Tag: bible

A Continual Reformation

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Devotionals, QuotesLeave a comment

Fundamentally, Reformed theology is theology founded on and fashioned by God’s Word.

For it is God’s Word that forms our theology, and it is we who are reformed by that theology as we constantly return to God’s Word every day and in every generation.

At its core, this is what the sixteenth-century Reformation was all about, and it’s what being Reformed is all about – confessing and practicing what God’s Word teaches.

The Reformation isn’t over, nor will it ever be over, because reformation – God’s word and God’s Spirit reforming His church – will never end.

God’s Word is always powerful and God’s Spirit is always working to renew our minds, transform our hearts, and change our lives. Therefore, the people of God, the church, will be always “being reformed” according to the unchanging Word of God, not according to our ever-changing culture.

Question for Reflection

  1. Is God’s Word or the culture changing you?

Resources

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TableTalk Magazine, January 2015, The True Reformers, Burk Parsons

The Reformer’s Cry

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Devotionals, QuotesLeave a comment

Ecclesia reformata, semper reformanda, secundum verbum Dei – The church reformed and always being reformed according to God’s Word.

Question for Reflection

  1. Do you realize God’s Word and Spirit are always reforming His church by renewing, transforming, and changing us?

Resources

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Read the Bible in the New Year

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Books, Discipleship, Practical4 Comments

Bible

Happy New Year! 2014 is here. With a new year comes a new set of resolutions. One popular resolution Christians make is to read the Bible all the way through in a year.

Reading Plans

If you are looking for a reading plan to help you get through the Bible this year, I would recommend you take a look at Justin Taylor’s recent blog post. He offers an extensive list.

Some Advice

For years, I have been trying to finish a yearly reading plan, but haven’t had any success. I have read the entire Bible, but I have never done it in a systematic fashion like one would do with a reading plan.

Even though I haven’t finished a plan, this year I am still jumping on the read the Bible in a year bandwagon. I am, however, not jumping on alone. I have an accountability partner – my wife. We are tackling the Bible together this year.

I would encourage you to do the same. Grab an accountability partner, decide on a reading plan (ours is Table Talk Magazine), and get reading.

Question for Reflection

  1. What has helped you stick to a yearly reading plan in the past?

Resource

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Training Our Children in the Lord | Part 4

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Family, PracticalLeave a comment

Dominic

Today we had the joy of dedicating several babies and families at Sycamore Baptist Church, my family included. Here is what I shared with them regarding the “How To” of training your child in the Lord (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3).

(5) Be there for them

Moses’ commandments in Deuteronomy 7 assumes parents are there for their children. You can’t teach, train, counsel, or guide your children if you are gone all the time. We have to carve out time in our schedules for our kids. If we don’t, we will not accomplish God’s desire for our family. That’s because training our children involves time.

The money that you make, the fun you have, or the freedom you experience while away from your children is not more important than training your children in the Lord.

So we have to be there for our children in order to teach them. God’s desire that for your life and their life. God desire is not for you to be rich, for you to be successful, for you to get the corner office. God’s desire is for you to teach your children His word, which takes time.

(6) We have to pray and trust Jesus

I have only been at this for 5 months, but two of the most important things I have learned so far is that (1) I need to pray and (2) I need to trust Jesus.

As Camden gets older and your kids get older, I would only think that will become more and more important. So if we want to accomplish the task before us, we have to pray and trust Jesus to help us.

Questions for Reflection

  1. Do you set aside time during the week for your kids?
  2. Do you pray and trust Jesus to help you in the training process?

Resources

Post adapted from my sermon Training Our Children in the Lord 

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Training Our Children in the Lord | Part 3

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Family, PracticalLeave a comment

Dominic

Today we had the joy of dedicating several babies and families at Sycamore Baptist Church, my family included. Here is what I shared with them regarding the “How To” of training your child in the Lord (Part 1, Part 2).

(3) Keep God’s Word before our family

In Deuteronomy 6:8-9 Moses writes,

You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. 

Moses doesn’t mean we are to literally bind God’s Word to our hands or head, or write them on our doors. Instead, he desires we continually keep God’s Word before ourselves and our family.

God’s Word can’t be some dusty old book in the corner we never pick up.

We can practically keep God’s Word before our families by reading it together, talking about it throughout the day, and making decisions based on God’s Word.

It is necessary we make the effort. In order to combat the cultural noise and win the battle for our kids hearts, we must constantly keep God’s Word before them.

(4) Teach them all our provisions come from God

Again Moses writes,

And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you—with great and good cities that you did not build, and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant—and when you eat and are full, then take care lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 

Moses tells them not to forget God when they go into the land, to remember everything they have is from the hand of God.

We need to remember and teach our kids that God is our Provider as well. They shouldn’t grow up with the idea that everything they have is by their hands because it’s not. Everything we have is given by the hand of God. We must use every opportunity to teach our children this truth.

Think about how often we would talk about God with our kids if we thanked Him for the things we have. Conversations could be sparked at dinner, when it rains, when we pay our bills, go to work, go fishing, lie down in our beds. It’s important we take those opportunities, so that we don’t forget why we have what we have.

Questions for Reflection

  1. How do you keep God’s Word before your family?
  2. How do you remind yourself and your family everything you have is from God?

Resources

Post adapted from my sermon Training Our Children in the Lord 

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Don’t Write the Bible Off

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Devotionals, Quotes3 Comments

Francis Schaeffer

I am convinced we don’t read the Bible because we think its irrelevant. We believe it doesn’t answer the questions we are asking.

Francis Schaeffer, arguable one of the 20th centuries greatest Christian philosophers, doesn’t agree. He believes the Bible is just as relevant today as when it was first written. At a turning point in his life, he turned to God’s Word and found it answered the questions he was asking. Questions his liberally minded church weren’t answering. Here is how his biographer puts it:

As he read [Greek philosophy] he had a growing sense that he was gaining more questions but no answers. This awareness was reinforced when he realized that he experienced a similar situation in his church, which he later realized was influenced by theological liberalism…What he was getting in his church was a constant questioning, but no answers to the issues of life…

Having tasted the thinking of the ancient Greeks, he thought it was only fair to read through the Bible, something he had never done. He ought to give it a last chance. So it was that, night by night, alongside his reading of Ovid he began reading the Bible from the beginning (as a book, he thought this was the way to do it). He began with Genesis: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” and read to the very end: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen” (KJV).

In his reading of the Bible he was surprised to find unfolding answers to the deep philosophical questions he had begun to ask. The dawning excitement would never leave him.

Schaeffer’s experience is proof the Bible answers the questions we’re asking. It’s relevant. It’s useful. It’s life changing.

At this time in Schaeffer’s life, he was ready to write the Bible off. That is, until he read it. I believe that’s why we don’t believe the Bible is relevant. Why we don’t believe it answers the questions we’re asking – we haven’t read it. If we had, we would come to a completely different conclusion.

If you think the Bible is irrelevant, I challenge you to read it. Don’t write it off without giving it an honest chance. Schaeffer didn’t, and he became one of Christianity’s greatest minds.

Questions for Reflection

  1. Have you read God’s Word cover to cover?
  2. How has God’s Word proven relevant in your life?

Resources

Quote from Francis Schaeffer: an Authentic Life, by Colin Duriez, pg 20-21.

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