Quote: Jeff Purswell

People need to leave more aware of what Christ has done (and who He will be) for them than what they must do (or what they must be) for Him.

Quote: Jeff Purswell

We are not after mastering the text, but being mastered by the text.  We are servants of the word, not masters of the word.

Quote: Jeff Purswell

Systematic Theology is our guardrails for preaching.

Quote: Jeff Purswell

Preaching is the ultimate wedding of sound doctrine and charismatic experience.

Amen, Amen and Amen.

Quote: Bob Kauflin

We cannot talk about the glory of God apart from Jesus Christ.


Amen!

More Chapell

The goal of the preacher is not to find novel ways of identifying Christ in every text but to show how each text manifests God's grace in order to prepare and enable his people to embrace the hope provided by Christ.

Quote: Bryan Chapell

Information without application yields frustration (pg 56)


Application is necessary for sound exposition as is explication. (pg 84)


A true expository message uses all its resources to move application (85)


The primary duty of the expositor is to exhort the people of God to apply the truths revealed in Scripture because this is the intent of God's Word.  (85)


We want thoughts about God's Word to result in obedience to Christ (89)


To expound Scripture fully means to unfold the meaning of a text in such a way that listeners can confront, understand, and act on its truths.  (90)


I see a theme...

Piper on Preaching

Heaven and hell are at stake every Sunday morning, not merely because unbelievers might be present, but also because our people are saved "if indeed (they) continue in the faith" (Col 1:23), and faith comes--and stays--by the hearing of the Word of God in the gospel (Rom 8:17).

Piper on Preaching

The Goal of Preaching:  The Glory of God
The Ground of Preaching:  The Cross of Christ
The Gift of Preaching:  The Power of the Holy Spirit


The implication of preaching is plain:  When God sends His emissaries to declare, "Your God Reigns!" His aim is to ravish our affections with irresistible displays of His glory.


Gotta love Piper!

John Owen

To preach the word, therefore, and not to follow it with constant and fervent prayer for its success, is to disbelieve its use, neglect its end, and to cast away the seed of the gospel at random.

Quote: Nathan Sasser

The Apostle John is not concerned with the metaphysics of atemporality.


Hmmmm......


RFB

Jerry Bridges on the Spiritual Disciplines

Grace does not make our effort unnecessary, but it makes it effective.

Jerry Bridges on Preaching

If you are going to be true to Scripture you must preach the imperatives.  But always remember to use the “two book ends.”  Our righteousness in Christ (Gospel) and the power of the Holy Spirit. 

We cannot be perfect and obey these imperatives, but we are clothed in the righteousness of Christ.  Jesus paid the price for our sins and they are all forgiven.  Also, we can never obey on our own, but only through the power of the Spirit.

Never assume the gospel, make it loud and clear.  Never bring in the imperatives of Scripture without explicitly stating the gospel.

Jerry Bridges Favorite Book

Time to get out my copy of Charnock, Jerry Bridges states it is one of his favorites.

Quote: Jerry Bridges

Jerry Bridges is teaching us this week on Gospel based, Spirit dependent transformation.  In class he just said:

The gospel is the foundation and the motivation by the goal is Christlikeness.

Amen!  Our class is looking forward to a great week!

Quote: Mark Mullery

Prayer is an expression of humility.

October in Maryland

 Zoe turned one on October 4.  It is hard to believe that our little snowflake is already one year old!  Of course, to call Zoe little...

She has been a great joy to all of us this past year and it has been a wonderful gift of God's grace to our family.

Sisters hanging out at the nature center.

Both Hope and Gracie love playing with Zoe and being her "other" mom's.  They do a great job.

Playing clue on the sidewalk in front of our house.  After basically 6 weeks of rain here the girls are taking every opportunity to be outside!

DONE: Missiology

This week the entire PC class of 23 went to Philadelphia to CFC  to learn about missiology and church planting.  Dave Harvey taught on missiology and Mark Prader and Andy Farmer taught on church planting and the SG process.

