God used the wonderful ministry of the Walk to Emmaus as an instrument of magnificent change in my own life.  God sent it into my life during a time when He was already at work in a magnificent way.  It came one month after I had been so transformed by God that I had left liberal theology behind as the demon of darkness that it is and embraced fully conservative evangelical theology as it emerges from the Bible as the inerrant, infallible and fully sufficient Word of God.  God was already teaching me so much when I made my Walk to Emmaus and that wonderful weekend was just fuel for the fire that God had started.  It triggered within me a desire to have others enjoy this experience so I immediately became a part of the Emmaus Community and began to lead the way for others to have the kind of experience that I had enjoyed.  It was my great privilege and wonderful delight to see God work in the lives of  the “pilgrims” during the weekend experience.  That is why the words that follow are so hard to write.

The Walk to Emmaus is based on a sound biblical model that has been tested over time.  The weekend flows on the basis of the model or plan for the weekend.  The weekend is not designed for evangelism and not even really for edification; it is designed to develop leaders for the church who will be taken by the Spirit of God through the Word of God into deeper dimensions of delight in God during the three day Walk to Emmaus.  The weekend is a pattern that was designed to be used of God to build up the local church and to encourage pastors, not to produce super-saints who return to their churches to confront their pastors and to change their churches.  But whenever an Emmaus Community begins to tweak the model or to sponsor as pilgrims people who are not already leaders in the churches, the model is in trouble.  The path too often trod in the past by those who have gone before us begins to emerge.  It looks like this:  The Walk to Emmaus is a place to which immature believers are sent and in some cases even those who are not believers at all, and the measure of the manifestation of the Spirit becomes emotional outpourings including charismatic contrivances like being slain in the spirit or speaking in tongues, only one of which is biblical and it is the proclamation of the Gospel in a language that is not native to the speaker but is known among the language of the world and  is permitted only when one who speaks that language is present to interpret.  When the model is tweaked and the measure of meaning becomes emotional outpourings and charismatic contrivances, the Walk to Emmaus becomes a travesty that can in fact produce heresy.

When I was actively involved in the Walk to Emmaus I heard a pastor talk about what I wrote about in the paragraph above.  I thought that he surely must be a patent liberal or paranoid.  I could not see that happening.  And then I saw it and it grieved me.  What it produces is people who go on a “walk” only to return and think that true Christianity comes through the Walk to Emmaus.  They make Emmaus their church and measure all of life in the church by how excited we get in church.  They see worship as praying down the spirit and then participating in a party atmosphere of praise that includes everything but those elements that truly constitute genuine worship.  Some of these churches that have become weekly gatherings of a perverted Walk to Emmaus model sing a lot and preach and teach almost not at all so that what is the heart of genuine biblical worship is gone.  And preachers who don’t participate in this kind of party atmosphere are seen as men who either need to go on the Walk to Emmaus or leave the church, and these folks are willing to help them do either.  This state of affairs is both sad and sinful and those who would think this way don’t need to walk to Emmaus; they need to walk southeast from there about seven miles until they arrive at a little hill called Calvary.  You can’t go to Emmaus until you have been to Calvary and some of what I hear and see in the little part of the world in which I live makes me sad and mad; people who have been to Emmaus and want everybody to go and want to educate or eliminate those who haven’t been.  Such people need to take a hike.  They don’t need to take anything with them.  They need to go empty to Calvary in repentance where they might just receive a true baptism in the Holy Spirit that always kills pride and brings humility and love to life.

I loved my Walk to Emmaus.  I grieve over what I have seen happening and it began even while I was working walks.  I hope that it has all changed by now and the community is back to the model.  It is too good a gift of God to be perverted by those who in the name of being led by the Spirit just want to do their own thing for their own glory so that people will praise them.  Maybe Calvary is where I need to go even again today because the One who shed His blood there for me can heal the hurts in the body when the body makes a mockery of such beauty as is found in the Walk to Emmaus.

It is important that you know that I am a huge football fan.  I am not nearly as rabid as I once was and that primarily due to something that happened to me a few years back that I will explain momentarily.  I was born in a town that in the Fall participates in worship on Friday night and attends church on Sunday.  Nobody in the town is close to being confused about which of those in the Fall is the most important.  I am told that when I was a baby I was given a red and white Lincoln County football before I was given formula.  I grew up thinking that football was life and that every good person either attended or played in football games on Friday night.  In fact, when I was a boy and then a teen I played on Friday night if not on the field then behind the “stands,” went or watched on Saturday, slept in on Sunday and watched the NFL all afternoon.  Get the picture!  I went five years from 1967-1972 and did not miss a single UGA football game.  I have even driven through the night to get to a game and driven through the night to get back home to preach on Sunday.  So, I love football.

