6 and he will be the stability of your times, abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge; the fear of the LORD is Zion’s treasure.
As we continue in our study of the subject of the fear of God, let me move to some Biblical descriptions of the fear of God A search of the Scriptures finds eight verses including the phrase, "the fear of the LORD is." Today I want to look at each of these verses and seek to learn a little more about what it means to fear the LORD.
Ps 19:9 the fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the LORD are true, and righteous altogether.
This verse from Psalm 19 states that the fear of the LORD has two characteristics; it is pure and it is enduring. First, let me address the thought that the fear of the LORD is clean. The phrase could also be translated that, "the fear of the LORD is pure." There is nothing in holy fear that defiles God or the awe we are to have. It is a fear looks to the ultimate source of purity, Jesus Christ, and realizes that apart from Christ we can not be pure. "And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure." 1 John 3:3, ESV. Thus for the New Testament believer, the fear of the LORD intimately involves our relationship to Jesus Christ. To be pure in Christ is to be able to fear the LORD. Without Christ we could not and will not fear God, but will fear that which is impure and unclean. "To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled." Titus 1:15, ESV. A healthy fear of God brings clarity of mind, brings purity of thought and clean, right decisions.
This verse also tell us that the fear of the LORD is enduring forever. The fear of God didn't end with the Old Testament. It was not some how intricately linked to the Mosaic covenant and with the entrance of the New Covenant in Christ the fear of the LORD is no longer necessary. As Christ reigns eternally, the fear of the LORD continues eternally. As the Spirit of God works in us, each and every day for all of our known and unknown days we will be confronted with the awesomeness of our Almighty God. The fear of God is not that one time event that occurs just before our conversion but a daily life style that is based on our faith in Christ. An understanding of the fear of God is missing from many Christian's lives. This passage tells us that the fear of God should be an everyday happening as long as we live.
Ps 111:10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever!
Pr 9:10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.
Pr 1:7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.
In these three verses we read that the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom and of knowledge. We should first note that the fear of the LORD is the starting place. We are not to wait until we become wise or until we reach some age of maturity to begin really "fearing God." If we truly desire to grow in the wisdom and knowledge of the LORD, we must begin with a healthy fear of God. It is this fear of God that will bring us wisdom and knowledge and give us good understanding. My brother in law, when ever someone had a question about something, would say, "Ask David, he knows everything." It seemed that every time we talked I knew someting about the topic we were discussing. Now that was partly because I am a "know it all who has to be right all the time" ( a sinful attitude I am working on) and partly that my head is filled with all kinds of trivia. This is neither wisdom or knowledge, it is simply trivia. The beginning of my wisdom and knowledge is this, "I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing." John 15:5, ESV. Without Christ, I know nothing, I can do nothing, I am nothing. The fear of the LORD will bring about wisdom and knowledge, not trivia.
The writer of Proverbs writes, Pr 15:33 The fear of the LORD is instruction in wisdom, and humility comes before honor. Here we find that not only is the fear of the LORD the beginning of wisdom, it is the way we learn about wisdom. To learn and know what is truly of God, what is true wisdom, we must fear God. My friends, if you desire to learn to be wiser in your life, begin by fearing God. To understand true wisdom, begin to understand the true and living God. The fear of the LORD is instruction in wisdom. As you humbly and reverently come before the King of Glory you will begin to learn more and more about Him. The word translated instruction literally means discipline, correction or chastisement. A healthy fear of the LORD realizes that the corrections God brings our way is beacuse He loves us and wants us to be more like Him. Heb 12:6 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives." ESV A God fearing man begins to learn that to fall away, to turn to self, to rebel will lead to discipline, this brings about a beneficial and growing fear of the LORD and this is wisdom.
Pr 8:13 The fear of the LORD is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate.
The fear of the LORD is also a hatred of evil. Many will read this passage and say, "well I hate satan and anything satanic. Is that all that is meant here? " The Bible makes it clear that anything that is opposite of the LORD is evil. Every thought that suplants a thought of God, every action that replaces a godly action, every word that replaces a glorifying word is evil. It is a perverting of God's creation in a way that is evil. It is far more than just "the Devil made me do it." The evil that is to be hated is anything that is contrary to God. We see evil around us every day. you turn on the news and hear about murders, rapes, drugs and alcohol addictions and say, "that stuff is evil." In Matthew 15 Jesus redefines our view of evil, Mt 15:19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. ESV Evil is no longer a toy of the Devil, it is in the heart of man. The man who fears the LORD will hate all evil, especially the evil in his own life. What thoughts in your life are evil? What influences around you are evil? Is your fear of the LORD greater than your love for these thoughts or vices?
