50 People Every Christian Should Know

I have just finished reading an amazing book. It is called, "50 People Every Christian Should Know".


And if there was ever a book that lived up to its title, it is this book.

It tells us the stories of men and women of God who lived a life of devotion to God. The stories present a brief biography of each person, and it doesn't sweep any issues that may have raised questions or controversy concerning the people portrayed.

While many of these are well known to most beleivers, such as: C.H. Spurgeon, Jonathan Edwards, Oswald Chambers, D. L. Moody, A.W. Tozer and a few others, there are many that I have never heard of before.

The book has educated me on such preachers of days gone by such as: William Culbertson, Henry Drummond, R.A. Torrey, W.E. Sangster, Alva Jay McClain, William Whitting Borden and so many others.

Three things that seem to be repeated often in each of the individuals stories is this: obstacles that had to be overcome (poverty, physical disabilities, and lack of education), as well as much time spent in prayer, and much time spent in Bible study.

It also appeared that many of these preachers preached much more than we do today. I read of several of these men who preached five, six, seven times each week or more. It also seemed as though most of them were prolific writers. In fact the author, Warren Wiersbe gives you a critique of the books that each of these saints of old has written, and which ones are the best ones to purchase. If you bought all of the ones reccomened by Wiersbe, well, let me just say that I would probably have to get a second job!

What impacted me the most thought wss the amount of time spent in prayer and study of the Word. One of the preachers in the book is stated to put in 60 hours of study for each message he preached. That is amazing. When you also realzie that they did their study often by candlelight and without any of our modern day aides such as comptuters, computer programs, several different translations of the Scriptures and various other helps, it makes me wonder about many of our preachers today, including myself.

What would happen if I spent 4 or 5 hours per day in study of the word....each day? What would happen if I prayed daily for several hours?
What difference would it make in my spiritual life?
What difference whould it make in the spiriutal life of the church that I pastor?
What difference would it make in my family?
What difference would it make to my neighbors?
What difference would it make to my country?

Is this what may be missing in the church in the USA today?

Could this be the secret to revival in our country?

Have we sold out Jesus, not for thirty pieces of silver as Judas did, but for our favorite tv show?

Have we fallen asleep, not while our Lord is praying in the garden of Gethsemane, but while He weeps for the lost in this country and we are too tired to personally share the gospel because of late hours on the internet?

And that leads me to the last thing I want to share about the men and women portrayed in this book: they were passionate about sharing the gospel to the lost.

We need to be the kind of people who, if the Lord does not come back soon, and they write a new book, of the 2nd 50 people every Christian should know, that you and I are listed in that book....not for personal fame and glory, no....may we never ever seek for attention on us, but for the glory of God, for the sake of future generations, to inspire those who come after us to live their lives in a passionate pursuit of the Lord, in leading the lost to salvation and to leave a legacy of faith, long after we are gone.

I'm off to bed now, planning on rising early...time in prayer, and time in the Word...maybe you will join me?

Pastor Dave

Prostitution In The Church

I found this while doing some blog surfing and thought I would share it here. I foundit on this blog: http://danielfusco.wordpress.com/, but it is not by the author of that blog. The author of the article is David Ryser. This is a very thought provoking article. Read on.

The Question that Changed My Life

By David Ryser

A number of years ago, I had the privilege of teaching at a school of ministry. My students were hungry for God, and I was constantly searching for ways to challenge them to fall more in love with Jesus and to become voices for revival in the Church. I came across a quote attributed most often to Rev. Sam Pascoe. It is a short version of the history of Christianity, and it goes like this: Christianity started in Palestine as a fellowship; it moved to Greece and became a philosophy; it moved to Italy and became an institution; it moved to Europe and became a culture; it came to America and became an enterprise. Some of the students were only 18 or 19 years old--barely out of diapers--and I wanted them to understand and appreciate the import of the last line, so I clarified it by adding, "An enterprise. That's a business." After a few moments Martha, the youngest student in the class, raised her hand. I could not imagine what her question might be. I thought the little vignette was self-explanatory, and that I had performed it brilliantly. Nevertheless, I acknowledged Martha's raised hand, "Yes, Martha." She asked such a simple question, "A business? But isn't it supposed to be a body?" I could not envision where this line of questioning was going, and the only response I could think of was, "Yes." She continued, "But when a body becomes a business, isn't that a prostitute?"

The room went dead silent. For several seconds no one moved or spoke. We were stunned, afraid to make a sound because the presence of God had flooded into the room, and we knew we were on holy ground. All I could think in those sacred moments was, "Wow, I wish I'd thought of that." I didn't dare express that thought aloud. God had taken over the class.

