Shofar, So Good!

This morning I showed up early to Webster Christian School, to partake in our annual Senior Class Breakfast prior to the start of the first day of school. As I walked down the hall, I heard a strange sound, like a ram's horn.

My guess was on the mark! Our newest staff member, Benjamin Rogers, was playing a shofar throughout the building! When I asked him why, he was happy to tell me, and I was pleased to share his answer with the TruthWalk readership. Here's what Ben said:

The Shofar is a biblical instrument used for communication.  God commanded Israel to sound it every year at Rosh HaShannah (the biblical new year! 9/13 of this year).  There are 3 traditional calls that are sounded at this time: a call to attention (awakening), a cry for help, and a call to battle!  As we sound it then it is a spiritual prayer that God would awaken our hearts and spirits to His presence, that we would humble ourselves and look to Him for our help, and then that He would prepare us to battle for His kingdom!
I thought this would be fitting as we begin our New Year as the school!

Amen, Ben. I agree! I love the uniqueness of our opening day at Webster Christian School.

Shofar, so good!

Spiritual Pride: Is It In You?

Is it in you? A "yes" answer is good if we're talking Gatorade, bad if we're talking spiritual pride. The great 18th century theologian Jonathan Edwards called spiritual pride "the main door by which the devil comes into the hearts of those who are zealous for the advancement of Christ."

That's a scary thought. What Christian would ever want to roll out a red carpet for Satan? Yet that is precisely what we do when we think too much of ourselves. Worse still, we're not even aware of it because of the nature of pride itself. Because we hold ourselves in high esteem, we're convinced that our view of ourselves is justifiable and more accurate than anyone else's assessment of us.

Jonathan Edwards was a deep thinker and spent much time in meditation on this issue. He knew the Bible well and taught it for the benefit of himself and others. Looking through the lens of Scripture, Edwards was able to distinguish the difference between proud people and humble people. Here is a basic summary of his conclusions:

A prideful person is a know-it-all who is more apt to instruct others than to ask questions. Such a person puts on the airs of a master. He is quick to bark orders but hates to be told what to do. He is not easily entreated. He is convinced that his way is always the best way.  Whereas a humble person is sees himself as needing help from everyone, the proud person is convinced that everyone else needs his help.

A prideful person tends to talk about other people's sins. But a person who's humble is silent about the sins of others. Or, if he does discuss such sins, he does so out of necessity, with much grief and pity. The spiritually proud person is quick to find fault with others, but the humble person is so concerned about the prevalence of evil in his own heart, that he is not apt to be very busy with other hearts. He mourns over his own spiritual coldness and hopes that other people have more love and gratitude to God than he does.

A prideful person denounce the faults he sees in others in the harshest, most severe language. The way he speaks about other people or to them in a moment of anger or irritation can be downright shocking. It is utterly mean-spirited and full of contempt. In contrast, the humble Christian is so taken with his own sins and shortcomings, that he is quite patient in dealing with others. He treats them with the humility and gentleness of Christ, who, though infinitely above us, is ever kind and gracious toward us.

A prideful person acts in such a way so as to make himself the focus of others. If they show him deference or respect, he is glad to receive it. Indeed, he comes to expect it and is easily annoyed when others do not show him what he feels he deserves. A humble person, on the other hand, does not care to be the center of attention and to have others cater to him. His goal is not to make much of himself but to make much of Christ. 

A prideful person takes great notice of opposition, insults and injury. He is quick to retaliate and give others what they have coming to them. But a humble person seeks to be like his Savior, who when he was reviled did not open his mouth but continued entrusting himself to the One who judges righteously (1 Peter 2:23).

A proud person expect others to wait on him, while he himself neglects others. He has an entitlement mentality and shows little to no thanks for the kindnesses and favors that others show him. He is insensitive to the needs of those around him. In contrast, the humble person is quick to perceive the needs of others and readily serves them. His desire is to be like Christ, "who did not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Mark 10:45).
__________

The above article was adapted from a piece entitled "Spiritual Pride," which appeared in Revive, a publication of Life Action Ministries, Volume 46, Issue 2. The Revive article in turn was adapted from "Some Thoughts Concerning the Present Revival of Religion in New England" from The Works of Jonathan Edwards. Published by Banner of Truth Trust, Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

Modern-Day Barnabas

Our church has been going through the book of Acts for our Sunday morning sermon series. A week ago last Sunday we covered this closing section of chapter four:

32 Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. 33 And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. 34 There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold 35 and laid it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need. 36 Thus Joseph, who was also called by the apostles Barnabas (which means son of encouragement), a Levite, a native of Cyprus, 37 sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet.

- Acts 4:32-37

"Great power" + "Great grace" = A Great Church!

The unity and generosity of the church as a whole was modeled beautifully in a man called Barnabas. His real name was Joseph, but everyone called him Barnabas, which means "son of encouragement." Nobody remembers Barnabas by his real name, but only by his nickname, because he was such an encourager! And Barnabas expressed his encouragement through generosity. He sold a piece of land and laid the proceeds at the apostles' feet, thereby indicating his desire for this money to be used to meet the needs of others in the church.

Exactly one week after we studied this beautiful passage, we got wind of a modern-day Barnabas! Let me explain. One of our young men, Andrew, is in pilot training school at Moody Bible Institute for the purpose of becoming a missions aviator. He was raised on the mission field in Papua New Guinea, where his parents continue to serve as missionaries. Recently they had shared a prayer request that God would provide for their son's tuition needs. Pilot school is expensive - about $4,000 per month.

Well, this past Sunday, this precious couple shared the following news:

God miraculously provided for Andrew’s first tuition payment due July 1st ON THE DAY with a love gift from a dear friend to cover that bill entirely and the next month’s as well.  We stand in awe!!  We know as God has done this… He will continue to provide step by step until Andrew completes his missionary aviation training.  God has promised and continues to prove his hundred-fold blessing upon our family as we have put him first, and He continues to meet each and every need.

As my wife and I had lunch with Andrew and his girlfriend the following day, he shared with me how this financial gift came about. A dear Christian lady who has been a long-time supporter ended up selling her house and gave thousands of dollars from the sale to meet Andrew's tuition need - on the very day that the first payment was due.

It's wonderful to read about Barnabas in the Bible. But it's even more exciting to see such generosity continue in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ to this very day. The Holy Spirit that moved the people of God to give generously to meet the needs of others then is the same Holy Spirit that moves in the hearts of God's people today. Praise God for each and every modern-day Barnabas!

Are you one of them? How might God use you to encourage his people and further the work of the gospel?

... remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, "It is more blessed to give than to receive."

- Acts 20:35

"Gracious Aggression": The Apostolic Approach to Proclaiming the Gospel

Recently I preached a sermon on Acts 4:1-12.  Here's the setting:  

The Holy Spirit came at Pentecost,  and his presence was unmistakable.  Acts 2:43 says,  “And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.”  Chapter three provides a perfect illustration of this.  Peter and John are headed to the temple to pray, where they encounter a lame man begging for alms.  Peter and John have no money, so instead of giving the man alms, they give him legs!  Word gets around, and before you know it, a crowd has gathered.  Peter preaches essentially the same message he did at Pentecost.  He points the people to Jesus, saying, “You killed him, but God raised him up, and he is the one who has healed this man.  If you repent, God will blot out your sins, he will bless you with times of refreshing, and he will bring you into his eternal kingdom. – It was a great miracle and a great message, but it was met with great annoyance.

Here's the first part of the text -- Acts 4:1-7:

4 And as they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them, 2 greatly annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. 3 And they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. 4 But many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about five thousand.5 On the next day their rulers and elders and scribes gathered together in Jerusalem,6 with Annas the high priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander, and all who were of the high-priestly family. 7 And when they had set them in the midst, they inquired, “By what power or by what name did you do this?” 

Can you imagine being in such an intimidating situation?  After all, this was the same mob who had condemned Jesus to death just a few months earlier!  How on earth would the disciples respond?

8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders, 9 if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, 10 let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing before you well. 11 This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. 12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

Peter's response is nothing short of astounding.  Everything about his response is connected to the controlling influence of the Holy Spirit.  Peter was filled with the Spirit, and his words flowed from the Spirit.  Instead of backing down in this intimidating situation, Peter declared the gospel with great boldness.  In R. Kent Hughes' commentary, he referred to this type of response as "gracious aggression."  What a great term!

So much more could be said about this passage, and I've included a lot of it in my sermon.  But here I simply want to share a four-point answer to the question, How can we respond with "gracious aggression" to those who oppose the gospel?

1. Expect opposition.

Jesus said, “Students are to be like their teacher. If they have treated me, the Master, this way, then how much more will they malign you!” (Matt. 10:25).

2. Be willing to suffer.

In his first epistle, Peter writes, “if you suffer for doing good and endure it patiently, God is pleased with you” (1 Pet. 2:20 NLT).  Jesus said, “Blessed are you when others revile and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.  Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matt. 5:11-12).