Pr 14:27 The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, that one may turn away from the snares of death.
Isa 33:6c ...the fear of the LORD is Zion’s treasure.
The final two verses we will examine speak to our hearts and faith. The fear of the LORD is a part of and demonstrated in our salvation. To overcome death and gain new life we must come to Christ. Jesus, speaking to the Samaritan woman, said,''If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.''" John 4:10, ESV. Later He says, ‘‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.” John 7:37b, ESV. Jesus made it clear that He is the water of life, the fountain of life. To fear God apart from a loving faith in Christ is impossible. The fountain of life, we are told in Pr 14:27, turns us away from the snares of death. Jesus said it this way, "I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand." John 10:28, ESV. A God fearing man is one who is set in his relationship with Christ. His eyes are on the cross. A God fearing man will be drinking of the fountain of life daily.
Isaiah tells us that "the fear of the LORD is Zion's treasure."Isa 33:6c ESV The fear of the LORD enables us to, through the Holy Spirit, be a storehouse, a treasure of God's. A treasurey or storehouse was used as a central keeping place to take care of an entire community. To fear God is to be treasured by God. God desires our hearts and souls. He wants our full devotion and life. As we come to Him in the Fear of the LORD, he imparts to us, throught the Spirit, all that is His. We become a living storehouse, treasure of the LORD's. We inherit all that He has as his adopted children. We now become the place that our neighbors and aliens in need of comfort are to turn. Though we are filled with the priceless treasure of life through Christ, it is not meant to be hoarded by us, but shared with those around us. We are not to hide our faith in a bottle in the ground but we are to let it be seen. A God fearing man or woman is someone who knows the treasure of God so intimately that he or she wants to share it with others, that they might be blessed also.
What is your perspective of the Fear of the LORD? Do you seek the purity found in Christ? Do you fear what would happen in your life without the purifying Spirit of God within you? Are you growing in your wisdom and knowledge of the LORD? Do you hate those things that are contrary to God? Have you taken a drink from the fountain of life? The fear of the LORD is all of this and more. Join me next week as we examine this topic further.
Edited on: Sunday, November 18, 2007 3:19 PMPosted in Bible Study (RSS), Fear of God (RSS)
The Ten Commandments Redux
Posted on Sunday, October 21, 2007 at 8:02 AM by David Zavadil
Last night my wife, daughter and I joined a couple from EPC in seeing the new animated movie, "The Ten Commandments." I had heard some decent pre-release reviews and was looking forward to seeing the movie. I am glad I didn't set my hopes too high.
While the story was good, you can't beat the story of Moses for a good story line, the animation and voice overs left a lot to be desired. When the movie began I had this odd feeling that I was watching an old Godzilla movie redone with Claymation on steroids. The computer animation had a cleanness to it, though with odd shaped features and mouths out of sinc with the dialogue. The backgrounds seemed over done and often awkward. Moses and Ramses must have worked out on the stairclimber for hours to develop the calves they had.
I guess you can tell, I was not too impressed with the animation. As I said earlier, the story line was great. The actor's voice overs, however, did little to move you. Many times during the movie, Christian Slater and Alfred Molina came across as teenagers reading a play in English class. This "acting" left the whole movie stale. When all was said and done, the dozen or so people in the theater, yawned a big yawn and left in search of some ice cream. This movie saddened me. One of the greatest stories ever told was reduced to second rate animation and made so vanilla that I would be afraid to tell someone to go and see it.
I give the movie a 1 out of 5. Wait for the movie to show on Network TV next Easter, at least then it won't cost you anything.
Edited on: Tuesday, November 20, 2007 11:45 AMPosted in Just For Fun (RSS)
Carpe Blogdom
Posted on Thursday, October 18, 2007 at 8:54 AM by David Zavadil
There is an intesting article titled It May Be Unwise to Invite an Unbliever to a Church Service on the Religious Affections website.
