Ladies' Retreat Reflections

This past weekend, over fifty women traveled to the Cape to attend this year's ladies' retreat with Mrs. Susan Hunt. A lot of prayer and planning went into this milestone event. For today's blog, I asked Mrs. Ellen Capozzi to write, on behalf of the Ladies' Retreat Planning Team, their impressions of all that occurred last weekend. Here it is:

Our ladies' retreat this year with Susan Hunt was indeed a life-changing event! We learned from God'sWord about our role as women in our homes and in our church.

In Session One, Mrs. Hunt taught us about The Legacy of Biblical Womanhood. We learned that there is headship and submission in the Trinity, just as God has ordained it to be in marriage and in the church. It is a beautiful principle when rightly understood.

In Session Two, we learned about The Proverbs 31 Man and Woman. Proverbs 31 points to Jesus, as does all of Scripture. Mrs. Hunt instructed us not to turn a passage loose until Jesus shows us Himself. Our retreat theme was verses 30 and 31: "...a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised. Give her of thefruit of her hands, and let her works praise her inthe gates." When we fear God we submit to His rule asKing because we trust Him, even when it seems hard. The LORD is God's personal covenant name. It reveals His personal relationship with us for all eternity. We are His, and He is ours! As we submit to His rule,He transforms us.

Session Three was about Titus 2 - the importance of having Godly character and sound doctrine, and the mandate for older women to teach younger women to love their husbands and children, with the Gospel as our motivation and our power.

During Session Four on Sunday morning, we learned from Psalm 62 that we can trust God at all times because He is strong and He is loving. We learned from Luke 24 that when ourhearts are slow to believe God's promises we are sad. We learned that all Scripture is about Jesus, and that He enables us to understand it. When we see Him, ourhearts are aflame (on fire!). From 2 Timothy welearned of the influence of Timothy's mother and grandmother, even though his father was not a believer.

Our time together ended with a time of personal sharing by several women. Love for the Lord and eachother was overflowing. The teaching that we received this weekend wastruly rich. We are grateful to God for allowing us this time together. We are grateful to Susan Hunt for her loving ministry and example to us, and to our church family for their prayers that went up to God on our behalf. Thank you to our husbands who encouragedus to go and who "held down the fort" till we returned. Last, but not least, thank you to our pastor who lovingly watches over our souls and who labors in the Word week in and week out to build us up in the faith. "To whom much is given, much is required." -- May we rise up as women to fulfill our role as helpers and life-givers, by the grace of God and for His glory!

Having heard the impressions of our Ladies' Retreat Planning Team, I wanted to close by sharing a portion of an e-mail that Susan Hunt sent to one of the Team members after returning home from the retreat:

I hope you are resting and enjoying knowing that you did a great job! The retreat was wonderful. You and the committee cared for me and for the women with such love and grace . . . it was a great encouragement to me to be there. Please thank all of the women for enfolding me in love. Gene and I loved being with you. . . .

It's good to be home, and we brought with us special memories of special people. We prayed this morning that the Lord will use it all for His glory and to accomplish His purposes in the women and in your church.

To Him be all glory,
Susan

We would love to hear more feedbacks from you ladies who went on the retreat. Or perhaps there are some of you men who would like to say a word about your wives. Leave a comment, sharing how you've been encouraged!

Women: Sleep-Deprived and Stressed Out!

More than half of American women suffer from a lack of sleep. In a survey conducted last year by the National Sleep Foundation, sixty percent of American women said that they got a decent night's rest only a few days a week or less. More women suffer from sleep-deprivation than men.

Poor sleep is associated with poor mood. Of the women who struggle to get sufficient sleep, about eighty percent were bothered by worry, stress, and anxiety. Over one-half said they felt unhappy, sad or depressed in the past month, and over a third said they felt recently hopeless about the future.

The NSF 2007 poll found that women of all ages are experiencing sleep problems, which change and increase in severity as they move through the different biological stages of their lives. Interestingly, the most sleep-deprived women are stay-at-home moms. No doubt, this is consistent with a mother's tendency to worry, or be stressed out about, her children.

Now, in light of the above information, here's the part of the report that I found to be the most interesting:

American women are struggling to cope with this lack of sleep, but that doesn’t slow them down. Eighty percent of women say that when they experience sleepiness during the day they just accept it and keep going. However, in order to keep going, 65% are likely to use caffeinated beverages, with 37% of all women consuming three or more caffeinated beverages per day. And, despite being frequently tired, women are not heading to bed earlier. In the hour prior to going to bed, instead of retiring early, 87% say they watch television, 60% complete the remainder of their household chores, 37% do activities with children, 36% do activities with other family, 36% are on the Internet and 21% do work related to their job at least a few nights a week.

Andy Rooney once said, "Go to bed. Whatever you're staying up late for isn't worth it." The longer I live, the more I see the wisdom and truthfulness in that statement -- especially when it comes to watching television. On the flip side, I understand how difficult it can be to get some things done while the kids are still up. For many moms, the children's bedtime is their start-time to get certain jobs done that are difficult to do when the kids are awake. And for the 9 out of 10 moms that watch TV despite their tiredness, my guess is that they're looking to have at least a little time to themselves before turning in for the night.

Sleep-stealers such as worry, anxiety, and stress should be given to the Lord through prayer and meditation on the Scriptures. "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusteth in Thee" (Isa. 26:3). "It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows; for so He gives His beloved sleep" (Psalm 127:2).

My wife is a mother of five and one of the most active, conscientious women I know. Like any mom, she struggles with worry and finds it difficult to do all the things she wants to on any given day. I'm sure she doesn't always get the amount of sleep she would like to get. Yet it is a joy for me to see her meditate on God's Word, cry out to the Lord in prayer, and, at the end of the day, to rest in the arms of her husband and drift off to sleep.

I'm particularly glad that she, with fifty other women in our church, can get away this weekend for some much-needed and well-deserved relaxation and refreshment. I'm sure they will all have a great time . . . though I doubt that they'll be getting much sleep!

The Great Divide

This very day, two very significant events are taking place in the United States of America. The Pope is meeting with our President and other dignitaries, and the Together for the Gospel conference is taking place in Louisville, Kentucky. Pope Benedict XVI is a staunch defender of Catholic doctrine. The speakers at the Together for the Gospel conference are gathering with 5,000 other attendees for the sake of defending the one true gospel as defined by Scripture, not the Catholic hierarchy.

Interestingly, one of the speakers at the Together for the Gospel conference, Dr. Albert Mohler (President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) was asked by The Washington Post and Newsweek to write an article "On Faith" which would represent an "evangelical voice" concerning this papal visit. Dr. Mohler has posted a copy of the article at his website: http://www.albertmohler.com/blog.php.

While I would encourage you to read the whole article, there are a few particular comments that I wanted to bring to your attention. Concerning the the difference between Catholic and Protestant beliefs, Mohler writes:

If he [the Pope] is right, we [Protestant evangelicals] are endangering our souls and the souls of our church members. Yet, I am convinced that he is not right -- not right on the papacy, not right on the sacraments, not right on the priesthood, not right on the Gospel, not right in understanding the church.

The Roman Catholic Church believes that evangelicals are in spiritual danger for obstinately and disobediently excluding ourselves from submission to its universal claims and its papacy. Evangelicals are concerned that Catholics are in spiritual danger for their submission to these very claims. We both understand what is at stake.

The divide between evangelical Christians and the Roman Catholic Church remains – as this Pope well understands. And, in so many ways, this is a Pope we can understand. In this strange world, that is no small achievement.

The lines are clearly drawn, and it's a matter of life and death, heaven and hell, salvation and damnation. The Pope understands this. So does Al Mohler and the other Together for the Gospel participants.

Do you? What's your take on this?

Marks of Revival

Those of us who attended last Sunday morning's worship service at First Baptist Church in Weymouth witnessed what seemed to be a work of the Holy Spirit in our midst. Frankly, it was one of the most amazing things I've seen -- not only in my nine years at First Baptist but also for the thirty-nine years that I've been alive!

The sermon was on 2 Corinthians 7:11, "The Marks of Repentance." It was about 40 minutes in length. The sermon was followed by an invitation that was twice that long. None of it was manufactured or manipulated. It was simply the impelling power of the Holy Spirit. Person after person got up to make public, verbal confession of various sins. By the time the service was over, thirty to forty people were down front, and only a few left before the hour-and-a-half invitation ended.

