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Blogger's Submissions Guidelines

If you share our ministry philosophy to provide free, trustworthy Bible study materials to the world, we invite you to submit materials for review.

INTRODUCTION

The vision of the Biblical Studies Foundation (Bible.org), a non-profit (501c.3) organization, is to equip all people to attain the knowledge of the Son of God, to become mature in Christ, and to be competent to teach others. Our mission is to leverage the power of the Internet to provide people and ministries worldwide with universal access to the NET Bible and other trustworthy Bible study resources. “Ministry First” is our motto.

  • “Ministry First” is our purpose, supporting the vision of Bible.org to see all people become mature followers of Jesus Christ.
  • “Ministry First” is our philosophy--our approach to the world and ministry—to which all Bible.org leaders, team members, partners and participants are challenged to adhere. It is the lens through which we evaluate everything we do.
  • “Ministry First” means that our goal is to say yes to any idea, opportunity or request to do ministry using The NET Bible and/or Bible.org resources.
  • “Ministry First” is our practice of introducing innovative methods, practices and approaches that put ministry ahead of profits.
  • “Ministry First” is our passion, and it is infectious. We pray that you will desire to join us in seeking Ministry First.

BENEFITS TO AUTHOR

Because of the great number of visitors to Bible.org, established and “undiscovered” authors alike are provided with broad visibility.

  • The Bible.org website has over 1,700,000 unique visitors per month (about 20,000,000 per year). Most are in church ministry, are Bible teachers, or are serious Bible students.
  • About one third of the visitors are women.
  • Our website users come from over 175 different countries.
  • You will find Bible.org on the first few Google listings for many biblical and theological topics such as “bible studies”, “bible study”, “bible”, etc. (Try it!)
  • The NET Bible was translated exclusively for Bible.org by twenty-five world class biblical scholars for free viewing and free downloads. It is available free to the world, complete with its 60,000+ translators’ notes.
  • Free access to over 40,000 pages of sermons and other Bible study resources is provided to the world on Bible.org.
  • There are around 750 resources on the site which have been translated into one or more of 28 foreign languages. Most translation work is performed by volunteers for use in foreign ministry settings and then posted on Bible.org.

In certain cases, a representative of our publishing company—The Biblical Studies Press—may discuss with an author the possible publication of material that is particularly popular on Bible.org. A prospective contractual arrangement between the author and The Biblical Studies Press could be discussed if both parties are interested.

Bible.org may also seek your permission and choose to offer your published materials on our online store or link to amazon.. An equitable arrangement regarding sales proceeds will be negotiated with the author. Bible.org uses profits from online sales to support the ongoing work of the ministry and the publishing operation.

KEY THOUGHT…Bible.org’s Ministry First publishing model is based on building relationships with appropriate authors (pastors, teachers, professors, students of the Word, etc.) who desire to share their resources with the world for free online access and use. If you will share your gifts of teaching through Bible.org’s global online ministry, then where applicable, we would like to reciprocate by promoting and selling your materials. The more free resources you post on Bible.org, the more global visibility Bible.org can potentially provide for both your ministry and your related products and services if applicable and appropriate.

Please keep in mind that only materials considered “trustworthy” by the Bible.org staff will be offered on the online store.

You may elect to be available to your reader by e-mail through Bible.org.

The reader would not have your personal e-mail address, but a message would be forwarded to you. You would have the reader’s e-mail address and could reply. Bible.org requests that blind copies (bcc) of the author's response to Bible.org e-mail be directed to Bible.org's Executive Director. This information helps us understand the people we serve, and provides an evaluation tool for knowing how we may improve our service.

The author will be provided with feedback received by Bible.org staff members.

EXPECTATIONS OF BIBLE.ORG

Our reviewers have high standards regarding author’s abilities, writing style and theological orthodoxy in essential matters. Not all of the submissions we receive are accepted for posting. Some examples of reasons for not accepting an article include:

  • Not orthodox (meaning the submission does not reflect mainstream evangelical theology)
  • Not well written or appropriately developed
  • Not theologically or biblically sound
  • Not appropriately written for the intended audience (weak scholarship, etc.)
  • Not needed in terms of content appropriateness for determined purposes
  • Author has not demonstrated appropriate background experience or expertise in the topic
  • Author has failed on a personal spiritual level to be a qualified biblical teacher (living in unreconciled sin, under church discipline, etc.)

We encourage the use of the NET Bible as the author's primary and preferred translation. Citations from the NET Bible can readily be integrated with our electronic Bible search and linking tools. Because of the NET Bible's liberal copyright policies, the author may liberally cite the NET Bible freely without risk of copyright infringement (always refer to Bible.org’s stated copyright and permissions policies posted online at Bible.org for specifics). If the submitted material proves worthy of publication, and if Biblical Studies Press becomes the publisher, the process of preparing for the press would be simplified. In addition, use of the NET Bible helps build credibility for the Bible.org ministry and therefore potentially for you and your ministry.

Where applicable, biblical references should be cited by book, chapter, and verse.

Reference sources should be cited in footnotes or endnotes, and a bibliography should be provided.

For standard spelling, consult Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 11th Edition.

All materials supplied by the author and posted on Bible.org cannot be posted on any other websites except the author’s own ministry website without permission from Bible.org. (see footnote1 for explanation)

Regarding previously published materials, the author must get appropriate permissions to post on Bible.org. It is assumed the author has full legal rights to any material submitted to Bible.org for use and posting. The author will retain any copyrights they own, but Bible.org would own the non exclusive right to post online and use for their ministry purposes without restriction.

Materials posted on Bible.org may not be withdrawn by the author. Search engines and personal downloads will have captured the materials and it is not our policy to reclaim them. See specific details here.

After review, materials will not be returned unless specifically requested and then only at the author’s expense.

PROCEDURES

First of all, please review the Bible.org Doctrinal Statement. Please submit only if you agree with the Doctrinal Statement.

Materials should be submitted to submissions.

Materials should be formatted according to the instructions found on the Formatting Guidelines page

A copy of the Submission Agreement (found here) signed by the author must be on file at Bible.org. Please print out and complete a copy of the agreement and mail it to: Submission's Ministry Director, Bible.org, at our offices. (you may fax or email a scanned copy instead of mail if you prefer) you may find our fax or address here.

The author should expect an opinion from the reviewers within 2-4 weeks after receipt. We will try to review sooner, but it could be even later. We are a ministry and therefore only have certain resources to draw upon at any given time. Bible.org is mostly a volunteer organization.

Bible.org does not guarantee the author will be notified when materials are posted on Bible.org. However, it is easy to search “By Author” in the primary/homepage navbar section to see if your name is listed. We will, however, strive to be a good ministry partner and communicate with you when your materials are accepted and posted.

THANK YOU – We consider it a blessing that you believe the ministry of Bible.org is worthy of your consideration. We take every submission seriously and before the Lord will seek to be faithful to His service as we consider your submission.

1The request for a permission here may sound limiting and you may question why Bible.org--which promotes "ministry first"--would make this statement. Let me explain the rationale: the current algorithms used by search engines (e.g. Google) penalizes sites that duplicate content on multiple sites. Bible.org works hard to have our content high on search engines and having the material duplicated on multiple sites is a danger to our ranking. Therefore we want to know if an article will be on multiple sites.

