Every believer is called/commanded/commissioned by God to be a minister/servant for Him in our world.  Acts makes that point over & over again.  The book of Acts teaches us how the early Church began to fulfill the Great Commission and thereby teaches us as God’s modern-day Church how to do it as well.  Every believer has a ministry to perform, and none are exempt.  What we should desire is that as we perform God’s ministry in the world we should desire to be as effective as we possibly can.  Acts 16: 11-18 can be helpful to us in that aspect, in that it shows us some ministry patterns that Paul and his partners in this second missionary journey employed as they served King Jesus on mission.  Here’s what we learn as we go through this passage…

1) In our life’s ministry we need to go to where the people are and look for hearts receptive to the gospel.  Verses 11-14

This is the pattern throughout the book of Acts.  Paul went to the cities and looked for receptive hearts.

The cities were/are important because that’s where the people are and gospel ministry can be maximized there.  Example, each one reaching one.  Reach more people that can in turn reach more people.  Cities also spill into surrounding areas and effect culture & society at large.  It is not the opposite.  Most Christians seek to change culture the opposite way.  We stay in our small-town communities and preach about the culture with hardly any change to boast of.  Believers must get into the cities and invest time there.  But, we must go there with a plan.  Don’t just go to where the people are, but look for people who’s hearts are open & receptive to the gospel.  Paul usually started in the synagogue but Philippi did not have one.  So, he looked for places where people would be open to public sharing of faith and he found it in a group of women who met to pray with one another.  By the way, this is a very effective way to share the gospel.  Seek to intentionally start conversations with people with the intention of sharing the gospel.

Let me share some news with you about where people hang out.  People are not only in the cities, but they are also online, facebook in particular.  According to the facebook website over 400 million people use facebook.  If facebook were a country that would make it the third largest country on the earth.  The great thing about facebook is over 70% of the users are from outside the United States.  Get on facebook and be strategic about sharing your faith there.

2) In your life’s ministry ascribe value to every individual.

-In verses 11-18 there is something that would have been strikingly unusual to a first century audience that we just read right over.  The first converts in Philippi are WOMEN!  We cannot miss the prominent role women play in God’s story.  (Examples include John 4, Jesus speaking to the woman at the well; Women were the first to hear & proclaim news of the resurrection of Jesus, etc…)  Point is, God ascribes value to women in His Word that their societies did not offer, and that is true even today.  Think about the places where women, and all life in general for that matter, are valued and I will show you a place where Christianity has been accepted or now is being accepted.  Those places place the most dignity & respect on all human life.

Where does this value come from?  It comes from God Himself.  Genesis 1: 27 & 9: 5-6 teach us specifically that God made mankind in His image & likeness.  That’s where human value comes from.

Now, we must be clear here though.  Men & women are equal in value, but they are not the same when it comes to functions/roles they play in church or society in general.  Many liberals have sought to remove any/all restrictions on women performing functions in the church, bowing to the pressures society places on them.  But God’s Word is clear when it comes to this matter.  For those who balk at this idea God already had prophesied this would happen in Genesis 3: 16.  Critics say this devalues women by limiting their roles in church.  Limiting function has nothing to do with value.  Think with me about the trinity.  In our orthodox understanding of the Trinity God has reveals Himself in three distinct persons; Father, Son, Spirit.  All three are equal, but yet, all three perform different functions, and none of the three ever express jealousy/envy towards the other because of the limitations.

Knowing that God places value on all human life should cause those who follow Jesus to do the same.  Believers should not just love the loveable, but should be marked by our love for the unloveable.  This also provides us with all the motivation we need to share the gospel with ALL people.

3) In your life’s ministy recognize there is a real, active enemy to all believers.      Verses 16-18

More will be said about these verses in the future, but for now we must recognize that there is a real, present, active enemy against all believers/followers of Jesus.  We must not overemphasize the spiritual, nor should be underemphasize the spiritual, but rather, we should recognize the presence of spiritual beings, both good & evil and reaffirm our commitment to the Lordship of Jesus, and seek to faithfully serve Him.

These verses tell us about a girl who was demon possessed and through the influence of the demon harrassed the ministry team of Paul, Silas, Timothy & Luke.  Demons are real and they really seek to wreak havoc on those who seek to serve God.  For that reason Paul writes in Ephesians 6: 10-12 about the real presence of demonic forces.  John also later encourages believers in I John 4: 4 that God’s Spirit in us in more powerful that they.  For that reason we must seek to keep on keeping on for Jesus’ sake.

Are you serving Jesus with ALL your heart?  If not, confess your sins of selfishness & idolatry and serve Him.  Do you value ALL human life?  Do you have prejudice in your heart?  Do you harbor sinful feelings & ideas towards other races or gender of people?  Confess & repent and allow God to free you from this.

Isn’t it great news that God values life SO much that He sent His Son to earth to die for the sinfulness of mankind?  If you have not already found forgiveness in Him do so now & surrender your whole life to follow King Jesus.  You will not be disappointed.

Genesis 6: 6 says, “And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him to His heart” (ESV).

My heart is grieved when I see so many people in our world living as if God does not exist.  It is one thing to say you believe God exists but an entirely different thing to live like you believe that.

My heart has been sincerely burdened lately when I see so many people who claim to know & follow Jesus live & act as if they don’t.  Do you know anybody like that?  Are you like that?  I must admit, it is easy to see this in other people’s lives, but we do not like it when it is exposed in our own lives.  (I have had to ask God to search my own heart in these areas and confess those sins that have been pointed out in this area as well.)

