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Thursday, June 9th, 2022
In 1973 Dr. Karl Menninger wrote a book entitled Whatever Became of Sin? Although I have never read the book, i borrowed its title for this week’s sermon. The very real truth is that sin is part and parcel of life here on earth, but our culture wants to either redefine it, dismiss it, or dismantle it.
Holiness is not an option for the follower of Christ, and for us to accomplish that we must come to grips with the effects of sin in our lives. Anyone who knows the Bible or even of the Bible, knows the beginning of sin from Genesis 3. Adam and Eve decided to take things into their own hands, believe the serpent who said they would be like God, and eat the fruit. Life has been all downhill since then. Try as we may, we cannot change the outlook or consequence of sin. I have to confess that I get really embarrassed for those who think they can sing because someone told them they could. Even though I don’t watch American Idol , I have seen enough promos to know there are some who are downright awful. And when I say awful. I mean A.W.F.U.L. They remind me of those who think they can pull their life together and overcome their sin by themselves. They can’t sing and neither can someone do the latter.
I am starting a series on June 26 (a break for Father’s Day) on 7 Cancers. This week’s sermon is sort of a lead off batter to it. I would love to have you join me in person if possible. If not, we will be live streaming it at 9 and 10:45. Please join us. If not possible, then please pray for the service. Thanks.
Posted in Christian living, Doctrine, Salvation, Sermon Series/Topic, Sin, Truth | 2 Responses »
Friday, May 27th, 2022
When I was a lot younger (and I mean a lot younger!), I used to watch TV shows in black and white. One of the popular shows, even though it was years later, were the ones of Johnny Weismuller as Tarzan. Johnny was an Olympic gold medal swimmer who appeared in 12 movies between 1932 and 1948. And yes, that was before my time, thank you very much. 🙂 As in most movies there were times of anxiety and tension and excitement. Living in the jungle with Jane and their son, “boy,” gave them plenty of opportunities to have all three of those criteria. One of the most frequent were when they went swimming and a crocodile would slip into the water and see a feast before him. But Tarzan always won (as you would expect). He was smart enough and strong enough to save the day.
Tragically, we cannot say the same about the church today. While there are pockets of steadfastness and people holding the line, there are greater examples of waffling and retreat. As we talk about staying true to our values in our world, I think it is much more important that the church makes it an essential part of its culture to remain true to biblical truth. Sadly, with the teachings coming out of Bethel, Hillsong and the Word of Faith movement, it is getting harder to remain Biblically solid. It is especially hard because of there being wolves in sheep’s clothing. Paul warned the Ephesian elders in Acts 20 of that very tactic.
Jude is aware of the creep into the church. I have entitled this first of two sermons from Jude as Look Out for Spies! I’ll cover the first 16 verses of Jude this week and then finish up the Snapshot series next week with the rest of Jude. Solomon once wrote, “Buy truth, and do no sell it.” (Pr. 23:23). That is a great admonition to us to seek the truth and not give up on it.
Please join me this Sunday at 9:00 and 10:45, either in person or via live stream. If you can’t, I would appreciate your prayers.
Posted in Christian living, Doctrine, Opinion, Preaching, Sermon Series/Topic, Truth | 8 Responses »
Wednesday, May 4th, 2022
OOPS! I messed up. I allowed time to get away from me. In my last post, which was a preview of this past Sunday’s sermon, I said I would share some thoughts from Sunday’s sermon on Philemon and the power of forgiveness. As I said, I allowed time to get away from me since I had planned on posting this Monday, the 2nd. Well…better late than never I guess. 🙂
Here are four observations I made at the end of my message this past Sunday. I know it isn’t much but perhaps it might help with some perspective.
Failure to forgive imprisons believers in their past. Unforgiveness keeps the sore open and never allows it to heal. Hurt done to you and not dealt with is like having an open sore that always oozes pus. You can put a band-aid over it but the sore never heals. Ditto failing to forgive.
Failure to forgive produces bitterness. The longer you hold onto an offense committed against you, the more bitter you will get. Bitterness distorts your whole outlook on life.
Failure to forgive gives an open door to the enemy. He loves little cracks in the doorway. Ephesians 4 tells us not to give him a foothold.
Failure to forgive hinders fellowship with God. A barrier devel0ps as a result of bitterness. Having a horizontal barrier is bad; having a vertical one is even worse. A thousand time worse. A person who is not forgiving of others cannot be right with God.
