Sermon - Crushing Your Fears - Pastor Ryan Rose
Sermon - Crushing Your Fears
Sermon - Crushing Your Fears - Pastor Ryan Rose
Showing posts with label Church Life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Church Life. Show all posts
Friday, November 1, 2019
Sermon - Crushing Your Fears - Pastor Ryan Rose
Monday, October 28, 2019
Water Baptism Service at Evangel Temple
Saturday, August 24, 2019
Wisdom is a Process
We need to pursue God when seeking wisdom, James 1:5 tells us that if you ask for wisdom, God will give it generously without finding fault:
“If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.”
God may drop wisdom right inside of you, or allow you to gain it through experiences and still yet, he may surround you with wise counselors to encourage you and advise you from their experiences. When you need wisdom, chase after God and he will bring it to you.
Friday, September 14, 2018
Evangel Temple Hires as Associate Pastor
Evangel Temple welcomes new associate pastor, children’s center
Evangel Temple Assembly of God, 1201 Towson Ave. in Fort Smith, welcomes its new associate pastor, the Rev. Ryan Rose. Rose and his wife, Tiffany, have previously served on staff at Butterfield Assembly of God and at Calvary Assembly of God.
Children’s Center dedication will be 10:30 a.m. Sunday at Evangel Temple.
Visit ExcitingET.com, call (479) 782-9121 for find Evangel Temple on Facebook for information.
Thursday, February 12, 2015
Suicide - Guest Blog - Dan Williams
Read the words below and apply them to your life like someone else's life depends on it, because it just might...
Suicide: So tonight I rolled through the ridiculously slow McDonald's drive-through and ordered a meal. When I say slow I don't mean that they were taking their time; I mean that I was pretty much the only customer at that time. Anyways, I've visited with the cashier at the first window for a few minutes about what he likes most and what he dislikes most about working for McDonald's.
He said that he enjoys serving people. That it may not be some job that required a fancy degree, but he gets to help people enjoy one of the most pleasurable things in life; which is eating a meal with your friends and family.
He said that the hardest part of the job is not the busy hours, nor the pressure inside the room with coworkers and bosses; but it's actually the customers.
Not the ones that are unhappy with their meal, or the ones that had a bad McDonald's experience; but the ones that are just simply hateful to you when nothing is wrong.
He gave me one example where a mother came through the drive-through and was screaming at her kid and then used him and his job as an example of where they are going to end up in life if they make poor decisions and don't get their life together by making good grades in school and such.
And he said comments like that are painful coming from people he doesn't even know...because he's not working at McDonald's because he made poor decisions or bad grades. He's working at McDonald's because it takes three lower-paying jobs to support his family because of unfortunate events in his original career path.
Tomorrow, we should evaluate the words we say to people before we say them. Because you don't know them and what their going through.
This past weekend, a guy that I went to school with committed suicide for reasons I don't know. It was unexpected. It was obviously a permanent solution to a temporary problem that I feel he could have overcome had someone, somewhere said or done things differently. Perhaps from a stranger.
The words you speak to someone could only contribute to another person taking their own life... And you may not even realize it.
The words you say to someone could also save them.
Think about it.
-Dan.
To learn more about Dan click HERE
Monday, February 2, 2015
2 Practical Budgeting Tips To Manage Your Money Better
This is a really good blog post from the folks over at Christian Personal Finance, please take a read and see what you can take away from it. I think there is some very valuable information for those striving to more conscientious of their spending/budgeting!
No matter which one you choose, you’ll find they both are solid tools in helping you consider all the monthly expenses you might encounter.
Organizing a budget using these forms also helps you budget every dollar and ensures your budget is in balance (income equaling expenses).
Budgeting by category is a proven method that works well. You can also layer envelope budgeting on top of it which turns each category into an envelope funded each month with your planned amount. You know the envelope budgeting process, so I won’t bore you with further details.
All this being said, do you think planning by category and envelope budgeting techniques are sufficient to proactively managing your money each month? Are you better off if you can layer on yet another technique or two to help you manage your money, as long as you don’t over complicate matters? Let me offer you a couple of other practical tips.