So many of us say we follow Jesus, but yet we refuse to give Him ALL of our lives.  Followers of Jesus don’t just say some prayer of confession (If you’ve been to Vacation Bible School, this would be the ABC’s of salvation) and then go off and live any old way they want to.  Jesus demands, deserves & expects our whole life.  Listen to these words of Jesus from Luke 14: 25-27, “Now great multitudes went with Him.  And He turned and said to them, ‘If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.  And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.‘”  I don’t know about you, but to me that sounds a lot different than the ABC’s of salvation.  That sounds much different than “Repeat this prayer after me.”  Jesus always spoke in terms of total surrender.

I have been noticing lately how many of us live to please ourselves.  Now don’t hear this, that if you follow Jesus you can’t have any fun.  I certainly believe we better have fun, especially with our families.  Studies continually show that one thing Christian families that are producing God-honoring, God-worshipping children have an abundance of is much laughter.  In other words, Christian families need to build in opportunities wherein they can have fun as a family.  What I am pointing out is this, that for all of us, this life is not about us or for us, but rather, we were made to bring honor & glory to Jesus.  You cannot bring Him honor & glory living for your own pleasure or self.  When we do this we rob God of what is only due Him, and we make ourselves idolaters.  Idolaters?  Yes, idolaters!  And who is on the throne we worship when it is all about us?  It is us.  Living for self glory & pleasure makes us a worshipper of self, and God is not happy!

The sad thing is this is going on more & more.  It is what caused God to utter those words quoted at the beginning of this blog, and it is what has to cause God to have those feelings today.  It has to burden God because it burdens my heart when I see myself and other people living for self-pleasure, rather than for God’s glory & honor alone.  God certainly has more invested in this than I do.  He gave His own Son on the cross to save all of us from the effects our sin brings against our own lives.  He gave His own Son to save us from His coming wrath against all sinners, idolaters included (I Corinthians 6: 9-11; Galatians 5: 19-24; Revelation 22: 14-15).

Here’s the good news, I have written this blog post begging you to repent.  Stop living for yourself and turn from this sinful way of life and worship Jesus with your whole being.  There is forgiveness from this grave sin of self-worship/idolatry.  Jesus was punished on the cross FOR our sin.  And by trusting in Him we can be completely forgiven & justified (Declared to be clean, just as if we had never sinned).  It doesn’t happen by doing better.  Even believers/followers of Jesus fall prey to this subtle form of idolatry so often.  All of us are freely forgiven because of God’s grace, not by doing something to make God happier with us.  You see, we all need God’s saving & keeping grace.  But thank God, we can be forgiven.  And the wonderful thing is this, not only are we forgiven, but we are set free from the guilt that sin brings in our lives and we can then & only then experience the joy of living for God’s glory & honor.  And O’h how freeing that is!!!

Below you will find a little thing I wrote that was originally designed to be put on the radio as information on our church.  As many of you know we are back on the air every Sunday morning from 10-12.  One difference this time is the inclusion of our services live over the internet at www.wksc1300.com.  People all over the world can tune in to hear our services if they would like.  WKSC will also be storing messages on their website for a couple of months in case anyone would like to hear a message you may have missed, or would just like to listen to again.  The owner of the station had originally asked me to write something out explaining who & what our church is, just in case anyone in the community was thinking about finding a church home.  So, the below article is what I wrote for that purpose.  I decided against recording it because I did not want it to seem that we were trying to persuade members from leaving their present church home and coming to ours.  We are always supposed to be about Kingdom business, not trying to grow our churches.  Nevertheless, I still thought it would give members of Kershaw Second Baptist Church an opportunity to hear it reflected what we feel God has called us to be as a Church.  I hope you enjoy reading this material.

I would like to take a few minutes to tell you about our church.  Perhaps the best way for me to do so is to share with you our purpose statement.  Kershaw Second Baptist Church is a congregation of believers who answer God’s call by: Worshipping Christ, Strengthening Christians, Unifying community & Practicing the Great Commission.

Worshipping Christ for the member of Kershaw Second is not just what we do corporately, or together, during our scheduled services, but rather it is a way of life that we practice & live in each & every day.  At Kershaw Second we preach, teach & believe that by God sending Jesus on a rescue mission to the earth to save sinners, including us, is an act that demands & deserves our complete devotion to Him.

At Kershaw Second we have this great desire to equip believers to serve King Jesus with their life by providing various opportunities for the believer, or follower of Jesus, to be strengthened in their life with Him.  That is why we offer numerous Sunday School classes on Sunday morning’s starting at 9: 45 for believers of all age groups.  That is why we encourage all believers to enroll in & attend in-depth Bible studies on Sunday nights following our Sunday evening worship services.  We believe that during these small-group Bible study sessions the followers of Jesus can & will be encouraged & strengthened in their walk for Jesus in this world.  At Kershaw Second Baptist Church we hold that the Bible is the written revelation of God to His world.  Because of this, the preaching ministry of Kershaw Second seeks to both explain & apply the Bible during every service so that is is easily understood & life-changing for all who hear.

We also have a desire to make a positive impact on our whole community by being active participants in what is going on in & around the town of Kershaw.  More than anything we want to be seen as Kershaw’s greatest servants.  We love our town and hope to, through our ministry/service projects, build opportunities for your life to be changed forever by introducing you the the Son of God, Jesus.

