"Houston, we have a problem..."

“Houston, We Have a Problem”

Genesis 3-5

Most of us know what this phrase, “Houston, we have a problem,” means. On April 14, 1970, the Apollo Thirteen mission was in jeopardy. An exploded oxygen tank threatened the lives of the three astronauts on board. Their transmission that day has become famous. Mission control worked around the clock to solve the problems and miraculously got them home on April 17, 1970. This illustrates how we can solve problems when they arise.

In the chapters of the Bible following the stories of Creation, we have the stories of problems. This is sometimes called the stories of the Fall of Man, but I like to call them the problems because of what God intended. He intended us to solve problems, not create them. In failing to solve the first problem, Adam created greater problems. The first story tells how that happened.

Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden, in perfect relationship and fellowship with God and with each other with four commandments from God to keep:

• Be fruitful and multiply.

• Subdue the earth and take dominion over it.

• Tend the Garden and keep it.

• Do not eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

There was a special warning on the last commandment. God said that if they did eat they would really die. But the commandments of God are the blessings of God when we keep them. They were off to a good start.

Adam named all the animals, which was the first step in subduing the earth and establishing God’s authority over the animal kingdom. As Adam would hear the name God desired (God’s Will), he would speak that word and it was so.

It wasn’t long until a problem entered paradise. The serpent came in from the field and started talking to Eve. The occasion was an opportunity for Adam to learn how to solve problems. Instead, he did nothing and was silent as Eve carried on this conversation with the devil as he spoke through the serpent.

The devil asked Eve a question: “Did God really say you (all) cannot eat from any of the trees of the Garden?” When you think about that question, it is actually very ridiculous. The trees were their only source of food. They were all good to look at and good for food, all except one; the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

Eve answered the serpent by saying, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the Garden, but God said we may not eat of the fruit of the tree in the midst of the garden, neither shall we touch it, lest we die.” The serpent said, “You (all) will not really die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good from evil.”

The Bible says that Eve saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise. She took of its fruit and ate and gave it to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. The most serious of all problems was created. Sin entered the world that day and was passed on to all their offspring from Adam.

Where was God when this horrible thing was happening? Many people as have asked this question when the horrible thing in their lives began to unfold. “Why did God allow this to happen?”

God allowed the serpent to come in from the field and allowed Satan to speak through the serpent to Eve, and it was still paradise. They still had their perfect relationship and fellowship with God. And God had a different outcome for this problem. This was an occasion for Adam and Eve to grow in their knowledge of good and evil. A problem had arisen that God had a solution for. There was a different choice to be made than the one that was made.

The very first thing Adam and Eve could have done was to cry out to God for a solution to the problem of the serpent being in the Garden asking questions, just like the astronauts did when their problem presented itself. They immediately called Mission Control for the solution.

In the Garden, Adam and Eve should have immediately recognized that something was not right. The animals were to answer Adam. He was God’s representative and authority on earth and in the family. He was the one who would ask the questions with the animals submissive and accountable to him, not the other way around.

They could have cried out, “Lord, what is happening here? Why is this serpent in the Garden and why is he asking these silly questions? Give us wisdom what to do. Help us, O God. We do not know what this means or what to do, but we trust You and need You for everything, especially now with this strange thing that is happening. We know what Your Word says, and we know that what this serpent is saying is not good because it goes against what You have said. Help us Lord!”

The story would have had a different outcome. Instead of the problem being solved, the problem multiplied and continues to be multiplied today.

Lessons from The Problem

• Problems can lead to two different outcomes; either being solved by God’s Word which leads to spiritual growth and understanding, or being multiplied because we try to address them on our own and end up with sin and death; which multiplies.

• Crying out to God when things are not right is the proper response to problems. Going to God in prayer and to His Word for clarity and understanding is the only way temptations (problems) can be answered.

• Keeping God’s Commandments will give you the blessing of wisdom for problem solving. Trying to solve problems on your own will lead to creating more problems. Apart from Christ, we can do nothing, except to sin and create more problems. In Christ, and His Word in you, you can address everything that presents itself regardless of what it may be, with God’s solution, which brings Him glory.

