monday morning pastor

10 Things Every Christian Should Know About Islam

The following article by Zane Pratt was originally published in Southern Seminary Magazine and was shortly thereafter posted on The Gospel Coalition blog. These are good things to know as we pray for Muslims together during this Ramadan month and proclaim Jesus to them. (HT: Justin Taylor’s helpful summary)

Muslim Man Islam is a fast-growing religion, especially in the Western world. Christians increasingly need to be aware of Islam and, most importantly, how to engage its adherents with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Here are 10 things I learned about Islam during my 20 years as a missionary in a Muslim-majority country.

1. “Muslim” and “Arab” are not the same thing. “Muslim” is a religious term. A Muslim is someone who adheres to the religion of Islam. “Arab,” on the contrary, is an ethno-linguistic term. An Arab is a member of the people group who speak the Arabic language. It is true that Islam originated among the Arabs, and the Qur’an was written in Arabic. However, some Arabs have historically been part of the ancient orthodox Christian churches. On the other hand, Islam spread far beyond the Arab world, and today most Muslims are not Arabs. This includes the Turks, the Kurds, the Iranians, the Pakistanis, other South Asian Muslims, the Malaysians and the Indonesians, almost all of whom are Muslim but none of whom is Arab.

2. The word “Islam” means submission. A Muslim is someone who submits to God. The Islamic conception of who God is, and how he is to be worshiped and served, is based on the teaching of Muhammad. Thus the Islamic creed is: “There is no God but God, and Muhammad is his prophet.”

3. There are two major denominations of Muslims. The two major denominations of Muslims are Sunni and Shi’a. Sunnis are the vast majority, at 85 percent of all Muslims. The split occurred in the first generation after Muhammad’s death and was based on a dispute over who should succeed him as leader of the Islamic community.

4. Islamic theology could be summarized as belief in one God, his prophets, his books, his angels, his decrees, and the final judgment. Islam teaches that humans are born spiritually neutral, perfectly capable of obeying God’s requirements completely, and that they remain this way even after they’ve personally sinned. The need of humanity, therefore, is not salvation but instruction; hence Islam has prophets, but no savior.

5. Islam teaches that Jesus was a great prophet. Islam affirms that Jesus was born of a virgin, that he lived a sinless life, that he performed mighty miracles, and that he will come again at the end of history. It even calls him a word from God. However, it explicitly denies the deity of Christ and repudiates the title “Son of God” as blasphemous. It also (according to the majority view) denies he died on the cross, claiming that Jesus’ visage was imposed on someone else, who was then crucified, and that Jesus was taken up into heaven without tasting death. Islam explicitly denies the possibility of substitutionary atonement.

The Radio, Television, and Facebook: How Technology is Competing with Spiritual Formation

(I love discovering new blogs for pastors. Check this one out by Hal Seed. Thanks, Hal, for your permission to post this here)

Hal Seed:

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, and I’ve love to hear your thoughts.

In 1917 the American Radio and Research Corporation began radio broadcasting and within a few years Americans were bent over little boxes almost every night of the week. Television came in the 1940’s, and within a decade our habits shifted from listening to speakers to watching screens for hours on end. Then Al Gore invented the internet, and soon AOL, then MySpace, then Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest began competing for our evenings.

A little more than a hundred years ago, the American frontier family huddled around candles at the kitchen table after dark. While mom and grandma sewed and mended, kids played quietly and dad read Scripture – out loud – for an hour or more each evening.

Read the rest of this blog via halseed.typepad.com

read the classics - the imitation of Christ

The Imitation of Christ is said to be the most influential spiritual works in Western Christendom other than the Bible itself. This fresh contemporary translation from the 15th Century Latin edition makes the timeless wisdom of this classic available to modern readers in easily understandable language, while retaining the austerity, simplicity and beauty of the original.

Meant to be read in small portions, the Imitation is truly a guide for discovering personal holiness. Although written from the perspective of a medieval monastic, The Imitation contains classic advice for every individual who wishes to develop and grow in faith and personal spirituality.

read the classics - my utmost for his highest

My Utmost For His Highest by Oswald Chambers is a book like none other. The material for it was written while Chambers was serving as a Chaplain with Allied troops in Egypt. There he learned what it was like to talk to men who were on the front line of battle. Chambers pointed the troops to Jesus Christ.

Published in England in 1927, and in the USA in 1935, the book has become one of the most popular religious books ever written. Remarkably, it has never gone out of print. Chambers' popularity grew after his death thanks to his wife, Gertrude Hobbs, who summarized his talks from her extensive shorthand notes.

The book is a devotional, broken down in 365 sections for each day of a year, meant to be read daily for inspiration. Thousands of people have been blessed and challenged as they have regularly read this daily devotional.

Through the years the royalty income from this classic book is used for Christian works that include a school in Africa, distribution of books to many African countries, gifts of books to pastors in Asia, support for a children’s home in Thailand, and many more.

Many agree, if you buy only one book this year, make it My Utmost For His Highest by Oswald Chambers.

 

 

God’s word shapes our lives | YouVersion

As Christ-followers we recognize how important it is to know—and live—God’s Word. We also recognize how difficult that can be sometimes. Scripture is full of tough commands:

via blog.youversion.com

What does God say about poor people?

via www.youtube.com

We are grateful to Wade Burleson for posting this on his blog site.

disciple me!