Kershaw Second Baptist Church also seeks to be a group of believers who are actively, ongoing, seeking to fulfill the Great Commission.  In His last statements to His followers while here on earth Jesus told His followers to “Go into all the world & make disciples of people of all nations” (My paraphrase of Matthew 28: 19-20).  Kershaw Second seeks to “Make Disciples” of all people we come into contact with.  We also seek opportunities with people we may have never had this opportunity with by not only living On Mission lives, but by participating in & going on mission’s trips all over our nation & world.  We believe that people all over our world need to hear God’s message of forgiveness that can only be found in Jesus Christ.  Without Him people will be condemned to an eternity in Hell, and because of that they must hear the message of Jesus.  But, we also believe that God not only wants saved people, He desires disciples, people who will wholeheartedly follow Him.

This is what Kershaw Second Baptist Church is about.  This is where we stand!  This is what we do!  We hope you will come and be a part of what God is doing here.

I pray this has been an encouragement to you as you read.  If you are a member of Kershaw Second Baptist Church I pray you are doing your part to perform the tasks God has gifted & called you to perform.  We all have a part to play!  We all have God to serve!

The following post is an adaptation of one of the Bible study lessons God helps me to put together for our Wednesday night prayer meeting/Bible study we conduct every week at Kershaw Second Baptist.  I will be the first to admit, and so will every other pastor who preaches three different messages a week at his place of service that I do not put anywhere near ample time on my Wednesday night studies.  With that being said, I still think the things that are brought out through this Psalm (we are going through the Psalms on Wednesday nights @ 7pm) are much needed and most helpful to the modern-day American church.  May this be a spiritual growth tool in your walk with Jesus!  It would be most helpful for you to read Psalm 38 before reading this blog post.  We usually begin our study by reading the Psalm we will be studying that particular night.

If during your journey as a Christian it seems to you your sin has gotten progressively worse & more painful, let me say first that you are in good company, and second, there may be good reason for this.  If you consider yourself growing in your walk with Jesus and this is the case it may be either, you may very well be regressing/backsliding spiritually.  If this is the case you need to right now confess & repent of your sins before God & go and love Him better.  Believers do sin, we just shouldn’t be habitual in our sin.  Or (If it seems your sin has gotten worse & more painful), it may just be the result of you growing spiritually.  What I mean is, if you are growing spiritually then you will become more aware of your sin & sin nature, which is not necessarily a bad thing.  On the contrary it can be a very good thing.  I have even found it to be very normal for growing believers to go through this heightened awareness of their own, personal sin.  David is one example of this (Just read the penitential ascribed to David; psalms6, 32, 51, 143, the others are 102 & 130.  And David is a man described as “A man after God’s own heart!”) & Paul is another (Romans 7, especially Verse 24).

Why & how does this happen?  Well, the easiest answer is that they better we get to know God & the more closely we follow Him, the better we will notice our own sin in the light of His holiness.  Think about it, God is described as light (One example is Psalm 27: 1.  Another example is Jesus being described as light in John 1.).  What does light do?  Well, light does many things, but one thing it especially does is exposes blemishes.  Imagine trying to get yourself ready & presentable in the mornings using a mirror with no lights on, no light either artificially or from the sun.  You may could do a pretty decent job, but from the looks of most of us, including myself, we can’t even do a good job in the light.  Well, I think it’s much the same way between God & our sin.  The closer we get to Him, the more closely we walk with Him, the more our sin will be exposed.  So, if the above scenario is being played out in your life, if you are feeling more aware of your sin, and you have indeed not found yourself not be be regressing/backsliding spiritually, be careful to thank God that He is growing you.

Psalm 38 is one of the penitential psalms (As mentioned above), in which the psalmist’s are expressing grief & displeasure over their own sin.  These penitential psalms are so important, because in them we can gain such a distinct/clear Biblical perspective of what our sin both is & does, and how we should more properly view it.  It is then that we can gain perspective on whether we have a Biblical view of sin or not in our own lives.

There are two basic perspectives we gain by reading/meditating/studying on Psalm 38.  The first is that it is well & good to for us to be grieved over sin.  Sin is breaking God’s eternal/universal law and sin grieves His heart!  And one thing every believer can be sure of is that sin brings the chastening of God upon our lives!  Verses 1-2 of this Psalm clearly show us that God chastens/disciplines believers when they sin.  Look at the language there.  And God is right in doing so.  In fact, God has the right to punish any & all sinners who are guilty of breaking His law.  Every human being will answer to Him because He is our creator!  (This is just a side note, but this is also why forgiveness is available to us.  God punished our sin when He punished Jesus on the cross.  Jesus’ death was a substitutionary atonement, in that He died for us/in our place, as an act of satisfying the divine wrath of almighty God on our behalf.)  However, from what I understand of Scripture, God will only chasten/discipline those who have come to belong to Him in a Father/child relationship through trusting in His Son Jesus, Hebrews 12: 3-11.

Now, every believer can be assured that when God disciplines/chastens them, He always does so in love, which means, He always does so with a point in mind to lead us to become more Christlike!  This has huge implications to parents who should discipline their children also.  Every parent SHOULD discipline their children, but always/only in love, with the intention of leading the child to heart change!

Every believer can also be sure that their own, personal sin will bring about literal/physical grief, and usually it is in the form of guilt & anguish (Read Verses 3-4, 6-8, 13-14 and hear David’s clear examples of this).  Unconfessed sin is like a festering sore to the one who follows God.  It will eat away at us until we do something about it.  God knows that sin is harmful to us (Which is why He gave us His law in the first place), and He will not allow us, nor does He want us to keep unconfessed sin in our lives.  The problem too many times is though that we allow sin we have already truly confessed to do this to us.  The problem then is we need to be careful to accept God’s forgiveness for that particular sin, if we have truly confessed it (The Biblical idea of Confession is that we agree with God about how truly bad our sin is, and if we have truly confessed we would not want to do it again), I John 1: 9.

