Here and Now

Let me tell you about Tom.   Tom is a co-worker and good friend of mine.   He has a great sense of humor and, quite honestly, helps make my work day bearable, and sometimes even enjoyable.   He is also a brother in Christ. Like Jenny (remember her?), Tom is not a member of a local church.   Now, I am not going to get into what the Bible says about that, because I have done enough of that.   Rather, I want to talk about what the Bible says Tom is missing by not being part of a local body of believers. Joy. Now, I am not saying that Tom is not a happy guy, because he is (at least he seems to be).   Nor am I saying that he does not have any enjoyment or that others don’t enjoy him (and his wit).   What I am talking about is Christian joy.   The joy that is only given by God to His children.   The joy that will someday reach its culmination in glory.   The joy that, as it is described in the Scriptures, is realized on this s...

Let me tell you about Jenny (not her real name).   She works in the accounts receivable department at my job.  She is a professing Christian, but she does not belong to a local church.  She has recently gotten engaged to a gentleman that is also a professing Christian.   We were talking about her upcoming wedding and I asked her if they were getting married at his local church.  As it turns out, he does not belong to a church either.  I guess she could tell by the look on my face what I thought of that, and she began to explain why she was not a member of a church.   During the conversation, she said she had been "put through the ringer by the church".  I asked her how many local churches she had been a member of and she said three.  Now, I do not personally think that it is reasonable nor right for a Christian to disavow church membership because of a few bad experiences.  Even if all three go-arounds at church membership ...

I am bi-vocational. That’s fancy talk for “I don’t make no money as a pastor so I gotta have a job.” In addition to pastoring a small church, I also work for a sheet metal fabricator in the sales department. It has its benefits and it has its detriments. One of the benefits of working sales in a manufacturing setting is that I am in contact with a lot of people that need the Gospel, both within the company and outside. Another is that I don’t fall into that pastor trap of forgetting that the overwhelming majority of Christians spend the overwhelming majority of their waking moments with unbelievers. That being the case, I would like to set aside the pastor me for a few blog-posts and talk from the point of view of the me that is in the business world surrounded by unbelievers. Because for the majority of us Christians, our every day mission field is the office, or the depot, or the factory, or the store, or the stockroom, or the classroom, or the coffee-house, or the bar, or w...

One of the (many) things that amaze me when I read the Gospels is that Jesus had to repeat Himself so often.   With the Pharisees, He had to remind time and again that they misunderstood what the Sabbath was all about.   One more than one occasion, He had to explain that their preoccupation with appearances is not what God wants from His people.   They were stuck in their way of “worshipping” God.           Even with His own disciples, Jesus had to remind them over and over again what true faith was all about.   They thought that they were honoring God by doing many things, but they often looked at these things from a worldly perspective.   Jesus even told Simon Peter after his great confession that he had his mind set on the things of man and not those of God.   They did not always worship God the way He wanted.           You might say that both the Phar...

Sorry for the month-long blog break! To get us going again, I wanted to share some great quotes I came across this week: “Dear God, the treasures of thy love Are everlasting mines, Deep as our helpless miseries are, And boundless as our sins. The happy gates of gospel grace Stand open night and day, Lord, we are come to seek supplies, And drive our wants away.” — Isaac Watts, “The Invitation of the Gospel” None of us really changes over time. We only become more fully what we are. —Anne Rice “One cannot explain the explosive dynamite, the dunamis, of the early church apart from the fact that they practiced two things simultaneously: orthodoxy of doctrine and orthodoxy of community in the midst of the visible church, a community which the world could see. By the grace of God, therefore, the church must be known simultaneously for its purity of doctrine and the reality of its community. Our churches have so often been only preaching points with very little emphasis on...

I do enough. Why don't other people do some more than they do? Why can't you do as much as I do? I deserve a break. Why do I have to do everything? No, I am not just complaining today.  I am listing some of the things that we all think sometimes.  Even when it comes to serving God.  And I am not talking just what we do in church, or just what we do as "ministry", though we know we've all thought these things a time or two in those cases.  I am talking about the servant is not above his Master, whoever would be great must serve, good and faithful, big picture, this is how I live my life as a Christian kind of serving. I am talking everything from the "that guy just cut me off and gave me the one finger salute but I am not going to get angry because I am a Christian" kind of stuff to the "I am being mocked for my faith and horribly insulted and my reputation is being hurt but I am going to love this person because I am a Christian" ki...

". . . men sure of God, sure of his will, sure of the absolute duty to act in his sight and for his approval.  Nothing else mattered by comparison.  Consequences were of no account.  Obedience alone held the secret of freedom, courage, peace, power, happiness and salvation." The Puritans, as described by F. J. Powicke "Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read ours." John Locke "A Christian is not a person who has made a new start in life, but a person who has received a new life to start with." John Blanchard "God...will never be comfortably predictable.  If we rest in God's care only when we understand just what He is doing, there will be many times and places where we won't rest in His care." Paul David Tripp