Jeremiah 8:20 “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.”
This is one of the saddest verses in all of Scripture! It very much makes me think of the many times that we come to the late fall and think about what has been accomplished through the previous summer. Well, the summer is NOT YET PAST; so, we have the opportunity before us for a fruitful harvest!
The most famous thing is church life may be, “the Summer Slump.” Because of vacations and activities that compete for the time and affections of people, most churches suffer poor attendance during the summer months. I pray that this will not be the case with our Church this year!
We are working on several ideas that will allow us to take advantage of the longer and warmer days to increase the amount of outreach we are able to accomplish in Atwood and the TWENTY TOWNS that we have targeted as part of our 2020 VISION.
The salvation of sinners in in the hands of God, and God alone; but, He has clearly chosen to save sinners through the ministry and witness of His people, the Church! My desire; and yours, as well, is to be used of the Lord to bring many people into His Kingdom.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have a celebration service this fall when we could look at dozens of new believers in our Church and testify together: “The summer is ended, the harvest is past, and MANY HAVE BEEN SAVED!”
Grant it, O Lord!
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Bible Evangelism Conference
Isaiah 55:8-11
8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
10 "For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”
In these well-known and often-quoted verses, God gives us both His perspective, “your ways are not My ways” and His promise, “[My word] shall not return to Me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose…” I am thinking much about both His perspective and His promise today as I consider the events of this past week.
Our 2011 Bible and Evangelism Conference was BOTH the highest quality and the most poorly attended event that I have ever planned and hosted in my ministry. I have heard some very wise counsel about why this was the case.
I am deeply thankful to those who worked so very hard to enable us to host this meeting, to those who took time to attend, and to our speakers! Drs. Ron Meyer, Tom Rains, Wes Feltner, and Nate Adams; along with Tim Sadler, Mike Wilder, Steve Diehl, and Adam Powers prepared and presented Spirit-filled and effective messages.
Power of Praise, Kim Senseney, Jim and Pam Hollis and their sons led us in great music and singing! Bill Henderson’s impromptu praise songs were a serendipitous blessing.
Certainly, the unplanned and unexpected highlight of the meeting was the testimony of Caleb Adams on Tuesday evening. How we rejoice with him and his godly parents in his salvation!
God had his sovereign will and way; His word was preached and will not return to Him empty! I look forward to seeing the future fruit of these meetings!
Our next series of special meetings will be Sunday to Wednesday, September 18 - 21 with Dr. Ralph Buckley of Dyersburg, TN and Les Snyder and Sons of the Father of West Frankfort, IL. Start praying now!
8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
10 "For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”
In these well-known and often-quoted verses, God gives us both His perspective, “your ways are not My ways” and His promise, “[My word] shall not return to Me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose…” I am thinking much about both His perspective and His promise today as I consider the events of this past week.
Our 2011 Bible and Evangelism Conference was BOTH the highest quality and the most poorly attended event that I have ever planned and hosted in my ministry. I have heard some very wise counsel about why this was the case.
I am deeply thankful to those who worked so very hard to enable us to host this meeting, to those who took time to attend, and to our speakers! Drs. Ron Meyer, Tom Rains, Wes Feltner, and Nate Adams; along with Tim Sadler, Mike Wilder, Steve Diehl, and Adam Powers prepared and presented Spirit-filled and effective messages.
Power of Praise, Kim Senseney, Jim and Pam Hollis and their sons led us in great music and singing! Bill Henderson’s impromptu praise songs were a serendipitous blessing.
Certainly, the unplanned and unexpected highlight of the meeting was the testimony of Caleb Adams on Tuesday evening. How we rejoice with him and his godly parents in his salvation!
God had his sovereign will and way; His word was preached and will not return to Him empty! I look forward to seeing the future fruit of these meetings!
Our next series of special meetings will be Sunday to Wednesday, September 18 - 21 with Dr. Ralph Buckley of Dyersburg, TN and Les Snyder and Sons of the Father of West Frankfort, IL. Start praying now!
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Should we love our enemies, or kill them?
Judges 5:24-27
24 “Most blessed of women be Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, of tent-dwelling women most blessed.
25 He asked water and she gave him milk; she brought him curds in a noble's bowl.
26 She sent her hand to the tent peg and her right hand to the workmen's mallet; she struck Sisera; she crushed his head; she shattered and pierced his temple.
27 Between her feet he sank, he fell, he lay still; between her feet he sank, he fell; where he sank, there he fell—dead.”