We also need to be aware that sin is harmful to our human relationships.  It harms our relationships with our friends, Verses 11-12, by causing us to be at odds with them (I have heard people say that if we aren’t at peace with God, we cannot be at peace with other either).  Sin also makes us to feel vulnerable in the face of our enemies, read Verses 15-16, 19-20.  The believer’s confidence comes from their relationship/fellowship with God.  If our fellowship with God is hindered due to sin we will not have the confidence to stand strong in the midst of adversity from our enemies.  This is why we need to deal with sin in our lives, especially when it is hampering our relationships with fellow believers.  We should follow the pattern given to us by Jesus in Matthew 18: 15-20 and not be non-challant when it comes to our sin.

These things are why it is well & good for us to be grieved over our sin.  Not being grieved over our sin is an even bigger problem for us, and may very well be the case with the overriding majority of American Christians.  We should be grieved over our sin.

It is also well & good for us to deal properly with our sin.  David does so three different ways in this Psalm.  First, he feels sin’s burden, Verse 17 and other various verses throughout this Psalm.  Believers should have no problem feeling the burden of their sin.  That our sin hurts God should cause us anguish & grief.  David also deals with his sin by confessing it, Verses 3c, 4a, 5b, 18 (These psalms are the generally outpouring of David’s heart over specific sins; remember, his specific sins had been brought out & publicly confessed for the nation to see).  When we sin we should say so.  Don’t make excuses over it; “Well, nobody’s perfect.” is what many people say.  We all are sinners, true, but our sin is real & awful, tell that to God & mean it.  David also pleads to God for help & forgiveness, Verses 9-10, 21-22.  Ultimately our sin is against God & Him alone.  We need His forgiveness!  We need his help in overcoming our anguish & guilt our sin brings.

Oh to God that we would develop a healthy doctrine of sin again in our lives & churches.  There truly is power in humbling ourselves before almighty God (II Chronicles 7: 14)!!!

The word atonement describes the work of Jesus, completed by Him, to bring about our salvation.  The word literally means in the Hebrew, to cover.  That language really displays beautiful imagery for us when we use it to refer to the completed work of Jesus by which He earned our salvation for us!  Think about it, Jesus’ completed work of purchasing/buying/paying for our salvation was in God’s mind THE way to cover, or atone for the penalty of sins, in particular our sins!  It was something God orchestrated & accomplished Himself, all for us, without our help & without any ability from us to be able to add anything to it.  This is why Jesus came!

Long before God ever made the universe, long before anything existed, including us, God knew the price that would have to be paid in order to bring about our salvation, and He still decided to create us.  Think about this, when God decided made us the Father looked to the Son and said these words, “Let Us make man in Our image...” (Genesis 1: 26), and when you put that together with Colossians 1: 16, it becomes clear that the Son of God, by whom “all things were made“, knowing He would have to come and die to save these “men” from the penalty of their sin, chose still to create us anyway.  The atonement was not something God worked up last minute, it was something He had planned all along, and when God chose to create man He had to have the ok of the Son before the creation could ensue.  The Son of God has forever been faithful to carry out the will of the Father, even when it is difficult.  (Thanks Dr. Galeotti for these thoughts you planted in my mind during our OT conference March 26-28.)  It was God’s eternal plan to create us & save us.  That is love!  That is good news!  And we are told in Galatians 4: 4 that when the time was right God sent forth His Son to, in the flesh carry out His plan.

We must remember this; God did not HAVE to save any of us.  He could have chosen to leave us in our sin, facing the consequences of our sin, without any hope of forgiveness or redemption.  But, God loved us so much that He was willing to send His only Son, that WHOSOEVER among us would believe in Him, those who believed would have eternal/everlasting life, and we would not have to perish (My paraphrase of John 3: 16).  It was love from God in the first place that we were even created (It took love on the Son’s part to be willing to come & die, even before He created us), but what an awesome display of love on God’s part that the Father was willing to send the Son, the Son was willing to come and go along with the plan, and we can be set free from the bondage & curse our sin brings, by believing in the Son’s death to atone for the forgiveness of our sins!

The Son’s death was brutal.  Sin’s penalty always is!  Think how Adam & Eve must have felt when in the Garden of Eden, God slaughtered an innocent animal to cover the nakedness of their sin.  Think how God felt when He had to slaughter His very own Son, to provide a covering (”Propitiation” in Romans 3: 25) for the penalty of the sins of the whole world, including our very own sins!  But yet, the Bible says it brought joy to Jesus to please the Father by dying for our sins (Hebrews 12: 2)!  That is gospel (Gospel means good news).  We couldn’t do anything on our own to appease God’s wrath toward our own.  No sacrifice, work, nothing we could do could satisfy God’s holy, just anger towards sin & sinners.  That’s why Jesus had to die.  That’s why Jesus had to come.  His sacrifice alone could atone/satisfy/cover/appease God’s wrath towards sinners.  Think about His sacrifice:  He was perfectly righteous, He had never sinned, but yet all our/my sin was poured upon Him, and as He died, penalized to death because of my sin, my/our sin died with Him.  And as Jesus died, so did God’s wrath toward all sinners who would believe in Jesus’ atoning death on the cross to offer complete pardon & forgiveness to them who believe.