The Creation of the Family; Genesis 2:18-25

 

The third story of creation tells of the creation of the family It has three parts: Adam’s relationship with the animals, the creation of Adam’s wife, Eve, and how the family continues to be created today.

God stated that there was one thing about creation that was not good. He said it was not good that Adam was alone. God said that He would make Adam a helper, someone to help him to work the garden and keep it. Creation was not yet complete.

One of the ways of God is that He shows us what something is not, then He shows us what it is. First God brought all the animals to Adam for him to name. In giving each animal a name, Adam was entering into a relationship with it. Knowing the animal’s name gave Adam a relationship with the animal. After naming all of the animals, Adam was still alone. God had shown him that the animals could not be the help he needed. God had given Adam a desire for a deeper relationship than the animals could be to him.

God caused Adam to go to sleep. While he was asleep, God opened up Adam’s side, took one of his ribs out, fashioned a woman out of it, and then healed the place He had opened up with flesh. When Adam woke up he saw his wife, Eve, and exclaimed, “Finally, someone I can know intimately and that can know me as one. She will be called Woman because she was taken out of Man.” The first family had been created. Adam and Eve became husband and wife in God’s presence.

 Then God stated that from that time forward, the family would be made of one man and one woman. Every time a man leaves his family and cleaves to a woman who has left her family, a new family will be created. Husband and wife would know each other in the most intimate way without any shame. Their relationship with each other would be unique and creative with new life being the fruit of their love for each other.

 The family was the crown of all creation, revealing God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit with glorious love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

 

Lessons from the Story of the Creation of the Family

·         Only God can create a family by bringing a man and woman together by His design and purpose.

 

·         The family is made of a husband and a wife, created to be together as one and to help each other in the calling that God has given for His own glory.

 

·         The family, as God created it to be, is the way that God established for us to be obedient to God’s command to be fruitful and multiply, to subdue and have dominion over all of creation.

The Creation of Adam; Genesis 2:4-17

The second story of Creation is the creation of Man. There was a whole universe created within Man. Some have even called it the second creation of creation. It is found in the Genesis 2:4-17.

There was a unique situation on the earth at the dawn of creation. It had not yet rained upon the earth. The earth was watered by springs and a mist that came up from the ground. This meant that there were no storms.

Then God formed man from the earth and breathed into Adam His own breath, His Spirit, and Adam began to live and became a living life. The first thing that Adam saw when he opened his eyes was the face of God who had just breathed His Life into him. Adam and God had a personal relationship with each other; a face-to-face relationship. Adam’s life was Life with God.

God had planted a garden on the earth and called it Eden, which means delightful. The most beautiful and delightful place on earth was the place that God prepared for Adam to live. In the garden God planted the most beautiful trees and plants from all of His creation for Adam to look at and enjoy. The fruit trees in the garden were the sweetest and most nutritious of all the plants and fruit trees on earth. It was all for Adam to enjoy. In the middle of the garden there were two special trees; the Tree of Life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

God gave Adam something to do for Him that was related to the command He gave him in the first story. God told Adam to work the garden and to keep it. These two words, “work” and “keep” are important. The first one is also translated as “serve” and “worship” in other places. It is used mostly to describe the work of the Levites in the Tabernacle and the Temple.

In other words, the work that Adam was to do would be an act of worship to God. He would be serving God as he worked in the garden, which would glorify God. It would also be an act of worship. As he worked in the garden, he would be worshipping and adoring God, the Creator of the garden. The Garden of Eden was the worship center of the earth.

God also told Adam to keep the garden. This word means to recognize the great value of something. Adam was told to guard the garden because it was his home. He was to take special care of it because it had such value. It was a place to worship God. It was a place to meet with God and glorify Him.

All of the earth would be blessed by the garden. All of the main rivers of the earth flowed out from a huge spring in the garden (the opposite of today’s earth; small streams and rivers flow into larger ones). Adam’s work would bless the whole earth. The command given to Adam in chapter one to subdue the earth and have dominion over creation would begin in the garden. As Adam was obedient to God in his home, the rest of creation would be blessed. Adam would learn in the garden how to work and keep all of creation. As he would be faithful with little, he would be given more. The Garden would grow until it encompassed the whole earth. The earth would then become the worship center for the whole of creation!