Related Topics: Administrative and Organization

Q. Living Together And Marriage?

Question: I Am A Christian, And I Am Living With A Woman Who Also Professes To Know Jesus As Her Savior. Is This Wrong? Do I Need To Have A Wedding To Be Married Since We Are Already One Flesh? If We Do Marry, What Restrictions / Prerequisites Might I Expect From A Christian Pastor?

Answer

First of all, let us be clear that sex outside of marriage is sin:

Flee sexual immorality! “Every sin a person commits is outside of the body”– but the immoral person sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? 20 For you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God with your body (1 Corinthians 6:18-20, NET).

Therefore, be imitators of God as dearly loved children 2 and live in love, just as Christ also loved us and gave himself for us, a sacrificial and fragrant offering to God. 3 But among you there must not be either sexual immorality, impurity of any kind, or greed, as these are not fitting for the saints (Ephesians 5:1-3).

Marriage must be honored among all and the marriage bed kept undefiled, for God will judge sexually immoral people and adulterers (Hebrews 13:4; see also 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8).

Dear friends, I urge you as foreigners and exiles to keep away from fleshly desires that do battle against the soul (1 Peter 2:11).

Living together will almost certainly lead to sexual sin, or will at least give the appearance of sexual sin. I would say this to those who would say that they wish to “live together” but remain sexually pure. I’ve not seen that happen yet. But even if this were the case, there would be the appearance of immorality (1 Thessalonians 5:22, KJV).

Now, a further question: “If this couple has already had a sexual relationship, then would they be “one flesh” in God’s eyes, and if so why is there a need for a marriage ceremony?” What difference does “a piece of paper” make, or a wedding ceremony?

Just because a couple has become “one flesh” by having sexual relations, does this constitute a marriage? The short answer is “No.”

The expression, “one flesh,” first occurs in Genesis 2:14. So let’s ponder this text for a moment. It seems to me that one could be reading this passage like this: “Adam and Eve were naked, and were not ashamed, and so they had sex, and this constituted marriage – no ceremony here, just a sexual union.”

But that is not really what the text says. We should read this text more carefully, an in the light of subsequent references to the same event, and the same text:

21 So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. 22 The LORD God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. 23 The man said, “This is now bone of my bones, And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man.” 24 For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. 25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed (Genesis 2:21-25, NAU).

4 He answered, “Have you not read that from the beginning the Creator made them male and female, 5 and said, ‘FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH ‘? 6 “So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate” (Matthew 19:4-6).

31 FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND SHALL BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH (Ephesians 5:31).

Note what Jesus said about this union: First of all, God made Adam and Eve for each other. Then He added, “What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate” (Matthew 19:6). My point is that there is a sequence of events described in this first “one flesh” event in Genesis chapter 2, and later in the New Testament. A number of things preceded becoming one flesh. Both Jesus (Matthew 19) and Paul (Ephesians 5:31) spell this out. First God joins the two together (Genesis 2:22; Matthew 19:6), then there is the matter of the leaving of father and mother (this, in my opinion, requires some formal, public process). The two are joined together (cleave) to become husband and wife. And then (last of all) they become one flesh. The matter of becoming “one flesh” is the conclusion of the marriage process, not the beginning of it, nor is it the sum of what marriage is. But apart from this concluding sexual union, a marriage may not be officially recognized as legitimate.

One might mistakenly equate becoming “one flesh” with “marriage. It is true that when a couple marries, they (subsequently) become one flesh through a sexual union. But it is not accurate to say that every sexual ( “one flesh”) union constitutes a marriage. Think of those illicit unions with prostitutes which Paul condemns (1 Corinthians 6:15-16). Or think of the implications for a young person in this sexually permissive culture who has experienced a great number of sexual liaisons. These can’t all be marriages. Thus, becoming one flesh by virtue of having sex is not synonymous with marriage.

Beyond this, I believe that marriage is a public event, it is an event where a couple makes vows (Malachi 2:14) for all to hear (and to hold them to). The weddings Jesus speaks about, such as in Matthew 25, are clearly a public event, not a private one. So, too, the marriage supper of Revelation 19:9. It is not just a cultural concession in the Bible. It is a public testimony of leaving and cleaving. It is not unlike baptism, which publicly proclaims a break with the world, and a joining with Christ. Can you imagine someone privately baptizing themself?

One final point. I’m not sure about the wisdom of having a protracted “waiting” time in cases where a couple has been living together. Paul writes that it is “better to marry than to burn” (1 Corinthians 7:9). I think a protracted time of separation is impractical, and it puts the couple in a position where they are more likely to fail. (Consider Paul’s warnings to married couples, who wait too long to have sex – 1 Corinthians 7:5). I do believe that in the period between “engagement” and marriage the couple should remain (visibly and truly) separate, both in terms of their living arrangements and in terms of sexual relations.

Bob Deffinbaugh

Related Topics: Issues in Church Leadership/Ministry, Marriage, Sexual Purity, Sexuality

Privacy, Security and Terms of Use Policy

BIBLE.ORG  "PRIVACY,SECURITY AND TERMS OF USE POLICY"

 

Bible.org is committed to respecting and protecting your personal privacy when you use our web sites and protecting your security when you buy items from our store. We make it a priority to maintain industry standard safeguards to protect information you provide to us. We want you to feel safe in your online experience while visiting our sites and we provide this statement which applies to Bible.org’s mobile and Discipleship applications, services and websites worldwide (collectively known as “services”).

 

Personal Information Definition

This policy applies to personally identifiable information (“personal information”), which is information that we directly associate with a specific person or entity (for example, name; email addresses; wireless device location). Personal information does not include “anonymous” or "aggregate" information – neither of which are associated with a specific person or entity. 

  • Bible.org collects personal information when you register for a Bible.org service or otherwise voluntarily provide such information. We may combine personal information collected from you with information from other Bible.org services or third parties to provide a better user experience, including customizing content for you.
  • Bible.org uses cookies and other technologies to enhance your online experience and to learn about how you use Bible.org services in order to improve the quality of our services.
  •  Location-Based Services: For mobile apps our systems capture details about the type and location of the wireless device you use, unless you have the GPS locations services turned off. Our application detects your device's approximate location. We use this information for the sole purpose of providing information related to the applications services. We do not share this information with anyone. You do, however, have the choice to share this information with Facebook or Twitter. You alone have control on how you share your location.
  • Bible.org’s servers (like Google and other web providers) automatically record information when you visit our website or use some of our products, including the URL, IP address, browser type and language, and the date and time of your request.

Uses

  • We may use personal information to provide the services you’ve requested, including services that display customized content and advertising, verify your identity, make internal decisions about current and future services and protect our rights and property. We may contact you by e-mail, about your services and periodically send you our newsletter.
  • To the primary account holder. We cannot be held responsible for information provided through our app if you share your logon information with others who use your mobile device  
  • We do not sell, lease, or rent your personal information. We will only release information that is appropriate to comply with law, preventing fraud or imminent harm, and ensuring the security of our network and services or to protect the rights or safety of our users . We may share aggregated non-personal information with third parties outside of Bible.org.
  • When we use third parties to assist us in processing your personal information, we require that they comply with our Privacy Policy and any other appropriate confidentiality and security measures.