I really don’t remember how long ago, but a few years back I had this really clear impression from God that He wanted me to fast from football of all kinds for an entire season.  I would have rather it been food.  It was harder for me at the first than I could have ever imagined.  But after four or five weeks something happened inside me that changed me.  I saw that I did not love football; I was worshiping at the altar of something that has no eternal significance at all.  I was addicted to the game.  We say in recovery ministries that men and women who are addicted to drugs have to be free of them for a long period of time before they can begin to see on the one side how much they loved and worshiped the drug and on the other side what life really is about without the drug.  That is close to what happened to me.  I knew two things after that almost six month stretch.  First, I would never, ever be able to go back to the way I had once lived.  In fact, the way I had been living in relationship to a game was scarry to me.  I mean when I wasn’t watching a game during the Fall, I was talking with someone about the dawgs or the bears of the sparatans, watching ESPN, or reading ESPN the Magazine.  I couldn’t get enough.  Second, I began to see more realistically than I had ever seen before how much time and energy is wasted on things that we esteem with value that have no real, lasting value.  Now if you had spoken the above words to me about five to six years ago,  I would have called you a fanatic while thinking you a fool.  But hear me out.

I went to Jacksonville fo the world’s largest outdoor cocktail party one time.  It was when I really loved football and really loved the dawgs.  Please don’t tell anybody but I really don’t get involved anymore emotionally with whether they win or lose.  At the end of the day, it is no big deal.  I mean what lasting difference does it make either way?  I was appalled and what I saw going in and was galled by the time I left, and not a little bit fearful.  The year was 1973.  I suppose it has gotten worse.  But that is not my point.  Here is my point:  multiple thousands of people will be in that stadium on Saturday.  Some may well have spent part of the week in the area.  Some will stay over on Saturday night.  Huge amounts of money will be spent on frivolities.  A game will be played that will last just over three hours.  A team will win and a team will lose.  People will holler and scream.    A larger number will be intoxicated.  And nobody of that number will question how much money they spent for something that has no lasting value BUT some of those people would be the first in line to complain that the church is always asking for money.  And they would profess to be believers.

Here is a suggestion for you.  Go to the game.  Have a great time.  But show yourself a child of God.  Practice good financial responsibility.  Pass out some tracts or New Testaments.  Tell at least five people about Jesus.  There will be multiple thousands present.  Let me tell you a true story.  I have only been to one professional football game.  Ashley Hammett took me, George Mobley and Mark Phillips to see the Falcons lose to somebody.  We had a great time.  We ate a great meal ahead of time and found a great parking place.  We were nearing the stadium when we heard these guys preaching the Gospel.  Now I have to be honest:  I didn’t want to go near them.  I was a little embarassed.  But you know what Ashley did:  he went over to them to thank them and to say, “that guy right there is my preacher.”  I had no choice so I went over to talk with them and was so impressed with both their honesty and their humility.  It ruined the game for me because I sat there popping peanuts and drinking my five dollar soda knowing that the real fun was outside the arena with those guys holding up the posters and proclaiming the Gospel.  Go Dawgs. Go Gators.  Go Jackets.  Go Spartans.  Go Bears.  Go God.

There is a reality that I pray that I will not fail to see as clearly as I think I see it now:  our world is absolutely corrupt and our society is sick unto death.  I do not want to lose sight of this reality because I see it more clearly now than ever.  It makes me wonder why anybody who is a believer would not want to find them a good solid bible-based and Christ-exalting church and make it the focus of most of the investment of their time and energy.  Why would we want to be more increasingly involved a society that is sliding downhill fast?  Now, I can answer that question in terms of the announcement of the Gospel to sinners, but that is the only way in which I can answer that question.  But why would have to be involved in culturally conditioned community activities in order to announce the Gospel to sinners?  That is the question that I cannot answer except to rub people the wrong way.  If the goal of some activity is not to glorify God and to advance the Kingdom of God why would I as a person whose priority is to see God glorified and to be used of Him to extend His Kingdom even want to invest time and energy is some enterprise that has no connection at all to the Kingdom of God?  My answer to that question is that I would not want to be involved in that and would not be.  In fact, I want my absence from such events to speak clearly about my own lack of support and endorsement.  It is time for God’s people to look carefully at our culture and to recognize that Jesus has given us two reasons for being involved in the world, only two:  we are to be the salt and we are to be the light.  We are to be present to sting and to preserve a Gospel witness and we are to shine the light of the Gospel in the darkness.  Now if we can be present at events that do not bring glory to God and extend His kingdom and feel comfortable in such a way that others do not feel uncomfortable, we have serious, serious issues.  We have compromised with a culture that is collapsing.  And we will bring that compromise to the church and bring the same collapse to the church to which we belong.  And our culture is collapsing rapidly.

