Leadership: Who is the Father of Your Child?

Who is the Father of Your Child?

There are hundreds of churches around the world which are struggling because of a lack of leadership. Every year there are preachers who decide to no longer preach and many others who, because of failing health or advanced age, no longer stand as God’s messengers. Add to this the fact that death takes many from us. The truth is that the number of preachers who graduate from our colleges and schools of preaching are not replacing those who no longer preach. It is a serious problem in the church.

leadership compass

The Church is starving for leaders approved by God.

Consider also the fact that even more churches are suffering because of a lack of qualified elders and deacons. Many congregations which in time past had elders no longer have them. There is a diminishing number of men who take seriously the work of serving as deacons. How has all of this come about?

The Lord’s plan is very simple. It is for godly parents to fully understand their place in rearing their children to lead His people. We think of our children as being ours, but such is far from the truth. The Jews took what they thought were their children and actually sacrificed them to idols. How did God see this? “You have slain My children and offered them up” (Ezek. 16:21). Our children are not ours but His. They are God’s before He gives them to us. “Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord” (Psa. 127:3). We receive our inheritance from the Lord when we are in our twenties!

Hannah understood this. She was no different from the way many of you were. When in your teens you thought about your future—who you would marry, where you would live and the children you would have. Hannah’s plan had not come about, for though she had a husband she had no children and agonized in prayer that she might have them. God heard her prayer and gave her Samuel. She gave him back to God by giving him up while he was so young. Her words? “For this child I prayed and the Lord has granted me my petition which I asked of Him. Therefore I also have lent him to the Lord; as long as he lives he shall be lent to the Lord” (1 Sam. 1:27-28).

The leadership problem facing the church is serious because we have lost sight of His plan. It has come about because we no longer see our children like those in the past saw their children. Parents, I urge you to change your view of those precious little ones in your home. They are not your children but His. How we view them drastically changes how we raise them. Every time Hannah called Samuel by name (his name means “a gift from God”), he was reminded of the fact that God had given him to Hannah so that she could give him back to God! How does this differ from you and your children?

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Recibiendo la Palabra y el Espíritu

Recibiendo la Palabra y el Espíritu

Es verdad que un buen libro, claro conciso y directo debería contener un argumento central que domina principalmente el tema de este. En el presente capítulo deseo presentar quizás lo que veo como mi argumento central, no sin antes preparar el contexto de este. En reiteradas ocasiones he escuchado un argumento que para algunos soluciona todas las incongruencias en la posición de la intercesión directa del Espíritu Santo en la conversión y salvación del hombre. El argumento va más o menos así: “Si usted afirma, que la suficiencia del hombre se completa solamente en la palabra, entonces quiere decir que el Espíritu es la palabra”. El mismo hermano Oscar ficticiamente mencionado en el capítulo anterior argumentó lo mismo pero en distintas palabras, más bien a modo de ejemplo, el dijo: –Heiner, si un borracho toma la Biblia y comienza a leer, de acuerdo con su posición, él tiene al Espíritu.

la biblia

La Palabra

No puedo recordar con exactitud cuál fue mi respuesta en el momento, pero por claro está que nunca tal cosa ha estado en mi mente, ni tampoco estoy de acuerdo con tal razonamiento. Un argumento de la misma raíz un poco más elaborado lee de forma distinta, y creo que es un poco más interesante al punto que reconozco me hizo pensar un poco su validez al estar mejor elaborado pero no del todo cierto.

El esfuerzo ha sido hecho para conectar Hechos 2:38 con el versículo 41 que lee: “Así que, los que recibieron su palabra fueron bautizados…” y se nos dice entonces que sí recibir la palabra es recibir el Espíritu, entonces ellos recibieron el Espíritu antes de ser bautizados… ¡Bingo!, nadie que sea honesto sostendría tal cosa y el elocuente argumento, sostiene en alto la habitación o influencia directa del Espíritu Santo en el corazón del hombre.

Creo que hay mucho que puede deducirse y con lo que podemos tratar, pero mi deseo desde el inicio es no dar tantas vueltas y lidiar de “frente” con los asuntos realmente importantes sobre el tema.

1.     La palabra en el v.41 “recibieron” en el original es ἀποδέχομαι (apodechomai) significa dar la bienvenida, pero la palabra del v.38 “recibiréis” es λαμβάνω (lambáno) que significa: adquirir, tomar, sujetar. Como usted podrá ver el original en dos palabras diferentes completamente la una de la otra quiera la relación que cualquier exégeta desee construir como en el argumento presentado anteriormente.