One last thing: I say this over and over to the church. If you fail to forgive someone, they own you. You are their slave. Sad part is this: your failure to forgive does not hurt them. They don’t care. It does, however, hurt you.
In my mind there is only one thing to do.
Posted in Christian living, Doctrine, Forgiveness, Freedom, Opinion, Sermon Series/Topic, Truth | 4 Responses »
Friday, April 29th, 2022
We all like to receive letters. Long or short. Hearing from someone we love or have at least corresponded with at some time usually makes for a good day. The NT consists of 27 books, most of which take some time to read and study through.
But it also contains some very short books. Four to be exact. I thought it would be a nice change of pace after the sometimes grueling and grinding subject matter of Truth Decay to pause for a refresher. So for the next 5 weeks (not including Mother’s Day) I plan to cover the short books of the NT: Philemon, 2 John, 3 John and Jude (2 sermons). I’m calling the series Snapshots since they give us short pictures of the early church.
First up is Philemon. if you haven’t read it before I’d suggest you read it. What a wonderful book! And a wonderful series of lessons we can learn. The most important?
LEARNING TO FORGIVE.
I’ll be looking at Paul’s request he makes of Philemon and how it is calling on Philemon to make one of the greatest sacrifices anyone can make: to forgive when someone has wronged you. I’ll be talking about 4 things which happen to us when we fail to forgive. I’ll share them in a blog next week.
I’d like to invite you to join us in person or via live stream. And I’d also encourage you to pray and ask God how He wants you to forgive and whom He might want you to forgive.
Posted in Christian living, Doctrine, Faith, Forgiveness, humility, Opinion, Sermon Series/Topic, Story | 4 Responses »
Wednesday, April 27th, 2022
Last week I post a song by Arrows entitled The Lion Still Roars. You can see it here. It a great song to begin the day with. I have actually found myself listening to it during my workout at the Y.
Well…here comes another song which is totally different. It comes from a group called Honor and Glory, which features several members of the Christian rock band, Disciple. But before that turns you off, give this song a listen. I do believe you will be pleasantly surprised. Honor and Glory is the name of the band consisting of a few members of Disciple and others who play or sing in their worship band in their church. They decided to get together to do a worship album. Phenomenal album! This song is one of my favorite cuts, largely due to the power and truth of the lyrics. Another song, Jesus We Love You, will bring you to worship.
Anyway, here is the song Won’t Start Now by Honor and Glory. Let me know what you think. Sorry there is no version with lyrics but I’m pretty sure you won’t need them.
Posted in Christian living, Doctrine, God, Music video, Pick me Up, Truth | 4 Responses »
Friday, April 22nd, 2022
As you can tell there is a bad side to eternity and a good side. Let’s talk about it.
Bertrand Russell lived from 1872-1970 and was well versed in math, philosophy, logic, and other studies. By all accounts that I could find he was a brilliant man. He was, depending on who he was debating or talking to, either an agnostic (because he said one cannot disprove there is a God) or an atheist. Yeah…he waffled. But one thing was consistent: he believed religion was superstition. To complicate matters here is a quote he made:
“There is one very serious defect to my mind in Christ’s moral character, and that is that He believed in hell.”
There is so much about heaven and hell we don’t know since none of us have been there. I do, however, believe they are both real places and the choice we make about Jesus will determine where we will spend eternity.
My sermon this Sunday is the final one in the series I called Truth Decay. I certainly have not covered all there was to cover, but for the past two months we have been looking at some serious “hot buttons” in today’s culture about what I call non-negotiables when it comes to what we need to believe. None of them had anything to do with cultural issues of morality, social justice, lifestyles, etc. That, as they say, is for another time and another place. This week I will be talking about where we will spend eternity.
I would love to have you join us in person or via livestream. We will be back to two services this week, with one at 9:00 and the other at 10:45. Join us won’t you?
Posted in Christian living, Doctrine, Faith, Heaven/Hell, hope, Preaching, Sermon Series/Topic, Truth | 4 Responses »
Sunday, April 17th, 2022
First, a question: have you ever read the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis? Aslan was the major character in all the books. What was he?
I’ll come back to that.
The morning after. I was always warned about the morning after. After Easter. I was warned about the letdown which follows because you see people whom you have not seen since Christmas…maybe. In this day of the pan…(sorry have trouble saying that word) and livestream, it is not unusual to not see the normal “C & E” crowd. It is a fact of life and even though it hurts from time to time, I have come to accept that. It doesn’t mean I have stopped caring for and loving those folks. It is just a fact of living in 2022.
