Simple Yet Profound

 I invested in some Bible study books. I am old fashioned when it comes to the Bible. I prefer a real Bible, not a digital one. I prefer study books, not online resources.

Study books are like a dictionary or a reference book. They are not books that you use every day. I use them to study thoughts that interest me. A verse can have words that sometimes have deeper meaning when you dig below the surface.

Some theologians are like mechanics who take something apart to see how it works and then cannot get it back together again. They go down rabbit holes or they get lost in the weeds and they sound so smart but they miss the point.

The Bible is in one book both simple and profound. The Bible is God's word to us. In it Christ is revealed. A child can read and understand and make Heaven their home. A theologian can mine the depths of truth and be fed on the meat of the Bible. I still find nuggets of truth today after 50 years of reading the Bible.

A wise pastor can minister to all kinds of people. He can give milk to the babies and meat to the grown-ups. Here's a tip: elevate the youths in truth; don't bore the elders with emotions. One size fits all means it fits no one.

"Then he said to them; therefore, every scribe instructed concerning the kingdom of heaven is like a house-holder who brings out of his treasure things new and old." Matthew 13:52

"I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able." 1Corinthians 3:2

Boot Camp Thoughts

 I grew up attending summer camp. The church that I grew up in had these for all ages every summer. It involved the usual camp stuff including time in the big pool. Every evening we had a church service. I enjoyed camp until I go too old and then I was gone so I aged out of camp.

Pastor Mitchell let kids in Prescott attend church camp once. He did not seem to see the benefit of summer camp for teens. My wife went once. Pastor Mitchell let the Prescott church put on a boot camp a long time ago but that didn't last either. I guess pastor Mitchell was not a fan of summer camp.

Here in San Antonio boot camp is a big deal. A whole generation of young adults now spent time in boot camp. They promote boot camp as a spiritual encounter for teens. I don't see the big changes. I see young adults who are well behaved and involved. Is that because of boot camp?

I think one alternative to summer camp would be having a regular regimen of activities year round on  weekends. Camping, boating, fishing, hiking, etc. It would not be as expensive and it might be easier to get kids involved without taking a week off. We did this when I was a boy scout. It was fun.

I am not a big fan of summer camp for Fellowship teens. If they are not serving God day by day now,  a week of boot camp will not change that. But it is what we do and I support what we do even if I do not understand it.

Carbon Copy Revival

 One thing that I notice in my new church. People here are friendly. People here are kind. And some people here are only interested in me because I used to live in Prescott. They pick my brain to see what I remember about the early days in the Prescott church. And once they get what they want from me they ignore me. 

This ties in to my thoughts on reliving the past. People think that if God did it before, He can do it again. And they spend their lives trying to find the key to what triggered revival in 1970. Here's a key no one wants. Be at the end of your rope and be on the verge of giving up. Be empty and discouraged. Have no success to point to for validation. And then see if someone out of the blue offers you a questionable opportunity that makes no sense. And finally, live in a destructive generation that has lost it's collective mind. See if God will be impressed enough to give you a carbon copy revival.

"I returned and saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to men of understanding, nor favor to men of skill; but time and chance happen to all of them. For man also does not know his time: like a fish taken in a cruel net, like birds caught in a snare, so the sons of men are snared in an evil time, when it falls suddenly upon them." Ecclesiastes 9:11-12

The Worshiptainment Error

 "For you have not come to the mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire, and to blackness and darkness and tempest." Hebrews 12:18

" But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels. to the general assembly and church of the firstborn...: Hebrews 12:22

Part of the problem with worshiptainment is the lack of respect and reverence that it instills in those who participate. We are more concerned with impressing and attracting the unsaved who do not know the songs and who will not sing along. One error that the Jesus People revival gave us is the lack of reverence and holy awe towards God it produces. This is evidenced in how we dress and how we worship.