2.     Ejemplificado de otra forma, en Lc.8:40 la gente “recibió” a Jesús, es decir le dieron la bienvenida, misma palabra de Hechos 2:41. Mientras que en Gálatas 3:2 los gálatas “recibieron” el Espíritu al escuchar con fe la palabra, esa es la misma palabra de Hechos 2:38, lambáno. Por supuesto, la palabra no es el Espíritu Santo, pero es el medio por el que el Espíritu opera y habita entre nosotros. 

3.     Por supuesto que el borracho no tiene al Espíritu Santo, nadie lo tiene, pues él es Dios. Pero si ese borracho aplica lo que dice Ef.5:17-19 sobre no embriagarse con vino donde hay disolución, él entonces estará permitiendo que el Espíritu Santo influencie su vida (habite) a través de la palabra escrita, que es único medio por el cuál es Espíritu Santo obra en nuestros días.

Más adelante discutiremos de forma más extensa Hechos 2:38. Por ahora basta decir que ninguno de nosotros de esta convicción cree que el Espíritu Santo sea un libro, y que esté contenido en algunas páginas, como tampoco creemos que esté contenido en el cuerpo físico de los creyentes. Es para mí difícil de imaginar al Espíritu dentro de nosotros los hombres (ejemplo) quienes vemos a una mujer por ahí, la mente inmediatamente peca (el hermano que diga que él no, me gustaría conocerle en persona) ¿Qué hace el Espíritu dentro de nosotros cuando eso pasa? ¿Vuelve a ver para otra parte? Está en nuestros cuerpos desde el momento de nuestro bautismo (según afirman algunos). Creo que ninguna explicación elaborada resolverá la controversia satisfactoriamente.

            En Juan 14:16 Cristo dijo: “…enviaré otro consolador…”, el Señor regresaría al cielo y una vez allá enviaría a otro consolador. Considero acertado pensar que la habitación presencial del Santo Espíritu previamente en cuestiones geográficas estaba en el cielo. Tal como el Padre y el Hijo. Jesús enviaría desde el cielo al Espíritu, él haría su trabajo y luego regresaría a su habitación eterna.

            El Apocalipsis es un libro altamente simbólico y desde el capítulo 1 podemos observar eso, pero también las claves para interpretarlo. En Apocalipsis 1:4 los “siete Espíritus”, es una mención figurativa al Espíritu Santo. El número siete indica perfección y siempre en este libro está relacionado a la naturaleza de Dios. Interesantemente el texto reconoce el lugar donde se encuentra el Espíritu… “delante del trono”.

            La tercera persona de la Deidad no se encuentra errante en el aire esperando a que alguien se bautice para entrar en su cuerpo. Recibimos la instrucción de la palabra, al ponerla en práctica en nuestras vidas, el Padre, el Hijo y el Espíritu Santo ejercen su influencia o habitación mediante esta palabra escrita. Le damos la bienvenida al Espíritu cuando aplicamos su palabra pero no al revés.

 Premisa Lógica

La idea de la iluminación sugiere que el individuo necesita orar cada vez que estudia la palabra para buscar iluminación. Si ese es el caso, entonces Juan Calvino estuvo en lo correcto al afirmar que el hombre es incapaz de entender la palabra de Dios por ser malo en la naturaleza y necesita ayuda divina para poder entender e incluso recordar. Si el individuo debe buscar la iluminación para entender la inspiración, ¿Cómo sabe que la iluminación no necesita agente para “iluminar, la iluminación de la inspiración”? Observa usted la incongruencia insostenible. ¿hasta donde llegaríamos? 

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Protecting What Doesn’t Need Protecting

Protecting What Doesn’t Need Protecting

The word protection means to defend, guard, cover, or shield against loss. We get insurance as “protection” against loss from fire. We may want a lock and key on our house to protect us against loss from intruders. We may use firearms as personal protection against loss of life. Most people want protection for something, but what happens when we seek to protect something that doesn’t need to be protected? It could lead to some bad results. In the most extreme cases, someone might get hurt.

There are some things that don’t need to be protected. Many try to protect themselves from their own sins instead of confessing them and asking for forgiveness as God says to do (James 5:16). This will simply create more shame and lead to withdrawal from others. Sometimes people try to protect their worthless possessions (Luke 12:15). Jealousy will create suspicion, undermine love, and destroy friendships. Protecting unscriptural religious traditions will create strife and cause divisions in the church (1 Corinthians 3:3).

