Godly Discipline

What do you think of when you hear the word, “discipline”? Some people read it with a negative connotation. Others read it with a positive connotation. The Oxford Dictionary defines it as, “the practice of training people to obey rules or a code of behavior, using punishment to correct disobedience“. Discipline has it’s roots in Latin and is defined as, “instruction given, teaching, learning, knowledge“. Used as a verb, it means, “to correct, chastise, punish“. Based on the definition and etymology of the word, discipline is portrayed as positive. It is necessary. God deals with the subject of discipline all throughout His Holy Word. In this article, we are going to focus on one passage, Hebrews 12.

Jesus: Our Lord and Savior

I have the honor of meeting with our elementary aged kids this week during our AWANA program at Southern Calvert Baptist Church. The kids have been learning about Jesus over this past quarter. Tonight will be a review where we put several passages together and get a clear view of who Jesus is. Many people in the Western world grow up hearing something about Jesus. Some of what they hear comes from the Bible while other aspects come from popular culture. I have ministered to a tribe in Myanmar where the majority of the people had never heard the name Jesus.

Abraham and Melchizedek

I am very excited to prepare our Connect Group lesson for this coming Sunday’s Fifth Sunday combined Connect Groups. Whenever we have a fifth Sunday on the calendar, all of our adult Connect Group classes combine for one class in the sanctuary. It is nice to get together in a room with almost 100 different people and meditate on the Word of God. As a church, we have spent the past two months studying through the book of Genesis. It has been a wonderful journey and no matter how many times you have read these stories in Genesis, they come alive each time through. Our last lesson covered the topic of how the same Gospel that we proclaim today is the same Gospel that was preached to Abraham almost 4,000 years ago.

Preach the Jesus of the Bible

This Sunday at Southern Calvert Baptist Church, we are going to study passages from the book of Hebrews. I really enjoy studying and teaching the book of Hebrews. As a church, we have been studying through the entire Bible over a three year period. We are finishing up our third year of this project and we have been walking through the New Testament for almost a year now. It is beautiful to see how the meta narrative of the Bible weaves a story of the Savior of the world from Genesis all the way through the book of Revelation. Over the past twenty plus years of ministry, I have discovered that many, many good, church going Christians have never read the Bible from cover to cover. That is something that this Gospel Project seeks to end. I always encourage people to read the Bible from cover to cover. In fact, I am reading through the Bible with a group of friends right now. We read one chapter from Genesis, one chapter from Psalms, one chapter from Proverbs, and one chapter from the Gospel of Matthew every single day. We are now six days into the endeavor. The feedback has been great. If you would like to join in, I post what I am reading and my insights every day on Facebook.

Why did God create SEX?

I am sure that the title caught your attention. Many people have many different views on the sexual relationship. Today, there is much confusion on the subject. Confusion exists in society as well as in the church. I recently taught on this subject in a foreign country and I was surprised to find that much of the confusion that we face in our country is faced in other countries as well. In order to answer the question posed in the title of this article, we need to open up the Word of God. The Bible has been called God’s “Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth”. We need to discover why God created sex so that we can enjoy it the way that God intended. It is a beautiful gift from God but, it must be kept in its proper context.

The Day of Atonement

In our walk through the Old Testament, we have arrived at the Day of Atonement. This was an important event in the yearly calendar for the children of Israel. It is also a foreshadowing of the eternal sacrifice for sin. The Day of Atonement is described in the book of Leviticus, chapter 16.

Why should a Christian attend worship services regularly?

This is a translation of an article written by my mentor, Vasile Filat. There is a link to the original article here. It was originally written in Romanian.

Once, when I was traveling on a mission trip I sat next to a fellow passenger on an airplane and we started a discussion en route to our destination. I shared with the person that I am a pastor. My new friend proudly proclaimed that he was also a Christian. I asked him what denomination his church was and his response was, “I do not attend worship services at the church. My faith is personal and I have my own reason for not attending worship services.” Are you familiar with a response like this? Maybe you have used this line of reasoning. It is not a good idea for Christians to ignore the regular attendance of worship services and here is why:

The Hall of Faith and Obedience

As I prepare to teach our Connect Group (formerly Sunday School) at Southern Calvert Baptist Church, I am amazed to see, once again, the beauty and simplicity of the Word of God. We have been studying the epistles of the New Testament this quarter. In the previous quarter, we drilled down into the book of the Acts of the apostles. It was a great study. Here is a list of some of the lesson which we have covered:

Appreciate your spiritual leaders

I just listened to a wonderful sermon preached by my mentor, Vasile Filat. I am currently listening to it again so that I can translate it into English for this article so that you can be blessed by it the way that I was.

How much do you appreciate your spiritual leaders? Do you have spiritual leaders/mentors? God has orchestrated the Christian life to be one of a person having a mentor, being  a mentee, and then becoming a mentor while still being mentored. This process is laid out for us in Matthew 28. We see it explained by the Apostle Paul in II Timothy 2:2. Paul was mentored by Jesus. Paul mentors Timothy. As Timothy is being mentored, he begins to mentor others. Those whom Timothy mentors begin to mentor others. Jesus –> Paul –> Timothy –> new disciples –> their disciples. Unfortunately, there are many in the church who have never experienced God’s amazing plan of being discipled. Even if you do not have a direct mentor, you have a spiritual leader if you are part of a local church. Paul explains this in Ephesians 4. The spiritual leaders pour into the lives of the members and the members serve one another and together, reach out to the community to make disciples.

Will eternal punishment be the same for all lost people?

Yesterday, I tried to answer the question of whether heaven would be the same for all believers or will there be different rewards. With this article, I would like to address the question of eternal punishment, will it be the same for all lost sinners or are there different levels of punishment.

First of all, we have to establish that the punishment for all who do not confess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior is that they will be punished by God with what the Bible describes as the second death. It is in the lake of fire that will last for eternity. All of it is torture yet, for some, the torture will be worse than for others.