I saw it again today.  A coed at Penn State and her colleague had designed the white tee shirts for the white out Saturday at a Penn State football game.  The front of the shirt did have a remarkable resemblance to a cross so much so that six people complained that the shirt had a religious message.  Now in our current culture such complaints from so few people could cause loud protests if not a lawsuit.  The coed who helped create the shirt said this morning on Fox News that she and her colleague had no religious intentions in the design of the teeshirt. So far, so good.  Then she said, “don’t we know anyway that symbols have no inherent meaning; we bring to them whatever meaning we want to bring.’  She spoke as clearly as I have heard the central truth of our postmodern culture.  Symbols have no inherent meaning.  The flag can mean whatever you want it mean:  wave it or burn it unless of course you wave it in front of the wrong people and then you are a bigot who is intolerant and you have to be restrained.  This has already happened.  The cross can mean the place where Jesus died or it can mean that you are a person who trusts the cross but if  you make the cross to visible as a Jesus symbol and are to vocal about it, you have to be silenced.  That is happening too.  The truth is that symbols do have inherent meaning and it is when that inherent meaning is  estalbished as the only meaning that our postmodern culture cries, “crucify him.”

Want more.  Fox News also did a story this morning on the young man from Home Depot where I visit once every three months just to walk through and feel like a real man who wore a pen that pictured a flag with the words, “in God we Trust.”  He also took his Bible to work with him each day and read it during his lunch.  He was fired.  Home Depot it seems issues pens to its employees to wear on their vests and the ones with “in God we trust” violate company policy.  Why?  If symbols have no inherent meaning and we invest them with meaning then those who read his pen can make it mean whatever they want it to mean.  And what it means in our day is that the God who sets Himself over the world as Sovereign Lord and Judge is not the God in whom we trust.  Our God is the God of Hindus, Muslims, Mormoms, etc.  He is a know nothing and do nothing God who gathers all these chickens in his roost.  Such a view is at the center of the collapse of our culture.  If we keep holding on to it without a real reformation in our land, we will see one day just how significant are these symbols.  They have real meaning.  And the one who is behind them has real power.

INTRODUCTION: The Book of Daniel shifts from Hebrew to Aramaic in 2:4-7:28 and here shifts back to Hebrew. The most likely explanation for this shift is that the use of Aramaic would enable many Gentiles to hear and to read the message so that the portion in Aramaic would be for the Gentile audience. Now with the opening of Daniel 8 [+/-]Daniel 8 [8:1]In the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar a vision appeared to me, Daniel, after that which appeared to me at the first. [2]And I saw in the vision; and when I saw, I was in Susa the capital, which is in the province of Elam. And I saw in the vision, and I was at the Ulai canal. [3]I raised my eyes and saw, and behold, a ram standing on the bank of the canal. It had two horns, and both horns were high, but one was higher than the other, and the higher one came up last. [4]I saw the ram charging westward and northward and southward. No beast could stand before him, and there was no one who could rescue from his power. He did as he pleased and became great. [5]As I was considering, behold, a male goat came from the west across the face of the whole earth, without touching the ground. And the goat had a conspicuous horn between his eyes. [6]He came to the ram with the two horns, which I had seen standing on the bank of the canal, and he ran at him in his powerful wrath. [7]I saw him come close to the ram, and he was enraged against him and struck the ram and broke his two horns. And the ram had no power to stand before him, but he cast him down to the ground and trampled on him. And there was no one who could rescue the ram from his power. [8]Then the goat became exceedingly great, but when he was strong, the great horn was broken, and instead of it there came up four conspicuous horns toward the four winds of heaven. [9]Out of one of them came a little horn, which grew exceedingly great toward the south, toward the east, and toward the glorious land. [10]It grew great, even to the host of heaven. And some of the host and some of the stars it threw down to the ground and trampled on them. [11]It became great, even as great as the Prince of the host. And the regular burnt offering was taken away from him, and the place of his sanctuary was overthrown. [12]And a host will be given over to it together with the regular burnt offering because of transgression, and it will throw truth to the ground, and it will act and prosper. [13]Then I heard a holy one speaking, and another holy one said to the one who spoke, "For how long is the vision concerning the regular burnt offering, the transgression that makes desolate, and the giving over of the sanctuary and host to be trampled underfoot?" [14]And he said to me, "For 2,300 evenings and mornings. Then the sanctuary shall be restored to its rightful state." [15]When I, Daniel, had seen the vision, I sought to understand it. And behold, there stood before me one having the appearance of a man. [16]And I heard a man's voice between the banks of the Ulai, and it called, "Gabriel, make this man understand the vision." [17]So he came near where I stood. And when he came, I was frightened and fell on my face. But he said to me, "Understand, O son of man, that the vision is for the time of the end." [18]And when he had spoken to me, I fell into a deep sleep with my face to the ground. But he touched me and made me stand up. [19]He said, "Behold, I will make known to you what shall be at the latter end of the indignation, for it refers to the appointed time of the end. [20]As for the ram that you saw with the two horns, these are the kings of Media and Persia. [21]And the goat is the king of Greece. And the great horn between his eyes is the first king. [22]As for the horn that was broken, in place of which four others arose, four kingdoms shall arise from his nation, but not with his power. [23]And at the latter end of their kingdom, when the transgressors have reached their limit, a king of bold face, one who understands riddles, shall arise. [24]His power shall be great--but not by his own power; and he shall cause fearful destruction and shall succeed in what he does, and destroy mighty men and the people who are the saints. [25]By his cunning he shall make deceit prosper under his hand, and in his own mind he shall become great. Without warning he shall destroy many. And he shall even rise up against the Prince of princes, and he shall be broken--but by no human hand. [26]The vision of the evenings and the mornings that has been told is true, but seal up the vision, for it refers to many days from now." [27]And I, Daniel, was overcome and lay sick for some days. Then I rose and went about the king's business, but I was appalled by the vision and did not understand it. (ESV)
, the attention turns back to the Jewish people.