 

Ever heard someone say, “What a great church we have?"  Here in South Texas we are proud of our churches in so many ways, and, for good reason.  Many have grown up in their church, married in their church and raised their family in their church. 

Some of the best people on “God’s green earth” we have met in our church.  They are real “salt of the earth” folks.  We have served with them, prayed with them, laughed with them, and cried with them.

We are so glad to say that for the most part our churches are still nearly full.  For the most part, our buildings are well-cared-for and maintained.  For many churches the offerings have seldom been better.

We could go on and on describing all the ways we can think of to speak of our churches and ourselves in glowing terms.

However, deep down below the waterline, there are problems unknown to the majority.  For several generations we have failed to keep up with teaching the vital components of the Christian faith to new believers.  Result?  Now we have several generations of church members who have been well-churched but poorly-discipled.

The damage, well, it is practically irreversible for some churches.  While most are still asleep in their staterooms, those in charge have reviewed the charts and inspected the damage and have made the determination that this ship is going down.

But wait!  Could there still be a chance to save the ship?  Yes.  But many will not do what it necessary.  We have to all plug the leaks and maybe, just maybe, there will be a chance that our church will survive.

Do you hear the cries?  "Please, please, someone, disciple me!”

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Allow me to introduce to you, Pete Pawelek.  Pete is pastor of Cowboy Fellowship near San Antonio, Texas.  He has written and published The Absolute Basics of Christianity: A fresh look at the basics for all believers - Pete Pawelek Volumes 1 & 2 to help disciple new believers and old ones as well.  It was field tested for two years before publishing.  It is available for purchase at www.Amazon.com. 

Each book is in a workbook format and provides space to answer questions and complete assignments in the books themselves.  Many pastors in the United States are now using Pete's book to disciple their own members and new believers.  This material is offers an excellent and practical treatment of the things every believer needs to know and discuss with a leader or mentor.

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Check out each week's lesson title.  Titles progress using letters of the alphabet to begin each subject.  Notice how the most basic studies are front and center.

Volume One        

Week One                   Assurance of Salvation                                  

Week Two                   Baptism

Week Three                Church

Week Four                  Discipleship

Week Five                   Evangelism

Week Six                      Forgiveness

Week Seven                Gifts

Week Eight                 Heaven and Hell

Week Nine                  “I Am”

Week Ten                    Joy

Week Eleven              Kingdom

Week Twelve             Love

Week Thirteen         Money

Completion Certificate Details

Appendix One            Memory Verse System

Appendix Two            Spiritual Gifts Test

Volume Two

Week Fourteen           New Life

Week Fifteen                Obedience

Week Sixteen                Prayer

Week Seventeen         Quiet Times

Week Eighteen             Revelation

Week Nineteen            Holy Spirit

Week Twenty                Trinity

Week Twenty-one      Unity

Week Twenty-two      Victorious Life

Week Twenty-three   Worth Walk

Week Twenty-four     X Commandments

Week Twenty-five      Yielding

Week Twenty-six        Zelotes

Completion Certificate Details

Appendix One            Memory Verse System

Appendix Two            Prayer Journal

Appendix Three          Scripture Journal

 

The workbooks can be purchased at www.Amazon.com 

The Absolute Basics of Christianity: A fresh look at the basics for all believers - Pete Pawelek Vol. 1

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Absolute Basics of Christianity: A fresh look at the basics for all believers - Pete Pawelek Vol. 2

Now available all in one:

The Absolute Basics of Christianity: A fresh look at the basics for all believers - Pete Pawelek Vol. 1 & 2

 
 
 

the fearful hoarders

In his book, Spiritual Formation, Henri Nouwen, world-renowned spiritual guide and counselor, tells the story of The Fearful Hoarders.  What is it about?  Why is it in a book about Spiritual Formation?  What would be your guess?

 

Once there was a group of people who surveyed the resources of the world and said to each other: “How can we be sure that we have enough in hard times? We want to survive whatever happens. Let us start collecting food and knowledge so that we are safe and secure when a crisis occurs.” So they stated hoarding, so much so eagerly that other people protested and said: “You have much more than you need, while we don’t have enough to survive. Give us part of your wealth!” But the fearful hoarders said: “No, no, we need to keep this in case of emergency, in case things go bad for us too, in case our lives are threatened.” But the others said:

Christians are the real doomsday preppers

I thought it interesting that "Harold Camping, the Northern California preacher whose radio ministry spent millions of dollars last year predicting a fiery apocalypse that failed to materialize has apologized to his followers in an open letter, saying 'we humbly acknowledge we were wrong' and 'we have no new evidence pointing to another date for the end of the world.'"

However, Camping's predictions along with the renewed interest that somehow the Mayan calendar is predicting the world's end on December 21, 2012 have gotten a lot of people talking. 

Some TV producers are certainly betting on cashing in on the hysteria with their new Nat Geo channel's Doomsday Preppers.  I have watched parts of two shows and predict it will become popular and most likely create some hyteria of its own. 

Now, exactly how does this relate to Christians? 

all ministers are "under" people

The very first thing which needs to be said about Christian ministers of all kinds is that they are "under" people as their servants rather than "over" them (as their leaders, let alone their lords). Jesus made this absolutely plain. The chief characteristic of Christian leaders, he insisted, is humility not authority, and gentleness not power.

John Stott - English Christian leader (1921-2011)