 The W!
Everyone likes to win! Regardless of if you are a highly competitive person or not, everyone likes to win! No one wants to lose! Even in the circumstance of a parent or relative losing to a small child on purpose, they are still “winning” the outcome they wanted. Of course, the secular evolutionists in our culture would say that this natural desire for competition is because we evolved in an environment where only the most competitive people survived! However, from the Christian worldview, where would we conclude that competition comes from? One possibility could be the innate sense of glory that God placed in us perverted by our fallen, sinful nature. I am not saying that competition is sinful! Only that competition may be a striving for that ultimate sense of glory found only in God. At any rate, in today’s post I would like to consider the ultimate triumph that is found in Christ alone. The Polls are wrong! In the last couple of presidential elections we have seen the polls put out by the media be wildly wrong in their predictions. Regardless of your political persuasion or view of the media, the polls weren’t even close. Someone might ask, why do the news organizations and especially the campaigns push out all these polls? The reason is because one of the effects of the polls is to either energize or depress the voter’s sentiment. Stay with me! As people look at the polls, if they see that one candidate is way ahead they are more likely to lean toward that candidate if they are undecided. Also, when voters look at the numbers for their candidates if they are decided and the chances seem low that they will when that voter may find that it is not worth the effort to vote for a candidate they believe will lose. This is important because we like to be on the winning team. Most of the fans watching sports are already invested in a particular program or brand. However, in some major events, for example the Super Bowl, the audience will be made up of many people who don’t have a loyalty to any team. In studies that have asked these fans both pregame and postgame questions, it is found that people will usually try to align themselves with the winning team. This all shows that our understanding or belief about winning can affect our perception of reality? I’m sure we have all been around rival fan bases as they disagree about a call even when watching the video replay. How can they not both agree on what happened? Because they are biased! And to be honest, we all are! Good Taste I am a very biased person. I like what I like and I don’t like what I don’t like. Have you ever heard someone say they ‘hated’ one of your favorite foods? I may alienate many of you, but one of the foods that I dislike the most is tomatoes. I like most anything you make out of tomatoes, but raw tomatoes are completely disgusting to me! You may be reading this and think that I’m crazy because you love those fresh ripe tomatoes right out of the garden. You see that we can respond differently to the same stimulus. In 2 Corinthians 2:14-17, the Apostle Paul uses this dichotomy to manifest the difference between believers and unbelievers. “But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God’s word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.” Paul states that the fragrance of the knowledge of Christ is spread through us everywhere. Over the last several months, we have heard enough about spread but imagine the spread of the influence and power of the gospel like a fragrance all over our community. Paul says that this influence is evident to both the believer and the unbelievers. But notice that not everyone enjoys this wafting scent. To those who are perishing, the influence of God righteousness, justice, and grace are like three day old roadkill in July. They sniff the air and all they smell is death! However, for believers this cultural transforming aroma, that of flowers in the springtime and hay in fall, enters our nostrils as the very smell of life itself! Paul says that believers are therefore spreading the gospel not as peddlers, meaning corrupt money makers, but as sincere and commissioned spokesmen for God. But please don’t miss how verse 14 begins. Paul is thankful that God always leads us in triumph! You know with all the division, disease, and even despair we see around us, God is still currently leading us (His people) in a triumphal procession. Brothers and Sisters, let us march in God’s gospel parade with joyful hearts and smiling faces as the precious pleasing fragrance of Jesus hangs sweetly in the air!