Martha's question changed my life. For six months, I thought about her question at least once every day. "When a body becomes a business, isn't that a prostitute?" There is only one answer to her question. The answer is "Yes." The American Church, tragically, is heavily populated by people who do not love God. How can we love Him? We don't even know Him; and I mean really know Him.

What do I mean when I say "really know Him?" Our understanding of knowing and knowledge stems from our western culture (which is based in ancient Greek philosophical thought). We believe we have knowledge (and, by extension, wisdom) when we have collected information. A collection of information is not the same thing as knowledge, especially in the culture of the Bible (which is an eastern, non-Greek, culture). In the eastern culture, all knowledge is experiential. In western/Greek culture, we argue from premise to conclusion without regard for experience--or so we think. An example might be helpful here. Let us suppose a question based upon the following two premises: First, that wheat does not grow in a cold climate and second, that England has a cold climate. The question: Does wheat grow in England? The vast majority of people from the western/Greek culture would answer, "No. If wheat does not grow in a cold climate and if England has a cold climate, then it follows that wheat does not grow in England." In the eastern culture, the answer to the same question, based on the same premises, most likely would be, "I don't know. I've never been to England." We laugh at this thinking, but when I posed the same question to my friends from England, their answer was, "Yes, of course wheat grows in England. We're from there, and we know wheat grows there." They overcame their cultural way of thinking because of their life experience. Experience trumps information when it comes to knowledge.

A similar problem exists with our concept of belief. We say we believe something (or someone) apart from personal experience. This definition of belief is not extended to our stockbroker, however. Again, allow me to explain. Suppose my stockbroker phones me and says, "I have a hot tip on a stock that is going to triple in price within the next week. I want your permission to transfer $10,000 from your cash account and buy this stock." That's a lot of money for me, so I ask, "Do you really believe this stock will triple in price, and so quickly?" He/she answers, I sure do." I say, "That sounds great! How exciting! So how much of your own money have you invested in this stock?" He/she answers, "None." Does my stockbroker believe? Truly believe? I don't think so, and suddenly I don't believe, either. How can we be so discerning in the things of this world, especially when they involve money, and so indiscriminate when it comes to spiritual things? The fact is, we do not know or believe apart from experience. The Bible was written to people who would not understand the concepts of knowledge, belief, and faith apart from experience. I suspect God thinks this way also.

So I stand by my statement that most American Christians do not know God--much less love Him. The root of this condition originates in how we came to God. Most of us came to Him because of what we were told He would do for us. We were promised that He would bless us in life and take us to heaven after death. We married Him for His money, and we don't care if He lives or dies as long as we can get His stuff. We have made the Kingdom of God into a business, merchandising His anointing. This should not be. We are commanded to love God, and are called to be the Bride of Christ--that's pretty intimate stuff. We are supposed to be His lovers. How can we love someone we don't even know? And even if we do know someone, is that a guarantee that we truly love them? Are we lovers or prostitutes?

I was pondering Martha's question again one day, and considered the question, "What's the difference between a lover and a prostitute?" I realized that both do many of the same things, but a lover does what she does because she loves. A prostitute pretends to love, but only as long as you pay. Then I asked the question, "What would happen if God stopped paying me?"

For the next several months, I allowed God to search me to uncover my motives for loving and serving Him. Was I really a true lover of God? What would happen if He stopped blessing me? What if He never did another thing for me? Would I still love Him? Please understand, I believe in the promises and blessings of God. The issue here is not whether God blesses His children; the issue is the condition of my heart. Why do I serve Him? Are His blessings in my life the gifts of a loving Father, or are they a wage that I have earned or a bribe/payment to love Him? Do I love God without any conditions? It took several months to work through these questions. Even now I wonder if my desire to love God is always matched by my attitude and behavior. I still catch myself being disappointed with God and angry that He has not met some perceived need in my life. I suspect this is something which is never fully resolved, but I want more than anything else to be a true lover of God.

So what is it going to be? Which are we, lover or prostitute? There are no prostitutes in heaven, or in the Kingdom of God for that matter, but there are plenty of former prostitutes in both places. Take it from a recovering prostitute when I say there is no substitute for unconditional, intimate relationship with God. And I mean there is no palatable substitute available to us (take another look at Matthew 7:21-23 sometime). We must choose.

Dr. David Ryser

Questions, questions, questions.

I put my faith and trust in Jesus when I was ten years old. After a ten year period of prodigal living, beginning around the age of fifteen, and ending around the age of twenty-five, I have been following Jesus now for almost 27 years.