Access and Your Choices

  • We offer you choices when we ask for personal information, whenever reasonably possible.
  • For some users living in regions without religious freedoms, you may need to provide fictional personal information or you may decline to provide personal information to us and/or refuse cookies in your browser, which may cause some of our features or services to not function properly. However, for some of our services we do need an active email to keep the large amount of spammers and registration robots under control.
  •  Access to Your Information: You may access and modify your information by logging on to your account on bible.org or or one of our Discipleship apps or through our Mobile App.(your account is synchronized across services/devices) You can edit your data or you can email us and we will make good faith efforts to resolve requests to correct inaccurate information except where the request is unreasonable, requires disproportionate technical effort or expense, jeopardizes the privacy of others, or would be impractical.

Protecting Your Own Personal Information

  • You play an important role in ensuring the privacy of personal information, including protecting against unauthorized access to your device. Many mobile devices store information both in the phone and on the SIM card. Therefore, before discarding, trading in, or giving away your device, be sure you remove and retain your SIM card and follow the manufacturer's instructions for deleting personal information or other data on the device. (This can be found in your owner's manual or on the manufacturer’s Web site.) If you provide a third-party access to your device, you should understand that personal information will remain on the device and may be accessible, deleted, altered, or transferred to another device or our network servers by the person using the device, and that we will treat that user as you for purposes of this policy.
  • We encourage you to use strong passwords (i.e.caps, numbers and special characters at least 8 characers long) to prevent unauthorized access to your device, your online account, and your voicemail. We recommend that you use unique, non-obvious passwords, that you periodically change your passwords, and that you not share your passwords with others.
     

Security for financial transactions

  • Bible.org web site store: Protecting your privacy is extremely important to us, therefore your online credit card transactions and your donations to the ministry will be processed by a secured 3rd party. Our Website's e-commerce system processes everything about your order except your sensitive credit card information. This step in the order process is performed by a trusted 3rd party company who uses Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption. SSL encryption is an advanced technology recognized as the online industry security standard. This technology is used by all major e-commerce organizations including banks and credit card companies. We have set it up this way so that your credit card information is not maintained by bible.org’s website and therefore can never be stolen from a bible.org’s website.
  • Mobile Applications: Bible.org mobile apps are normally acquired through the service providers stores eg apple (ITunes/app store) ;android app store. When you purchase through these channels, Bible.org has no access to your financial information.

Message Boards/Walls
Please remember that information posted to message boards, user groups, discipleship groups, social networks walls, forums, chat rooms, or the like on the bible.org family of websites and mobile apps becomes public information. Bible.org is not responsible for any unacceptable language or topics discussed, but we have put in place guidelines and moderators who take great effort to ensure that these areas are monitored and that the appropriate Christian behavior is observed. note: forum PM's and posting on discipleship/mobile apps  are not private as they can be monitored for quality of service and abuse detection.

 

Other Privacy Information

We do not solicit children to purchase or use our products. If, however, parents want to authorize their child to use our products by providing them access, You must comply with COPPA and provide us with a signed permission stating such authoriziation. You can fax that to our fax number located on our contact us page. Personal information associated with your childs use will be treated as your information in accordance with this policy. Our Web sites are not designed to attract children under the age of 13 and we do not intentionally or knowingly collect personal information on our sites from anyone under the age of 13 without authorization by the parent. We encourage parents to be involved in the online activities (including wireless Internet browsing) of their children to ensure that no information is collected from a child without verfiable parental consent.

Customer Service Monitoring
We may monitor and record phone calls, e-mails, or other communications between you and our Customer Service/moderator representatives or other employees for training and quality assurance purposes and to review specific transaction requests. 
 

Changing Your Information and Mailing Preferences
Your information is used to send items you ordered to you. Occasionally we will also send you information we believe will be of interest and useful to you including ministry updates and offers to support the ministry. You will always be able to remove yourself quickly and easily should you prefer to no longer receive these updates. If you would like to change our information about you or your mailing preferences (physical or email), simply log in and change your contact information. If you are having trouble contact us at the below address.

Contact Us
Please direct all questions, concerns or comments regarding this privacy policy to bible.org via email or write us at our offices. You can find our  contact information here. Our services may provide links to external Websites maintained by individuals or organizations external to bible.org. Once you access information that links you to another Website, you are subject to the privacy policy of the Website containing the information you have linked to.

 

 Changes to this Statement
Bible.org reserves the right to make changes to this privacy statement at any time and requests that you review this statement periodically for updates.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

 Bible.org has made great effort to offer trustworthy Bible study resources for research, teaching, training and personal maturity. We offer one of the largest collections of Christian resources on the web, for free as a component of our ministry. To get the most out of your visit and your relationship with us please read the additional information below. To find out more about our organization, please visit About Us. Thanks again for visiting bible.org and using our services.

 

Copyright
Bible.org's mission is to make trustworthy resources available for use in teaching and training others as long as it is offered for free. Please review the complete Copyright and Trademark policy for bible.org and the NET Bible.

 

Posting and Submission Policy

  • When materials you submit are accepted to be posted on the bible.org website(s) including forum posts, articles, books, illustrations, audio and video resources, you are agreeing that these will remain available to bible.org and will be available for posting on the bible.org website(s), at our discretion, forever.
  • All remarks, suggestions, ideas, graphics, comments, or other information that you send and submit to bible.org through our sites (other than information we promise to protect under our Privacy Policy or a seperatly signed non-disclosure agreement NDA), and that we accept for posting, becomes and remains our property, even if this agreement is later terminated. That means that we don't have to treat any such accepted submissions as confidential. You can't sue us for using ideas you submit. If we use them, or anything like them, we don't have to pay you or anyone else for them. We can use them for any purpose we deem appropriate to our bible.org mission, without compensating you or anyone else for them.

 

This means that you (and not bible.org) have full responsibility for the message, including its legality, reliability, appropriateness, originality, and copyright.

Limitation of Liability

Bible.org and its mobile applications/websites are made widely available in the hope that they will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. The entire risk as to the quality and performance of the website or mobile app  is with you. Should the mobile application, website or resources provided by bible.org (including but not limited to software and electronic downloads) prove defective; you assume the cost of all necessary servicing, repair or correction. If you purchase the product that you deem defective, we will refund your purchase price. In no event, unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, will bible.org be liable to you for damages, including any general, special, incidental or consequential damages arising out of the use or inability to use any resources provided by bible.org or its websites (including but not limited to loss of data or data being rendered inaccurate or losses sustained by you or a third party), even if such holder or other party has been advised of the possibility of such damages. Since there is no warranty we may provide a support number or a forum that will be monitored for users to assist other users.

And Also...
The above hopefully makes the lawyers happy, now lets discuss our relationship from a Christian point of view. You can expect us to operate at the highest level of integrity and as one would expect a servant of Christ to act. If you have a problem, please let us know and we will attempt to the best of our ability to address it.

 

Acceptance of This Policy

Use of the bible.org website(s) and/or the mobile apps will constitute the user’s acceptance of this privacy policy. If you have any questions about these policies, please feel free to contact us.