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 No Fear
So how are you feeling today? Are you anxious or nervous? As I write this, it is Thursday, and no official call has yet been made about who will win the presidential election. I know that all around us people are eager to know who won. I also realize that there are many on both sides who will feel as if the decision is illegitimate, if their candidate does not come out victorious. To be honest, I believe both sides are probably taking whatever means necessary both legal and corrupt, to secure their success. The candidates and campaigns are driven by multiple kinds of motivations such as ideology, ego, arrogance, genuine concern for the nation, and a host of other meaningful factors. These motivations extend to us as well, as voters and supporters. This means that most of us are not only invested in the political saga taking place before us as entertainment or intellectual curiosity, but also as an impactful and emotionally incredible event. On Monday, a friend and I were discussing these very issues. In the course of the conversation the relative scenarios were laid out and we each expounded upon our oh so highly informed theories. In reality, we had no idea what was going to happen and I can tell I still don’t. But as brothers in Christ the conversation shifted for us in a most marvelous direction. My friend made the statement that he wasn’t scared. Wow! I quickly added that I also did not have that same sense of overwhelming fear that I believe our world is currently catering to, whether in the area of health, finances, or politics. We were able to both affirm that based on the Scriptural teaching of the absolute sovereignty of God, we had no fear! Today, if you are feeling anxious and nervous I hope that you will find the sovereignty of God a refuge and respite for your weary soul. Sovereignty The concept of sovereignty is that of sole authority. The idea of national sovereignty is that a sovereign state is not under the jurisdiction of any other power or governance. We are not individually sovereign! We can’t be sovereign because there are many realms of authority that we fall under both in society and according to God’s word. This, however, does not mean that we are not responsible. The very realms of governance (state, church, family, etc.) that mean I am not sovereign, are the ones that God has ordained to hold me accountable. So no right thinking human will ever be able to live without fear based on their own autonomy or personal sovereignty. But my friend and I were freed from fear because we trusted in the sovereignty of God. He is not under any outside authority or subject to any jurisdiction. The whole creation is His and He rules and reigns. This means that for every who trusts Him there is no reason for us to fear at all. I know that many people look to what they call God’s sovereignty as a reason for confidence, but often they assume that God will make things happen the way they want. These people might say that they are not concerned about the election because God is sovereign, so they believe He will cause their candidate to win. However, this is not the confidence I am talking about at all. Rather, I mean that we can be truly free from fear when we trust God even if the other guy wins, the family member dies, the job is lost, the foreclosure is executed, or your heart is broken. When we are ready to believe that Christ is enough for us, even when in His sovereignty these things are in our lives, then we can rejoice and give glory to God no matter what happens tomorrow. Just consider the words of God given in Isaiah 45:11-13. “Thus says the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and the one who formed him: ‘Ask me of things to come; will you command me concerning my children and the work of my hands? I made the earth and created man on it; it was my hands that stretched out the heavens, and I commanded all their host. I have stirred him up in righteousness, and I will make all his ways level; he shall build my city and set my exiles free, not for price or reward,’ says the LORD of hosts.” This passage is about the One who is the ultimate expression of God’s compassionate sovereignty, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Holy One in whom we must place all our trust and find all our comfort, hope and peace! Brandon has inspired me by including songs with his blogs. I came across this song again yesterday from the spring, give it a listen.  Tis the Season
Tomorrow will be the end of October, which has become in the last several years the official (or unofficial) Pastor Appreciation month. Sunday will begin the month of November which is typically a time when we are reminded of our need to be thankful with the inclusion of the Thanksgiving Day celebration and our entry into the holiday season. This is a festive time of year! Something about the cooler weather, warmer foods, and autumn activities just seems to draw out a sense of peace and thankfulness. It is probably partly nostalgia and partly dependent on your own worldview. Thank You I want to take this opportunity to express my thankfulness to God for His great grace in allowing me the privilege of being a part of Marshall First Baptist Church. I am also thankful to all of you for allowing me to serve as your Pastor. There are several personal reasons why I am thankful to be the pastor of Marshall First Baptist that I am not going to include in this post. However, one is that God seems to fit us for certain places, times, and most importantly relationships. I feel as if our