3. Be filled with the Spirit.

Saturate yourself with the Word of God, and go to him in prayer, asking him to grant you boldness and clarity in presenting the gospel (see Eph. 6:19-20; Col. 4:5-6).

4. Share the gospel boldly.

Take advantage of every opportunity God gives you to speak up for Jesus, believing that the Holy Spirit will give you the words and the wisdom necessary to be a faithful witness for him.  

Of course the bottom line is, do you care enough to witness to the lost?

The Insidious Evil of Gossip

Insidious. Folks see that word, and the first thing they think of is the popular horror flick that's been around a few years. In fact, the third installment is now in theaters (not that I'm recommending you go see it!).

Insidious. Interesting word. It's an adjective that means "proceeding in a gradual, subtle way, but with harmful effects."

What comes to my mind when I think of that word is not a horror film, but hurtful speech - namely gossip. In his book, Respectable Sins: Confronting the Sins We Tolerate, Jerry Bridges defines gossip as "the spreading influence of unfavorable information about someone else, even if that information is true."

Gossip is the spreading of unfavorable information

about someone else, even if that information is true.

A main motive behind gossip is to make ourselves look good by making another person look bad. We can even mask gossip by passing along the information as a "prayer request."

Bridges points out, "Closely related to the sin of gossip is the sin of slander. Slander is making a false statement or misrepresentation about another person that defames or damages the person's reputation."

Slander is making a false statement

or misrepresentation about another person

that defames or damages the person's reputation.

Political campaigns are notorious for slandering opponents by taking certain statements out of context or using sly innuendos. The same sort of thing happens in business in order to gain an advantage over the competition. Sometimes the competition is another business; often it is another colleague in the same corporation.

I wish I could say that this sort of back-stabbing, critical speech, negative talk, etc., occurs only "out there" in the secular world, but unfortunately it happens all too often in Christian circles. As Jerry Bridges notes, "In a Christian organization or a church, we can seek to gain an advantage over someone else by slandering that person." As one who has been in a local church and Christian School environment for most of my life, I have seen negative talk wreak more havoc than anything else in the body of Christ.

"How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell" (James 3:5-6). While some people are clearly malicious gossips and slanderers, others are simply busy-bodies who like to be "in the know" and pass on what they do know (or think they know). They think passing on information about someone else isn't that big of a deal, that it doesn't make all that much of a difference. But the following video clip from the movie Doubt illustrates otherwise.

Many professing Christians are guilty of murder, having assassinated the reputation of another person. Or at the very least they have called their character into question by innuendo. Read your Bible, and you will see that where Scripture talks about "grieving the Holy Spirit" (Eph. 4:30) and "stifling the Holy Spirit (1 Thess. 5:19), the surrounding context always has to do with sinful attitudes and speech. (To see other verses on the subject of gossip, click here.)

Yet these are the very sins that are allowed to go unchecked in the body of Christ and in our individual lives as believers.

Nevertheless, God says we are to have a "zero tolerance" policy when it comes to gossip, slander, and other sinful speech.

Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God....

- Ephesians 4:29, 30

To grieve "to make sorrowful." We have to remember that the Holy Spirit is a person, not just a power or influence. Would you want to hang out with someone who constantly makes you feel sad or sorrowful?

To quote Bridges again,

We not only sin in our speech about one another but we also sin when talking to one another. This sinful speech includes harsh words, sarcasm, insults, and ridicule. The common denominator of all these forms of negative speech is that they tend to put down, humiliate, or hurt the other person.

Yet Scripture says that we are to speak only those things that are "good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear" (Eph. 4:29).

So what can we do to change course? How can we create a culture of encouragement without our sphere of influence?

1. Pray about it.

Confess your sins of speech to God. Tell the Holy Spirit how sorry you are for grieving him. Ask him to fill you with his empowering presence. Express your desire to please him, as David did in Psalm 19:14: "Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer."

2. Process your thoughts.

"Do you see a man who is hasty in his words? There is more hope for a a fool than for him" (Prov. 29:20). No wonder Scripture says, "Everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger" (James 1:19). Learn to think before you speak. Develop the habit of asking yourself three questions before passing on information about someone else?

• Is it true? Don't answer that question too quickly. Are you sure you have your facts straight and aren't making assumptions? Are you embellishing the facts or putting your spin on things?
• Is it kind? Just because something is true doesn't mean that it needs to be said. Is it truly helpful or constructive? Will it build others up? Will it administer God's grace to them in that moment?
• Is it necessary? Is the person to whom you are speaking truly part of the problem or part of the solution? Why exactly are you about to share this information with them? Does it really need to be said?

3. Promote positive speech.

Do what you can to build a culture of encouragement. Negatively, this means refusing to listen to gossip, slander, and other forms of unnecessary, negative speech. Positively, this means looking for opportunities to encourage other people, offer sincere compliments, say kind things to them and about them to others.

Just as we have no idea of the damage that destructive speech can cause, so we also can scarcely imagine the difference that an encouraging word can make in the life of another person. I leave you with these words from William Barclay:

One of the highest duties is the duty of encouragement. It is easy to laugh at men's ideals. It is easy to pour water on their enthusiasm. It is easy to discourage others. But we have a Christian duty to encourage one another. Many a time a word of praise or thanks or appreciation or cheer has kept a man on his feet. Blessed is the one who speaks such a word.

Does God Still Speak Through Dreams and Visions? Part Two

Last week I posed the question, Does God still speak through dreams and visions? In part one, the three main views were presented. Here's a quick summary of those views:

• The Closed Cessationist View: God no longer communicates through dreams and visions, now that the canon of Scripture is complete.
• The Open Continuationist View: God still communicates today through dreams and visions, so long as such subjective impressions are evaluated in light of Scripture.
• The Open Cessationist View: This position allows for the occurrence of dreams and visions as a means of divine guidance for today, while affirming the cessation of all the New Testament revelatory gifts, such as prophecy, tongues, and the interpretation of tongues.

Today for part two of this post, I would like to share why I think the open cessationist view seems to be the most tenable in light of Scripture. At the heart of the issue is what open cessationists teach regarding revelation and illumination, and how this understanding relates to visions and dreams.

Throughout history, God has been pleased on many occasions to reveal Himself through visions and dreams.  Dreamers included the likes of Jacob (Gen. 28:12; 31:10-11), Joseph (Gen. 37:5-8), Solomon (1 Kings 3:5, 15), Daniel (Dan. 7:1, 15), and Mary’s husband Joseph (Matt. 1:20).  Among those who received visions were Abraham (Gen. 15:1) and Old Testament prophets (1 Sam. 3:15; Isa. 1:1; Dan. 7:2, 13; Obadiah 1:1; Micah 1:1; et al.).  

The presence or absence of visions in Israel became a gauge of the nation’s spiritual condition.  When Israel was unfaithful, “her prophets [found] no vision from the LORD” (Lam. 2:9; cf. 1 Sam. 3:1).  But the Lord promised through His prophet Joel that there was coming a day in which dreams and visions would be restored to God’s people.  Specifically the Lord said, “I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions” (Joel 2:28).

This revelatory phenomena occurred after Jesus’ ascension, on the Day of Pentecost, when the disciples “were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance” (Acts 2:4).  Peter explained to the crowd what was happening:  “But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: ‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, That I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams’” (Acts 2:16-17).

Clearly, there is a connection between the events at Pentecost and Joel’s prophecy.  But this connection does not constitute a complete fulfillment.  Charles Feinberg notes,

In the first place, the customary formula for a fulfilled prophecy is entirely lacking in Acts 2:16.  And even more telling is the fact that much of Joel’s prophecy, even as quoted in Acts 2:19-20, was not fulfilled at that time . . . .  The best position to take is that Peter used Joel’s prophecy as an illustration of what was transpiring in his day and not as a fulfillment of this prediction.  In short, Peter saw in the events of his day proof that God would yet completely bring to pass all that Joel prophesied.  Joel’s prophecy, then was prefilled; it is yet (as the Old Testament passages on the outpouring of the Spirit show) to be fulfilled.[1]

             

The quotation from Joel is an example of the Law of Double Reference, by which a Bible prophecy has a partial fulfillment at one time and a complete fulfillment at a later time.[2]  The work of the Spirit that commenced at Pentecost will culminate at the Second Advent and millennial reign of Christ.  This suggests that the phenomena of dreams and visions continues today, though in a different sense and for a different purpose, now that the canon is closed (Rev. 22:18; cf. Heb. 2:3-4) and Scripture is sufficient (2 Tim. 3:16-17).

The ultimate revelation of God came through the incarnation of His Son Jesus Christ, who is the culmination of all divine revelation, for He is “the brightness of [God’s] glory and the express image of His person (Heb. 1:3).  God used the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit to authenticate the message of those who heard Jesus (Heb. 2:3-4), namely, the apostles and their associates.  Such gifts included healings as well as the revelatory word gifts such as prophecy, tongues and interpretation of tongues.  Now that the canon is complete, “the signs of an apostle” (2 Cor. 12:12) are no longer needed, thus indicating that the revelatory gifts have ceased.