God gave Adam one more command: “Eat from every tree of the garden, but do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”  Here was the greatest blessing of all. Remember from the creation story from chapter one; the blessings of God are found in the commandments of God. This command from God carried the great blessing of where to go for the knowledge of good and evil; not from a tree, but from God. Solomon would end up praying for this in 1 Kings 3:9, but Adam was given the first opportunity of it with this command.

With this command, God gave Adam the blessing of how he would govern the garden, the earth, and the whole of creation; under the authority of God’s Word.

Lessons from the story of the creation of Adam:

·         God provides what we need before we need it. He planted the garden for Adam, then put him in it. God gave the command Adam would need in chapter three to counter the lie that would come from Satan. God is always working upstream in our lives to provide for us before we have needs.

·         The calling of God for each person in His Kingdom glorifies God and is to be valued above all else in life. Our work is an act of worship and brings glory to God.

·         God’s Word is the source for obedience to God’s commands. The command to be fruitful, multiple, subdue and have dominion over the earth would be accomplished by trusting God’s command for the knowledge of good and evil.

The Creation Story

Genesis 1-2

The creation story has three parts: the creation of the heavens and the earth, the creation of the man, and the creation of the family.

 

The story begins with God, Who is eternal. God created everything there is. God created the beginning. Your first memory verse is “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

 God created by speaking everything into being, into existence. First God said it, then He did it. This is one of the ways of God because God is faithful to His own word. God said, “Let there be light, and there was light.” And God saw that the light was good. God could see Himself in His creation. God is good.

 Then God separated the light from the darkness and He called the light day and the darkness He called night and there was the first evening and morning of the first day. God created time when He created the first day. And time is a trinity; it has yesterday, it has today, and it has tomorrow; it has past, present, and future.

God spoke again and said, “Let there be a sky and let there be an earth.” And God separated the sky from the earth. He called the sky heaven and the earth He called earth. The waters in the sky were separated from the waters on the earth. This was the second day of creation.

On the third day, God said, “Let the waters be gathered together and let dry land appear.” It happened just like He said and God formed the oceans, rivers, and lakes. He called the waters that He gathered together, Seas, and the dry land He called earth, and it was good. God also said, “And let there be grass and plants and trees, and fruit trees, each one with seeds to multiply with. It was all just like He said and it was beautiful, just like God.

On the fourth day, God said, “Let sun and the moon and the planets give the earth its signs, days, and seasons, and times.” God created months and years that are still in place today.

God created the fish of the seas and the birds of the air on the fifth day. He also blessed them saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters, the sky, and the earth. This was the first blessing of creation and God saw that it was good, just like Him.

On the sixth day, God created animals, both wild and tame animals, and all of the insects that creep along the ground. God also created man on the sixth day, in His own image and likeness, to rule over all of creation. God blessed them, which was the second blessing of creation. There will be more about the creation of man in the next story.

On the seventh day, God created rest by finishing the work of creation. He blessed the seventh day and called it holy. This was the third blessing of creation and the first thing that God made holy, just like Him. It was a whole day set apart just for Him. This one day made all the others holy. This is one of the ways of God; through one, many are blessed.

Lessons from the Story of Creation

·         Everything that God created is like Him, it is good. When you see creation it should remind you of how good God is so you can honor Him as God, the Good Creator of all there is. When you see creation it should teach you to be grateful to God for all that He has made. Thanking God for what He has made and thanking Him for what He has given you to see, and to do, and to enjoy in creation is the purpose of creation. All of creation reveals the glorious goodness and generosity of God. Let’s honor Him and praise Him and thank Him for everything that He has made. You can thank God for your life.

·         God blesses with His commandments. In creation there were three things that God blessed and each one had a commandment from God. The fish and the birds were blessed with the commandment to be fruitful and multiply and to fill the waters, sky, and land. Man was blessed with the second blessing and told to be fruitful and multiply on the earth and to subdue the earth and have dominion over creation. The third blessing came on the seventh day with the command to rest from work. The commandments of God are blessings from God. When we obey God’s commandments we enjoy blessings from God.