This spiritual awakening has been a long time in coming. All the glory goes to God, for revival comes from Him and Him alone. Yet God brings revival in response to the fervent, effective prayers of godly believers (James 5:16). What a great incentive for godly living and incessant praying!

Even after Sunday's service, God continued to work. More confessions were made privately and publicly throughout the week. On Wednesday evening at our midweek Bible study, multiple testimonies were shared. God is at work, and we pray that last Sunday's movement was not a singular event but the beginning of a great spiritual awakening in this church and even throughout New England. (The convicting work of the Holy Spirit has been evident in other gospel-preaching churches in our area, especially in recent weeks.)

In light of all that happened, I grabbed an old book from my library entitled New England Revivals (by Bennett Tyler; revised by Richard Owen Roberts). As you can guess, this book documents various revivals that have occurred throughout New England's history. One such revival began in June of 1799, in Lenox, Massachusetts. The account was written by the Reverend Samuel Shepard. Shepard notes being ordained as pastor in April, 1795 (four years before the revival), at which time "the situation of the church called for the earnest prayers of all who had a heart to pray." (I find this interesting since our church came out of an extremely difficult season about four years ago, at which time people were solicited to pray and even fast for me their pastor and for the spiritual health of the church in general.)

Rev. Shepard noted that while "showers of divine grace were falling on other" churches, his own church seemed to be the recipient of the Lord Jesus' warning in Revelation 2:5: "Remember, therefore, from whence thou art fallen, and repent, or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place." But then Shepard quickly noted where the Lord said elsewhere, "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy" (Rom. 9:15), after which the pastor exclaimed, "Glory be to His name. With Him is the residue of the Spirit, and He can pour it out, when, and where and on whom He pleaseth. He hath made it, therefore, a day of His power, and caused even in the midst of us, a shaking among the dry bones."

The revival in June, 1799, was actually precipitated by a season of heightened corporate prayer two months earlier, in April. A great number of church members became increasingly burdened about the church's spiritual state and began to pray for the Spirit's outpouring.

Their prayers were heard. After conversing on passages that focused on the being and perfections of God, several people were brought under "deep conviction.... They seemed now to consider the holy Bible to be the very voice of God to a guilty world...." The Lord was doing a great work.

Interestingly, Shepard also noted: "In a time of ingathering like this, however, it is to be expected that some chaff will remain with the wheat." That is to say, some who made a profession of faith did not persevere in the faith but "afterwards returned to their former stupidity." He also observed, "The condition of those who remained uniformly careless and inattentive while the goings of God were so visible among us, appears to be still more dangerous and deplorable."

Still there were several, undeniable indicators of the Holy Spirit's empowering presence. Reverend Shepard recorded these in the form of seven summary statements:

1. This revival was evidently the work of God. To prove this, the very sudden change in appearance and pursuits of the people, is instead of a thousand arguments.
2. This revival began in the church; and I believe it will be found to be true, that in almost every instance of religious attention, it makes its first appearance in the church of Christ. When God is about to bestow spiritual blessings upon a people, it is his usual method, first to awake his professed friends out of sleep.
3. Such a revival of religion most strikingly evinces the importance of all the means of grace, which God has instituted. When once the attention of a people is called up to the concerns of the soul, how precious, in their view, are seasons for prayer.... How instantly do they fly to the Bible -- how highly do they prize every opportunity to get religious instruction. and to associate with the people of God for serious conversation.... Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.
4. The work [of God] ... has been attended with remarkable regularity. God was emphatically in the still small voice. Nothing was said, in particular, about dreams and visions -- hearing unusual voices, and seeing uncommon sights. No extravagance in either gestures or outcries, appeared. No wild enthusiasm [emotionalism] attended the revival in any stage of it.
5. ... A remarkable uniformity has occurred relatively to the doctrines which have been embraced. These are such as are usually termed Calvinistic. Such truths as the total and awful depravity of the human heart -- the necessity of regeneration; or a change of heart as a preparation for the enjoyment of a holy heaven -- the equity of the divine law in its penalty, as well as precept -- the divine sovereignty in the salvation of sinners, as the only possible ground of hope in the case of the guilty offender -- the necessity of gospel morality, as an evidence of justifying faith -- and all the doctrines essentially connected with these, were readily received by all with one consent.
6. It is worthy of notice that the revival of religion in this town, has proved to be almost a death-wound to the vain amusements of the school among us in the time of the late special attention, was rendered nearly abortive; and the youth in general are still remarkable for their sobriety.
7. One distinguishing feature of this work as it appeared among us, and elsewhere, according to the narrations which have been published, was humility. The subjects of the revival, who have obtained a Christian hope, have very uniformly appeared to be humble, and to walk softly before their Maker. In view of the divine perfections and requirements, they have, at times, expressed great self-abhorrence. This has been one striking effect of the genuine operation of the divine Spirit on the hearts of sinners in every age.

Shepard then concludes his account of God's work among his own congregation with these words, which serve as a fitting prayer for our church and our world today:

May a holy God, in infinite mercy, continue to make manifest the glory of his power, and the glory of his grace, in building up Zion; for in no other way can we rationally hope to see happy individuals -- happy families -- happy neighborhoods -- happy societies -- happy towns -- happy states -- happy kingdoms -- and a happy world.

The Oprahnization of Christianity

This morning we had the privilege of hosting the monthly CB Cluster meeting for pastors who serve Conservative Baptist churches (hence the 'CB') in southeastern Massachusetts. We had about a dozen pastors in attendance along with a special guest: Manny Mill of Koinonia House National Ministries. This organization, which is thoroughly evangelical, is committed to "equipping the church to love our Christian neighbors coming out of prison."



Manny preached a passionate message to us pastors from Luke 10 on the story of the Good Samaritan. My heart was stirred greatly as Manny drove home the message of God's love for helpless and hurting sinners. Midway through the message, Manny quoted something that Chuck Colson wrote in his book, The Body. I'm not sure if this is verbatim, but the quote was essentially this: "Our churches in America have become a place of therapy rather than deliverance" -- i.e., place that offers self-help instead of salvation.



How has the Church of Jesus Christ developed such a mentality? Well, first, it should be said that some organizations that call themselves churches may not be true churches. They are certainly not Christ's church, for they are not hearing His voice and following Him (John 10:27). They profess to know Jesus, but on Judgment Day, Jesus will say to them "I never knew you" (Matt. 7:21-23).



On the other hand, there are churches that preach the gospel and point to Jesus Christ alone as Lord and Savior. But when it comes to the practical end of Christian living, they strip the gospel of its sufficiency. Certainly that is not their intention, but that is what they do. Or maybe I should say that is what WE do, when we mix worldly wisdom with heavenly wisdom.



This happens in large measure because of the 'GIGO' principle: Garbage in, garbage out. Christians are inundating their minds with T.V. trash. For instance, I'm amazed at how many believers are hooked on Oprah. What is she on for -- an hour a day every weekday? Imagine spending an hour a day in the Word and prayer simply to counteract the ill-effects of Oprah! Here's a video link that gives you a glimpse regarding Oprah's version of "Christianity":



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JW4LLwkgmqA



This brings to mind the following lyrics that the Christian contemporary band Casting Crowns includes in one of its songs:



What if the family turned to Jesus,

stopped asking Oprah what to do!

What if His people prayed?. . .



If we are going to offer the hurting the help they truly need, then we need to have minds and hearts that are shaped by God's truth and not dictated by television. I reject the notion that one can be a Spirit-filled Christian who spends five minutes in the Word and prayer and up to five hours in front of the TV per day.



My point is not to preach but to get down to the brass tacks of Christian living, growth and maturity. By and large, what we feed others is nothing more than a processed version of what we feed ourselves.



Do you agree or disagree? I look forward to reading your comments.

Does the name Sam Walter Foss mean anything to you? This gentleman was born in New Hampshire in 1858, graduated from Brown University in 1882, and served as librarian of the Somerville Public Library here in Massachusetts for 13 years. (A bronze tablet dedicated to him was placed in the library in 1916.)