You see some say, “well if God is love, why does He have to judge sin & sinners?”  God has to judge sin & sinners because God is also just, which means He has to do that which is legally right.  Well, according to God’s eternal law, sin cannot be overlooked, it must be judged.  Well, that’s what the atonement is all about.  God lovingly gave His Own Son, to die for us in our place, as a judgment & punishment for our sin, so that we could declared righteous (”Justified“), thereby able to live with Him.

For these reasons and so many more the atonement of Jesus the Christ is so important.  Jesus did die for you.  He died for me as well.  In fact, He died for the sins of the whole world.  The Bible says this is God’s gift (Ephesians 2: 8c) to us.  Through the death of Jesus our sins have been taken care of.  Through the resurrection of Jesus our whole salvation is completed.  Since it is a gift we just simply need to accept God’s gift to us, it is something we don’t deserve, and out of our gratitude to Him, serve Him with all of our lives.  It is ONLY because of the death, burial & resurrection of Jesus the Christ, for you/us/me, that I/you/we can go experience His presence & go to be with God in Heaven.  If & only if you have trusted in Jesus’ atoning death & victorious resurrection from the grave for your sins’ forgiveness & ultimate salvation can you say, Happy Easter!  It is my prayer that you would thank God for His great sacrifice for you by trusting in Him for your forgiveness/salvation.  Now go & have a happy Easter!

You didn’t think I was going to let this one slip by did you?  I figured it would be good to just do some thinking out loud (well, at least as loud as you can be typing words on a page) on my feelings on the health care reform bill.  You may be surprised on where I come down on this issue.  I would like to think  that my thoughts/feelings on this issue are at least Biblically informed, which is what we desperately need in this country now.  So, here goes…

Let me begin by saying I am not against any type of government assistance program that helps those who are truly needy with their daily/physical needs.  This includes the welfare system & the newly passed health care reform bill.  In an industrialized nation as we are, we should come up with some way to help meet the needs of others.  Some of you may be surprised to learn that God had his own welfare system in place for those less-fortunate throughout the Old Testament.  The plan God gave to the Israelites worked well for the agrarian society they were in.  Farmers were to leave produce in the field and whatever fell to the ground for those who did not have anything.  God’s plan was a wonderful plan because people were still required to get out and work for what they got.  Those who could not work due to physical restrictions were cared for as well.  We do not have this type of agrarian society and so I am all for us helping those who are limited from either finding a job due to lack of jobs in our market, or who are restricted from any ability to have a job due to legitimate physical restrictions.  (Those who are lazy & slothful will answer to God for their lack of resolve to go and provide for their family, I Timothy 5: 8.)  What does this have to do with the health care reform bill?  I think it provides an answer to the hand out portions of the bill.  Christians must be equally concerned about all of life, whether that of the unborn, or that of the legitimately needy.  We as a nation need some way to provide good health care for our citizens, health care they can afford & health care that is available for ALL of our citizens.

One concern I have with this bill was the manner in which is was passed.  There were far too many sneaky, back-rooms deals for my liking (See blog post below).  Why can’t politicians just be open & honest?  Why do they have to sneak around corners & speak out of both sides of their mouths?  Why can’t they just have guts and tell the truth?  So many republicans were against this bill simply because they are republicans, and so many democrats were for it because they were democrats.  Why does it have to be that way?  Why can’t they just be for or against something because it is either right/wrong, good/bad?  (For the record, republicans have no right to now complain about this bill’s passing.  What have they been doing all these years in leadership.  Our country has been talking about healthcare reform since before John F. Kennedy’s presidency.  We have had ample opportunity to pass our own plans before now, so no whining about this one.)  I say all this to simply say, it is time for the Church to become involved in our political system.  We need God-fearing, God-trusting people leading our nation again.  We need people who know, believe & trust the Bible making our decisions.  If we continue to remain on the outskirts of our political system we have no one to blame but ourselves!

The thing I worry most about in this health care bill is the government supported/tax payer funded abortions that will take place under the plan.  I have heard much about the executive order orchestrated between President Obama & various “Pro-Life” representatives, mainly Congressmen Bart Stupak from Michigan.  The “deal” that was orchestrated in the hours prior to the vote is a laughing back-hand to the Pro-life/anti-abortion movement in our country.  The “deal” goes to show that neither one of the parties involved had the guts to stand up for what they both claimed (Past tense, there is no hiding now Congressmen Stupak from your true “convictions”) to believe in.  Congressmen Stupak knows it and so does President Obama.  Their agreement/deal was worked out only in hopes to appease constituents for future election purposes.  I hope/pray for the sake of countless unborn children their constituent’s will not be blinded by their “willingness to compromise” on this issue.  Now, not only is abortion legal in our country but now our government will be in the business of performing countless abortions thanks to this bill.  God help us!!!

I really don’t like to get involved in the political arena as much as I used to, thanks to God growing/maturing me in the faith.  I think sometimes too many Americans try and change our country by going the political route.  God can change our world/country/state/county through His church, not some governmental system.  The reason I am even getting involved in this blog is due to the Biblical/moral arguments that have been formed in this blog post.  I figured I would at least attempt to set the record straight there.  My concern now is that the church would stand up for what is right, not because of our political party affiliations, but because we genuinely care about the lives of other people.  When I wake up in the morning God is still the ONLY one in charge.  I will faithfully serve Him!  But, because I do serve Him I should be concerned with the affairs of other people around me, especially those who are hurting/poor/needy/lacking around me.  But, I will trust in King Jesus!  I will seek to glorify & do His will.  He is the one who has changed my life, and He is the one who is now changing me.  Let us love Him & speak truth into His world because there are those who desperately need Him; in Washington, DC and in Kershaw, SC.

