Feb 6 2009

Blog Traffic to Grace Digest


I posted my first blog post on June 29, 2006. It was 4 paragraphs and received one comment. As of today, and 782 posts later, I have learned some things about by blogging.

  • For each post I publish I get about 5 comments. Some posts get no comments and some get many comments.
  • My readers come from most of the states and from about 20 foreign countries. I have regular readers who live in Australia, England, Germany, and Africa. I was most surprised that someone in China sometimes reads what I write.
  • The busiest day for traffic to Grace Digest was 222 page views. The average for ’07 was 21, for ’08 it was 30, and so far in ’09 the average is 55 views each day.
  • If high visitors numbers is what I want I know how to get those big numbers. Tags (key words) like “a cappella”, “instruments in worship”, “coC unity”, “restoration movement”, get large interest and blog hits. Words like “Jesus”, “Christ”, “grace”, “salvation”, “forgiveness”, and “peace of god” get far fewer hits.
  • I am very likely addicted to blogging!

In view of the above facts about my blogging on Grace Digest, what subjects should I choose? And, more importantly, why do it at all?

First, blogging is a purely selfesh outlet for a frustrated writer and preacher/teacher. I seem to learn more when I write as I learn from God’s book and the school of life. I would write much of the same content even if I could not share it. Writing is a personal need fulfilled.

Without regard for the big hit numbers, I intend to share my heart with my readers. My first desire is to encourage every reader to consider the claims of the good news about Jesus and to trust him alone as the only basis of their standing with God. 

I am always learning. I try to, on purpose, approach my open Bible with an open heart and mind, ready for it to shape my thinking and by it’s truth to shape my life. A constant pursuit of objective truth is a passion for me. And, sharing those truths with others is also a very high priority. I know of no better way to accomplish that end than blogging.

I would be lying if I said the big numbers don’t matter to me, they do. But I refuse to taylor what I write with a view of having a large number of readers. So, I will continue to share what moves me at the moment and let the numbers be only numbers.

Part of my desire to continue blogging (apart from selfeshness) is fueled by the wonderful reports from people who have been helped in some way by reading my stuff. Recently, over the span of about 20 days, I received emails and other communications from several people who had read someting here that helped them to understand a part of the Bible better, had some theological question answered, expressed a desire to trust Christ more completely and be more devoted to him. And, I had 3 requests to use something I had written as a part of a sermon, lesson, and in one case a communion meditation.

It is encouraging to be validated by others who are more learned, more experienced, and widely trusted as men and women of God. Two years ago I think, 5 of the presenters at the Pepperdine Lectureships and 3 or 4 presenters at the Tulsa Soulwinning Workshop had recently made kind, encouraging remarks concerning something I had written. I am humbled.

I have also had several odd, nasty, hateful comments that I chose not to publish. Religeous zealots are often furious when you point out their hypcocicy and unbelief. Some folks are offended by truth while others embrace it and are healed by it. That is just the way it is.

As I complete this post and publish it I will shamelessly use some of those traffic generating “tags”.

John 6:40
Royce

Feb 4 2009

Living to love, and Loving to Live


In Paul’s letters to the Galatians and in his first letter to the Corinthians his messages were to groups of Christians who were rife with problems. In the church in Corinth, you name it and they were guilty of it. Sexual immorality, divisions over favorite Apostolic leaders, law suits filed against each other, and even drunkenness and gluttony at fellowship meals, rudeness and selfishness in the worship assembly, and more, were the problems and character flaws of this group of immature believers whom Paul still called “saints”.

The believers in the region of Galatia had begun to abandon pure dependence on Christ alone for salvation in favor of circumcision. They were behaving as if under a witches spell. While in Corinth behaviour unbecoming followers of Jesus was glaring, the diluting of the doctrine of justification by faith in Christ was the greatest offence of the Galatian brothers. He carefully defended his apostleship and masterfully laid again the foundation of their standing in Christ.

In both situations Paul’s inspired pen rebuked and pleaded, warned and encouraged, while pointing them to Christ who is himself the standing of our faith and practice as believers. In Galations Paul wrote,

“For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Galatians 5:13,14)

Paul said to the Corinthians

 “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.  If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3)

Then in v13 Paul sums up perhaps the most read chapter in all of his letters by saying,

“So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love”

Living to love, and Loving to live is both our mandate and mission. Love is our anchor and our attitude as we flesh out the Christ life, especially to those who are fellow followers of Jesus.