In addition to being a librarian, Foss was also a great poet. Though today he is not as famous as other poets, in his lifetime Foss was referred to as the "Poet of the People" and "Master of the Yankee Dialect." One of his most famous poems is entitled The Calf Path:

One day through the primeval wood
A calf walked home as good calves should;
But made a trail all bent askew,
A crooked trail as all calves do.
Since then three hundred years have fled,
And I infer the calf is dead.
But still he left behind his trail,
And thereby hangs my moral tale.
The trail was taken up next day
By a lone dog that passed that way;
And then a wise bell–wether sheep
Pursued the trail o’er vale and steep,
And drew the flock behind him, too,
As good bell–wethers always do.
And from that day, o’er hill and glade,
Through those old woods a path was made.
And many men wound in and out,
And dodged and turned and bent about,
And uttered words of righteous wrath
Because ‘twas such a crooked path;
But still they followed – do not laugh -
The first migrations of that calf,
And through this winding wood-way stalked
Because he wobbled when he walked.
This forest path became a lane
That bent and turned and turned again;
This crooked lane became a road,
Where many a poor horse with his load
Toiled on beneath the burning sun,
And thus a century and a half
They trod the footsteps of that calf.
The years passed on in swiftness fleet,
The road became a village street;
And this, before men were aware,
A city’s crowded thoroughfare.
And soon the central street was this
Of a renowned metropolis;
And men two centuries and a half
Trod in the footsteps of that calf.
Each day a hundred thousand rout
Followed this zigzag calf about
And o’er his crooked journey went
The traffic of a continent.
A hundred thousand men were led
By one calf near three centuries dead.
They followed still his crooked way.
And lost one hundred years a day,
For thus such reverence is lent
To well-established precedent.
A moral lesson this might teach
Were I ordained and called to preach;
For men are prone to go it blind
Along the calf-paths of the mind,
And work away from sun to sun
To do what other men have done.
They follow in the beaten track,
And out and in, and forth and back,
And still their devious course pursue,
To keep the path that others do.
They keep the path a sacred groove,
Along which all their lives they move;
But how the wise old wood-gods laugh,
Who saw the first primeval calf.
Ah, many things this tale might teach —
But I am not ordained to preach.

Thankfully, this weekend for our Missions Conference we do have one who is ordained to preach -- Dr. Rodney Woo from Wilcrest Baptist Church in Houston, Texas. Dr. Woo has a passion for reaching people with the gospel of Christ, beginning in our own "Jerusalem." God used Dr. Woo to transform the body life of his own congregation by dismantling their racism and traditionalism with the Word of God.

To my knowledge, Sam Walter Foss was not a Christian, but he made a very good point in his poem: People tend to follow the path that others have walked without considering WHY. But if we were to establish our direction in light of our purpose, then we could blaze new trails for others to follow.

By God's grace, this is what Dr. Woo has done at Wilcrest Baptist Church over the last fifteen years by developing a multi-racial congregation. God is using this shepherd and his flock to grow a church of all nations to all nations. It all began with a passion to reach their community with the gospel of Jesus Christ. What God did at Wilcrest, He can do at Weymouth.

Let's trust God for a great conference!

A Seventh-Grade Skit and the Preservation of Scripture

Today in our Christian School's weekly chapel program, the seventh grade class put on a skit that dramatized the book of Acts. The students did a great job of weaving together the trials and triumphs of the early church. Their performance was commendable -- especially in light of what happened the day before.

Yesterday afternoon Miss Davis, the seventh grade teacher, came into my office and asked me (a bit nervously, I might add) if I had taken the scripts for their play out of the sanctuary. I told her I had not even been over to the sanctuary and asked her if perhaps the cleaning crew had been over there and thrown them away by accident. As it turns out, they did. Thankfully, the play went off without a hitch. The students rose to the challenge and put on a terrific performance.

But all this got me to thinking. It's amazing how easily and inadvertently those scripts got lost. Yet THE script of Acts -- Scripture itself -- has been preserved for two millennia and more. Just one small slip-up, one small oversight, one inadvertent throwing away of a manuscript, and we would not have the inerrant, infallible Word of God that we do today.

Now, in addition to this, think of all the enemies of God who have purposely tried to eradicate the Holy Scriptures, to banish the Bible on purpose. They have failed! Go back 2500 years ago to the days of Jeremiah, and you'll read of the time when Jehoiakim tried to destroy the Word of God by burning the scroll which Baruch had written at the instruction of Jeremiah. Yet "the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, saying, 'Take yet another scroll, and write on it all the former words that were in the first scroll which Jehoiakim the king of Judah has burned" (Jer. 36:27-28). This faithless king thought he could destroy God's Word. But he failed.

Jump forward five hundred years to the time of the early church -- specifically Acts 12 (which was acted out very well by our students). The chapter opens with James dead, Peter in prison, and Herod triumphant. The chapter ends with Herod dead, Peter freed, and the Word of God triumphant!

Move ahead another two and a half centuries to the time when Diocletian, the emperor of Rome, uttered threats and curses to the followers of Christ. Several copies of Scripture were burned. Many Christians suffered agonizing deaths. Yet all his Satanic zeal did nothing to thwart God's Word. He is long dead, whereas the Bible is very much alive. Scripture still stands.

Henry V of England considered Bible reading to be a crime and passed a law saying, "Whosoever is found reading the Scripture shall forfeit his life and land." Yet "all of his decrees could not shorten its life one minute or lighten its weight by one ounce" (George Sweeting, Is the Bible the Word of God?). The monarch is dead. The majestic Scripture still stands.

Voltaire said arrogantly, "Another century and there will not be a Bible on earth." Voltaire is no longer on earth, and the Bible has been the best selling book on earth year after year after year.

How do we account for the indestructibility of the Bible? Simply by seeing it for what it is: a supernatural book -- the very Word of God.

The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever. -- Isaiah 40:9

Resources for Ministry

This afternoon I was presented with our church financial reports for this month. Earlier I came across our Ladies Retreat planning team crunching the numbers for their upcoming weekend. Earlier this week I also touched base with our Assistant Pastor, Nick Jones, on raising funds for the summer camp trip several of our students and leaders hope to go on this July.

All this got me to thinking about the challenge we constantly face as a church to fund the work of the ministry. Weekend retreats, summer camps, supporting missionaries, ordering gospel tracts, updating office equipment, paying staff, providing discipleship and counseling materials are all part of church life and ministry. Yet finding enough money for ministry is tough.

Let me share with you a few bottom-line figures. Our General Fund annual budget is $348,000. Our Missions Fund annual budget is $150,000. This gives us a total budget of $498,000.

However, our actual giving thus far for 2008 results in a weekly deficit of $1,000/week for the General Fund and $500/week for the Missions Fund, which means that if this trend continues, our annual giving would total $420,000. This is about $78,000 short of our total budget. Make sense so far?

Now, I did a little calculating based on our church demographics. We get alot of people from all over: Weymouth, Braintree, Quincy, Hanover, Holbrook, Hingham, Abington, Milton, Rockland, Randolph, plus some other towns further out (Bridgewater, Hull, Mansfield, etc.). Probably about half our congregation comes from the Weymouth/Braintree area, and the other half come from the other towns on the South Shore.

With this in mind, I calculated the median income for Weymouth and Braintree, averaging the two together and letting that represent half the congregation. Then I combined the median income for pretty much all the other towns represented in our directory and averaged it out, letting that represent the other half of the congregation. (The two averages were very close, as it worked out.) As it works out based on the above formula, the average annual household income for our congregaton would be $60,000.

Now, get this: If everyone who has a church envelope tithed according to their income, our church's giving receipts would total $840,000 per year! Throw in the loose cash (non-envelope offerings), and we'd be taking in about $875,000 per year!

Think of what could be accomplished with that much money, simply based on our present challenges and objectives:

• Getting the Columbine family to Senegal
• Increasing support for our present missionaries and bringing on new missionaries
• Bringing on a full-time Associate Pastor of Adult Ministries
• Finishing the roofing projects and other critical repairs
• Building a new Welcome Center between the sanctuary and school building

Do you realize that all the funding for the above items could be raised in two years if we simply gave a tithe to the Lord through the local church! It reminds me of the one pastor who said to his congregation: "I have good news and bad news. The good news is that we have plenty of money to meet all our ministry objectives and even to pay off our church mortgage!" The people started cheering. The preacher continued, "The bad news is, the money is still in your pockets!"

Without looking at any individual names or envelopes, I got the following statistics from 2007. Out of 140 envelopes, 117 gave less than $6,000/year (tithe based on median income for our area). That's 84% of our envelope-givers! Furthermore, 30% (42 out of 140 envelopes) gave less than a thousand dollars for the entire year.