The paperwork is all filled out, the pictures have been taken, and the last thing left to be done is to fill out the check and put the paperwork in the mail to have  my passport renewed (Actually, as of post date, my passport renewal form is in the mail).  Passport’s are a necessity for anyone wishing to travel anywhere abroad in today’s world, including mission’s trips.  Thankfully, God has allowed man the ability to use much better methods of travel in order to carry His message to the “…ends of the earth.”  In Biblical times the only means of travel involved horse, donkey, or boat.  Thankfully God allows us much faster and better means of travel than our biblical brothers & sisters had, thus making fulfilling the Great Commission much easier for us in our day.  So, what’s our problem?

Having an updated passport is a must for the able believer who has the freedom & ability to travel and take God’s gospel to the whole world.  I do recognize some people have limitations that restrict their ability to freely travel abroad.  For instance, some people have health problems that may restrict their travel abilities.  Still others have family limitations that restrict them from traveling freely, such as mothers of small children who are still in the home. (I Corinthians 7 comes to my mind when thinking about this.  Paul told Christian singles to remain as he was, single, for the purpose of spreading the message of the gospel.)  Some are restricted from traveling abroad due to past sins, such as arrests and the like.  For the rest of us, I can’t think of any other limitation that would restrict us from traveling abroad.  (If you can think of any other feel free to place your idea in the comment section.  I look forward to having that conversation.)

Can we truly fulfill the Great Commission without an updated passport?  I’m sure it is possible to travel illegally, I just don’t think that’s what God would have in mind.  By asking that question I am asking, does fulfilling the Great Commission require believers to travel internationally, or can we be faithful to do so by remaining where we are.  I think God’s Word is clear.  God commanded us to take His gospel to every person, in every people group.  I understand we can use modern methods of sharing the gospel today, for example, Twitter, Facebook & Skype.  But, if we can more effectively take the gospel to other people by going in person and sharing with them face-to-face, then we must do so.  You see, to fulfill the Great Commission, we are required to do much more than just share the gospel with people, we are called to make disciples.  Making disciples is more than just offering fire insurance to someone because they repeat a prayer.  Making disciples requires pouring our lives into another person’s life, teaching them everything Jesus commanded.  And in case you don’t know this, the whole Bible is the Word of God!  We have to go to the whole world to completely & faithfully fulfill God’s commission to His church!

I know what some are saying & will say, “But Jamie, don’t we have lost people here?”  Good question, let’s take a look at the figures.  In my state, South Carolina, we have somewhere around 4.5 million people.  In our state of 4.5 million there are 2100 Southern Baptist Churches scattered across our state, with those churches claiming a total of 558, 601 faithful attending members.  Let’s compare that number to what I heard from the missionary in India I will be leading a team to work with this October.  He works in the Indian state of Rajasthan, and is responsible for developing a strategy to reach the people of Rajasthan and another neighboring state in India.  All total there are 110 million people in those two states combined.  In the city the missionary is located in there are over 6 million people (According to the figures I found in the internet).  Think about it, there are far more people in his one city than are in our whole state.  I asked him how many Southern Baptist Churches there are there and his answer was, zero.  My missionary friend along with 6 other Southern Baptist missionaries are responsible for developing the strategy to get the gospel to these people.  That’s right, 7 people responsible for getting the gospel to over 110 million.  Compare that to just the state of South Carolina and you should see why it is so important to carry the gospel of Jesus to them.  Does your heart break for these Indian people?  If it doesn’t I think you should check your faith in Jesus.

Can you be a follower of Jesus and not be compelled to go to them with the message of salvation?  I don’t see how you can, if you believe the Bible.  For to believe the Bible means you believe in a literal Heaven & Hell, and you also believe Jesus is the only means of escape from an eternal Hell for these people.  That’s why having an updated passport is so important for the follower of Jesus.  I guess you could say you don’t care about them, but how can you and say you are a follower of Jesus.  I would encourage you to pray for these people.  Pray for the missionaries who are already there serving them.  Pray for Southern Baptist Churches who give to help support these missionaries and the others who are still yet needed.  Pray that God would call out more from our American churches who live in gospel-saturated areas to go and take the gospel to the so many who have never heard.  Pray that God would impress it upon your heart to go to these people with the life-changing message of Jesus.  Eternity is at stake for them!!!

Don’t know if you’ve had an opportunity to travel around and visit many churches lately, but many local churches in America are in need of a surge of power from God.  I have often used the line while preaching that, “There is more fervency displayed on local golf courses than is displayed in most worship services in local churches.”  Most pastors, or itinerant evangelists that have traveled around at all and preached to different churches know that statement is true.  I believe the biggest reason is that Satan has lulled us to sleep with prosperity that we have forgotten we are absolutely nothing without God!  The power surge most congregations are in need of can only come from one place, The power source, the God we worship & serve!  So, what would it look like if we were hit with a power surge from God?

First I believe our evangelism/ministry would be carried out in a different manner.  If I believed in & relied on the power of God to perform the work of ministry I would share the gospel & talk to others about God with full assurance that God really desired to change their lives.  Most Christians know He does, but I am not sure if we believe He really does possess the power & the desire to really change other people’s lives.  We would go through whatever means necessary to speak the gospel into their lives.  So, if we really believed in the power of God we would evangelize & minister in the power of God, aware that He really does possess the power to change this person’s life.