1Budget With Three Main Budget Categories
I’ve recently reviewed our budget and reorganized it. The traditional categories have helped us stay on track with our spending plan each month because we’ve captured all of our expenses and use envelope budgeting. However, we now group all expenses into three main categories.
Here are the categories:
- Giving and Saving
- Bills
- Other Expenses
For example, there is no longer a housing category that contains the following: yard maintenance (fertilizer, etc.), electric, water, mortgage, etc. The bills such as mortgage, electric and water are grouped under Bills. Yard maintenance is in the other expenses spending group.
Why does this work? Each month we budget Giving and Saving andBills per paycheck. This is the easy part of budgeting. These are set amounts we know we can’t deviate from or we’re going to be in trouble.
The hard part is figuring out how we’re going to budget the remaining Other Expenses. These are all the expenses that we know we could encounter during the month and we have a long list of them based on past experience. We review the list and decide how we’re going to use our remaining money after we’ve given, saved, and paid the bills. Sometimes those are tough decisions as what we once felt were important expenses are sacrificed so that we only spend the money we have available to us and remaining in our budget.
2Budget By Time
There is yet another way you can organize your budget that is helpful. When you create a monthly budget you’re budgeting by time. You decide how much money you can spend for the given month.
But you can take this one step further.
You can do as I described above with the three categories, grouping your budgeting by Giving and Saving, Bills, and Other Expenses. Of the remaining Other Expenses you then decide how much you’re going to spend each week.
For example, you might decide you have $500 available for the family food budget. You can then divide this $500 by week so you manage approximately $125 per week. Overall, you should have a weekly budget which you may find to not be as overwhelming as a monthly budget with a larger balance which can be more tempting to spend. If you’re married, you may also find it stimulates more conversation between you and your spouse because you’re both working to stay on track of the weekly goal. After the week is over you can take a few minutes to review your plan for the next week.
Hopefully, these budgeting techniques will help you manage your money better each month and ensure you don’t overspend. I’ve used a couple of good money management software programs that help make this job easier. Both Mvelopes and YNAB (You Need a Budget) are great products to use. My wife and I currently use YNAB which makes it easy for us to decide how we’re going to spend money after Giving and Saving and Bills each paycheck. We can then hold each other accountable to our spending goals.
What do you think about these budgeting techniques? Leave a comment!
Blog originally found at ChristianPF.com
Blog originally found at ChristianPF.com
Monday, January 26, 2015
8 Things Jesus Never Said
Jesus said a lot of things throughout the Bible, but there are also a lot of things he didn’t. Here are eight things Jesus never said. January's first blog post is a Guest post from Jarrid Wilson from over at ChurchLeaders.com, he is a husband, pastor and author relentlessly sharing the love of Jesus. Read more from him at JarridWilson.com
1. “No shirt, no shoes, no service.”
Jesus never gave prerequisites for encountering his love. Regardless of your past, the love of Christ is available for anyone who is willing to accept it. Nobody is too flawed for forgiveness and eternal salvation.
2. “Follow me, and I will bring you fame and fortune.”
Jesus never promises fame or fortune, yet these are also not things he opposes if used for his glory. If your reasoning for seeking a relationship with God is materially focused, you may want to evaluate what god you’re really yearning for.
3. “Everything will go according to your plans.”
Many of us pray to Jesus thinking that everything we ask of Him is going to be answered in our timing. The reality is that not all prayers will be answered, but that Jesus does have the power to fulfill any prayer that is asked of him. He’s that BIG! Just because a prayer isn’t answered in your timing does not mean your prayer has been ignored. God hears all, knows all and knows what’s best for each of us as individuals. Take a step back and trust in God, his timing and his will.
4. “I will bless you if you pray hard enough.”
The blessing of prayer is in prayer itself. Communication and dialogue between our heavenly father and us is more fulfilling than anything else we can ask for. Jesus isn’t a magic genie, and if your prayers seem more like wishes than heart-felt conversations, you may want to re-think how your foundation of faith is being built.
5. “Life is going to be without rough patches.”
So many people think that just because they believe in Jesus means everything is going to be flawless and perfect. This really isn’t the case at all. You may have a relationship with Jesus, but this doesn’t mean life is going to stop moving forward, tough circumstances are going to cease to exist, and rough times will never be a possibility. Even though Jesus never said life would be easy, he did say he would be there for you in your times of need. The message of The Gospel isn’t that life will be perfect, but that in its imperfection we have a perfect and flawless Savior.
