Tenth of the First Month: Not a Coincidence

Are dates important?

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Three Lessons on Biblical Finances

Did you know God’s Word has something to say about finances and money?

Its true.  Even Jesus’ Himself has quite a bit to say about finances.

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A Ministry Role of Timothy we can overlook

When I think of Timothy in the Bible I often think about the Pastoral Epistles, an assistant of Paul and a missionary of sorts.

But there’s one thing that I have been thinking about lately concerning Timothy’s role.

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Christians Need to Hear the Gospel Too

Christians: When you hear the Gospel preach, do you feel its something not for you, but for the non-Christians?

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Summary Paragraph of the Gospel: Paul Washer’s Quote

I rarely write a post before I finish it; usually after I’m done I write a review.

But today I thought I share a quote from what I’m reading that summarizes the Gospel.

As a preacher I love ending the sermon with hope and turning listeners attention to Jesus and the Gospel.  So in a way I’m always thinking about how to summarize the Gospel (so its not two sermons in one!).  Of course I do believe the whole Bible has a trajectory towards the Gospel.  But I also think in closing a sermon there needs to be a clear, simple and accurate summary of the Gospel that is a part of the call to listeners to respond to the Gospel.

So with that as background I really enjoyed this Gospel summary:

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How to be make it through Seminary financially while being poor

Photo by Startup Stock Photos on Pexels.com

Are you thinking about going to seminary to study to be a Pastor?  Even if you are not going to seminary but you are a Christian who loves God, do you know someone who is thinking about going to seminary but might be working through the issue of finance?

Here are ten practical things that I found helpful to get through Seminary when the finances are hard.  They were things that I personally found helpful to make it through my Master’s of Divinity (MDiv) and Master’s of Theology (ThM).   While there’s personal responsibility I also realize it was God’s grace that provided for me and also the means of others who showed me love and help along the way too.

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Faithful Shepherd Pastors’ Retreat 2018: Videos

This is from last year’s conference which they have just made available online for others to benefit from.  It is sponsored by P&R Publishing (among others), which is one of my top favorite Christian publisher.  The conference is called “Faithful Shepherd Pastors’ Retreat” and last year’s theme was on “The Welcoming Church.”

What is the purpose of this conference?

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Preaching with Passion by Alex Montoya: 2019 Winterim Lectures

Pastor Alex Montoya has been instrumental in God shaping how I preach and also with wisdom concerning pastoral ministry.  He’s to me the Hispanic Charles Spurgeon and I lament that he’s retired from teaching in seminary.

Last week he’s recently taught for a Seminary Winterim session on the passion of preaching.  In a one week intensive course he taught a future generation of those entering ministry on homiletic (how to preach).

I thought I share them with viewers to help preachers and those who are teachers.

Here are the videos:

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Pastors: Be Swordsmen and Chefs

Ephesians 6:17 refers to the Word of God as the sword of the Spirit: “And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”

If the Word of God is a sword then that this helps us with understanding further two biblical roles of Pastors.

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Review: Leading Today’s Funerals

Dan S. Lloyd. Leading Today’s Funerals: A Pastoral Guide for Improving Bereavement Ministry. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, October 1st 1997. 126 pp.

4 out of 5

Purchase: Amazon

I read the kindle version of this book in preparation for my first funeral that I will be doing as a pastor.  I had to read this pretty quick given the situation.  I am glad I did as it was helpful.  I read this work and took lots of notes from it.  This was a book that I wished I read in seminary.

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Review and Recommended: The Deliberate Church by Mark Dever

First off before I share my review I want to welcome all those who have recently found our blog on Monergism.com.  We are a blog that is intent on covering apologetics, Christian worldview and theology with posts on book reviews, resources and our own written content.  Feel free to subscribe and bookmark our page for daily posts!

Mark Dever and Paul Alexander. The Deliberate Church.  Wheaton, IL: Crossway, September 9th 2005.  221 pp.

5 out of 5

Purchase: Westminster | Amazon

Both authors Mark Dever and Paul Alexander have written a helpful book for pastors and church leaders on doing church ministry according to the Bible and centered on the Gospel.  As the book states on page 28, “The Gospel alone shapes and evaluate must both shape and evaluate any ministry method we use.”  This is a great antidote to the seeker sensitive church method or other marketing gimmick that is driven more by man-centered pragmatisms instead of the Word of God.  I love how this book is both biblical and practical since I believe there is a real need of resources on practical ecclesiology (doctrine of the church).  Too often one find two kinds of extreme: practical works without it being biblical or biblical works on the church without a deeper practical picture of what does it look like.  Dever and Alexander writes from being biblically informed and years of wisdom and experience which through their 9 Marks ministry have greatly helped many other local churches including the one I minister at.

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How to Get the Most from our Sunday Morning Motivations for Preachers and Teachers Series

I’ve compiled all the posts for our series “Sunday Morning Motivations for Preachers and Teachers” here.  It was a devotional series I worked on after considering how many Pastors end up burning out.  It’s originally meant for pastors but teachers in churches were later also written in view of you as well!

In this post I want to discuss about how to get the most from the series.

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Collection of Sunday Morning Motivations for Preachers and Teachers

This is worth bookmarking if you are a pastor or teacher in the Church.

Here’s a post on “How to Get the Most from our Sunday Morning Motivations for Preachers and Teachers Series.”

Here’s the series:

1. Sunday Morning Motivation for Preachers and Teachers: Be Worthy of Your Wages!
2. Sunday Morning Motivation for Preachers and Teachers: Sharing in His Glory
3. Sunday Morning Motivation for Preachers and Teachers: Receiving the unfading crown of glory
4. Sunday Morning Motivation for Preachers and Teachers: Used by God to bring People to Salvation
5. Sunday Morning Motivations for Preachers and Teachers: Fixing our hope on the living God
6. Sunday Morning Motivations for Preachers and Teachers: Your Spiritual Gift Bestowed by God
7. Sunday Morning Motivations for Preachers and Teachers: You are given spirit of Power
8. Sunday Morning Motivations for Preachers and Teachers: You are given spirit of Love
9. Sunday Morning Motivations for Preachers and Teachers: You are given spirit of Self-Discipline
10. Sunday Morning Motivations for Preachers and Teachers: You were appointed a preacher or teacher
11. Sunday Morning Motivations for Preachers and Teachers: Your reward is great in heaven
12. Sunday Morning Motivations for Preachers and Teachers: Knowing Christ

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Sunday Morning Motivations for Preachers and Teachers: You are given spirit of Love

t’s Sunday!  I know teaching, preaching and ministering is not always easy.  Among those things that can be difficult is to love those who are hard to love.  How can you preachers and teachers love those who are difficult who are in your ministries and class?

Similar to last week today’s post comes from 2 Timothy 1:7:

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Sunday Morning Motivations for Preachers and Teachers: You are given spirit of Power

It’s Sunday!  I know teaching, preaching and ministering is not always easy.  Here is another short post providing you with the motivation from the Word of God for preachers before you enter your pulpit and teachers before you go in to instruct your class.

Today’s post comes from 2 Timothy 1:7:

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