In one sense, these are certainly discouraging statistics. On the other hand, they can be quite encouraging. How? By considering the tremendous strides that could be made in ministry -- world missions! capital improvements! staff additions! discipleship resources! -- if we simply tithed our income, trusting the Lord to provide for our needs.

My purpose is not to get into a debate of the Old Testament tithe versus New Testament giving. I'm simply using 10% as a rule of thumb, remembering that grace always takes us to a higher level than the law. Consider the possibilities! Step out in faith!

Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. --Luke 6:38

Honor the Lord with your possessions, and with the firstfruits of all your increase; So your barns till be filled with plenty, and your vats will overflow with new wine. -- Proverbs 3:6

"Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it. -- Malachi 3:10

Those Tenacious Senior Saints!

A funny thing happened on my way to Santa Fe. . .

Well, actually, I didn’t go to Santa Fe, but it seemed like a good way to start off this story, which was reported in the papers on Monday. The actual incident happened last Wednesday in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Here’s what happened:

Bernie Garcia, an 83-year-old great-grandmother, was gassing up her car when she was approached by a young man who seemed to be a nice guy in need of some money. When she kindly informed him that she’d just spent all her spare change on gas and had none to give him, he grabbed her purse.

But Bernie held on! She had it wrapped around her wrist twice, and the would-be robber couldn’t pull it away. He sure did try, though. But Bernie fought back! She sprayed his shirt with some gasoline from the nozzle that she still held in his hand. But he was bound to get the purse and wouldn’t let go. But neither would Bernie. The struggle got so intense that the man pulled Bernie to the ground and actually dragged her a short distance until another man confronted him, demanding that he let her go.

His robbery attempt completely foiled, the man jumped into a nearby vehicle and fled.

A witness tog the license plate number, and just three minutes later, police spotted the car – which had been reported stolen – on the highway.

Bernie Garcia and an eyewitness identified one of the men inside as her attacker. He and two other guys in the car were charged with robbery and conspiracy.

Bernie felt fine after the attack and declined medical attention. (Later on, when she got home, she did feel a bit faint, went to bed, and woke up the next morning rather sore. Her son, a former firefighter, checked her out, and everything seemed okay, thankfully.)

At some point, Bernie’s son asked her, "Why didn’t you just give [the purse] up?" Bernie said, "[Mild expletive] no, that was my purse. I was fighting for what was mine."

Way to go, Bernie!

After I read this story (and enjoyed a good laugh), I thought of our own "tenacious senior saints" here at First Baptist. I thank God for them and am so grateful for what they don’t hold on to, and for what they do hold on to.

Our senior saints don’t hold on to a certain musical style, insisting that the times conform to their preferences. For the most part, they love the old hymns (as do I), but they are also willing to learn and sing new songs that we introduce to the congregation, so long as they express biblical truth. Our seniors try really hard to emphasize substance over style, and I appreciate that.

Also, our seniors recently had to move their Sunday morning Bible School class to another room, due to some necessary shifting that had to take place in order to provide more efficient storage and office space. Instead of complaining or insisting on their own preferences being met, they simply went with the flow and continued to enjoy their time of fellowship in the Word.

Yes, our senior saints are a blessed bunch of pretty flexible folks. But there is one thing that they hold on to tenaciously. There is no bargaining, no compromise, no give whatsoever – and you’d better not try to take it away from them! Can you guess what it is?

It’s not their purse, pocketbook or billfold. Rather, it is the treasure of God’s truth. Paul’s exhortation to Timothy is directed by God’s Spirit to every believer: "Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me, in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. That good thing which was committed to you, keep by the Holy Spirit who dwells in us" (2 Tim. 1:13-14).

How glad I am for our faithful, older members who cling so tenaciously to sound doctrine, as taught in Holy Scripture ... who continue to gather faithfully each week to study and celebrate God’s truth ... who continue strong in the faith to the glory of God. Thank you for being such an example of faithfulness to the rest of us week in and week out. May your tribe increase!

My Dream ... and Reality

Last night I had a dream. It was a really good dream. Usually my dreams or nightmares occur in the "moderate" range. That is, my dreams are rarely ever so great that they don't have at least some negative elements in them, and my nightmares are hardly ever so scary that they can be described as horrifying.

But last night's dream was an exception. I dreamed that I was in my senior year at Washington Bible College, and I had just returned from an away game where I scored 26 points. (I think that in the dream we won the game, but it's interesting that the only thing I really recalled was my outstanding individual performance!) Upon returning to the school, I found my bride-to-be, Ruthie, sitting out in the picnic area (apparently it was early spring) with dozens of other students having dinner. She asked me how I did, after greeting me with a kiss. (Again, this could only happen in a dream, because students were not allowed to kiss on the WBC campus, so we would have never done this ... at least not out in the open!) I was more than happy to tell her. She along with everyone else was rather impressed. At that point I joined her and our friends at the table, and that's right when the dream ended.

Then I woke up. It's almost twenty years later. My basketball skills are yesterday's news. I haven't scored 26 points in the last two decades, but I have picked up 26 pounds. My right knee is arthritic and is constantly giving me grief. Two of my children have already beaten me legitimately in one type of basketball game or another.

Now normally I would have been depressed waking up to such hard, cold reality. But honestly I wasn't. Because whatever I've lost in the last 20 years or so has been far outweighed by what I've gained: a beautiful, godly wife ... five precious children ... seventeen years of full-time pastoral ministry ... the formation of many friendships ... and, by God's grace, a closer walk with Christ.

I couldn't help but think of what Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4:16: "So we do not lose heart. Though our outward nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day." Amen! This body is slowly wasting away, but one day it will be better than it's ever been. And it's all because that when God saves a person, He doesn't do a half-way job. He redeems both the outside and the inside so that one day, faster than the wink of an eye, "this mortal body [will] put on immortality" (1 Cor. 15:54), and all the thanks goes to God, "who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Cor. 15:57).

I'm looking forward to that Day. In the meantime, I'll work hard at taking care of both my soul and my body, getting both the spiritual and physical exercise I need to serve the Lord at an optimal level.

And, of course, I'll take those dreams as often as they come.

Hoops, anyone?

The Faithful Few

One of the most discouraging things for pastors, Bible School teachers, and other ministry leaders is to see hordes of church members jump into a class or ministry with both feet, only to tip-toe their way out over time. Commitment is lacking among Christians, and the church is feeling its effects. Virtually everyone has heard the proverbial stat that "twenty percent of the people do eighty percent of the work."

In trying to analyze this pervasive problem biblically, I've come to a few conclusions.

1. Lack of commitment may indicate a lack of salvation. That is to say, many who claim to love and follow the Lord Jesus Christ aren't genuinely saved. They stick around awhile to see how things benefit them, but they soon disappear once they hear a hard-hitting truth or a call to commitment. This was true of the crowds of Jesus' day, for He Himself told them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled" (John 6:26). These people were following Jesus because they were more interested in how He could fulfill their physical appetites and pleasures rather than the deepest needs of their souls. And so, "from that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more" (John 6:66).

This pattern of defection continued in the early church. The apostle John wrote, "They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out, that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us" (1 John 2:19). For some, a lack of commitment may indicate a lack of conversion.

2. Lack of commitment may indicate a lack of faith. Not saving faith, but serving faith. David confessed plainly, "I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living" (Psalm 27:13). The apostle Paul exhorted the Galatian believers, "Let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart" (Gal. 6:6). What keeps us going when the road of commitment gets long and hard is the belief that what we're doing will pay off at some point. But once we start thinking that what we're doing won't make a difference, we get down and give up.

3. Lack of commitment may indicate a lack of love. Scripture commands us to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength (Deut. 6:5; Matt. 22:37). The apostle Paul wrote, "For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again" (2 Cor. 5:14-15). Why did Christ die and rise again? So that His people might live for Him and not themselves. Yet many professing Christians are living for themselves instead of Christ. That's not to say that they have completely abandoned Christ. No, not at all. They still come to church, try to have their quiet time, and throw a few bucks into the offering plate when it is passed. They have just enough commitment to ease their conscience. They give God a slim piece of the pie and keep the rest for themselves. They have a divided heart. Their compartmentalized Christianity does not allow for all-out commitment.

David, a man after God's own heart, found the need to pray: "Unite my heart to fear Your name" (Psalm 86:11). This prayer could be translated, "Give me singleness of heart." Only as our hearts are fully devoted to the Lord will we be fully committed to doing what pleases Him. Indeed, this is essentially what David goes on to say in the very next verse, in anticipation of God's answering his prayer: "I will praise You, O Lord my God, with all my heart, and I will glorify Your name forevermore" (Ps. 86:12).

