Sun, Aug 23rd - 9:56PM

Sun, Aug 16th - 10:00PM

Peter, the outspoken disciple of Jesus, confronted the Lord. Jesus began showing his disciples that He would soon be put to death and rise again on the third day. This courageous disciple was always the first to respond, was always ready to defend, even with the sword if needed. Peter seemed to be an extravert, one quick to hear and quick to respond, a man who had not one fearful bone in his body.

Jesus was seeking to prepare the disciples, His inner circle of men whom He had personally chosen to teach His ways. Jesus wanted them to realize the real purpose in His mission upon the earth. The story is found in Matthew 16:21-23.

In the immediate previous verses, Jesus had introduced the idea of His church being established. But in verse 21, we discover a shift, a moment of change in His earthly life. From that moment forward, the eyes of Jesus were focused upon Calvary and His blood atonement.

After hearing His announcement, Peter stood against such an idea. There would be no future death at the hands of the scribes, elders, and chief priest. Perhaps he never listened to the resurrection part of Jesus’ announcement. Peter said to Jesus, "For be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to you"(v. 22).

Jesus responded with an awesome response: "Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men"(v. 23). Wow! What a word to the one disciple who always stood up first, ready to answer His questions and the one totally committed to His Lordship in his life.

I’ve thought about that verse recently in light of present day conditions in America. There is a decline in modern American morals. There is great debate going on throughout our nation as to whether change being proposed by Washington’s current administration is good change or bad change.

And it is more difficult to get church folk involved in the work of the church in today’s society. Along with that difficulty, is the difficulty of getting lost people to hear the gospel message of salvation and hope beyond the grave.

So, in the midst of financial crisis and the high cost of producing and purchasing goods, as a nation of people, we look toward Washington, D. C., and demand they fix all our problems. The church looks to the pastor and says, "do something". The pastor looks to denominational leadership or some new program and pleads, "help"!

I believe Jesus looks to the body of believers and repeats his awesome response which He made to Peter many years ago, "Get behind Me Satan"! As in Peter’s case, he responded to His announcement from the viewpoint of world thinking. He didn’t trust the Lord Who was speaking the words of truth.

Fear often causes believers to become emotional wrecks. Fear of losing health care, of paying high taxes, of running out of fuel, losing global prestige ... these all weigh heavy upon their mind. Perhaps we need to reread the story of Moses before the burning bush in the book of Exodus.

The bush was totally engaged with fire, yet it wasn’t consumed. Moses stood before the burning bush on his bare feet because He was on Holy ground. As the result of that encounter in the desert, Moses walked away with the anointing of God upon him from the sole of his feet to the tip of his shepherd’s staff. In later years, Moses testified that his sandals never wore out. His activities proved that his staff was no longer a staff but the one anointed by God.

God’s promise to His children is His protection and His provision. He doesn’t promise wealth, he does promise to meet our needs. He doesn’t promise perfect health, he promises His presence.

Our voice and our vote is to be exercised every opportunity we have to express them. But regardless of the end results, we have a Heavenly Father Who has promised His people what the world can never deliver: a perfect home in the sweet by and by!

How could Peter have responded? Perhaps he could have said something like this: "Lord, I don’t understand what you are saying. But whatever it is, it is correct and I’ll trust you with the results". Instead, he acted like the world, he would take matters into his own hands and save Jesus from any future death such as Jesus had described.

Perhaps in these days of uncertainty, we can say to the Lord, "we don’t know what will be the outcome of all the wrangling in our nation’s capital. But the one thing for sure that we do know: however it turns out, You will care for Your children". And when we do, we’ll not be mindful of the things of man, but of the things of God.

Sun, Aug 9th - 11:59PM

The church of our living Lord is the answer to mankind’s moral and spiritual problems. Our nation is in the grips of the question about morality and leadership. Sin seems to be winning most battles that are fought on the front lines of the moral question. But God’s Word, which is ignored and ridiculed, has the bottom line answer to the question of morality.

The problem is national, crossing racial lines, and infiltrating some pulpits of our churches. When the spiritual church is recovered, the Bible will once again become the focal subject and it will once again be studied word upon word and precept upon precept. And then . . . and only then, will a morally corrupt nation listen to the pulpits of America.

In order for this to take place, some principles must be followed. They are found in Ephesians 4:11-16. The first of three principles is the Pastor-Teacher Equipping the Saints [v 11-12] . The pastor’s major ministry is the ministry of equipping. He has many hats to wear but the most important one is the teaching and training his people to do ministry.

The second principle is work [v 12]. The congregation, that is the equipped saints, are to march forward in ministry. There is no purpose in equipping an organization, or team, or department if they aren’t going to perform their duties.

The final principle is that of edifying or strengthening [v 12]. When the saints are equipped and the equipped moves forward in ministry, the church is going to be spiritually strengthened.