6. “I will answer prayers on your time.”
Although God is faithful in his answering of prayer, we cannot expect him to answer every prayer to our exact measurements. Faith is trusting God even when things don’t make sense, and that includes a prayer that we feel may be unanswered or at the wrong time. Faith is trusting in God’s timing, not ours.
7. “You’re too far gone to be saved.”
Nobody is too far traveled from having a relationship with God. No matter where life has brought you, you always have the opportunity to look next to you and see the open arms of Jesus. The forgiveness and love that He offers is not something we can run from, nor become too dirty to accept.
8. “You deserve to have nice things.”
Jesus never said you deserve a huge house, nice car, big paycheck and a sweet job. In fact, everything in the Gospel points to simplicity rather than luxury. This isn’t to say that you’re not allowed to have nice things but that Jesus didn’t promise you are going to be given them. God’s plan for each of our lives is different, and we need to understand that not everyone is going to make the same amount of money, drive the same types of cars or even live in the same type of housing.
What we need to understand is that Jesus did say we need to love our neighbors, help those who are in need, and that the widow and homeless deserve to be loved as Christ loved the church.You don’t deserve to have nice things, but you do get to experience the love of Christ, and that is worth more than anything this world can offer.
Blog Originally Found Here
Jesus never gave prerequisites for encountering his love. Regardless of your past, the love of Christ is available for anyone who is willing to accept it. Nobody is too flawed for forgiveness and eternal salvation.
2. “Follow me, and I will bring you fame and fortune.”
Jesus never promises fame or fortune, yet these are also not things he opposes if used for his glory. If your reasoning for seeking a relationship with God is materially focused, you may want to evaluate what god you’re really yearning for.
3. “Everything will go according to your plans.”
Many of us pray to Jesus thinking that everything we ask of Him is going to be answered in our timing. The reality is that not all prayers will be answered, but that Jesus does have the power to fulfill any prayer that is asked of him. He’s that BIG! Just because a prayer isn’t answered in your timing does not mean your prayer has been ignored. God hears all, knows all and knows what’s best for each of us as individuals. Take a step back and trust in God, his timing and his will.
4. “I will bless you if you pray hard enough.”
The blessing of prayer is in prayer itself. Communication and dialogue between our heavenly father and us is more fulfilling than anything else we can ask for. Jesus isn’t a magic genie, and if your prayers seem more like wishes than heart-felt conversations, you may want to re-think how your foundation of faith is being built.
5. “Life is going to be without rough patches.”
So many people think that just because they believe in Jesus means everything is going to be flawless and perfect. This really isn’t the case at all. You may have a relationship with Jesus, but this doesn’t mean life is going to stop moving forward, tough circumstances are going to cease to exist, and rough times will never be a possibility. Even though Jesus never said life would be easy, he did say he would be there for you in your times of need. The message of The Gospel isn’t that life will be perfect, but that in its imperfection we have a perfect and flawless Savior.
6. “I will answer prayers on your time.”
Although God is faithful in his answering of prayer, we cannot expect him to answer every prayer to our exact measurements. Faith is trusting God even when things don’t make sense, and that includes a prayer that we feel may be unanswered or at the wrong time. Faith is trusting in God’s timing, not ours.
7. “You’re too far gone to be saved.”
Nobody is too far traveled from having a relationship with God. No matter where life has brought you, you always have the opportunity to look next to you and see the open arms of Jesus. The forgiveness and love that He offers is not something we can run from, nor become too dirty to accept.
8. “You deserve to have nice things.”
Jesus never said you deserve a huge house, nice car, big paycheck and a sweet job. In fact, everything in the Gospel points to simplicity rather than luxury. This isn’t to say that you’re not allowed to have nice things but that Jesus didn’t promise you are going to be given them. God’s plan for each of our lives is different, and we need to understand that not everyone is going to make the same amount of money, drive the same types of cars or even live in the same type of housing.
What we need to understand is that Jesus did say we need to love our neighbors, help those who are in need, and that the widow and homeless deserve to be loved as Christ loved the church.You don’t deserve to have nice things, but you do get to experience the love of Christ, and that is worth more than anything this world can offer.