·         God’s creation is ordered around a complete circle. After the seventh day, a new week begins. After thirty or thirty-one days, and new month begins. After twelve months, a new year begins. God’s creation reveals that God is perfect and complete, like a circle. Whatever God starts, He completes. This is one of the ways of God.

·         There are three ways of God seen in the creation story: First God says it, then He does it. God chooses one to give to many. And whatever God starts, He completes.

 

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

Genesis 1:1

Making Vows to God

We are in a covenant relationship with God, by His amazing grace and through faith in Jesus Christ. Vows are essential in a personal covenant relationship. So why are we so hesitant to make promises to God? He has certainly made a lot of promises to us! And He is faithful to keep His Word to us. His Word instructs us on making vows. We become more like Him when we make a promise and keep our word. Psalm 119, the longest prayer in the Bible, is full of vows.

What was the last promise you made to God? Do you pray your promises? Are they built upon God’s will?

Some may point to the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:33-37) on what Jesus said about no longer taking an oath (making a “false vow”). Jesus did not abolish the Law, He is fulfilled it. He teaches in the SM that your vow (promise) does not need an oath to strength it. Your word (based on His) is all the strength you need. The Pharisees had various oaths to strengthen their promises; some oaths gave them options for not keeping their vows. It was oath-bureaucracy of the worst order.  Jesus made promises to God in His prayers (John 17:26) and taught us to in the model prayer (Luke 11:4).

The main reason we balk at making a promise to God is that we fear we will not be able to fulfill it. That fear is based on a hesitation to fully depend upon God for the fulfillment. We just don’t want to trust God that much.

The first step in developing a vow is to make sure it lines up with the will (promise) of God. Beware of making vows upon a different foundation other than the will of God. When you examine the vow in the model prayer and in Jesus’ prayer and the many vows in Psalm 119 you find that each one is according to the will of God. Once your promise is based upon the sure foundation of God’s will, the next step is to pray like your life depends upon it, because it does! Pray your promises to God! Each day, pray your promises to God. This is the stuff that God creates faithfulness in you with; your dependence upon Him for the vows you have made to Him.

Another reason people are slow to commit, hesitant to put themselves under a promise, is that it closes all other option doors. When a man and a woman stand before a pastor at their wedding ceremony they are closing all other option doors on dating other people for the rest of their lives!

But we like options. This is the reason people do not want to get married (make a commitment before God to one person). Someday they may want out. They want the option of changing their mind. Who is the main focus in that picture? Self is. This is the basis of idolatry; I stay in control of what I worship. I make the rules, I build it, I set it up, I drive it, I enjoy being in control, I keep the key.

This was at the heart of the first temptation and sin…you can be your own authority and determine for yourself what is right and wrong. But a promise becomes a law in my life that I place myself under it. When it is based upon God’s will, I am under His authority and will.

God’s laws express His love for us. My obedience to His laws expresses my love for Him. In this love relationship with God, I experience Life with God and my life is enriched, provided for by God, protected by Him, and blessed with peace that passes all understanding.

Pray about making some promises to God. Like Job (31:1-2), make a covenant with your eyes. Like Malachi (3:10-12), promise to give all of the tithe to God. Like James (1:19-22), promise to be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger. Become a faithful witness like Jesus said we were to be (Acts 1:8). Add some vows to your prayer list and watch what God can do in you, with you, through you, as you, before the watching world around you.

What Exactly Is Faith?

The eleventh chapter of Hebrews is definitive. It undergirds the whole message of the book of Hebrews, which is the whole message of the Bible in one book. Amazing.

The first verse does not define faith, but rather describes what it is. That in itself reveals that faith is greater than a definition. You can’t define faith any more than you can define a person. You can only describe it; or rather, you can only describe a person with it.

The first phrase is “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for…” The Greek word translated “substance” is hupostasis, and literally means “substructure.” It is a concrete word describing what buildings are built upon.

Faith is a substance in our lives upon which all of life is built. You don’t see the foundation, but you know it is there. Buildings don’t work at staying up; they just rest upon their foundations.

