Telescope or Microscope?

Here's a question for you to think about tonight:  Are you are a microscope or a telescope?

A microscope makes “small things look bigger than they really are. 

A telescope makes a big thing BEGIN to look as big as it really is.”

With a microscope, tiny bugs look BIG!!

With a telescope, a huge moon or planet that looks so small because it is far away looks a little bigger.

Tonight at our AWANA awards night we are going to give out awards for scripture memory and service BUT I want you to remember something

First Corinthians 10:31 tells us why we should do AWANA awards nights and why we should do anything we do.

So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

KIDS, I am so very thankful that you learned God’s Word and cared for others this year.

Tonight, though, our focus should not only be on you and what you have done. 

Tonight we want to remember and honor God.

We want to continue making God look as great as he really is.

Remember this night is really about God.

Now how do we do this?

• Thank God that he gave you the ability to memorize Bible Verses.
• Thank God that he gave you the taste buds to enjoy the snacks we had this year.
• Thank God for the leaders we have had this year.
• Thank God for the truth of God’s Word.
• We especially want to thank God that even though we were God’s enemies, sinners, He sent His Son to die for those who trust in Him.

Making God great means that we need to humble ourselves.

Here is a definition of humility we try to review with our kids:

To pursue humility means choosing to accept the fact that your knowledge and abilities are limited and in light of that, you are regularly seeking help and graciously receiving advice and correction.

KIDS, you don’t know everything and you need help.

PARENTS, you don’t know everything and you need help.

Remember, KIDS no matter how many verses you have memorized, awards you have received, or good things you have done, you are in desperate need of God’s gifts.

First, the gift of salvation which comes through Jesus Christ who came to earth, died on the cross, rose from the dead, ascended into heaven and is coming again.

Second, the gift of the power to live the life God wants you to live which comes from the Holy Spirit, the one whom Jesus promised and God sent. 

You cannot save yourself or live the life God wants you to live on your own.

Remember, PARENTS no matter how many people you have helped, how many sinful things you didn’t do, how many times you go to church, or how much money you donate to good causes, you are in desperate need of God’s gifts.

First, the gift of salvation which comes through Jesus Christ who came to earth, died on the cross, rose from the dead, ascended into heaven and is coming again.

Second, the gift of the power to live the life God wants you to live which comes from the Holy Spirit, the one whom Jesus promised and God sent.
You cannot save yourself or live the life God wants you to live on your own.

I want you to remember these two truths from God’s Word:

1. Romans 5:8.  "but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

1st Peter 5:5-6.  “’ God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’  Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." 

There are really are only two ways to live.

The first way is to keep saying 'No' to God and pretending to be your own king. But if you do that, you won't win, because God is God. God will shut you out of his kingdom forever. 

Do not think you bigger than you really are. 

The second way is to stop saying 'No' to God and to ask God to forgive you. God will forgive you and welcome you as his friend. Because Jesus died to take your punishment, God promises that he won't be angry with you anymore.   

In your life, make God as big as He really is.  He is the one who created you.  He is the one who rules over all creation.  He is the only one who can save.

John 3:36 says

Everyone who trusts in the Son has eternal life.  But everyone who rejects him will never share in that life.

At the beginning of this time I asked you a question:

Are you are a microscope or a telescope?

Be a telescope.  Feel, think, and act in a way that will make God look as great as he really is. 

Feel the weight of your sin.

Know that your sin has broken your relationship with God.

Act.  Recognize the fact that Jesus Christ is the one and only solution to your sin problem. 

CALL OUT TO HIM IN PRAYER.

Another way to ask that same question is "Who will be king?"

You or God?

As you think about your answer to that question, remember there is only one king and creator of the world.

And you are not Him!!

To find out more about these two ways to live go to 

www.matthiasmedia.com.au/2wtl/whowillbeking/

I originally heard about the illustration of telescopes and microscopes at Desiring God - www.desiringgod.org/messages/i-will-magnify-god-with-thanksgiving

Jesus Centered Families Prayer

As Christ-centered prayer requests and resources are shared throughout this week, here is an article to help you understand what Christ-centered means - https://www.paultripp.com/wednesdays-word/posts/what-is-a-christ-centered-life

Pray for the AWANA awards time tonight.