Blog Originally Found Here
Monday, December 8, 2014
Things Bigger Than Us...
Children have been on my mind heavily the last week or so, children being mistreated, and I don't mean not getting enough attention or a parent missing a birthday party, but I'm talking about horrible and unforgivable atrocities against children. Stories I've read lately include one child who was tied up to a stake in the ground with a collar around his neck outside in the cold and watching his parents beat his pet dog to death and another story coming out of Scotland, where a 5 year old child from Botswana literally had his heart ripped out of his chest while was still alive for some sort of a "ritual sacrifice."
I'll post links to the stories below if you don't believe me. It is absolute horror. I can't begin to fathom what goes through the minds of people, to hurt and even kill a child. These stories make me think of my own 4 year old son, it brings me to tears to think of something like this happening to him. For those of you who are parents you'll know what I mean when I say I would do anything I possibly could to keep my children from having to experience pain. There is no part of me that ever would want my children to suffer. What in the world is wrong with people that would do these kinds of things to children?
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
—John 3:16, KJV
Agape received a broader usage under later Christian writers as the word that specifically denoted "Christian" love or "charity" (1 Corinthians 13:1–8), or even God himself (1 John 4:8, ὁ θεὸς ἀγάπη ἐστίν, "God is Love").
The term agape was used by the early Christians to refer to the self-sacrificing love of God for humanity, which they were committed to reciprocating and practicing towards God and among one another. When 1 John 4:8 says "God is love," the Greek New Testament uses the word agape to describe God's love.
A self sacrificing love, a love that knows that there are thing more important than our selves, things bigger than "us." Children are to be loved, my son's memory verse for this month is, "Jesus said, 'let the little children come to me' - Matthew 19:14 (in his voice he says Maffew, but I know what he means). The stories mentioned above just ripped my heart out at the cruelty these two children had been shown vs. what they really deserved.
Now, this all came at a bad time for me in my day, I was on an important phone call when he came in to the church and I had an appointment I was trying to make at 12:30, so I was rushing a bit with this guy. I told him, ok let's go and I'll take you to get some food (in my mind, I'd decided that I 'd take him to get lunch at a buffet somewhere, drop him off, pay for it and still have time to make it to my appointment). So we go outside and load is bike, bag of clothes, backpack, tent, and machete (yes a machete) into my Tahoe and I take him to Western Sizzlin, as I'm going through the line with him (ready to hurry up and pay so I can go), I had a real check in my spirit, "Are you too good to sit down and have lunch with this man? My child?" Yeah, at that moment I felt like a dirt bag, nobody in his situation should have to eat alone, I was about to miss an opportunity to do something bigger than myself, I could encourage this guy, pray with him, maybe make a difference. At least show him that someone, somewhere cared.
Turns out he's trying to get enough money to be able to take care of his wife who is in a nursing home, the right half of her body is paralyzed and they don't really have any other family to help them out. We had a good lunch, he said that his steak was a little too pink, but the fried chicken was good, he was extremely grateful, said that he never gets to eat in nice places like Western Sizzlin. He "snuck" a few cookies into his jacket to take to his wife, and I dropped him, his bike and all his gear (yes the machete too) off at the nursing home so he could spend some time with his wife before going into work, to try and do his best to take care of his family.
"Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me."
- Matthew 25:40
Thursday, November 6, 2014
#TBT: Should You Volunteer In Your Church?
Faith without works is dead...the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few...go into all the world...what you've done to the least of these...
These are just a few phrases from some powerful Bible verses concerning service. I ask the question,
"Should You Volunteer in Your Church?"
Please Read the Rest of this blog HERE
Thursday, September 18, 2014
5 Questions to Ask When Reading the Bible
I'm re-posting this blog post I read today, it was totally on
point. Let's read God's Word intentionally and be aware of what it's
communicating!
How exactly does the Bible—an ancient book written thousands of
years ago—reveal God’s way to people today? There are several key questions we
must ask, the answers to which reveal to us the way. Here they are:
1. Is there a command to obey?
The Bible is filled with divine commands for you and me to obey.
There is no question what God’s will is in these areas. Our obedience to His
commandments leads us precisely into the center of His will.
