Questions and Answers for Boys and Girls

Today I made a fool of myself by rude eating habits and noisy belching. If it helps our children grasp a little bit of what it means to glorify, or in my case, not glorify, the Lord then it is worth while.

Jesus was always asking questions as a way of teaching. “Who do men say that I am?”

His church throughout its history has used questions and answers as a way of teaching disciples the basic truths His followers need to clearly know.

This way of teaching is called catechism?
Simply stated a catechism is a way of teaching the doctrines of the Christian faith in a systematic way using a series of questions and answers.

Why do they call it a catechism?
Our English word, catechism, comes from katecheo, a Greek word used in the New Testament, meaning to teach in an systematic manner.

But do Baptists use catechisms?
Certainly, Baptists believe in the orderly teaching of Biblical truth! Though in recent decades this particular tool has fallen into disuse by Southern Baptists, Baptists have indeed used catechisms. For example, one Baptist catechism dates to 1689 and another to 1742. The famous British Baptist preacher, Charles Spurgeon, published “A Puritan Catechism” in 1855. You can find a number of Baptist catechisms in print.

This catechism I am using is consistent with the Bible, the Baptist Faith and Message, and most historic Christian tools of this type. You will also find growing numbers of Baptist churches returning to this proven approach to teaching vital truths.

Why use this?
Knowing the doctrines of the Christian faith is more important than ever! The Bible commands it… “Hold on to the pattern of sound teaching that you have heard from me…” (2 Timothy 1:13). Our Christian growth requires a firm grip on the truth.

What do we do with it?
My hope for it is that it be far more than just a part of the worship experience for children. I do it there to highlight it and commend it to our parents to use in their own family and for their own personal development.

The key is to review the material over and over again. Do so for a period of weeks or months until it is mastered. The ability to quote every answer word for word is not as important as being able demonstrate a clear understanding of each question and answer.

These first eleven questions and answers all come from: A Catechism for Boys and Girls which can be found in the book “Teaching Truth, Training Hearts” by Dr. Tom J. Nettles.

I will be using a variety of other sources as we continue on using these questions and answers. These eleven questions will be used through out the summer. I will use my time with the children to encourage them to learn the questions and answers and to help them better understand what we are talking about.

1. Question Who made you?
Answer God made me (Genesis. 1:26, 27; Acts 17:24-29).

2. Question What else did God make?
Answer God made all things (Genesis. 1; Col. 1:16).

3. Question Why did God make you and all things?
Answer For his own glory (Revelation 4:11).

4. Question How can you glorify God?
Answer By loving him and doing what He commands (John 15:8-10)

5. Question Are there more gods than one?
Answer There is only one God (Deuteronomy 6:4).

6. Question In how many persons does this one God exist?
Answer In three persons (Mt. 3:16, 17; Jn. 15:26; 16:13 -15).

7. Question Who are they?
Answer The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19; 2 Corinthians 13:14; Jude 1.20, 21).

8. Question Who is God?
Answer God is a Spirit, and does not have a body like men (John 4:24; 2 Corinthians 3:17; 1 Timothy 1:17).

9. Question Where is God?
Answer God is everywhere (Psalm 139:7 -12; Jeremiah 23:23,24; Acts 17:27,28).

10.Question Can you see God?
Answer No. I cannot see God, but he always sees me (Exodus 33:20; John 1:18; 1 Timothy 6:16; Psalm 139.1-5: Proverbs 5:21; Hebrews 4:12, 13).

11.Question Does God know all things?
Answer Yes. Nothing can be hidden from God (1 Chronicles 28:9; 2 Chronicles 16:9; Luke 12:6, 7; Romans 2:16).

There Is A Reason We Live The Way We Do!

“There is a reason we live the way we do.” I love the paraphrase of Romans 12:3 from The Message.

I’m speaking to you out of deep gratitude for all that God has given me, and especially as I have responsibilities in relation to you. Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it’s important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him.

Romans 12 and 13 are very practical chapters of the Bible that describe how Christians should live; what being a “living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God” looks like. But of course living that life flows out of what God is, what our need is, and what He has done to meet that need. That is what Romans 1-11 is all about. These are the doctrinal portions…the “truth” portions of Romans.