I am looking forward to sharing a devotional entitled "Are You a Microscope or Telescope?"  

The goal is in five to seven minutes begin to make God look as big as He really is.

I will post the devotional tonight.

A great resource to help parents and teachers make much of Jesus and the Gospel in their teaching is Show Them Jesus.

A reviewer summarized Klumpenhower's book with the following statement:  "Adults treasuring Christ in turn lead children, and by grace, they too will treasure Christ."  HERE is the full review.



There are many narratives in the Bible that are difficult to teach to children.  
The story of Achan is one of those stories.
Klumpenhower shares how he taught this story to elementary students.

A SCARY LESSON  

A few years ago I was teaching a large group of elementary kids from the book of Joshua. I taught how God brought his people through the Jordan River and toppled the walls of Jericho. From there, the curriculum I was using skipped a chapter—the story of Achan.  

Achan was an Israelite soldier. He spurned a direct command from God by taking some of the plunder of Jericho for himself. His sin was uncovered when God caused the Israelites to be routed in a subsequent battle. To reveal whose sin was responsible, God used a dread-filled process of picking first the tribe, then the clan, then the family at fault. The members of the guilty family came forward one by one, and God picked Achan. So the people stoned Achan, along with his wife, children, and livestock. Then they set them on fire and heaped stones on their charred bodies. Only after that did God turn from his anger.  

Well now, it’s easy to see why that story gets skipped. 

What should I do? I don’t like picking through the Bible for just the cheery parts, but my group of kids was fairly young. I was worried that the lesson might be too scary. I finally decided I could teach about Achan—if I made sure that the good news of Jesus was my theme.  

One of my helpers that day was also the mom of a student. Just before class she asked what the lesson was, and when I told her she became worried. Her daughter got nightmares, she explained. Tense stories often brought them on. I got a sick feeling. Surely I’d been stupid to think I could teach such a lesson to little kids. But there was no time to change it, so I taught about Achan. Dead soldiers. Selection process. Stoning. Fire. The whole ugly scene.  

As I taught this, the concerned mom looked even more worried. So did some of the kids, who were particularly bothered that the other soldiers, family members, and animals got killed too. What had they done to deserve that? It was a good question, so I had the whole group gather around me as I sat on the floor with them.  

“Yes, many were killed,” I told them, “but that’s what we should learn from this.” I read to them the Bible’s own commentary on the incident: “Didn’t the LORD’s anger come on the whole community of Israel? And Achan wasn’t the only one who died because of his sin” (Joshua 22:20, NIrV).  

“You see,” I said, “just one man sinned, but many died. That’s the lesson.”
The kids gave me confused looks. It wasn’t the sort of lesson anyone was expecting. I had their attention and pressed on.  

“What if you sin? Or I sin? Does God punish us like he did Achan? Does anyone else get punished too? Or has God made a way to punish sin that has a better ending than this story has?”  

The kids weren’t sure. Several knew that God wouldn’t be holy if he didn’t punish sin. They also knew that God forgives. They weren’t certain how it all fit together.   

“The idea that a person might die for someone else’s sin is very important,” I said. “In our story, one man sinned but many died. But what if later in the Bible we found one man—just one man—who never sinned in his whole life, but still got punished? If that man never sinned but still died, then many could live.”  

They knew I was talking about Jesus.  

I went on to tell how Jesus lived the sin-free life each of us don’t. I told how out of all the tribes and clans and families of the world, only Jesus is not guilty—so God picked him. To die. To take our place. God selected Jesus to take the punishment we deserve so we don’t have to stand sinful and quaking, waiting for judgment like Achan did.  

“Your sin is very bad,” I told the kids. “It can hurt many people. But God loves you so much that he sent his Son, Jesus, to become a man and die for your sin. Jesus was hurt most of all.  