church just fits! I remember before I even became the pastor, telling Laura that if I were not called here, we would just join here because this is where we knew we ought to be and you are who we knew we ought to be with. I am thankful for all of you as brothers and sisters in Christ. I have mentioned this before, but being an only child, I think I take more seriously than most our siblingship in the body of Christ. When we sing, “I’m so glad I’m a part of the family of God,” my heart is overwhelmed in the rock solid spiritual fact that we are united in the bonds of Christ, which will never and can never be ultimately broken. I am also thankful for your generosity. You take care of my family and I so well. But even beyond that, I am so free to do the things that God has given me to do. Every place I am able to teach, ministry that I am able to be involved in (in our community and in our association), and mission even beyond is made possible because of your generosity as a church. What’s Missing It’s nobody’s fault, but I have to say that I miss much of our fellowship. This disease is real and those who are taking special precautions should take them. But I still miss you guys! Shannon posted a quote from The Lord of the Rings a while back expressing the sentiment, “I wish none of this had ever happened.” Yeah, I feel that way. But I also want to encourage you to hang on! Look to Christ! For our God will bring us through all of this and He will bring us through this together! I have hope that on the other side of this we will be an even stronger fellowship after this than we were before. In 1 Thessalonians 5:13-18, Paul says this to these noble believers, “Be at peace among yourselves. And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” Brothers and Sisters, let us take the call, challenge, and comfort of this text and apply it vigorously to our attitudes and actions. The world is full of division and enmity, but let us be at peace. Let us graciously admonish, encourage, and help one another with long-suffering patience. This also means we must be receptive to this from each other. And let us do this all with great joy, constant prayer, and true gratitude because this is God’s will for all of us in Christ Jesus!  Styles
So who remembers the worship wars? Several years ago, many churches were divided over which styles (hymns, choruses, etc.) of music were acceptable in the church service. However, when we think about worship it's much more than just the style of the music that we sing. Worship includes preaching the Word, taking up the offering, participating in the Lord's Supper, fellowshipping with each other, taking prayer requests, joining together in prayer, and the way that we greet one another. All of these elements are a part of the worship of God by His redeemed people. All of these things constitute a part of what it means to worship. When we define worship simply as the time of singing before the preacher gets up, we've misunderstood the true nature of worship. Worship is the whole of our lives as we devote ourselves to God. Worship is about what we believe and about how we act. In all of this, we are seeking to bring glory and honor to God. Worship is about God receiving the praise that he deserves! We want to give thanks to God when we worship, we want to submit to God when we worship, and we want to obey God when we worship. As believers, our whole lives ought to be a testimony of worship to our God and our King. All of these things are opportunities for us to glorify and honor our King, to demonstrate that we love Him and that we follow Him. But, how do we know how God wants us to worship Him? How do we conclude the practical elements that should be a part of our assemblies? Is it just according to what we like? Can I worship God my way, and you worship God your way? Or, are there certain things that ought to be true of how we all worship God and certain things that should be unacceptable for any of us who would worship God? These are the things that we are going to talk about in today's blog. Principles In Christian theology, there is a concept called the regulative principle of worship. The regulative principle of worship teaches that only those practices or elements which are specifically commanded or modeled in Scripture, are to be permitted in worship services. Contrasted with this is the normative principle of worship. The normative principle is the opposite of the regulative principle, meaning that those things that are not expressly forbidden in Scripture are acceptable to God. So which one of these is right? Is it okay for us to use anything that we might see in our culture to worship God, as long as it's not forbidden? Or has God given us certain parameters and instructions for how worship ought to be conducted? This is obviously highly practical as we seek to honor God as a part of His unified body. So let's start with the normative principle. If we take the normative principle as our rule for how we ought to conduct our gatherings, this would mean that anything is allowed that we cannot find a specific prohibition for in Scripture. Adopting the normative principle would mean that anything we find possible would be an option. The normative principle means that things that we don't see the early church doing would be allowed, because they are not prohibited by Scripture. So, is there any danger in the normative principle? I think that there would have to be some danger, because the New Testament was not written primarily to tell the churches how not to worship, but rather how they ought to worship. The