Charles Whisnant, Personal Library

 

John MacArthur books

 

 

Research Bible Sources For Study

 
God in His wisdom anticipated that we would fumble on this idea about whether or not His Word would be misunderstood, misinterpreted and misapplied, and addressed this very issue through the lips (and pen) of His servant Moses to His children -

    "For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that you should say, 'Who will ascend to heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?' Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, 'Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?' But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it." (Deuteronomy 30:11-14)

God's Word was never intended to be esoteric, dark, enigmatic, cryptic, abstruse, obscure, ambiguous, occluded, enshrouded, inscrutable, or vague. Rather, it is a perfect, sure, right, pure, clean and true light, illuminating the character and plan of God -

    "The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple; the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes; the fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the LORD are true, and righteous altogether." (Psalm 19:7-9) "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path." "The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple." (Psalm 119:105,130)

Personal Reference Library Used for Expository Teaching/Preaching

 September 01 2013- books that I had at the office at the church I brought back to the house.

September 09 2013 I Googled this set. I was shocked to see that they were still available. I was still shocked to see the price of this set.  I was also shocked to see that there was O.T. set too.

 The Complete Biblical Library combines every type ofconventional Bible study tool into a single source. The New Testamentset is 17 volumes, consisting of 9 Study Bibles (containing 70 English translations, verse-by-verse commentary, and a 5-line Greek Interlinear; 6 Greek-English Dictionaries (containing a concordance and word study on all 5457 Greek words); 

$20 When this set came out in the early 1990 I can not remember but I do not believe I paid more than #$20 per book. This set sells at Amazon for $600 and has been as high as $1500.

 The John MacArthur's series of booklets on the books of the Bible. Used back in 1982. Grace no longer puts them out.

Pastor's Study and Library

Pastor Study Office

My surrounding at the house,

My study at the house,

When I was working in any position in a church, I had a nice office.

1. Wooster Baptist Temple: :Youth Pastor.: office
2. Madison Baptist Church, Psstor. Had a very nice office and study (fixed it myself ) The church did not have one before I got there.
3. Victory Baptist Church, Assoc. had a nice little office.
4. FBC of Fort Worth, Minister of Education: Did not have an office.-
5. Mansfield Baptist Temple, Youth Camp Director and Teacher. Did not have an office.
6. Calvary Baptist Church, Youth Pastor. A very nice office. And the men built me book cases.
7. First Baptist Church, Altoona Kansas Pastor/Teacher 1980-1996. Had a library room with some 2500 books. And a beautiful study office. Beautiful book cases built by Kurt Nunnenkmap. I spent nearly every day in the office. Love every minute of it.
8. The brief stay as Pastor in Lusby Mills, had no office.
9. The brief stay at Second Baptist, had a great office, in which I was there every day.
10. The time I was at Ashland Ave Baptist Church, five years. I had no office, Well one I used to set u some of my books.
11. In between being a pastor, I had set up an office at our house. Every book, every binder, every magazine, file cabinet, was at the house. It took up a lot of space at the church
12. Portsmouth Baptist, I had an office.
13. Rivers of Joy Baptist: Pastor/Teacher. The church has a church office in the church building. But I have turned the old church building into by own pastor's office and pastor's study. I really love being in the office and study.
    

Only until I moved to Portsmouth Ohio did I have and study office at the house. From 2003 to 2008 I worked nearly every day at the house working and studying the Bible. I believe I would spend about five to 10 hours a day studying.


And it was not until 2003 did I have a good Gateway computer and on the Internet.

I working in both places now, at the house and at the office at the church. I would love to be able to visit with people at the church more than I do. I like the idea of being at the office. Even when I am at the house, I still dress as if I were at the office at church.

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I have only a few books at the house (less then ten). Most of the books that I had in FBC in Altoona, Kansas I left there.

I would love to have a staff of works, but I don't. So I work out of my house some times then go to the office at the church. I now like doing both.

View of the study at Rivers of Joy Baptist Church

From the study room to the my office view

Books and research books

My Technique research books

My study room:\

By study notes

My office at the church annex building

Pastor/Teacher's Library

 Left side of the study/library room four book cases of three ring binders

The right side of the room: four book cases: Books

 The back wall of the room: three ring binders: with desk in the  center of the room

This is the back wall leading into the office

HOW TO REACH THIS CURRENT GENERATION

PEOPLE THAT DON'T KNOW MUST LEARN

GROW BY LEARNING

Charity asked me the other day, "How did you decide to use the name "Grow By Learning?" And I said "Proverbs 1:2, Proverbs 1:3 and Proverbs 1:5 (now point to those and see the verses)

Charity took this photo of me Sunday Evening at Rivers of Joy Baptist Church. I am getting a Library room ready. Here are a few of my three ring binders of articles I have downloaded from the web and study notes.

Also at Rivers of Joy I am working on my Pastor's Office
Back in Altoona Kansas I also had a great pastor's office. Kurt Nunnenkamp built us a wall to wall book shelf. Who is that guy with dark hair anyway?

