My sermon this Sunday was about reading the Bible in 2012 and suggested seven ways to read the Bible this year. It will change your life as Hebrews 4:12 suggests. Here are those six ways:

1. Listen to the Bible – I recommend Max McLean’s great Audio Bible
2. Follow a systematic Bible reading plan using the links to the rich on our web site or a Bible app on your smartphone
3. Devotional books
4. The One Year Bible arranges the Bible into 365 readings with OT, NT, Psalms and Proverbs in each day’s reading
5. Pick a book of the Bible and read it till finished then pick another book
6. Follow the readings in your Sunday School lesson book
7. Receive a daily verse via Test Message – you only get a verse a day, but its better than never reading anything

However, you choose to do so, read the Bible. It will change your life!

Will you be reading your Bible in 2012?

The Manhattan Declaration is a document created by three Christian leaders to address the cultural issues of marriage, sanctity of life, and the rights of conscience and religious liberty. You can read it at the declaration’s web site (see link above). It also has a place where you can sign it yourself. One of our church members has signed it and requested that a link to it be placed here.

I am agreeing to do so, but I have not yet signed it myself [See update below] because of the reasons stated by John MacArthur in his post about it. That is not to say that I will not, nor am I recommending that others NOT sign it. I just have not made up my mind and will prayerfully consider it.

Of course I agree with the basic ideas involved.

1. I support the sanctity of life and oppose abortion in cases except when a mother would without a doubt lose her life unless she aborted her child. I also vehemently oppose “euthanasia” one of the most contradictory names one could find for the ghoulish choice to commit suicide of murder as a “act of mercy”
2. I believe marriage is only biblical if it is between two adults who are of the opposite gender. I go further and say that only a believer in Jesus Christ can have a truly Biblical marriage.
3. I am also opposed to the attempts by our governments, both local, state and federal, in limiting our free exercise of religion and forcing us to fund activities that we find to be repugnant such as abortion, euthanasia and same sex marriage

Since those are the three basic ideas behind the Manhattan Declaration, why not jump on board and sign.

My concerns are with two things. As John MacArthur says, the declaration makes the differences between evangelical Christians and other Christian groups seem insignificant. He also has a concern that it does not define the primary tool for combating the problems addressed as the Gospel. And finally, my concern is that implies civil disobedience as a reasonable tool to combat these problems. This might be a violation of the very things I have been teaching in 1 Peter on Sunday nights which say we are to be a witness by submitting to government authority even when it is oppressive.

Again, I am not saying that John MacArthur is right or that the Manhattan Declaration does in fact violate 1 Peter 2, but I am prayerfully considering it. Until I have clear conscience from God about this matter I am going to wait.

You may want to follow the example of some respected church leaders like Danny Akin, Randy Alcorn, Chuck Colson, James Dobson, just to name a few. To be in a group in disagreement with these fine men makes me uncomfortable. Just as it makes me uncomfortable to disagree with another man I fully respect – John MacArthur.

Read it and sign it if you will. If you disagree with anything I’ve written here, let me know.

UPDATE: I have chosen to sign the declaration for the reasons below…

1. My greatest concern was that saying that I will not submit to government authority on the three issues outlined would be a violation of the biblical mandates in places like 1 Peter 2 (see link above).  However, one can still submit to government authority by peacefully going to jail if you are arrested for violating a law of conscience. If the government passed a law saying I could not teach that marriage was between one man and one woman, then I would have to teach that. I have to teach the truths of scripture. And when the local authorities come to arrest me I would put my hands out and peacefully go. In so doing I would submit.

2. The concern that John MacArthur has is a real one. But I think it is time for all people who agree on these issues to stand up and be counted even if we disagree on our soteriology.  So I will stand with my friends and fellow citizens who oppose abortion regardless of whether I believe the understand the correct teachings on how to go to heaven. Maybe it would give us a chance to discuss those views and I could win some for grace and it’s author Christ.