Faith is what Jesus was talking about in His parable about the man who built his house upon the rock as compared to the man who built upon the sand. Both had houses, but only one had a substructure. That was the one that stood up to the storms. Have you ever heard the saying, “I just don’t know how a person gets through something like this without the Lord.” The answer is they don’t.

This story also tells us where the substructure comes from, “Those who hear these words of Mine and does them is like the man…”  We do not build the foundation, God’s Word creates it. “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ.”  That means that God’s Word creates the foundation upon which the fruit of obedience stands. The world sees the fruit but God sees the source, His foundation from His Word. God traces everything to its source. The obedience is also His. When it is from God, it is for God.

Hope is something we have that moves us forward because we can see what’s coming; it is looking forward to something. Have you ever noticed the way some people walk looking down while others walk with their head up, looking straight ahead? It is the difference between people of faith and people who can only “see” their own feet. By God’s Word, people of faith have vision; a future and a hope as Jeremiah 29:11 reminds us. They can “see” what’s coming, or rather, where they are heading because they know Who they are following!

The eleventh chapter of Hebrews will go on to describe some of the people of faith in the Old Testament who were not looking down at their own feet, but rather were looking forward to something that God had promised and their actions revealed that solid foundation and hope!

The question is does yours?

What Does God Say in an Explosion?

In our prayer meetings this morning, April 16, the morning after the Boston Marathon Terrorists attacks and explosions, we prayed and heard from God:

·        God, comfort those who lost loved ones, in the explosions. Heal those who were injured and may never fully recover the use of arms and legs. Their lives will never be the same again. Thank You, for the first responders. Have mercy on our nation and our nation’s leaders.

·        Psalm 46:10, know that God is God and He will be exalted over the nations, He will be exalted over all the earth.

·        Isaiah 2:11-12; If we do not humble ourselves, God will humble us. In the Bible God used evil instruments to call people to repentance, to call His people to Himself.

·        God is calling our nation to fall on our knees before Him in humility and repentance.

·        Spiritually, we must always be on “High Alert,” for the chief terrorist, Satan. We are kept and guarded by the presence of the Holy Spirit, if we stay turned and tuned to Him. God did not promise to keep us out of the fire, but to be with us in the fire!

·        In the picture of the first explosion, one man was knocked to his knees, while another woman simply looked at her watch to check the time of her run. Our nation must fall to our knees from these explosions and not keep running away from God and checking our pace as if this has nothing to do with our spiritual condition. We must not return to business as usual.

·        We may be entering the day in our nation where we depend more and more on the Lord, even for just going to the store and getting back home safely. We need to sing On Christ the Solid Rock more and more. He alone is our hope and stay…all other ground is sinking sand.

·        One brief picture from the terror of yesterday was a woman on her knees, with hands together, looking up with horror, in earnest prayer, crying out to God for help. Lets pray that our nation follow her example and not turn to anyone else, especially our own selves, for help. We need to get right and stay right with God.

·        God, have mercy; Christ, have mercy; Holy Spirit, convict us of our need of You.

The Danger of Looking Back and the Blessing of Remembering

This week is a time for remembering. This coming Sunday is the Sunday of all Sundays as we celebrate our living Lord Jesus Christ and the great Salvation He has given to us in His Life, death, burial, and resurrection from the dead.

The way we do that is by remembering Christ in the Lord’s Supper, on Good Friday, and on Easter Sunday. We remember when the story of Jesus became personal and real to us, when we received Jesus Christ into our hearts and were born again to a new relationship with God in Him and the future we have with Him. Hallelujah!

But there is a danger in looking back. Nothing about us points backward. God created us to move forward. We are prone to look back and tempted to go back for all the wrong reasons.

Some look back on “the good old days” with a longing for the way it was to be the way it should be now. That kind of thinking focuses upon something lost rather than something gained. This results in a life of ingratitude and misses the blessings of God today and yesterday.

Then there are those who look back with a longing to go back to “do over” some missed opportunity or mistake. With this backward glare, there is always regret, guilt, and/or condemnation.