 

God Bless you and please enjoy.

updated da  7/27/12 ,5/19/15,1/7/16

Formatting Guidelines for Articles Submitted to Bible.org

Related Media
If you are interested in submitting materials to our website, below are some instructions. To make the conversion to HTML as smooth as possible, it would help if you would follow these guidelines:
  • Please download the file above. It will include 02joel.doc, 03amos.doc, FormattingGuidlines.doc, and Normal.dot. (Instructions for installing the Normal.dot file are at the bottom of this article.)
  • Read the  guidelines below and follow the instructions, especially under the First Things First heading. Try to follow our paragraph styles as you write your materials, or convert your current materials to our scheme of paragraph styles.
    This means that you assign Heading 1 or Heading 2 or Body Text or Quote paragraph styles like we do in the sample 02joel.doc or 03amos.coc.
  • Email us the article for submission and we will insert it into our submission procedure. We'll handle converting it to HTML. Please remember that we receive hundreds of requests per year and cannot include all of them on our site.
  • If you have questions, email us.

Introduction

We have a fairly efficient method of converting documents to the web or ePub so that they have a consistent look. We do this by making sure that our source documents are all formatted with a standard set of paragraph styles. That way, we can open up a document in our conversion program and just click a button and it does most of the work for us. It would be very helpful if you could submit documents that follow our styles. But if you don’t use our style names, if you have your own styles and follow the guidelines below, we can always run a search and replace on your styles and convert them to our names and then run them through the conversion process.

File Naming convention

There are a couple reasons to break a book or series into multiple docs. The main one is if you want your footnote numbers to start over with each chapter or section. When multiple documents that make up a series are submitted, it is important that they are sorted in the directory correctly. The easiest way to handle this is to put numbers at the beginning of the file name. For example, theological journals are typically printed two or four times a year. And they typically have a volume and number system of numbering. Plus there are several articles in each volume/issue. So, we might name the files jets01a01.doc, jets01a02.doc, etc. Or if you had a series of articles on John, you could name them 01a02.doc, etc. Or if you had a series of articles on John, you could name them john01.doc, 01a02.doc, etc. Or if you had a series of articles on John, you could name them john01.doc, john02.doc, 01a02.doc, etc. Or if you had a series of articles on John, you could name them john01.doc, john02.doc, john03.doc, etc. If you have more than 9 documents, be sure to put a “0” (zero) in front of the 1. That way if a book has 11 or 12 articles, they will be sorted correctly.

Formatting Documents

Things You Should Never Do

I hate to start with the negatives, but my hope is that after reading the list, you will say to yourself, “I do that. Why shouldn’t I.” And you will want to read more to find out why.

·         Never hit the Tab key. Tabs don’t convert to the web. So, don’t put them before the first line of a paragraph, after numbers, to make columns, etc. (I’ve often threatened to glue an upside down tack on some people’s tab keys to help them remember)

·         Never just click the list bullet or list number buttons on the tool bar.

·         Never click that center button or right align button on the tool bar.

·         Never manually change a paragraph to look different, except for use of bold and italics.

·         Never use columns.

·         Never use the Insert Symbol dialog box to insert characters. Always use the Alt + whatever character sequence.

Now, let’s see why…

Do Use Paragraph Styles

There are several reasons for using paragraph styles:

Provide Consistent Appearance

If you don’t use paragraph styles, you will have to remember that you were using 14 point, bold, Palatino for all your second level headings.  You will have to manually change every quote to a certain font size, paragraph margin, leading paragraph space, etc.  Chances are good that you will forget to change some of them, or change them to something different. If you use paragraph styles to format a document, then everything in the document will have a consistent appearance.

Global modification of a document

If you compose a whole document, and then at a later date, decide you want to change the look of your quotes, headings, bullet lists, or whatever, using paragraph styles will enable you to modify the whole document by just changing the characteristics of one or two styles.

A little known feature of Word is that if you define all your paragraph styles to be based on a style other than Normal, you can actually change the “base” style and all the others will change too. For example, if I define Body Block to be Times, 12 point and base all my other styles (bullet lists, quotes, etc.) on Body block, and then later change Body Block to 10 point or Arial, every style based on Body Block in my document will change to 10 point or Arial.

Enables other advanced features of Word
Outlining/Table of Contents

Any document that has “Heading 1,” “Heading 2,” etc. assigned, can easily have a table of contents generated with the correct page numbers. And it would be easily updated if we changed the file from 8 ½ by 11 inches to 6 by 9 inches.

Exporting to PowerPoint

If you compose a document and then later decide to create a PowerPoint presentation from the contents of your Word document, PowerPoint has the ability to import the outline from a Word Document. It will do your work for you.

Facilitates the Conversion Process

If you need to convert a Word document to another format such as HTML, XML, etc., then a document formatted with paragraph styles will be easy to convert because all conversion programs look for paragraph styles in the conversion process.  If you don’t use styles, the conversion programs will convert your documents, but what you get will be almost impossible to clean up.

Applying Paragraph Styles

Understand that Microsoft Word automatically assigns the Normal paragraph style to everything. However, you should never use the Normal style. Apply styles to everything. But, don’t apply styles by how they look. Apply them according to their function. I like to divide styles into three types: structure, function and appearance.

Structure Styles

Word has certain styles that it naturally understands as structural styles. These are your Heading 1, Heading 2, Heading 3, etc. styles.

Structure refers to the logical flow of a document. You present your main point, followed by sub points and perhaps even sub sub points. If you are writing a proposal, a sermon, a term paper, etc. it must have decent structure. It helps with creating a neat, consistent appearance, generating tables of contents, outlining, reader understanding, and conversion to other electronic forms.

Never assign a Heading X because you like the way it looks. Assign these paragraph styles according to the level the sentence has in the outline. And NEVER assign a Heading style to a whole paragraph. Keep your headings short!

Bad Structure

Hopefully, you would never submit a paper to anyone with the following outline:
(Notice how we skipped from  H1 to H3 and H2 to H5.)

I. Main Point (H1)

1. Sub Sub Point (H3)

2. Sub Sub Point (H3)

3. Sub Sub Point (H3)

A. Sub Point (H2)

1. Sub Sub Point (H3)

2. Sub Sub Point (H3)

B. Sub Point (H2)

(1). Sub Sub Sub Sub Sub point  (H5)

(1). Sub Sub Sub Sub Sub point (H5)

(1). Sub Sub Sub Sub Sub point (H5)

II. Main Point

Good Structure

This is the proper way:

I. Main Point

A. Sub Point

1. Sub Sub Point

2. Sub Sub Point

a. Sub Sub Sub Point

b. Sub Sub Sub Point

(1) Sub Sub Sub Sub Point

(2) Sub Sub Sub Sub Point

B. Sub Point

II. Main Point

Notice that we never skip a level. If you were to skip a level, it’s more difficult to convert the document to some formats because they are picky about things like that. That may not be a concern to most, but even if all you wanted to do was to automatically generate a table of contents for the document, it would look bad.

Function Styles

All the other styles should be applied according to their function in the document. Styles like Author, Bibliography, Caption, Editor, List Bullet, List Number, Quote, Scripture, Title, etc. are assigned to paragraphs to identify their function in the document. It should be obvious where to assign those.

A Note about List Number Style – Don’t use this unless your numbered list is all together and it’s important that you have a hanging indent appearance. List numbers with intervening paragraphs that are not “list number” cause problems. As much as possible, just use Body Text and manually insert your number.

Appearance Styles

As much as we’d like, we can’t get by with just structural and functional styles. Some stuff still needs to be assigned a style so that it looks a certain way. Below is a list of what we use and explanations of why.

Body Block – paragraphs that are not indented

Body Text – normal first line indented paragraphs – this will be used on the majority of paragraphs. Yes this is really a function style, but it needed explanation.

