I love being the Pastor of Bethel Baptist Church. This past Sunday marked three years that my family and I have been serving here and as I said from the pulpit last night, God has blessed us so far beyond what we deserve! We’ve come to love and know the people here and we’ve built a trust-relationship with them. They appreciate the Word of God and they show appreciation for their leadership. I am so humbled by them!
Yesterday was an awesome day. We closed out our Sunday School class called Marriage Matters and I think all the couples were challenged to deepen our love for each other. We had a great attendance as both morning services felt fairly full and Sunday evening was a great crowd as well. The music in all three services was probably the best I’ve experienced since coming here.
Before church a boy named Wesley came with his Mom to tell me about how he’d asked Jesus to be his Savior on Thursday night and that he was ready to be baptized. When I asked when, his Mom said, “aren’t you baptizing today?” So yes, we baptized two in water much warmer than the week before when a valve issue caused our baptistery to be 53 degrees.
As an added bonus, I ate “chicken over the coals” at the historic AQ Chicken House in Springdale. By day’s end, everyone kept talking about how they had really felt the presence of the Spirit of God in our services. I pondered the fact that we use that term sometimes without explaining it. We believe that the Holy Spirit takes up residence and lives personally in the heart of every believer, so when we gather together in corporate worship and we are all mutually submissive to God and to each other, His presence may be felt in a very real way by believers. It is this powerful presence of God that makes the difference in a winning Sunday and a normal one.
I thank God for all the winning Sundays we’ve had at Bethel, and I look forward to experiencing more of them for the years to come!
Sundays don’t feel like worship sometimes! I know that sounds crazy coming from a Pastor, who preaches to and leads an entire congregation in worship every week. But for me, the music portion of our service is usually a time when my attention is arrested by everything happening up front and the message I’m about to preach. WAIT! There is more to read… read on »
Today begins a very hectic season in our lives - well, hectic if traveling is hectic. We’ll be leaving the middle of this afternoon for the great metropolis and returning tomorrow evening. Week after next, it’s on to St. Louis for a three-day jaunt where I get to see the Cardinals play at the new Busch Stadium! The following week is Vacation Bible School, interrupted by a one-night stay in Tulsa for our Tenth Anniversary (which you’ll hear more about later). The following week, I take Angie to St. Louis and I return to Northwest Arkansas the next day while she goes with her family to Griffin, Georgia for several days. Then, a week later, I meet her in Kentucky for a week to visit with my family. All of this in June… and I’m not even missing a Sunday service!
It’s really a good thing I love traveling. I especially love Branson. Why, you might ask? Well, it’s not the country music, the craft festivals, or all the super-expensive shows. It’s certainly not the outlet malls either. It’s really the fried green Tomatoes served up hot at MacFarlan’s and the cheap breakfast buffet at Starvin’ Marvin’s! You should have known it would all surround fried foods! I also love the drive through the Ozarks, a movie at the Imax Theater, and especially being with my wife and daughter! They make these moments wonderfully special.
See you in Branson! I’ll save you a fried green tomato… maybe.
This past Sunday was perhaps the most awesome day of ministry I’ve ever experienced. Like the old gospel song says, “Heaven came down and glory filled my soul.” It wasn’t great planning, great music, or great preaching that made the day great, it was our great God visiting us in a powerful way in response to a whole lot of concerted, passionate praying.
Last Wednesday, our prayer service, which normally consists of calling out some requests, a short pastoral prayer, and a long Bible study, turned into an extended session of a concert of praise. Multiple people were praying out loud for their lost friends and family and giving praise to God for His working in their lives. At the conclusion of our payer, I almost felt that teaching would be an interruption in what God was really doing, and perhaps it was.
Sunday began with an intense prayer circle, seven men gathered together a half hour before Sunday School. We prayed over our time and it was well worth it. Together we asked great things of God. Sunday School itself was right on target as we learned about “serving God with holiness.”
Then the worship hour came and we sang songs to honor the King with a particular emphasis on the Holy Spirit’s role in our lives. The message was all about the power of the Holy Spirit. I left out two illustrations that I later realized would have been detrimental to the point of the message. I felt an anointing more powerful than ever in my ministry. I had boldness to say things without regard to the approval of people.