During this time I have studied the Bible much (not as much as I should have), and shared my faith as often as possible. By studying and sharing over the years I have come up with more questions than answers.

Don't misunderstand me. I still believe. I trust the Word of God and I trust in Jesus as my Savior, and I trust that God will keep me.

But the Bible has a lot of stuff in it. A lot.

And the more I learn, the more I realize that I don't know.

The more answers I find, the more questions I have.

So, I thought I'd share some with you. Maybe one of my readers out there have had the same questions. Maybe somebody has an answer for one or more of the questions. Or maybe it will help someone else who has questions to not feel so alone and not be afraid to ask the questions. I have asked many fellow pastors some of these questions and have received every kind of response you can think of, from, "I never thought of that before?", to "You think too much.", but have not gotten an answer to any of these yet...so here goes.

In Genesis when the serpent talks to Eve she doesn't freak out. Could animals talk back then? Or could only serpents talk? Was this a "special" serpent that the devil took over? Why did God curse the serpent by saying it would crawl on it's belly if the serpent was posessed by the devil? The first part of the verse seems directed at the serpent as an animal, while verse 15 is a prophecy of Christ being born of the seed of a woman (virgin birth) and the devil crushing his heel (Calvary) and then Christ crushing the head of the serpent (the resurrection), so is the whole thing a spiritual event, or a physical event? Does this mean that snakes used to have feet and legs?

Here's another one: When the serpent questioned Eve about the forbidden fruit, she says in verse 2 that God told them "...you must not touch it, or you will die." But in the Genesis account we only find God telling them not to eat it, but nothing about touching it. I know that when my children added to the truth, we called that lying. If so, does that mean that Eve sinned before she ate the fruit?

Now, jump forward to verses 22-24 in the 3rd chapter of Genesis we find this:

"And the LORD God said, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever." So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life."

So what is this tree of life? Is it a literal tree with fruit that would give you eternal life, but in an ever decaying body? Sort of like a fountain of youth, only without the youth? And how does this connect to what we find in these verses in the book of Revelation:

Revelation 2:7
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

Revelation 22:2
down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.

Revelation 22:14
"Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city.

Revelation 22:19
And if anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.

Is this the same tree of life found in Genesis, only transplanted? Is this a real tree, or is it to be taken figuratively? I want you all to know that I DO BELIEVE that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, and yet this sound as thought this tree of life has something to do with our eternal life.

Ok, that's enought questions for one post. Let me know what you think. And remember, if you're a follower of Christ, I'm on your side. I'm one of you. I believe...but I also KNOW that if you read your Bible, you're going to have questions. These are some of mine. What do you think?

Still following Jesus,
Pastor Dave

Follow Me

Matthew 4:18-22 "While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And he said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." Immediately they left their nets and followed him. And going on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him."

I went to bed in amazement at the total abandon with which Peter, Andrew, James & John followed Jesus. He shows up, says "Follow Me" and they leave everything to follow Him. They literally walk away from their jobs! In the case of James and John it means leaving the family business.

As I began to drift off to sleep I had these thoughts swirling around in my mind: "Is it possible to follow Jesus like that today? Does anyone do that today? If it is possible, why don't we? Is it that we do that today, but it "looks" different than it did then? Why do I feel that I am "holding back" when it comes to following Jesus? Is this lack of total commitment, with total abandon, without a backup plan, or even a plan at all, is that part of the reason, or the entire reason that so few of us today could be called "fishers of men"?

Now I know that these men had met Jesus before (see the first chapter of John, verses 35-42), so maybe they did have some time to think about this...but when the call came, they went and followed. I too met Jesus before I became a committed follower. I met Jesus when I was ten years old. I am ashamed of the fact that around the age of fifteen, I began a path that led me away from Him and out into the barren wasteland of this world for about ten years. At the age of twenty-five I returned to Jesus...and have been trying to follow Him for twenty-six years now...but I don't know if I have ever followed Him with this type of radical commitment.

What do you think? Do you know of anyone who follows Jesus as Peter, Andrew, James & John did back then? Why do you think we don't? What do you think that would look like? What would it cost us today? Is it possible today?

I have more questions that I do answers.

Pastor Dave

Romans Six

Reading Romans chapter six today, and just wanted to share some random thoughts about some of the verses I read.

Romans 6:4 says, "We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life."

That verse rang so true to me today. I FEEL new in my relationship with the Lord and NEW in the way I see my life (including the past, the present & the future). More than ever before I feel as though God has a plan and a purpose for my life. I want to teach people about the Lord and His Word....I want to follow Jesus as close as I can, I want to lead people to the throne of Grace...to show them the joy, peace and contentment that comes from relationship with God.