Center – apply this to text you want centered. And apply it to graphics inserted into the document. Don’t apply this to a heading! Change the formatting of the Heading style so that all the Heading 1’s or whatever are centered if you want them centered.

Poetry – assign to poetry. If you are trying to stagger your text, assign Poetry1 and Poetry2 or something like that.

Quote – should be obvious

Right Align – for some short phrase or name that you want on the right side of the doc. Like the book reviewer’s name at the end of a book review.

Scripture – if there is a long block quote that is a passage from the Bible, then assign the Scripture style. This will look like a Quote, but it saves us time later when we tag the sgml as numbers in this style are ignored in verse tagging. You might also want all your scripture quotations in italics, so while the indention would be the same as a quote, the font for all scripture quotations could be global changed if you used a different style name.

Subtitle – use for centered bold stuff that is not part of the structure of the document. Since it is not part of the “outline”, you wouldn’t assign a heading.

TabA, TabB, etc. – REMEMBER: WE NEVER USE TABS! However, sometimes we need to emulate the appearance of tabs in the text with staggering indents. For example – you might have a literary device called a chiasm that looks like this:

Prodigal Son has a wild party

Prodigal Son is in need

Prodigal Son Repents

Prodigal Son Returns

Prodigal Son receives provisions from father

Prodigal Son attends father’s party

Or you might have an outline at the beginning of section to give an overview of where the reader is going, but it is not part of the main structure of the document. So, you could use the TabA, TabB, etc. styles to preserve the indentations.

Table, TableC, TableR – First of all – we cannot use columns in a document. We must put parallel text in tables. Assign these styles to the text inside tables. Table is left aligned. TableC is for centered text, TableR is for right aligned text.

Other Formatting details

Elipsis – convert . . . to elipsis. A macro is provided.

Fancy quotes – use fancy quotes – a macro is provided.

Small caps and All Caps need to have character styles applied – don’t use the format font menus. Small caps works fine in HTML, but ePub’s do not support this at the present time.

Tabs – I repeat – don’t use tabs anywhere – they don’t translate to html. Use paragraph styles and tables.

Footnotes

Make sure the first paragraph in a footnote is assigned the Footnote Text paragraph style. If you have multiple paragraph footnotes, you can make the successive paragraphs Quote, Center, etc.

Tables

You cannot make fancy tables with columns that span rows. Keep them simple.

Graphics

Never use the Word drawing program. Use some external program and save the graphic as a jpg and insert the file into word.

DON’T use floating pictures, make them in line. If you put the document in Normal View or Draft View, and the pictures disappear, you’ll know you did them wrong.

Assign the “Center” style to pictures.

Installation Instructions

Install the normal.dot file. You can rename it to something else if you’d like.

in windows xp put the file in:

C:\Documents and Settings\your username\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates

in windows 7 put the file in:

C:\Users\your username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates

Using Our Template

Go to file, new and chose the template (if you renamed it to something other than Normal.dot).

Then with an empty doc, do File, Insert and insert your file. Then you will have our styles available to you for reformatting.

Conclusion

Those are the basics of formatting. Take a look at the 02joel.doc and 03amos.doc to see how we used styles on those documents. (Note: the Scripture references in red were added so that the automatic Scripture tagger that we use will recognize the reference and enable the convenient Scripture tagging. Do not use just the numbers...use a standard reference.)

And feel free to email us if you have questions. Email us

Poetic Examples Of Safety In The Scriptures

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Psalm 16 is instructive in that it opens with a plea for safety:

Keep me safe, O God,
for in you I take refuge. (v.1)1

This is a general plea for regular safekeeping in the hands of the Lord. As Alexander adds: “The Psalmist calls upon himself to remember his own solemn acknowledgement of Jehovah as the Lord or Supreme God.”2 As such, he is the supreme source of goodness and happiness. Although encased in a Davidic psalm, the psalmist’s plea for God’s safe keeping is a general one. It stands as a remembrance that, in the ultimate sense, only the Lord is the sure and confident hope for safety in all phases of the believer’s life. Thus, in another psalm, David records God’s own words that He is available for the believer’s protection

Because of the oppression of the weak
and the groaning of the needy,
“I will now arise,” says the LORD,
“I will protect them from those who malign them.” (Ps. 12:5)

Therefore, the psalmist’s can confidently proclaim:

O LORD, you will keep us safe
and protect us … forever. (v. 7)

Such can be seen in Asaph’s psalm:

O my people, hear my teaching;
listen to the words of my mouth (Ps. 78:1)

So it was that David could say:

In the day of trouble
He will keep me safe in his dwelling. (Ps. 27:5)

He would later declare:

How great is your goodness
which you have stored up for those who fear you,
which you bestow in the sight of men,
on those who take refuge in you. (Ps. 31:19-21)

Earlier, though he was in the midst of a time of trouble, David could confidently testify:

Many are asking, “Who can show us any good?”
Let the light of your face shine upon us, O LORD.
You have filled my heart with greater joy
than when the grain and new wine abound
I will lie down and sleep in peace
for you alone, O LORD,
make we dwell in safety. (Ps. 4:6-8)

David’s closing remark here can be realized in many of a believer’s experiences, for God is ever with him.3

The figures of safe and safety occur many times in the biblical book of Proverbs. There we even read of such matters as: “Whoever refuses to strike hands in pledge is safe.” (Pr. 11:15) The term “safety” occurs often; for example, that love and faithfulness lead to safety (Pr. 20:28). In Proverbs 28:18, 26 we are reminded that a person’s “walk” (or conduct in life) can give a display of his wisdom or lack thereof:

He whose walk is blameless is kept safe,
but he whose ways are perverse will certainly fall.

…….

He who trusts in himself is a fool,
but who walks in wisdom is kept safe.

In another Proverb readers are reminded of the value of representing the Lord properly, which every believer needs to do:

The name of the LORD is a strong tower;
the righteous run to it and are safe. (Pr. 18:10)

Indeed, basic to the obtaining of true safety is the need to trust solely in the Lord: “Whoever trusts in the LORD is kept safe” (Pr. 29:25), and be saturated in the sound teaching of the Scriptures (cc. Pr. 1:33; 3:23).

What does all of this strive to impress on our mind and manner of life? Simply put, by learning God’s teaching in the Scriptures, “the man whose confidence is Yahweh is guaranteed a sure footing .”4 As the hymn writer declares:

May the mind of Christ, My Savior, Live in me from day to day,
By His love and pow’r controlling, All I do and say.
May the Word of God dwell richly in my heart from hour to hour,
So that all may see I triumph, Only thru’ His pow’r.5

1 All Scripture references are from the NIV.

2 Joseph A. Alexander, Commentary on Psalms, (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 1991), 73.

3 See further, Franz Delitzsch’s Biblical Commentary on the Psalms, (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1955), I:118..

4 William McKane, Proverbs, (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1970), 298,

5 K.H. Wilkinson, May the Mind of Christ, My Savior, vv. 1-2̣

Related Topics: Devotionals

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1. Character

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**The audio for this article is in two parts, click here for part 1 and here for part 2.**

 

People generally don’t like being called “Dummies.” And yet how can we explain the overwhelming success of a series of books aimed at dummies? Beginning with the November 1991 publication of DOS for Dummies, the series now has more than 100 million books in print, dealing with everything from exercise and nutrition to managing finances to planning a European vacation.