“I wasn’t sure I should tell you this story because I thought it might be too scary. It’s about the scariest thing ever—getting punished by God. But when you know the whole story, it isn’t scary. If you belong to Jesus, he took your punishment and God becomes your Father. So I hope you won’t be scared. You don’t have to be scared of anything. Jesus makes the scariest thing of all go away.” 

I knew I’d done okay once it was over because the worried mom thanked me. She loved the story. The real surprise, though, came a few weeks later. The mom came up to me with a huge grin and told me her daughter’s nightmares had stopped. The girl insisted it was because she knew that, due to Jesus, she didn’t have to be scared anymore.  

Well, that’s the kind of result a teacher very rarely hears of, and my first reaction was skepticism. Could a little lesson about Jesus really cure such a problem? The nightmares would probably come back in time. But months went by and the mom remained delighted.  

I finally came to see that I was the one who lacked faith in the power of the good news. In spite of teaching it, I never expected it to work so wonderfully. It was all due to Jesus, of course, who lived the story I had the privilege of repeating. There’s no story like it. I should have expected such results. 

When the account of Achan is taught at all, it’s usually with the moral point that stealing is wrong. Okay, but that girl needed to hear the larger biblical point: that sin destroys life with God. Then she needed the biggest point of all—the theme of the whole Bible: that wherever sin destroys, Jesus heals.  

That girl learned about Jesus and believed. She also discovered that belief in Jesus is life-changing, that he truly is better than anything else.

Klumpenhower, Jack. Show Them Jesus: Teaching the Gospel to Kids (Kindle Locations 181-232). New Growth Press. Kindle Edition

HERE is another review of the book.

To order the book on Amazon, click https://www.amazon.com/dp/B011MP1QVS/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1



For more Theology Matters prayer resources click HERE 

Jesus Centered Leadership Prayer

From The Pastor's Justification

We didn’t do the work; someone else did. 

That’s the Christian life. That is pastoral ministry. The work is not ours. It’s Jesus’s. Jesus did the work we were unwilling—and unable!—to do. He killed sin and murdered death. And that is freedom. Knowing we’re not at the center of the story of our church keeps pastoral ministry in perspective; it makes the yoke easy and the burden light because Jesus is bearing them. 

This is the key to confidence: we can work because the work is already done. We give the daily pressure of all the anxiety of the church to God.

Wilson, Jared C.. The Pastor's Justification: Applying the Work of Christ in Your Life and Ministry (p. 82). Crossway. Kindle Edition.

Please pray that your pastors, leaders and staff will remember that this is God's Work.

Rather than sharing one list of ways to pray, I want to share with you a list of articles on the topic of praying for pastors and leaders.

This introduction and list were originally posted at  www.challies.com/articles/pray-for-your-pastor/

If the Apostle Paul told the Corinthians, “You also must help us by prayer” (2 Corinthians 1:11) so that he could endure the hardships of ministry, how much more do you think your local church pastor needs your prayerful support? I’ve been noticing a lot (an awful lot!) of articles lately that call on people to do this very thing. What interests me is that nearly all of these have been written by pastors. The point is clear: Pray for your pastor!
Pastors see the reality of the spiritual battle they face and they long for prayers–your prayers. Here are just a few of the articles that may help with the specifics of what you can pray about:

1. “How to Pray for the Pastoral Staff” by John Piper
2. “Praying for Your Pastor” by Ligon Duncan
3. “How To Pray For Your Pastor As He Steps Into the Pulpit” by Stephen Altrogge
4. “How to Pray for Your Pastor” by R. W. Glenn
5. “31 Days of Praying for Your Pastor” by Revive Our Hearts
6. “Praying for Your Pastor” by Joe Thorn
7. “Please Pray for Your Pastor” by Julian Freeman
8. “How to Pray for Your Pastor” by Todd Benkert

For more Theology Matters prayer resources click HERE 

Jesus Centered Outreach

MISSION RESOURCES:  

Missions:  How the Local Church Goes Global is a great short book on the Great Commision and the church.