This is not to say, however, that God no longer reveals Himself through visions and dreams. This may seem like a contradictory statement, but not if it is understood in light of the Holy Spirit’s present work in the life of the believer.  What is needed is not more revelation, but illumination. 

The problem with the open continuationist view is that dreams and visions are seen as types of the New Testament gift of prophecy.  Grudem “suggests that when God providentially brings a thought to the believer’s mind, that is the New Testament gift of prophecy in operation.  Thus he has elevated mental impressions to the level of prophetic revelation.”[3]  It does no good to change the preface of such “prophecies” from “Thus says the Lord ...” to “I think the Lord is putting on my mind that ...”[4] because the former is the language of the prophets.  They truly did speak God’s inerrant, authoritative word.  There was one divine, infallible level of prophecy. To suggest that a secondary level of prophecy that is human and fallible in nature is scripturally inconsistent, confusing, and potentially dangerous.

“There is, however, an opposite danger, although it may not be equal in magnitude,” writes Sinclair Ferguson.  “It is possible for cessationists to reject genuine illumination precisely because it is (falsely in their view) presented in terms of the formula of revelation.”[5]  This is the problem with the closed cessationist view.  It does not allow for legitimate expressions of the illuminating work of the Holy Spirit, as attested by Scripture and also human experience.

God does not give any new revelation concerning Himself outside of Scripture.  Everything that God wants us to know about Himself is revealed through His Word.  But God does provide to the believer further revelation that accords with His Word, that sheds light on His Word, that helps the believer to rightly apply the Word to his life.  This is illumination.

Though revelation and illumination are distinct phenomena and can be seen as such in Scripture (Psalm 119:18; 2 Tim. 2:7), it is also true that the same terminology (“revelation”) may be used of both.  We see this in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians.  In chapter three Paul refers to the special “revelation” that God gave “by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets” (vv. 3, 5).  Yet in chapter one, Paul prays for believers in general “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened . . .” (vv. 17-18a).  The context indicates clearly that Paul is referring to the illuminating work of the Holy Spirit.  “A categorical distinction exists between the lasting authority which attaches to apostolic revelation and the subjective ‘revelation’ or illumination which comes to all the people of God through the Spirit.”[6]

The latter work of the Spirit continues in this present hour and includes means of personal guidance to believers as they seek to apply God’s Word specifically to their own lives.  Peter Masters reminds us, “The entire narrative of Paul’s journeys is the record of a ministry under the constant superintendency and direction of the Holy Spirit.”[7]  The Macedonian call (Acts 16:9-10) is a marvelous example of this.   

The psalmist prayed, “Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you.  Show me the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul” (Ps. 143:8).  In committing his way to God, the believer should always seek for wisdom through channels that God has provided: prayer, Bible study, research, counselors, past experience, and personal reflection.  Special guidance may be sought, but it may not be granted, for it is not promised.  Yet if God in His marvelous providence chooses to provide further guidance through a vision or dream, then this is perfectly in accordance with Scripture and of glorious benefit to the believer.

Scripture Undermined

This would be the objection of the closed cessationist who is concerned that the “revelatory” nature of dreams and visions undermines the authority and sufficiency of Scripture.  This objection can be addressed by reiterating the kind of revelation being given.  It is that which is referred to by Paul in Ephesians 1:17, which is really the Spirit’s work of illumination.  This in no way undermines the authority and sufficiency of Scripture.  The Spirit’s illuminating work is never disengaged from Scripture but directs the believer in accordance to Scripture.  For this very reason, emphasis was placed in the last section on the believer’s need to make use of the ordinary means God has provided for spiritual guidance (Bible study, prayer, counsel, etc.).  MacArthur writes, “When knowledge of Scripture is at . . . an ebb, this is the worst possible time for believers to be seeking divine truth in dreams, visions, and subjective impressions.[8] 

This is true.  But is not a counter-caution also in order for the more “objective,” biblically knowledgeable believers?  For them it is the best possible time - and probably their greatest need - to have the “balancing influence of a more vital ‘subjective’ relationship with the Lord in everyday life.  And these people are also those who have the least likelihood of being led into error, for they already place great emphasis on solid grounding in the Word of God.”[9]           

Distinction Unimportant

Why make a big deal over the prophecy debate?  Practically speaking, does it really matter whether or not prophecy ceased at the close of the apostolic era and the completion of the New Testament canon?  What difference does it make whether dreams and visions are connected to prophecy as opposed to some other analogous operation(s) of the Spirit for the purpose of illumination?  Both continuationists and open cessationists believe that God still communicates through visions and dreams.  Isn’t that all that really matters?

Not really, for at the heart of the issue is the sufficiency of Scripture.  Teaching that dreams and visions are manifestations of the gift of prophecy inevitably leads to confusion over the nature of biblical prophecy.  Grudem says, “Prophecy occurs when a revelation from God is reported in the prophet’s own (merely human) words.”[10]  If this is the definition of prophecy, then what makes the prophecy of the Old Testament any more authoritative and infallible than prophetic utterances today?  Or who is to say, then, that the canon of Scripture is actually closed?  To avoid this dilemma, two definitions for prophecy are required, yet there is no substantial warrant for this in Scripture.

To recognize that dreams and visions, along with all other subjective impressions and their reportings, are not in any way associated with the gift of prophecy is the better way to go.  By seeing them instead as an analogous work of the Spirit, believers can uphold the sufficiency of Scripture while affirming the ongoing, miraculous work of the Holy Spirit.

Admittedly, some lines that are drawn in theology may seem extremely fine.  But that doesn’t mean that they are insignificant and should be erased.  When it comes to His Word, God wants us to “cut it straight” (2 Tim. 2:15).  At times doing so may be a painstaking exercise, but it is a necessary and profitable one.

Books

Feinberg, Charles L. The Minor Prophet. Chicago: Moody Press, 1990.

Ferguson, Sinclair. The Holy Spirit. Leicester, England: InterVarsity Press, 1996.

Grudem, Wayne A. Systematic Theology. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994.

Keener, Craig S. Crucial Questions about the Holy Spirit. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1996.

MacArthur, John. Reckless Faith. Wheaton: Crossway Books, 1994.

Mallone, George. Those Controversial Spiritual Gifts. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1983.

Masters, Peter. Steps for Guidance in the Journey of Life. London: The Wakeman Trust, 2008.

Miller, John F. B. Convinced that God Has Called Us:  Dreams, Visions, and the Perception of God’s Will in Luke-Acts. Leiden, The Netherlands: Koninklijke Brill NV, 2007.

Sproul, R. C. The Mystery of the Holy Spirit. Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, 1990.

Stott, John R. W. Baptism & Fullness: The Work of the Holy Spirit Today. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1975.

Articles

Poythress, Vern S. “Modern Gifts as Analogous to Apostolic Gifts:  Affirming Extraordinary      Works of the Spirit within Cessationist Theology.”  The Journal of the Evangelical      Theological Society 39/1 (1996) [online].  Accessed 7 June 2010.  Available from   http://www.frame-poythress.org/poythress_articles/1996Modern.htm.

White, R. Fowler. “Does God Speak Today Apart from the Bible?”  The Coming Evangelical      Crisis, ed. John H. Armstrong. Chicago: Moody Press, 1996. [online].  Accessed 7 June        2010.  Available from http://www.the-highway.com/God_Speak.html.

---

[1] Charles L. Feinberg, The Minor Prophets (Chicago:  Moody Press, 1990), 82.

[2] William MacDonald, Believer’s Bible Commentary (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1995), 1584.

[3] John MacArthur, Reckless Faith (Wheaton, IL:  Crossway Books, 1994), 182.

[4] Grudem, Systematic Theology, 1056.

[5] Ferguson, The Holy Spirit, 232.

[6] Ibid., 230-231.

[7] Peter Masters, Steps for Guidance in the Journey of Life (London: The Wakeman Trust, 1995, 2008), 23.

[8] MacArthur, Reckless Faith, 181.

[9] Grudem, Systematic Theology, 1059.

[10] Ibid., 1057.

Does God Still Speak Through Dreams and Visions? Part One

The Sunday after Easter I began preaching through the book of Acts. This past Sunday marked my seventh straight Sunday in this New Testament book. My text was Acts 2:14-41, Peter's sermon at Pentecost. How ironic that I preached through Peter's sermon at Pentecost on Pentecost Sunday!

Because I covered the whole text in a single sermon, I wasn't able to get into much detail. But something happened after the service that provided a perfect lead-in for this article. A lady approached me after the service and asked to speak with me. We sat down on the first pew, and she told me with tears in her eyes that she had received Christ as her Lord and Savior two days earlier in her kitchen. She had been coming to church with a friend and had come to understand the gospel.

This dear lady proceeded to tell me that the day before she received Christ, she had a dream, and I was in it! She dreamt that we were sitting down on a bench talking about God and the gospel. Now here we were on a pew talking about God and the gospel!

She didn't know what to make of this dream. Quite frankly, I didn't either! Less than an hour before our talk, I had read Peter's quotation of Joel's prophecy:

14 But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them: “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give ear to my words.15 For these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. 16 But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel:17 “‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares,that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh,and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,    and your young men shall see visions,    and your old men shall dream dreams....

