The Goal

 It is not a secret that I am a goal oriented person. I love a good challenge. Pinnacle Christian School issued one I could not resist. They declared October as "Bible Reading Challenge Month." Through the month of October students have been challenged to read the word of God on their own or to have it read to them. They were given a log to keep up with their minutes. At the end of the month, all of those minutes will be tallied to see how much time we spent in God's word as a school. I WAS ALL IN. 

I set my own personal goal. I formulated a plan for how I would have to change a few things in my schedule. I readjusted some priorities. Less tv and more time in the Bible. That is a personal goal I keep before me each year to read scripture. This year I had been sluggish. Sometimes it is hard to balance Bible reading and praying. For most of 2023 I could not keep them balanced. Bible reading often gave way to prayer. I knew that time studying the scriptures is not the same as reading to get close to God. The October Bible reading challenge seemed the right catalyst to get me back on track. 

I have read at a torrid pace. Verse after verse, chapter after chapter, and minute after minute. I also discovered something. A verse that I already knew but had not recalled in a while. 

[Ps 119:165] Those who love Your law have great peace, and nothing causes them to stumble. 

That is true. During this Bible reading month I have felt the peace of God. I have trusted God in trials. I feel less stressed. More tranquil. God renewed my hunger for Him and His word. He gets me up and I eagerly make my way to my chair in the living room and pull my Bible off the coffee table. Many mornings I totally lose track of time. Though I have read through the Bible more than once, it sure seems fresh again this time. 

Do you find yourself gripped with fear? Are you anxious all the time by world events? Do you find trials getting the best of you? I encourage you to rearrange your schedule. Make time for getting into God's word. Read it. Reflect on it. Get renewed by its truth. 

How many own multiple Bibles that are never opened during the week? It is a travesty how little the church values the scriptures. People through history have died to get us copies we can read. Others die to this day smuggling Bibles into forbidden countries. Many around the world will walk for days just to read a fragment of a page of the Bible, for they believe it is a holy book. Dust collectors on the covers of some Christian's Bible. Show me a worn out Bible and I will point to the life of the owner of that Bible as not. being worn out. 

You want more peace and not to stumble over the trials of life. Read the Bible. Meditate on it. Ponder the truth contained inside. Encounter God within in the pages. Learn. Grow. Discover more of God and not just more about Him. Like the Psalmist can say I love the law. I love God's word and have devoted my life to reading it, studying it, preaching it, and teaching it. It is a life transformational book. I hope you will discover it soon again if you have neglected it for a while. 

The Altar

 Brenda and I made a trip to Seminole, TX where we enjoyed two of the sweetest years of our entire ministry from 2009-2011. I was taking part in a funeral of a beloved sister in Christ. 

We stayed in a cabin on a 17,000 acre ranch of some dear friends. It was a joy to catch up. The real joy happened the next day. It started with a time with the Lord in that cabin. Surrounded by a beautiful west Texas sunrise and 17,000 acres of God's beautiful desert creation. The place is an active working cattle ranch. I was more caught up in God and reading His word before going to the funeral. I profoundly encountered God in that cabin. I hope one day God will allow me to return to meet Him for more extended period. 

At the funeral I saw dozens of former church members and community leaders. The church was packed. I stood on the same stage I stood on time after time proclaiming God's word. It was the same sanctuary where God poured out His Spirit on us in the 23-day revival that I have spoken of so often. 

My speaking part in the service was in the middle and I chose to come down off the stage to sit on the front row to my left. I exited the stage on the steps next to the organ before finding my seat. I was settling in when I noticed it. It had escaped my attention before that moment. I even walked on the holy ground and did not even think about it. Not until I sat down on that front row. Then my eyes locked onto a sacred piece of ground where the Edwards' family changed. Let me explain. 

The spring of 2009 I was invited to preach a D Now for FBC Seminole. My friend Jase Waller served the church as the student pastor. What happened over that three day weekend changed my life. I did not see it coming. Turns out FBC church was without a pastor which was of no particular interest to me. At that time, Brenda and I were enjoying a thriving ministry at FBC Paradise. God was growing the church. I thought we would serve there for life. 

On Saturday morning of the youth event, Jase told me that some people on the search committee who heard me on Friday night were already talking about being interested in me. Those conversations deepened after the Saturday morning service. Jase stopped by our host home where I was staying to talk to me more in depth. It was a conversation that sent me to my knees afterward. Jase told me that the search committee was going to contact me afterward. I told Jase I was not looking to leave where I was serving. I was content there. 

