Mon, Mar 30th - 12:11AM

Mon, Mar 23rd - 10:13AM

We are now in the Easter season. New fashions are being purchased. Gardens are being planted. Summer activities are being scheduled. There is a freshness in the air which is enjoyed by humans and plant-life alike. It is spring-time!

But the Easter season, as we know it today, was much different a couple thousand years back. For Jesus, it was the most trying time of His some 35 years upon the earth. He emerged from Gethsemane to face the old rugged cross.

Gethsemane was the place of an olive press. Olives would be brought, dropped into the press, and from the agony of the pressure, its useful juices would emerge. It was a peaceful garden where Jesus went often with His disciples to pray, rest, and talk.

But this trip, across the Kidron brook up to the Mount of Olives, was different from all the other trips to the garden. It would be His last time to pray with His disciples in this peaceful hide away from the world’s activities.

When one sees a picture of Jesus dying upon the cross, just remember that the cross is the finished commitment Jesus made in Gethsemane. His prayer time there on this occasion was no picnic. He came face to face with the cup of suffering which lay out ahead of Him. And that cup is the central focus if we are to understand these awesome moments which He experiences on the night of His arrest.

His disciples were told to pray so they wouldn’t be led astray by temptation. He took Peter, James, and John further into the garden. Then He Himself went a stone’s throw further and prayed alone. The disciples were weary and needed sleep. The spirit was willing but their flesh was weak and they fell asleep.

Jesus prayed three times for the cup to pass, if possible, from Him so that its contents wouldn’t be experienced. While Jesus prayed, seeking that the cup pass on by without Him having to drink it, an angel came and gave Him strength(Lk. 22:43). His struggle became so intense that Luke says "then sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground(22:44).

A question might be raised. Was Jesus trying to get out of having to go to the cross? The answer lies in the cup. And that is why that cup in His prayer is so important.

I believe He saw that it was a cup full of sin. Here was the perfect Son of God looking into the curse of all the sin of all the ages. He wasn’t just dying as a sacrifice, He was actually paying the price of sin for every sinner who had ever lived or who would live in the future. When you look close enough, you will discover your sin and I will discover my sin. As the song says, "Dying alone for you and me".

There is no way for fallen man to reach the perfect place called Heaven on one’s own merits. There must be a redeemer. That redeemer is Jesus Christ. Let the ink flow, the word processors grind out denials to this fact, but Jesus said He is the only way to the Father. Believe it and be converted or deny that truth and be forever separated from God in eternity future.

I believe further that Jesus saw a cup of separation. Redemption requires that the perfect sacrifice is to be offered, being one without any blemish. Jesus is the only one capable of filling that need. It would require a time of separation in the Godhead. His destiny was pre-designed, His end pre-determined for the cross.

Our hope for salvation hung in the balance there in Gethsemane. If ever there was a moment when the Godhead was in any danger of fragmenting under the weight of the fallen, human world’s rejection, it was in Gethsemane. But God’s will prevailed and Jesus emerged from the garden with victory for the souls of lost humanity already won. The cross is indeed the finished commitment of Gethsemane.

Will this Easter season be more of the same — just getting the garden ready, purchasing seasonal clothing, enjoying good Christian Easter music? Or will we pause and remember it wasn’t an enjoyable piece of cake for Jesus two thousand years ago. Perhaps it’s a good time for us all to recommit our lives to living the faithful Christian lifestyle.

Sun, Mar 15th - 10:16PM

Why do we suffer pain? Why do people die? Why are there storms of destruction? Why will a parent subject themselves to additive substances which destroys families and lives? Why do individuals reject the love of God which is offered through the written Word? And I could add hundreds of other similar questions.

But as I look around communities and observe the lifestyles of scores and scores of people who are living reckless, hate filled, and angry lives, I have to wonder why so many of us are still alive. Believe it or not, God is as real as His Word reveals to the human race. He is indeed our creator, our savior, our promised hope, and our coming King. And all of mankind will answer to Him at the end of the age.

John’s gospel reminds us that "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life" (3:16). That good news is offered to all who will believe.

Revelation 3:20 portrays Jesus standing at the door of one’s heart and knocking for an invitation to enter. And with every passage of scripture that is read, with every attempt to disprove His Word, with every personal soul winning effort, with every sermon preached, Jesus is knocking and waiting for an invitation to come into one’s life to become their savior.