This chapter is a straightforward declaration of a vision and its interpretation.
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INTRODUCTION:  We shift from historical to “trans-historical” narrative with the opening of chapter seven.  We are moving from a context in history that we can carefully explore to a context beyond history that we can trust because everything that Daniel will teach us about what is to be is rooted in what has been and is confirmed by the Book of Revelation which means that a document that was written in the seventh century B.C. and a document written in A.D. 95 by different writers in different times are carefully connected in what they communicate about the future.
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Were you raised right?  I do not think that this is a phenomenon restricted to the deep south but it surely is present if not prevalent in our part of the world.  Being raised right and then living out that raisin’ is an important indicator of a number of things.  First, it is a tribute to your parents:  “boy, you can tell that your parents raised you right.”  Second, it is an indication that the raisn’ took holt (hold) and that you have become the kind of person that you ought to  be:  ‘boy, I am so glad that you are not like so many who were raised up round here, they went off to the city and forgot how they was (were) raised.”  Third, it is sure sign; more so in some cases than glossoloalia, that you are true blue born-again believer.  It is in the eyes of many a downright dead giveaway that if you were raised right and it took holt that you are a true child of God.  Forget that what it means to be rasied right has little or not biblical foundation and is not at all connected with the Gospel, it is a sure sign in the south as much as grits and gravy that you are saved.  I mean:  check it out.  There are folks in our churches who would be more sure about a pagan being a Christian if that pagan knew how to dress for church than he would about a sure fire surrendered soldier in God’s army who doesn’t know how to dress for church.  And, of course; you learn how to dress for church by being—-let’s all say it together here—RAISED RIGHT.

So, what are some of the central components of being raised right.  First, you have to show real respect for authority by saying “sir” and “maam” to anybody who is five years older than you are or who appears to be, and just to be safe; it is really impressive when you say anybody who seems to have graduated.  Now, I am all for respect for authority and saying “sir” and “maam” but the reason for that is obedience to the Word of God that commands me not only to respect those in authority but to obey them.  Second, you must be a true patriot by honoring the flag and respecting the miliatary.  I am all for that too.  I love this country and believe it to be our responsibility to defend it.  But I also beleive that I can be a great partiot and be a pagan.  My actions as a patriot do not tell me much about who I am as a child of God.  Third, I do good deeds for people in the community who are older than I am, in greater need than I am, and who share my values.  Well, I agree with that too as far as it goes.  It does not go nearly far enough.  The good deeds that I do as a child of God are those that God gives me to do and I do them indiscriminately for HIs glory and for the purpose of proclaiming the Gospel.  I do not restrict the good deeds to those who share my values and I do not do them either just to do them or to make me feel good about myself.  But people who are raised right to a lot of right things for all the wrong reasons.

Now here is what all my ramblings are about.  Let me lay this down first:  I believe that I was saved by the grace of God when God chose by His grace to save me, BUT one of the realities that kept me from being able to hear the Gospel was the kinds of affirmations I got from adults while I was living like the devil.  I remember it well.  Men would say to me because of my public displays of patriotism or because of good deeds done at the gas station where I worked, “boy, you are alright.  It is obvious that George and Evelyn raised you right.”  I would swell with pride when they would say that and if God had not chosen to bust my pride bubble and change my life I would have this day been on my way to hell and not knowing it because I believed that I was raised right.

 

 Leadership in the Life of the Church [34:41m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Philippians 1:1-2 [+/-]Philippians 1:1-2 [1:1]Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons: [2]Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (ESV)

One of the very worst developments in the history of the church as it relates to polity or to how the church does her work is the democratization of the church. The democratization of the church is simply the view that the church exists of the people and by the people and for the people. It produced a polity in which the membership by majority vote determined the direction of the church in almost all matters of the life of the church. This way of doing church did not exist at all prior to the Reformation of the sixteenth century and then was put down as heresy wherever it bubbled up until in the late nineteenth century it began to take hold until by the middle of the twentieth century it was accepted as the way of life in the church for many Protestant denominations and particularly for Baptists. It was a historical anomaly that produced a biblical travesty that represented and represents theological treason because it is a way of doing church that is not found at all in the very book that we hold up and to which we submit as the inerrant, infallible and fully sufficient Word of God.