When he left I went into the dining room and prayed. I prayed all afternoon. I had a message planned but sensed I needed to change it for that evening service. I preached that night with all my heart about being available to serve God everyday. So many students and adults responded to the invitation that I could not step down the main steps to get off the stage. I had to go down the steps by the organ. It was right there that I got on my knees and poured out my heart to God in sincere prayer. I surrendered my life again to God that night. I told God that if nobody in that room meant being available to Him that I did. I told him I would willingly go to Seminole if that was what He willed for my family. Fast forward five months. My family moved to Seminole, TX where I became the pastor of the First Baptist Church. We left Paradise in tears. I cannot even put into words what God did in our ministry in Seminole.

Now back to the funeral service. When my eyes looked at those steps that became an altar to me 14 years ago, my mind flashed back to that Saturday night D Now service. It was like I was transported back in time. A reminder of a vow I made to God to lay my life down in service for Him. It was a powerful moment. One of those God encounters you cannot forget. God reminded me that prayer was not just a prayer for Seminole. It was an all encompassing prayer for the rest of my life. I was in the funeral service, but spiritually God had me to Himself. Reliving, recommitting, and recapturing that moment all over again. I did not get up and kneel their again physically, but I certainly did so spiritually. 

God has to the right to help Himself to any of our lives anytime He wants. He doesn't have to ask our permission. If we live surrendered to Him then He can call us to do anything, anywhere, at anytime. We are to live our lives surrendered and available. 

Can I tell you what that means? Not totally. A young student interviewed me today about my call to ministry and advice for young people called to do the same. His last question caught me a little off guard. He asked me about my long term plans. I thought back to my encounter at the altar. All I could answer is that I seek to live my life surrendered to God and His plans. If God really has my yes at anytime, to do anything and to do it anywhere I have to live day by day. I have to know that my life is not my own. It is His because He bought it with a price. I am His bondservant. A servant in chains to God's will. That is how we all should live. 

Surrendering yesterday meant speaking at a funeral of a lady I loved. It meant seeing former parishioners we love deeply. It meant giving out more hugs than I could count. It mean reconnecting with several old friends. Today it meant coaching high school boys in basketball and getting ready for Bible study tonight. Tomorrow is a new day filled with new opportunities. 

I thank God for that moment at the altar 14 years ago. I thank God for that reminder yesterday sitting on that front row. Driving home yesterday down I-20 we pulled up behind a big truck. The trailer door had this painted on it, "Anything, anytime, anywhere." The company advertised their ability and willingness to ship anything, anytime, and anywhere. God meant it for another message to me. He can call me to serve Him to do anything, anywhere at anytime. He has my yes. Does He have yours as well?

Sifting the Soul

 Just as sure as the sun comes up each morning, just as assuredly somewhere on this planet people are suffering. They are battling pain, adversity, and misery beyond description. Some are experiencing this on multiple fronts. What is worse is the fact that they have no relief in sight. 

You really get to know what a person believes when adversity hits. Some say adversity builds character. That is true. It is also true that adversity reveals character. When the pressure is on what is on the inside finds a way outside. Suffering is the great sifter of our souls. Sometimes the truth is not pleasant. What shakes out is ugly, foul, and not pleasing to God. 

For all the happy talk in churches, we truly find out what people believe when the suffering starts. I have seen people living in excruciating pain and yet testifying about Jesus and pointing people to Him with their last breaths. I have watched more than one person stare death in the face and still proclaim the goodness of God. Recently I heard a woman singing going through painful circumstances I would not want to have to face. I have not met many people who had more joy than this woman. It exuded from her. 

When Jesus is real to a person, when they understand grace and the tremendous salvation they have experienced, praise, gratitude, and faith still flow from both the heart and the lips. Those are the people who inspire me. They are the ones I watch the most closely. I listen attentively to what they have to say. 

Pretenders are usually exposed when the suffering hits. The inward reality sifted does not always match the outward appearance. 

When God chooses suffering to sift our souls I hope we will chose the path of Paul and Silas in [Acts 16:25]. To pray and praise. The suffering that sifted their souls found Jesus to be real to them. Greater than any discomfort, providing peace that cannot be explained, and an indefatigable joy that could not be extinguished. We all need that. 

Committed When Convenient

 Committed means a dedicated loyalty to a cause. There is no person more worthy of our loyalty than Jesus. No cause greater than His cause. You would think that Christians were the most committed people on the planet. That is not always the case. 

I talked with a pastor friend of mine on the phone today. He told me that the attendance had been pretty low at the church he pastors yesterday. He coined the phrase, "Committed when convenient." He then related how one family missed the service because they went to a cousin's cousin's birthday party. If you didn't get that, it was not a close cousin but a distant cousin several times removed. Going to that birthday party warranted not being in the Lord's house that Sunday. He then told me how three adults in one family drove to town to buy new tires for their vehicle on Sunday of course. They could not do it on Saturday because their son had an all day sporting event. Committed when convenient. 