Click HERE to read more
Thursday, September 4, 2014
Are You A Christian? Are You?
"And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch."
- Acts 11:26
The word "Christian" shows up only 3 times in the entire New Testament. It was originally a term used to describe a servant and follower of Christ. Today it has become a general term devoid of the original meaning.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE
Tuesday, August 5, 2014
Awesome Time so far at the camp!
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| The lovely view I have at my desk this week |
I intended to write this post earlier in the day while you were all sleeping, but I didn't end up having time, so you are going to get like a 36-48 hour micro synopsis instead of a 24 hour wrap up.
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| One of our 4 English Classes at work today |
Yesterday at camp was phenomenal, we hit the ground running with staff meeting at 7:30, had breakfast, and went straight to work in the English Classes - Josh R., Kayla, and Sarah are all class leaders and a 4th class is led by one of the missionaries, Tiffany, Tim, Becca, Talitha, Israel,and Josh W. are all assisting in the English classes. Day 1 was more challenging than today was, the language barrier obviously presents certain challenges, the classes are ranked in the ability the students already have with the English language.
Click HERE to read the rest of this post!
Monday, August 4, 2014
We made it to CAMP!!!
After roughly 32 hours of consecutive travel around 8:30 p.m. CEST (Central European Summer Time) we arrived at the English Camp in Pockau, German, the name of the camp is Strobel-Mühle.
So much I'd like to say in this first post...
Let's talk about what's happened so far. We seemed to be plagued with small issues to start off, the door of the bus wouldn't stay closed on the way to the airport and once we got there we found out that our flight was being delayed... and then delayed... and then delayed... we started with about a 90 minute layover in Atlanta which shrank drastically by the time we landed. There was major concern about missing our connection, to the point they were working with other airlines to get 5 of us out that night on a flight through Paris and then the other 5 would stay behind and go out to Amsterdam the next day... eeek!
Fortunately we set a Guiness Book World Record...landed at Terminal B and had to get to F-18 I think it was...from the time we got off our airplane took the train got out at Terminal F and hoofed it to our gate and got on the plan only 15 minutes elapsed, we got on the plan and they closed the door, if you've ever been to Atlanta, you know how big that airport is!
Click HERE to read the rest of the post!
Click HERE to read the rest of the post!
Thursday, May 8, 2014
#TBT Why Young Adults are Leaving Church...
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| Ryan and Tiffany #TBT (Graduation from Ozarks) |
In honor of #TBT or for those who don't know #ThrowBackThursday, here is a post from last year, one of my most popular posts actually, its slightly modified, but pretty much the same, and the message is still true today!
Our message, is that there is a void in church around the country. When young adults, late teens and early 20's get out of high school and into college, move out from under mom and dad's roof, their are things they just aren't ready for yet. This is where I hope our ministry can come in and lift them up, encourage them, share wisdom, knowledge, and past mistakes to help them in the journey of life!
Click HERE to read more!
Tuesday, May 6, 2014
Should You Volunteer In Your Church?
Faith without works is dead...the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few...go into all the world...what you've done to the least of these...
These are just a few phrases from some powerful Bible verses concerning service. I ask the question,
"Should You Volunteer in Your Church?"
1. There are enough volunteers already, they don't need my help
2. They probably wouldn't want my help, I've never done this sort of stuff before
3. I haven't been going to church long enough to volunteer
4. I come to church, believe in God and pay my tithes, I don't "need" to do anything else
5. If God wanted me to help with that stuff He would send someone to ask me to help
1. There are never enough volunteers (PERIOD) They do need your help, sometimes things look like smooth sailing and a well oiled machine, but I can authoritatively promise you, there is always room for more help. New volunteers give relief to current volunteers and leadership, and hey, guess what, you might be the best volunteer ever, which is a HUGE blessing to your church and to God.
2. As mentioned in #1, they do want your help, and it doesn't matter if you've never done this kind of work before. A lot of ministries and volunteer opportunities in churches come with training or give you time to learn from someone already doing what you will be doing. For example, my wife and I oversee the Multi-Media Ministry at our church, we require 10-12 volunteers to fulfill all the duties needed for a service (running cameras, computer/presentation, lighting technician, video switching, recording, live sound mixing, and much more)
4. All those things, coming to church, believing in God and tithing are great! However, we are called to service by God, so yes you "need" to help if you are able because the Body of Christ needs you!