- Acts 2:14-17; cf. Joel 2:28 

Due to time constraints, I didn't really address this whole matter of dreams and visions. But perhaps now is as good a time as any! Actually, I thought through this whole matter rather carefully a few years ago. I'd like to spend the next few posts sharing my thoughts on the subject. Though I will be presenting this subject in a more technical and academic manner than I do in a typical blog post, I can assure you that I am a simple man and have written this piece with the average reader in mind.

The Issue

Since creation, God has revealed Himself to people in a number of ways.  These have been classified traditionally under two main categories: general revelation and special revelation.  General revelation consists of the witness of creation and conscience.  Special revelation is more specific in nature and, according to Scripture, has consisted of personal encounters with God, mighty acts by God, propositional revelation (i.e., revelation in the form human language), and incarnation (which is really a culmination of the other three types of special revelation).[1]

Traditionally, evangelical Christians have affirmed that which Scripture declares: during the Old and New Testament periods, God on many occasions revealed Himself to people through visions and dreams.[2]  The question that creates controversy is not, “Has God spoken in times past through dreams and visions?” but “Does God still reveal Himself in this manner?”  Since the completion of the canon, does God still communicate through visions and dreams?

                                                                      Positions
The three main positions taken on this particular issue are what I have designated the closed cessationist view, the open continuationist view, and the open cessationist view.[3]

The Closed Cessationist View 

Those who espouse this view believe that God no longer communicates through dreams and visions, now that the canon of Scripture is complete.  This view is summed up well by Richard Gaffin, who sees any “sense of the Spirit’s illumination for today of already revealed truth” that goes beyond “thoughtful reflection and prayerful wrestling prompted by the Spirit, about contemporary circumstances and problems in light of Scripture” as a stance which “unavoidably implies a certain insufficiency in Scripture that needs to be compensated for.” [4]  Closed cessationists equate dreams and other subjective means of spiritual guidance[5] with “extrabiblical ‘prophecies’” and therefore unbiblical - even dangerous.[6]

The Open Continuationist View
Proponents of this view believe that God still communicates today through dreams and visions, so long as such subjective impressions are evaluated in light of Scripture.  A strong and well-known advocate of this view is theologian Wayne Grudem, who associates dreams and visions with the New Testament gift of prophecy. Grudem defines the prophetic gift loosely as “something that God may suddenly bring to mind, or something that God may impress on someone’s consciousness in such a way that the person has a sense that it is from God.”  Grudem goes on to point out that “there may be not only words or ideas that come to mind, but also mental pictures (or ‘visions,’ Acts 2:17) and dreams (Acts 2:17) as well.”[7]  However, because such mental images or impressions are highly subjective, and “our own thoughts or ideas can get mixed into the message we receive,”[8] prophecy can be impure and inaccurate.  It must never be tantamount to Scripture but rather tested in light of Scripture (1 Thes. 5:19-21).  But when the gift of prophecy is correctly exercised and regulated, it is a wonderful means of edification to the church and a sign of God’s blessing upon the church.

Indeed, one continuationist, citing the fulfillment of the Lord’s prophecy through Joel (2:28) and its fulfillment in Acts 2 (esp. v. 17), states that visions and dreams are the ongoing “visual proof” that God has poured out His Spirit on all flesh, and that Moses’ wish that “all the Lord’s people were prophets” (Num. 11:29) has come to fulfillment.  Thus “dreams and visions are assigned a place of honor among the various ways in which God makes his will known to believers”[9] as part of the ongoing gift of New Testament prophecy.

The Open Cessationist View

This position allows for the occurrence of dreams and visions as a means of divine guidance for today, while affirming the cessation of all the New Testament revelatory gifts, such as prophecy, tongues, and the interpretation of tongues.  Key proponents of this view would be contemporary theologian Sinclair Ferguson and seventeenth-century theologian John Owen.[10]   Both argue that while some special gifts in the apostolic era are no longer given to the church, some continuing operations of the Spirit are analogous to them.[11]  Says Ferguson,

No right-thinking Christian would deny that God continues to be active in the world, to do wonderful things for his people, and especially to answer their prayers in keeping with his promises . . . .  It would, however, be a mistake to draw the conclusion from this that such events are normative or that in these events individuals are receiving again the coronation gifts of Pentecost.[12]

While the open cessationist would affirm the reality of divine revelation through the avenues of dreams and visions, he would argue that such events are not normative, and that they fall into the category of illumination (i.e. understanding and applying the truth of Scripture).

What are we to make of these three positions? Which one is right? Is there a fourth option? How are dreams and visions best interpreted in light of Scripture? I'll give you my take on this issue in part two of this article, to be posted within a week. In the meantime, think through the issue yourself, using Scripture as your guide. Ask the Holy Spirit to grant you insight regarding this matter. As Stephen Olford used to say,

Where human investigation fails, spiritual illumination prevails.

---

[1] This is a brief summary of notes on “Forms of Revelation” given by Dr. Bruce Ware in Systematic Theology 1 at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in the summer of 2010.

[2] These are similar phenomena, with a vision occurring while a person is awake, and a dream occurring while one is asleep.  (This differentiation may be a bit simplistic, but it is a helpful one nonetheless.)

[3] These are my own designations concerning the primary views regarding dreams and visions.  I am unaware of these designations being used elsewhere.  I have not come across them in my own readings on this subject.

[4] Richard B. Gaffin, Jr.  Are Miraculous Gifts for Today?  Four Views,  ed. Wayne A. Grudem (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996), 52.  

[5] Such would include “inner promptings, signs, feelings of peace or uneasiness, strong impressions on the mind, or other similar means.”  John MacArthur, Reckless Faith  (Wheaton, IL:  Crossway Books, 1994): 182.  It should be noted that Richard Gaffin would not take quite as stringent a view as MacArthur, for Gaffin does say, “The Spirit may and ought to be at work in the feelings, intuitions, or hunches that believers have about specific decisions and particular courses of action” (Gaffin, 155).  Nevertheless, Gaffin goes on to indicate his concern regarding “(Spirit-prompted) impulses of a revelatory character,” which others (namely, Robert Saucy, to whom Gaffin is referring) see as “new covenant guidance” not related to miraculous gifts (p. 143). 

[6] Ibid.  See also Gaffin, 53.

[7] Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology (Leicester, England: InterVarsity Press; Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994): 1056.

[8] Ibid, 1055.

[9] George Mallone, Those Controversial Spiritual Gifts (Downers Grove, IL:  InterVarsity Press, 1983):  54.

[10] Though neither of these men use the designation “open cessationist,” their writings indicate that they affirm(ed)  this view as I have described it.

[11] Sinclair Ferguson, The Holy Spirit (Leicester, England: InterVarsity Press, 1996): 233.  Ferguson cites John Owen, “A Discourse of Spiritual Gifts” in The Works of John Owen, ed. W.H. Goold (Edinburgh: Johnstone & Hunter, 1850-53), vol. 4, p. 475; cf. p. 454.

[12] Ibid, 234-235.

Are We a Welcoming Church?

In recent months our church has made strides toward making our guests feel more welcome. We formulated a Welcome Team and have worked hard to define our mission and to minister accordingly. 

I love our Welcome Team's missions statement: 

"Extending the love of Christ through genuine hospitality."

That's true incarnational ministry, isn't it?  The changes in the physical lay-out of our church lobby has helped to create a more welcoming atmosphere, but people are the primary catalysts for change.

Recently I came across a helpful article entitled Do Visitors Feel Welcome at Your Church? 5 Practical Tools You Need.  You can read the original article by clicking here. Otherwise, read the following excerpt:

I often wonder why we aren’t more intentional, or why we spend so little time training volunteer greeters. The art of making others feel welcome is about more than getting a few people to volunteer to hand out bulletins each Sunday.

First impressions are not just important; they are crucial. Especially when it comes to first-time visitors. One Christian author writes that a person decides within the first three to eight minutes whether they will return.

How can we make the people in our church feel welcome?

1. Avoid questions like, “Are you new?” or “Is this your first Sunday?” 

If you are not new, then things get rather awkward. If you are new, you probably don’t want to feel like the spotlight is on you or that you stick out like a sore thumb. Instead, say, “Hi! I don’t believe I’ve met you yet. My name is ________.”

2. If you find out that someone you are talking to is new (which will usually reveal itself early in the conversation), personally escort them and their children to each class. 

Don’t just tell them where to go; show them.

3. If at all possible, introduce new people to others. 

For example, if you are showing a new child to a classroom, introduce him or her to another child you know in the classroom. You might say, “I’d like you to meet my special friend Elizabeth. She is in your class this hour and _________.”

4. Make an intentional effort to remember people’s names. 

Some of us come by this easier than others, but for those of who struggle there are techniques to improve our recall. For example, say someone’s name several times in the course of your first conversation. The more times you say a name the more likely you are to remember it. (For more tips see: How to Remember a Person’s Name or Seven Ways to Remember Any Name).

