Christ Church, Author at Christ Church

About Christ Church

Shawn Paterson is Director of Content at Christ Church and a graduate of Greyfriars Hall.

September Recap (Bible Reading Challenge)

Christ Church on September 30, 2020

For the Bible Reading Challenge this year, we will be sending out posts with resources pertaining to the readings of the past month for you to explore further. Enjoy!

PODCAST

The podcast is back, and for our first episode of the new plan, Pastor Douglas Wilson came on to talk about all things Genesis. Be on the lookout for the Exodus episode soon!

Don’t forget: You can subscribe on your favorite podcast app to listen (search ‘Bible Reading Challenge’).

SURVEYING THE TEXT: GENESIS

Just as Abraham walked through the land that he was promised without settling down to inherit the land, so we walk through the Bible, the land of promise, not yet in full possession of all that has been given to us. We have it already, we don’t have it yet. Click here to listen.

SURVEYING THE TEXT: JOHN

The Apostle John was overwhelmed by the vastness of Jesus Christ. This fourth Gospel is a cosmic Gospel, but with profound ramifications for us here on earth. It is cosmic, but it is in no way removed from us. No, the ultimate and divine Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Click here to listen.

BOOKS

These two great resources on Genesis are 20% off from Canon Press until Monday, October 5th!

Primeval Saints: What if Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were heroes that we should imitate—even in their deceptions?

Creation in Six Days: Commentators offer a lot of strange opinions on the events of Genesis 1. Jordan shows how the straightforward reading is the only tenable one.

DARWIN’S DEAD END

Back in 2016, the topic for Grace Agenda was young-earth creationism and evolution. Click here to check out those messages from Pastor Douglas Wilson, N.D. Wilson, Dr. Tim Edwards, Dr. Gordon Wilson, and Dr. John C. Sanford.

CCB on Your Phone!

Christ Church on January 7, 2020

Now that we have fully transitioned from Lumen to Church Community Builder (CCB), some of you may be wondering how to access CCB on your smartphones.

Below are instructions on how to create a CCB shortcut that functions like an app on your iPhone, along with a video showing the steps.

Go to christkirk.ccbchurch.com in the Safari app
Click the box with the up arrow at the bottom of your screen
Select ‘Add to Home Screen’ (you may need to slide the list of options beginning with ‘Add to Reading List’ to the left to see this)
Change name from ‘Login | Christ Church’ to ‘CCB’ (optional)
Click ‘Add’ at the top right corner

For Android users, follow the instructions here, along with the above information.

Grace & Peace: Proverbs 19:19

Christ Church on November 19, 2019

At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore (Ps. 16: 11)

A man of great wrath shall suffer punishment: For if thou deliver him, yet thou must do it again.
Proverbs 19:19

We have two important principles established in this brief proverb.

The first principle is that you cannot have sin without consequences, and you cannot have great sin without great consequences. If a man is a volcano, it is useless for him to complain about all the cooled lava down the sides.

And the problem with angry men is that they focus on all the irritations that others provide for them. That is their default drive. And then, when they suffer the consequences of their own anger, they tend to attribute this to others as well. The recoil of their own actions is taken by them as some random third party slapping them in the face. They think the lava must have come from some other volcano.

This relates to the second principle taught here. If you help such a man, if you bail him out, if you help him pick up the pieces, he will almost certainly not take away the right message. The helper is thinking “I hope he sees how much I care, how much I am helping him. I trust that this will be the last time he will do that.” At the same time, the man with the temper is concluding that everyone seems to be taking things in stride, and that it must not be that serious. The person who delivers him from the consequences of his own folly is going to be called upon to do it again.

So the principle is this. You get more of what you subsidize, and less of what you penalize. In this case, the penalty can simply be allowing the angry man who pay the fines that he inflicted on himself. He will be tempted to blame others for these fines, for that is what angry people do, and the person who helps him pay those fines is reinforcing the misinterpretation.

Kirkers Read 08 – A Mere Missionary Letter?

Christ Church on July 23, 2018

Later this week we begin the magnificent Book of Romans. What has come to be in many minds the peak of Paul’s writings was actually a missionary fundraising letter, most likely penned from Corinth around A.D. 57 and delivered to the Roman church by Phoebe. But through the providence of God, it has become arguably the most influential letter written in Christian history.

A bird’s eye view of the structure of the Romans looks like this:[i]

The Gospel as the Revelation of the Righteousness of God (1:1-17)
God’s Righteousness in His Wrath against Sinners (1:18-3:20)
The Saving Righteousness of God (3:21-4:25)
Hope as a Result of Righteousness by Faith (5:1-8:39)
God’s Righteousness to Israel and to the Gentiles (9:1-11:36)
God’s Righteousness in Every Day Life (12:1-15:13)
The Extension of God’s Righteousness through the Pauline Mission (15:14-16:23)
Final Summary of the Gospel of the Righteousness of God (16:25-27)

As you can see, Romans is about the righteousness of God. But the reality is that Romans practically contains all the main themes of Paul’s writings in one. J.I. Packer lists these themes as: God, man, sin, law, judgment, faith, works, grace, creation, redemption, justification, sanctification, the plan of salvation, election, reprobation, the person and work of Christ, the work of the Spirit, the Christian hope, the nature of the church, the place of Jew and Gentile in God’s purpose, the philosophy of the church and world history, the meaning and message of the Old Testament, the significance of baptism, the principles of personal piety and ethics the duties of Christian citizenship — et cetera!”[ii]

So take up and read! Paul’s letter to the Romans has built up the Church for the past two millennia, and God is ready and willing and able to encourage and instruct you through this same letter. But be prepared, for “when the message of Romans gets into a person’s heart there is no telling what may happen.” [iii]

P.S. — If you would like to see all of Paul’s words arranged in one letter, Pastor Doug has recently completed such a project, The Complete Paul. This book is “a compendium of everything the Apostle Paul wrote in systematic, topical order using the Book of Romans as the framework around which to arrange all the topics.”

[i] ESV Study Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2008).

[ii] J.I. Packer, Knowing God (InterVarsity Press, 2011) 254.

[iii] Ibid., 253. Full quote: “All roads in the Bible lead to Romans, and all views afforded by the Bible are seen most clearly from Romans, and when the message of Romans gets into a person’s heart there is not telling what may happen.”

Grace & Peace: Proverbs 23:17–18