01.22.10
Posted in Bible, Family at 9:57 am by Administrator
Thankfully many of the families in our church still haven’t “gotten over” our family revival from last year preached by Pastor Ron Ralph. Just this week I’ve had two people mention their listening to these messages over again. It is great material and we can make the cds available any time. But I thought I’d pass along a way to obtain more of this good material. The sermons that we heard over the course of our week long revival in 2009 were developed from a series that Bro. Ron preached in Sunday School at Cornerstone Baptist Church. Bro. Rick Owens of “Revival on Wheels” has made this series available in its entirety in .mp3 format on his website. I’ve been going back through these recordings lately for my own edification. According to Bro. Rick it changed his marriage, and no doubt, any one that will avail himself to this material with an open-heart will get a much needed blessing. You can download these messages on the family at www.revivalonwheels.com under “Audio Sermons” at the bottom of the page. By the way, if you know of anyone that makes their living driving a truck, Revival on Wheels is a great trucker ministry that makes live preaching by doctrinally sound preachers available at designated times during the week over the phone. Check out the ministry at the above link.
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01.07.10
Posted in Bible at 7:47 am by Administrator
Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. James 1:15
When people perceive life and sin through the world’s glossy and glorified lenses, uncompromising, pointed Bible preaching and teaching begins to sound harsh and unrealistic. Every Christian knows that the scripture teaches that the wages of sin is death, and yet when we view the ungodliness of those around us with the world’s distorted perspective many are tempted to question the truth of the Bible and assume the wicked are prospering. On the other hand when we hide the word of God in our hearts and, by faith, uphold the word of God as our standard the Lord will often grant us glimpses of just how true the scripture really is.
When I worked as a floor-covering salesman I worked with an installer that, in spite of his old age, had a seemingly insatiable appetite for younger women. He’d find attention-starved, destitute young ladies who would essentially sell themselves for food and drink and he’d boast of his exploits as if he were a hero. After a more serious relationship with a lady closer to his own age went wrong her teenage daughter brought some rather disturbing accusations against this same man. We’ll never know if they were true. This textbook example of masculine pride, prowess, strength, and independence shot him self in the head before the authorities got very far with the investigation.
As a fifth-grader I got to go with a group of my peers to a kindergarten class where we read to all-new students. I struck up an acquaintance that lasted all through school with the little boy that I read to on that day. I never saw him that I didn’t speak to him by name, and he always returned the kindness. After being out of school for some time I was saddened to read that this promising, handsome young man had shot his girlfriend and then turned the gun on himself. I never feel like preaching on broken-homes, rap music, and pre-marital sex is “heavy handed”.
These couple of occurrences served as tragic reminders for me of the absolute truth of the scripture. Doubtless, most will look upon these sad events and deem them to be the exceptions; we all know that most perverts don’t wind up killing themselves, and most overly involved high school love affairs don’t wind up in a homicide/suicide. I’d suggest that’s the wrong way to look at it. These are not exceptions, they are simply extremes. Sin always brings death, sometimes you just can’t perceive what’s dying.