From the very beginning, the concept was simple but powerful: Relate to the anxiety and frustration that people feel about technology by making fun of it through books that are educational and humorous – books that make difficult material interesting and easy. Throw in a dash of personality and some entertaining cartoons and – presto – you have a …For Dummies book!

The Old Testament book of Proverbs does much the same thing (minus the cartoons). It takes the timeless wisdom of God and makes it easy to understand for regular people with no theological training. You could call the book of Proverbs Wisdom for Dummies.

The Old Testament proverbs were collected and written down to help us make one of the most vital and basic choices in life – the choice between wisdom and folly, walking with God or walking on our own. In the book of Proverbs both wisdom and folly are described as people who walk through the streets of the city and call out to us, hawking their wares and beckoning us to taste a sample (Proverbs 1).

Solomon, who is credited with authoring the book of Proverbs, provides us with an excellent jumping off point for developing the character qualities essential to good leadership:

My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. He holds victory in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless, for he guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones.

Then you will understand what is right and just and fair – every good path. For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul. Discretion will protect you, and understanding will guard you.

Proverbs 2:1-11

Leaders cultivate character by acquiring wisdom and understanding. Of course, those possessions don’t come without a price. They require the kind of dedicated and patient labor exercised in mining for gold and silver. Leaders must diligently “search” for the wisdom that is buried within God’s Word like treasure covered by layers of earth and rock. That means using the right tools and exercising patience and diligence as we spend time immersed within this life-changing book. As Marjorie Thompson writes, “It would be nice if we could simply ‘practice the presence of God’ in all of life, without expending energy on particular exercises. But the capacity to remember and abide in God’s presence comes only through steady training.”1 You cannot pay someone else to develop your character strength any more than you can pay them to develop muscles for you. If you want to grow stronger, you will have to push the weight yourself.

Neither can you expect to have a muscular character overnight. It requires effort and time. Douglas J. Rumford says, “Character is like physical exercise or any form of learning; you cannot ‘cram,’ hoping to do in a day or week what can only be accomplished by months and years of consistent practice.”2 This is why the writer of Proverbs uses words that call his readers to energetic and passionate action.

As we dig, we must ask God to provide us with insight and understanding. Ultimately, only God can open our eyes to see spiritual truth and then enable us to apply that truth to our lives (Ephesians 1:18). As God fills our minds with wisdom, our character will develop so that we’ll possess the ability to consistently make right choices – choices that are just, fair and moral. As Henry Blackaby and Claude King note in their book Experiencing God:

Once you come to believe God, you demonstrate your faith by what you do. Some action is required…. You cannot continue life as usual or stay where you are, and go with God at the same time…. To go from your ways, thoughts, and purposes to God’s will always requires a major adjustment. God may require adjustments in your circumstances, relationships, thinking, commitments, actions, and beliefs. Once you have made the necessary adjustments you can follow God in obedience. Keep in mind – the God who calls you is also the One who will enable you to do His will.3

As we seek to possess God’s wisdom, we’ll be able to move beyond simply expressing the vision and values of a leader. We’ll possess the kind of character from which lofty visions and values flow, the kind of character that isn’t swayed by public opinion or fear but pursues true greatness and knows Who the real audience is. Our character will be truly godly, so that others will delight in following us.

God: He’s Quite a Character!

Think about the people you know and admire. Do you know any wise parents, mothers and fathers who demonstrate sound judgment in how they conduct their lives and raise their children? Do you know any grandparents who know when to cheer and when to rebuke, when to be tender and when to use force? Have you ever had a teacher who knew when to give advice and when to just listen, when to instruct and when to let life’s consequences be the teacher? Now try to put a value on those wise insights. How much are they worth?

We all esteem people who possess wisdom in their inward character. If we admire these quality people, how much more should we value the perfection of the living God from whom all wisdom, patience and discernment is derived?

When Moses asked God to reveal his glory to him, the Lord said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence” (Exodus 33:18-19). God had to shield Moses from the fullness of his glory by covering him in the cleft of a rock, and as he passed in front of Moses, God accompanied this awesome display by proclaiming the perfection of his own character:

And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.”

Exodus 34:6-7

When God revealed himself as the compassionate and gracious God who is slow to anger, who abounds in love and faithfulness, who maintains love to thousands and who forgives wickedness, rebellion and sin, he made it clear this his personal character is the absolute standard by which all of these qualities are defined. God is accountable to no one, and there is no higher standard to which he must conform. As the great thinker Anselm said in the 11th century: “God is that than which nothing greater can be conceived.”

Anselm originally made this statement in an attempt to prove God’s existence. But as Michael Witmer points out,

The real legacy of Anselm’s argument is not its attempt to prove God’s existence but rather how it teaches us to speak about God. If God is “that than which nothing greater can be conceived,” then we know there are certain things we must say about him. For starters, we must use only our best words to describe him. God must be righteous, powerful, loving, and kind – all the things that it is better to be than not to be. We may disagree about what items should go in the list…but we all agree that the list must include all the great-making properties we can imagine….

God is qualitatively superior to anything in his creation. There is nothing that compares with the greatest possible being. He is in a class by himself – literally.4

God’s own eternal and uncompromising character is the unchanging standard that gives ultimate meaning to love, graciousness, faithfulness and forbearance. And yet the incredible call of the gospel is that fallen creatures such as we are can now begin to reflect our Father’s character in our own lives. The One who is goodness in his essence, the One who defines virtue by his very being, promises to empower those who will trust him enough to live according to his will.

Character from the Inside Out

People are not impressed by façades or manipulation, but by authenticity and by those who are genuinely other-centered. Character is not a matter of outward technique but of inner reality. God is concerned with what you are really like when no one else is looking. Douglas Rumford, in discussing the sad situation of a Christian leader who lost his ministry due to sexual misconduct, explains that this kind of thing is bound to happen when we allow a “character gap” to develop in our lives. He writes,

The character gap is a weakness that will one day become apparent, when the circumstances or stresses of life converge and reach a breaking point. We may be able to coast for a while, and we may feel quite secure. But raw talent, personality, and fortunate circumstances cannot substitute for the forging of inner holiness, resilience, and the convictions that comprise integrity of character.5

Second Peter 1:5-8 lists the qualities of life and godliness that God wants for each of his children:

For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The character qualities listed in these verses are admirable, but they are also overwhelming. We may aspire to these characteristics, but is it really possible for us to attain them? The answer, both from Scripture and from sheer human experience, is a resounding, “No!” In our own strength, this kind of character is not merely difficult to attain; it is impossible to attain.

If it were simply a matter of fitful human effort, the attempt would be futile. So what are we to do? Shall we simply throw up our hands and walk away from the text, claiming that it makes impossible requests? That would be foolish. What we should do is pay attention to the context into which Peter wrote those words.

The sentences just prior (2 Peter 1:3-4) provide the necessary key: In Christ we have been permitted to access God’s divine power and have been granted the incomprehensible privilege of participating “in the divine nature.” There is only one person who is able to live the Christlike life: Jesus Christ himself. You cannot live the life he calls you to without him (John 15:5). Only as you maintain your connection to him can he live this life through you. As Martin Luther said, “It is not imitation which brings about our sonship of God, but our sonship which makes possible imitation.”6 We have not only received a new nature in Christ (Romans 6:6-13), but we are also indwelled by the Holy Spirit, whose power within us makes it possible for us to manifest these qualities of Christlike character.