Paul’s descriptions of Christian living in these chapters include:
+ brotherly love
+ blessing those who persecute us
+ humility
+ never paying back evil or taking revenge
+ overcoming evil with good
+ living in subjection to our governmental leaders
+ paying our taxes
+ refusing to wrong our neighbor
+ making our time count
+ not getting drunk
+ not being sexually immoral
+ not causing arguments
+ not letting jealousy eat us alive

All these practical descriptions of being a Christian are based on TRUTH. On looking into the face of God as revealed in His Word and through His Son.

The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him.

May we see all of life more clearly that we might display His glory more brightly as we focus our hearts on Him.

Taking Off Anger, Wrath, and Malice

We know that we have an enemy. Satan works most often by stealth, he’s like a crouching lion. Predators look for prey when they are most vulnerable. Anger can makes us an easy target.

It’s always important to note that the emotion of anger is not in itself a sin. God created us with the capacity to anger. It is a defense mechanism that can enable us to very quickly defend ourselves and others when danger suddenly arises. It is a godly reaction to evil and injustice.

Jesus felt anger on a number of occasions. One day He entered a synagogue, a place of worship, on the Sabbath. He noticed a man with a problem. It would be a disadvantage today, but in the first century it was even more tragic. The man had a crippled hand, a useless hand. A man’s hands were for everyone the ability to work, to provide for himself and his family. This disability guaranteed poverty at a time when even healthy men struggled to keep one or two steps ahead of famine.

Others had noticed the man as well. Religious enemies of the Lord knew of his propensity to meet needs like this with compassion and an amazing healing ability. Perhaps Jesus would be so moved by this man’s situation He just might heal him right there on the Sabbath. What a scandal that could be … healing someone at church on the day of rest!

When Jesus walked into that situation He immediately sized up the situation, the broken man’s need and the proud men’s coldness of heart. Mark records Jesus anger.

Mark 3:5 And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart . . .

When anger arises out of concern for others and is mixed with grief over what sin does to human hearts, that anger is godly. Too often our irritation is self-centered and selfish. It is too often rage focused on the feeling that we have been slighted or harmed. It is necessary to ask the Lord to help us analyze and understand our feelings of frustration and anger.

Even holy anger can leave us vulnerable to the sinister plots of the devil. Unless we immediately seek the Lord and His help in our anger, as we probably more easily do when we are in sorrow or in other kinds of pain, we will be left exposed. Often anger seems to call us to trust in ourselves rather than the Lord. “I don’t have to take this! I’ll show them! I’ll give them a piece of my mind! I’ll teach them to mess with me!”

Satan loves to help us nurture our anger, to encourage us to roll it and the situation that produced it over and over in our minds. He will push us to expand it far outside the boundaries it belongs in.

When you feel anger at home, at work, at church, or at play be careful. Mature Christians know this is a time of testing and needs spiritual alertness. They sense the danger and turn in dependence on God … seeking His guidance to understand if the emotions are holy or worldly.

They know this is the time of all times to stay connected to Christ who always used anger in a positive way. They know that He and He alone can keep it from becoming sin. His Spirit makes possible Ephesians 4.26, 27: Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil.

Our mission and strategy as a church

Our mission and strategy as a church can be expressed in four steps.

Step one.  Worship the Lord.
Step two.  Disciple the saved.
Step three.  Serve others.
Step four.  Reach the lost.

Step four leads back to step one. Lost people who are found are people who now worship the Lord, so the whole process starts over.

Mission has to become strategy. Step one is the focus of our Sunday morning worship services. So let me speak to step two.

A group of friends went deer hunting and paired off in twos for the day. That night, one of the hunters returned alone, staggering under the weight of an eight-point buck.

“Where’s Henry?” the others asked.

“Henry had a stroke of some kind. He’s a couple of miles back up the trail,” the successful hunter replied.

“You left Henry laying out there and carried the deer back?” they inquired.

“It was a tough call,” nodded the hunter. “But I figured no one is going to steal Henry!”

Henry could have used a better group of friends. Friends committed to not leaving anyone behind. Step two is all about having those kind of friends.