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This is also the ordination service for new Deacons Kevin Booth, and David Stembridge

Talk about cutting against the grain, swimming against the tide, driving against the traffic; well, these few lines are going to do just that.  Here is all I am asking:  hear what Scripture says and give a response based on the Word and not on our established way of life.  Here is what I want to address in this post:  I believe that we have made our families into altars of idolatry while believing that we are doing that which brings a blessing to God.  Now I do not want you to misunderstand me.   The family unit in our country is in a crisis.  We need help.  Marriages are falling fast and children are turning rebellious at younger and younger ages.  Teen pregnancy is on the rise and drugs run rampant during our time.   Respect for authority in the home is almost gone.  And many good Christian families have turned toward home to address these concerns rather than turning toward the people of God and the preaching and teaching of the Word of God.  It has come to the place that if the church has an event planned that is in conflict with what the family has planned either by themselves or with the school/community, the church is going to lose.  It is almost as if we have come to the conclusion that we need to spend more time with our families and less time at the church.  And that would be true if what the church is doing is simply programattically driven activities and not the proclamation of the Word of God.  But if the church is gathering to proclaim the Word of God and we say, “God has led us to stay at home today or tonight, that is what He wills,”  well I am not sure at all about that.  This is radical:   the problems that are found in our families do not mean that we need to spend less time at church but that we need to spend more time among God’s people so that we can hear His Word.  I mean just what do you think people did with the children in the first century or even in the sixteenth century when in the midst of the beginning of the church and the renewal of the church, the church was gathering mutiple times during the week?

Well, here is the text.  It hit me hard when I first read it:  “Arise, O Lord!  Confront him, subdue him!  Deliver my soul from the wicked by your sword, from men by your hand, O Lord; from men of the world whose portion is in this life.  You fill their womb with treasure; they are satisfied with children, and they leave their abundance to their infants.  As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness; when I awake I shall be satisfied with your likeness” (Psalm 17:14-15 [+/-]Psalm 17:14-15 [14]from men by your hand, O LORD, from men of the world whose portion is in this life. You fill their womb with treasure; they are satisfied with children, and they leave their abundance to their infants. [15]As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness; when I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness.
). Now it is true that this Psalm says that parents are not to take care of their children beyond a certain age; we do not live for our children.  That is not what honors God because it is a failure to obey His Word.  But the Psalmist goes further than this.  He says that people who focus themselves just on their family are not only worldly people but are the enemies of God.  Read the Psalm.  If it is true, then those who would argue “family first” will find that they receive great applause from the world but they do not hear in the words of Max Lucado “the applause of heaven.”  Jesus says that we must love Him above all others and that includes our family.

Think about it.  If we argue family first then we are saying that the priority in life is family first and then all else.  If this is true, then we would find it in Scripture but it is not there.  What is there is that our relationship with God is first and our responsibility is to nurture that relationship because it becomes the foundation for our being in and to our families what we need to be.  Unless I am fully sanctified I need the grace of God through the Word of God which comes in part, I would say in larger part; through my involvement with the family of God.  It is not that we should forsake our families.  It is simply that we should ask, particularly godly men should ask; are my family involvments built around my family’s involvement with the people of God in the worship of God?  And if we see slippage we ought to ask about what or who is controlling our family.  The best route for Satan to travel into your heart and home is the one that is being travelled by so many others that seems to be right because it sounds so right.  And saying “family first” seems to be right because it sounds so right.  But is it?

 

 The Holy Spirit in Salvation: Regeneration Part 2 [34:41m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 BONUS: the Kingdom Singers! [2:40m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Titus 3:1-8 [+/-]Titus 3:1-8 [3:1]Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, [2]to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people. [3]For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. [4]But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, [5]he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, [6]whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, [7]so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. [8]The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people. (ESV)

… We need to be biblically clear about the work of the Holy Spirit in salvation. This begins with our understanding of what the Bible means by salvation. Let me give you a definition and then give you a couple of texts to help us see more clearly the definition. Salvation is the work of God by His Spirit and through His Word that begins with regeneration and culminates with glorification and what happens between the two is the demonstration of our declaration of salvation. The term refers to everything that happens from the moment that we give ourselves to Jesus until that moment that we enter heaven. This way of seeing salvation is biblical; it is found in the very form of the word for salvation and it is found everywhere the word is used and that is hundreds of times. Let me just give you two or three. The angel tells Joseph that his betrothed will give birth to a son who “will save His people from their sins” (Mt. 1:21). Paul makes it plain in Romans that “whoever calls upon the Name of the Lord will be saved.” This is a future tense verb. And John 3:17 [+/-]John 3:17 [17]For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. (ESV)
makes it clear that Jesus came into the world so that many in the world “might be saved” by Him. The verb points to what He does during the course of time. So Salvation is the work of the grace of God by the power of the Holy Spirit that begins with the new birth and comes to fullness when by our departure we enter the presence of God forever. And the first step in this journey that is the work of the Holy Spirit is called regeneration or new birth. …