4. Lack of commitment may indicate a seeming lack of resources. Surely there are some who truly want to serve the Lord faithfully, but they seem to lack the resources to do so. They are short on time, energy, money, and the like. While this may appear to be the case, we must remember that God will supply our every need, according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus (Phil. 4:19). God delights to show Himself strong through our weaknesses, rich through our poverty, and sovereign over our schedules! In fact, this fourth point really goes back to the second point: faith. Do we trust God to provide where He guides? Do we believe that He will give us the necessary resources to do what He calls and commands us to do?

If any church had an excuse to bail out on Christian service and commitment, it was the churches of Macedonia. They were dirt poor. They didn't have enough resources to meet their own needs, let alone the needs of others! Yet in Scripture we read "that in a great trial of aflliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded in the riches of their liberality. For I (Paul) bear witness that according to their ability, yes, and beyond their ability, they were freely willing, imploring us with much urgency that we would receive the gift and the fellowship of ministering to the saints. And not only as we had hoped, but they gave first gave themselves to the Lord, and then to us by the will of God" (2 Cor. 8:2-5).

Ah, there's the key! This takes us back to the third point: love for God. Notice that the Macedonian believers first gave themselves to God -- then as a result they gave themselves in service to others, God giving them the resources to give beyond their natural ability! The Christian life is one of "faith working through love" (Gal. 5:6). One commentator sums up nicely the meaning of this expression: "The person who lives by faith is internally motivated by love for God and Christ (cf. Matt. 22:37-40), which supernaturally issues forth in reverent worship, genuine obedience, and self-sacrificing love for others."

Proverbs 20:6 says, "Most men will proclaim each his own goodness, but who can find a faithful man?" It's easy to find people who profess to be loyal, but it's another thing to find those who are actually faithful. As William MacDonald put it, "There is a difference between what men are, and what they want others to think they are."

What about you? How is your commitment to Christ and His kingdom? Are you truly serving Christ or simply "playing church"? Does God have all your heart or a mere fraction of it? Do you pay lip service in the church without fulfilling your commitments to the church?
"Moreover, it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful" (1 Cor. 4:2). If you find yourself discouraged, lacking in spirit in your service to the Lord, why not pray what David did in Psalm 51:10 - "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me." Remember, "those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint" (Isa. 40:31).

Mean Moms

Given our more intense discussion on parenting these last few days, I thought I’d leave you with something a little more light-hearted. This tongue-in-cheek tribute to mothers is not only humorous but also timely for our day. I don’t know the original source, but I have seen it posted in many places. Even if you’ve read it before, it’s worth reading again:

Was your Mom mean? I know mine was. We had the meanest mother in the whole world!

While other kids ate candy for breakfast, we had to have cereal, or eggs, or toast. When others had Pepsi and Twinkies for lunch, we had to eat sandwiches. And you can guess our mother fixed us a dinner that was different from what other kids had, too.

Mother insisted on knowing where we were at all times. You’d think we were convicts in a prison. She had to know who our friends were and what we were doing with them. She insisted that if we said we would be gone for an hour, we would be gone for an hour or less.

She always insisted on telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. By the time we were teenagers, she could read our minds.

Because of our mother we missed out on lots of things other kids experienced. None of us have ever been caught shoplifting, vandalizing others’ property or ever arrested for any crime. It was all her fault.

Now that we have left home, we are all God-fearing, educated, honest adults. We are doing our best to be mean parents just like Mom was.

I think that is what’s wrong with the world today. It just doesn’t have enough mean moms anymore.

God bless “mean old moms” ... who are, in reality, the best moms in the whole world. Chuck Swindoll was right when he said of such moms: “Their words are never fully forgotten, their touch leaves an indelible impression, and the memory of their presence lasts a lifetime.” Yes, indeed. “Give her of the fruit of her hands; and let her own works praise her in the gates” (Prov. 31:31).

"Boys Will Be Boys": Some Final Thoughts

As you can see, there were no shortage of comments regarding Al Mohler’s blog on ADHD. Thanks to all those who contributed to the discussion! Now I would like to ADD a few comments of my own (pun intended).



According to the Diagnostic Criteria from DSM-IV (the manual listing and describing psychiatric disorders recognized by the American Psychiatric Association), ADD (Attention Deficit Discorder) is characterized by inattention and impulsivity. ADHD includes a third characteristic: hyperactivity (hence the addition of the ‘h’ in the abbreviation).



I checked out a detailed list of symptoms for each of these three areas (inattention, impulsivity, and hyperactivity) by going directly to the DSM-IV criteria for Attention-Deficity/Hyperactivity Disorder. What struck me about these symptoms is that they can characterize almost any child (especially boys) – and some adults – on just about any given day, at varying degrees and levels. Thus it is difficult to ascertain as to whether one is dealing with a disorder or a discipline issue.



When you think about it, ADD/ADHD is basically a description of behavior, not an explanation. It answers the question what is happening but not why. Virtually every symptom could be indicative of a spiritual problem as opposed to a medical problem. That is not to say it is a spiritual problem, but that it could be. Christian counselor Ed Welch offers a couple of helpful illustrations in this regard – ones that show discernment and sensitivity in dealing with such children:



Say, for example, that your child is hitting another child because the other child is playing with his toy. This is clearly a spiritual problem. Even though your child may also struggle with inattention and hyper-activity impulsivity, these cannot be excuses for such behavior. Physical problems do not force a child to sin. Of course, it is not always easy to determine the relative contribution of the spiritual and the physical. That is why we must be careful students of those who fit the ADD description. But the basic principle is that we just take Scripture for what it says. If we find that either our behavior or that of our children violates what God says in Scripture, then "the treatment" is to grow in faith and obedience, knowing that the Holy Spirit can give the grace to change.



One word of caution, though. Sometimes children disobey parental commands and there might not be a spiritual problem. Scripture clearly instructs children to obey their parents, so disobeying them would seem like an obvious infraction of God’s law – a spiritual problem. But it is possible that the child did not understand or remember the parental request. Inadequate understanding or forgetting is not sinful in itself. Parents need to be sure that they have not given their child a command that is indecipherable to him as a calculus assignment. Keep your mind on the child and not just on the chore.



What if a child is told to clean her room and doesn’t? Before deciding that this is a spiritual problem, a wise parent must be certain that the child understands what is expected and has adequate help avoiding distractions. What if a child is disruptive at the dinner table? It may be that the child is naturally more active but is also unwilling to listen to parental instruction. In these cases and hundreds of others, parents must know how to address both a sinful heart and an energetic constitution.



One of my own children has learning disabilities. He has very under-developed processing skills. This has been verified through a battery of tests and rigorous analysis by cognitive therapists and other specialists. What led us as parents to have our son undergo such tests? We saw that in school, he just wasn’t "getting it." He had to repeat kindergarten and never did make it into the first grade at First Baptist Christian School, where he was attending. Since graduating from kindergarten, this particular child of ours has been on his own Individual Educational Progam (IEP), as determined by us his parents working with this team of specialists and his teachers.

Our son has a legitimate disability. At the same time, his learning disability makes him susceptible to laziness in his schoolwork. Because he’s not naturally good at it, he often does not want to work at it. This is a spiritual problem whereas his disability is not. Therefore, we as his parents need to discern between his disability and his disobedience or lack of discipline.



Years ago, I remember reading Chuck Swindoll’s book on parenting, You and Your Child. In a chapter entitled, "Those Extra-Special Children," Swindoll affirms that while all children are special and unique in their own personality and make-up (Psalm 139), some children are "extra" special due to "unusual circumstances during the prenatal period or at birth.... These very special gifts from God’s heart to our home require from their parents an extraordinary amount of time, love, understanding, and attention. But the rewards are immeasurable." Swindoll goes on to talk about the adopted child, the handicapped child, the gifted child, the single-parent child, and, yes, the hyper-active child. In talking about all these various situations, Swindoll brings his readers back to "our scriptural home base, Prov. 22:6: 'Train up a child in the way he should go,

Even when he is old, he will not depart from it.'"