normative principle must at least provide the opportunity for us to admit something sinful or irreverent into the worship meeting. This would mean that we must be on our guard if we're going to accept the normative principle. Secondly, I think the normative principle does make us especially susceptible to our own traditions. We are susceptible to what seems familiar. This could, and probably does, lead us to conclude that many practices in our churches are biblical when they really aren’t. So the normative principle could be helpful for us to think about innovative ways for us to conduct our gatherings, but it could be dangerous in opening us up to being shackled by our own traditions or to being blasphemous because of our novelty. But what about the regulative principle? If we adopt the regulative principle as our standard for worship, what would our worship services look like? The Scripture teaches us that we ought to speak to one another in Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. The elders would be teaching sound doctrine, the whole church would be using their various spiritual gifts to minister to one another in the gathering, and we would share together the fellowship meal – the Lord’s Supper! A church meeting this way would be able to truly experience the “one another” commands of the New Testament. All of these would be examples of ways that we're able to enjoy the beauty of the gathered church, building one another up in our faith. We might also find that the regulative principle would require that our services be much more simple than formal, much more relational than transactional. At any rate the regulative principle would mean that our activities and actions in the local church would be connected to specific passages in the Bible. We would be looking for places in the Bible where the Lord Jesus and His Apostles give us instructions about how things like the teaching of the word, the practice of the Lord's Supper, and the practice of church discipline are supposed to be conducted. No doubt, there would also be things that would have to be cut out of our worship meetings, things that the Bible simply does not affirm, things that might seem like modern conveniences, but they are not ancient instructions. Our Practice So what about us at Marshall First Baptist Church? How should we conduct our services? I believe that we should be very careful that we are not seeking simply to be innovative or creative, but first and foremost honoring and glorifying to God by worshiping Him in obedience. This doesn’t mean boring! I'm afraid that oftentimes in our effort to be novel and to be attractive to the world we've abandoned the things that God has told us to do. With this being said, I think we have freedom to worship with passion, even using our creative gifts within the parameters of God’s instructions. The Apostle Paul told the Galatians that “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom,” but we must not use that freedom as a license for sin. Rather we ought to be willing to reform. We ought to be willing to transform our gatherings to be more in line with the gatherings that we see in the first century. We ought to be seeking to have gatherings that allow us to operate in such a way as to share the benefits of all the “one another” passages in Scripture. We ought to be doing this in such a way that we glorify and honor our God and our King, because that is what worship is truly all about!  Liturgy
Last week, I addressed our language. In the course of that article, I referred to the nature of worship and adoration. Today, let's think some more about worship. The term “liturgy” refers to the form or formula of religious worship (particularly Christian worship). Now, many believers in our day would like to disregard this term because we often romanticize the idea that real devotion and genuine worship must be spontaneous and sensational. There certainly is nothing wrong with spontaneous moments of worship! How could you be a student of the Bible with real love for God and not be brought to the point of joyous celebration when reading God's word? However, even the most laid back, open, free form of public worship is going to have some kind of form or structure, and this is still 'liturgy' regardless of if it is recognized by the participants. I believe that in most cases those seeking this kind of 'freedom' in worship are doing so because they believe it will be the most honest and glorifying to God. On the other hand, many people never give a thought to how they are worshiping. They are just doing what they have always done. Whether their practices were picked up as a result of tradition or experience this is just what worship is. Maybe there is another perspective we could take to determine the best way to worship our God. Since worship is so fundamental to everything in our lives (by the way, this is true for both believers and unbelievers because everyone is a worshipper!), we should expect God to give us guidance, even commands, in His word for how He is to be worshipped. Remember, He is omniscient and eternal, we cannot surprise Him! There is no reason to think that He is eagerly anticipating our creativity or innovation. What He wants is our obedience because this is how we show our love for Him (John 14:15). Law God’s law is clear that we are to have no other gods, formed with tools of the hands or tools of the mind, that would elicit our worshipful response. In truth, nothing we could ever make would stir our religious affections, if not for the fact that our desire is so fallen to be