I, of course, came home pumped up from a week talking about planting.  It was a great time with the church planting team guys there at CFC.  The eight church planters in the class had the opportunity to go out to dinner with Mark.  He told us in Feb or March we will learn where our Church Planting Residency will be.  Mark also noted that he already knows, but he would not reveal where each us will be located.

Soli Deo Gloria,

RFB

Not Quite Done: Bible Doctrine

Two weeks ago we had Bible Doctrine with Jeff Purswell.  It was a great week of learning.  Jeff is a gifted teacher who breaks into spontaneous preaching when teaching, he is truly effected by the truth of Scriprure.

It is not quite done because we have a 12-14 page paper to write.  My passage is Jeremiah 31:31-34

Looking forward to it!

RFB

Quote: Dave Harvey

We need a great commission motivation that inspires some to go but most to stay and evangelize their local area through local churches.

Quote: Piper

Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exist because worship doesn’t. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man.

Church History One: DONE

This week we had the privilege of studying ancient church history.  It was a delight to read Augustine.  Being reminded of how those who have come before us suffered and contended for the faith, built my faith.  Remembering how we stand on their shoulders and are able to learn and discuss the doctrines they suffered for was humbling.

I am getting my feet grounded and into a routine with PC and family life.  Getting to know some of the guys better and starting to build closer relationships with a few of the guys.

We also had our first Care Group with Gary and Betsy Ricucci.  That was nice...

Some Highlights of the Week:

• Hope's 9th birthday.  She chose a night out.  We had a babysitter for Zoe and all the girls got dressed up in dresses and we had a wonderful evening out as a family.
• The girls made apple cider at a nature center.
• Seeing how the girls are responding to Becky and they are having a sweet year of home schooling.

Soli Deo Gloria!

RFB

Quote: Robin Boisvert

Robin was not the first to say this:

All theology should lead to doxology.

Old Testament 1: DONE

This was a much busier week than last week.  I finished my exam last Saturday and on Sunday we headed to Colonial Williamsburg in VA for a retreat with our Classical Conversations co-op.

Becky and the girls stayed until Tuesday night and I had to come home Monday night for class the next day.

We had a great time.  Some highlights

• We stayed at a waterpark and had so much fun on the rides.  
• We went to the historic Jamestown Settlement the first permanent European settlement in North America 
• At Colonial Williamsburg we saw many trades from that era:  Silversmith, blacksmith, book printer and binder, shoe maker, gunsmith and many more.
• Also visited Yorktown Battlefield where the British surrendered to George Washington.

We are enjoying the history of this area that we don't have back home!

Today in our back yard we found 2 praying mantises (see picture above) and we able to squish our first stink bug.  Yes, they really do stink...

Looking forward to church history this week in the PC and Hope's birthday on Friday.  The girls have been doing a great job with school which makes Becky's job easier (I am sure it is a result of a great teacher!).

Soli Deo Gloria,

RFB

Quote: Bruce Chick

God loves the church far more than you ever will.

What a great reminder of where our abilities lie, only in the grace of God.

The Basis of holiness is grace.

RFB

Quote: Piper

When you are using illustrations in your sermon, use the Bible.

Wow, why did I never think of the obvious?

Quote: Waltke

The biblical writers write real history in order to teach theology.


Amen.


RFB

First Exam: DONE

We finished our first class this week:  Systematic Theology 1.  This is one of seven courses on systematic theology throughout the year.  We have lecture all week and then a take home exam on the weekend.  This week we had three essay questions to answer in two hours with only an unmarked Bible.  I did not get the third one done to my satisfaction and I was not able to proof read any of the essays, but they are DONE.

Some highlights of this week:

• Date night!!!  Becky and I have been blessed by a wonderful single lady here at the church.  She is watching the girls for us for date nights.  The girls loved her, Gracie said she reminds her of Miss Becky. There is no higher compliment in this house than that.
• Foosball and ping-pong tables showed up in the PC classroom this week.
• We met the Covenant Life second grade class, each of us is adopted by a student and they bring treats in every Friday for us.  Each week one of us spends 30 minutes in their classroom.

