Thursday, February 19, 2015

Day of Trustworthiness

Dear people of God,

Today it has been one week since we left our home. In the morning, during breakfast, I had a great opportunity to preach the gospel to a man, who was preparing my omelet. As I was talking with him about our trip, he simply asked, "What is the gospel?" I smiled and shared Christ. Lord willing tomorrow I want to give him a Gospel of John. 

We got to church around 7:50am and enjoyed another full day of teaching and fellowship. I administered another quiz and taught the first hour on the reading assignment from the book Sola Scriptura. This morning I taught chapter three: “the Establishment of Scripture,” demonstrating that the church did not establish the canon; the canon established the church. The church simply recognized the canon and submitted to its rule. I pointed men to our Sovereign God who by His invisible hand of providence directed in the establishment of the canon. Let us give thanks to our God for giving us His precious Word.

At the beginning of our class, we had another opportunity to sing the songs that I have been teaching the men: "Mighty Mighty Savior," "Soli Deo Gloria" and then I taught "Glorious Christ!" We also sang during our break. It was such a blessing worshiping Christ together with these brothers who love our Savior.
“You left the air of heaven
To breathe the dust of earth
And dwell among the outcast and the poor
You came to be forsaken
And died to take our curse
So You could be our joy forevermore
Forevermore”

What a Glorious Christ we worship!

Pastor Rick finished up the lecture on Inspiration of Scripture, and then moved on to the Trustworthiness of Scripture – which deals with the credibility, canonicity, and authority of God’s Word. We were looking at the many historic and archaeological proofs that contribute to the credibility of the Bible, but the main one is Jesus’ reception of the Old Testament. We also looked at the canon and the principles involved in discovering the canon. The canon was recognized by the church according to the principle of Apostolicity, Content, Universality and Inspiration. This was a great and beneficial study. Then we looked at the historical context of canonization of the Bible. The Lord is really working through pastor Rick to teach the material but also other topics that come up. Today he talked about the importance of godly leadership in the home. He encouraged us to follow Christ and to love our wives. We as leaders, who follow Christ's leadership, must not demand submission, but love in such a Christ-like way that a wife will joyfully submit and follow. Also, a person who seeks to control others loses influence with them; whereas a person who gains influence with others needs no control. This is great wisdom, and it is based on 1 Peter 5. Pray that God would continue to supply strength and wisdom as pastor Rick is teaching. 

After class, we enjoyed fellowshipping with men before returning to our hotel. After dinner we spent our time studying for the next day.

The Lord is working in some mighty ways, and so we are really grateful for your prayers.

Trusting in Him,

Paul and Rick

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