Swindoll offers a helpful paraphrase of that verse: "Adapt the training of your child so that is in keeping with his God-given characteristics and tendencies; when he comes to maturity, he will not depart from the training he has received." Much farther into the book, when Swindoll addresses those "special" cases listed above, he says the following regarding hyper-active children:



...Our training methods are to be in keeping with our child’s ‘way’ – his bent, characteristics, and needs.... This is never more important than in the case of a hyperactive child. You, his parent, must remain confident you can handle your child. Your consistent and firm leadership is the key to your child’s training. Don’t relinquish it under any circumstances.... The setting of firm, fair rules is absolutely essential. Follow through. Hyperactive children will need a more structured environment than other children.



Swindoll says many other helpful things, but time and space forbid me from going into them. I would encourage you to order his book for further reading. It’s thirty years old, but still relevant.



Well, two articles and a dozen comments won’t do much to solve the dilemma of ADD/ADHD. That’s not the purpose of this blog. My goal is to get our readership to consider real, everyday issues in light of God’s Word, wrestling with any tensions it may raise with what we do, how we do it, and why. Certainly this includes our mindset and methods in parenting. In closing, let me give you these words of wisdom from Alistair Begg:



In counseling, ... we must recognize the point at which we have to say, "You need specialized help of another sort, not just spiritual help." We may do great damage if we fail to do this, because we may imply the person’s problem is wholly spiritual, when it may be far from that. One way of testing whether or not a person’s problem is spiritual is to apply the spiritual remedy. If that does not suffice, then we must consider the possibility of some other area, besides the spiritual, needing investigation.



These are wise words, in my opinion. In dealing with our problems, or those of our children, we must never minimize, undermine, or rationalize away the biblical, spiritual principles involved. These must be addressed first. Having done that, we have the liberty to pursue other options within the bounds of God’s Word. As we continue to wrestle with issues such as these, may we remember the following exhortations from Romans 14:



Let each be fully convinced in his own mind. . . .

Let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.



Have a good weekend!

Boys Will Be Boys?

In light of the fact that this has been a busy week at First Baptist, thus hindering me from writing a full-fledged blog of my own ... and in light of the fact that my last posting was so "soothing" in nature and elicited no responses ... I thought I would generate a discussion (start off a firestorm?) by linking you to the most recent posting of prolific blogger Al Mohler, who also happens to be the President of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky.

Mohler is sure to generate some heat over his thoughts on ADHD. What are your thoughts? Read Al's article, then return here to TruthWalk, and leave a comment!

Wait

On Wednesday night, we witnessed a total lunar eclipse. This phenomenon occurs when the moon passes completely through the earth's shadow. This is called the umbral shadow. Within the umbra (shadow), the source of light is completely blocked by the object causing the shadow. This accounts for the dimming of the moon.

Herein is a great illustration of the Christian life. Many times we find ourselves in the shadow of our circumstances. Our problems loom so large, that we can’t see the light of our Savior’s love. Depending on the size of the problem, there might be a "total" eclipse or a "partial" eclipse, just like the kind we see in the sky. We can be just a little discouraged, or we can be totally depressed. The range is vast, and the problems are real.

When you find yourself in such a shadow, take encouragement from the Scriptures. The psalmist prayed, "My soul clings to the dust; revive me according to Your word.... My soul melts from heaviness; strengthen me according to Your word." (Psalm 119:25, 28)

When David found himself in difficult circumstances, he reminded himself, "The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?" (Psalm 27:1)

There are times when we feel that God is not there. We don’t sense the light of His presence. But that doesn’t mean He isn’t there. He is there! "For He has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you’" (Heb. 13:5). The challenge for us is to trust God’s word over our feelings. In fact, the psalmist went so far as to say, "It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn Your statutes" (Psalm 119:71, emphasis mine). Some of life’s best lessons can be learned in the most trying seasons, if we will but turn to God in prayer, clinging to His promises.

Also remember that God’s word abides forever, but our trials don’t and won’t. The total phase of Wednesday’s eclipse (the time that the moon was completely immersed within the Earth’s dark shadow) was under fifty minutes. This is significantly less than the last total lunar eclipse (Aug. 28, 2007), which lasted ninety minutes. Likewise, some trials we experience are comparatively longer or shorter than others. But the point is that regardless of their length, they are all temporary and will eventually pass.

The key for us is to wait. Isn’t that precisely what David told himself to do in his dark moments? He began Psalm 27 by saying, "The LORD is my light," and he ended the psalm by saying, "Wait on the LORD; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the LORD!"

Wise counsel! With that in mind, I leave you with this beautiful song entitled Wait that my cousin Ted Fletcher composed a few years ago and just recently posted on YouTube. (In the video, Ted is the man kneeling in prayer.) May this song encourage you to wait on the Lord in the midst of your trial – and He will strengthen your heart!

My Call to the Gospel Ministry

While cleaning out some files, I came across a two-page paper I was required to write for a Pastoral Ministry class in seminary. The assigned subject was "My Call to the Gospel Ministry." On the cover page I noticed that it was sixteen years ago this month that I wrote out this assignment which, of course, was very subjective, being based on my personal experience.

At the time I wrote this paper, I was 23-year-old youth pastor who had been in full-time pastoral ministry not even a year. Reading the paper now, I can sense some youthful pride and immaturity in some of my testimony. Nevertheless, I smiled at the zeal and vigor that was evident, too. I was just starting out in my life's work, and I was so excited, I could hardly contain myself.

Sixteen years later, to the praise of God's grace, the fire has not abated. Over the years, God has continued to stoke the coals of my heart through life-changing, life-giving truth of His Word in the context of a ministry that constantly presents new challenges and opportunities for service. Yet what keeps the flame from getting out of control are manifold trials and temptations, as well as an ever-increasing awareness of my own deficiencies and insufficiency, all of which subdue my spirit and force me to come under the control of the Holy Spirit's tempering influence.

With that little "preface" out of the way, here's a copy of the paper I wrote, word-for-word:

There has never really been a doubt in my mind that I have been called to the Gospel ministry.

I was raised by godly parents in a Christian home and was saved at the age of four. Although my parents were not called to full-time ministry, they were godly lay persons who devoted much time, energy, and finances to the ministry of the local church. They would have missionaries and other guest speakers stay in our home at every available opportunity. This gave me a healthy exposure to life in the ministry. I was fascinated by missionaries' stories and loved to ask them about their work. My interest in the Gospel ministry was intensified by my own parents' interest and involvement.

By the time I entered my junior high years, I was already actively involved in various programs of our church (children's choir, Awana, etc.). But I really sensed the Lord's hand on my life the summer following my seventh grade year. I was maintaining a consistent, daily quiet time and memorizing much Scripture from my Word of Life Scripture memory packet. My parents, pastor, and youth leaders strongly encouraged me to enter Word of Life's Preacher Boys competition. I followed their advice and thoroughly enjoyed preparing my "very first sermon" over the next several months. By winning first place in the state and regional competition, I had the privilege of going up to Schroon Lake, New York, for the national competition. I finished fourth place and repeated my performance the following year. I realized that God had given me both a love and a gift for preaching His Word to others.

Throughout my high school years, I continued to participate in several different ministries of our local church as well as the Christian School which I attended. The three ministries that I enjoyed the most were the bus ministry, Vacation Bible School, and the nursing home ministry. These ministries were quite diverse and gave me broad exposure to all different areas of Christian service. The bus ministry allowed me to evangelize inner-city kids and their families, Vacacation Bible School gave me the opportunity to know and teach many children, and the nursing home ministry allowed me to meet some needs that older folks have. As I continued to serve the Lord in various capacities, He opened more doors for ministry, which helped me to further use and cultivate my God-given abilities for His glory.

Upon graduating from high school, I enrolled at Washington Bible College. The four years I spent there afforded me not only the opportunity to absorb enormous amounts of Bible knowledge and doctrine, but also the opportunity to use what I was learning in various ministries (campus evangelism, youth work, directing summer camp, etc.). I received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Washington Bible College with my major being Bible and my minor being Pastoral Ministries.

My whole life has been geared toward the Gospel ministry. No lightning bolt struck me from the sky. No dramatic experience or crisis drove me to the Lord's work. The continuous prompting of God's Holy Spirit in my own heart has given me the intense desire and inescapable obligation to serve my Lord and Savior in the Gospel ministry.

Well, there it is. In closing, let me say that while the Holy Spirit called me into ministry, He used two specific means of influence during my most formative years: (1) my parents' godly teaching and example; (2) my participation in the ministries of the local church. I pray that these two influencing factors would be prevalent in your home, so that regardless of what God calls your children to do in terms of their vocation, they will love the Lord with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength.

