Sun Jun 29, 2008
Contending For the Faith
An article on www.christianpost.com caught my eye the other day. It was titled "Bland Secularism" and included a study/poll that described the views of many evangelicals.
www.christianpost.com/article/20080628/survey-indicates-bland-secularism-among-america-s-religious.htm
A startling finding of the poll is that the majority of professing Christians do not believe Christ is the only way to the Father. 66% of Protestants and 79% of all Roman Catholics believe there are other ways to obtain salvation than faith in the crucified and risen Jesus.
Acts 4:12 says "Salvation is found in no one else (than Christ), for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."
Scripture is not ambiguous about Christ as the singular source of salvation for mankind. For the majority of professing Christians to think otherwise is, at the least, for them to be contradicting the explicit teaching of the Word. And to do that is to so greatly undermine the faith, that it is a wonder these same people proclaim it at all.
We are called to contend for the faith, not to sell it out for the sake of political correctness or convenience. May God's glory never be impugned by those who seek to lower His majesty.
In Him,
Toby
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Fri Jun 20, 2008
New Sermon Audio
Here's a link for a sermon I gave this past month called "The Hearing of the Word":
http://www.triunegrace.org/Holt_The_Hearing_of_the_Word_-_Romans_10.14-15.mp3
The thrust of this message is that faith comes from hearing, and hearing from the Word (Romans 10:17). When churches remove the Word of God as their primary means of evangelism (relying on manmade apologetics and/or "seeker sensitive" platforms) they are dishonoring God and functionally dissavowing their mandate to His people.
Take care and may God bless you,
Toby
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Wed Jun 11, 2008
Latest News
Tenatively our home has gone under contract (I say tenatively because there are always contingencies in these things), and we've recently unloaded some of the larger furnishings. Please keep us in your prayers as we modify our lifestyle in accordance with a call to ministry.
This past Sunday I had another opportunity to preach in Sidney, NE. I'll do this again on the 22nd of this month before returning to preach at CMPCA. It is a great privilege to be able to preach the gospel while attending seminary. This summer I'm taking three week-long "intensive" courses and one doctrinal self-study class. The regular immersion this preaching and studying gives me in Scripture is a huge plus.
Colorado weather has gotten hot; the snow is finally melting off Pike's Peak. Will try to post some pics of the fam here in the blog soon.
Til later, may God bless and keep you!
The Holts
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Tue May 27, 2008
Purpose of Life?
An open-ended philosophical question is "What is the meaning of life?" I'm not a huge fan of this question because it often presupposes that we can't or don't know the answer. And that just ain't so!
Ecclesiastes 12:13 says "Fear God, and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man." That, in a nutshell, is the answer to the philosophical question posed above. But it doesn't sound so grand, eh? At least not to sinful man.
Fearing God encompasses every right emotion we are to have toward God. Love, compassion, holy (and legitimate) fear, honor, etc. Keeping His commandments is a necessary function of any element of creation. One is to do what one is created to do. You wouldn't make a coffee cup that won't hold your coffee; you wouldn't build a boat that won't float... nor would God choose to dwell for eternity with those that don't function according to their created purpose (which we do by loving Him and keeping His commandments).
The point of this is simple. Don't ever buy into the idea that you can't know the meaning of life. The Creator of all things has told you what it is!
"He has showed you, O man, what is good.
And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God."
Micah 6:8
People often search a lifetime for purpose, for meaning. The two passages noted above provide the answer. But people don't like that answer. The idea that the purpose of life is to glorify God has very little appeal to egocentric man. But that's like the coffee cup getting cheezed off at its maker-- desiring to, say, serve as a vase for flowers than as drinkware for tepid espresso.
Don't over philosophize life. It won't work. Research the Bible's claims, and if He opens your heart to their validity, then Scripture will provide a light for your path. After all, it's much better to get on about your purpose in life than to spend your days wondering what the purpose is.
More later!
May God Bless You,
The Holts
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Tue May 20, 2008
Audio Sermon - James 1
Here's the link to a sermon I gave recently from James 1. The subject matter dealt with the Biblical mandate that we be "Doers Of The Word."
http://www.cmpca.net/sermons/index.php?file=22&sort=1
Classes are now over for the Spring Term, with final exams and papers complete. That should give me greater ability to update the blog and post some additional papers in the "Archive" section. If you haven't checked it out yet, please do :)
May God Bless You,
Toby
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Mon May 12, 2008
This Past Weekend
This past Friday and Saturday, we held an estate sale and made some good progress in downsizing our household goods (with the idea of creating a standard of living that will offer greater flexibility for ministry work). Still more to do, but we're on our way.
I was given the opportunity to preach in Sidney, Nebraska this past Sunday and had a wonderful time. The church was smaller, but its membership was passionate and holds to a "high view" of God. Text for the sermon was from Romans 10:14-15. I'll look to post some audio sermons soon.
