Lesson 22 & 23



..I go so very infrequently, and maybe this is why I like it so much.. I

get to go maybe once every six [or] seven weeks... and when I do go

there to worship it's like hog heaven.. because I get to sit in a

beautiful building.. and I can look out over the city of Dallas.. and

the view is just outstanding... I really enter worship in a big way...

and I'm sitting there listening, and I think.. you know, this man...

even I might respond.. because I'm caught up in the moment, you know,

and it's so great.. my wife comes out of Baptist background.. hers a

narrow legalistic background.. I come out of a Presbyterian background..

so it's her background.. more than mine.. she said, that's what's really

missing in this church.. they don't ever challenge people to do

something.. they don't lay it out.. if they're really serious about this

thing.. I mean, not practical universalists.. but hell is real.. you

know, we ought to think about these things..



Prayer: Our Father, we thank you for this week of chapel.. and I thank

you for Pat Cates.. and countless missionaries who have gone from this

place.. the trophy of Dallas Seminary.. we see wonderful people that you

let us have.. and as we have lived here, and over the years and look out

upon the men and women that you have brought to us.. we can only say to

you, our Father, that we are very grateful that you would entrust into

our hands such large numbers of people.. to be your servants.. we pray

for Pat, we pray for his co-workers.. there are.. many are serving you

in difficulty.. where the Gospel is very hostily received.. our Lord is

not enjoyed.. and yet you have called us to go into all the world and

preach the Gospel.. you have not called us to bear fruit, you have

called us to be faithful.. because fruit is that which you produce

through our lives.. we love you.. so unburden our hearts, our Father, I

would pray that you forgive us.. we need it.. and we can't guarantee how

which you will call us.. the land that you're calling us to... it's often

unexplicable.. and yet our Father, we want to be open to what you have

for us.. we want to serve you.. we don't want to come to the end of our

lives and have that ugly feeling.. that we have succeeded in our lives..

but we settled for less than best.. that you had for us.. help us not to

counsel our fears.. in order to make decisions about how to serve you..

all of us struggle with languages.. all of us struggle with alien

cultures..  all of us struggle with weakness.. but we pray that you

would not allow us to be so ... help us.. we ask you as we search the

Scriptures to listen to you.. where and how you want us to serve you...

we thank you for our time together.. you're a gracious, omnipotent,

sovereign God.. you have spoken that same sovereign peaceful love..

settling forever the issue of our hearts.. we bless you.. we thank you

for the weekend ahead of us.. we pray your grace to rest upon.. we know

our Father..... I pray for them.. we stand on this side of the lectern,

our burden for our students... and we pray for them everyday... that you

would mold them and shape them.. give them a hunger for the Holy

Scriptures and a personal God.. and a great passion that would increase

in the highways and byways of life.. we thank you....... help us.. we

love you.. we thank you... that our sin would not devalue your grace....

we are thankful.... we seek your benediction upon us.. Amen.



..my Nancy is coming home this weekend.. I seem to be getting them one

at a time... and she is struggling in college, and what's bad about her

struggling is that she doesn't know it.. so I have to enlighten her that

she is.. she's on a party kick, you know.. she's a great kid.... she'll

stay up 'til 2 and get up at 5 to go to somebody's party.. why do you

have a party at 5 in the morning.. this is not logical.. even when I was

in college it wasn't logical.. so we need to talk about that..



..if you're a Michael Harper, it has an Anglican feel to it.. so what

I'm saying is, whatever container this movement.. it defines itself by

that container.. so if you can't point to dominant leaders.. you can't

point to dominant center.. this is their theology.. except for the

notion of a meaningful profound subsequent baptism is a wonderful

thing.. you can't point to tongues anymore.. used to be we could..

doggoneit.. now we can't.. it was really nice when you could pin them

like.. a butterfly.. just kidding.... but any gift now signifies this

really profound mercy of God..



..I want to be honest.. there's a sad side to this.. and that is, many

of them are profound.. meteors of bright light.. but they fall so

rapidly.. now that argument has been softened by what has happened to us

recently.. we seem to be dropping off like flies.. but having said

that.. there's a sadness to it.. a huge stone that will fly like

meteor and yet flop.. Kathryn Khulman will die of suicide.... and yet

there must've been something profoundly intriguing.. in spite of all

that was preached.. that she couldn't grapple with.. I'm not saying that

all of them turned out this way..



..they're going to claim what all movements claim.. primitive.. we are

primitive.. that means we are original.. and my answer is, there's no

primitive church.. no.. none of us are restoration.. what they mean by

that is you pick something out of totality and confuse with the

totality.. as far as I know, no denomination is really faithful to

totality of what's in Holy Scripture.. they either add or reduce..



..they place a high priority on feeling the faith and a low priority on

the objectivity.. I don't think I'm being unkind.. in fact, I think

evangelicalism has wandered off that way too..