In the devotional book by J. Sidlow Baxter, Awake My Heart, the author has written a two-day devotional on one small passage of scripture. It might be small in number of words, but is huge in its message to Christians.

Between the resurrection of Jesus and His ascending into Heaven, there was a forty-day period of time. Acts 1:3 reminds us that Jesus "presented Himself . . . by many infallible proofs . . .". And at the close of the great commission given by Jesus in Matthew 28:16-20, the Lord left His followers with a promise we can hold onto in this very day in which we live. He said, ". . .Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age"(20). Jesus promises that believers are to be aware of His presence and authority or power.

The disciples faced a world which rejected the Lord Jesus. Even the religious folk tried to stop the Christian faith from growing. Paul, the militant apostle, was first the persecuting Saul until He met Jesus on the Damacus road.

In the face of a million questions, with a barrage of rejections, with scornful rebuttals from individuals who reject the Holy Scriptures, we need the awareness of Jesus’ presence with us each and every day. That is the theme of the two-day devotion by J. Sidlow Baxter (page 14 & 15).

The problems addressed at the front of today’s devotion began a long time ago. Way back in the Garden of Eden, the first man, Adam, created by God, was instructed as to what he should and should not do. He failed and opened the curtain of a fallen lifestyle in a fallen world. The world God created won’t be repaired or restored until He rules upon the earth after the seven year period of tribulation yet to come upon the earth. Until then, bad things happen.

Paul wrote some very encouraging words to the young preacher Timothy. His words can encourage us and sustain us in these last days as we witness for Jesus Christ. Paul wrote, "Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching." He then added, "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables"(4:3-4).

My Christian friend, you and I are to remember that even though Jesus can’t be seen with the eye, He is still right with us. Keep that in mind and wherever you are or whatever you are, Jesus is right there with you. May the Lord bless you as you as you live with the awareness of Jesus’ presence.

Sun, Mar 8th - 9:57PM

During the days of old, preaching from the pulpit was accompanied with the altar call at the end of the sermon. When the altar was opened, individuals moved to the front of the church, knelt on their knees and either repented of their sins or cried out to God in behalf of someone or something on their hearts. But something has happened to the old altar in the average church of our day. We seem to have drifted away from its importance.

There is a passage of scripture in the Old Testament which places the correct emphasis upon the altar. We are aware of the fact of it being the place of sacrifice. Animals were brought and sacrificed upon it as the covering of their sins.

But in Leviticus 17:3-9, one reads a most solemn reason for its importance. In those verses it is pointed out that there is no other place were the sins of man and the forgiveness of God meet. And that is where my emphasis is in today’s devotion.

Paul reminded Christians through the Book of Romans that sacrifices are still required in the New Testament. But the sacrifices aren’t the same as found in the Old Testament. There, it was the animal’s blood which had been sacrificed to cover sin, which was placed upon the altar. The New Testament sacrifice, as recorded by Paul (Romans 12:1-2), is the Christian’s body. It is not a sacrifice from with outside his body, but Christians are to offer up their own bodies.

The sacrifice is to be living, holy, and acceptable to God. Paul reminded the readers that this wasn’t something difficult or unnatural. Rather, it was their most expected service to the Lord.

Many a soul has found their way down to the altar where they met with God in repentance and found forgiveness for their sin. You see, the altar is the place were man and God meet. There is no place in all the world more important than the altar in one’s life. It is were repentant sinful man meets with the loving and forgiving Lord Jesus Christ.

Trouble is, sin isn’t looked upon as an awful thing any longer. Its just a mistake, an error in judgement, a momentary lapse into an older life style. It’s just being human.

But in reality, God is horribly wronged by the sin of man. He is mankind’s sacrifice for sin. He is the One Who is offered up for sin. He is the one who is offended, who is sinned against. To rectify that sinful disobedience, the sinner must meet God at His designated place. In Leviticus 17, in several of those verses, that place is identified as the altar.

Returning to Paul’s words in chapter 12, the believer learns how to offer up the body in a living sacrifice. It isn’t by conforming to the way of the world. People conform their ways, their songs, their activities, their dress by the way the rest of the worldly minded lives. Many are tempted to take up the ideas and religious thinking of the world which denies the true God.