satisfied by such refuse as temporal achievement and human advancement. These things simply should not be able to stir us if we were already rightly oriented to our true object of worship: Almighty God! The law of God was not given to us as some sort of arbitrary list of random requirements or hoops that God thought it would be fun to watch humanity struggle to navigate. The law was the expression of God’s own righteousness. The idea was that as people obeyed the law, the goodness and beauty of what God was like would be clearly seen. However, the law was always intended to reveal not only God’s greatness but our weakness. The reality is that the law did not have a mechanism to make us holy but only the ability to show when we were not holy, while demonstrating that someone else was truly holy. So we must not view God’s law as this cold dreary dungeon of despair and drudgery, but rather as what David calls it in Psalm 19 – perfect. The law is good and beautiful and sweet as honey David says. The problem with the law is not the law but us. First, our problem begins with the fact that we break it every day. Our proclivity and propensity to sin is so pervasive. The second problem is when we attempt to use the law to do what it cannot do. The law is excellent at identifying sin but horrible at cleansing it away. When we attempt to use the law to become right with God we become legalists. However, when we use the law to guide and direct us in our walk with God we become obedient. So the law, in a way, serves to point our worship in the proper direction even while we have not achieved perfection. In the law, the Lord also instructs to give heed to the use of His name. Obviously, we ought to speak of God and of holy things with reverence and purity, but I believe in this commandment to not take His name in vain, we are also being taught to take seriously the title identifying us with Christ. If we are to call ourselves “Christians” or “Christ followers,” as some prefer, then we must truly follow Him and not bear His name falsely. Our Worship This blog is starting to get longer than intended and much remains to be said. So next week we will continue on this theme with a discussion of the regulative and normative principles of worship. But I want to close this article with a clear point. If we are to worship the true God we must do so in obedience! Our worship must be directed by the Scriptures which then drives and defines our experiences, expressions, and emotions!  Language
We have become a people that constantly exhaust our vocabulary for the sake of emphasis. My generation (X’ers) called everything “awesome,” even though, contrary to the Lego movie worldview, everything is not awesome. Actually, few things really bring about a sense of awe. Few things are so genuinely amazing and wonderful that they bring about a sense of transcendent enchantment. I think that it is on this basis that we seek to create so many counterfeits. We are looking for that thing that will call from within us the adoration, dare I say worship, that we long to express. We also do this with negative words. We say that every trivial matter is “the worst,” when it really isn’t. Because of this misuse of both positive and negative language, our culture has become verbally handicapped. The normal use of language doesn’t support the weight of thoughtful discussion or promote real understanding. This breakdown in communication is seen in the fruitless, often divisive, nature of what passes for argument on social media. As well as, in the political discourse of our day. The first presidential debate is a case in point of our cultural inability to communicate well. Vulgar The Latin translation that served as the primary biblical text in use for almost a thousand years in the middle ages was known as the Vulgate. To our ears that sounds like the word “vulgar.” We tend to associate the word vulgar with dirty or bad language. But the Latin word, where we get the word vulgar from, simply meant “common.” The vulgar tongue was referring to the way folks actually spoke, as opposed to official language. It is like the difference in the way we speak and legal language. The Latin translation of the Bible was known as the Vulgate because the original Hebrew, and especially Greek, was written in the common tongue. The Greek used to compose the books of the New Testament, wasn't the Greek of the academy. It was the Greek of the streets. I believe this is because God was making His revelation accessible. Greek was the unifying language of the Roman world and the trade language. It was the language in which the most important things in life were communicated. And now, through writings of the Apostles, it carried the most important message ever. No Bad Words In Colossians 3:8, Paul says that believers are to put away certain ways of speaking. Including slander and the use of “obscene” or “abusive” language. Also, in Ephesians, he tells us to not let “corrupting” or “unwholesome” talk come out of our mouths. So God chose to speak to us in the common language, and we know the common language then and now often has some spicy wording, but Paul tells us not to use these abusive or unwholesome words. What are we supposed to do? What words should we use and what words should we not use? I am actually really glad that Paul did not just give us a list of the bad words, for two reasons. First, then we would just invent other foul language, yet think we were fine because we kept the letter and not the spirit of the law. Second, I'm sure if Paul had laid out the bad words of the first century something