HERE is a link to a conversation Mark Dever and Jonathan Leeman on how every Christian and every local church should be involved in global missions.  

God Glorifying Weekends Prayer

God-glorifying Weekends

Pray that West Cannon Baptist Church, our ministry and specifically our weekend services will be God-glorifying telescopes.

"There are two kinds of magnifying: microscope magnifying and telescope magnifying. The one makes a small thing look bigger than it is. The other makes a big thing begin to look as big as it really is."  from www.desiringgod.org/articles/how-to-magnify-god

The purpose of a telescope is to make objects from outer space appear as large as possible.   By viewing the moon or a far off planet through a telescope, a person does not see the object in its actual size but does see that which at first appears small with little detail much clearer.   

Pray that every aspect of our weekend will make God look as great as He really is.
Our time together glorifying God is not able to make God great.
It is meant to remind us of how great God truly is and we will never fully understand His greatness.

Specifically pray that...
our morning service will remind us how great God is as we look at Isaiah 14:24 - 27
our children's ministry will remind the children and family of God's greatness as they learn about how nothing can stop God from spreading His Gospel
our third study of Theology Matters - God the Son, will make much of God as we look who Jesus is.  
our meeting times will make of the One who is over all creation.

If our weekend services are about God's glory, our desire should be to show the Perfect God who sent His Perfect Son to die for our sin.
It shouldn't be an attempt to show our feeble attempts at man-made perfectionism.

Today's Resource is an article by Tim Challies entitled Whats the purpose of the church? Challies concludes the article with the following statement.  "Ultimately, the church exists to bring glory to his name through worship, discipleship, and evangelism."

For more Theology Matters prayer resources click HERE 

God Glorifying Equipping Ministries Prayer

“Regarding other people, our problem is that we need them (for ourselves) more than we love them for the glory of God.  The task God sets for us is to need them less and love them more." (p.19).

Today's prayer focus is that equipped members will glorify God at home, at work, in church and everywhere.

Pray that you and other members of WCBC will trust in the Lord and not fear man.  

Proverbs 29:25 says “The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe.” 

All too often, a fear of man motivates our actions.
We avoid that person in the hall at school or work.
We don't say what needs to be said or we say what shouldn't be said.
We procrastinate because we are frozen with fear.
We struggle with doing things because seeking the approval of man is our biggest motivator.  

In order to fear God, not man, here are the seven steps Welch gives:

1. Recognize that the fear of man is a major theme both in the Bible and in your own life.
2. Identify where your fear of man has been intensified by people in your past.
3. Identify where your fear of man has been intensified by the assumptions of the world.
4. Understand and grow in the fear of the Lord. The person who fears God will fear nothing else.
5. Examine where your desires have been too big. When we fear people, people are big, our desires are even bigger, and God is small.
6. Rejoice that God has covered your shame, protected you from danger, and accepted you. He has filled you with love.
7. Need other people less, love other people more. Out of obedience to Christ, and as a response to his love toward you, pursue others in love.

You can prayerfully work through these steps

Here are a couple of quotes from the book to help clarify step 1.

"From Genesis on, nakedness, or the shame of being exposed to others, became one of the great curses in Hebrew culture.  It was a profound curse because it symbolized the deeper, spiritual nakedness and shame that needed covering.  It symbolized that apart from God's covering, we stand naked before him.  Noah cursed the progeny of Ham because Ham had gazed upon his father's nakedness, perhaps laughing at his father or ridiculing him.  When Job was in the midst of his greatest misery, he spoke of his dread and cried, 'Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will depart.'"  (p. 25) 

"Because of sin still present within us, we experience embarrassment, shame, the feeling of being exposed and vulnerable.  As a result, we try to protect ourselves and avoid the gaze of others.  The ultimate problem appears to be the gaze of other people, but in reality the problem is within us and between God and ourselves."  (p. 35)

To order Ed Welch's When People are Big and God is Small click HERE

For a review of the book click HERE

When People are Big and God is Small audio:

Peer pressure, co-dependency, the fear of man:  how can someone escape being overly concerned about what others think?  This session shows how knowing the holiness of God and learning to fear Him is the only cure for the situations when people seem big and God seems small. 