In the time of the Judges, (1300 – 1100BC) Jabin, the King of Canaan had conquered the people of Israel and the head of his army was Sisera. When God raised up Deborah and Barak to defeat him, Sisera fled on foot and was led by God into the tent of Jael, who tricked him into falling asleep and then killed him by driving a tent peg through his head!
And the divinely-inspired, inerrant, infallible Word of the living God calls her, “most blessed of women” for the very reason of what she did to Sisera!
The death of Osama Bin-Ladin yesterday has brought about lots of questions and discussions among Christians as to how we should treat our enemies. We are told in Exodus 20:13, “You shall not kill” and Jesus said in Matthew 5:44, “Love your enemies.”
With these two clear passages as a background, we must confront the question of whether or not it was right to take the life of Osama Bin-Ladin.
First, almost every contemporary version of Scripture translates Exodus 20:13 as, “You shall not murder.” While the Hebrew word used here simply means, “kill” the reason for translating it as “murder” is because there are several places in Scripture where it is not only permitted, but commanded, to take the life of certain individuals. Cf. Genesis 9:6; Exodus 21:12-29 (the very next Chapter after the Ten Commandments!) and Romans 13:1-5.
I believe that it is best understood as saying that we are not to kill human beings without biblical warrant which God gives to humans in certain situations such as mentioned above. By any reasonable standard, killing Bin-Ladin was a biblically-justified act. It certainly was an act of self-defense!
So, how then do we love our enemies? We love them by praying for their salvation, by attempting to get the gospel to them, and by showing mercy on them after they are captured or defeated. This is exactly what we have always done following the wars in which the United States was victorious.
Since godless people will answer to a holy and righteous God for every sin they commit, it is not a loving thing to stand idly by and allow them to continue to commit atrocity after atrocity!
Let us pray that God will bring about democracy in the Middle-East; let us pray that the gospel will be freely proclaimed there and that many will be saved. And let us pray that every godless mass-murdering tyrant like Bin-Ladin will be either be converted, or killed.
24 “Most blessed of women be Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, of tent-dwelling women most blessed.
25 He asked water and she gave him milk; she brought him curds in a noble's bowl.
26 She sent her hand to the tent peg and her right hand to the workmen's mallet; she struck Sisera; she crushed his head; she shattered and pierced his temple.
27 Between her feet he sank, he fell, he lay still; between her feet he sank, he fell; where he sank, there he fell—dead.”
In the time of the Judges, (1300 – 1100BC) Jabin, the King of Canaan had conquered the people of Israel and the head of his army was Sisera. When God raised up Deborah and Barak to defeat him, Sisera fled on foot and was led by God into the tent of Jael, who tricked him into falling asleep and then killed him by driving a tent peg through his head!
And the divinely-inspired, inerrant, infallible Word of the living God calls her, “most blessed of women” for the very reason of what she did to Sisera!
The death of Osama Bin-Ladin yesterday has brought about lots of questions and discussions among Christians as to how we should treat our enemies. We are told in Exodus 20:13, “You shall not kill” and Jesus said in Matthew 5:44, “Love your enemies.”
With these two clear passages as a background, we must confront the question of whether or not it was right to take the life of Osama Bin-Ladin.
First, almost every contemporary version of Scripture translates Exodus 20:13 as, “You shall not murder.” While the Hebrew word used here simply means, “kill” the reason for translating it as “murder” is because there are several places in Scripture where it is not only permitted, but commanded, to take the life of certain individuals. Cf. Genesis 9:6; Exodus 21:12-29 (the very next Chapter after the Ten Commandments!) and Romans 13:1-5.
I believe that it is best understood as saying that we are not to kill human beings without biblical warrant which God gives to humans in certain situations such as mentioned above. By any reasonable standard, killing Bin-Ladin was a biblically-justified act. It certainly was an act of self-defense!
So, how then do we love our enemies? We love them by praying for their salvation, by attempting to get the gospel to them, and by showing mercy on them after they are captured or defeated. This is exactly what we have always done following the wars in which the United States was victorious.
Since godless people will answer to a holy and righteous God for every sin they commit, it is not a loving thing to stand idly by and allow them to continue to commit atrocity after atrocity!
Let us pray that God will bring about democracy in the Middle-East; let us pray that the gospel will be freely proclaimed there and that many will be saved. And let us pray that every godless mass-murdering tyrant like Bin-Ladin will be either be converted, or killed.
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