Why would we consider singing songs that are only good for one generation? There are hymns that go back centuries, but we do not sing them. There are revival songs that go back generations and we do not sing them. But we sing songs that we think will make the gospel attractive and it doesn't work. Seeker sensitive is just a way to dress up self interest.

Did it ever occur to you that when we worship we are joining myriads of angels who worship God in the Spirit? That a great cloud of witnesses join us every Sunday morning?

Idolatry is creating gods who suit our tastes and our ideas. Those who worship God must worship in Spirit and in truth.

We do not have to sing ancient hymns to worship God. But we must give thought to the music that we employ to worship God that it is God focused and not flesh pleasing. The message is more import than the rhymes.

A New Thing

 "Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert." Isaiah 43:18-19.

I have noticed something in our Fellowship. People who saw God move seem to spend the rest of their lives seeking to see God move like that again. The excitement, the numbers, the explosive growth, the cutting edge challenges. But the Bible indicates that perhaps this is the wrong approach.

Chuck Smith, the pastor of Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa, was discouraged and thinking about quitting the ministry when the Jesus People revival broke out. Wayman Mitchell was discouraged and thinking about quitting the ministry when he took the little church in Prescott and revival broke out. Do you see a pattern? God moves in His time, not when we are strong and able.

The culture is different today. The issues are different today. It is not 1968 all over again. That was then, this is now. People are people, God is God, truth is truth. But things today are not identical to back then.

God, in this text, tells us that He makes roads in the wilderness, He doesn't repave freeways. God makes rivers in the desert, He doesn't replace dams and bridges over existing rivers. Let him that has ears, hear what the Spirit is saying.

Our job is to obey the truth that we have. To do what we know to do. And to realize that it's only when we are weak that we become truly strong in Christ.

Memories are funny things. We do not remember clearly. We filter our memories to suit our expectations. We do not have to tear everything down to rebuild it again. But we do have to be sensitive to see what God is doing today, and temper that by what we know from the past.

We do what we do as a Fellowship very well. Time will tell if what we do can last into the next generation of those who never knew the founders and leaders who saw it all begin.

Godly Jealousy

 Text is 2Corinthians 11:1-4

First, this text uses the language of love and marriage to describe the Christian life. It is not a military command or a sports team. Our relationship to Christ is one of a husband and wife.

Verse 2 says, "For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ."

This is the language of matrimony. Our future is as the bride of Christ. That's why the greatest commandment is to love God.

This is why rejecting Christ or following other gods is so hurtful. This is why the word jealousy is used. 

Second, we must examine the language of cheating in this text. The apostle uses the illustration of Eve and the serpent to highlight  this truth. The serpent beguiled Eve with his subtlety. He deceived her with his craftiness. She was thoroughly deceived until she thought that rebelling against God seemed like the right thing to do. The serpent was the original narcissist. He used unscrupulous tactics and cunning craftiness when speaking almost true words to Eve. He did not bait her with lust. He sold her on error. Eve's mind became completely corrupted, which means spoiled or rotten. Adam failed, but not as completely as Eve. The serpent cheated them out of their inheritance. He pulled a fast one on them. 

Third. let's look at the answer for us today. The answer is simplicity.

Verse 3 says "...the simplicity that is in Christ."

This is the word of chastity. By keeping our heart focused on Christ we find the power to stay pure and focused on Jesus. The word means single. It implies plainness and chastity. It is the opposite of deceitful. We must maintain a singleness of devotion and motivation. It doesn't take great pomp and circumstance to serve the Lord. It doesn't take enormous faith or epic acts of charity. It takes simply believing and not going after another religion.

Notice the word another in verse 4. Another Jesus, another Spirit, another gospel. Dance with the one who brung you. Stay where Jesus put you. Be faithful to church. Don't go looking for love in all the wrong places.