Life is full of choices. One of the wisest choices you can make is to develop genuine friendships with other people seeking to live for the Lord. Step two in our church is helping everyone find a small Christ centered group of friends who meet regularly to serve, learn, grow, care, play and pray together. Everyone needs to be a part of a smaller group of friends who center their life around the Lord, His Word and their commitment to live out that Word; a group that focuses on discipling and growing together.

In most Southern Baptist churches we have called these small groups “Sunday School”. To people who don’t have an SBC background I call these groups “Bible Fellowships”. Whatever we call these little teams of adults and youth they are the front line of caring for our people and then helping them integrate the truth of the gospel into real life.

One of our constant needs is to create new Bible fellowships. Most will meet on Sunday mornings. Some of necessity will need to meet at other times. Preschool and children workers need a Bible fellowship. Some of our music, technical, and guest service leaders are serving on Sunday mornings so they need another time.

Great Kingdom advancing churches are always in the business of growing and reproducing these little squads in the army of God. If you have not found your group let us help you either find the right one or be a part of starting the right one. No one needs to be left behind!

Church Covenant and our Statement of Beliefs

As part of our Membership Matters series we have been talking about the proposals for our Church Covenant and our Statement of Beliefs. These two documents express our commitment to biblical truth and to biblical ethics. We also need to be clear about what we are called to do together as a church.

Sunday night, January 21, I presented the above drawing that “pictures” my proposals for a rewording of our mission statement, the process that should flow from it, as well as key disciplines we need to continually nurture. I hope you will become very familiar with the challenge this drawing represents.

For this month, particularly note the summary of our mission as a church. Our mission is to WORSHIP the Lord, DISCIPLE the saved, SERVE others, and REACH the lost. It will be more fully stated in our proposed Constitution with the following words:

Our mission is to worship the Lord by loving Him with all our heart, mind, soul and strength; to disciple the saved by teaching one another to observe all that Christ commanded; to serve others by loving them as we love ourselves; and to reach the lost by proclaiming the gospel at every opportunity to all people everywhere.

These high purposes flow out of Jesus’ Great Commandment and Great Commission. Everything we do as a church should directly relate to accomplishing one or more of these assignments of our Lord.

Listen carefully in the days ahead as we seek to order our processes to accomplish these missions.

Our Church in 2007

The Bylaws committee is proposing a new bylaw that will require completion of a new member class for all who would join our church. I wholeheartedly support them in this. If we are going to ask those in the future who come into our church to know these things, then clearly, we all need to be on the same page. The result is that Sunday mornings in January our focus will be on the basics of our life together as a church. Both the sermons and the Sunday School lessons will be built around core biblical truths that we will be teaching in our “Discovering Church Membership” class: 

1. Knowing we have been saved matters, so we will teach the basics of salvation and the symbols of that salvation.
   
2. How we live matters, so we will review our church covenant.
   
3. What we believe matters, so we will examine our statement of faith.
   
4. We have a mission to accomplish, so we will consider our church’s strategy and organization.
   
5. Knowing where we have come from matters so we will tell the history of our church.
   
6. Membership matters, but not everyone is clear about that, so we’ll explain it carefully.
    

In addition to Sunday mornings, the evening worship services will also be used to deal with some of the issues that will naturally flow out of these very large areas of teaching. This will be time for some more detailed study and for Questions and Answers from the entire congregation. 

Beginning this month and continuing for the next several months the following areas will need to be discussed and agreement found as we ask for God’s plan for: 

1. Finishing the giving necessary to pay off the debt incurred in the construction of our worship center.
   
2. Defining and calling the right pastoral leadership to help us do the work of ministry.
   
3. Completing and then adopting of a new set of bylaws that will protect the integrity of the gospel and help us be effective for the challenges of this decade.
   
4. Developing a plan for discipleship that will involve the entire body of Christ together, strengthen our families and enable us to build up one another.
    

So, let us labor together, striving according to His power which mightily works in us that we may present every person complete in Christ.

Our Church is in Debt

We should feel the weight of that debt and respond to it.I am not talking about the debt we have incurred to construct our worship center. I’ll be talking about that in January. This debt is larger and must have an even higher priority than what we owe a bank.