And if you're a young person reading this, I pray that you will appreciate your parents' attempts to mold you into a man or woman of God. You may not always agree with them, but I hope that you will appreciate them. I pray, too, that you will not discount or neglect the role of the local church in your spiritual development but will take advantage of present opportunities to learn God's Word and to use the gifts that He has given you to serve others for His glory.

One Hour Last Sunday

Where were you last Sunday evening between 5:30 and 6:30? (Sounds like a question they would ask on Law and Order, huh?) I can tell you where twenty people were. They were gathered for prayer in the sanctuary of First Baptist Church. Here's what happened:

Eric Briscoe, who serves as one of our elders, began the meeting by drawing our attention to the first verse of Psalm 116: "I love the LORD, for he heard my voice; he heard my cry for mercy." If we are believers, there are many times that the Lord has heard our cries for mercy. But the initial cry was calling on Him to save us, much like the tax collector in Luke 18:13, who "standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me a sinner!'"

The next twenty minutes were spent doing nothing but thanking God for saving us. Multiple prayers were offered to God, one right after the other, each one being its own unique testimony of God's saving power. In hearing one another's prayers to God, we were blessed to learn how each one came to faith in Christ. Each story was different. Each account was precious.

Eric then took us back to Scripture, this time to Psalm 66:18: "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the LORD will not hear." We were reminded that sin hinders our prayers. Confession is therefore a big part of the Christian life. In his New Testament epistle, James reminds us that we are healed as we confess our sins and faults to one another and pray for one another (5:16). The congregation was encouraged to confess any known sins, and even to ask God to search their hearts, exposing any blind areas (Psalm 139:23-24). We could pray silently or allowed, however the Spirit of God led us. Many confessions were vocalized, and we realized that in one form or another, we are all guilty of many of the same sins. As we prayed, our confessions of sin were mingled with renewed thankfulness for God's forgiveness and mercy in Christ.

After this portion of our prayer time was ended, Eric asked for the names of five people who are unsaved and therefore in desperate need of God's saving mercy and grace. Immediately five names were shared, most of whom had heard the gospel but had yet to believe. Several fervent prayers were offered on their behalf, confident cries to God for their salvation.

One hour last Sunday, twenty souls joined their hearts together in thanksgiving to God for His awesome salvation ... poured out their hearts together in sincere and contrite confession ... and prayed with great fervor for the salvation of lost loved ones and friends. In the midst of it all, we were reminded just how great and merciful our Father in heaven is to us His children. We left on a spiritual high, more intimate with God and one another than we had been sixty minutes earlier.

All this took place one hour last Sunday, 5:30-6:30 p.m. How did you spend that hour?

The Superbowl, Brady, Belichick ... and Bread

Superbowl Sunday was marked by black Monday – at least here in Boston – as Patriot fans licked their gaping wounds from Sunday’s Super-disappointment. One gentleman sent me the following e-mail on Monday morning, which I have posted with his permission:

Good morning, Pastor Matt.
I have to confess, I am coming off a pretty much sleepless night. It is amazing to me how emotionally involved we can become in matters such as Super Bowl wins and losses. I need to find a way to disassociate myself from sports. I get so emotionally distraught when our "home teams" lose….primarily the big games. Have winning and sports become gods to us? Pastor Matt, I don’t understand how we can get so wrapped up in these things. The winning affects my life in no way at all other than the "good feeling" that accompanies rooting for the home team. The flip side seems so unbalanced.
Anyhow, I just thought I’d send you a note and ask that you somehow put this into perspective for me. No family member died…..no one got hurt….all are healthy and there are no debt collectors beating at the door…..and yet after the game, there was this giant sized hole/pain. Why do we take these matters so seriously? It’s silly really.. Have a great day.

I’m glad this brother wrote what most others are probably feeling but perhaps wouldn’t say. He raises some good questions, like why is it that we get so "emotionally distraught" over a simple game? Why do we take these matters so seriously? And perhaps the most important and revealing question of all: Have winning and sports become gods to us?

I think they have. After all, what is an idol but the object of our desires? "Worship is basically adoration, and we adore only what delights us" (John Piper, Desiring God, p. 19). Bear with me for a moment, as I paraphrase a few verses from the Psalms:

"As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for the Patriots. My soul thirsts for the Patriots, the undefeated Patriots. When can I go and watch the Patriots?"

"O Patriots, how sweet are your wins to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!"

"My soul thirsts for a Superbowl win, my flesh yearns for one, in a dry and weary land where there is no water."

My intent is not to be sacrilegious, but to engage in hyperbole for the sake of making a point. Isn’t it ridiculous that our enthusiasm and sentiments for a sports team comes even close to paralleling our affections for God?

The problem is not that we’re pursuing pleasure but that we’re trying to find it outside of God. The prophet Jeremiah put it like this:

"My people have exchanged their glory for that which does not profit. Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate," says the Lord; "for my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that hold not water." (Jer. 2:11-13)

Like C. S. Lewis said, "We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased."

We settle for football instead of Christ. If it’s not football, then it’s something else: clothes, computer games, a higher income, the approval of others, a great sex life, etc. The tragedy is that we have seen our worship of God as something separate – and perhaps even in opposition to – our pursuit of happiness. This is what John Piper has rightly called "the moral enemy of worship." Says Piper, "When worship is reduced to disinterested duty, it ceases to be worship. For worship is a feast."

Isn’t this precisely the point that our compassionate Lord makes in Isaiah 55:2, when He says, "Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food." You see, "the great hindrance to worship is not that we are a pleasure-seeking people, but that we are willing to settle for such pitiful pleasures" (Piper). We think that football or sex or popularity or more money or a better marriage or physical fitness or the affirmation of others can satisfy the longings of our soul. The fact is, they can’t; only Christ can.

Even those who "follow Christ" must be careful to seek their pleasure in HIM, and not just His gifts. Remember what Jesus told the crowds when they followed Him after He fed the five thousand? He said, "I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval" (John 6:26-27 NIV).

Rather than seeing Jesus as the object of their desires, they saw Him only as a means of fulfilling their wants. Recently I read an outstanding lesson on John 6 by Paul David Tripp in his book, The War of Words. In a chapter entitled "Following the King for All the Wrong Reasons," he asked: "If you had to write down your dream for your life, what would you write? What is your ‘if only,’ ‘if I could just have,’ ‘if God would just give me. . . then I would be happy?’"

Think about that for a second. What would your answer to that question be?

Tripp goes on to share insights from John 6, centering on our struggle between physical bread and spiritual bread: "In the middle of this struggle is the Deceiver, who would have us believe that life is all about physical bread, that spiritual things are of little consequence." Tripp then goes on to share four subtle but persuasive lies that Satan puts before us. Time and space forbid me from expounding on all four lies, but they all culminate in the fourth deception, which is: Life is found in physical bread. Read carefully Tripp’s comments on this vital point. It will be well worth your time:

This is the lie of lies–that somehow, some way, life can be found outside of a relationship with God. This was the lie told by the Deceiver in the Garden, and it is the lie told countless times again every day. Feeding on physical bread only leads to more hunger. It is only as you feed on Christ by faith, receiving his life, that you can ever be satisfied. He is the Bread. He is life! All other offers of life outside of Christ lead parched people to drink at dry wells. He is the True Bread. He is the river of life. Follow him and within you will flow rivers of living water (John 4:13-14). Without him you are dead, even though you physically live (Eph. 2:1-10).

It is so easy to buy into the lie that life can be found in human acceptance, possessions, and positions. It is so easy to have your life controlled by dreams of success in your career. It is so easy to believe that nothing else satisfies like romantic love. It is so easy to fall into pursuing the idol images of Western culture–big suburban house, luxurious car, lavish vacations, etc. When we do this, we quit feeding on Christ. Our devotional life begins to suffer. We pray less, and when we do, we pray more selfishly. We find our schedule doesn’t leave much time for ministry, and we spend more time with our colleagues at work than we do with brothers and sisters in the body of Christ. Functionally, we are feeding on the world’s bread, not on Christ.

Our entire life will be determined by which bread we pursue. There are no more dangerous lies than the ones that lead us away from a loving hope and surrender to the Creator we cannot see, and toward a bondage to an endless, unsatisfying pursuit of what is passing away....

We fall into spiritual depression when [Christ] removes the physical bread so that we would hunger again for the Bread that really satisfies....