5. As visitors are leaving, make sure to smile and thank them for coming. 

You might ask them how they enjoyed the service, or go the extra mile and ask them to join you for lunch. My parents visited a church while on vacation and raved for weeks about how they were taken out to lunch after the service by one of the elders.

Developing relationships isn’t always easy, but it is worth it!

Do you have any other insights or recommendations you would like to share? If so, leave a comment. We'd love to get your thoughts.

On Second Thought

Recently I made a decision that I regretted almost immediately. I can't share the details for the sake of confidentiality, but suffice to say, I spoke before I thought. I committed to doing something that compromised my conscience, and I felt uneasy about it.

I couldn't get the matter off my mind throughout the evening, and made it a matter of prayer. The next morning in my regular devotional reading, I came across the following verse:

Pray for us, for we are sure that we have a clear conscience, desiring to act honorably in all things.

- Hebrews 13:18

My heart's desire was to honor God in all things -- and it is for this very reason that I did not have a clear conscience regarding my current situation.

So I dealt with it. 

I did what I had to do. But it resulted in some folks being disappointed. In a very real sense I was disappointed too.

But there's a difference between feeling bad and feeling guilty. Better to be sad emotionally than to sin intentionally.

So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
- James 4:17

Sometimes our mouth gets us into trouble. We speak before we think. We get ourselves into a fix that violates our conscience. When we get into that sort of situation, we need to get out of it asap. Scripture provides a good example of this in the case of finances:

My child, if you have put up security for a friend’s debt or agreed to guarantee the debt of a stranger—2 if you have trapped yourself by your agreement and are caught by what you said—3 follow my advice and save yourself, for you have placed yourself at your friend’s mercy. Now swallow your pride; go and beg to have your name erased.4  Don’t put it off; do it now! Don’t rest until you do.

- Proverbs 6:1-4 NLT

How easy it is to get ourselves in a bind! We put ourselves in a predicament that is either blatantly sinful or blurs the line between right and wrong! Whenever that happens, we should repent and do what is right. Isn't this what Jesus taught?

“What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’ ‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went. Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go. Which of the two did what his father wanted? “The first,” they answered.

- Matthew 21:28-31

Jesus assured them that they had answered correctly. Then he went on to confront them about their failure to change their minds even after they saw the truth.

Don't make the same mistake.

Of course it's better not to get yourself into such a predicament in the first place. My own recent experience taught me a good lesson in that regard. But I'm so glad that my conscience is now clear.

Is yours?

Food for the Inner Man - George Mueller

During last Sunday's sermon I emphasized how Scripture informs and adds substance to our prayers. To illustrate this point, I shared the example of the 19^th century minister George Mueller, who cared 

for 10,000 orphans over his lifetime.  He also established 117 schools that offered Christian education to over 120,000 children, many of whom were orphans.  

How was Mueller able to do so much good for so many people?  Through prayer.  But George Mueller never prayed for a thing just because he wanted it, or even because he felt it was greatly needed for God’s work.  Whenever he was inclined to pray for something, he would search Scripture to see if there was a promise connected to that kind of situation.  Sometimes he would search for days before presenting his request to God.  Then when he found the promise, he would pray with his Bible open.  He would place his finger on that promise, would plead that promise, and would receive what he asked.  He always prayed with an open Bible before him. 

Below is, in Mueller's own words, the fuller explanation of how Scripture strengthened his prayers, in terms of both their content and his confidence.  To see the original post, click here.

Food For the Inner Man – George Mueller

by George Mueller (1805-1898)

While I was staying at Nailsworth, it pleased the Lord to teach me a truth, irrespective of human instrumentality, as far as I know, the benefit of which I have not lost, though now…more than forty years have since passed away.

The point is this: I saw more clearly than ever, that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day, to have MY SOUL HAPPY IN THE LORD. The first thing to be concerned about was not, how much I might serve the Lord, how I might glorify the Lord; but how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man might be nourished. For I might seek to set the truth before the unconverted, I might seek to benefit believers, I might seek to behave myself as it becomes a child of God in this world; and yet, not being happy in the Lord, and not being nourished and strengthened in my inner man day by day, all this might not be attended to in a right spirit.

Before this time my practice had been, at least for ten years previously, as a habitual thing, to give myself to prayer, after having dressed in the morning. Now I saw, that the most important thing I had to do was to give myself to the reading of the Word of God and to meditation on it, that thus my heart may be comforted, encouraged, warned, reproved, instructed; and that thus, whilst meditating, my heart might be brought into experimental communion with the Lord. I began therefore, to meditate on the New Testament, from the beginning, early in the morning.

The first thing I did, after having asked in a few words the Lord’s blessing upon His precious Word, was to begin to meditate on the Word of God; searching, as it were, into every verse, to get blessings out of it; not for the sake of the public ministry of the Word; not for the sake of preaching on what I had meditated upon; but for the sake of obtaining food for my own soul.. The result I have found to be almost invariably this, that after a very few minutes my soul has been led to confession, or to thanksgiving, or to intercession, or to supplication; so that though I did not, as it were, give myself to prayer, but to meditation, yet it turned almost immediately more or less into prayer.

When thus I have been for awhile making confession, or intercession, or supplication, or have given thanks, I go on to the next words or verse, turning all, as I go on, into prayer for myself or others, as the Word may lead to it; but still continually keeping before me, that food for my own soul is the object of my meditation. The result of this is, that there is always a good deal of confession, invariably is even sensibly nourished and strengthened and that by breakfast time, with rare exceptions, I am in a peaceful if not happy state of heart. Thus also the Lord is pleased to communicate unto me that which, very soon after, I have found to become food for other believers, though it was not for the sake of the public ministry of the Word that I gave myself to meditation, but for the profit of my own inner man.

The difference between my former practice and my present one is this. Formerly, when I rose, I began to pray as soon as possible, and generally spent all my time till breakfast in prayer, or almost all the time. At all events I almost invariably began with prayer. But what was the result? I often spent a quarter of an hour, or even an hour on my knees, before being conscious to myself of having derived comfort, encouragement, humbling of soul, etc.; and often after having suffered much from wandering of mind of the first ten minutes, or a quarter of an hour, or even half an hour, I only then began really to pray.

I scarcely ever suffer now in this way. For my heart being nourished by the truth, being brought into experimental fellowship with God, I speak to my Father, and to my Friend (vile though I am, and unworthy of it!) about the things that He has brought before me in His precious Word.

It often now astonishes me that I did not sooner see this. In no book did I ever read about it. No public ministry ever brought the matter before me. No private intercourse with a brother stirred me up to this matter. And yet now, since God has taught me this point, it is a plain to me as anything that the first thing the child of God has to do morning by morning is to obtain food for his inner man.

As the outward man is not fit for work for any length of time, except we take food, and as this is one of the first things we do in the morning, so it should be with the inner man. We should take food for that, as every one must allow. Now what is the food for the inner man: not prayer, but the Word of God: and here again not the simple reading of the Word of God, so that it only passes through our minds, just as water runs through a pipe, but considering what we read, pondering over it, and applying it to our hearts.

I dwell so particularly on this point because of the immense spiritual profit and refreshment I am conscious of having derived from it myself, and I affectionately and solemnly beseech all my fellow-believers to ponder this matter. By the blessing of God I ascribe to this mode the help and strength which I have had from God to pass in peace through deeper trials in various ways than I had ever had before; and after having now above forty years tried this way, I can most fully, in the fear of God, commend it. How different when the soul is refreshed and made happy early in the morning, from what it is when, without spiritual preparation, the service, the trials and the temptations of the day come upon one! – George Mueller

Fight to Pray

While discussing persistence in prayer with our small group last evening, an illustration came to mind. It was written by J. Sidlow Baxter, a 20th century pastor who ministered in England and Scotland. Like many a Christian, Baxter struggled to make prayer a priority. The creative way in which he shared his story has resonated with countless Christians, whose resolve has been strengthened by Baxter's own experience. May this account encourage us all to persist in prayer.

... My time for prayer was getting crowded out and my periods of study with the Bible were getting scarcer.

That was bad enough, but it was worse when I began to get used to it. And then I began excusing myself. My prayer life became a case of sinning and repenting. Every time I got down to pray I had to start weeping and asking the Lord’s forgiveness. I had to repent that I hadn’t prayed more and ask Him to help me to do better in the future. All such things really take the pleasure out of praying!

Then it all came to crisis. At a certain time one morning I looked at my watch. According to my plan, for I was still bravely persevering, I was to withdraw for an hour of prayer.I looked at my watch and it said: “Time for prayer, Sid.”

But I looked at my desk and there was a miniature mountain of correspondence. And conscience said, “You ought to answer those letters.” So, as we say in Scotland, I swithered. I vacillated. Shall it be prayer? Shall it be letters? Yes, no. Yes, no. Yes, no. And while I was swithering a velvety little voice began to speak in my inner consciousness: “Look here, Sid, what’s all this bother? You know very well what you should do. The practical thing is to get those letters answered. You can’t afford the time for prayer this morning. Get those letters answered.”