I still think more focus should be on the power of the Gospel and more effort placed on a call to getting our fellow believers out of the pews and into the streets to change the world the way Christ intended and his disciples did in their generation.  We need a Great Commission Resurgence. And I went to the web site (click the previous link) and signed that commitment to pray without hesitation. And I have personally been praying for the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into the fields every night at 10:02 pm for Luke 10:2. I appeal to you to do the same. I have also renewed my commitment to be a witness and have done so with great personal renewal and revival.

Here is a place you can go to discover your spiritual gifts.  If you were at our Wednesday Night study on May 27, this is the test mentioned.  The link to the test is at the bottom of the page.  Take the test and it will compute your gifts for you.  I was a little surprised at what it found for me.  How about yours?  Send me an email when you try it.

Happy New Year to the members and friends of High Peak Baptist Church.

What are your New Year’s resolutions?  Lose some weight or spend more time with the kids.  Maybe you’d like to read some great works of fiction or learn a new skill like how to play the mandolin?  But I hope you will include your relationship with God in that list in some way.

Sometimes church members ask me what is the best translation to use.  For a short answer I like the Holman Christian Standard Bible for readability and understanding and the English Standard Version for study and accuracy.  The King James is good if you like to read your favorite passages in the version you most often hear them.  John 3:16 just doesn’t sound right unless it is KJV.

However, it helps to know more about them.  So go and read this to learn more about which translations are best and how you can choose your own based on the basics listed in the article.

Finally, the best translation is the one you will read and understand.  So go to a Christian book store and read through a few of your favorite passages and see which one you like.  Read John 3, Psalm 23, and Matthew 27-28.

One of our members sent an email to me that touched me.  I thought I’d share it here.

I dreamt that I went to Heaven and an angel was showing me around.  We walked side-by-side inside a large workroom filled with angels. My angel guide stopped in front of the first section and said, “This is the Receiving Section. Here, all petitions to God said in prayer are received.”

I looked around in this area, and it was terribly busy with so many angels sorting out petitions written on voluminous paper sheets and scraps from people all over the world.  Then we moved on down a long corridor until we reached the second section.  The angel then said to me, “This is the Packaging and Delivery Section. Here, the graces and blessings the people asked for are processed and delivered to the living persons who asked for them.”

I noticed again how busy it was there. There were many angels working hard at that station, since so many blessings had been requested and were being packaged for delivery to Earth.

Finally at the farthest end of the long corridor we stopped at the door of a very small station. To my great surprise, only one angel was seated there, idly doing nothing.  “This is the Acknowledgment Section,” my angel friend quietly admitted to me. He seemed embarrassed.

“How is it that there is no work going on here?” I asked.

“So sad,” the angel sighed. “After people receive the blessings that they asked for, very few send back acknowledgments …”

“How does one acknowledge God’s blessings?” I asked.

“Simple,” the angel answered. Just say, ‘Thank you, Lord.’”

“What blessings should they acknowledge?” I asked.

“If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep you are richer than 75% of this world. If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish, you are among the top 8% of the world’s wealthy.  And if you get this on your own computer, you are part of the 1% in the world who has that opportunity. If you woke up this morning with more health than illness … You are more blessed than the many who will not even survive this day . If you have never experienced the fear in battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the  agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation … You are ahead of 700 million people in the world. If you can attend a church without the fear of harassment, arrest, torture or death you are envied by, and more blessed than, three billion people in the world . If your parents are still alive and still married …you are very rare . If you can hold your head up and smile, you are not the norm, you’re unique to all those in doubt and despair.”

“Ok, what now? How can I start?”

“ATTN: Acknowledge Dept.: ‘Thank you Lord, for giving me the ability to share this message and for giving me so many wonderful people to share it with.”

Now, I know this may not be a theological masterpiece, but it does prove a wonderful theological point.  If we offered as much thanksgiving as we do requests, we would all be much happier.  And if we offered as much thanks as God deserves, then both God and we would be a lot happier.

Thanks for the reminder Mandy!