Second, I believe our prayer lives would be different.  When we prayed, our prayers would be filled with desperation, as we would understand our utter, sheer hopelessness without God.  Listen to God’s message to the church of Laodicea and see if this rings a bell, “Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing–and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked–’” (Revelation 3: 17).  In many of our churches we have replaced our need of God with programs, our utter hopelessness without God with full offering plates.  Some places have even confused the presence/power of God with full auditoriums.  Most of the time we spend our prayer times in our churches praying for sick/hurting church members, and we don’t even do that in biblical manners many times (Listen to the way people pray sometimes and tell me we believe in the power of God).  We need to beg God for His power to fall on our churches.  We almost approach Him as our right, instead of our privilege.  Without Jesus we would have no hope of approaching God’s throne in prayer.  We need to pray fervently everyday!  Begging God to fill our own hearts, and the hearts of our fellow believers with His Spirit.  Then, when we come together for worship we can expect a service filled with the power of God, and messages from teachers/preachers filled with the power of God.  If we believed in God’s power our prayers would be different.

These are just a couple of observations about living in the power of God.  Do we really believe that God is powerful?  You tell me.  I do know this though, if we really believed in the power of God our whole life would be different.  So, I beg all of us, let’s put this into practice, and change the world with the way we live, believing in, relying upon God’s power.  Let’s let those who are outside the faith really see God does make a difference, because they’ve seen it in us.  We really can trust Him!!!

I’ve heard several pastors express the sentiment, “The Church just doesn’t get it.”  To tell you the truth, I agree with them.  But before you get all perturbed that I would rebuke the Church that way, let me say, pastors, most of them, don’t get it either, including myself.  I guess I should qualify who it is I am talking about, since The Church includes the worldwide body of Christ.  For the most part, The Church is growing in most places, according to reports by those in leadership positions.  Everywhere that is except here in America & Europe.  Isn’t it ironic the two greatest missionary-sending areas in the world over the last several hundred years are now the ones who are most spiritually bankrupt.

What has happened?  I think one of the main problems is we have allowed ourselves to accept a watered-down version of the gospel, and we’ve suffered because of it.  Liberalism has invaded, and those who are left have become too spiritually lethargic, too self-centered, to even care about God’s will.  We need an spiritual awakening in America, and we need it now!  Our churches are dead & dying.  Most statistics tell us that most southern baptist churches are either plateaued or are declining, and it seems most members of those churches either don’t know it, or don’t care.  What has gone wrong?  Maybe the many years of relative peace & prosperity has lulled the church to sleep.  This post is a call to awaken!  Get out of your slumber, American Church!  Arise!  Return to your first love  (Revelation 2: 1-7)!

I started this blog by stating we just don’t get it!  The question is though, where do we not get it?  I don’t think we get it in any branch of ministry as local churches.

We don’t get it when it comes to worship.  We approach worship services so lackadaisical, so non-chalantly.  How can that be?  If we were to have a meeting with the president, even president Obama, we would fix ourselves up, put on our best clothes, prepare ourselves for conversation, get nervous/anxious, and all that would happen before we found ourselves in the room with him.  How do we approach God in worship?  I think it would be safe to say that our approach doesn’t even come close to that.  Part of the problem with our Sunday morning worship is that we have withheld our worship of God Monday-Saturday.  If we don’t live in awe of God, how can we sing in worship of Him in an awe-filled manner?  Even when we do sing songs to/about God in our worship services I’m afraid we have allowed ourselves to grow so familiar with them to allow their words to make an impact in our hearts.  How can this be, when they (the songs) are about the gospel, in many cases they are the gospel put to words, and we sing them without being moved?  How can we expect God to be moved by our worship of Him, when we can’t even give Him our all.  And just for the record, He is worth more than even our all!

We don’t get it when it comes to missions.  At least that is the case in the average southern baptist church.  We call missions giving an offering or reading names out of a book and praying for those “Who have gone where we cannot” (That was the wording I used to hear prayed in mission’s prayer groups).  If we were honest we would pray for those “Who have gone where we don’t have the trust in God to follow Him to.”  I know not all are called to full-time, vocational, international missions.  But you see, that’s where we don’t get it.  We ALL ARE called to be missionaries wherever it is God has put us in life.  We are to be missionaries in our neighborhoods, seeking to reach our neighbors, and those who live on our streets with the gospel.  We are called to be missionaries in our towns/cities, seeking to reach those who live in our towns or cities with the gospel.  We are called to be missionaries where we work, seeking to reach our co-workers with the gospel.  We are also called to GO and reach those across the world who have never heard the gospel.  We don’t though, because we have not allowed the gospel to penetrate and make a difference in our own hearts, much less spend big money to fly/sail and go all over the world to change the lives of other people.

We don’t get it when it comes to discipleship/evangelism.  We have turned evangelism into getting someone to recite a prayer & be baptized, rather than calling that person to a life of surrender to The sovereign God.  O’h, if we can just get them to say a prayer, then we can feel better about ourselves, while we may have fooled that person into thinking they are saved because they went through a religious hoop.  Whatever happened to true trust in Jesus Christ for salvation?  Whatever happened to “making disciples”, which is what the great commission calls us to?  In most southern baptist churches you can baptize 10 people, and if we’re lucky we might see 2 of them again after their baptism.  Are the other 8 really saved?  Have we really made a disciple if that’s the case?