But I still swithered, and the voice began to reinforce what it had said. It said, “Look here, Sid, don’t you think the Lord knows all the busy occupations which are taking your time? You’re converted, you’re born again and you’re in the ministry. People are crowding in; you’re having conversions. Doesn’t that show that God is pleased with you? And even if you can’t pray, don’t worry too much about it. Look, Sid, you’d better face up to it. You’re not one of the spiritual ones!”

Ouch!

I don’t want to use extravagant phrases, but if you had plunged a dagger into my boson it couldn’t have hurt me more. “Sid, you are not one of the spiritual ones.”

I’m not the introspective type, but that morning I took a good look into Sidlow Baxter. And I found that there was an area of me that did not want to pray. I had to admit it. It didn’t want to pray. But I looked more closely and I found that there was a part of me that did. The part that didn’t was the emotions and the part that did was the intellect and the will.

Suddenly I found myself asking Sidlow Baxter: “Are you going to let your will be dragged about by your changeful emotions?”

And I said to my will: “Will, are you ready for prayer?”

And Will said, “Here I am, I’m ready.”

So Will and I set off to pray. But the minute we turned our footsteps to go and pray all my emotions began to talk: “We’re not coming, we’re not coming.”

And I said to Will, “Will, can you stick it?”

And Will said, “Yes, if you can.”

So Will and I, we dragged off those wretched emotions and we went to pray and stayed an hour in prayer.

It was a fight all the way.

If you had asked me afterwards, “Did you have a good time?” do think I could have said yes? A good time? No, it was a fight all the way!

What I would have done without the companionship of Will, I don’t know. In the middle of the most earnest intercessions I suddenly found one of the principal emotions way out on the golf course, playing golf. And I had to run to the golf course and say, “Come back.” And a few minutes later I found another of the emotions; it had traveled one and a half days in advance and it was in the pulpit preaching a sermon I had not even yet prepared. And I had to say, “Come back.”

I certainly couldn’t have said we had a good time. It was exhausting, but we did it.

The next morning came. I looked at my watch and it was time. I said to Will, “Come on, Will, it’s time for prayer.” And all the emotions began to pull the other way and I said, “Will, can you stick it?” And Will said, “Yes, in fact I think I’m stronger after the struggle yesterday morning.” So Will and I went in again.

The same thing happened. Rebellious, tumultuous, uncooperative emotions. If you had asked me, “Have you had a good time?” I would have had to tell you with tears, “No, the heavens were like brass. It was a job to concentrate. I had an awful time with the emotions.”

Then the change…

This went on for about two and a half weeks. But Will and I stuck it out. Then one morning during that third week I looked at my watch and I said, “Will it’s time for prayer.  Are you ready?” And Will Said, “Yes, I’m ready.”

And just as we were going in, I heard one of my chief emotions say to the others, “Come on, fellows, there’s no use wearing ourselves out: they’ll go on whatever we do.”

That morning we didn’t have any hilarious experience of wonderful visions with heavenly voices and raptures. But Will and I were able with less distraction to get on with praying. And that went on for another two or three weeks. In fact, Will and I had begun to forget the emotions. I would say, “Will, are you ready for prayer?” And Will replied, “Yes, I’m always ready.”

Suddenly one day while Will and I were pressing our case at the throne of the heavenly glory one of the chief emotions shouted, “Hallelujah!” and all the other emotions suddenly shouted, “Amen!” For the first time the whole territory of James Sidlow Baxter was happily coordinated in the exercise of prayer and God suddenly became real and heaven was wide open and Christ was there and the Holy Spirit was moving and I knew that all the time God had been listening.

The point is this: the validity and the effectuality of prayer are not determined or even affected by the subjective psychological condition of the one who prays. The thing that makes prayer valid and vital and moving and operative is, “My faith takes hold of God’s truth.”

Brothers and sisters, soon now we shall be meeting Him. When you meet Him, and I speak reverently, when you feel His arms around you and when you embrace as well as adore Him, don’t you want to be able to look into that wonderful face and say, “Lord, at last I’m seeing face-to-face the One I have for years known heart to heart.”

Why don’t you resolve that from this time on you will be a praying Christian? You will never, never, never regret it!  Never!

Great Tips for Group Prayer

Last Sunday I preached part one of a two-part sermon entitled Why Bother to Pray as a Church? Acts 1:12-26 gives us three good reasons:

1. Prayer unites the people of God.
2. Prayer sheds light on the Word of God.
3. Prayer invites direction from God.

While exploring the first point, we saw that corporate prayer throughout Scripture is God's people seeking God's face as one body in one voice about one thing. Prayer unites the people of God! Prayer rallies the church around the will of God. Such was the experience of the early church, and the same can be our experience today.

Here are some practical suggestions for participating in corporate prayer:

1. Come prepared to pray by stirring up your faith. "No one calls on your name or strives to lay hold of you..." (Isa. 64:7). This verse describes those who are spiritually dead. Christians, on the other hand, should be marked by an attitude that says, "As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?" (Ps. 42:1-2). Nothing primes the pump of prayer like Scripture. So stir up your faith by feasting on the Word of God (cf. Rom. 10:17).
2. Sit together. It's hard to be united in prayer when we're sitting far apart.
3. Speak up! Others cannot agree with or affirm what they cannot hear.
4. Pray simply and conversationally. Avoid "preachy" praying and ministerial, unnatural tones. You're talking to God. Therefore your goal should be to express your heart, not to impress others.
5. Keep prayers concise, clear, and to the point. Long-winded, rambling prayers make prayer meetings boring, dull, and downright frustrating.
6. Don't read long passages of Scripture. As a general rule, limit your reading to a few verses that express praise, iterate a promise, or emphasize a certain truth highlighted in your prayer.
7. Don't pray through your personal prayer list. You can do that during your daily quiet time. Corporate prayer unites God's people as they seek God's face together as one body in one voice about one thing.
8. Ask God; don't explain things to him. Don't waste time telling God what he already knows. Prayer is not supposed to be a commentary but an expression of our dependence on God. "And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you" (Luke 11:9).
9. Avoid addressing others in the room under pretense of prayer. Corporate prayer is no substitute for personal conversation or confrontation, so don't make it one.
10. Once you have prayed, wait for other people to pray before praying again. Allow the Spirit of God to prompt others to pray. This adds beauty and balance to corporate praying.
11. When in doubt about what to pray, ask for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit on your church and city. No doubt this is what occurred when the fledgling church "went to the upper room ... [and] with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer" (Acts 1:13-14).
12. Try not to pray too big or too small. Don't pray for anything outlandish and out of line with God's purposes. At the same time, avoid puny prayers that require no real dependence on God. Pray for things the group can "get its faith around." 
13. Don't be afraid of silence. It's sometimes golden. There is "a time to keep silence, and a time to speak" (Eccl. 3:7). The wise person appreciates the benefits of both, knowing the Spirit of God may be speaking even when we aren't.
14. Listen to, agree with, and affirm each pray-er. That's assuming, of course, that the prayer is scripturally based. Verbal expressions such as "amen," or "yes, Lord," encourage the person praying, keeps the group engaged, and expresses our solidarity before the throne of grace.
15. Submit to pastoral guidelines. For various functional or logistical reasons, the spiritual leaders of your church may ask the church to follow certain guidelines during corporate prayer. Don't buck your leaders; obey them. The church will be built up, and you will be blessed.

The above list was adapted from an article by Eddie Smith in the Jan/Feb 1999 issue of Pray! magazine. If you'd like more practical suggestions, check out Ligon Duncan's "Thirty Two Principles for Public Prayer."

How Much We Miss!

This year for my daily Bible intake plan, I am following McCheyne's Bible Reading Schedule. One of the Old Testament readings for today included Numbers 5. If you read through this chapter without giving it a lot of thought, it seems a bit weird.

The chapter begins with the Lord's insistence that people who are ceremonially unclean are to be put out of the camp of Israel. From there the Lord tells Moses that those who are morally unclean are to make confession and restitution in the divinely prescribed manner. Then, beginning in verse 11, the Lord tells Moses what to do when a man suspects his wife of adultery but can't prove it. Let's just say it involves her drinking water with dirt from the tabernacle floor mixed in with some words of a curse washed off a scroll.  If the woman is innocent, no worries. If she's guilty, the water will cause her womb to swell and rot, inducing sterility.

Like I said, weird stuff. What on earth are we to make of this text? What's up with this ritual?

As I read through this chapter, two things came to mind. The first was a sermon that I heard Ligon Duncan preach on this very same chapter about eight years ago. I never forgot it. More on that in a moment.

The second thing that came to my mind, oddly enough, was a scene from Anne of Green Gables. (Yes, I confess, I have watched that video series many times with my wife. I purchased the series for her as a birthday gift the first year we were married.) In one scene, Anne asks Marilla, "Do you never imagine things different from what they really are?" "No," says Marilla. "Oh!" responds Anne, drawing a sharp breath. "Oh ... Marilla, how much you miss!"