I contrast this with believers in China, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Iran, and a host of other countries. Believers there have adopted a totally different attitude about commitment. They are committed even when it is inconvenient. Their dedication to Jesus has cost some of them torture, imprisonment, and even watching family members be executed for their faith. I don't think those followers of Jesus would understand at all a distant cousin's birthday party or purchasing new tires instead of public worship. 

The reasons people miss worship gatherings these days is long. Let any family get together be scheduled on a Sunday and everyone will be quick to forsake the assembling together to be with family. Family has become an idol. People bow at the altar of family more than at God's altar. In the Edwards' home, even before I preached each Sunday, we set aside a day for worship. Our kids did not play ball on the Sabbath. We even pulled our son out of a baseball game so we could attend a revival meeting at our home church. God was the number one priority in our family. We had a commitment to be in God's house. Even when I traveled full time and preached multiple times a week, if I had a Sunday off, I still took my family to public worship. I still got up early to pray and read my Bible. I still followed through on my ministry commitments when I felt exhausted. 

People do not want to commit to service anymore. We had a list of volunteer opportunities around our church recently. We posted them on bulletin boards and in the bulletins. After nearly two months I asked the one who created the list how many had volunteered. Her answer was predictable. Not one person! People volunteer at schools, for civic organizations, on the job, for booster clubs, scouts, and for community projects. Try to get those same people to commit to a ministry and they will politely, and sometimes impolitely decline. 

It was not convenient for Jesus to leave Heaven and to have God squeeze all of His divinity into the confines of humanity. It was not convenient to set His glory aside to walk the dusty roads of Galilee to minister. It certainly was not convenient to be nailed to the cross and die a cruel death. Nothing convenient about any of that. He is the model of commitment. 

I for one cannot understand or excuse people who continually put God on the back burner for lesser things. Everything is lesser compared to Him. He is to be first in everything. The chief priority. The Most important relationship. Because of the people's commitment only when convenient attitude, most churches have totally abandoned the Sunday night worship service. More and more are moving away from any kind of midweek gathering. Prayer meetings are nearly extinct. Evangelism scarcely happens as proven by dwindling baptisms and church attendance. It is hard to find people to teach the Bible anymore. 

May God rain down the thunderstorm of His conviction until commitment returns to His people. May Christians fully commit to follow Jesus even when it is inconvenient. 

I Don't Believe in Organized Religion

 " I don't believe in organized religion." Those were the first words out of the mouth of a man I just met at 1 Way detox ministry this past week. He grew up in a church. He said he grew tired of being judged by people who did the same things He did. I listened intently. I prayed silently for where to take our study. 

He next said that He did not believe in the virgin birth of Jesus I told them so much hinged on that one fact. We started in Genesis and worked our way to Jesus hitting the high points of Bible history. He listened. He felt their were many ways for a person to get to a good afterlife. He also said he did not believe in God. He believed in a higher power of some sort but did not identify who or what that higher power might be. 

I see it increasingly. People try to invent their own religions. They come up with their belief system based on what fits into their lifestyle conveniently. Here is the issue. We do not set the rules. No matter how many people agree with us. This world did not start with us and it will not end with us. A holy God who identifies Himself as Yahweh created the universe. He set the rules. They are non negotiable. Many have tried. Many found out when it was too late to repent that Yahweh is real, He is sovereign, and He is a terrifying righteous judge for those who rebel against Him. 

It is a terrifying dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Not a dead manmade idol. There is nowhere to hide. This all seeing God sees all and knows all our deeds. Nothing escapes His notice. He not only sees our deeds, but He also knows our thoughts. His eyes move throughout the whole earth keeping record of wrongs. 

Only those who have repented and believed Jesus to forgive and to save will be delivered from the wrath of the Almighty. No concocted belief system will ever justify depraved humanity. No matter how sincerely people believe falsehoods they are sincerely wrong. They will never be forgiven on their merits. 

It is tragic how many believe they can play their own set of religious beliefs and reinvent the rules. This is a foolish choice. God is patient. Long in mercy. Filled with compassion. If He were not, the whole earth would be destroyed again like in the days of the flood. It is the mercy of God that lets us live another day without judgment. 

Make this well. Judgment is coming. For some it will come in death. The truth about God and Jesus will be forever revealed to those who die. Judgment is also coming in the rapture and the Great Tribulation. People better get right before they get left. Salvation is available through Jesus. I hope many will turn to Him before it is too late.