Whatever happened to the American church?  I am not really sure.  However, I do know this, that if something does not change, and I mean fast & drastic, in 10 years hundreds of local churches will be forced to close their doors because they loved themselves more than they loved God and the people who lived in the community where their local church was located.  They will close their doors because there will not be enough people to pay the bills to keep the doors open.  I know some of you do not like reading this, and may even be mad at me for saying some of these things.  Let me just say, I am in tears right now as I am writing this, because I love the local church and have given my life to God’s call to serve the local church.  But, like me or not, just remember this in about 10 years or so, and you will be able to say, “Jamie was right.”

What’s it going to take to turn this thing around?  It is going to take a full-scale revival, sent from God, to His people (The Church).  However, He will not force it on us.  He will not make us love Himself.  He will not make us seek holiness & faithfulness to His call.  We are going to have to pray for brokenness to permeate local churches, so that the power of God may then penetrate the hearts & lives of her members.  I am afraid though it will take drastic measures by God, some of them we may not necessarily like, to get our attention to see the huge needs we have.  Throughout history the church has always performed better in times of uneasiness & persecution, rather than in times of peace & prosperity.  All I know is I am praying God would do whatever He has to do to get His Church’s attention.  Would you join me in this?  Would you join me in passionately pursuing God’s glory as His Church?  Would you join me in praying that God’s Church, in America, would stop going through religious motions and actually start pursuing God?  O’h how we need God!

*This blog post is from a local pastor, Bryan Rabon, pastor of Flat Creek Baptist Church.  I have been blessed by Bryan’s love for God & knowledge of His Word.  Thank you Bryan for this post.  The explanation as to why he is guest blogging is in his post.

Facebook, the Hubris of the SBC, Grace and Other Mundane Miscellanies

 When I first presented my idea for a blog to Jamie (which, by the way I did not initially want to write) I had hoped that he might take up the idea and post it on his blog.  He suggested that I write the blog and he would post it on his site as a guest blog.  Thanks for the blog space and the opportunity Jamie, I’ll try not to get you fired. 

               Like many in modern America, indeed the modern world, I have a Facebook account which I check regularly.  I have often engaged in theological discussions on my page and the pages of my “friends” which can be seen by many different people.  At times these discussions have devolved into verbal brawls which, in hind sight, certainly did not glorify God and produced much more heat than light.

Part of the problem is the medium itself which cannot convey non verbal cues such as facial expression and body language that carries great weight in human communication.  It also cannot capture the tone of voice which would be used in normal speech.  This makes accurate interpretation of FB (Facebook) discussions difficult at times.  More than once I have misinterpreted what someone wrote with humor thinking instead that they were dead serious.  This prompted me to respond with less grace than I should have and even respond to people who were not even addressing something that I had written.

               As I said, that is part of the problem.   The wind that propels the waves of these discussions, at times, is far more threatening and sinful than simple misinterpretation.  Pride, from time to time, overcomes the best of intentions and the lordship of Christ and I find myself writing something in angry self defense what should not be written at all.  I think I’m not the only one guilty of this though and what is truly disturbing is that some of the ones, including myself, who are the most guilty of letting their pride get the better of them are my fellow pastors.  And that brings me to what I really wanted to write about.

               I have followed with bated breath and sometimes clenched teeth the debate over the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force and its work.  At the time of this writing the initial report of which has not yet been released.  I have read Baptist Press articles and Southern Baptist Texan articles and Baptist Courier articles and blogs and yes even FB discussions.  Whether or not you agree that the task force should even exist is beside the point.  What I find truly disturbing is the lack of grace and the presence of so much pride in this discussion.  Are we really fighting over the best way to reach the world for Christ or are we fighting to preserve our own little convention sand castles?  Do our convention leaders really want to streamline and become more effective or do they want to hold onto their pet projects?  I raise this issue because, at times the debate has sounded more like a school yard shouting match between two boys each determined to prove how much better he is than the other.  You know, the old “my dad can beat up your dad” kind of thing which is driven by the desire to be right, in other words pride.  Certainly our denominational leaders, most of whom have been in vocational ministry for years, should know better.  As Christians we should know better.  I should know better. 

               But this may be the ugly mole on the face of SBC life in modern times and we pastors are the ones who have fostered its growth and development.  Let me illustrate my point.  How many times do we pastors ask one another, “How many did you have in worship Sunday?  How many did you have make a profession of faith this week?  How many did you baptize this year?  What’s your budget for this year?  What’s your total membership now?”  When is the last time we asked each other, “How have you poured your life into someone lately?”   The problem is we have allowed our obsession with numbers to inflate our pride and blow up our egos and it has come to the surface during the current debate. 

               What is forgotten in all of this is something that is foundational to our faith, a little thing called grace.  Even a surface reading of Ephesians 2 reveals that we have nothing to boast about.  By grace we are saved.  That is the rock bottom, hard core of our faith.  As David Horner states in his book, A Practical Guide to Life and Ministry, “Grace is the great leveler because is removes all reason for pride.”  It seems that we pastors and our denominational leaders may have forgotten this simple, foundational lesson.  Perhaps as Southern Baptists we would have a little more real influence in our communities and nation if we remembered this truth.  Maybe a little less talking and a little more living might be in order.  Maybe even a little more gracious give and take on FB is in order. 

               The issue of pride is no small matter to God.  Especially those of us charged with caring for the flock of God need to remember this.    ¹² ”I, wisdom, dwell with prudence, and I find knowledge and discretion.  The fear of the LORD is to hate evil; Pride and arrogance and the evil way
And the perverted mouth, I hate.”  Proverbs 8:12-13 (NASB)