Why do we protect things that don’t need to be protected? Pride reasons that the self will be destroyed! (It is really pride that will be destroyed, a good thing.) Pride will then lead us to bite, kick, scratch, and claw at one another for “protection.” Paul wrote, “But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another!” (Galatians 5:15). Instead of trying to protect our sinful pride, we should follow Jesus advice. “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it” (Matthew 16:24-25).

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Understanding the Patriarchal Age

Understanding the Patriarchal Age

We may have assumed too much about what we commonly call the Patriarchal Dispensation. While it is true that Abraham and the sons of Jacob are called patriarchs (Heb 7:4; Acts 7:8-9), God also calls David, who lived over 500 years after the Patriarchal Dispensation ended, a patriarch (Acts 2:29).

I was told as a child that during that ancient age God spoke to the fathers, but this expression is used to refer to the period of the Mosaic Dispensation when He spoke to the fathers by the Old Testament prophets (Heb. 1:1). The assumption I made was that God spoke first to “father Adam,” then spoke to “father Seth,” and then in each succeeding generation He spoke to each of the fathers one after another. I understand that God did communicate orally to men during that age but probably not in the way I once viewed it.

Last week in our in-depth Monday night study of the Bible, we looked at the ages of the ancient to see how much “overlap” that would have been by each of the twenty generations from Adam to Abraham. (By the way, this class is open to anyone who wants to come or who want to attend using Skype—just let me know.) We think the “begats” found in Matthew chapter one help us trace the lineage of Jesus, but Genesis chapter five has the “begats” from Adam to Noah and Genesis chapter eleven has the “begats” from Noah to Abraham. One striking difference in the Genesis “begats” and Matthew’s “begats” is that Genesis tells exactly how old each person in the lineage was when each had his son. It is therefore possible to know the exact number of years there was from Adam to Noah and from Noah to Abraham. That Monday night study was so enlightening to all in the class. Consider the following truths revealed in the Genesis accounts.

(1) Adam lived for 930 years and obviously knew his children and grandchildren for so many years. What can easily be overlooked is that Enoch, who walked with God, could have known Adam for over 250 years before God took him.  Even Methuselah (eight generations from Adam) could have known Adam for 66 years. By the way, Methuselah died the same year the flood came.

(2) Noah lived nearly 350 years after the flood came and Terah, the father of Abraham, could have known Noah for the first 44 years of his life. Shem, the son of Noah who was in the ark, lived so long after the flood that his life overlaps 120 years of Abraham’s life and twenty years of Isaac’s life.

Monday night classes are different and allow a deeper look into the text. We discovered more than this article discusses. It is a different class—come and see. I believe you would enjoy it. You can attend using Skype on your computer.

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God has Revealed Himself Using Words

God has Revealed Himself Using Words

Consider this. Is it possible to have an idea which you want to express to another without using words? When you visit your doctor after he examines you and runs those tests, he/she decides what medicines you need. How does he convey this to you? When he gives you a prescription, the pharmacist reads it, goes to his shelf and reads words on the labels of the larger bottles there. How do you respond? It all has to do with words conveying the ideas of one person to another. Our world is built around words.

Words Revealed

Words revealed God’s Will to man.

Here’s another illustration. Suppose I wanted to tell you of a dream I had. It was about a large elephant. It was a pink elephant covered with purple polka dots. This elephant was riding a unicycle going the wrong way on a busy interstate. You hear my words, and my dream has been given to you. Can there be any idea which is not expressed in words?

The will of God is revealed in words. There are some who think that God gives us vague thoughts, and then allows us to individually create our own concepts of what God might want us to do. God has spoken to us, first through prophets and finally through His son (Heb. 1:1-2). Read the Bible and one truth becomes so obvious. God has given us far more than just giving us His Word in vague thoughts—He has given us His words. The words of the Bible convey the mind of God. It is like the doctor’s words and the pink elephant dream. The will of God is found in the very words He has given us.

When God revealed His will to us, he “bypassed” the concept that human wisdom is involved in letting us know His will. Paul described this vital truth as he wrote to the church at Corinth about the process by which God has made known His eternal plan. “But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God…that we might know all things, yes, the deep things of God…These things we  also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual” (1 Cor. 2:10-13).

Read these words carefully again and focus on the word “also.” God has revealed, and we also speak in words given by God. Because these words (not just word) were first given to Paul, who also gives us the same words, we can know even the deep things of God.

Words convey ideas. When God chose to reveal Himself to us, He selected every word. The Bible contains the very words God selected so that we can freely know His will.

Remember my dream? What was that elephant riding? Read my words to understand my dream. My words give you my dream. His words give you His will.

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