But two weeks ago, I don't think I would have felt that way. Bad habits plagued me at every turn. Sinful habits that I had thought conquered long ago reared their ugly head once again. Anger and other emotions began to creep over me, casting a shadow of doubt and depression.

I am glad that Jesus rescued me from that place, but after reading this verse I now realize I should not have been there in the first place. I have to remember that my relationship with the Lord and my standing before God has NOTHING to do with my FEELINGS...but it has everything to do with what HE HAS ALREADY DONE in me. I am His. I am a new creation. I walk in NEWNESS of life whether I feel it or not. It is not what I do, but what I am through Jesus.

When I read verse 11 it just reinforced that my standing with Christ is a "done deal" once I have put my faith in trust in Him. Verse 11 says, "11In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus."

This just reminds me that I am alive to God and dead to sin. Sin doesn't rule in my life any longer. Oh, I still sin...just ask my family. But I'm no longer identified as a sinner. My identity is now in Jesus. I'm dead to sin. It no longer reigns in my body. It still "resides" there, and will until I receive a new body...but it doesn not sit on the throne of my life any longer.

Now, I know for many of you this is pretty basic stuff for a lot of you, and it is for me too. But I think what happened in my life, and maybe it has happened in yours too is this:

We forget some of the elementary things we know, and before long we drift from the foundation that we know. We aren't doing the "big bad sins" any longer, but living in a sinful fallen world, in a sinful fallen body begins to chip away at where we know we are in Christ until before long we find ourselves FEELING different than what we actually are.

Anyway...I just rejoiced for God reminding me of this truth and then capping it off with such a wonderful scripture that closes out the sixth chapter of Romans.

Romans 6:23: For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

And with that, I sign off on this blog, not resting in my feelings, but KNOWING who I am in Jesus.

Pastor Dave

From John Piper

John Piper is one of several well known preachers that I admire.



His books are not easy to read, but always rewarding. I came acrosse this well written blog by Brother Piper on the subject of television. It was reprinted from another blog, and I found it here: http://www.recoverthegospel.com/?p=2750

Just like the above blogger, I too found this worthy to pass on here to the readers of my blog. Great food for thought. Would appreciate any and all comments.

Why I Don’t Have a Television and Rarely Go to Movies:

“Now that the video of the Q&A at Advance 09 is available, I can look at it and feel bad all over again. Here’s what I regret, indeed what I have apologized for to the person who asked the question.

The first question to me and Mark Driscoll was, “Piper says get rid of my TV, and Driscoll says buy extra DVRs. How do you reconcile this difference?”

I responded, “Get your sources right. . . . I never said that in my life.”

Almost as soon as it was out of my mouth, I felt: “What a jerk, Piper!” A jerk is a person who nitpicks about the way a question is worded rather than taking the opportunity to address the issue in a serious way. I blew it at multiple levels.

So I was very glad when the person who asked the question wrote to me. I wrote back,

Be totally relieved that YOU did not ask a bad question. I gave a useless and unhelpful, and I think snide, answer and missed a GOLDEN opportunity to make plain the dangers of the triviality you referred to. . . . I don’t know why I snapped about the wording of the question instead of using it for what it was intended for. It was foolish and I think sinful.

So let me see if I can do better now. I can’t give an answer for what Mark means by “buy extra DVRs,” but I can tell you why my advice sounds different. I suspect that Mark and I would not agree on the degree to which the average pastor needs to be movie-savvy in order to be relevant, and the degree to which we should expose ourselves to the world’s entertainment.

I think relevance in preaching hangs very little on watching movies, and I think that much exposure to sensuality, banality, and God-absent entertainment does more to deaden our capacities for joy in Jesus than it does to make us spiritually powerful in the lives of the living dead. Sources of spiritual power—which are what we desperately need—are not in the cinema. You will not want your biographer to write: Prick him and he bleeds movies.

If you want to be relevant, say, for prostitutes, don’t watch a movie with a lot of tumbles in a brothel. Immerse yourself in the gospel, which is tailor-made for prostitutes; then watch Jesus deal with them in the Bible; then go find a prostitute and talk to her. Listen to her, not the movie. Being entertained by sin does not increase compassion for sinners.

There are, perhaps, a few extraordinary men who can watch action-packed, suspenseful, sexually explicit films and come away more godly. But there are not many. And I am certainly not one of them.