True spiritual and character transformation takes place from the inside out, not from the outside in. The attributes of faith, goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness and love flow from the life of Christ that has been implanted within us.

Peter: A Case Study in Character

It’s easy to read Peter’s inspirational words and wonder, “Who writes this stuff? Where do people with such ideals and insights come from?” Well, the man who wrote those inspiring words, the man who exhorted us on to such strength of character, didn’t always live up to those same ideals.

The man who called himself “a witness of Christ’s sufferings” (1 Peter 5:1) was not there when Jesus was hanging on the cross; he was hiding in fear. The man who calls us to be “eager to serve” (1 Peter 5:2) remained seated while Jesus washed the disciples’ feet. The man who tells us that we should “be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray” (1 Peter 4:7) fell asleep while Jesus was sweating blood. The man who so boldly tells us to “submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every authority instituted among men” (1 Peter 2:13) lopped Malchus’ ear off in the Garden (John 18:10-11).

None of this is meant to demean Peter. The point here is to give us hope. This man Peter, who was so impulsive and immature, grew into a great leader of the church. The Peter we read about in the four Gospels became the Peter we read about in the book of Acts and the Peter who wrote two epistles. It took time and effort, but God transformed him. And the same Holy Spirit who worked this transformation in Peter’s life is actively at work transforming those of us who have placed our faith in Christ.

The Gospels leave the reader with two impressions of Peter. The first is that he was at times a comically impulsive character. Twice he jumped out of perfectly seaworthy boats, fully clothed. He challenged Jesus; he spoke out of turn; at times, he seemed to demonstrate more energy and creativity than was appropriate for the moment. But it is that very energy and creativity that underlie the second impression of Peter.

Peter was the disciples’ unofficial leader. He often served as their spokesperson. He was one of the three disciples in Jesus’ “inner circle.” Certainly after Jesus’ departure, the disciples looked to Peter to give them direction. Luke’s record of the church’s early years (the book of Acts) leaves no doubt about Peter’s leadership.

This seemingly conflicting combination of qualities exists in many young leaders and may be identified by a term such as “high mental energy.” Peter was always thinking, and he always thought with a view toward action. When he heard “question,” he immediately thought “answer.” When he observed “problem,” he thought “solution.” When he encountered “options,” he thought “decision.” But he also demonstrated the unfortunate side of that same characteristic. When he heard “silence,” he thought “talk.” When he encountered “disagreement,” he thought “challenge.” “Error” (or at least Peter’s perception of error) sparked “correction.” But whatever the situation, at the very least he did think, and his thinking inevitably led to action.

In his younger years Peter exercised little constraint, and his answers, solutions, decisions and speech sometimes seemed buffoonish. At times his behavior was perceived as insensitive, unconsidered and immature. But like many great leaders, Peter survived himself. With Jesus’ guidance, Peter’s fertile and active mind matured. Through all of his experiences he developed a more-godly, Christlike character. This maturity led his thinking process into more productive channels. He collected, sorted and connected information. He honed his reasoning skills. Peter became a leader because he was not afraid to make a decision. And his godly character informed the decisions he made.

Anyone serving under a leader who suffers “paralysis by analysis” will appreciate Peter’s quick response time. Anyone working in an organization in which “decision by indecision” is the rule understands why people were drawn to Peter. As we follow Peter’s life through the Gospels and then hear his mature voice resonate throughout his two epistles, we appreciate this optimistic, energetic, highly intelligent man of action and deep character. In fact, the Gospel of Mark, which many believe Peter dictated to Mark, is the Gospel that portrays Jesus as a man of action and urgency. The Greek word translated “immediately” is used 42 times in Mark’s 16 chapters.

When the church was on the move, when both the Roman and Jewish leaders were opposing it, when Christians were being martyred for their faith, someone needed to make quick, Spirit-led decisions. And we can only imagine the kinds of issues that could have splintered this frail organization when the church leaped over its cultural boundaries to include Greek-speaking Jews, then Samaritans, then local Gentiles, then Asians and Greeks and Romans. Because Peter was a leader whose ego could endure the threat of disagreement, challenge or even a bad decision, he was not afraid to act. He was not careless, nor did he deal frivolously with critical matters. His godly character wouldn’t allow that. But he was not afraid to move, and under his leadership the church got things done. Peter was a leader who made decisions that mattered.

Loving Your Way to Good Character

It’s amazing what God can do with a person who wants to grow personally and develop character. The great news is that God wants you to grow as much as you can. He redeemed you for that purpose. To discover the lengths to which God will go to forge steel into our character, let’s walk through the smelting furnace along with Peter.

This man had denied Jesus at a critical time; yet later in his life he suffered beatings, imprisonment and eventually death rather than to deny him again. We all know that such character is not developed in a single event. We know that Jesus’ resurrection had a profound influence on Peter’s character transformation. But the manner in which Jesus helped Peter to recover from the worst failure of his life should afford us great encouragement about asking the same Lord Jesus to help us to develop strength of character as well.

Now Peter was sitting out in the courtyard, and a servant girl came to him. “You also were with Jesus of Galilee,” she said.

But he denied it before them all. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said.

Then he went out to the gateway, where another girl saw him and said to the people there, “This fellow was with Jesus of Nazareth.”

He denied it again, with an oath: “I don’t know the man!”

After a little while, those standing there went up to Peter and said, “Surely you are one of them, for your accent gives you away.”

Then he began to call down curses on himself and he swore to them, “I don’t know the man!”

Immediately a rooster crowed. Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken: “Before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.” And he went outside and wept bitterly.

Matthew 26:69-75

To discover just what this event represented to Peter, perhaps we should go back and read a passage from earlier in the same chapter:

Then Jesus told them, “This very night you will all fall away on account of me….

Peter replied, “Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will.”

“I tell you the truth,” Jesus answered, “this very night, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.”

But Peter declared, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.” And all the other disciples said the same.

Matthew 26:31a, 33-35

At this earlier point, Peter’s strength of character could hardly be questioned. He said he was willing to die with Jesus if he had to. But the Son of God was right. That same night, Peter denied even knowing Jesus.

Following all of these events, Jesus was crucified and buried. Three days later he was raised from the dead and was seen briefly by Peter and the other disciples (John 20). But the first conversation between Jesus and Peter, recorded in John 21, shows how Jesus dealt with Peter’s failure:

When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you truly love me more than these?”

“Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.”

Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”

Again Jesus said, “Simon, son of John, do you truly love me?”

He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”

Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.”

The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”

Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.”

Jesus said, “Feed my sheep.”

John 21:14-17

Notice Peter’s sound theological affirmation in verse 17: “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.” Peter was correct. Jesus wasn’t asking Peter the question because he needed to know that answer but because Peter needed to know that answer. Why was it so important for Peter to come to grips with his own answer to that question? It is important for you as well to determine whether your love for Jesus Christ is strong enough to enable you to develop the character qualities his Word encourages and demands. These are the qualities Peter lists in 2 Peter 1:5-8.

In the first 12 chapters of the book of Acts we see Peter as the prominent leader in the fledgling church. His strength of character and conviction are a source of inspiration, challenge and encouragement to many. Our Lord is still seeking men and women who will answer, “Yes Lord, you know that I love you,” and who will then develop the character qualities needed to be a godly leader.