A closer look, at the book shelves that Kurt built.

Charity and Kyle loved my office too.

GROW BY LEARNING

If there is anything I love to do it is learning. I loved the library. I would spend hours in my Dad's library as a child and as a youth. I would spend hours at school in the library, both High School and College. When I lived in Texas, Kansas or Kentucky. I would love going to the local public library. Then I had a nice library myself.

When I was pastor at Madison Baptist in Minford, Ohio in 1971 I had a nice library / office.

(I don't have photos of those, wish I had.)



When I went to First Baptist in Altoona, Kansas I had a very nice pastor's office, And a great church library. . And then in Calvary Baptist Church in Connersville Indiana, I had book shelves built in my office.

The point of this post was not to be about my library. I wanted to mention the LEARNING process that I spent yesterday doing.

HOW TO BETTER GET THE MESSAGE OUT ABOUT RIVERS OF JOY BAPTIST CHURCH

I woke up yesterday early, my mind was really working overtime. How can I learn to put our church on the web. The web is here and we should learn to use the medium. Some one moves to town, or is going to move to Scioto County and they are looking for a church. Really. How can we provide the means whereby they can find us on the web.

We are going to have to prepare for the future. As our church members are getting older, we need to give attention to the younger group. We need to meet the needs of us that are older, but we need to seek to reach our youth and young adults as well.

I don't believe we can reach the now generation with the methods that we used when we were younger. Have you seen what our children (3-7) are doing these days? Our teens today are way more advanced than we were.

If we are going to reach those that are younger than we are, we must learn how to reach them.

To cont.

NOW LET'S

LOOK AT THIS

MATTER OF

ATONEMENT:
part two

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Here are a few questions we need to answer:

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(one bookcase of books in Library)

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· Did God because of something within His own nature or something intrinsic to man have to save sinners?


· Did God's attributes of love, mercy and compassion necessitate or force Him to act?

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· Could God have left the whole human race to perish in their sins if He so desired?
Here is the answer to these questions:

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· The scriptural answer as I understand it: God's decision to save a people for Himself was a free choice that was not determined by any internal or external necessity.
> Paul says that God's predestination of the elect to salvation in Christ was "according to the good pleasure of His will" Eph 1:5. "Jesus Christ..gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, Galatians 1:4. In Colossians, Paul said, "it pleased the Father..to reconcile all things to Himself by Him."(1:19).

These verses I believe clearly show that God's decision to save sinners was a free sovereign choice

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Have you wondered why the Bible often speaks of salvation, being born again, as a "free gift" from God? So what does this mean? It doesn’t mean that achieving redemption was without cost. I Corinthians 6:20, 7:23 Christians are "bought at a price." Christ redeemed the church with His own precious blood (1 Peter 1:19). So this free gift refers to the fact that God imparts salvation to the elect freely or voluntarily.

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God was not obligated to save anyone, but out of His own good pleasure He gave "freely".

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God did not have to save anyone! What do you mean by that? But He "freely" did. As Paul said that believers are "justified freely by His grace." Romans 3:24; that God will "freely give us all things," Romans 8:32,; that the Holy Spirit enables us to "know the things that have been freely given to us by God"I Corinthians 2:12. This is what happened when the Holy Spirit enabled me at seven, I believe, to understand what Jesus Christ was freely giving to me, salvation.

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God’s free spirit in giving salvation to the elect, (that is a term I have used forever to mean that God elects people unto salvation, He personally brings people unto Himself, not by anything we do but wholly by His own free will), is directly connected with the biblical concept of grace.

What do you mean?

GRACE as I understand, is that God gives His favor and salvation to those who deserve wrath and hell-fire, to those who hate God and are His enemies. Salvation that is presented in the Bible is never given by obligation or debt. Nor given by God seeing before hand one’s faith, good works, or bloodline, or nationality. Those things have nothing to do with God’s free choice to give as He Himself is glorified. Remember that verse in Romans 9:18 "Therefore He has mercy on whom He will, and whom He will He hardens."

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So was this sovereign good pleasure of God just a decision that was done purely arbitrarily. No. This atonement, the means whereby God could bring one to salvation,was by an act that was rooted in His nature. That was ‘love." John 3:16 "For God so loves the world that he gave His own begotten Son." And I John 4:9-11, "In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the World, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loves us, we also ought to love one another."

Here it is about atonement, the love of God is the spring from which the atonement flows. Jesus’ death was the absolute manifestation of God’s love. "But God" in Romans 5:8, "in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." That is love.

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In Romans 8:29 Paul writes that God’s love preceded election. He loved us first, then elected us to Himself. "For whom He foreknew , He also predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son." "To love before hand."

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Why did Jesus come and die? He didn’t have to. We were all His enemies. No one, nobody loved Jesus. He loved us so, that He did come, and die on the cross.

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God so loved, that He by His free sovereign choice, freely gave grace to those who by His good pleasure, He chose to bring to Himself. Why He set His love on me, I don’t know; but I know it was He who first set His love on me.