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01.05.10
Posted in Bible, Books at 6:46 am by Administrator
Paul exhorted Titus to show himself a pattern of good works including his speech that none might condemn the words of his mouth (Titus 2:7-8). Truly, if any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man (James 3:2). We all battle at times with controlling the tongue, and often our failure is not calculated or malicious, or even conscious for that matter. One area of speech where that is especially evident is in the embellishment of simple stories shared in day-to-day discourse. (I think preachers are particularly bad about this.) I read a very interesting assessment of this often unconscious struggle in the context of a testimony regarding one man’s decisive victory over the simple temptation of propogating little untruths. A. T. Pierson, speaking of George Mueller’s commitment to accuracy in all that he spoke, observed the following:
“Many a falsehood is not an intentional lie, but an undersigned inaccuracy. Three of our human faculties powerfully affect our veracity; one is memory, another is imagination, and another is conscience. Memory takes note of facts, imagination colors facts with fancies, and conscience brings the moral sense to bear in sifting the real from the unreal. Where conscience is not sensitive and dominant, memory and imagination will become so confused that facts and fancies will fail to be separated. The imagination will be so allowed to invest events and experiences with either a halo of glory or a cloud of prejudice that the narrator will constantly tell not what he clearly sees written in the book of his remembrance, but what he beholds painted upon the canvas of his own imagination. Accuracy will be, half-unconsciously, perhaps, sacrificed to his own imaginings; he will exaggerate or depreciate—as his own impulses lead him; and a man who would not deliberately lie may thus be habitually untrustworthy; you cannot tell, often he cannot tell, what the exact truth would be when all the unreality with which it has thus been invested is dissipated like the purple and golden clouds about a mountain, leaving the bare crag of naked rock to be seen, just as it is in itself.” (p. 378-379, “George Muller of Bristol”)
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08.30.09
Posted in Bible at 8:27 pm by Administrator
After struggling through the material on Moses as a type of Christ, I thought I’d reproduce the outline here for you. In spite of my inability in communicating this subject, it really is a blessed study.
Moses is a type of Jesus Christ in the following ways:
1. In his birth and preservation:
a. Born in a time when his nation was in bondage to a foreign power (Ex 1, Matt 2:1).
b. Miraculously preserved in infancy after all of male babies are ordered killed by the king (Exod 1:22, Matt 2:16).
c. Hid in Egypt (Ex 2:10, Matt 2:13-15).
2. In his upbringing and preparation:
a. Permitted to return to his people following the death of the king (Ex 4:19, Matt 2:19).
b. Adopted by one that was not his real parent (Ex 2:10, Luke 3:23; Moses in Egypt has a mother and no earthly father as with the virgin-born Savior).
c. Sensed his calling years before his proper ministry ensued (Acts 7:25, Luke 2:49).
d. Prepared in utter seclusion, Moses in Midian, Christ in Nazareth (Ex 2:21, Luke 2:51).
3. In his condescension and rejection:
a. Departed a rightful prince from riches and ease in a palace to join himself with his brethren in weakness (Heb 11:24-26, Phil 2:6-7).
b. Rejected by his brethren at his first presentation (Ex 2:11-14, John 1:11, Luke 19:14).
c. Turns to Gentiles in his rejection (Ex 2:15, Acts 15:14).
d. Becomes a shepherd in his rejection (Ex 3:1, John 10:16).
e. Marries a Gentile bride in his rejection (Ex 2:21, 2 Cor 11:2).
4. In his ministry:
a. Sent of the Father (Ex 4:12, John 17:18).
b. Commissioned to set the captives free (Ex 3:10, Luke 4:18, 19:10).
c. Words confirmed with signs (Ex 4:8, 30-31, John 10:38, Consider the first public miracle).
d. Sent forth 12 spies (Num 13:16)/apostles (Matt 10:5), chose 70 elders (Num 11:24)/witnesses (Luke 10:1).
e. Was strong at death (Deut 34:7, Matt 27:50)
f. Died that people might enter Promised Land (Josh 1:2, John 12:24).
g. Rose from the dead (Deut 34:6 with Jude 9 and Matt 17:3, Matt 28:6).
h. Anointed God’s house (Lev 8:10, Acts 2:1-3, 33).
i. Received by his brethren at second appearance (Ex 4:29-31, Zech 12:10)
5. In his opposition:
a. Murmured against (Ex 15:24, John 6:41).
b. Threatened with stoning (Ex 17:4, John 8:59).
c. Authority challenged (Num 16:3, Matt 21:23).