It is 8 pm on Saturday night, what is a PC student to do?  Start reading for next week of course...

Soli Deo Gloria,

RFB

Quote: Warfield

The blessedness of man is rooted in the true knowledge of his God—for this is life eternal, that we should know the only true God and Him whom He has sent.

Scripture is the living voice of God speaking directly to the individual soul.

Quote: Wayne Grudem

No believer should think himself or herself too foolish to read Scripture and understand it sufficiently to be made wise by it. 


The only foundation firm enough to rest one's faith on is the word of God itself..


That is encouragement to me!  And remember "encouragement is Red Bull for the soul."  (Prater)

Quote: RC Sproul

Resisting the lordship of Christ is not only sinful, but it is stupid, because God raised Him from the grave, placed Him at His right hand, and given Him all authority in heaven and on earth and has called every person to bow the knee before Him.

Week One: DONE

Well, our class of 23 men from 5 different countries bringing 65 kids along to Maryland has finished week one.

It was a wonderful slow start orientation week of getting to know one another and the staff of SG and Covenant Life Church.

Mostly we had the opportunity to get to know each other better.  I am truly looking forward to ten months of learning from these men.  As Gary R says "the greatest resource you have is each other." That is going to be so true.

Some highlights:

• Lunches with SG and CLC staff
• Meeting many SG staff that I have "known" but never met
• The "Athletic Assessment" with the PC men
• Getting a taste of learning from Jeff Purswell
• Having one PC family over for dinner this week, our goal is to have each family over at least once this year

And for those that know me best, part of my assigned reading for the weekend?  Grudem and Calvin.  Pinch me, I get to focus for 10 months on learning how to continually watch my life and doctrine closely.

Finally, for those of you who have supported us in so many ways, thanks you so much for making this possible for our family.  The thanks to each of you can never be said enough.

Soli Deo Gloria,

RFB

Earthquake in Maryland today!

I was sitting in my study room (man cave) in the basement when the whole house shook for a few seconds.  Becky was on the main floor and the girls upstairs in their room.  The girls had the greatest shaking and a picture fell off their wall.  We all met on the main floor and said "what happened?"  Well, after checking the news a 6.0 earthquake hit near by.

 ⁶By the word of the LORD the heavens were made,
   and by the breath of his mouth all their host.
⁷He gathers the waters of the sea as a heap;
   he puts the deeps in storehouses.
 ⁸Let all the earth fear the LORD;
   let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him!
⁹For he spoke, and it came to be;
   he commanded, and it stood firm.  (Ps. 33)


Praise God that we are safe.  We can now add earthquake to our Maryland experience list!

Soli Deo Gloria,

RFB

CP at the PC

What?  We had a church planter (CP) at the Pastors College (PC) weekender.  The past three days the eight CP at the PC had the privilege of traveling to Covenant Fellowship Church to get to know one another and learn from the church planting team and some recent church planters.  My brain is still on overload, but it was a great weekend.  Some highlights:

• Dave Harvey teaching on ambition
• A panel of 3 church planters
• Mark Prater and Andy Farmer teaching and discussing the process of planting
• Philly cheesesteak and nerf gun wars.

We had a great time together.  I am looking forward to getting to know these men more in the weeks and months to come.

Soli Deo Gloria,

RFB

Quote: Mark Prater

Encouragement is Red Bull for the soul.

No posers plant churches with Sovereign Grace!  (Thanks for the encouragement Mark)

RFB

We Have Arrived!

We have been in Maryland for six days and still feel like we are drinking from a fire hose at times.  We have been so blessed by the love and support of Oasis Church in the helping pack the truck and clean the house on our way out, thanks again.  We also were greatly blessed by John driving out in the truck and helping unload/set up.  We were equally blessed by Becky M driving out with the girls and helping unpack/organize.  We could not have done it without the help of the body.  We love you guys!