Surely something similar could be said to the casual Bible reader: "Do you ever take the time to see things as they really are? Oh, how much you miss!"

Getting back to Ligon Duncan, I must say that his sermon on Numbers 5 showed me the beauty of the gospel from this obscure text. He took no interpretive leaps to make that happen; rather, he delved into the text, revealed its place in the storyline of Scripture, and showed how it ultimately pointed us to the gravity of our sin and the grace of God in Christ.  I would encourage you to read Ligon's sermon -- both Part One ("Defiled") and Part Two ("The Adultery Test"). I believe that as a result of reading this sermon, you will be not only spiritually enriched but also highly motivated to study God's Word at a deeper level on a more consistent basis.

The late and highly esteemed Dallas Theological Seminary professor Howard Hendricks was known to say, "There is no jewel more precious than that which you have mined yourself." May this motivate us to dig more deeply into the infinitely valuable treasure of God's truth.

A Closer Look at Luke: Part Two

In my last post I pointed out four traits about Luke, the writer of the Gospel that bears his name, as well as the book of Acts. In addition to Luke's humility, professionalism, writing, and missionary concern, there are four other traits that we should consider. These characteristics are discussed by Michael Green in his book Thirty Years that Changed the World.

5.  His care for disadvantaged people

"When quoting Isaiah 40:3, the theme song of John the Baptist to which all the synoptists refer, Luke alone gives the last part of the quotation, 'and all mankind will see God's salvation.' (Luke 3:6). Luke alone tells us that, 'the Son of Man came to seek and save what was lost' (Luke 19:10). Those two hints give us insight into Luke's concern for 'left-over people', a concern that he displays constantly throughout his two books." In his Gospel, Luke shows that salvation is available to all: rich and poor, Jew and Gentile, beggars and nobles, prostitutes and religious leaders. In Acts the gospel goes out to Gentiles, Samaritans, the untouchables, the poor and outcast, soldiers and sorcerers. "To preach good news to the poor, the disadvantaged, the left-over people, the women, that is the glory of the gospel, and it is important to Luke. When churches really care about the poor, society sits up and takes notice. People are surprised."

6.  Prayer and praise

These traits occupy Luke. "His two books are full of them. This may seem ordinary and obvious. But it is not. There are not many churches where prayer is a power, and where praise takes off." Luke says a lot about the prayer life of Jesus, whose example inspired his disciples to pray. "In Acts prayer is crucial. When the Christians pray, the Spirit comes, prison doors open, the place of worship is shaken, they speak with boldness." Pray occurs in prison, in the home, on the beach, and in the temple. Furthermore, the phrase "'praising God' occurs more times in Luke's writings than the whole of the New Testament.... Luke's Gospel begins and ends in the temple with people praising God (1:9; 24:53), and that atmosphere is carried into the Acts." Green rightly concludes, "There is a tremendous power in praise: we often rob ourselves of its potency because our offering of praise to God is too contingent on how we feel, or on our circumstances. We do not sufficiently honor him for who he is and for his astounding mercy to us in adopting us into his family. A church where praise is a way of life is a church that exhibits the beauty, and the impact, of the Lord."

7.  Luke's loyalty

"This man had courage and stickability. He had determined to give his life to working with this missionary Paul, and he did. 'Only Luke is with me' (2 Timothy 4:11). His loyalty stood out." Surely this character trait of loyalty played a crucial role in the impact of the early church. "Their loyalty to each other, to Jesus Christ, to the calling he had given them, forged them into a mighty task-force. By contrast, in many parts of the world today the church is only visible on Sundays." Yet in other parts of the world, "the church manifests the same power as it did in the first century. In God's book there are no prizes for marginal commitment."

8.  His spiritual expectancy

"The Holy Spirit is mentioned five times in the Gospel of Matthew, four times in Mark, and fifty-three times in Luke-Acts! That says it all. The start of the Gospel is a continuous narrative of the Spirit at work." Luke "is fascinated with the work of the Spirit, in the church." There is a constant spirit of expectancy as to what God will do. "That is the sort of climate when God can work -- when his people are experiencing and trusting him to do so."

Which of these eight traits in Luke do you find the most striking and significant for you personally? Are there other traits you see demonstrated in the writings of this remarkable man? I would love to read your comments!

A Closer Look at Luke: Part One

Luke wrote 28% of the New Testament, including its longest book, the Gospel of Luke. But not a whole lot is written about Luke himself. His name appears only three times in the New Testament (Col. 4:14; Philemon 24; 2 Timothy 4:11). From these few references we can glean that Luke was a doctor, a Gentile Christian, and a companion of Paul who was passionate about spreading the gospel.

But so much more can be said, and ought to be said, about Luke. In his book Thirty Years That Changed the World, Michael Green shares eight traits of the man Luke that we should all seek to emulate. I'll share the first four traits today:

1.  His humility

"It is perfectly astonishing that this gifted man, responsible for two of the most exciting books in the world, should have been content to say nothing at all about himself." The closest Luke ever comes to mentioning himself is in the "we passages" of Acts. Where was Luke the rest of the time? "He was quietly beavering away in Philippi, building up the church there from a handful of ex-mediums, jailers and business people into the church to which Paul could write the Epistle to the Philippians. Who had been responsible for the build up of this church? Who lies behind its [elders] and deacons, its love and joy and generosity? Probably none other than Luke. And he does not say a word about it! To me that is truly Christlike humility" (Green, 28-29). Indeed!

2.  His professionalism

Luke was a doctor. That was his profession. But he didn't let his job get in the way of serving Jesus. Luke was "willing to sacrifice his professional prospects to go where he felt God was calling him, and to stay loyal to a friend who needed him." Thus Luke was a doctor who ministered not only to people's physical needs, but also to their spiritual needs. Says Green, "I known of a leading psychiatrist who thinks it a bad week if he does not help two or three of his patients to Christ. Many would throw up their hands at such an idea. But why? Surely the task of the physician is to help people to wholeness and health. If it is perfectly plain to the doctor that the patient's real trouble is spiritual, and if he is equipped to deal with it, why on earth should he not do so? And if you tell me that matters of private conviction should not be brought into the market place, I have to reply that such a disjunction dates only back to the Enlightenment and has proved disastrous for our society.... It seems to me both proper and admirable for [medical professionals] to use their best insights, not excluding the spiritual, for the good of their patients.... Christians work not only to make money and do a useful job, but to be ambassadors of Jesus Christ. And until that happens on a large scale we shall not see a transformation of society such as was so evident in the first and second centuries. Luke quietly shows us the way."

3.  His writing

Luke was an educated man who, in addition to his medical expertise, possessed marvelous research and writing skills. "But the interesting thing is that in the midst of a busy life this man used his opportunities for research, limited though they were, with diligence. And at the same time he seems to have stayed fresh for Christ. Library work often dulls zeal. You can just watch the enthusiasm for Christ, so marked in freshmen at a Christian teaching institution, drop away as they dive into a world of books and libraries, research and essays. Just a few manage to retain that spiritual vitality throughout. Luke was noteworthy for it."

4.  His missionary concern

"He cannot keep quiet about the gospel. He is always talking about it, and always doing it. He seems to be utterly committed to Christian mission. He has more to say about salvation in his two books than has the whole of the rest of the New Testament put together. He is constantly stressing repentance, faith, baptism, and outreach to every kind of person in ever-widening circles. ... His pen, his tongue, and his career are at the service of the gospel."

May the same be said of us! We'll look at the last four traits of Luke next week.

Easter Every Sunday

"If only we could duplicate this every week!" That's what our pastoral staff was thinking the day after our exhilarating Easter service. Of course we know that real revival is not the product of human planning or ingenuity, but comes alone from God. The Spirit of God is like the wind; he blows wherever he wishes (John 4:8). But that doesn't excuse passivity on our part. As G. Campbell Morgan put it,

We cannot organize revival, but we can set our sails to catch the wind from Heaven when God chooses to blow upon His people once again.

Based on observations about Easter Sunday, I would like to suggest four things we can do as God's people to make every Lord's Day a vibrant worship experience:

1.  Anticipate

On Easter Sunday, people came to church expecting a great service. They looked forward to gathering with God's people. They allowed sufficient time to get ready. They arrived early. They came with happy hearts.

Their anticipation of a great service ended up being a self-fulfilling prophecy, so to speak. Their prediction became their experience. This reminds me of a conversation that took place between a discouraged minister and the great 19th century preacher Charles Spurgeon. The down-hearted pastor lamented that people weren't coming to faith in Christ at his church. Spurgeon said, "You don't expect people to get saved every week, do you?"  "No, of course not," said the minister. "Well, there's your problem," Spurgeon replied.

If we would see the Spirit of God work among us each week, we must anticipate his presence and prepare accordingly.

2.  Celebrate

On Easter Sunday, our congregation was less inhibited in their worship. That is to say, they expressed their praise in the way that seemed most fitting, without being paranoid of what other people thought. Some clapped, raised their hands, and shouted, "Praise the Lord!" Others didn't. Fact is, some people are more expressive in worship, while others are more reserved.

