We Have One Job

 Dr. Scofield looks at the church age as a time in parenthesis, a particular time called the times of the gentiles. History in the biblical perspective focused on the Jews since Christ had to be Jewish. But after the cross, and the resurrection, the perspective changes in history with God. The Jews became those who killed the messiah and who persecuted the early church. To some believers the Jews are a cursed people who ceased from being a unique people until 1948.

Do the Jews have a future? Yes. Do they come back into focus in Bible prophecy? Yes. God's gifting and calling are without repentance. The Jews were regathered, and the clock began ticking to the second coming of Christ.

The focus of the times of the gentiles is the church. Preaching the gospel in all the world. Evangelism, discipleship, and church planting. We only have one job and we must also be about our Father's business.

I say let God sort out the Jews and fulfill their role in prophecy. We pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Jews can get saved. And in the end we will find that Christ is the focus of God. The Jews brough Christ into the world. We preach Christ to the world. And in Heaven Christ will rule the nations of Earth with a rod of iron. 

We are not called to be Jews, we are called to be Christians. We are called to follow Jesus. 

I Have Confidence

 The vehicle that I rely on is old. But it is all that I have. I live on a fixed income which is very small. I cannot afford to buy a new car. So when my old vehicle breaks or when something on it wears out I find a way to fix or repair it. I am in a situation right now when work needs to be done. I have someone to work on it but he is busy and it will be a couple of days before he can get to me.  I had to get a ride to home Bible study tonight. I may have to get a ride to church on Sunday morning.  But, I have not lost hope or lost heart over this.

I have confidence in a living God who is able and willing to help us in our time of need. He does not cast off forever. He is faithful. His word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.

"And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose." Rom.8:28

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

"As it is written, he who gathered much had nothing left over, and he who gathered little had no lack." 2Cor.8:15 (Exod.16:18)

As I have written previously, God always saves the best until now!

Better Days Ahead

 Last night in our Wednesday night service my daughter and son in law renewed their wedding vows. They hit a milestone of thirty years of marriage. They promised to continue on the path that they chose thirty years ago. Pastor Rubi did a fantastic job in the renewal vows.

The kids might have done this five years ago, but covid messed that up. So they did it now instead.

Like any married couple, they have been through good times and hard times. But God has been faithful through the years and I am grateful for that.

No matter how many good times they have enjoyed and how many blessings that have come their way, the best is yet to come!

"The end of a thing is better than its beginning." Eccl.7:8

God bless us, every one.

Perverting the Gospel

 "I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ." Galatians 1:6-7

The problem with politics is the issue that is raised in this text. It is the perverting of the gospel which the apostle had preached. The danger of mixing the gospel with partisan politics is that it changes the gospel. It makes the Bible change into something different than it is supposed to be. It does not have to be a blatant lie to be wrong. It just has to be twisted slightly in a few places to distort the whole message.

The Bible here talks about people who so easily and quickly turned away from what they had been taught. They did not have printed Bibles in their time. They relied on preaching to teach them. 

Partisan politics turns the gospel into a political tool to impose our beliefs into the law that governs us all.

We have a civic duty to be informed and to vote. We have a spiritual duty not to let partisan politics defile the church of Christ  we are a part of.

I hope Charlie Kirk made Heaven his home. I do not care what else he believed.

Ancient Landmarks

 "Do not remove the ancient landmark which your fathers have set." Prov.22:28

Sometimes it seems that I am anxious for things in life to be different. To be fresh and new and exciting. I want to see new things and to do new things and to hear new things. And if this goes on too long, I become unsatisfied with the status quo.

If we want to know how to do things we can always look back in history to see how things used to be done. Pastor Mitchell did not come up with a brand new idea to organize our Fellowship. He patterned it a lot after the Foursquare model. The New testament has a lot of truth and doctrine, but very little on how to structure or how to organize a church. We get more benefit from church history on some things than from the Bible.

Because the Bible is such an ancient book we become accustomed to working with old ideas and with old methods and adapting ancient ideas to the modern world.

I wonder if the modern church with it's casual pastors and it's concert themed worship is a result of  boredom with old ideas.

I'm glad that when I go to church this morning my pastor will be wearing a tie and he will be preaching the Word.

Evidently, wanting things to change is not unique to the modern world. The text tells us that this was a problem in Solomon's day. There were thing in ancient times that were ancient to them!

Crisis Conversion

I believe in what is called crisis conversion. Sometimes that means that a crisis has happened that opens you to the Gospel and you get saved. Sometimes that crisis is internal, a crisis of confusion or doubt about whether the Gospel is true and whether or not to believe in Jesus.