We are getting settled and learning the area.  Our new home is nicer than we expected.  There is even a home school family a few doors down with girls the same age.  God has been so faithful to provide every step of the way.

We had a class picnic and the girls each made five or six friends, they were so excited.  Hope made a friend from Germany and is looking forward to learning about Germany.  I am slowly getting to know some of the guys in my class.  I am looking forward from learning from each of them.

I leave tomorrow for a three day pre-PC church planters weekend.  Please pray for God's grace and wisdom for our weekend and for the wives and kids at home.

Soli Deo Gloria

RFB

Quote: DA Carson

As I add quotes to the right I thought I would highlight the quote on the posts.

DA Carson:

How can any thoughtful person be arrogant beside the cross?

Soli Deo Gloria,

RFB

Quote. DA Carson

I am going to try to share favorite quotes from the large amount of reading I am sure Jeff Purswell will be assigning us.

One of our summer books was DA Carson The Cross and Christian Ministry.  Discussing 1 Cor. 3:1-4 and spiritual immaturity, DA tells about how his son as an infant would often "projectile vomit" his formula in the middle of the night.  DA then had this great application:

But there are Christians today who are International-class projectile vomiters, spiritually speaking, after years and years of life.  They simply cannot digest what Paul calls "solid food."  You must give them milk...and if you try to give them anything other than milk, they upchuck and make a mess of everyone and everything around them.  (Pg. 72)


Thanks DA for using projectile vomit and upchuck in the same paragraph!  I only hope I can have as vivid applications and illustrations in my future sermons.

It does cause me to ponder this:  where in my walk with God am I still drinking spiritual milk.  Or better, where am I projectile vomiting over everyone?


Soli Deo Gloria,

RFB

Pastors College (PC)

Our family is 3 weeks away from moving from Minnesota to Maryland to start a new chapter in our lives.

Almost six years ago God graciously destroyed both Becky and I with the grace of His amazing Gospel.  He took two sinners saved by grace, and opened our eyes deeper to the depth of our sin against the Perfect, Holy God of the universe.  This has only made His love, mercy and grace even more amazing.  I am still absolutely amazed that God would save the worst sinner I know, me.

About five years ago God through what at the time seemed to be random circumstances lead us to Oasis Church in Chaska, MN.  A gospel-centered church that we immediately knew was our home.  Through the years God has grown us in our understanding of Him and our love for people.

I have felt called toward eldership for the past 5 years or so.  I also have had a passion for missions.  Through further study and mentoring I have realized these are not two separate passions or calls but one single call.  I believe I have been called to some day, God willing, plant a church.  This internal call has been verified externally by the pastors at my local church.  Oasis Church, the local church that I love so deeply, I feel called to leave to reproduce this gospel-centered local church somewhere else.  Oasis Church, a local church that loves the gospel so much that they are willing to sacrifice to send us to PC.

Which brings us to today.   We are preparing to embark on a journey that we do not yet know the end.  But we go know that God is faithful.  We have learned even deeper through the roller coaster ride of the last few months that He is a good God.   He truly works all things out for our good and His glory.

That brings me to the title of my blog.  The Lord is my Shepherd.  This title is from my favorite Psalm, Ps. 23. Charles Spurgeon (one of my top three favorite dead guys) write on this Psalm

23:1 "There is no "if" nor "but," nor even "I hope so;" but he says, "The Lord is my shepherd." We must cultivate the spirit of assured dependence upon our heavenly Father. The sweetest word of the whole is that monosyllable, "My." He does not say, "The Lord is the shepherd of the world at large, and leadeth forth the multitude as his flock," but "The Lord is my shepherd;" if he be a Shepherd to no one else, he is a Shepherd to me; he cares for me, watches over me, and preserves me. The words are in the present tense. Whatever be the believer's position, he is even now under the pastoral care of Jehovah."

This is my prayer, that I have a "spirit of assured dependence" upon my Lord and Savior.  That I never forget I am "under the pastoral care of Jehovah."

Soli Deo Gloria,

RFB