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Let me begin with some disclaimers.  First, I will use words in this article that I do not use ordinarily and would not use them here except that they are the point of the article.  Second, my concern may be due to my age and the time in which I was raised, although I do not think that to be the case.  Many of you who are under fifty will find this bit of writing a bit puzzling if not humorous.  Both may reveal something of significance about you and me that we both need to think through toward what is really true.  Third, like other issues about which I write this may be one that I really am one in a million that would even think about this kind of thing.  That either makes me unique or peculiar; I will accept both as compliments.  So with those disclaimers to begin this post, here is what I want to address:  I listen with some dismay at words we use in common conversation that in my childhood would have been cause for a slap across the face or something much harder and much lower than the face.

Let me give you just three examples of words that I hear every day that I would have never used around adults when I was a child and do not use now.  First, I hear people all the time saying something like, “I knew I was screwed when . . . .”  I blush when I hear it.  It has heavy sexual connotations.  Now it could be true that those who use the word do not know those connotations.  They may be thinking in terms of a piece of metal with threads.  I don’t think so.  They may not be thinking at all.  I think that could be true.  Or I hear people saying, “that sucks . . .”  I shudder.  That has wicked sexual connotations.  And thirdly I hear even in the church building spoken by kids, “Oh crap!”  I am incensed.  My first thought is, “why not go all the way man; use the “s” word.”  And please don’t pull out your Greek on me here to tell me that Paul used a term like that.  He did.  Once.  In a passionate plea for people to leave behind everything else to follow Jesus.  I do not know how common was the use of the word “skebala” in Paul’s day and I do not know that we know whether it was simply slang or considered a vulgarity.  What I do know is that it is only found once in a very passionate plea for people to recognize that there are no almost committed Christians.  It is either all the way or no way at all.

Let me tell you what my deepest concern is:  such use of language in common conversation that once was considered more formal “cussin” shows that the standards in our culture have been lowered.  We don’t expect as much anymore of anybody.  We are content with mediocrity.  That is why spiritually I can live in a town where if I say the larger majority of our town and county are not saved if we use biblical standards, I would say that which would shock some people.  It shouldn’t, but it does.  And it does because we have lowered the standards.  That is why we can have people who sincerely profess to be believers in Jesus who show no evidence of that in their lives.  And they don’t see anything wrong with that:  why, they’ve prayed the prayer and walked the aisle and thus consider themselves saved.  That is not only biblical demagoguery it is a sure and certain sign of our having lowered the standards.  It shows in our language.  The Bible calls us to be careful with our speech and not to speak in way that would offend the cause of he Gospel.  The Gospel itself is offensive particularly when is brought to bear on the way people are living their lives.  Let it be left as a forumla to be believed and it doesn’t bother people but inject it into the mainstream of life and people get upset.

As I said at the beginning those over fifty who can find this blog and read it will most likely agree with me; those under fifty will be mystified and miffed.  What I cited above even among solid believers has become common to daily conversation.  All I am asking is that we think about what we say and the historical sources from which those words emerge.  They do have a history and that history gives them their meaning.  I can tell you where you won’t go wrong:  speak words that bring glory to God and declare the truth of the Gospel.  That is language filled with light and seasoned with salt.

It is good to be home.  I almost blew the car horn when I crossed into Georgia late yesterday afternoon and came really close to stopping the car just across the Burke County line and kissing the dirt.  I didn’t because Anne was with me and that would have been very embarassing to her.  But I surely thought about it.  I was glad to be home.  Now I hope that I know and live out the reality that I am not at home anywhere in this world while being at home everywhere in this world. This world is not my home.  I have by God’s grace already been seated with Christ in the heavenly places to which I anticipate going and from which I anticipate the return of Jesus.  I know that home is not here below in any place or dwelling, home is with God on high and that is a story worth telling.  But you know what I mean I think when I talk about the good feeling of being at home after having been a way for any period of time.  There really is no place like home.