For more God-glorifying resources related to our Theology Matters study go to
www.drodgersjr.com/p/theology-matters-2.html

Our Sin, God's Glory

For this weekly Fighter Verse devotionals, go to https://fighterverses.com/set-3-core-esv/week-16/

In our Fight Night Study, we spent a big part of the evening rehearsing the Gospel.  Below are two resources to help you remember/rehearse the Gospel.

From The Gospel Primer
The New Testament Model

The New Testament teaches that Christians ought to hear the gospel as much as non-Christians do. In fact, in the first chapter of Romans the Apostle Paul tells the believers in the church that he was anxious “to preach the gospel to you who are at Rome.” (Romans 1:15)  Of course, he was anxious to preach the gospel to the non-Christians at Rome, yet he specifically states that he was eager to preach it to the believers as well.
To the Corinthian Christians who had already believed and been saved by the gospel, Paul says, “I make known to you the gospel, which you have believed....” (1 Corinthians 15:1-4)

He then restates the historical facts of the gospel before showing them how those gospel facts apply to their beliefs about the afterlife. This is actually Paul’s approach to various other issues throughout the book of 1 Corinthians.  

In most of Paul’s letters to churches, sizeable portions of them are given over to rehearsing gospel truths. For example, Ephesians 1-3 is all gospel, Colossians 1-2 is gospel, and Romans 1-11 is gospel. The remainder of such books shows specifically how to bring those gospel truths to bear on life. Re-preaching the gospel and then showing how it applied to life was Paul’s choice method for ministering to believers, thereby providing a divinely inspired pattern for me to follow when ministering to myself and to other believers.

HERE is a pdf of Ten Essential Gospel Truths

1. God is the sovereign Creator of all things.
2. God created people for His glory.
3. God is holy and righteous.
4. Man is sinful.
5. God is just and is right to punish sin.
6. God is merciful.  He is kind to undeserving sinners.
7. Jesus is God's holy and righteous Son.
8. God put the punishment of sinners on Jesus so that His righteousness might be put on them.
9. God offers the free gift of salvation to those who repent and believe in Jesus.
10. Those who trust in Jesus will live to please Him and will receive the promise of eternal life - enjoying God forever in heaven.

God glorifying children and teens

Pray that Student Ministry and Children's Ministry leaders love God and help children, teens, and families love God.

Specifically, pray for the last couple of weeks of school year activities.
Also, pray for those going to summer camps at Lincoln Lake, Lake Ann, and Algonquin and our upcoming Vacation Bible School.

Here is the manuscript of what the children did in the Connection Time (9:30 to around 10:00) this past Sunday.

Is God's Word important?

Why?

There are other things that are important too… homework, video games, free time… right?

I know that because we spend our time on them! But how often do we take time for God’s Word? Just Sundays? Some of you may take time to read your Bible every day- have devos or quiet time, maybe you have a devotional book you’re reading through. But sometimes we don’t read our Bibles because we don’t know what to read or what to do after we’ve read some verses.

I want to take this time to show you something I do during quiet time and something our family does to help us learn and understand God’s Word.

Let's read 96:9,10.

Worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness; 

Tremble before him, all the earth! 

Say among the nations, “The LORD reigns!  

Yes, the world is established;

it shall never be moved;  

he will judge the peoples with equity.”

These are the Fighter verses from this past week. If you don't know, fighterverses.com is a memory verse plan is designed to help individuals fight sin by knowing and believing God more.

There are three things we’re going to do with this verse today:

1. Get it in our minds by trying to memorize it.
Read together 2x
Try filling in blanks (show app)

2. Look more closely at the verse and observe some things.
Who are the commands directed toward? Triangle around everything that refers to God.
What describes God and what he does? Box those. Splendor of holiness, reigns, judge.