would have been lost in culture and translation. There is a sense in which the words that Paul is prohibiting are defined culturally and naturally. This also means that some words a hundred years ago, or ten thousand miles away from here, may have been considered bad, but are not today. This also means that something we think of as bad today, may not be bad years down the road. I also think we need to be careful because the Apostles and our Lord Himself used strong language when dealing with sin, with the Pharisees, and with the false teachers. If these prohibitions by Paul serve to emasculate our speech, our proclamation of the gospel will be impotent and the church will be vulnerable. I want to leave you two, hopefully, helpful metrics for choosing your words. First, is your own motivation. Why do you want to use that word? Often this course of introspection will tell you all you need to know. If you constantly have to convince yourself it is ok to use some words then you probably don't need to use them. Secondly, does using this language build up God's people? If this language does not help to promote truth and build up the church or your family or others, what good is it?  Stories
Stories are fun and entertaining vehicles for information. This is partly because the story brings us into an experience and affects our emotions. For example, if I listed several abortions statistics and the rates of live births and survivals, the impact would not be as great as hearing the testimony of mother or survivor who had gone through that scenirio. Or imagine the daily coronavirus updates, those numbers are not as impactful as the real life people that you know who have had or died of the disease. Narratives, weather fictional or real, bring us into the joy or the pain of the human subjective experience. This is not only true now but in history and in the Bible. One of the problems that I believe we have in reading the Bible is that we have become so familiar with many of the individual accounts, that we treat them like statistical facts and not genuine encounters. Because of this we miss some of the hardiest and most beautiful truths communicated to us by our gracious God. A Hard Tale The book of Judges contains some of the hardiest stories in the Bible. You may recall the gruesome story of in chapter 19 of the levite’s concubine who is raped, killed, cut up and distributed throughout the country. But the story I would like for us to consider today is maybe the most tragic. Chapter 11 introduces us to Jephthah, who is called a valiant warrior. He was also unjustly treated by his brothers resulting in him becoming the leader of a criminal gang. While at the helm of this illegal enterprise, Jephthah was sought by the elders of Gilead to be their leader and deliver them from their enemies. Jephthah took this commission and began to use diplomatic means to attempt to broker peace with the Ammonites. Unfortunately, peaceful means didn't work. Before leading the campaign Jephthah made a vow to God committing to sacrifice, as a burnt offering, the first things that came out of the door of his home when he returned. No doubt he probably expected this to be some animal that was in the house. In the course of events, the Lord did allow Jephthah and his people a great victory and the beginning of a season of peace for Israel. When Jephthah returned home, exhilarated by his conquest, his only daughter came out of his house with joyous celebration. In this instant, the valiant and victorious warrior was brought to tears and weeping because of his vow. He then related to his beloved child the nature of his vow and the necessity of keeping his word before the Lord. The godly young woman understood and agreed, only asking that she would have 2 months to grieve with her friends. After this period, she was executed by her father and the vow was fulfilled. When thinking of the term tragedy, I can hardly imagine a more suitable word for this horrible story. But we must remember that it was included in the revelation of God. The Bible is not just an ancient record book but a book that really reveals who God is so that we can draw near to Him and know Him. So what should we learn from this story? First, God did not ask or demand Jephthah to make this vow or do this deed. There are no times when God ever had anyone actually sacrifice their children. The Lord did test Abraham in Genesis 22 but He also provided the substitute ram in the bush and ultimately His on Son on the cross. Second, since God is faithful, just, and true, we should take our vows, covenants and commitments to Him seriously. The Bible does not teach that people should bargain with God. I have personally known of many people who have considered God unfaithful because He did not keep up His end of a bargain they made. But remember, He never agreed to man's bargaining. The text does not even suggest that the Israelites would not have won the day without Jephthah's errant vow. However, Jephthah had made the vow and, while not ratified by God, this valiant warrior was honor bound to keep his word. Third, this daughter serves as a type of the Lord Jesus in at least three ways. She is Jephthah's one and only daughter. The Greek word used to translate the Hebrew is the same one used to speak of Jesus as the one and only or “only begotten,” so in this way we see the parallel. Also, when she was told about the vow she responded with faithfulness. She agreed that a commitment to God must be kept. And so she is like Jesus, a volunteer for the glory of God. In light of this sobering account, let us all be both careful and faithful in our commitments to the Lord. Let us remember the extreme cost and sacrifice that God took to save us through the cross of Christ. And let us faithfully volunteer our lives to be used for God ultimate glory!  Circumstances