I was glad to get home yesterday although it had been an enjoyable few days with my daughter and son-in-law and our grandson.  We celebrated his second birthday with a big birthday party on Saturday.  His namesake was present for the party and it was good to see him.  He and I sat and watched the Ohio State football game together.  It wasn’t UGA but I have heard that I did not want to see that game anyway.  We ate hamburgers and had cake and ice cream.  Sunday was a huge treat for me as I got to go hear Alistair Begg preach not once but twice.  I went to the 8:30 service at Parkside to hear Begg and then went to the 10:00 service at the church where Haley and Jarrod are members and worshiped with them.  The contrasts between the two was striking to me.  But that is another blog.  Spent Sunday afternoon hanging out with the grandson and the same on Monday before making the long drive home on Monday.  Great time with the family but glad to be home.  It is cold in Cleveland already.  It was raining with dark gray clouds hanging right over our heads.  It made me feel weary and dreary; I wanted to go home.  But I learned something about myself and others while there that was so interesting to me.

I met a young man who just moved into the neighborhood where Haley and Jarrod live.  He is a pastor with a very small denomination, slightly over 100,000 in the whole denomination (for comparison remember that there are almost 16 million Southern Baptists).  I asked him how he liked Cleveland and he said, “well, (imagine deep Chicago accent here), I am adjusting; I didn’t know how I would do moving to a smaller place; I have always lived in Chicago.”  I stopped him:  “you mean, this is small to you!”   “Yeah, man (imagine deep Chicago accent here) but we are adjusting ok; think we gonna’  like it alright.”  Wow, I thought.  If Cleveland was engulfing me in its size and shape, I guess Chicago would just eat me alive.  I wanted to come home.  And I made it.  Glad to be here.  It is not everything it ought to be this sleepy little ‘boro, but it is home to me for now and I am glad to be home.

 

 Crooked Deep Down [36:15m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

1 Kings 8:54-61 [+/-]1 Kings 8:54-61 [54]Now as Solomon finished offering all this prayer and plea to the LORD, he arose from before the altar of the LORD, where he had knelt with hands outstretched toward heaven. [55]And he stood and blessed all the assembly of Israel with a loud voice, saying, [56]"Blessed be the LORD who has given rest to his people Israel, according to all that he promised. Not one word has failed of all his good promise, which he spoke by Moses his servant. [57]The LORD our God be with us, as he was with our fathers. May he not leave us or forsake us, [58]that he may incline our hearts to him, to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments, his statutes, and his rules, which he commanded our fathers. [59]Let these words of mine, with which I have pleaded before the LORD, be near to the LORD our God day and night, and may he maintain the cause of his servant and the cause of his people Israel, as each day requires, [60]that all the peoples of the earth may know that the LORD is God; there is no other. [61]Let your heart therefore be wholly true to the LORD our God, walking in his statutes and keeping his commandments, as at this day." (ESV)

This morning Youth Pastor Mike Godfrey shared from the book of 1st Kings some wisdom from Solomon contained in his benediction, and some tangible characteristics that identified the wicked Kings, and also some characteristics of the good kings.

Go get The True Citizen this week and thumb through it.  I am probably one in however many who saw what I saw the way I saw it but what I saw disgusted me.  In fact, it made me sick.  To be truthful my stomach was in knots and I thought yet again how much blatant hypocrisy flows through our sleepy little town.  What I saw caused me pray immediately for my own spirit and for any who were trapped by the trickery that has to be involved for solid and sold out believers to be lured in.  I expect sinners to act like sinners; pagans are pagans and will play rightfully their part as pagans whether we help them or not. But we don’t have to help them and we don’t have to join in so we can show them as someone said to me, “I am just like them, just forgiven.”  Such a view of the great grace of God makes a mockery of the shed blood of Jesus on the cross.   Although I am on target with what I want to say, you must see what I saw before this will make any sense to you, so let me open the paper for you and show it to you.

Page one has a story about a dog fighting ring that was broken up by our local deputies.  Thank God for these men and what they do on a daily basis.  We are to praise God for them.  At the bottom of page one is another story about the breaking up of methamphetamine making ring complete with pictures.  Most of these men in these pictures look as if they had just been using, not as if they had just been making.  I prayed for these men when I saw their pictures and again praised God for the good work of law enforcement in catching them.  I prayed for these men who were caught that God would mercifully save them and that they would somehow be kept off the streets for the rest of their days.  You would have to have been where I have been and have seen what I have seen in order to understand why I feel so strongly about this kind of thing.  Lord, save these men.  Guardians of the prison system, keep them locked up so that they can do no more harm to young men and young women in our communities.  Then I began to thumb through the pages and then is when I saw it.  Middle of the paper, center of the page, two young ladies on each side of  a young man with one young lady and the young man with beer bottles in hand, all with smiling faces above the caption, “hoedown for the hometown.”  Then the other pictures caught me with what looked like gregarious behavior from people around a table whose centerpiece was enough beer bottles to create more than a little buzz.  That is when it hit me!  The naked out in the open hypocrisy of the whole thing:  showing the somber faces of those captured for making methamphetamine and the smiling faces of those who are having a “hoedown for the hometown.”  I immediately thought to myself, “wonder how many people at these events were pulled over on the way home and given a brief breathalizer exam??”  I can answer that question.  Because while living in a culture where alcohol is defined by medical professionals as a drug we still distinguish between smoking a joint and sipping a beer.  I don’t.  I don’t do either.  But if Idid one, I would consider it just as appropriate to do the other.  A drug is a drug is a drug.  And that is what got me.  Condemning the making and using of one drug on the front page while codoning and indeed celebrating in the name of philantrhopic efforts the use of another drug on another page, come now; let’s either condone and celebrate both or condemn and castigate both.  Let’s not live by double standards unless of course we have been duped by “diabolos” or “the devil” whose whole goal is to get every society to adopt and live by double standards.  The pictures produce pain for me because they make plain that “diabolos” is making it work quite well here.