You might say “I have a Chistian duty to defend the faith once delivered to the saints, to teach sound doctrine!” Ok, but how’s your loving coming along? Are you clinging to hope, trusting that one day Christ will come and take you to himself? That is noble but how have you loved today?

Excellent theology and sound doctrine are commendable but they take a back seat to loving your brother. Being faithful in church attendence, saying all the right stuff, and doing all the right things are grand, but does the fellow who disagrees with you about some practice or doctrine feel the love?

If you are the most elequent speaker, know more about the Bible, are more wise than your peers, and give more generously, but are not a lover of those around you, you are nothing! You have the same utility in God’s kingdom as one ringing a cow bell in a symphony orchestra.

If you and I want to matter to Christ and his cause let our words be seasoned with salt and our manner marked with longsuffering and gentle kindness. Even if our enemies decide to say something about our ego driven lifestyle we should make them have to lie to do it. Ours is a call to live above the crowd and to those within and without to love them unconditionally with a pure heart and God’s help.

For love,

Royce

Feb 1 2009

The body of our Lord


“A body you have prepared for me”

In God’s scheme of redemption the Law was never sufficient to deal with man’s most basic flaw, sin. The Law and the sacrificial system were not able to make a sinner whole. The sacrifice of bulls and goats and the law that required them were but a shadow of the only sacrifice that would take the sins of man away, the body of Jesus.

It was a real human body. Jesus, like us in every way, except for sin, got thirsty, hungry, tired, sleepy, and the pain he experienced was just as real as when you feel it. When he was hit with the hands of his captors, beaten with sticks, a thorny crown pushed into his flesh, and finally the nails and the spear… All of these horrors were experienced in a human body.

And, in his spirit, like us he experienced anguish, sorrow, and shame. When  blood thirsty men spit on him and mocked him he hurt just as you might in similar circumstances. When finally he died as a common criminal and was taken to the tomb, it was a body that was laid in the tomb.

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree

What religion could never do, what the law and the sacrifices were impetent to accomplish, he did by the once for all time offering of his body, once for all men. He walked the dusty roads, worked as a carpenter, preached, healed, ate with his friends, and spent hours at a time on his knees, in a real human body.

He did not sin, not once, not ever. And, he always perfectly obeyed. Thus, he alone could become the perfect sacrifice. A human sacrifice in a body that would experience the very wrath of God against sin and know the sorrow of the Father turning away from him because of sin. It was your sin he bore, and mine. The wages of sin is death and the only innocent one died in my place and in your place so that together with him we might live.

Now because he sacrificed his body God can declare a sinner like you “right” and adopt you his own dear child, and never compromise his holiness or his justice. His demand for perfect obedience to his law has been fully met and his fierce anger against sin fully executed upon this body, the body of Jesus.

He appeared to five hundred brothers at one time

Just as he said, after three days he came out of the tomb very much alive, in a body. It was a different body, but it was his body. It was a glorified body fully operational on earth or in heaven. He walked with his friends, he suddenly appeared in a room, and ate meals with them. When one of them, Thomas, just was not sure, he showed him the scars in his hand and his side and he touched his body. It was a real, material body, different than ours, but not for ever!

The followers of Jesus were beaten and thrown into jail for telling others that Jesus was alive again! The fact of the once dead now eternally alive body of  Jesus is the victory for every man who faces death, who wants the power of sin defeated in his life. He is not here, He is risen! Satan, death, hell, and the grave could not stop the body of Jesus infused with the Holy Spirit of God.

This same Jesus you saw ascend into heaven will come again in the same way

As witness stood looking into the clouds open mouthed they were told by heavenly messengers the story was not over. He will come back, in his body. And, when he does he will sound the signal and every man and woman who died in faith will be raised from the dead and have a body like his glorious body, made for heaven and earth but without any hint of the curse of sin. No imperfections, no missing limbs, no aging, no need to be satisfied because by the body of Jesus man has been fully redeemed.

When one day the redeemed stand in their glorified bodies in righteousness, as pure as he is pure, God will be glorified and praised and forever he will be worshiped and adored. We, once wicked sinners, will be the trophies of his amazing grace!

This is my body given for you

As Jesus ate with his friends he took some bread and said “This is my body given for you” and when he had given thanks each of them ate. He said “Do this in remembrance of me”. He wanted them to remember that he sacrificed a real body for them. Paul said “as often as you do this you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes”, and he will come.

Anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself

It is obvious that God takes remembering the body Jesus, his death for our sins, very, very serious. Paul warned the Corinthian believers of how dangerous it is to take the Lord’s Supper flippantly. He said some were weak and ill, and some had even died because they had not thought about and appreciated the body of Jesus. These are pretty strong words. It is a good idea to remember this warning when next the bread is passed to you.

I hope we have a renewed apprciation for the great sacrifice that was made for us when Jesus was excecuted in your place and mine that we could live forever. By grace are you saved.

His peace,
Royce

Jan 27 2009

Bible Preaching Needed…


The recent flack over the decision of 21st Century Christian to exclude some churches because they have instrumental accompaniment in some services (My response to Mr. Royster’s defense) has caused me to consider the deeper and more alarming problem which should be a concern to all of our people. Perhaps the most important criteria for orthodoxy in the mind of most coC people is music. As important as baptism is to Restoration Movement folks, I believe it is relegated to number two. So the discussions on bulletin boards, chat rooms, blogs, websites, and print media as to who is right with God and who isn’t begins with this topic, are you a cappella or do you have “the instrument”? It is funny that the usual way of mentioning instrumental accompaniment in worship is “the instrument’, you know like you would say the “the Bubonic plague”.

It is very obvious that many, many of the people who populate our coC pews on Sunday morning have very selective Bible knowledge. For too many years the lesson topics from pulpits has been focused on “The Lord’s church” and what and how we do what we do on Sunday morning. There is a super imposed “pattern” for worship that people must comply with or they are lost. To complicate matters even more, the so called “authorized pattern” is different from location to location based on the history of that congregation’s leadership and training. Almost everyone though can agree that the most easily defined aberration, and the one that surely damns those who fall to its deception is “the instrument” in worship.

A cappella only is the most important practice but the most difficult to defend using the Bible. A few people like Kenneth Sublett have given all their time to defending a cappella singing and blasting the offenders with a barrage of less than brotherly kindness. Not long ago, in an email to Mr. Sublett I pointedly ask him “Is there any doctrine more important to you than a cappella singing”? His answer was shocking but not surprising, “NO” with some reasons why.

Our church of Christ people need desperately to be taught the word of God. It is clear that with the exception of a hand full of topics that are usually repeated over and over, there is little understanding of the great Bible doctrines of the historic Christian faith. A good place to start is for preachers and teachers to take Paul’s words to young Timothy to heart. “Preach the Word” (2 Timothy 4:1-3) and “All Scripture” is good for what ails us. (2 Timothy 3:14-17).

If every preacher would begin to preach through books of the Bible, chapter by chapter, verse by verse, every need would be met. Some men are very good at “Topical Preaching” but most topical sermons are a theme or idea the preacher wants to get across and he finds a few Bible verses to support his points in presenting his message for the day. Far too often verses are taken out of context and misapplied because they seem to support the point or topic. Someone wiser than me said “A text taken out of context is a pretext”, not what it appears to be.

Expository preaching is the form of preaching where the preacher expounds on a verse or passage of Scripture. Both his motive and method is to mine the passage for its truth and then to make application to himself and the listeners. This method of preaching is much more difficult to prepare for and requires discipline that many do not have. But going chapter by chapter and verse by verse through books of the Bible will cover every doctrine, expose every sin, correct every error, and potentially heal every heart. There will be very difficult passages that the preacher might not understand. That is absolutely true in my experience. When one of those awkward times comes, and they will, the honest preacher should just admit, “I am not sure what is meant here, this is a passage I have not mastered. But I have done some research and here are a few of the most prominent views and here is the way I am leaning, but I am not ready to take a firm stand at this time in my study.” That sort of transparency will be appreciated by the people and everyone, including the preacher, will learn from the experience. It is not a sin to admit you don’t know everything.

I challenge my friends and those I have never met to consider giving it a try. Today there are tons of resources to help you as you study. Pray, pray, pray, and read, read, read, sermons, commentaries, illustrations,etc. and then make it your own, in terms you are comfortable with, and give it to the people in the power and authority of the Spirit and you will grow a healthy church, one that keeps the main thing the main thing.

I am for Christ and the Bible and I am against any agenda that vies for His place as preeminent in our hearts and lives. Only when He is lifted up do sinners come to Him. The word of God exalts Him above every thing in heaven or on earth and ours is to make Him known by our lives and our lips. The Word of God, not the traditions we cherish, is to be the final authority for both faith and practice for every believer. Preach the Bible!

Grace to you,

Royce