Some people seem to have gotten saved by osmosis. They have kind of oozed their way into the faith. Some people hang around so long that they figure they are saved like everyone else. There is no radical conversion. There is no change of life. Church kids deal with this. They grew up in church so they must be saved.

Some people want to cover all of the bases so they believe in Jesus just in case. They are not committed Christians. They are philosophical believers. They have Jesus in their bag but they are not sold on Him.

Being born again tells us what the conversion experience ought to be like. A baby in natural childbirth goes through a traumatic experience. It's no wonder that the first thing a newborn baby does is cry. The baby does not decide to be born. When the time is right, out they come. Jesus used this metaphor with the Jewish leader who stumbled over it like many nominal church attenders do today.

You must be born again. Every true Christian is here because they were born here, not adopted. And the unmistakable sign that you have been born again is a changed life. The way you think, the way you speak, the habits you do, your attitude about everything changes. No change, no new life. 

The other thing that happens is a hunger for the Bible. What does it say, how does it apply to me. It says, if my view differs from the Biblical view, my view must change. Change is bedrock to the Christian life.

Revival is most effective among the young. They seem to be able and eager to change. They do not have such hard held ideas. Anyone can be born again. Nicodemus was not a teenager. But the evidence of faith at any age is still a changed life.

A crisis conversion happens when someone hurtling towards Hell suddenly turns around by a miracle of God and goes in the opposite direction towards Heaven.

Something New

 "And the Lord God said, it is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him." Genesis 2:18

I heard something last night that I have never thought of before. When God put the man in the garden God noticed that there was something wrong. And so God went to work to correct the deficiency in the man. This tells me that there are things in our lives for which God is not enough. Adam had all of creation to sustain him. He had the Lord's presence with him. And still Adam was incomplete.

While I understand that it was God who noticed the problem and it was God who solved the problem, when it comes to basic human need, God Himself is not enough. The man needed a wife.

If you think that marriage is unimportant today, remember that in the beginning, when God created mankind, man and God and nature was not good enough. And, this was done to help the man, it was not done to satisfy the woman. The woman was God's way of fixing the man.

Marriage is the first act of social engineering that God performed in history. Marriage was God's idea. Eve was not a slave to cook and clean and have sex with. She was his helper and partner in life. She still is.

I think that we need to encourage and support this important institution of marriage. Marriage was important to God, and to Adam. It ought to be important to us as followers of Christ.

Leadership Lessons

 "Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away;..." John 16:7

We are a lot like the early disciples. We do not understand what is happening in and around us. We have experienced some measure of success and we think that we have figured God out. And then we fret and work like God only has one way to do things, and that is the way He moved among us at the beginning.

Jesus told them that I must leave so that you can take over. If I don't go away, you will never grow up. This is not a mystery, this is common sense. Jesus was the leader of that group. And he led knowing that his tenure was going to be short. He had a plan that did not depend on Him being in charge forever. 

In a relay race success depends on one runner handing off the baton to the next runner. All members are world class runners, but they also know how to relinquish the baton to the next runner.

Jesus no doubt knew that not only was the cross necessary, leadership demanded that He not become the bottleneck. Jesus knew that men will not lead as long as the founding leader is in power. Moses did not lose control when he delegated responsibility, but the nation gained power and growth.

We are also like the disciples in our response to changes. 

"Most assuredly, I say to you that you will weep and lament, ..." John 16:20

The good news is that doing things God's way brings joy in the end. Your sorrow will be turned into joy is how Jesus said it.

"Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you." John 16:22

Only a true leader can delegate. Those he leads cannot do that for him. A failure to hand off the baton just makes you a bottleneck, clinging to old ways of doing things. What got us here may not get us farther down the road of life.

One Size Fits All?

I was looking through the 2026 Medicare handbook. It seems like this handbook is for those people who are new to Medicare and who are just at the time to be signing up for coverage. It is a book of basics.

This is my problem sometimes at church. I seem to hear sermons aimed at young people or that would be appropriate for new believers and I have to work very hard to find truth for my place in life.

Life is not one size fits all. While we are all people, it's the details where we find differences.

Jesus did not minister to everyone the same way. He did not heal everyone using the same method. He was able to tailor His message and His method to His current audience. I think He still does that. 

Be Still

 "Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the Earth!" Psalm 46:10

Recently I was at the cardiologist's office having an echocardiogram done. They told me to lay and my side. As I was laying there during the test it took a lot of mental effort to lay still. And this verse came to my mind. And I realized that to be still before God is not always easy.

We tend to want to be active and to be busy doing something. It is hard to sit back and to let someone else do the work. When I sold my house in Arizona it seemed to take forever since the realtor did everything until it was time to move.

To be still means you are trusting that God is at work and that there comes a time where all you can do is wait. You can pray, you can worship, you can read, but you can not do anything more. It takes a lot of effort to do nothing and to be quiet.