That's it for now, please keep us in your prayers. This week is "finals" week at seminary so I've got some tests and term papers to churn out.
Take care and God bless,
The Holts
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Wed May 07, 2008
Neat Little Story
This afternoon, we received a reminder about the impact Christian parenting can have on one's children.
Over the past couple of months, we have been working to teach our son the Ten Commandments. One of the commandments he never forgets is the 2nd command condemning idol worship. Recently, at McDonalds, they began to promote kids meal toys that are related to the TV show "American Idol." To our five-year-old son, these toys are in violation (purely by incorporating the name 'idol') of God's will, so he has determined that he won't eat McDonalds until they no longer offer those toys. Now obviously, the "American Idol" toys are not in direct violation of the 2nd command, but our son's reaction to even the word idol (and his subsequent forgoing of his favorite restaurant) is still wonderful to see.
It is little things like this which fill my wife and I with confidence and let us know that, despite our many failings, God is still using us to teach His young ones the principles of glorifying Him.
May God bless you,
The Holts
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Thu May 01, 2008
The Peace of Christ
There are a lot of promises made in Scripture for how the hand of God will lift us up and sustain us, and in Colossians 3 we read of the "peace of Christ."
"15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."
The greatest development in the process we're going through has been the peace with which God has sustained us. It's tough reconciling our lifestyle to His call, particularly among friends and family that can't always relate. The truth is I don't think we could do this apart from God's intervention. He has granted us both peace and conviction; in this we are liberated.
May 9th and 10th we'll hold our Estate Sale and we're prayerful we'll be able to unload the bulk of our remaining furnishings, household clutter, etc. Please lift us up in prayer as well... especially our children as they absorb all that's going on.
May God Bless and Keep You,
The Holts
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Sun Apr 20, 2008
Interesting To Note
Our website has the ability to track traffic according to general location (such as from which country and so forth). One of the fascinating things about this process has been the large number of indiviuals who visit the site from outside the US (places like Malaysia, Belgium, South Korea, and many more have residents who've stopped by to see what we're doing here. It is clearly a disproportionate number from the largely US quantity of hits we anticipated).
If I had to speculate (based on feedback) I think many of those who've been interested in what we are doing are those who live and work in the mission fields (and who are familiar with the process we're going through). Thank you to those of you serving our Lord in places abroad, and please feel free to continue saying hello and stopping by!
All is going well, but we are definitely honing in on doing an estate sale to put a large dent in our downsizing process. More to come.
Take care and God bless!
The Holts
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Fri Apr 11, 2008
Latest Update
This past Wednesday I was able to teach again at Village Seven; the material we covered was on 1st Kings Chapter 18 (where Elijah, the lone prophet of God, is pitted against the 450 prophets of Baal. Guess which side wins). It is always a thrill and an honor to teach at V7 as well as CMPCA.
We continue to generate listings on EBay, although we are looking to augment the overall process by having an estate sale at some point in the next month. The EBay fees start to stack up when one uses it almost exclusively for this many transactions.
All else is well. Our daughter is getting over an ear infection, but otherwise both kids are doing fine. Keep us in your prayers!
In Christ,
The Holts
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Wed Apr 02, 2008
Weds Night Teaching
I was blessed to teach again tonight at Village Seven. The people in this particular class are very knowledgeable, which keeps me on my game. The subject was redemptive history, and how one cannot understand Scripture without seeing it through the lens of Christ's redemptive act. To illustrate the point I noted that if one merely reads, say, the accounts and history of Moses without understanding him as a type of Christ, then one misses the great many crucial ways in which he prefigured our Lord and Savior.
In other news, we've been pretty succesful on EBay and Craigslist thus far at selling household goods/posessions. But wow, what a lot of packaging and shipping is involved! Ann has put out an APB for boxes, which now fill one of the garage bays. I look forward to the slimmed down lifestyle we'll have when this is all done.
More later!
The Holts
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Fri Mar 28, 2008
A Long Week
The past number of days we've had a lot on the plate. Many household items went out the door on EBay, and some others via Craigslist. We're weighing the possibility of doing an estate sale to unload the majority of our remaining posessions (online sales are good but there is so much boxing and mailing involved!).
This Sunday I'll preach at Cheyenne Mountain Presbyterian Church here in Colorado Springs. If the audio comes out good we'll post the sermon here on the site. The subject will be from James 1, Verses 22-25:
"But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does."
Keep us in your prayers and God bless,
The Holts
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Sat Mar 22, 2008
Happy Easter!
He is Risen! The implications of this to you and I are immense.
"I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die." John 11:25-26
May God Bless you this Easter.
The Holts
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Sun Mar 16, 2008
Our First Update :)
It's been a long past week. We uploaded 130 or so auctions to EBay earlier this week as part of our process to sell what we own and downsize our lifestyle. The hard part (making the decision to go about this process) is already done; now it is just a matter of completing what we've started. Please pray for us during this time.