We wonder what Lot’s wife was looking back to Sodom to see. Was she wanting to go back, or was she wanting to see them get what they deserved!? Either way, God was letting us know that it may be better to be a pillar of salt than to live with that kind of “backward look.”

In Christ there is now no condemnation, no guilt, nothing left undone. Jesus cried out on the Cross, “It is finished!” In triumph, He buried the past forever and inaugurated the New Creation with that victorious shout!

Still others claim that the past is instructive; learn from it. But God did not create us to look back in order to learn from the past. He created us to learn from Him, today; to ask Him for wisdom, today; to learn His ways and move forward with Him, today. Our foolish forefathers took the bait that we could learn from a tree (Genesis 3) rather than from God. And today, we are still going after that bait; desiring to learn from everything other than from God.

But God commands us to remember. The Hebrew word “remember” in the Old Testament involves much more than our English word “remember.” The Hebrew word “remember” encompassed a trinity of reflection (past), realization (present), and rehearsal (future); all centered upon God.

The Jews were given annual feasts by God in order to reflect upon the majesty and mighty deeds of God for them in the past, to realize that the very same God was active among them and with them right now, and to rehearse the promises of God for the future. We need to redefine our word “remember” to guard against wanting to go back in order to enjoy, to fix, to get back at, and/or to learn something.

And so, let’s remember Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever. Let’s glance back with gratitude that God did not leave us back there in the past, and that He has led us to where we are today in order to prepare us for what He desires to give us tomorrow. Let’s give thanks and enjoy today what He is doing among us and seek with joyful anticipation for what He has promised to us and prepared for us in the future. It is all about Him, from Him, for Him, and to Him! Hallelujah; Blessed be His Holy Name!

The Problem With Self Esteem

For decades the self-help books, seminars, sermons, Bible studies, and message has identified the problem in our lives as “low self esteem.” Everything was blamed on “low self esteem.” To correct this problem there has been an emphasis upon developing a better self esteem by various methods.

Developing better self esteem is popular in just about any context; in family, in sports, in business, in education, and especially in religion. The problem with developing a higher (higher = better) self esteem is that once you develop a higher self esteem you end up with a greater problem than when you had low self esteem; higher = greater, and with self esteem “greater” = a bigger problem. Anyway you look at it, self esteem whether it is low or high, is your problem.

In religious circles this becomes very deceptive. In religion, self esteem is preached and taught under the heading of self-development; how to become a better….whatever; a better person, a better partner, a better entrepreneur, a better pray-er, a better pew-sitter (church member), a better part of society (participating more in compassionate causes). The message goes on and on and ends up with “as you learn and develop into the kind of person God wants you to be, you will feel better about yourself and about everything around you.” The end of the message reveals the problem; “…everything around YOU,” which is also why it is so popular.

The Bible teaches that self esteem must be lowered down to the lowest level; into the grave! Trying to improve (develop) self esteem will only create a bigger monster (good flesh, nice flesh, educated flesh…is still flesh! Of the worst kind). But once the death sentence for self esteem is carried out (crucified with Christ and buried, Romans 6:3-11), Someone else can become the focus, The Lord Jesus Christ! Then every circumstance, every experience, everything that happens is about Him, not you. When trouble strikes, you won’t ask, “God, what did I do, what are You trying to teach me…” Instead you will simply say, “God, this is not about me, this is about YOU, because everything in my life is about YOU and knowing YOU more; do what You do best, BE GLORIFIED, GOD!!! HALLELUJAH!”

Once you stop worrying about your “self-development” and start seeking, pursuing, desiring, digging, thirsting and hungering for and after God, He will begin forming Christ in you. You won’t even know how that development is coming along because you will only be focused on knowing Him. Then and only then will all of your esteem be of Him, by Him, to Him, and for Him. Hallelujah.

Oswald Chambers At His Best

I recommend reading Oswald Chambers. His little book, Approved Unto God, should be required reading for every believer, especially those of us who preach and teach God's Word. Below is one of the most powerful paragraphs I have read in some time from that little book.