3. Let’s make some connections and talk about what this means.
Man- God
Worship splendor of holiness
Tremble reigns
Say judge

So we are to worship (praise, honor, think about) God for his being holy, we are also to tremble at this as you would coming before a king (respect, take serioulsly) and then we are to Say that the Lord reigns and that he will judge the people fairly. Now I want to show you how I studied this a little more.

Is that last part good news? Not if that’s all there is!

Let’s look up Rom 3:23?
We’ve all sinned and fallen short of God’s holiness so being judged as to whether we’re good or bad, we would fairly be judged that we are bad. And we can’t do anything to change that. But that’s where the good news comes in!

Read 1 John 4:10. That’s amazing!

Read 2 Cor 5:21.
Because Jesus became sin for us we that is why we can worship God in the splendor of his holiness! (Rom 9:9,10 - saved from judgment)

Does He reign? Yes! This means 3 things…

1. If He reigns, I do not!

2. If He reigns, I must worship him! Spend time with him, thinking about life his way, repenting of my sin, this changes us. (ideas of how to spend time with him)

3. If He reigns I must tell others!

Psalm 96:9,10

Worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness;

Tremble before him, all the earth!
Say among the nations, “The LORD reigns! Yes, the world is established;

it shall never be moved; he will judge the peoples with equity.”

https://fighterverses.com/set-3-core-esv/week-15/

For more God-glorifying resources related to our Theology Matters study go to

www.drodgersjr.com/p/theology-matters-2.html

God Glorifying Leaders Prayer

Here are some God-glorifying prayers for church leaders at West Cannon Baptist Church and any church.  

Would you pray these prayers for church leaders today, and then invite others in your congregation to join you?

1.  Pray they will keep their eyes on God.

King Jehoshaphat faced three combined enemy armies, and he did not know what to do – except to lock his eyes on God. That’s the answer any time we have no clue about next steps.

“For we are powerless before this vast number that comes to fight against us. We do not know what to do, but we look to You.” (2 Chron. 20:12, HCSB)

2. Pray they will not take a step apart from God’s leading.

Moses prayed this prayer when God would send only an angel to lead His people after their fiasco with the golden calf. He would rather the people not start the journey if God Himself were not leading them.

“If Your presence does not go,” Moses responded to Him, “don’t make us go up from here.” (Exod. 33:15)

3. Pray they will beware of relying on their own strength instead of God's

David, who knew the Lord is the one who fights for him (1 Sam. 17:47), trusted in his own might when he took a census of the Hebrew armies. Recognizing his sin, he prayed a prayer most leaders need to pray at some point:

“I have sinned greatly in what I’ve done. Now, Lord, because I’ve been very foolish, please take away Your servant’s guilt.” (2 Sam 24:10)

4. Pray they will be wise in leading God’s people.

When Solomon might have asked for much more, he instead asked God to give him a “listening heart” as he governed the people of God. All of us who lead congregations need this wisdom.

“So give Your servant an obedient heart to judge Your people and to discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of Yours?” (1 Kgs. 3:9)

These are the first 4 of the 9 prayers at thomrainer.com/2014/12/nine-ways-pray-church-leaders/

Today's Resource is Knowing God by J.I. Packer.

Each day this week we will be sharing a prayer focus along with a book designed to help you focus on God and His glory.  These five suggestions are not meant to overwhelm.  They are meant to help provide options for your reading list. 

"God is Lord and King over His world; He rules all things for His own glory, displaying His perfections in all that He does, in order that men and angels may worship and adore Him."

To order Knowing God through Amazon click HERE.

Tim Challies, author and blogger, occassionally does a series of blog posts entitled "Reading Classics Together."  In 2015, he encouraged people to read Packer's Knowing God.  Here is a list of the posts related to this book.

