"But even the hairs of your head are all numbered.
Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows."
~Matt. 10:30-31~
Sep 27, 2012
Sep 17, 2012
Sep 10, 2012
Sep 4, 2012
Sep 1, 2012
Knowing the Shepherd
Knowing the Shepherd,
The Shepherd Knowing You
I am the Good Shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own.
My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.
John 10:14-15 NKJV
Knowing His voice means you will hear the voice of clarity and not confusion; you will know the voice of peace and not the voice of anxiety; you will be instructed by the voice of wisdom and not the voice of folly; you will be told the way of holiness and not the way of sin; you will be instructed with the voice of good counsel and not the voice of bad advice; you will know the voice of light and not the voice of darkness; you will know the voice that takes you on a straight path, and not the voice that brings you to a dead end; you will hear the voice of truth and not the voice of deception.
Knowing that He knows you means that He knows you personally and will not confuse you or your needs with another sheep in His flock. His eyes see all the sheep of His fold and yet His eye is personally on you. He knows where you are and will guide you; He knows your fears and will keep you safe; He knows your hunger and He will feed you; He knows your weariness and will give you rest; He knows your valleys and will bring you through; He knows your enemy and will defend you; He knows your dwelling place and will safely bring you home.
by Roy Lessin
Aug 30, 2012
Amazing Grace Women's Breakfast
Amazing Grace Women's Breakfast
The "Amazing Grace" Women's Breakfast will be
starting up again on
Saturday, September 8th, 2012.
We will meet at Little Daddy's Restaurant on Eureka, in Taylor
(Next door to Southland Mall) at 9:00 AM, or as soon as you can make it.
Join us as we talk and enjoy each others company and of
course eat breakfast.
Encourage a friend to come.
Hope to see you there!
Aug 28, 2012
Aug 20, 2012
Aug 13, 2012
Aug 5, 2012
The Church and Idolatry
The Church and Idolatry
"Now set your mind to see the LORD your God" I Chron. 22:19. All sin is idolatry because every sin is an exercise in trust of something or someone other than the one true God to satisfy, fulfill, or bless. It is not difficult to see how violations of commandments two through ten are automatic violations of commandment one. This truth reveals that the "hottest war" going is the one taking place in the sanctuary of our own hearts. But we must wage this war because none of us is a bystander to idol worship.
In Isaiah 44:12-17, we find a powerful and revelatory description of just how easy it is to slip into idolatry. We see in the passage that ironsmiths are simply working their tools over the coals, fashioning them with their hammers. Carpenters measure out cuts and notches. Artists capture the physical form in sketches and sculpture. Men chop down trees to build houses, then plant more trees to replace them. They build fire, bake bread. Ah, look at what we've created.
The transition is seamless from everyday, workaday living to "he makes a god and worships it; he makes it an idol and falls down before it" (v. 15). Of the same fire he has used for warmth and cooking, the workman says, "Deliver me, for you are my god!" (v. 17).
The move is subtle. The switch from ordinary human achievement to blasphemy requires no explanation. It just flat-out happens. Isaiah 44:12-17 demonstrates that there is only one step to becoming an idolater, and it is simply to mind your own business.
The implication for our churches is huge. On Sundays, our sanctuaries fill with people seeking worship, and not one person comes in set to neutral. We must take great care, then, not to assume that even in our religious environments, where we put the Scriptures under so many noses, that it is Jesus the exalted Christ who is being worshipped.
Every weekend in churches everywhere, music is performed to the glory of human skill and artistry. Once upon a time, I sat through a little ditty in a church service in which the congregation was led to sing, "I can changed the world with these two hands," and the question struck me like a lightning bolt: "Who exactly am I worshipping right now?"
Likewise, every weekend men and women file into church buildings in order to exult in the rhetorical skill of their preacher, to admire him and think of their church as his church, not Christ's church. Many of us file in each week to enjoy the conspicuous spiritual exercises of our brethren. We worship the worship experience.; we tithe with the expectation of return from heaven's slot machine; we dress to impress; and we serve and lead to compensate for the inadequacies in our hearts that only Christ can fill. Every weekend, hundreds of preachers extol a therapeutic gospel from the pages of the same Bible where the real gospel lies. We Reformed are not exempt, as too often our affections are poured totally into doctrine with only vague admiration reserved for the doctrine's Author.
A church will become idolatrous in a heartbeat because it's already there. So, we cannot set our worship on autopilot. We cannot mistake the appearance of busy religiosity for worship in spirit and truth. We see in Exodus 32:5 that even the worshipers of the golden calf ascribed their worship to the covenant Lord Yahweh.
The gospel imperative, then, is to return again and again to the gospel indicative. Our first I duty is "gospel obedience" (Rom. 10:16; 2 Thess. 1:8; 1 Peter 4:17), which is to stand at attention to Christ upon the gospel's "ten-hut." Our hearts and minds flow through the rut of idolatry, but the deliberate proclamation of Jesus at every possible turn will force us off our idolatrous course. Martin Luther advises us:
I must take counsel of the gospel. I must hearken to the gospel, which teacheth me,
not what I ought to do, (for that is the proper office of the law), but what Jesus Christ the Son of God hath done for me: to wit, that He suffered and died to deliver me from sin and death. The gospel willeth me to receive this, and to believe it. And this is the truth of the gospel. It is also the principal article of all Christian doctrine, wherein the knowledge of all godliness consisteth. Most necessary it is, therefore, that we should know this article well, teach it unto others, and beat it into their heads continually.
Tim Keller elaborates: "So Luther says that even after you are converted by the gospel your heart will go back to operating on other principles unless you deliberately, repeatedly set it to gospel-mode."
The proclamation of the good news of Jesus and the extolling of His eternal excellencies is always an interruption, always a disruption. It alone will bring the sword of division between where even our religious hearts are set and where they ought to be. For this reason, we cannot go about minding our own business any more. We must mind God's (Col. 3:1-4).
by Jared C. Wilson, Tabletalk Magazine, June, 2012
Rev. Jared C. Wilson is pastor of Middletown Springs Community Church in Middletown Springs, Vermont, and author of the books Your Jesus is Too Safe and Gospel Wakefulness.
Jul 29, 2012
Jul 26, 2012
Vacation Bible School #4
Many heartfelt thanks to those who helped with this year's
Vacation Bible School.
To those who volunteered their time as teachers, helpers, creators
and directors...thank you! Hopefully, many little lives were touched
by your generosity and willingness to give of your time and talents.
Special thanks to Joel Ashby for the photographs.
Everything IS possible with God!
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