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Teach Your Children. Pew Principles.

TEACH YOUR CHILDREN. Geoffrey R. Kirkland Christ Fellowship Bible Church  (St. Louis, MO) In this brief article, I hope to convey some parenting advice to teach your children while in the pew at Church.  We as a family have prayerfully and thoughtfully tried to implement these truths — and we are still working at it — and I hope and pray this will benefit other parents who strive to teach the children to sit and listen while in the House of God. Obviously, this requires must patience, compassion, consistency and prayer. May God equip and encourage and enable you to do this for His glory. Stay awake.   When we gather to worship God we must give full attention and devotion to the God of the universe because He deserves it. His character is so flawless and His person is so impeccable and when the gathered church assembles, we draw near to His immediate presence through Christ. Because this is true, parents must diligently teach the children to be alert, awake and focused during the worshi
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Sermon Application Questions (Some Examples for Self & for Others)

HELPS FOR AFTER THE SERMON: QUESTIONS TO ASK OTHERS AND TO ASK YOURSELF Here are some helps for *after* the sermon.  How can you hear the Word and exit with profitableness?  Here are some pastoral helps and ideas to exit with intentionality, focus, deliberateness, sermon-application for your own heart and for others.  1. QUESTIONS to ask others (how do we talk with others?) #1) how did that sermon challenge you? #2) what do you need to change in your life because of that sermon? #3) what did you learn from that text? #4) how did God instruct your heart about His own character? #5) what did God show you about yourself in this sermon/text? #6) what did God show you about Christ & the gospel tonight? 
 Thomas Gouge admonished, “Had you ever tasted of the sweetness of this duty of Divine Meditation, you would finde little time for vain talk, and idle discourses, especially upon the Lords day.” And: 2. QUESTIONS to ask myself after I hear a sermon Questions to ask yourself after you
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Preaching Displays Pastoral Love.

PREACHING DISPLAYS PASTORAL LOVE. Geoffrey R. Kirkland Christ Fellowship Bible Church (St Louis, MO)    CFBCSTL.org   WHY AND HOW?   1.  it is the best way to feed God’s people. The minister of the gospel who faithfully expounds the Word of the living God week by week provides the best diet, the greatest nourishment, the healthiest intake of divine blessing for the people of God. No greater pastoral way of shepherding God’s precious people exists! Feeding the flock of God necessitates a healthy diet of hearing from God through His Word. The best way to nourish God’s people, to strengthen them for Christian living, to motivate them for holiness, and to gladden them in the Triune God is to relentlessly preach the Word of God! 2.  it allows people to hear from God their Father. Every believer has been brought into the family of God. Amazingly and divinely, it consists fully in the work of God. He has brought dead sinners to life and has transferred them into His very own Kingdom. Further
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8 Reasons To Pursue ACBC Certification.

PURSUING ACBC CERTIFICATION Be a trained, certified biblical counselor with ACBC, The Association of Certified Biblical Counselors .     8 REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD PURSUE IT. 1. PERSONAL GROWTH AND KNOWLEDGE As you work through the required steps toward ACBC certification you will understand more of God’s Word and increase your knowledge of God, of Christ, of the gospel, and how it specifically applies to everyday situations of life. The studies for the exams and the preparation for the counseling sessions will all drive you to a humble dependence on God and a desperate longing for His grace as you seek to minister the Word to hurting saints. 2. DISCIPLINE AND ACCOUNTABILITY A wonderful result of pursuing the ACBC certification process is personal discipline. The phases of certification are intense and quite involved. They require time, planning, diligence, study, prayer, and thought. It will teach you and hone personal discipline as you prioritize the time for study and writing. It also
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Older Saints Serving In The Church!

WHAT CAN THE ELDERLY/OLD FOLKS DO AT THE CHURCH?   How can the aging, the older, the senior saints do in the congregation?    Here are some real practical "ministry-ideas of service" for you to consider: You could open your home periodically for a young couple/college students/other members for a home-cooked meal & a time of fellowship. You could write personal letters/encouragement/thank you cards to folks/families in the church. You could personally write and keep contact with your missionaries.You could open your home and have a weekly/bi-weekly prayer meeting for the church members. You could go online & take free courses on biblical counseling so as to be trained and equipped in God's Word to address any issue of life with the Bible. You could make a weekly phone call to each of the women & mothers at the church to encourage them, strengthen them, pray with them, share a verse with them, and ask how you can pray for them this week. As you are exercising a
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Some Parenting Encouragements

 Here is a compilation of parenting quotes for a project I've worked on.  May these encourage all parents to remain vigilant and faithful in praying to God for the souls of our children and doing all we can to point them to Christ each day with gospel-proclamation supported by a holy and humble lifestyle.    SOME PARENTING ENCOURAGEMENTS -- We have failed to understand that children and young people are not God-lovers until the Spirit changes them. They are dead to God. Our attempts at getting these young people to “pray the prayer” when they were small have not necessarily made them children of God. Their behavior belies the true state of their hearts. God has said that the only hope for them, therefore, is the regenerating work of the Spirit in the context of the preaching of the Word (James 1:18). However, our inadequate view of depravity and the inability of man has led us to resort instead to a greater confidence in entertainment to reach them and a minimizing of the use of th
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The Office of Overseer in the Church

The Office of Overseer in the Church Geoffrey R. Kirkland     First Timothy 3:1 gives a simple statement regarding key ingredients of the office of overseer in the local church.  Here are a few of the key takeaways from the verse.   
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