No matter what the enemy throws at me on the morning after, I know Jesus is alive. To put it in Narnian language, the lion still roars.
I heard a new song about 2 weeks ago and it has quickly become one of my favorites. I don’t see it displacing Covered by Planetshakers or Good, Good Father by Chris Tomlin as my favorite song. But it is right up there with them. Here…give it a listen and tell me what you think.
https://youtu.be/AIJdpGPcbvE
Hope you enjoy it and it liven up your day…and week.
Posted in Doctrine, Easter, Little Bit of Fun, Music video, Opinion, Pick me Up | 8 Responses »
Friday, April 15th, 2022
Famous atheist, the late Christopher Hitchens, was once interviewed for Portland Monthly about his opposition to religion, and more specifically, Christianity. The women “minister” questioning him noted the Christianity he opposed was of the more “fundamentalist” variety, while she identified herself as a “liberal Christian.” After explaining that she didn’t take the stories of Scripture literally and rejected the atonement, she asked Hitchens if he saw a difference between fundamentalist faith and more liberal religion. His answer was surprising: “I would say that if you don’t believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ and Messiah, and that he rose again from the dead and by his sacrifice our sins are forgiven, you’re really not in any meaningful sense a Christian.”
I guess there is no other way to say it but that he put her in her place. And that I totally agree with him. If I became convinced that the resurrection of Jesus was not true, or that Jesus was just a good teacher or a wise man to imitate and not the Savior and King, I would disavow being a Christian. I would walk away from the faith.
This Sunday is the apex of our faith: the celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead. I’m excited about preaching on that! We are meeting at Abram Farm Event Venue in order to be together as one church family. Our service will start at 10:00 and be live streamed as well (thanks to Pastor Ryan for making that happen). So I’d like to invite you to join us in person at Abram Farm or via live stream.
Posted in Doctrine, Easter, Faith, Resurrection, Sermon Series/Topic, Story, Truth | 4 Responses »
Wednesday, April 13th, 2022
After preaching on The Cross is Still the Cross this past Sunday, and knowing this is “Holy Week” i.e. the last week of Jesus on earth before His crucifixion, I was struck by the words to an old hymn. Honestly, I am not into many hymns because much of what I sang as a youngster fit more in the Spiritual songs genre. But there are some hymns which are real diamonds…diamonds we ought to mine and never forget. Here is one of them:
“What can wash away by sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus/What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus/
Chorus:
O precious is the flow that makes me white as snow/No other fount I know, Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
For my pardon this I see, Nothing but the blood of Jesus/ For my cleansing, this my plea, Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Nothing can for sin atone, Nothing but the blood of Jesus/Naught of good that I have done, Nothing but the blood of Jesus/
This is all my hope and peace, Nothing but the blood of Jesus/This is all my righteousness, Nothing but the blood of Jesus/
O precious is the flow that makes me white as snow/No other found I know, Nothing but the blood of Jesus.”
Words and music Robert Lowry
A blast from the past. But what a punch! Remember this truth as you celebrate the death of Jesus this week.
Posted in Blast from the Past, Church, Death, Doctrine, Easter, God, Grace, hope, Jesus, Pick me Up, The Cross, Truth | 4 Responses »
Friday, April 8th, 2022
On March 24, 1989 the Exxon Valdez ran aground in Alaska’s Prince William Sound, spilling almost a quarter-million gallons of oil into the sea. Cleanup removed all visible traces of the oil spill within a year. But now scientists believe some of the methods used actually harmed the ecology of the area rather than helped it. The plankton and other microbial organisms may take another decade from now to return to normal.
Looking back at that disaster, it seems almost ironic that the whole story makes a fitting illustration of self-reform and the necessity of divine grace for cleansing from sin. To the progressives, the cross is one of the most offensive elements in historic Christian teaching. They simply cannot and will not accept or believe God would sacrifice His Son for others.
For the orthodox (small “o” not big “O”) follower of Jesus, the cross is absolutely essential. I will be sharing the teachings (translated: heresy) of the progressives while comparing them to what the Bible says. Examples used will be William Paul Young (The Shack), Steve Chalke, Rob Bell (yes, that infamous one), Richard Rohr, and Brian McLaren. I believe you will be shocked what they say about the crucifixion and the cross.
And by the way: do you know what penal substitutionary atonement is? They don’t either.
I look forward to seeing you Sunday in person, or if not, then via live stream.
Posted in Doctrine, Faith, God, Grace, Preaching, Sermon Series/Topic, The Cross, Truth | 2 Responses »
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