I have a high tolerance for violence, high tolerance for bad language, and zero tolerance for nudity. There is a reason for these differences. The violence is make-believe. They don’t really mean those bad words. But that lady is really naked, and I am really watching. And somewhere she has a brokenhearted father.

I’ll put it bluntly. The only nude female body a guy should ever lay his eyes on is his wife’s. The few exceptions include doctors, morticians, and fathers changing diapers. “I have made a covenant with my eyes; how then could I gaze at a virgin?” (Job 31:1). What the eyes see really matters. “Everyone who looks at a woman to desire her has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:28). Better to gouge your eye than go to hell (verse 29).

Brothers, that is serious. Really serious. Jesus is violent about this. What we do with our eyes can damn us. One reason is that it is virtually impossible to transition from being entertained by nudity to an act of “beholding the glory of the Lord.” But this means the entire Christian life is threatened by the deadening effects of sexual titillation.

All Christ-exalting transformation comes from “beholding the glory of Christ.” “Beholding the glory of the Lord, [we] are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another” (2 Corinthians 3:18). Whatever dulls the eyes of our mind from seeing Christ powerfully and purely is destroying us. There is not one man in a thousand whose spiritual eyes are more readily moved by the beauty of Christ because he has just seen a bare breast with his buddies.

But leave sex aside (as if that were possible for fifteen minutes on TV). It’s the unremitting triviality that makes television so deadly. What we desperately need is help to enlarge our capacities to be moved by the immeasurable glories of Christ. Television takes us almost constantly in the opposite direction, lowering, shrinking, and deadening our capacities for worshiping Christ.

One more smaller concern with TV (besides its addictive tendencies, trivialization of life, and deadening effects): It takes time. I have so many things I want to accomplish in this one short life. Don’t waste your life is not a catchphrase for me; it’s a cliff I walk beside every day with trembling.

TV consumes more and more time for those who get used to watching it. You start to feel like it belongs. You wonder how you could get along without it. I am jealous for my evenings. There are so many things in life I want to accomplish. I simply could not do what I do if I watched television. So we have never had a TV in 40 years of marriage (except in Germany, to help learn the language). I don’t regret it.

Sorry again, for the bad answer. I hope this helps.

Pastor John”

Revival

I just got finished watching a movie about a traveling preacher in the 1800,s by the name of Robert Sheffy. The movie is just called "Sheffy".



Now it is not the best produced movie. It doesn't have a Hollywood budget or any big name actors in it. It was produced by Bob Jones University. I know there has been some controversy in the past concerning BJU, but I don't want to address that in this blog, rather I want to share what this movie did to me, or rather for me.

With all of it's shortcomings and faults, it showed a man who was sold out to Christ and the gospel. It showed a man who prayed to God, listened to God and counted on God to answer his prayers.

It is about a man who knew who he was, whose he was, and what he was called to do. It is about a man who never gave up. He never gave up preaching the gospel. He never gave up following Christ. He never gave up believing people would be saved. He never gave up asking forgiveness for his owns sins and shortcomings.

It is a movie about a man that I long to be.

For some reason, this poorly made movie touched something deep within my soul. At the end I was in tears, literally sobbing until my nose ran. I felt revival well up from within me. I repented of my negligence in following Christ. I repented of my pride. I repented of my laziness. I repented of my unbelief.

I asked God to not let me go back to what I was before I encountered Him through this film. I promised Him I would not give up. I will not give up preaching the gospel. I will not give up following Christ. I will not give up believing and trusting that He will bring my prodigal daughter back home to Him. I will not give up asking forgiveness of my sinful behavior, and I will not give up doing the best that I can for the Kingdom of God.

I don't know if this is a movie everyone would enjoy. You might not be able to overlook the fact that the quality is not the same level as a professional film. But if you think you can, then I suggest you find this film (you can rent it from Netflix), and sit back and see what God can do in the life of one man sold out to Him.

I close with the lyrics of a song that is featured several times in the film. It just happens to be a favorite of mine.

Come, ye sinners, poor and needy,
Weak and wounded, sick and sore;
Jesus ready stands to save you,
Full of pity, love and pow’r.

I will arise and go to Jesus,
He will embrace me in His arms;
In the arms of my dear Savior,
Oh, there are ten thousand charms.

Come, ye thirsty, come, and welcome,
God’s free bounty glorify;
True belief and true repentance,
Every grace that brings you nigh.

Come, ye weary, heavy-laden,
Lost and ruined by the fall;
If you tarry till you’re better,
You will never come at all.

I will arise and go to Jesus,
He will embrace me in His arms;
In the arms of my dear Savior,
Oh, there are ten thousand charms.

Praying for revival for us all,
Pastor Dave