God knows us and He knows that from time to time we need to sit down and stop fretting and stop complaining and one day it will all work out without our help.

God is good at doing what brings glory to His name. He will be exalted in the end. And you will gain knowledge that will be a great benefit to you in life.

Answered Prayer.

 To God be the glory, great things He has done!

I had a visit with my cardiologist this morning to see how I am doing. I was nervous about the visit. But the doctor gave me good news. My heart function has improved. It still has a way to go but it is much better than it used to be. And the doctor encouraged me to be more active physically and to exercise more.

I left the doctor's office today feeling blessed and encouraged. At my age good news from a doctor is very good news! This is in part from the treatment plan in place and partly from the prayers of family and friends. I call this news an answer to our prayers.

Growing Old In Our Youth Oriented Churches.

 I see a dilemma brewing in our churches. We have a group of older folks who got saved as young people but are now retired grandparents. But our churches are still very much youth oriented. Evangelism, discipleship, and church planting is the realm of youth exclusively. But older people hear the preaching and their hearts respond and they are still willing to give and to go and to pray.

There is a movement in the world where they are looking for technology that will create trans humans or super humans. Bodies that never wear out. They don't need sleep or even much food. They are science fiction come to life. To an unstable old person with aches and pains and limitations the idea of a super human existence sounds appealing.

The problem for us is how do we support and minister to our aging saints? What can they do that is age appropriate? In Prescott they had a staff member who was brought on to minister to the old folks. I wonder how long that lasted? The immature pastor tells us that we need to act like when we were first saved. 

We used to have a small group of retired guys who got together most Saturday nights to play dominos. We used to go for breakfast on someone's birthday. It was not an outreach. It was not evangelistic. But it was fun. They still do that to this day. We were not organized by our church. We were not funded by our church. We were not recognized by our church. But we were all there on Sunday morning.

Here we have a small group of retired guys who get together on occasion for lunch. We are getting together this week. Just for fellowship.

One final thought. It is a myth that young people value the wisdom of the aged. 

Lessons To Learn

"Now before him there was no king like him, who turned to the Lord with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; nor after him did any arise like him. Nevertheless the Lord did not turn from the fierceness of His great wrath, with which His anger was aroused against Judah, because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked Him." 2Kings 23:25-26

How would you liked to have lived during the time of King Josiah? A time of sweeping changes, and great reforms. A time of turning back to God and old testament revival. Which, for all of that, was also a time of looming catastrophe and pending judgement.

Manasseh, Josiah's grandfather, was a godless, wicked king. And evidently he had been so evil that God said, enough is enough. And the sentence was handed down to remove Judah from the land like He had removed Israel years before. The only mystery in this is that Manasseh broke the law, but he did not pay the penalty immediately.

What's the lesson for us today? First, we can cross the line with God from which there is no turning back. Second, the higher up you are, the farther reaching are the consequences of your actions. And finally, it is always better to repent and to try than to give up.

The only way to ultimately lose with God is to quit.

Monday Musings

 One of the problems with having a big church is the effect it has on the local church. I'm not just talking about how much work it takes to support a bigger church. I am also talking about the attitude it fosters in the people in that church. We begin to think that we must be great or else God would not have given us all of these people or this big building. We say that God built our church, but we think that He did it partly because we are worthy.

If our goal is to make disciples and to plant churches, we should not allow our church to grow so large. Big churches support church planting, but they do not plant many churches themselves.

One other thing that happens to a bigger church is the age factor. The people who were first saved in this church are now reaching retirement age and they have grandchildren. They support everything we do, even though they can no longer do it themselves. Revival and discipleship is a young man's activity. Young men see visions, old men dream dreams.

Unfortunately, you cannot ungrow a local church without killing it.

Study the history of revival and church growth and we are following the path of every group that has ever seen real revival. This is why we must work while it is day. The night is not the end of the world, just our end in the world.

Pray for our pastors.

Perfect, or Better?

 I knew a guy in Prescott who was a gifted singer. He had a beautiful voice and he could sing on key. He did not have to work at it, it was a gift. The problem was, he was unwilling to practice and therefore he would often make mistakes during a performance.

The problem with perfection is it leaves you with no motivation or inspiration to improve yourself. I am not talking about self help or trying to achieve something that you have no natural knack for. I am talking about trying to be a better husband or father. I am talking about being a better Christian. Or a better preacher.

Pastor Mitchell used to practice preaching his sermons before he went to church. It took years of preaching before he seemed to be comfortable in his calling. Many of our Fellowship pastors could stand a little practice preaching.

I knew a guy in Prescott who was a terrible public speaker. I gave him a book on public speaking. I do not think he even read it.