"Nowadays the great passion is the passion for souls, but you never find that passion mentioned in the New Testament, it is the passion for Christ that the New Testament mentions. It is not a passion for men that saves men; a passion for men breaks human hearts. The passion for Christ inwrought by the Holy Ghost goes deeper down than the deepest agony the world, the flesh, and the devil can produce. It goes straight down to where our Lord went, and the Holy Ghost works out, not in thinking, but in living, this passion for Christ. Whenever the passion for souls obscures the passion for Christ, Satan has come in as an angel of light."

The self-centered, man-centered, tell-me-something-I-can-use, church culture in our nation needs a transfusion of Oswald Chambers to put us back on course; back on The Way, The Truth, and The Life. Focusing upon the blessings I can get rather than the One from Whom all blessings flow is to focus upon the wrong thing. Fix your eyes on Jesus and then whatever God gives you will be received for the blessing it is. In fact, you will be so enamored with Christ, you won't even realize you are being made holy!

Like Paul, determine to know nothing else save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

Approved Unto God, highly recommended reading.

India Mission Trip Report

Thank you for your prayers and support for this mission trip to India. It was amazing. Three of us from First Baptist Church, Kingsland, (Terry Taylor, Dr. Grady Miller, and myself) met our host in the Washington Dulles airport on Thursday, January 17.

Our first outing was to dedicate a new church building in a village. While we were in India we dedicated two other new church building, conducted a pastors conference for pastors, church leaders, and new believers (about 500 present). 

We baptized over 100 new believers. Terry and Grady baptized more than I did. As each person was baptized, they would make a verbal confession of Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior. Then, the pastor would ask them, “How long will you follow Jesus as your Savior and Lord?” They would answer back, “For the rest of my life.” One older lady said something more than the others and the crowd that was witnessing her baptism laughed at her answer. We learned later that to the question, “How long will you follow Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord?” she responded, “For the rest of my life, and just in case reincarnation is true, I will follow Jesus in my next life, too!”

We experienced the joy and power of the Lord on this trip. It was truly amazing. The three of us will be sharing in our worship service on Sunday, February 3. You can listen to the recording of it by Sunday afternoon on our web site, www.firstkingsland.com. Thank you again for your prayers. We could feel them.

A Pile of Gold or a Bible; Which Would You Choose?

Our 10-year-old granddaughter, Emma, and I were driving down the road in Boerne to get a few things at HEB when I told her that I wanted to practice my memory verse with her.

As we drove, I quoted “The words of Your mouth are better for me than thousands of gold and silver pieces.”  Psalm 119:72. Then I said, “Emma, Psalm 119 is a prayer that will shape our prayers if we learn it and pray it. I want to get to the place where if I saw a pile of gold beside a Bible, I would choose the Bible.”

Then I asked her, “What about you?” She thought for a moment, kept looking straight ahead, and said, “I would take the gold and then go buy some Bibles for people who do not have one.”

AMEN! Sure wish I had thought of that! Thanks, Emma.

I will be on a mission trip to India over the next few weeks and will greatly appreciate your prayers for our team. And I am taking some money that Emma’s daddy gave me to buy some Bibles for some pastors who do not have one. I will post about the trip when I get back.

Is "Religion" a Bad Word?

You may have heard some say that Christianity is not a religion, it is a relationship. And yet, James uses this word in a good light. He says that there is something called “pure religion,” teaching us that “religion” is good.

So, what is “pure religion?” The Greek word used in James 1:26-27 (used twice) is the word threskos and is only used two other times in the New Testament (Acts 26:5, Colossians 2:18). It describes devotion, piety, worship. It outlines the daily practice and routine of a group.

Religion can become a substitute for a personal relationship with God, just like marriage can become a substitute for a loving relationship between a husband and wife. When that happens, religion is a barrier to a relationship. But a growing relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ will be religious; pure religion.

These two, religion and relationship, are two that God has joined together. When separated, you have big trouble on your hands. Without a personal relationship, religion becomes empty and leads to idolatry (worshipping worship; a serious trend in the American church today). And without religion, relationship becomes blasphemy (in a personal relationship with God, how could you not worship!).

Personal faith in Jesus Christ has devotion, piety, and worship. There are daily practices and routines that express a personal faith and become acts of worship.

Religion is a good word; pure religion!