Mark 10:44-45
"...and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all. 'For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.'" -
yeah I went there, I pulled out the Bible to prove my point, if service was required of our savior, and we as Christians are to be Christ-Like, we too should be active in our service to Him.
5. Yup, God has sent a number of people to tell you that your help is needed, dozens of authors in the Old and New Testaments, most likely your pastor at sometime or another has asked for assistance from the pulpit, and if you are reading this now, God sent me to you...and I'm telling you, Your Church Needs Your Help.
Here are a few more verses to help inspire you to lend a helping hand in your church:
Do it to Glorify God
Matthew 5:14-16
"You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. "Nor do men light a lamp, and put it under the peck-measure, but on the lampstand; and it gives light to all who are in the house. "Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.
Jesus as an Example
Matthew 23:11
"But the greatest among you shall be your servant.
Serving One Another
Ephesians 6:5-7
Slaves, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in the sincerity of your heart, as to Christ; not by way of eye service, as men-pleasers, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart. With good will render service, as to the Lord, and not to men,
Showing Love to one Another
Philippians 2:1-4
If therefore there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind let each of you regard one another as more important than himself; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.
Blessed are the Givers
Acts 20:35
"In everything I showed you that by working hard in this manner you must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He Himself said, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'"
Love Your Neighbor
Galatians 5:13-14
For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
Jesus came to Serve
Mark 10:44-45
and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all. "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many."
To the Least of Them
Matthew 25:40
"And the King will answer and say to them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.'
Mark 9:35
And sitting down, He called the twelve and said to them, "If anyone wants to be first, he shall be last of all, and servant of all."
By the Strength of God
1 Peter 4:10-11
As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Whoever speaks, let him speak, as it were, the utterances of God; whoever serves, let him do so as by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
I pray that this post and these scriptures not only lift you up but help you realize the call God has placed on you to serve Him and the local church you attend. Volunteers are crucial to the mission of the local church, and without you, we can't do what we do.
-Ryan
Saturday, April 19, 2014
Follow Jesus' Example of Masculinity
I had the opportunity to do a couple of devotional segments for our District Men's Ministries, here is the second one:
Thursday, April 10, 2014
Unshakable Foundation
I had the opportunity to do a couple of devotional segments for our District Men's Ministries, here is the first one:
Monday, March 17, 2014
Gone?
What if you woke up tomorrow and your family was gone? "Gone?" you say, "what do you mean, gone?"
I mean gone, never to be seen again, dead, kidnapped, abandoned you...
If you knew that was going to happen tomorrow, what would you do, could you prevent it, could you apologize and set things right, what would you do?
Apply this thought process to your family going forward, you aren't promised another day with them, make the most of the time you have with them, and honor them, be the person God has called you to be. Have no regrets about where your relationships stand.
Sunday, February 23, 2014
How We Got the Scriptures...
Let me preface this post by stating that a lot of the content you will read in this post will be from a lesson in a course I took from Global University, some of this will be verbatim from my book, some from my notes, and some will be my comments. I'm terrible at citing and other such APA MLA BLAH BLAH BLAH rules, so consider this my blanket, I'm not plagiarizing statement, I learned this in my Intro to Theology course and am now sharing.
Now with that out of the way, let me say this, we had a discussion in my Young Adults Connect Group this morning about "where did we get the Bible from?" Very good question, I'll do my best to answer that here.
The word Scripture means "holy writings." The Scriptures are holy because God gave them. The term canon means "a rule, a standard, a measuring rod." The canon of scripture refers to books that have met a standard and that the church has accepted as the inspired Word of God. At the time of Jesus, the Jews used the Scripture about a fixed, well-known group of books - the 39 books of the Old Testament. The 27 books in the New Testament formed over a period of three centuries. During those years, church leaders discussed the list often, and the majority of the church agreed on God's inspiration of certain books. Ultimately, the books that were truly from God testified for themselves. Their placement in the canon was not just the decision of the authors or the church council. Although church councils did meet and discuss the different books, their main purpose was to confirm which books the church agreed on. I believe that the Holy Spirit led the people of God in this process.