Perfect people think that they do not need to be better. They are perfect as they are. All of us resist improving ourselves because we are afraid of change. We think that good enough is good enough. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. But they fail to understand that something does not have to be broken to need fixing. 

Being perfect may be a gift. Most of us could work at just being a better version of who we are.

I Believe

 There are things that some people struggle with trying to understand. These are things that I take as fact with no struggle at all.

I believe that God created the heavens, the earth, and all living things including people.

I believe that Noah's flood happened just as it is written.

I believe that God confused the languages at Babel and that is why we speak different languages.

I believe that God is three in One. Father, Son, and Spirit.

I believe that Jesus was born from a virgin mother.

I believe that Jesus is, and was, and always will be Christ.

I believe that Jesus was a real man, not a myth.

I believe that God raised Jesus up from the dead.

I believe that Heaven is our home and we are just passing through here.

I do not need to understand to believe. Faith is taking God at His word. Faith is believing, not understanding. I can easily believe things that I do not understand. A child can believe. We make it all much harder than it has to be.

Never Outgrow Your Need For Ministry

 I was notified that my blood work results were available for me to look at.  I am not a doctor or medical professional and so reading my test results was like trying to read a foreign language. I go see my doctor next week and she can tell me how I am doing and to tell me what it all means for me.

This is why, after over 50 years, I still go to church. I have devotions every morning. I read the Bible every day. But I am not a pastor or ministry professional and I need someone to explain to me what the Bible says and what the Bible means. I need a pastor to make the Word become flesh for me.

You never outgrow your need for ministry. I am grateful to God for my pastors.

Church Music. The Never Ending Story.

 You may not remember the Worship Wars that rocked evangelicals some years ago. This was the result of contemporary Christian music going mainstream. The music that we sing in church today we got from Christian radio. This is not music written and arranged for congregational worship singing. It is designed for a lead singer or solo artist on stage. It is not music telling of the wonder and glory of God. It is music telling my emotions about what Jesus did for me. The focus of too much church music is how I feel, not who God is.

Finding good church music must be hard. We have rejected traditional hymnal based songs. Songs that are hundreds of years old. Songs written for church, not for entertainment. We use what music is available for churches to use. That music is often weak and obviously written by people who know about Jesus, but do not know Him.

The worship wars have calmed down lately. Some churches responded by rejecting most music from the groups who promoted it. There is some modern music that is worthy, but not much. In a digital world, congregational singing is very old fashioned. Like choirs. It is something that grandma likes, but young people think is lame. Lame like singing church songs in our home Bible study groups.

Pray for our pastors. They need wisdom. They need to find the balance between old and new. Pray that the Holy Spirit will keep them fresh and relevant. Amen!

Thoughts On Preaching.

Pastor Mitchell preached from an outline. He did not write out his entire sermon. He gave himself key words or ideas that he then, because he had studied, could expound on. He stayed on his notes. That is why he could say more in 30 minutes than some preachers can say in over an hour.

What's an outline you ask? It looks something like this.

I Main Point

  A Sub point

      1 Reasons supporting

         a Verses, illustrations, poems, etc.

A sermon should have 3 main points, two or three sub points per main point, and as many other finer points as needed to flesh out your idea. You can learn a system that works for you.

I have heard pastor Mitchell get sidetracked by inspiration and then, to save time, skip to the last point of his sermon.  He ascribed to the idea that the mind can only understand what the seat can endure.

A preacher can be inspired early in the week for what he will say on Sunday. He does not have to wait until he is behind the pulpit to get the mind of God. A wise preacher can do this, an immature pastor maybe not.

Show me a pastor who gets behind the pulpit with a well thought out sermon that is prepared and ready to preach and I will show you a pastor that is on his way to greatness. Show me a pastor who shoots from the hip and wings it and I will show you a flash in the pan who is only effective when he feels emotionally stirred up. He is more rattle than revival.

The Scout Motto is: Be Prepared. That ought to be the Fellowship motto for preachers.

Clearing Out the Cobwebs.

 Today is a good day to clear out the cobwebs. Nothing too deep or profound.

Jesus promised to never leave us or forsake us. Thank God for that.

You can never go home again. Life has moved on, and so have you.

Some pastors wear their hearts on their sleeves. If something is bothering them, it shows.

It's interesting how family members are not always friends. And how friends can be closer than brothers.

Bigger is not always better. We seem better suited to struggle than to succeed.

Change carries no guarantees. Different may not be better. It could be neutral. It could be worse.

The grass may be greener, but it's still just grass.

I do not keep a journal. Boring to use.

Some people never leave. It shows.

Life is not easy.  I would not trade my life for anything.

God bless us, everyone!