A Word For Today

 "Bless the Lord, o my soul, and forget not all his benefits: who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from destruction, who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies, who satisfies your mouth with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's." Psalm 103:1-5

"Blessed be the Lord, who daily loads us with benefits, the God of our salvation!" Psalm 68:19

And finally, here is a question with three answers for us to ponder. Psalm 116:12-14

"What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits toward me?" v.12

1. "I will take the cup of salvation" v.13

2. "and call upon the name of the Lord." v. 13

3. "I will pay my vows to the Lord." v. 14

God bless us and keep us. The rock of our salvation!

Faith and Hope Hebrews 11:1

 In any trip or any endeavor you reach a point where you are almost finished. It's like you can see the light at the end of the tunnel. This is how faith and hope affect us. Whether we are just living life or perhaps we are going through trials and struggles we can look to the Lord and find the strength and courage to continue and to finish what we started.

Hebrews 11:1 tells us, "now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." I want to focus on the two words substance and evidence for a minute.

There are two kinds of hope. I hope it rains today is one kind of hope. I hope to get married this year is another kind of hope. I hope to be with Jesus in Heaven is another kind of hope. One kind of hope I call a mental assent of a natural process. The other kind of hope is a supernatural hope that by faith links us to God.

"But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him." Hebrews 11:6

"If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable." 1Corinthians 15:19

The substance of faith is being sure that God will do what He promised for us. It is confidence and trust based on God's power not on our wisdom. Faith is the confidence, an attitude that confidently looks forward to all that is good and beneficial from God. Faith hopes in God.

Faith is also the evidence of things not seen. The word evidence is a word that implies something that has been tested and proven true. Faith must be put to the test by actions and words that we do and say. Whether it is for salvation or for healing or for financial provision faith acts, even when there is no outward or visible evidence. Faith is not a feeling or an emotion. Faith is an action. And in proving the faithfulness of God and the Bible we prove the certainty of what we believe. 

Faith works because God is faithful. Hebrews chapter 11 is a catalog of people in ancient days who proved that God could keep His promises. This is the God factor that energizes the Christian life. Doctrine is the basis for what we believe. Faith puts what we believe into action.  Faith takes hope out of the natural realm into the supernatural realm. God is glorified for what He does in response to our actions. Faith is the confidence that God can be trusted. 

"Bring all of the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and try me now in this, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it." Malachi 3:10

Genuine Faith

 I replaced a few of my Bible study books and once again began studying the Bible. Here is one of the ideas that I was pondering.

Genuine Faith 1Peter 1;3-9

We go through various trials and testing in life to show what we know. It is in the testings and trials of life that we learn some valuable lessons. Peter in this text gives us help so that we can navigate through the trials of our Faith in Jesus Christ.

In life it is natural to go through what we call trials. Times where our circumstances do not seem to line up with the promises of God in the Bible. In verse 6 the apostle tells us that these trials come in various forms and that they affect diverse parts of our lives; mind, body, and spirit.

"My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials." James 1:2

Peter tells us that these trials can be grievous to us. That trials can cause stress and doubt and fear. They can affect our finances or our family or our health. They leave us wondering where God is.

Peter also tells us of the power of God that only is available to those going through trials. One thing God does is He keeps us in the trial of our faith. Verse 5 says, "who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time." Another thing God does is He is found to be actively working in and through us during the trial. 

"For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." 2Corinthians 4:17.

God promises to give us hope in the midst of the trial. Verse 3 tells us of a living hope that is not affected by the storms of life. This is a hope that sustains us through the trial.

There is a purpose in trials that is important to understand. Just like a teacher who tests her students to see what they know, so God uses trials to test us to see if we have genuine faith or just empty slogans. Like verse 7 says, "that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ." That the work that God does in us in trials is more valuable than we understand. Trials are the way that God tests our faith. Will we still believe no matter what happens to us?

Finally, much of what God is doing in us is to prepare us for eternity. Verses 4,5,7,and 9 all talk about Heaven and the last time and the end of our faith. God intends to save us even if we don't understand the why or the how. It doesn't matter as much how you begin the Christian life as long as you begin and are born again. What matters more is how we end. God wants us to have a faith that holds fast to the Bible and the faithfulness of God in Christ.