Our Saturday Seminar, “How to Study the Bible: Epistles,” is this Saturday, from 9AM – 12PM. If you haven’t registered, you can do so here.

We should read the Bible, meditate on the Bible, and memorize Scripture. We should also study Scripture. This seminar will help you do that with the letters of the New Testament.

Here’s the outline for how we’ll spend out time together:

9:00 AM – 9:50 AM Ryan Kelly will introduce the genre of New Testament letters (using Philippians) and demonstrate online tools for studying the Bible.

10:00 AM – 10:50 AM Ron Giese will facilitate a “Sherlock Holmes” style interactive session in which he gives you a text, shows you what to look for, and lets you find it.

11:00 AM – 11:50 AM Trent Hunter will teach about context using a tool called “tracing” to show how parts of the letter of Philippians work together.

In coordination with this seminar, several helpful books are available at the Book Nook, including Tom Schreiner’s, Interpreting the Pauline Epistles.

In Sunday’s sermon, “The Lord, Your Healer,” we heard two stories of healing. These were stories of the kind of healing God is gracious to provide through his providential use of doctors and technology. Sometimes, of course, he is pleased to do the wonderfully miraculous, as well. We should pray for both.

But however he does it, when we experience relief from pain and physical help in this life, it is always an appetizer for the total healing that God will bring about in the new creation. As Paul writes, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time  are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18).

Here’s the video of the girl from the first story, born deaf and hearing now for the first time:

The second story was of a boy in Guatemala who came to one of our medical clinics for dental help this past May. The next day he met with one of our physical therapists who announced that the boy’s problem was muscular, and largely correctable through stretching. In the last photo you see the boy’s father and grandparents.

If you missed Sunday’s sermon, here’s the clip telling these stories:

Last Sunday, we began a new sermon series, titled, Yahweh.

If you are new to the Bible, that would have to be the most obscure title for a sermon series imaginable. But even for those familiar with Scripture, the context and significance of God’s personal name, translated “Lord” in most Bibles (note the small caps), is still largely uncharted territory. “Yahweh,” though, is used hundreds of times throughout Scripture and it is often joined with other words in order to commemorate a significant moment in the Bible’s salvation story.

On Sunday mornings through September 8, we’re going to look at six of these names together. Here they are:

• August 4 - “The Lord Provides,” by Ron Giese
• August 11 – “The Lord, Your Healer,” by Trent Hunter
• August 18 – “The Lord of Hosts,” by Trent Hunter
• August 25 – “The Lord Is Peace,” by Nathan Sherman
• September 1 – “The Lord, Our Righteousness,” by Trent Hunter
• September 8 – “The Lord Is There,” by Trent Hunter

God is manifold in his perfections and he focuses the revelation of his character and his saving purposes, in part, through his name. For that reason, we have much to look forward to over the next month.

For an introduction to the significance of this name, listen to or watch Ron’s sermon, “The Lord Provides.”

For a more complete introduction to this series, check out this month’s E-Newsletter here. If you aren’t subscribed to DSC’s monthly E-Newsletter, you can do so here.

Knowing what the Bible says about eldership is important for all of us.

It’s important for those who are leading and shepherding as elders, for those who are taking their lead and receiving their care, and for those who aspire to serve formally in this role in the future.

In Sunday’s sermon, “The Shepherding of Christ’s Flock,” we looked at 1 Peter 5:1-5, one of the key passages in the New Testament on eldership. 1 Timothy 3:1-7 would be another go-to passage.

If you are interested in digging around more on this subject, here are a few great books:

• Biblical Eldership: An Urgent Call to Restore Biblical Church Leadership, Alexander Strauch
• Biblical Eldership: Restoring the Eldership to Its Rightful Place in Church, by Alexander Strauch
• Nine Marks of a Healthy Church, by Mark Dever
• Finding Faithful Elders and Deacons, by Thabiti Anyabwile
• Am I Called?: The Summons to Pastoral Ministry, by Dave Harvey

You’ll notice we linked to two books by Alexander Strauch. The first is a thorough treatment of the breath of the Bible’s teaching on the subject, and the second is more more like a pamphlet than a book. Both of these books, along with the others, are available at the Book Nook. If you’re more of a listener then a reader, check out Strauch’s sessions on Biblical Leadership from his visit to DSC for a Saturday Seminar in 2006.

In Sunday’s sermon, “The Life of the Church in the Last Days,” Ryan unpacked the significance of several words, including self-control, seriousness, love, and hospitality. As those who are living in the last days, these are the qualities that should characterize our life together.

From his article, “Create a Contrast Culture in your Church,” here’s a helpful reflection by Jonathan Leeman on how our citizenship in heaven transforms our life together as God’s people.

Think about the local church as an embassy from the future. It’s a formally constituted gathering of Spirit-indwelt kingdom citizens who proclaim and display Christ’s end-time rule. They gather to declare their king’s warnings and promises, and they gather to formally affirm one another as kingdom citizens through the keys given by their king, which they do with baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Here are the laws, and here are the passport holders.

What’s more, these eschatological embassies on earth, spread out like pins on a map, should be characterized by an unworldly culture. It’s not a culture imported from another place, but from a future age. It’s not defined by sushi, cricket, or burqas, but by the habits of holiness and love and the ambassadorial work of discipling, evangelism, hospitality, and caring for the needy.

Citizenship, mind you, is an office. And activities like discipling, evangelism, and hospitality constitute a Christian’s basic office responsibilities. “Go and make disciples,” Jesus says. “Share with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality,” Paul says. These are what Christians do by virtue of being citizens of Christ’s kingdom. We “live as citizens worthy of the gospel,” which means “striving side by side for the faith of the gospel” (Phil. 1:27, my translation; cf. 3:20).

The local church, in short, is the embassy where we show up for work, where we learn to be ambassadors who evangelize and disciple, and where we display an otherworldly culture that shines like stars in the dark night sky (Phil. 2:15).

Leeman continues with 12 ways churches can cultivate such a culture.