The invitation came and God did an awesome work. The altar filled with people praying and weeping for the fullness of the Spirit, praying for lost loved ones and other needs. A young man and a young lady received Christ as Savior. The invitation went through three movements as things kept happening. Joy Ewalt, for whom we have been praying for healing from cancer came and testified that God had completely healed her from brain cancer. Tests show that her head is now clear and she gave all the glory to God and the credit to prayer.
We left later than ever before and people continued to attest to God’s working in their lives in a very powerful way. I left church feeling so small, so undeserving, and so grateful that God would allow me to experience such an event.
Sunday afternoon our Deacons gathered for a time of training and we exchanged testimonies of the godly men who have inspired us in the past. I recalled my grandfather’s strong convictions as a Deacon for over a half century of time and the other stalwart men who influenced me throughout my childhood. In the evening service I preached about “The Sanctity of the Womb” where God has performed some great miracles in the lives of John the Baptist, Jeremiah, Paul, and others.
We had prayer for young girls facing this difficult decision to choose life, for women who have had abortions to find the freeing forgiveness of God, and for America to turn a corner on the abortion issue and repent before God. We also had prayer for some couples currently struggling with infertility and for Loving Choices, a local pregnancy support center. We’re also currently praying for healing in the life of one of our Deacons, Nick Gann.
One thing I am continually remembering is that we cannot dwell on these now past events in the “remember that day…” sense. Instead we must look forward to the awesome things God can do every time we meet. There is no reason why each worship experience cannot grow in intensity so long as our hunger for God, our commitment to holiness, and the passion of our prayer grows as well.
May God continue to visit us in special ways in our individual lives and every time we meet together, and may He continue to raise up Spirit-filled, Bible-drilled, prayer-skilled warriors for Christ’s Kingdom!
Live peaceably with all men… Easier said than done. Everything in us wants to fly off the handle when we are inconvenienced or insulted. Paul’s words were nothing new, they had been modeled by Jesus, the Prince of Peace. Nonetheless, these words are revolutionary as far as human society is concerned. To seek peace, to refuse the right to get even, is one of the greatest accomplishments any person could ever make.
My Sunday began on the wrong foot. First, I’d gotten pulled over by a Deputy on Saturday night for speeding down an unpopulated street. I had church members in the car! My speed had crept up and I hadn’t even noticed. I also hadn’t noticed that I was gaining on the Officer, who kindly allowed me to pass him so that he could pull me over. Thankfully, he gave me a warning only. I mentioned to him that I was going from one house to another as part of a Sunday School class progressive dinner, but I managed to leave out the little detail that I am the Pastor of the church.
After a late Saturday night, I got up early and experienced printer problems before church on Sunday. Then the little issues began to trickle in. People were stressed. There was a little tension. A microphone was missing and we had a big musical for the morning and my mood was not terribly worshipful and contemplative. Then we prayed. Though our prayer circle got started twenty minutes late, my heart changed as we approached God’s throne. A little later the choir sang that “He alone is worthy.” I began to realize again what being at church was really all about - and it surely wasn’t about my trivial issues.
By the end of the evening, God had moved in a very special way and I was reminded again to “let it roll.” Most of the issues we attack really aren’t worth our effort. If our reactions to others are not mixed with a healthy dose of compassion and understanding, they are rarely beneficial to us or to them.
Something special happened last night. In my exhaustion (late night, long morning, no afternoon nap…), God anointed me in a special way for the message. Everything flowed from the text in Romans 12:17-21. The message was a simple one about forgiving people, especially people outside the family of God. There was an extra dose of boldness, clarity of thought, and eloquence. The words just seemed to be there when I needed them. When it was all over, several people said it was a particularly impactful message. Glory to God alone!
My task this week is to live what I’ve preached… to let the little things roll and get the big picture - that He alone is worthy! God is so good and His people are such a wonderful family. May my heart and yours be praising and thankful to the Holy Giver of Heaven!