The last eight months have brought us all to the point of considering the state of life all around us. Whether it is simply the inconveniences of the COVID world, or the great concern over health and well being, everyone has been affected! These circumstances have proven to be overwhelming for most all of us at some point. This is probably because we all feel a certain loss of control. Things seem to be happening around us and to us. In the midst of all the social unrest, public protests, and escalating accounting of cases and recoveries, the scariest reality is that individual lives have been lost in the course of all these issues. My point today is not to discuss the death rate of the coronavirus or the state of societal tensions around our land. Instead, as we consider the sobering reality of death and mortality all around us, let us consider the Lord’s perspective of the death of both the sinner and the saint. The Wicked One week ago today, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg left this life. She was a brilliant legal mind and effective cultural crusader. However, there is unfortunately no evidence of any faith in Jesus Christ in her life. Her decisions on the court were often not in alignment with biblical ethics. I do not intend to slander the late Justice Ginsberg only to state that our only hope of exoneration before the Judge of the all the earth is that our sins have been covered by Jesus’ blood, and our only hope before the One on the throne in Heaven will be the righteousness of Christ credited to those who believe. Peace with God is based on the reconciling work of Christ and not on anything that we can or could do! In Ezekiel 33:11, the prophet pleads with the people of God to turn back from their sin and seek the Lord. The Lord declares through the prophet that He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. Rather what the Lord is seeking is the repentance of those who have behaved so wickedly. He says that His pleasure would be that the wicked would turn from his way and live! My simple point as we consider the death of individuals is that the death of unbelievers is not a cause for rejoicing but rather grieving that the time for repentance has passed and only judgement remains. The Faithful This week in my own personal circle two men have passed from this life. One, I have known for many years on a social level, his name was Doyle Scroggins. Doyle was an honest, kind and genuine man and it was an honor to know him. I enjoyed many trail rides with Doyle and it won’t be the same without him. The other loss was a colleague and friend, Bro Phillip Clark, who pastored the Marshall Assembly of God church. Phillip’s life was always marked by joy! His sincerity and hospitality were remarkable. As I reflect on the faithful lives of these two men, I am reminded of Psalm 116:15-17. “Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints. O LORD, I am your servant; I am your servant, the son of your maidservant. You have loosed my bonds. I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving and call on the name of the LORD.” Here we see the heart of God surrounding the physical death of redeemed people. The text says that it is precious in the sight of the LORD! The word “precious” denotes a certain value and honor and esteem that is placed on something. There is a dignified value that our God places on the death of His children. This is amazing to think that not only is our God pleased to save us eternally but to value our earthly lives with honor in our physical death. Particularly as I think about the ministry of Bro. Phillip, I would ask you to notice three things. First, the psalmist refers to himself as the Lord’s servant. This is supposed to be a short blog. To even begin to recount all the ways that Bro. Phillip served the Lord by serving people right here in Marshall would require an incredibly long book. Secondly, the Psalmist is rejoicing that his bonds have been loosed. The reality is that even the most victorious Christian lives on earth are plagued by things that we will be completely free of when present with the Lord. Both Doyle and Phillip are experiencing more gladness and freedom than we could even imagine. Finally, David mentions “the sacrifice of thanksgiving” along with calling on the name of the LORD. This is a reference to worship. To know Brother Phillip at all was to know that he loved to worship and bring to the Lord the sacrifice of thanksgiving and that is what he is doing today. If our God tells us that He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked but regards as precious the death of saints, then let this reality energize us for faithfulness and fruitfulness in both worship and evangelism for His great glory!  Expectations
