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Dear Student,
One of the questions we must ask ourselves today is this: In a nation full of seriously underfed believers, how do we help people identify and overcome the obstacles—both cultural and personal—that close them off from spiritual nourishment?
I’m sure that you, like me, can easily think of several cultural obstacles. Among them are doubts about the usefulness of doctrine, which lead to churches with shallow beliefs. There is also a loss of confidence in scholarly professors in colleges and seminaries—a fear that deeper training in the faith will produce intellectual skeptics.
These are valid concerns. But I believe I can explain one of the most serious personal obstacles by way of an illustration. Like millions of other people, I took piano lessons when I was a child. I still remember my first lesson from the classic Thompson books. I played with the index finger of my right hand, then changed to the left. It was simple stuff.
I doubt that many people dropped out after the first lesson because it was too difficult. But very few of them ever became accomplished pianists. Why? Because once you get past the elementary level, you begin using two hands, playing chords, and changing tempos. At this point a lot of people quit taking piano because they don’t want to exercise the discipline necessary to get beyond little one-finger tunes.
That’s what happens to many Christians. They become satisfied with the “milk” of the Word, despite the fact that we are called to go beyond the ABC’s of the faith to maturity in Christ. The apostle Paul addressed this mentality when he wrote to the church at Corinth: “But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh” (1 Cor 3:1–3).
Paul’s epistles, as well as the whole of Scripture, were written to be “profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” (2 Tim 3:16) to make us complete. Paul rebuked the Corinthians for being satisfied with milk rather than with meat, because they had been Christians long enough to grow and become more mature.
More than two thousand years later, we again face a dire need for solid teaching of the Word. From day one, Ligonier Ministries has been wholly committed to helping feed this spiritual hunger and slake the thirst of God’s people for the deep truths of the faith.
My biggest passion has been the education of the laity, because it is when God’s people are deeply grounded in the Word that they stand fast against the trials and temptations in this world. I believe this is one reason that in His grace, God has uniquely positioned this ministry to be a reliable source of God-honoring spiritual resources for millions of people. We recently heard from one gentleman who benefited from our website:
“I would like to congratulate you on putting together in my opinion the best Christian ministry website. I have purchased many of Dr. Sproul’s books and have listened online to his radio programs. I have struggled with the concept of election, but must have the kind of rational presentation of the gospel that is offered in his teaching. I have never heard many of the concepts and arguments for the doctrines that are presented here before.” —Carl McIntosh, Kentucky
It is gratifying to see the many ways that God has allowed Ligonier to share our biblical instruction. Providing resources like the teaching series heard on the radio, CDs, and DVDs; Reformation Trust books; Tabletalk magazine; plus conferences and printed literature requires a huge investment of financial resources that we depend on friends like you to supply.
We have much more teaching available in our library that should be on our website. Traffic continues to grow on our website and we want to achieve more than 300,000 visits per month by the end of this year. Now, Ligonier needs $157,200 to convert some 1,000 hours of video and audio teaching for Internet broadcast. This project will take many months and we hope to see a launch of the new Ligonier.org this fall.
o I ask that you will send your gift today to Ligonier as God directs. In January, we had more than 63,000 visitors to our web site. Your gift of $50 this month could help us to reach our goal of expanding teaching materials available on the Web. A gift of $150 will allow us to convert 400 minutes of teaching for the website. The best part is that many of the resources your gift helps create will be offered to Christians around the world free of charge.
However God directs you, I look forward to your response. Your prayers and financial support are a great encouragement to me and the entire staff. Thank you for doing so much to help provide what I believe to be one of the church’s greatest needs today.
Sincerely,
R.C. Sproul
P.S. People face obstacles every day in their pursuit of the truth of God’s Word. And every day, some are being led into error and even destruction by shallow teaching that passes for biblical instruction. Given these realities, we must be at our best to provide the life-giving Word of truth. Thank you again for helping supply resources through your partnership with Ligonier. |
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