• How to Avoid Doing Theology All Wrong 
• Love is a Risky Business
• The Heart of the Unbeliever's Unbelief
• Stop, Look and Consider
• The Wise God and the Suffering Christian
• Perversity as Pathetic as Impoverishing
• God is His Own Executioner
• Two Serious Misconceptions about God's Wrath

For more God-glorifying resources related to our Theology Matters study go to
www.drodgersjr.com/p/theology-matters-2.html

God Glorifying Outreach Prayer

Note:  Since the original post, there have been some corrections and the addition of the link to a free pdf copy of  For the Love of God Vol. 1

In the opening paragraph of the For the Love of God Volume 1 devotional on April 23, D.A. Carson's writes

"One of the inevitable characteristics of those who genuinely praise the Lord is that they want others to join with them in their praise. They recognize that if God is the sort of God their praises say he is, then he ought to be recognized by others. Moreover, one of the reasons for praising the Lord is to thank him for the help he has provided. If then we see others in need of the same sort of help, isn’t it natural for us to share our own experience of God’s provision, in the hope that others will seek God’s help? And will this not result in an enlarging circle of praise?"

This explains why our local outreach and missions must be God-glorifying.   The God who is worthy of our praise should be praised by others.
In this devotional, Carson goes on to explain how Psalm 34 shows that we should testify of God's grace.  

God is awesome, all-powerful, and infinite.  Our one week study on God the Father doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of the attributes of God.  
Hopefully, the study helped whet your desire to know more about who God is.  
The following quote is from Jerry Bridges' book The Joy of Fearing God.

Pray that the local outreaches and our missionaries around the world would give God the glory that He deserves and that they would help others glorify Him.  

Here are a couple, not all, local ministry you can pray for:

• Alpha Center of Lowell - www.afclowell.org/
• Hand 2 Hand - hand2handbackpack.org/
• Life Matters Worldwide - www.lifemattersww.org/Get-Involved/Pray
• Mel Trotter Ministries - www.meltrotter.org

Today's Book Resource is John Piper's Let the Nations Be Glad!
Each day this week we will be sharing a prayer focus along with a book designed to help you focus on God and His glory.  These five suggestions are not meant to overwhelm.  They are meant to help provide options for your reading list. 

The quote that best summarizes this book is “Missions exists because worship doesn’t. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man."
For a video and summary of the book, click HERE
For a review of this book, click HERE





For more God-glorifying resources related to our Theology Matters study go to
www.drodgersjr.com/p/theology-matters-2.html

Book Review: Sex in a Broken World

After reading Sex in a Broken World, I was reminded that most of Paul Tripp’s books repeat the same basic idea.  “The desire for even a good thing becomes a bad thing when that desire becomes a ruling thing.”  Tripp develops a God-focused, big-picture view of sex and helps us see the problem is a heart/worship problem. I need to be reminded of this idea over and over again because I continue to have worship problems. 

God has blessed me with opportunities to minister in many different locations (the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania) and in several different settings (Bible college, Christian high school, rescue mission, and churches).  In each of these situations, it is amazing and saddening to see how true Tripp’s statements and observations about our broken world are.  In helping others and myself, I have needed to remind others and myself that the biggest problem I have is my heart and desires.  What I appreciate about this and many other Tripp books is the Biblical focus and repetitiveness, both of which drive the main points into my mind and heart.

One of the strengths of Sex in a Broken World is that while it addresses a specific issue, it does not address a specific problem.  This book can be used to help with general discipleship or a variety of different sin issues.

Chapter six, “Sex: The Big Picture,” was especially helpful.  The case studies were realistic and honest.  The little picture sex vs. big picture sex contrast helped put things in a proper perspective.  Sex needs to be thought about, talked about and practiced in a way that is Biblical and God-glorifying.  I need to think through how to disciple my church, my children and myself in a way that helps develop a proper view of sex in this confusing, broken world.

Sex in a Broken World has reminded me that sex is not something that needs to be discussed in shameful, hushed tones.  It needs to be proclaimed in a clear, respectful, God-glorifying way.

Crossway has provided a complimentary electronic copy of this book to the reviewer through their Blog Review Program.