Throughout the book of Judges, we see the phrase repeated again and again, “in those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes.” The word “right” always sounds good, but what was really happening was a postmodern revolution… in the ancient world. Moral and religious relativism pervaded the land.
One such example is the mother of Micah who, in chapter 17, dedicated 11,000 shekels of silver to the Lord (sounds good, might have the approval of many modern Christians) to have a graven image made. She designated an offering for idol-building to the God who said, “Don’t make idols!” Her spiritual confusion transferred to her son who kept the idol and began to mentor a young Levite priest. After several years of training, the tribe of Dan persuaded the young priest to come and be their priest. The spiritual schizophrenia of one mother influenced a son, who influenced a village of people and a young apprentice, who influenced an entire tribe toward idolatrous worship of the one true God.
There are several clear messages from this story. First, not all that seems like genuine worship really is. Micah and the young priest served out of sincerity. They believed in God, they prayed, and they saw themselves as qualified spiritual leaders. The mother thought she was doing a good thing in paying to have an image formed. The Danites thought they were doing a good thing in setting up a new shrine when the real place of worship was Shiloh. All good intentions, but idolatry nonetheless.
Another lesson concerns the lack of spiritual leadership. The mother failed to lead her son to pure worship. Imagine the impact of a different decision. Imagine if Micah had been trained in the truth of the Scriptures (instead of the relativistic truth of the day) to worship God without any graven images. He might have mentored the young priest to know God’s Word as well, who might have influenced Dan to worship in spirit and in truth also.
Yet another lesson, hinted at already, is that the truth of God’s Word must frame our worldview and our worship. We can have church with a positive message, great music, large offerings, and humanitarian acts toward the world. But if the truth of God’s Word is not the foundation of our worship and service to God, we are sure to miss the point of what real worship is all about.
Pray today for God’s truth to be the basis of modern Christianity instead of an emotionalistic and sometimes shallow, whatever-feels-like-great-worship-must-be-right mentality. Pray for God to raise up godly, spiritual leaders. And pray for the generations to come to worship the true God according to God’s truth.
“And when it came to pass, when the priests were come out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of the Lord, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud: for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of the Lord.” -1 Kins 8:10-11
“And when the day of Pentecost was fully come… they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” -Acts 2:1, 4
What makes the difference between an “ordinary” church service and a spectacular one? According to much of the modern church growth movement, it depends on the lighting, the style (and volume) of music, the approach to the sermon, and the work of the greeters and ushers. All of these are important aspects of planning a worship service but none are the key factor that determines when a worship service is great. That is left to the discretion of the Holy Spirit.
God blesses excellence, so we ought to plan well and execute our plan to the best of our ability. We ought to think big and dream big, but even more we ought to pray for the Holy Spirit to overpower and overwhelm us. It is His presence that makes the difference.
In the Old Testament, during the days of the tabernacle, the Holy Spirit would come down and visit the holy place with a visible sign of His presence. It was obvious to all who were close by that God’s presence was setting the agenda for worship. In the New Testament, particularly on the Day of Pentecost, another manifestation of the Holy Spirit’s presence came with the sound of wind, the apostles’ speaking in languages they had never learned, and in over 3,000 souls being saved.
I hunger to have the powerful presence of God to dominate every worship service, to make Himself known by visible reminders of His ability. I thirst to see lives radically changed and impacted by His convicting voice, His healing touch, and His contagious zeal. We cannot physically be with the Lord on earth today, but oh how much I long to feel the warmth of His company through the Spirit’s presence. Won’t you pray with me for God to visit us in a special way this Sunday?
“Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.” -Psalm 42:11
Depression seems to be such a widespread issue today. It could be that it is simply talked about more than ever, but it seems that the statistics point to an overwhelming increase in reported cases of depression. I believe that depression is a part of life for a large number of people, and always has been. King Saul and King David are two examples of men who suffered depression in their lives. Often theirs was connected with a period of sin and rebellion, but for David, as he wrote Psalm 42, this was not the case.
David asked the question that many people who suffer from depression today ask, “Why? Why am I so down, so upset?” I don’t know that David ever found an answer to why his soul was disquieted within him. I do know that David found a healing solution that King Saul never discovered - praising God from the depths of depression.
