7 Questions

Tonight, I was going through my old blog posts and I found this post. I posted it back in 2010.  Francis Chan was at the National Conference, highlighted that when we teach the Word of God we need to ask these 7 questions to ourselves. And I think that we also need to ask these 7 questions before we write a blog post sharing with others of what God has taught us or spoken to us.

The 7 questions are:

1. Fear
Am I worry about what people think of my message or what God thinks?

2. Love
Do I genuinely love these people?

3. Accuracy
Am I accurately presenting this passage?

4. Power
Am I depending on the power of the Holy Spirit or my own cleverness?

5. Integrity
Have I applied this message to my own life?

6. Humility
Will this message draw attention to me or to God?

7. Urgency
Do the people really need this message?

(via the Desiring God blog post Seven Questions to Ask Before You Preach)

I pray that God will give you wisdom and understanding of how deep and wide and high His love and truth. Blessings to you!

Woman Who Fears The Lord

First, a woman who fears the Lord is not anxious about the future. Look at verse 25. I love this line, and I praise all you women who are like this: “Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she laughs at the time to come.” Satan dangles in front of her the specter of tomorrow’s troubles, but she glances up at the almighty God at her right hand (her magnificent German Shepherd!) and laughs at Satan’s folly.

Second, the woman who fears the Lord has practical wisdom. Verse 26, “She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.” We’ve been taught from grade school on that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 9:10), so it’s no surprise that the woman who fears the Lord “opens her mouth with wisdom.”

Third, the woman who fears the Lord is strong. Verse 25, “Strength and dignity are her clothing.” Verse 17, “She girds her loins with strength and makes her arms strong.” She will be morally strong. Proverbs 23:17 says, “Let not your heart envy sinners, but continue in the fear of the Lord all the day.” The woman who continues in the fear of the Lord will have power to resist all the allurements to envy, to desire what she shouldn’t have.

Fourth, a woman who fears the Lord will live not for herself alone but for others, especially her husband, if she is married. Verses 11, 12, “The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain. She does him good and not harm all the days of her life.” A woman who fears the Lord will not squander the family’s livelihood on frivolous purchases, but will have the complete trust of her husband because she is for him and not against him.

(Pastor John, 1981, Excerpted from A Woman Who Fears the Lord Is to Be Praised.)

 That’s what I quote from Desiring God blog, the question of the day:

Are you a woman who fears the Lord?

Seven Questions to Ask Before You Preach or Teach the Bible

Francis Chan at the National Conference, highlighted that when we teach the Word of God with:

1. Fear
Am I worry about what people think of my message or what God thinks?

2. Love
Do I genuinely love these people?

3. Accuracy
Am I accurately presenting this passage?

4. Power
Am I depending on the power of the Holy Spirit or my own cleverness?

5. Integrity
Have I applied this message to my own life?

6. Humility
Will this message draw attention to me or to God?

7. Urgency
Do the people really need this message?

Summarize from:

Seven Questions to Ask Before You Preach or Teach the Bible from the Desiring God blog.

via Seven Questions to Ask Before You Preach or Teach the Bible.

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Francis Chan, dalam National Conference, menyatakan saat kita memberitakan Firman Tuhan harus dengan:

1. Rasa Takut
Apakah saya khawatir akan apa pikiran orang tentang pesan Tuhan ini atau akan apa yang Tuhan pikir?

2. Kasih
Apakah saya sungguh-sungguh mengasihi orang-orang ini?

3. Ketepatan
Apakah saya menyampaikan pesan Tuhan dengan tepat?

4. Kuasa
Apakah saya bergantung pada kuasa Roh Kudus atau pada kepintaran saya sendiri?

5. Integritas (Jujur dan Benar)
Apakah saya sudah melakukan firman Tuhan ini dalam hidup saya sendiri?

6. Kerendahan Hati
Apakah pesan ini akan membawa orang lain mendekat pada Tuhan atau pada diri saya sendiri?

7. Sesuai Kebutuhan
Apakah orang-orang ini membutuhkan pesan Tuhan ini?

(Diterjemahkan oleh HMG)

John Piper-When should you confront someone about their sin?

The following is an edited transcript of the audio.

When you see sin or damaging behavior in someone else’s life, how do you know when to keep quiet and when to speak with them?

The first principle that Paul lays down for us is, “Who are we to judge those who are outside? It is those in the church that we are to judge.” So the first answer is, I’m watching sinful destructive behavior all day in the world. Television, movies, YouTube, on the street, in advertising, people are destroying themselves all day long—neighbors and people all around us.

You don’t go to everybody. You are not called to spend 18 hours a day walking up to people saying, “Don’t smoke!” or, “Don’t drink!” or, “Don’t swear!” or, “Don’t hit your wife!” or, “Don’t fail to discipline your children!”

That’s not our job. We preach the gospel to the world, and as occasion arises we might link some destructive behavior to the gospel as a way out.

In the church the question becomes more urgent. In the church, the answer to the question is going to hang on criteria like, how serious is the sin? If it is really serious, immediately urgent, and you know that the person is a part of the church—even if you don’t know them personally—you might go and do Galatians 6:2. “If you find a brother taken in a fault, restore such a one in a spirit of meekness lest you too be tempted.”

So the mindset is, I’ve got a log hanging out of my eye. Now compared to a log, this person’s behavior is a speck. Or even if it is a log, I’ve got my own log. I can’t go to him with a log hanging out of my eye because the log will hit him on the head and do more damage than if I took my log out first.

So my first job is to take out my own log. Then I see clearly, Jesus says, to take the speck out of my brother’s eye. So I’ve become a successful eye surgeon of the sin speck in my brother’s eye by getting the log out of my own eye.

So the criteria is, how serious is the sin, and am I spiritually equipped. And you go in there and try to speak in a way that wouldn’t feel condemning—at least at first. You may have to get tough later, but at first you want to win them. You want to create a bubble of grace in which they feel some hope that even though this is sin, they are loved and accepted.

Another criterion would be, how close is your relationship? Are there other people in this person’s life? If I saw somebody in your small group doing something, and you are the leader of that little group, I might ask you, “Are you concerned about this kind of thing? You might watch out for it in your group.” Because I would rather have someone they know pursue them this way than somebody that has less of a relationship with them.

My final answer would be, have spiritual discernment and spiritual wisdom for the moment about whether this is an auspicious helpful time to talk, or whether another angle would be better.

From desiringgod.org