Our home has hit the MLS, but the market in our area is not strong right now. It is in God's hands. In the meanwhile we have much to do, and I'm greatly enjoying my opportunities to teach at a couple of our local churches. This upcoming Wednesday the focus is on 2nd Corinthians, and on Easter Sunday it will be the relationship between the first Adam and the last Adam (Christ Jesus). What an honor to speak on.
God Bless and talk to you soon!
The Holts
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Thu Mar 13, 2008
Selling It All on EBay:
Welcome! This is the first entry in our family's blog about our efforts to modify our lifestyle to better reflect our Christian calling. If you haven't already, check out the introductory video on our homepage (www.discipleinthemaking.com) to learn more. For those who are curious, here is an additional rundown:
What are you guys doing?
Selling our home and the vast majority of our household posessions online.
Why?
I (Toby) have been called to full-time ministry for our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. This calling has come with a sense that if I diligently preach certain concepts (discipleship, stewardship, faithfulness, etc.) then my family needs to live accordingly. Not only that, but we want to remain flexible, with a minimal standard of living that could allow us to travel and minister (or accept a call) to places that our current lifestyle wouldn't permit.
So this is "religion" driven?
Yes, but not in the way you might think. We're not acting out of a sense of piety or in hopes of somehow balancing our ledger with God. We are saved by faith alone through grace alone; actions such as we are taking are simply a loving response to a God who loved us first.
Go on.
Look at it this way. As Christians, we know we are called to bow our knee to Christ as our Lord. We know we are called to take up our cross and follow Him; to love Him with all our hearts, soul, strength, and mind. The Bible doesn't equivocate on what our relationship with God should be. And yet, Christians have lifestyles that are typically no different than our secular counterparts. Even worse, many Christian leaders are lowering the bar by watering down longstanding church doctrines. Whatever is noteworthy or "religious" about our actions shouldn't stand out in a truly Christian culture; it only stands out because the modern church has been leavened by a secular society.
What's your first steps?
The day this blog entry is posted (3/14) will be "Day One" of our effort to downsize our lifestyle. On Day One, we will upload a hundred or so listings on EBay, and another batch on Craigslist. These listings will represent years of accumulated household goods and posessions. Our hope is that each few days following, we will upload another batch of listings, and in this way shrink our household goods significantly as the auctions close. Our home itself will also be listed on EBay (it's already on the MLS).
And this will accomplish...?
Logistically, it will jump start the process of winnowing down our belongings to the bare minimums and simplifying our lifestyle. We began this year on church and donor support; our intent is to live modestly heretofore as a way of being good stewards of what God has given us. Additionally, we don't want to feel captive in the years to come by that which need not bound us (a high mortgage, unnecessary purchases/expenses, etc.).
Is the whole family on board?
"Absolutely," my wife, Ann, responds. God may have called me to minister, but he called me first to be a husband and father. When Ann and I explained what we were doing to our five year old son, I wanted him to understand the scope of what our future might entail. To that end, I pulled up the internet site for Compassion International and told him that we, as a family, want to bring God's Word and great happiness to people like the children on Compassion's website that owned very little and hoped even less. Til the day I die, I will picture his face searching the face of another small boy on the screen and tears filling his eyes. The idea of this other small boy needing Jesus, and living without necessary food, money, or even parents brought my son to a quick conclusion: he had always been good about giving his extra toys away to those in need, but now he wanted to give it all. His heart is golden.... regnerated by God to love God's people.
Is there an overall plan, or is this one day at a time?
Right now I am attending seminary, and Ann is attending to the needs of our whole family. I'm presently serving in a wonderful church where I can both preach and teach God's Word alongside their existing (and excellent) pastoral servant. It is Ann and I's hope that within a three month window, we will have sold the vast majority of our belongings, sold our home as well, and identifed short-term housing. Thereafter, we will continue with seminary/church service here in Colorado until God calls me to the right ministry opportunity.
*******
Today's update is a way of setting the stage for those interested in finding out more. Please feel free to leave comments, questions, critiques, or encouragement. I will gladly respond and have another update in the next few days.
If I can in any way pray for YOU, please let me know. The purpose of this website (www.discipleinthemaking.com) is not so much about my family as it is about providing a resource on issues of discipleship (and in so doing, bearing witness to Christ). You'll find several theological videos on our homepage that deal with discipleship, and interesting articles in our document archive as well. Although we both need and seek the help of others in the months to come, I would be most content if this effort does nothing more than point toward Jesus Christ. He is our reason for living, He is our reason for being, and He gives us the only purpose we'll ever need: "Fear God, and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man" (Ecc 12:13).
God bless, and talk to you soon.
Toby Holt and Family
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