What do you believe that the afterlife will be like? Maybe the term afterlife is unhelpful, because for us as believers, what we are awaiting is the fullest life. But what are your expectations? Adherents of the Hindu and Buddhist faiths believe that through reincarnation you lose all your selfish and personal desires and are reabsorbed into a sort of universal consciousness. (That's too simplistic a description, but you get the idea). Those who follow the prophet Muhammad go the other direction and see eternity in terms of the fulfillment of their natural pleasures. But what does the Bible teach us to expect about our future experience in God's eternal kingdom? Better I would argue that the truth is better than both of those ideas mentioned earlier. One reason is because Christians do believe and know that our future will be a physical one and that we will have real personhood and personality. However, when we are freed from the corruption and influence of sin it will not be to indulge in baser passions, but rather to fully and rightly, enjoy and glorify God. All man made religious systems run into a problem, because they are ultimately about us. But the truth is focused on God and His glory. The Bible reveals the role we will play in bringing Him glory. The goal is Him, not us. This misunderstanding is fundamental to our sin nature. Because sin is inherently selfish and narcissistic, sin causes us to think about all realities in relationship to ourselves. This is even manifested when our altruistic ideals are still focused ultimately on how humanity is impacted. As long as we are man centered in our thinking it will be impossible for us to understand what God is doing now or to have a proper hope in what God will accomplish in the future. The reality of all that God is doing is better and greater because it is focused on the best and greatest reality His own GLORY! This focus and this end changes everything! This makes everything matter and that means that this is where we find our true meaning and purpose. Work Do you realize that work was given as a gift to Adam before the fall?! God will have work for us to do in the hereafter. In the Old Testament the priests were to represent the people before God by bringing the appropriate sacrifices for sin. They were God's special servants. As such they did not receive the same inheritance of land as the rest of the tribes and people of Israel. This was because God Himself was their inheritance! The LORD Himself was to be their portion. What else could they have need of if they have God. In the New Testament, we are told that we as believers are priests in His eternal kingdom. So often our thinking about eternal existence is twisted because we forget that it is about Him. In reality, our eternal inheritance, as those brought into this new covenant with God, is God Himself! What God has promised us in the eternal state is not the destruction of all our desire and passion, but rather to fulfill us with our relationship with Him. Also, we are not looking forward to time when our sinful lusts and naturalistic appetites are appeased, but to a day when in Christ we enjoy full contentment and perfect peace with God! Do you have peace with God? It is available through faith in Jesus! Romans 5:1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.  Again
As autumn is quickly approaching, most, if not all, of us are probably anticipating something connected with this wonderful time of year. I was at the fair yesterday, and while there was an oddness about it all (as with all of 2020), I still felt that sentimental nostalgic emotion that I get around these annual events. The sights and the smells and the other stimuli that remind us of times gone by. Sometimes we are brought to remembrance of something even bigger than ourselves while listening to the national anthem or some other patriotic piece from our childhood. These influences bring us back to remember things that are meaningful and important. Good & Bad These moments can be both positive and negative, both happy and sad. These experiences can be expected or spontaneous. As I said there are many that are tied to particular seasons or days. As matter of fact, today is one of those days. Most of us can probably remember exactly where we were and what we were doing 19 years ago today. Our world, or maybe our understanding of the world, changed that day. And I am sure that as you think back and are reminded of those horrific hours on Tuesday, September 11, 2001 there is a grief and sadness that is both understandable and appropriate. However, as I experience that sadness, I am also moved to recall the heroism and hopefulness that the following days brought to our country. Tragically, that part was short lived. Maybe we were made to feel these kinds of nostalgic emotions not just as a passing moment but as a motivator and reminder that this, our current situation, will also pass. Maybe we should remember that our hope and security is not found in the strength of our buildings or the efficacy of our health care. Maybe we are meant to trust in something far greater than any terrorist threat or viral outbreak. I AM the LORD Hundreds of times throughout the revelation of God given to His prophets, especially Ezekiel, God states that both the blessings and curses that He brings on His people and on the nations are so that everyone will know that He is the LORD! The LORD is the way most English translations render God's covenant name "YHWH". This name is literally referring to the 'isness' of God. By this I mean that God is! Everything else, all that is in existence, is a part of His creation and is dependent on Him. But He is utterly independent because He is! Now consider that this sense by which we pine nostalgically for the 'good ole days' or by which our chests swell with patriotic pride may have been given to us by God as a reminder that He is the LORD! So as you feel these first brisk breezes of fall be reminded 'Jesus is LORD' and as you get your first taste of pumpkin spice this season be reminded 'Jesus is LORD' and as you contemplate the last 19 years and the eternity before us be comforted 'Jesus is LORD'. |