The Shepherd’s Fellowship has opened up their Shepherd’s Conference and Resolved Conference media vault. Hundreds of past sessions and seminars are now all available for FREE DOWNLOAD. All you have to do is sign up for a free member account. Way to go, Shepherd’s Fellowship!

It’s also not too late to register for the 2009 Shepherd’s Conference. I’m really looking forward to going back this year.

HT: Tim Challies

Are “sign gifts” like tongues, prophecy, miracles, and healing still available for Christians today? If not, then how do we explain when miracles still seem to occur?

Here are 25 reasons my theology professor, Dr. Craigen, gives that the sign gifts have ceased. There is some overlap here, and some arguments are stronger than other, but there’s a tremendous amount of weight when seeing all these reasons together:

1. The apostles and prophets were at the ‘foundation stage’ of the church (Eph. 2:20).
2. Signs and wonders were clustered around the apostolic ministry (2 Cor. 12:12).
3. The sign gifts confirmed new revelation (Jn. 14:11).
4. The closed canon of Scripture (Rev. 22:18-19) calls into question if supernatural confirmation is still needed.
5. Even the Apostle Paul and others seemed to experience a ‘fade-out’ of miracles (e.g., Phil. 2:27).
6. The church is never exhorted to copy the signs and wonders of Christ and the apostles.
7. A new healing paradigm is given in James 5:14-20 for the local church.
8. Working miracles “at will” passed off the scene.
9. A focus on God’s providence in church and individual lives.
10. History shows only three periods of significant miracles: Moses, Elijah/Enoch, and Jesus/Apostles.
11. The Word of God is fully sufficient without further confirmation.
12. The preaching of the Word draws forth reaction/response (John 6).
13. Rejoicing at salvation was considered better than casting out demons (Lk. 10:17-20).
14. The preaching of the truth is cognitively/rationally grasped.
15. The New Testament miraculous gifts were conferred upon the disciples of Jesus.
16. Pentecost was unique (an abundance of miracles would minimize this watershed event).
17. No apostles today means there was no conferral of miracles beyond the original twelve.
18. False messiahs and false signs and wonders can and will arise (Mt. 24:24).
19. The use of Jesus’ name falsely can and will occur (Mt. 7:15-23).
20. The idea of being ‘slain in the Spirit’ is a type of activity never attested in Scripture.
21. If miracles become the norm, then they are no longer miracles.
22. Prophecy and tongues went out when the ‘mature church’ came online (1 Cor. 13:8-13).
23. Joel 2 and Acts 2 relate the Day of the Lord and the Millennial Kingdom, so it was partially fulfilled at Day of Pentecost.
24. The Word of God does what raising the dead cannot do (Lk. 16:19-31).
25. The Gospel has power in itself to save without signs and wonders (Rom. 1:16-17).

Photo credit: hickory hardscrabble

This Sunday is “Sanctity of Human Life Sunday,” when many Americans pause to celebrate the dignity of all human life made in God’s image (Gen. 1:27).

Did you know that since 1973, nearly 50 million legal abortions have occurred in the U.S.? On average, women give at least three reasons for choosing abortion: 3/4 say that having a baby would interfere with work, school or other responsibilities. About 3/4 also say they cannot afford a child. And 1/2 say they do not want to be a single parent, or are having problems with their husband or partner.

Learning of an unplanned pregnancy can be a frightening and confusing experience, especially for a young teen, a single mom, or a couple who are struggling financially. Life and death decisions are often made when emotions are running high. It’s important for local churches and pro-life pregnancy clinics to provide these people with compassionate care and advice when they need it most.

Here are some other heartbreaking statistics about abortion:

• 22% of all U.S. pregnancies end in abortion.

• More than 23% of legally-induced abortions in the U.S. are performed in California. (About 15% of the nation’s population live in the state.)

• Black women are more than 4.8 times more likely than non-Hispanic white women to have an abortion.

• 88% of all abortions in the U.S. happen during the first trimester, prior to the at 13th week. 52% of all abortions occur before the 9th week of pregnancy.

• The total number of abortions across the whole world in one year is estimated to be 42 million.

**If you, or someone you know, is considering an abortion, please visit this link, or call 1-800-395-HELP for confidential counseling**

David Nelson has written a thought-provoking article called “Going Home at the End of the Day: A Theology of Leaving.”

There’s nothing quite like the satisfaction of seeing a project come to completion. Whether it’s turning in a major term paper, adding the last bit of finish to a hand-crafted piece of furniture, making the final stitches to a massive embroidery project, or watching your child graduate from high school, it’s so rewarding to step back from your work and say, “By God’s grace, I’ve done my best. And the results look good.”

As a master craftsman, God Himself took great pleasure in the completed work of creation: “God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good” (Gen. 1:31).

Nevertheless, most of our days amount to just making small dents in incomplete projects. Rarely do we get that profound sense of accomplishment. But David Nelson reminds us to enjoy the work God has given us, and to find rest in spite of the “unfinishedness” of our lives…

[H]uman labor is by its nature mostly unfinished business. It is one of the exigencies of temporality that many of the tasks we pursue are, for the largest part of their duration, unfinished. It is true that certain work is done over the short term while other work is a long term project. If, for example I set out to grill a cheese sandwich, I have good reason to believe I will complete that labor in the short term, lest I end up with a grilled cheese blackened beyond description or usefulness. Yet other tasks are longer term propositions. Building a new house is not a task quickly completed, and it requires a series of starts and stops, day by day, in which workers determine to finish certain things and leave other things to be completed in due order. Part of the process of work, therefore, is the messy “unfinishedness” of our labors that tend to keep us in the office “after hours.” Some of us will do well to learn to leave what is unfinished for another day, and to rest well in spite of our dissatisfaction with what is undone.

…[L]eaving the office at the end of the day, and the rest that we pursue subsequent to that departure, is a sign of trust in God. It is so in that we are willing to labor hard during the day, and then leave what is unfinished for the day following, trusting that God will sustain us to do so, or indicate that there is other work to be done or, ultimately, that our labors in this age have come to an end.

As I was preparing our order of service for last Sunday, I came across the great hymn “Another Year is Dawning.” This song did not appear in the 1991 Baptist Hymnal, but has been added back into the 2008 Baptist Hymnal.

The tune is Aurelia – the same as “The Church’s One Foundation.” The lyrics were first written in a New Years Card sent out by Francis Ridley Havergal to her friends in 1874, and are especially appropriate as we enter this new year…