Look for a moment at the word "edifying" as found in the NKJV of the Bible. The old KJV has the word "building up". The word refers to architecture, that is, a structure. The emphasis is upon the act of building the structure, literally, "the things of building up." The body of Christ is in the process of being constructed. I believe the text points to two things. First, it refers to the process of building the church numerically, reaching out and bring in. It isn’t difficult for you to recognize that this process is the ministry of evangelism. Reaching the lost is the business of the church.

The second thing that the text tells us is that the church is to be built up spiritually. This is the ministry of discipleship, reaching within. The church should not be dropping people from their rolls just to achieve a high percentage of enrollment present. This does happen but not as often as in years gone by. At least when individuals are on an enrollment book, that book becomes a good prospect file. Instead of dropping for the reason above, we should be enrolling as many as possible and then ministering to them to bring them into fellowship with the Lord.

Growing a spiritual church involves more than meals and gospel sings. Spiritual growth requires study, prayer, and group participation. Back in the Garden of Eden, after killing his brother for the world’s first murder, Cain responded in this manner to God’s question: "Am I my brother’s keeper?" In this spiritual realm especially, the answer is "yes".

Gospel musician Hilding Halverson’s story is interesting. He overheard a conversation between his son and to other little fellows. One boy said proudly, "My dad knows the mayor of our town!" The second fellow said, "My dad knows the governor of our state!" Not to be outdone, his son said, "That’s nothing, my dad knows God!"

Upon hearing this, Halverson quickly slipped away to his room and with tears in his eyes prayed, "O God, I pray that my boy will always be able to say, ‘my dad knows God."

He knew that he had been paid the supreme tribute. When we return to a spiritual church, people will say that testimony about us as well.

Sun, Aug 2nd - 11:12PM

Preparing For Life’s Trials Through Daily Faith

Some few years ago, an early morning rainstorm successfully awakened me from a deep sleep. The rain drops pounded upon the roof of our home like at no other time I could remember. The house has a large attic underneath a high roof line. One can barely hear a normal rain.

Upon awakening I knew this wasn’t a normal rain shower. It was pounding the roof with a powerful force. The lighting flashed through the windows. The wind blew rather briskly on the outside.

Suddenly, the sound on the roof grew louder. I couldn’t decide if it was the falling rain or the blowing of the wind. Whichever, this more powerful sound caused me to get out of bed. It was 4:15 A. M. I had become very concerned about the situation.

I went to the front of the house, looked outside, and saw sheets of rain falling to the ground. The trees were bending from the force of the wind. My scanner was turned to the weather report. I discovered that bad weather was being reported for our entire area.

Peggy was sleeping soundly throughout the storm, so I didn’t awaken her. I went to my study and while sitting at my desk, I realized fear of the weather had disturbed my mind. Thus, I sat back and said a word of prayer to God. "Lord, this is your house. We have dedicated it to you. I am your child through faith in Jesus and His finished work on the cross. I know I’m kept through the power of your resurrected Son. What do I have to worry about? You do with your house and your children as you see fit."

All concerns left. My mind became relaxed. Since I was already awake, I opened my Bible and spent some time in study.

The rains continued to fall. The heavy storm clouds moved on. The dangerous lighting ceased. Our house survived the ordeal, and in a day or so, the sun shined brightly in the sky. My faith overcame anxiety and produced calmness in my human spirit.

While reading the prophesy of Habakkuk I came across a verse that reminded me to some degree of my experience. The prophet was relating the vision God showed him concerning His coming judgement upon Judah. God said to him, "Behold the proud, his soul is not upright in him; But the just shall live by his faith"(2:4).

What’s the moral of all this? I’m reminded that believers often live with needless stress and frustration because faith is weak. We don’t rely upon God’s promises of protection and caring.

On three other occasions, in the Bible, the Holy Spirit gives forth this same statement: "The just shall live by faith"(Ro. 1:17; Gal 3:11; Heb 10:36). Each reference points the believer in the correct direction — to a lifestyle of trusting our Lord to guide, to protect, to strengthen, and finally, to bring all us believers into the presence of our Heavenly Father after life on earth is completed.

Thus, whenever life’s pressures press in upon us, when answers can’t be found, the believer can live by Godly faith, knowing "that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose"(Ro. 8:28).

We are encouraged from God’s Word to build faith muscles by applying faith to faith, through trials and testings, so when the big crash falls upon us, we can stand firm upon our faith in God.

The man or woman who builds those big, balky muscles force them to grow larger and larger by many hours of lifting weights and doing other exercises designed for that purpose. Muscle is built upon muscle. Thus it is so with our faith. In order to have a strong faith for the tough times which comes to the living, small faith must be applied daily. If these small faith muscles aren’t developed, then the real difficult times will catch us spiritually weak. Therefore, grow spiritual muscles by applying small faith upon faith daily.