To the degree that you have based your life on something other than the Lord, to that degree God’s love and the hope of the gospel will not comfort you. You will not be comforted because you are hungry for another kind of bread. You long for a king who will give you the bread you crave....

As we look at our own lives and all that we are living for, we need to ask, Whose dream, which bread do we seek?...

Perhaps many of us, even though we have not physically forsaken the King, have lost our enthusiasm for his grace and mercy because following him has not led to the fulfillment of our dreams....

This can be something as "silly" as a Superbowl win or something more subtle but just as superficial. You can find your satisfaction in physical bread, or you can find it in Christ, the living Bread. You can pursue your own dream, what you think will make you happy – or you can pursue Christ and His dream for you -- "the good portion, which will not be taken away from [you]" (Luke 10:42).

Teaching Good Manners: Part 5

This fifth and final segment of Teaching Good Manners are general tips that cover a variety of situations. These can be found on pages 132-133 in the book, Disciplines of a Godly Family, by Kent and Barbara Hughes:

1. Knock before you enter a room if the door is closed.
2. If you chew gum in public, do it discreetly and with your mouth closed.
3. Return everything you borrow in the same condition as when you received it, or better.
4. If you lose or break something you have borrowed, even from a relative, replace it.
5. Cover your mouth when you sneeze or cough.
6. Teach your sons to show deference to the opposite sex and the elderly. Encourag ethem to offer to help you (the mother), or any woman, bring in the groceries or packages. Instruct them to unhesitatingly offer their seat to a woman or someone in need in a crowded public place. When walking with a female, boys should walk on the side closest to the street. They should help women and girls with their chair at the table and should open doors for them as well. Although a few women may think such actions are insulting or condescending, we have found that most women appreciate the courtesy.
7. Return telephone calls. (Fletcher’s footnote: Reply to personal e-mail messages, too, provided that they come from a trusted source.)
8. Promptly pay back money you borrow – even a quarter.
9. Be respectful of national flags.
10. Be patient with service people who may find it difficult or confusing counting change or taking your order.
11. Teach your children how to behave with the handicapped. Discreetly explain why they may be different, but teach your children they are just like them, and certainly equals. Explain why most public places have wheelchair ramps and bathroom facilities designed to help the disabled. Instruct your children not to speak in a louder tone of voice to a handicapped person unless the person suggests it, and forbid them to stare. Teach them to treat the handicapped like everyone else, as naturally as possible. Above all, encourage your children not to shy away from conversation with handicapped people.

Manners do not make the man or woman. The radical reorientation that says “my life for your life” can only come from the regenerating work of Christ, who instills his life and ethic in us. Nevertheless, manners teach the need for and complement the character that Christ’s life gives. Lives that say “my life for yours” are channels of God’s grace to a needy world.

Teaching Good Manners: Part 4

The other day I listened to a lecture by Tedd Tripp on reaching the hearts of our children, not just reforming their behavior. Amidst many humorous, down-to-earth illustrations, Dr. Tripp reinforced that oft-ignored scriptural truth: Heart determines behavior.

So in teaching this mini-series on manners, we have emphasized from the outset the importance of addressing the heart issues that are involved. Our children must understand from Scripture that they were created for God’s glory and that our lives are to revolve around Him, not ourselves. Our kids must come to know the grace of God in Christ, that they might experience that grace for themselves and have that grace flow from their hearts and into the lives of those around them. As adults, we should remember that good manners are caught, not just taught. To teach our children in the ways of God, we must walk the walk ourselves and not just talk the talk.

Speaking of which, we addressed the issue of speech in our last posting. Jesus said, "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks" (Matt. 12:34). Words have a way of revealing what’s in the heart. If we as parents will listen carefully to what our kids say, their words will give us a clue as to the spiritual climate of their hearts. As we shepherd their hearts and they respond to our shepherding, we will see a transformation in the way they talk. The progress will be slow and painstaking at times, but steady. In addition to shepherding their hearts, we also have to teach them the right way to talk. That is to say, they may have a zeal for God-honoring speech, but not according to knowledge! So we need to teach them proper manners in terms of saying "please," "thank you," "pardon me," etc., as well as how to introduce people properly and how to respond when spoken to, especially by an adult.

Continuing on with these "practical pointers," we now turn our attention to table manners. Once again, I have adapted this material from Kent and Barbara Hughes’ book, Disciplines of a Godly Family. They are right in saying that every member of the family should know and practice basic table etiquette. So here we go. . .

Setting the Table
Don’t make the mistake of thinking that the only time to set a nice table is when company is coming. That’s not to say that you should bring out your finest dishes or silverware for everyday dining but that the basic lay-out should be the same, conveying the importance and anticipation of the family meal.
The table should be set as follows: The fork is placed to the left of the plate. The knife goes to the right of the plate, with the cutting edge facing the plate. The spoon is placed directly to the right of the knife. If a soup spoon will be needed, it is placed to the right of the teaspoon, and a salad fork is placed at the left of the dinner fork. The glass is placed just above the point of the knife. The bread plate or salad plate (or both if needed) is placed directly above the forks and to the left. The napkin may be placed to the left of the forks or in the middle of the dinner plate.
Taking the time to teach your children how to set a table is time well spent. They will thank you someday!

Setting the Scene
Once the table is set, it’s nice to add a centerpiece. It can be flowers, fresh fruit, a loaf of freshly baked bread, or simply a nice candle. A centerpiece is that extra touch that says "our times together around the table is special." Perhaps some soft music in the background may even be appropriate.
(Fletcher’s footnote: Some of you are already laughing and saying, "Yeah, right." But let me tell you that it is possible for this to be a more-often-than-not occurrence. My mother did it, and my wife does it. And when Ruthie isn’t around, my daughter Megan does it! In fact, even I usually do it, though not as capably. It’s simply a matter of working at it. And it really does help to create a comfortable and homey atmosphere at mealtime.)

Dinner Is Served
Dinnertime with children is an opportune time for training. But this demands lots of patience and gentle consistency. A sense of humor doesn’t hurt, either! Here is a basic list of what to do and what not to do at mealtime:
1. Come to the table with hands and face washed.
2. Give thanks to God.
3. Place your napkin in your lap.
4. Wait till everyone is served and the hostess begins to eat before you begin. (Fletcher’s footnote: This is a challenge for our family! Believe it or not, our youngest child Timothy does the best at remembering this particular courtesy!)
5. Don’t put your elbows on the table while eating or encircle your plate with your arms resting on the table. (Fletcher’s footnote: When I was a kid and would put my elbows on the table, my dad would always say, "Matthew Fletcher, strong and able – get those elbows off the table! This is not a horse’s stable! This is Fletchers’ dining table!" I think I heard that about 748 times growing up, but hey, in the end it worked! I rarely if ever rest my elbows or arms on the table!)
6. Never say anything negative about the food.
7. When the food is passed, serve yourself small to medium portions.
8. Don’t talk with food in your mouth.
9. Don’t reach in front of another person for food. Simply ask, "Please pass the potatoes."
10. Don’t blow on your food f it is too hot; just wait till it cools down.
11. Learn to hold a knife and fork properly.
12. When you have finished eating, place your knife and fork atop the plate side by side.
13. Fold your napkin, and put it on the table.
14. Offer to help your mother clear the table.
15. Ask to be excused.

Mealtime Conversation
Ephesians 4:29 says, "Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear." I used to have this verse taped to the base of my telephone as a helpful reminder! Whether or not we post it on our telephone or table, this verse should be stamped on our hearts. Mealtime is a terrific opportunity to administer grace to those seated around you. With that in mind, here are some helpful tips regarding "table talk":
1. Listen. When you are at the table, be fully there. You can’t contribute to a conversation you haven’t been listening to.
2. Learn to ask questions. Don’t wait for someone to direct the conversation toward you.
3. Don’t talk while chewing.
4. Has a family member had a bad day? Give a word of encouragement.
5. Don’t dominate the conversation. Allow others to participate in the discussion.
6. If a dinner guest is shy, look for ways to graciously draw them into the conversation.
7. If conversation is lagging, bring up a new topic, like: "Our class is going on a field trip this Friday!"
8. Don’t interrupt.
9. Thank the cook!

Next time we’ll wrap up this series with some general guidelines for being a good houseguest and to show proper etiquette in a variety of situations. Remember to start with the heart and work your way out! Commit these things to prayer, and practice being a good example. Above all, don’t get disheartened or discouraged! Instead, "be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord" (1 Cor. 15:58).