Paul, through Holy Spirit inspiration, wrote, "be transformed by the renewing of your mind". In order for one’s life to "prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God", the individual transforms the life from worldly ways to spiritual ways through reading and understanding the Word of God.

Ultimately, the message preached from the pulpits of our land, must be heard and obeyed before lives will be changed. Thousands of Holy Spirit filled sermons are preached every week, sometimes more often, without changing lives because people aren’t willing to transform themselves through obedience to the Word of God. That’s not the church’s fault, that’s the fault of the individual who has sold the soul to the devil!

Perhaps if the altar once again found its rightful place in the church-houses of our land, where sinners falling under conviction of sin at the preaching from the pulpit, they would meet with God at that altar and find forgiveness. Then perhaps they would leave the church to go into the world as God fearing and law-abiding citizens. Then the population in the places of incarceration would decrease. But until lost mankind meets God at His prescribed altar, it won’t happen.

As preachers and churches, let’s break the tradition of fearing the altar call. It might not seem sophisticated but it will be the right thing to do!

Sun, Mar 1st - 11:17PM

The year was 1966. I was the pastor of the Danville Baptist Church in Danville, Alabama. This was a good church in a good Baptist area of the state. Our children were small, our daughter’s first year in school, and the people were super great to us. The ministry was good.

A church further north, in Athens, came open and the pulpit committee contacted me. We met a couple of times and they invited me to come preach in view of a call to their church to be their pastor.

The church was only about three years old just outside the city limits of Athens. It was less then an hours drive to Huntsville. The area seemed to be growing. It seemed to be the church field for which I had been searching. A new church. One I could get in early and grow, not just maintain a filed someone else or several others had brought to fruition.

After preaching in view of a call, the church voted to extend to me an invitation to become the church pastor. I thought for sure my ambition, my dream had come true. My mind was filled with excitement as I anticipated moving onto their church field.

On the Sunday morning when I was to resign, I began to have second thoughts. My stomach churned and I felt a little sick before that service was to begin. In the meantime, I had already told the interested church to announce that same morning that I was resigning at Danville.

When it came time to read my resignation, I wanted to fold it and trash it in the nearest garbage basket. Neither did I want to go back on my word to the other church, so I proceeded with the resignation. Peggy didn’t feel good about it nor did I. If it happened today, I would simply apologize for my premature announcement to the Athens church and stay put. But, I didn’t do that in 1967.

After all was said and done, after one year of frustration, despondency, and utter failure, I realized that on that morning in the Danville Baptist Church I had stepped out of the will of God and suffered the consequences. It was a couple of years later before I felt sure of being back in His will in a church where I spent the next eleven years.

What is the purpose of telling this horror story, of reliving this troubling time in my life? It is to let you know that the safest place to live and work is in the will of God. That’s when our prayers are answered. I learned that living outside the will of God causes things to go terrible wrong in life.

My challenge to you, and to myself, is — stay safe inside the will of God. I believe that is the underlying story line the Holy Spirit wants us to get from the story of Jesus and his disciples out on the Sea of Galilee (Matthew 14:22-33).

The storm was beating upon the boat which carried the disciple to the other side of the Sea while Jesus was sending away the multitudes He had just fed. He told them to go to the other side in the boat. While the storm was raging against the disciples and the boat, Jesus came walking to where they were, of course, walking on the water.

Peter inquired, in fear, that he might be given permission to come to Him on the water. Permission being granted, Peter stepped out onto the water for a couple of steps. His faith failed him and he began to sink while crying out for help.

Jesus reached out, pulled Peter up, and they got into the boat. Then! The storm stopped and the water became peaceful.

Their lesson was learned. Even though Peter had his miraculous short walk on the water, he and the other disciples learned that the safest place was in the boat when Jesus arrived. Back in verse 12 the Lord told them, "Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid". That should have calmed their fears and caused them to relax.

Jesus never told them to "walk" to the other side. He instructed they go in a boat, the natural way for man to get to the other side. Job 9:8 reminds us that "He alone spreads out the heavens, And treads (walks) on the waves of the sea".

When a believer walks in the will of God he or she will receive all the miracles and blessings they will need to live in this life. I’d rather be in a storm in the will of God, than in an assured safe place and out of His will. I’ve learned my lesson, have you?