The terms are laid out carefully and fully. Our obligations are clear. If Paul owed this, then so do we. He wrote, Both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to wise and to foolish people, I am a debtor. (Romans 1:14) Paul was explaining why he was focusing his whole life on going to people to tell them about Jesus and the new life He alone could offer them.

We are all called to do our part in the preaching the gospel to everyone. You don’t know anyone who does not need to know the Savior, whether they are upwardly mobile or down and out, good old boys or new immigrants, people in Indian River County or the islands of Indonesia. We are God’s called ones to share that message.

This month is always a strategic opportunity in fulfilling this responsibility.

The Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions is a way to make sure every penny you give goes directly to the places where our over 5,000 missionaries are seeking to tell the whole story of Christmas. We are privileged as Southern Baptists to support perhaps the largest and one of the most effective missionary forces in history. We are directly connected to the winning of more new people to faith in Christ through the work of the IMB (International Mission Board) than through all the local ministries of our churches here in the USA.

Would you pray and let the Lord direct what you will give to missions through this offering named for Lottie Moon. (If you don’t know who Lottie Moon is, read her blog at: www.lottielives.blogspot.com) Lead your family to know that what Jesus said is really true. It is more blessed to give than to receive.

Closer to home.

This is the season to share. Every Christmas party, Christmas card, Christmas dinner, and Christmas event has the potential to communicate something of the gospel. Invite people to church. Make sure every member and prospect for your Sunday School class gets a personal and warm invitation to come to your class’s Christmas party.

When I taught a Sunday School class, I never called my absentees about missing on Sundays. I always called to invite tem to our fellowships. Get me to the party, and I’ll inevitably feel good about coming to the class. Oh. And make sure Jesus is honored at your party!

Bring your family and friends to our worship services. Sunday mornings and evenings are special in December. You can count on it; they are going to be all about Jesus!

Our Christmas Eve service may be the best opportunity for some of your friends and family. It will be only forty-five minutes, but Christ and His good news will be shared. Pray. Invite. Come.

At the end of the month, our balance will be as eternally large as it was when we began; but oh the joy and honor of seeking to give toward this grand debt.

Merry Christmas

Every day with Jesus is sweeter than the day before!

Every day with Jesus is sweeter than the day before. That is a great sentence from a great hymn. Those who have been willing to daily abide in Christ have found it to be true. However, it ought to be possible for heaven to sing a similar song about us.

Salvation is present tense as well as past and future. I’ve been saved. I’m going to be saved, (when I arrive in heaven). But right now I’m being saved. Salvation in this sense is the process where the Lord is conforming me to the image of His Son. He is making me the person that by His grace He has already declared me to be. I have not fully arrived, but we ought to all be on the way.

So, the Lord should be able to sing about me, Every day with Frank is sweeter than the day before. And He should be able to sing that about you too.

That is the great theme of Paul’s letter to the Colossians. It is the calling of our church. It is the end result of missions. It should be your deepest desire for your family. It grows daily as the passion of my heart. To use Paul’s words in Colossians 1.28: That we may present everyone complete (mature) in Christ.

As we think through our work, it is going to be important that we have a clear plan to accomplish this big task. It must answer the questions:

How do we …

• move people from spiritual darkness to a full knowledge of the wisdom of Christ?
• move people from alienation and hostility toward God to full devotion to God?
• pull our families together in such a way that they can be used of God to grow the next generation of godly leaders our world needs?
• integrate the many gifts and passions for ministry within our church into a cohesive army that can fulfill it’s mission?

We have only begun to scratch the surface of this small New Testament letter. I encourage you to read and reread it and then come ready on Sunday mornings as we encounter the word of God.

I am only at the beginning, but I am enjoying getting to know this family of faith called King’s Baptist. I believe we can all sense the Lord moving among us and a window of opportunity for us to be richly used in Kingdom advance. Thank you for your prayers and your encouragement. And yes, the food has been delicious too.

I have moved into my new office and it’s great! I don’t yet even know everyone who has worked so hard to provide this excellent space for me to use. How grateful I am for each of them and for the opportunity to be here. There are a few finishing touches that will be a few weeks away, but it is already a wonderful space.

Be sure to invite someone to church with you Sunday. I’m looking forward to worshipping together.