Check out this new band, Connersvine . For you Colts fans, the lead vocals are none other than Hunter Smith, Indianapolis Colts punter.
On the Resurgence website, Jerram Barr has posted an article on Perfect Parenting .
This is just odd. Can't sell a home, Let St. Joseph help.
Challies Dot Com is hosting a Reformation symposium . If you blog, check it out.
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Figured out a fix
Posted on Monday, October 15, 2007 at 8:47 AM by David Zavadil
As some of you may have noticed, I lost all of my past posts. I have figured out a fix, but it will take time, as I have to copy and paste each one individually back into the database. The good thing, as I look at it, is that I have not lost any info.
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Church Website Down!
Posted on Friday, October 12, 2007 at 2:27 PM by David Zavadil
If you have gone to Eastminster Presbyterian Church Website lately, you have probably gotten an error or unable to load message. Due to an accidental erasure, our site is down. We have decided to use this opportunity to upgrade our server. Keep an eye out for the new and improved EPC site.
Men and Work
Posted on Friday, October 12, 2007 at 8:40 AM by David Zavadil
On Tuesday nights we, EPC, has begun a Study through The Seven Seasons of a Man's Life . This past Tuesday we spoke about our careers and our calling. We discussed the blessing of work and our need to change our perspective of our vocation and calling from one of curse to one of blessing. The Resurgence blog posted an article on Work as a Blessing . Take some time and check it out.
Edited on: Friday, October 12, 2007 8:59 AMCarpe Blogdom
Posted on Thursday, October 11, 2007 at 2:40 PM by David Zavadil
Here are some links to check out.
Soul Searching Movie A documentary about teens and their search for God.
Grace and Peace is a blog started by My Friend, Walnut Hill PCA, Bristol, TN
A different way to listen to sermons
The Fear of God
Posted on Tuesday, October 09, 2007 at 11:08 AM by David Zavadil
Months ago I mentioned that I wanted to begin a series on the fear of God. We occasionally hear phrases like, " He feared God." "He was a God fearing man." "The fear of God was in him." Maybe you, like me, have wondered about what is really meant in those type of statements. We rarely hear sermons on the fear of God, in fact it has become a forgotten topic in most churches. Yet the concept flows throughout Scripture.
To force me to go where I have been resistant, I shared with the remnant, (the name our evening service has taken), that we would study this topic for the next few weeks. My interest peaked, and now a new motivation, I begin today to move forward.
What comes to mind when you hear "the fear of the LORD," "fear God," "the FEAR (see Genesis 31:42,53)?" Do you think, "Uh oh, here comes one of those old fashioned fire and brimstone messages."? Some would probably say, "The Bible says that?" If you do a search of the ESV you will find that there are 27 verses that use the phrase "fear of the LORD," 10 using "fear of God," 34 stating, "Fear the LORD," 15 more state, "Fear God," 5 say "fear of Him" and 24 "fear Him." I could go on for a while with numbers and derivations of the phrase "Fear of the Lord." It is suffice to say that the Scriptures are replete with references to the fear of God. At least two natural questions are raised. "What does it mean?" "How can we apply this to our lives today?' These questions will be our goal for the next few weeks.
Genesis 3:8 And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. (ESV)
The verse above is the first time the concept of fear, or one of its derivatives, appears in the English Bible. Adam and Eve have been created man and woman. They are placed in the garden and told not to eat of the tree in the middle of the garden. Satan enters the garden in the form of the serpent and deceives them and they eat. Now I am not going to deal with original sin or deception but I want to begin our look at the fear of God. After Adam and Eve's eyes were opened to their true nature, they realized they were naked. Hearing the voice of God in the garden they hid themselves.
9 ¶ But the LORD God called to the man and said to him, "Where are you?"
10 And he said, "I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself."
I want to focus for a few minutes on verse 10 for I feel it has much to teach us about the fear of God. The speaker in this verse is Adam. Notice that four times he uses the first person "I" to describe his actions and his state. I want to look at these four "I" phrases.
"I heard the sound of you in the garden." The word that is translated "sound" in the ESV (kole in the Hebrew) is most often translated "voice or the sound of your voice," in the Scripture. The man and woman are in the garden after eating the apple. With new opened eyes and hearts, they hear the voice of God in a new way, the way of a sinner. The word translated here is also used to speak of thunder elsewhere in Scripture. Before the fall there was no sin, no reason for God to "raise" His voice. After the fall we see both anger and wrath. Could it be that Adam and Eve heard God's voice thundering throughout the garden? At any rate, God calls out to Adam and Adam hears him. Rather than responding, "Here I am," Adam hides. Why?