David proclaimed, I don’t know why my soul is distraught, but I’m going to praise God anyway and He will be the health of my countenance (my personality). In other words, there may be no real cure for depression, but God can still be praised and He will be the balm that brings a soul-healing. So often today, we handle depression with medication before we search for unconfessed sin, before we work on the relationship with God, and before we search the soul for an answer.
There are times when medication may help the unexplainable depression that comes to a person’s soul as a result of a chemical imbalance. But shouldn’t we search for the possible spiritual cause first? King Saul’s depression was soothed by praise music. I don’t believe Saul was saved but there was a therapeutic effect brought on by the act of praise. David proclaimed as well that praise was wonderful medication for the soul.
God has given us the technology and wisdom to find medical cures for many psychological issues. I’m not for ignoring those medical discoveries, unless we use them to mask over our need for a searching of the soul. Let us first ask the Almighty to try our hearts, to search our souls, and to enlighten us to a possible spiritual cause. Then let us repent of sin and praise His name and let medication be the final step after a spiritual revival.
I shall yet praise Him who is the health of my countenance and my God!
Have you heard a teenager say, “But all my friends are doing it?” Our usual reply is a sharp rebuttal such as, “If all your friends jumped off the Empire State Building, would you do it too?” The darker side of my humor enjoys the cartoon depicted by Gary Larsen in which an enormous pile of bodies is mounting next to a building where a person is poised on the edge, ready to leap. The caption reads, “If everybody jumped off the Empire State Building, after a while it wouldn’t hurt so bad.”
The message of the church to young people today is so often, “Don’t go with the flow, dare to be different!” We realize the serious mistake of giving wholesale assent to whatever popular opinion dictates. We stand on issues such as abortion, homosexual rights, and gambling no matter what the majority rules. All of this is very biblical considering the mountain of Scripture that speaks to us about the doctrine of personal separation from the world.
What happens, however, when we call people to forsake their following of popular secular opinion merely to exchange it for a blind following of ecclesiastical opinion. More simply stated, is it wise to declare null and void any possible argument against what mainstream Christian culture establishes to be so?
We live in an age of media giants who use marketing to shape popular opinion far more than even our most powerful educational institutions. The Christian subculture, unfortunately, follows this trend, even if unintentionally.
John MacArthur has often commented that one of the most neglected Christian virtues today is that of discernment, and he is absolutely correct. To question is to be disagreeable, and to be disagreeable with Christian pop-culture is paramount to being heretical and downright odd! Perhaps we should realize that if many heroes of the past had not presented their questions, we may not have many of the great confessions and creeds that helped to preserve a biblical faith against the work of cultists.
Personally, I’m rather concerned with the swelling tide of Calvinism that is sweeping Baptist seminaries and churches. I’m upset about the number of Bible translations produced each decade under the guise of giving modern readers a more pragmatic rendering of the old, old story (note: Since each publisher seems to want to have their own translation, or two or three, we might go so far as to question the motives behind this translation pandemonium). I’m alarmed at how quickly certain philosophies of ministry take root which seek to strip the Bible of any specific guidance in any area other than theology proper. Heaven forbid we question whether a Christian music artist should be an exact replica of a drug-ridden punk rocker, whether Christian teenagers should really be getting fashion advice from porn-producers such as Abercrombie & Fitch, or whether the Nude Reviled Substandard Perversion is okay as long as it’s understandable!
I say, let’s be discerning! Let’s “try the spirits, whether they be of God…” (1 John 4:1) Let’s “withdraw [our]selves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received from us…” (2 Thessalonians 3:6) Let’s “stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle.” (2 Thessalonians 2:15)
We need to return to discernment, to thinking, and to a willingness to express and debate these and other issues rather than blindly accepting whatever is handed down from the day’s most popular Christian resource providers. Let me think on my own two feet and if I don’t show up at the next “Christian rock” concert waving a neon green copy of the newest translation and covered in pseudo-Christian/gothic tattoos, you’ll know I have good personal reasons!
