To be "in the will of God" or to "live in God's will" is never an issue of one thing, one decision, or one demonstration of yieldedness. It is a matter of attitude--of a mindset according to which one lives his life.

To be in the will of God is to take His will as the general, governing rule and dominating principle of one's whole life. It is to be willing to do anything that God desires, when, where, and how God desires.

Christ is our example. He did always those things that pleased the Father (John 8.29). That was His attitude, His general rule of life, and the dominating principle in every decision He made. This is the "mind" that God wants in every one of His sons (Php 2.6-11).

Lewis Sperry Chafer gives a very succinct description of the elements of this mindset that should find immediate reproduction in the believer:

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Mensaje #36 de la serie sobre la teología sistemática: La Pneumatología

La falsificación de las obras del Espíritu [mp3 audio | pdf notas]

Una serie sobre el Espíritu Santo no sería completa sin hablar de la falsificación de Sus obras. Entonces, esto es lo que vamos a hacer en esta lección (la última lección de la serie sobre la teología).

La Biblia contiene muchas amonestaciones acerca de lo falso. Tenemos que tener cuidado de los falsos hermanos (lo que llamamos falsos convertidos; 2Cor 11.26; Gal 2.4), los falsos maestros (2Ped 2.1), los falsos profetas (Mar 24.24) y aun los falsos Cristos (Mar 13.22). Además, tenemos que tener cuidado con los espíritus, porque hay "falsos espíritus"—o sea, hay espíritus en este mundo que fingen ser de Dios, pero que no son de Él.

Después de todo lo que hemos visto acerca del Espíritu, la última lección es esta: Las obras del Espíritu se pueden falsificar... y se falsifican tanto hoy día que muchos ya se han acostumbrado al engaño. Necesitamos saber cómo identificar esta falsificación para evitarla.

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Save the Earth: Turn Off Your Lights

As I sit here at my desk working on a sermon from Leviticus 1 for Sunday morning, I'm reminded (for whatever reason) that in 14 hours, 30 minutes, and 12 seconds we're all supposed to turn off our lights. If you didn't know, today is "Earth Day" (or something like that) and we are counting down to "Earth Hour." I know... the excitement is hard to contain. We are going to save the world, or poor, dilapidated planet, by turning off our lights.

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I'm working through Stephen Olford's book on expository preaching with several of my people here at Eastside Church (it's a good book and it's also endorsed by my pastor, Jeff Adams!). Last night we went through chapter 15 that deals with "The Preacher and Application." Dr. Olford makes a comment in that chapter that I believe speaks volumes to our generation, and it should encourage us as pastors in our preaching of the Word of God. We don't need to dumb-down the message; we need simply preach and teach the Bible. That's what God expects of us; the rest and the results are up to Him. Dr. Olford says,

"Shallow preaching will produce nothing more than shallow Christians."

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