Such character is forged in the small things of life. The big events of life can be viewed as final examinations which reveal the true nature of our inward selves. It is in the seemingly unimportant decisions that our character is strengthened bit by bit. C. S. Lewis used the image of the “central core” within each of us that is formed and molded by our choices:

People often think of Christian morality as a kind of bargain in which God says, “If you keep a lot of rules I’ll reward you, and if you don’t I’ll do the other thing.” I do not think that is the best way of looking at it. I would much rather say that every time you make a choice you are turning the central part of you, the part of you that chooses, into something a little different from what it was before. And taking your life as a whole, with all your innumerable choices, all your life long you are slowly turning this central thing either into a heavenly creature or a hellish creature: either into a creature that is in harmony with God and with other creatures, and with itself, or else into one that is in a state of war and hatred with God, and with its fellow-creatures, and with itself. To be the one kind of creature is heaven: that is, it is joy and peace and knowledge and power. To be the other means madness, horror, idiocy, rage, impotence, and eternal loneliness. Each of us at each moment is progressing to the one state or the other.7

The choices we make today determine our character. And we’ll take our character with us into eternity. Choose wisely!

1Marjorie J. Thompson, Soul Feast: An Invitation to the Christian Spiritual Life (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 1995), p. 11.

2Douglas J. Rumford, SoulShaping: Taking Care of Your Spiritual Life (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale, 1996), p. 354.

3Henry T. Blackaby and Claude V. King, Experiencing God (Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 1994), pp. 147, 151, 153.

4Michael E. Witmer, Heaven Is a Place on Earth (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2004), p. 40.

5Rumford, Soul Shaping, p. 354.

6Quoted in Gordon S. Wakefield, The Westminster Dictionary of Christian Spirituality (Philadelphia, PA: Westminster Press, 1983), p. 209.

7C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (New York: Macmillan, 1943), pp. 86-87.

 

Related Topics: Leadership

Keeping From Slipping

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After opening his psalm with testimony as to God’s goodness (Ps. 73:1), Asaph tells of his personal problems:

But as for me, my feet had almost slipped,
I had nearly lost my foothold.
For I envied the arrogant
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked (Ps. 73:2,3)1

As Perowne observes, “The Psalmist tells the story of the doubts which had assailed him, the temptation to which he had nearly succumbed.”2  Then after speaking of his personal struggles, he expressed his past lament concerning the lives of the wicked (vv. 4-12) and his own overcoming of his misgivings (vv. 13-22), he expresses his realization of his own misunderstandings of life’s realities (vv. 23-26) and concludes his psalm by testifying as to the key to a better life:

Those who are far from you will perish,
you destroy all who are unfaithful to you.
But as for me, it is good to be near God.
I have made the Sovereign LORD my refuge:
I will tell of all your deeds. (vv.  27-28)

Thus, rather than slipping away from the good life, he came to realize the key to a better life (cf. vv. 2, 28).

So, it is as we also struggle with thoughts of the seeming successes of the wicked, may we follow the psalmist’s conclusion and keep ourselves near to and submissive to the Lord, his standards, and his will.

There is a place of comfort sweet, Near to the heart of God,
A place where we our Savior meet, Near to the heart of God.
O Jesus, blest Redeemer, sent from the heart of God,
Hold us, who wait before Thee, Near to the heart of God.3

Elsewhere the psalmist testifies as to the need for believers to praise the Lord, for even in the midst of struggles, “He has preserved our lives and kept our feet from slipping” (Ps. 66:9; cf. Ps. 94:16-19). 

In Psalm 38 David tells of his personal problems, both in body and mind, as well his spiritual difficulties and problems with his adversaries (vv. 1-14, 18-20).  He says,

I wait for you, O LORD;
You will answer, O LORD my God.
For I said, “Do not let them gloat
Or exalt themselves over me when my foot slips.  (Ps. 38:15-16).

Slipping here has a seemingly double force, both as a source of difficulty and yet of the psalmist’s confidence in God’s support.  So it is that he closes his psalm by pleading with the Lord:

O LORD, do not forsake me;
Be not far from me, O my God.
Come quickly to help me,
O LORD my Savior.  (vv. 21-22)

In an earlier psalm David assures the Lord that,

My steps have held to your paths;
my feet have not slipped. (Ps. 17:5)

Therefore, he can ask the Lord to demonstrate his concern for him and his support in the midst of his difficulties (vv. 6-8).  He closes his psalm by assuring the Lord,

And I – in righteousness I will see your face;
When I awake, I will be satisfied with seeing your likeness.  (v. 15)

One can appreciate David’s point of view by comparing his earlier note of confidence in prayer for the Lord’s support in times of danger (Ps. 35:1-9):

My whole being will exclaim,
Who is like you, O Lord?
You rescue the poor from those too strong for them,
the poor and needy from those who rob them. (v. 10)

Surely the believer should remember that with God’s supervision, they will not be forsaken, “they will be protected forever … they will inherit the land and dwell in it forever” (Ps. 37:28-29). Thus, Perowne can say “The Creator of the Universe, the Keeper of the nation, is also the Keeper of the individual.”4

From a consideration of the above Psalms, believers may be assured that by remaining faithful to the Lord and trusting fully in Him they will have a successful and satisfying life, whatever the circumstances.  May we all learn from David’s experiences the high value of trusting the Lord in all of our experiences!  As the hymn writer declares:

Trusting as the moments fly, Trusting as the days go by;
Trusting Him whate’er be fall, Trusting Jesus, that is all.5

1 All scripture references are from the NIV

2 J. J. Stewart Perowne, The Book of Psalms, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1976), III:7.  Cf. Joseph A. Alexander, Commentary on Psalms, (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 1991), 315.

3 Cleland B. McAfee, Near to the Heart of God.

4 Perowne, op. cit., p.373.

5 E. Page, Trusting Jesus.

Related Topics: Devotionals, Faith, Suffering, Trials, Persecution, Temptation

Q. Is “Volunteers” A Good Term For Non-Paid Workers?

I’m uncomfortable with this word because it is not used in the Bible in relation to ministry. What are your thoughts on this?

Answer

Dear *****,

I’m not sure how we would describe the ministry of Paul, based on texts like Acts 18:1-5; 20:33-35; 1 Thessalonians 2:9; and 2 Thessalonians 3:7-10. The fact was that Paul often (perhaps most often) supported himself and others in the church, at some points in time, but then at other times devoted himself fully to ministry when gifts came in which allowed him to do so (Acts 18:5; Philippians 4:14-16).

When we find Paul speaking of the “work of ministry” in Ephesians 4:12 (and other related texts, such as those dealing with church life and spiritual gifts) you don’t see any such distinction made.

I guess I would have to take note of 1 Timothy 5:17-18, where there seems to be a distinction made between those who labor in ministry (part-time?) and those who “work hard” at it.

I would agree with you that any term which is used in a way that appears to regard “volunteers” as second-class workers would be wrong.

Having said this, there does need to be some way of legally distinguishing non-paid workers (volunteers) from salaried workers (staff). My view, based on Ephesians 4, is that “staff” should not be paid to do “the work of ministry” for the church, but rather they are to encourage and support those in the church body to do this ministry.

Blessings,

Bob Deffinbaugh

Related Topics: Issues in Church Leadership/Ministry

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