Worship is ultimately a matter of the heart. Jesus declared,

God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.
- John 4:24

No one should ever feel "forced" to worship God in prescribed manner in terms of outward expression. Though "all things should be done decently and in order" (1 Cor. 14:40), we can still celebrate our diversity.

But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.
- 1 Corinthians 12:18-20

Authentic corporate worship is marked by a unity that pervades our diversity. Our goal is to reflect the diversity of our congregation and culture as we worship our one God and Savior Jesus Christ.

This leads to the third critical factor of vibrant worship:

3.  Elevate

Lift high the cross;

the love of Christ proclaim,

Till all the world adore

His sacred name.

I love what one church posted on their website: "Worship itself cannot lead us into God's presence. Only Jesus can bring us into God's presence, and he has done it through a single sacrifice that will never be repeated - only joyfully recounted and trusted in." So true!

In his book Ministering Like the Master, Stuart Olyott asks a key question:  

How can I know a greater measure of the Spirit of God?

To answer his own question, Olyott considers the ritual recorded in Leviticus 8. Aaron and his sons are consecrated to serve as priests in Israel. At a certain point, blood from the sacrifice was placed on the right ear, right thumb, and right big toe of each one of them. Shortly after that, anointing oil was put on the same places. Wherever the blood went, the oil went.

Wherever the blood goes, the oil goes. We can never "improve our act" to the point where our lives and our worship are acceptable to God. The only thing we can ever do is go to the Lord to receive his forgiveness and a fresh supply of his mercy and grace. Says Olyott, "I find that when I have a renewed sense of his blood cleansing me, I also have a sense of his Spirit helping me."

As we elevate Christ and the great salvation he accomplished for us, we experience life-changing encounters with his Holy Spirit.

4.  Perpetuate

"To make something continue." That's what we want when it comes to God-glorifying, Christ-exalting, Spirit-empowered worship! That can only happen as we commit ourselves to the weekly gathering of God's people. Scripture is unequivocally clear on this point:

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day [of Jesus' return] drawing near.
- Hebrews 10:24-25

Every Lord's Day is a celebration of our Savior's resurrection! So let's ensure a great turn-out by showing up ourselves and also by inviting non-Christians who need to hear the good news of Jesus Christ. 

Anticipate. Celebrate. Elevate. Perpetuate.  

Is it in you?

A Weekend Prayer

For many years my prayer life has been enriched by The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions. Though the language is somewhat antiquated, the prayers reflect a theological and devotional richness, the value of which does not diminish with the passing of time. The following is a prayer suited particularly for the end of the week. It is entitled "Lord's Day Eve":

God of the passing hour,

Another week has gone and I have been preserved
in my going out,
in my coming in.

Thine has been the vigilance that has turned threatened evils aside;
thine the supplies that have nourished me;
Thine the comforts that have indulged me;
Thine the relations and friends that have delighted me;
Thine the means of grace which have edified me;
Thine the Book, which, amidst all my enjoyments, has told me that this is not my rest,
that in all successes one thing alone is needful, to love my Saviour.
Nothing can equal the number of thy mercies but my imperfections and sins.
These, O God, I will neither conceal nor palliate, but confess with a broken heart.

In what condition would secret reviews of my life leave me
were it not for the assurance that with thee there is plenteous redemption,
that thou art a forgiving God,
that thou mayest be feared!

While I hope for pardon through the blood of the cross,
I pray to be clothed with humility,
to be quickened in thy way,
to be more devoted to thee,
to keep the end of my life in view,
to be cured of the folly of delay and indecision,
to know how frail I am,
to number my days and apply my heart unto wisdom.

The Future of Christian Schooling

I've been pastoring in upstate New York for a few years, and in that small window of time, multiple Christian schools in our area have shut down. Our own school has experienced a steady decline in enrollment the last several years, and we are at a crossroads ourselves.

Actually, I prefer to call it our "zero hour" - the time at which a planned operation is set to begin. Our leadership team sees the coming year as a rebirth of an institution which, done rightly, becomes a discipleship factory. The point of this article is not to lay out our plan before the blogosphere, but to share some key principles that are vital to the success of our institution along with every other Christian school in America.

What follows is not a comprehensive list, but the highlighting of three essentials for success. I came across these principles in an article entitled "Does Your Christian School Have a Future?" This article appeared in CSE: A Magazine for Christian School Educators (vol. 18, no. 3, 2014/15). To read the whole article, click here.

Gene Frost, the writer of the article, presented three principles that he gleaned from Jim Collins and Jerry Porras in their book Built to Last (1997), and found them to be woven into the fabric of the most successful Christian schools across the country. Here's an overview of the three principles:

1.  Find educational leaders who are clock builders, not time tellers.

Time tellers are do-it-alone leaders who can always tell you what time it is, figuratively speaking. But when they aren't around, no one knows what time it is, and therefore have no clue what to do. But a clock builder is building the institutional clock. He knows how to get all the gears in place. This is a clock that everyone can reference and that will continue to be there long after the leader is gone. By looking to the clock, everyone knows what time it is and what to do.

Time tellers work tirelessly, sincerely believing that their hard work and long hours will pay off.  The problem is that time tellers fail to distinguish between employees who with the right training and opportunity can help to build the future of the institution, and the employees who were perpetuating the status quo. Time tellers end up managing those who are willing to hold on till the institution dies a slow and painful death.

2.  Discover the "genius of the AND."

Have you ever noticed that the best selling cars are the ones that are able to combine economy and performance? Likewise, current-day families are looking for value in our schools, and this value will only be created by the and. Instead of cutting programs -- deciding either football or soccer, choir or band, AP math or science -- educational leaders should be trying to find out how to do both.

Collins and Porras explain that the most important and that any enterprise needs to implement is preserving the core and stimulating progress. So many schools are caught up in preserving the core that they end up merely preserving the past.  The "genius of the AND" means that you only stimulate progress that leads to preserving the core and you only preserve the core by stimulating appropriate progress.

3.  Don't lower tuition.

Dropping tuition is signing the school's death warrant. When you lower tuition, you are telling your market that you aren't worth the tuition you were charging. Furthermore, you must then out of necessity eliminate offering that create the value that attracted families and their students in the first place. As your perceived or real value decreases, you lose students, then you're forced to lower tuition even further. This downward spiral continues until you close your doors for good.

So if you want your school to flourish, look for a leader who is a clock builder, who understands the "genius of the AND," and who can lead your school on the long journey of preserving the core and stimulating progress.

Is God a Terrorist? What about the Doctrine of Hell?

Yesterday ISIS terrorists released an extremely graphic video that showed them burning a hostage alive. The victim was the Jordanian pilot Lt. Muath al-Kaseasbeh. The scene was absolutely horrific. The violence was barbaric.

Question: If burning one person alive for a matter of moments is considered unspeakably heinous, then how can burning millions of people in hell forever be considered holy?

It's a fair question, isn't it?

Is God a terrorist?

In the following 13-minute broadcast, David Platt (president of the International Mission Board) revisits the doctrine of hell, the character of God, and the significance of the gospel.

http://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/the-doctrine-of-hell

Am I Strong, Weak, or What?

Last Sunday I preached a sermon entitled Help the Weak, based on Romans 15:1-7.  As I explained near the outset of the sermon, the immediate context dealt with the matter of Christian liberty, but the broader principle was that stronger Christians should befriend and build up weaker Christians.

No doubt some believers left the worship service thinking, "Am I a strong Christian or a weak Christian?" To answer that question correctly, you must understand the terms "weak" and "strong." To gain a correct understanding, we must keep in mind the context. Paul began the discussion at the outset of Romans 14, where he refers to those who are "weak in the faith" (v. 1). "The faith" refers to the body of truth God has revealed to us through the Scriptures, particularly the gospel (see Col. 1:23; Jude 3).

So a "strong" Christian, in the context of Romans 14-15, is a believer who is well-grounded in Bible doctrine, particularly the gospel and the freedom it brings. A "weak" Christian is one who is not as well-grounded when it comes to understanding and living out their faith in Jesus Christ. Their weakness has nothing to do with their faithfulness to the Lord or their commitment to righteous living. It's important to remember that in the context of Romans 14-15, both the weak Christian and the strong Christian have a desire to please God.

Looking at this issue of weakness and strength in a broader and experiential sense, we can see that a couple of things are true:

1. Strong Christians can be weak in some areas (e.g. fragile emotions), and weak Christians can be strong in some areas (e.g. compassion, generosity).
2. Strong Christians can become weak in a given moment (e.g. when succumbing to temptation), and a weak Christian can demonstrate tremendous strength and resiliency (e.g. power in witnessing).

So spiritual weakness and strength can be demonstrated in certain areas and at certain times or seasons of our lives. For this reason Christians, whether weak or strong in terms of their doctrinal understanding, are to "welcome one another," "encourage one another," and "build up one another" to the glory of God. 

Certainly there is no room for pride on anyone's part. "For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God as dealt to each one a measure of faith" (Romans 12:3). "Therefore encourage one another and build up one another, just as you are doing" (1 Thess. 5:11).