 

 The Holy Spirit in Salvation: Regeneration [36:49m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Titus 3:1-8 [+/-]Titus 3:1-8 [3:1]Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, [2]to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people. [3]For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. [4]But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, [5]he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, [6]whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, [7]so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. [8]The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people. (ESV)

We live in the New Day.  Ezekiel, Isaiah, Joel and Jeremiah would teach us about this new day.  We looked two weeks ago at the character and content of this new day.  It is a day of individual responsibility before God.  It is a day when God will save His people by the work of His sovereign grace.  It is the day that is the beginning of what is known in the Bible as the last day or last days because it is during this day in which we live that God is doing His most definitive work for the saving of sinners and the shaping of His church for the glory of His Name.  We live in this new day.

Learn more about this message by downloading the sermon notes here!

This is a dangerous article to write.  It is dangerous for me.  It could be dangerous for you.  It is dangerous for both of us if it is true.  I pray that it isn’t.  The article is about the dimensions and depth of our care and concern for sinners.  Do we really care?  Well, the average reader of this blog is going to have an immediate response, “why yes I care.  I really do care.”  But do we?  I mean do we really give a rip at all.  Let me tell you what I mean and why I am asking.

What I mean is that I can know about I care by how much I care about those whom I do not know.  I cannot and must now measure my care for the lost by how much I really care about those whom I know.  It is both right and really easy to care about those whom I know.  I must care about my family and friends who do not know Jesus, but what about those who are suffering from the earthquakes and possible Tsunamis in Indonesia or the hopeless and helpless in Iran?  Here is where it gets dangerous for me.  We met for church last night and had our prayer time.  A part of that prayer time was my introducing a thirty day prayer guide for the people of Iran.  God has His people in Iran, literally.  The church is alive and active in this country.  This prayer guide that is beautifully done asks us to pray for the church in Iran.  I introduced it at our prayer time and Bible Study last night.  We ordered a hundred copies.  When I was locking up and turning out lights last night, I noticed that most of them were still in the box!  Oh, was my spirit deflated.  I thought:  how could we?  We just gathered for prayer and what is more important for us to pray for and about than the work of the Gospel in places like Iran?  How could we call ourselves a praying people and walk out of this room leaving not fifty of one hundred behind but seventy plus?  I stood there stunned but then I remembered some things.

Here is where this article really gets difficult to write and to read.  Here is where I hope that I am really wrong.  And I may be wrong in terms of the fullness of what I am about to write but I don’t think I am fully wrong about the focus.  First, I remembered as I stood there that so much of our church that meets on Wednesday night is involved in Bible Studies so they were not present to hear the announcement about the prayer opportunity.  Second, I remembered that so many of us who do not participate in the Bible Studies are Baptist traditionalists who want everything in the church to be like it was in the fifties or sixties, even prayer meeting where the focus is on us.  This is where the difficulty of this article turns to despair for me.  We had just prayed but most of the prayers were about us and for us:  family and friends about whom we care.  But the truth is that we do no know how much we care until we can truly care for those whom we do not know, like our brothers and sisters in Iran and elsewhere.  And if we do not care enough to pray for them as much as we pray for family and friends, we do not really care at all because it seems to me that our prayers even for our family and friends are about them getting better from something that is bad so that we can feel better about them.

Oh how I struggle with these issues.  Some would hear me saying that we should not pray for our family and friends or we should not pray about physical issues.  That is not what I am saying.  That would be as much a failure to trust God as the failure to pray for those we do not know.  But there is something wrong with us when we can spend time praying for those we know and walk out of a room with no attention at  all to a powerful weapon right before us that God can and will use to change lives in a dark land.  I see it every time we have a prayer time in our church where we don’t focus on ourselves.  Some wonder out loud to me after those times why we didn’t have “prayer meetin.”  I long for the day when we want to see the glory of God manifest in the world in every place as much as we long for a ninety year old family member or friend to be healed.  This last line is really difficult even to write:  I know the former in the sentence above is the will of God; I am not sure at all about the latter.  If that ninety year old family member is saved, it may be God’s will to take them home.  But we do not know yet how to pray that way or is it that we do not know how to pray?  Lord, would you teach me how to pray so that I can really know that I really care?? Please?