6. In his character:
a. Forgiving (Num 12:13, Luke 23:34).
b. Prayerful (Ex 5:22, 8:12, 9:33, 14:15, 15:25, Luke 6:12)
c. Faithful (Heb 3:5, Rev 3:14)
d. Meek (Num 12:3, Matt 11:29)
7. In his provision:
a. Living water (Num 20:11, John 4:14)
b. Mediation (Deut 5:5, 1 Tim 2:5)
c. Intercession (Num 27:5, Heb 7:25)
8. In his office:
a. Prophet (Deut 18:18, John 8:28)
b. Priest (Psalm 99:6, Heb 3:1)
c. King (Deut 33:4-5, Luke 1:31-32)
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06.16.09
Posted in Bible, Family, Uncategorized at 10:49 am by Administrator
In my regular preaching I commonly make reference to the evils of television (particularly content and quantity). When we lived in Crestview we had basic cable with about 20 channels. When we made the move to Brewton we made the simple transition to no cable, dish, antenna, etc. This is easily one of the best practical moves we ever made. Since our family has been largely delivered from television, I’ve gotten quite comfortable speaking about the evils of television, and I sincerely feel like I can see those evils more clearly than ever. For the discerning mind, there is evidence on every hand of the negative impact of too much television including increased materialism, decreased morality, an unnaturally short attention span in young people, and a generally warped worldview of so many with an overexposure to the news media. These are my own observations. I commonly get some bewildered, “here-we-go-again” sort of looks from many folks when I make reference to this subject (actually, they’re faces are probably just fixed that way from watching too much TV). I’ve been interested to see a number of recent headlines from secular news sources (or “objective” sources depending on how much TV you watch), regarding this matter. They include:
“Unhappy people watch more TV: study” See here
Study links viewing adult-themed TV to earlier sex in teens See here
Study: TV May Inhibit Babies’ Language Development See here
“If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater…” 1 John 5:9a
But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. Hebrews 5:14
It seems as though even the lost world is catching on to what should be obvious to Christian people with a little discernment. Maybe some of that info and admonition is more than just preacher rant!
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01.25.09
Posted in Bible at 5:01 pm by Administrator
For God to narrow all the things He wanted to reveal to mankind to fit in to a single Book is a truly amazing task. And yet to look at the size of the Bible and to consider that we’re to familiarize ourselves with such a large volume is almost daunting. I suppose, if we’re not careful, we can become frustrated at the fact that we truly undestand so little of what we read when we come to the Bible. And its been my experience that no sooner than think you have something really “figured out” you need only read a little further to find out, there’s much more that you don’t know. I’m fairly convinced now (although I didn’t always see it this way) that the Bible really isn’t a Book to be “figured out”. It is always a Book that is profitable (2 Tim 3:16), and it is always powerful (Heb 4:12), but it does not exist to be “solved” like some code or “put together” like a puzzle. When Daniel received the very last message of His prophecy, all he could say was, “I heard, but I understood not” (Dan 12:8). That may seem like a let down, but the Bible says of itself that “faith cometh by hearing,” not by understanding. The more we fail to understand, the more we can glory in the fact that God wrote this Book, and not some man no smarter than you or me. Paul wrote that when it came to the things that God has prepared for us that love Him that we’re dealing with things that “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man” (1 Cor 2:9). And then he turns right around and says that God has revealed them to us by His Spirit (1 Cor 2:10). There are some things about the word of God that can be laid hold of spiritually and yet can’t be fully explained. I guess this is why we Paul tells us that he writes that we might “understand his knowledge in the mystery of Christ” (Eph 3:5) and then describes that very same myster as being “unsearchable” (Eph 3:8). How exactly do you “know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge” (Eph 3:19)! “How” is not what is important. What is important is that we’re approved of God in our study (2 Tim 2:15), and that we seek out the Book of the LORD and read (Isa 34:16). Jesus Christ once told eleven men that would turn the world upside down, “I have yet many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now” (John 16:12). If that be so we shouldn’t be surprised that there are many things that God has yet to show us about the Book that He’s written. Just as it’s been my experience that “I know nothing as I ought”, so it is also my experience that, as long as I’m in the Book, God will give me understanding in the things I need just when I need them.
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