"I was afraid." Adam heard something different in God this time out. He heard the thundering, powerful voice of the Almighty God searching for him. There was the fear of a child before his father, a child who knew he had done wrong. Adam says, "I was afraid because I was naked." Often I have read this and glossed over it. Adam had not had a need for clothing prior to the fall, now he realized his physical nakedness. As I read this verse again, recently, I realized that there was also a spiritual nakedness here. When Adam and Eve ate the apple, their eyes were opened up to the knowledge of good and evil. Adam was afraid because he realized his heart, his soul, was now naked before God. God saw and knew the sin that resided deep with in, he was naked before his Father and was afraid.
Think about what we have just seen. Adam hears the voice of God, thundering in his ears. He is caught and realizes that his entire life is laid open before his maker. He is petrified. We all are just like Adam. We hear, we read the Word of God. Through the Spirit we hear in our heart of hearts the thundering voice of God and are brought to fear as we realize we are opened up before God, naked. Today we call it conviction, but it is the same. A realization that our lives are naked before God, He sees everything. The fear of God is a healthy thing, a humbling thing. This fear reminds us of the creator and the creation. It reminds us of our need for God and our love for our Father. We fear God not because He is some cosmic vigilante out to rid the earth of sinners, but because He is the Heavenly Father and we stand naked and open before Him. He sees all of our scars, all of our warts, all of our blemishes.
"I hid myself." Adam's response was the same one we all too often face. When we are confronted with being wrong, with our sin, we want to run away and hide. Much like the child who was told, "Wait until your Father gets home" runs and hides when the door opens, we, when confronted with our nakedness before God, desire to hide. Adam hid that his physical nakedness might not be seen. Isn't that funny? Hiding from the very one that created the body that now Adam was wanting to hide? How often do you find yourself doing the same thing? God breathed life into you. He called you and brought you to Himself, adopting you as an heir to the Kingdom. Yet when the Father enters the doors of our heart, we run and hide and hope he doesn't see how dirty we have become.
As we begin to study the teaching of the fear of God, we must begin with an understand of our heart. We are opened up before God, naked before Him. Ps 139:2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. Ps 139:4 Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether. The writer of Proverbs begins, 7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction. To begin to understand the fear of the LORD, we need to know that we are before the Almighty God. There is nothing that He does not know, nothing that can be hidden from Him. We begin with a fear because he knows more about us that we can even begin to know about ourselves. When we hear from the Word of God, in study or message, we should rightly be afraid. It is piercing, it cuts and prunes, it convicts and renders us naked before our Father. Unlike Adam, at that time we come with fear in our hearts, but with repentance to our Father seeking forgiveness and restoration. One characteristic of the fear of God that jumps out to me is this, if this holy fear does not point us to the cross, does not convict us of our sin and our need for Christ, than it is not a holy fear. We may be fearing retribution or punishment and discipline, but we are not fearing God.
Today you stand before God naked and alone. If you are not afraid, you should be. Are you going to run and hide? Run to the cross and and the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ. Put on the new self found in the righteousness of Jesus Christ (Eph 4:24).
Edited on: Monday, October 15, 2007 10:42 AMPosted in Bible Study (RSS), Fear of God (RSS)
Almost here.
Posted on Friday, October 05, 2007 at 3:20 PM by David Zavadil
We have been so busy at Eastminster Presbyterian Church. This July, ten of us went to Ballymena, Northern Ireland for ten days of mission work. God blessed our time there enabling us to do some awesome work for God. Below is a flash video of the trip.
I am currently preaching through the Sermon on the Mount. During October I am focusing on "The Lord's Prayer." I hope to have the sermon posts up todate within the next week. My mp3 helper has been out of town on a work assignment for a few weeks.
Check back next week. I will be beginning and new Bible Study series. Until then, check out some of these links:
Christian Audio dot com is offering Edward's biography of David Brainerd as it's free download of the week.
Steve Camp has republished a post on evangelism that is worth a read.
Check out this article on Finding reliable men
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