In AD 367, the theologian Athanasius considered all the books that were being passed around the church as apostolic writings (writings by apostles). His examination reveled twenty seven books, the same ones in our New Testament today, although he placed them in a different order. Thirty years later, in AD 397, a church council met in Carthage to discuss which books were truly Scripture. Before deciding to include a book in the New Testament canon, the Council measured it by four tests-
The 4-Way Scripture Test in the New Testament
The 4-Way Scripture Test in the New Testament
1. An Apostle or someone close to an apostle had to be the author. For example, the Gospel of John was accepted because the apostle John wrote it. However, although apostles did not write them, the gospels of Luke and Mark were accepted because Luke had traveled with Paul and Mark was a friend of Peter.
2. The book had to match what the church already knew to be Scripture. If there was any conflict, the book was not accepted.
3. The book had to be widely accepted by the church. The church as a whole had to recognize that God had inspired the book. If only a small portion of the church believed that a book was inspired, it was not placed in the canon.
4. The book had to have a quality that revealed divine inspiration. In other words, it needed to change people's lives.
After considering all the books, the Council of Carthage confirmed that the only books that measured up to the standard were the 27 books we call the New Testament.
The topic of the Apocryphal books was brought today as well, "why don't we use them and the Catholics do?" Also another very good question, so here is what I can share to shed some light on that. Over the years some have claimed that other books should be placed in the canon. The Catholic Bible and some Eastern Orthodox Bibles contain additional books referred to as the Apocrypha. However the early church did not consider these books to be inspired by God, the books were not included in the Hebrew Scriptures. Some of these books, such as First Maccabees, contain history, but are not clearly inspired by God, while others clearly contain errors and doctrines which are contrary to the rest of the Bible. Other people, like Joseph Smith who wrote the Book of Mormon, have claimed to write for God. Yet their books contain obvious conflicts with Scripture, and they were not written by either an apostle or someone close to an apostle. All of these books, along with the Apocrypha, are not in the canon because they did not pass the necessary tests.
Old Testament -
Let's talk about the Old Testament for a little bit.
What is the Old Testament?
Let's talk about the Old Testament for a little bit.
What is the Old Testament?
As said previously, the Old Testament contains the first 39 books of the Bible. The Old Testament was a covenant/agreement between God and Israel, the children of Abraham. God promised to keep His part of the covenant if the Israelites kept their part.
Who wrote the Old Testament and when?
Who wrote the Old Testament and when?
The OT is a part of the Bible, a term derived from Greek and Latin words for "book." the bible is the book above all other books in that it contains 66 books written by about 40 authors over a period of roughly 1600 years and inspired by the same spirit. God guided the writers to write what he wanted them to write. He carried them along by His Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:21).
How did the books of the OT get into our bible?
How did the books of the OT get into our bible?
We refer to the books from Genesis to Malachi as the canon of the old Testament. The OT canon is the list of books that meet the standards for being in God's Word. the 39 books in our OT are the same books that Jesus and the Jews of His day accepted as God's Word. As I said before The Catholic Bible and some Eastern Orthodox Bibles also contain books that are grouped in a class called the Apocrypha. The word Apocrypha means "hidden books" but later came to mean "not in the canon or list." During the time of Martin Luther, the Catholics accepted 7 apocryphal books as well as minor additions to the books of Esther and Daniel. the Catholics did not officially accept the books of the Apocrypha until 1546 at the Council of Trent. Although some of these books were included in the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures), they were not part of the Hebrew Scriptures during Christ's time. Neither Jesus nor the apostles quoted any of the apocryphal books as Scripture. While the books in the Apocrypha contain some truth, they also contain error. therefore, they do not meet the standards set for recognizing Scripture.
Some other time I'll do a post about authority and inspiration of Scripture, which is a GREAT topic. Although this is not the most thorough and exhaustive explanation of where the Scriptures came from and why we accept them as they are, I hope it does help to shed some light and understanding on the subject. Again the majority of this content came from my Intro to Theology course and a tidbit from my OT Survey course. I'm not nearly as smart as the blog sounds, I promise.
Be Blessed,
Ryan
Be Blessed,
Ryan
