Ah yes blogs…I personally don’t have much time or need for them. My plea to you who are reading this is; if you haven’t read, meditated and prayed over a passage of scripture today then turn off your computer immediately, open your Bible and spend time with your Father in His Word. If you do that and never end up reading this I would be happy.
If blogs are something I don’t read or write then why am I writing this one? Well let’s start with why I don’t read them. My passion and desire is to live for Christ in the purest form possible. Which leads to the reason for writing this one. God has given me a deep longing for those He places in my path (blogs I suppose are another means He does) to EXPERIENCE Him in the manner He has intended for us in Christ. OK, let me repeat the two reasons and then keep this post short and readable. If God wills it then I’ll keep posting and explaining the two reasons over time. 1) I don’t read blogs (or many books for that matter) because: My passion and desire is to live for Christ in the purest form possible. 2) The reason for this post is because: God has given me a deep longing for those He has placed in my path to experience God in the manner He has intended for us in Christ. Let’s begin with number one. My passion and desire is a pure relationship with God. Books, blogs, tweets, Facebook posts and all other post Bible recorded words have been written by sin tainted men and women, and not God (including this post). There is only one source of pure truth and that is Christ and His Word, and there is only one perfect teacher of His Word and that is the Holy Spirit. (PERIOD!) The truth I just stated is simple and real so I’m going to just let it hang there until my next post. For all of you that go to many other sources besides the Bible…we’ll get to that. But for now, just chew on the reality and kingdom of God truth that the combination of God’s Word and God’s Spirit is the purest form of learning and living truth. Resting in the everlasting and ever-increasing peace of God we have in Christ, Pastor Fred
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God has declared Himself to be a Father, and those redeemed by His grace are His children. God wants us to know the glory of that reality. Hopefully, this might help you: [Picture a] little child walking hand in hand with his father—a picture of the normal Christian life. God has you by the hand. He loves you. You trust him. Things are good between you because your sins are forgiven and there has been a wonderful reconciliation. There is a smile upon his face and a firm, caring grip in his hand. His face looks kind and tender and warm, like he really enjoys this moment with his little child. And then coming toward you on the sidewalk there appears a very scary looking man. His hair is all wild, and his eyes are glazed and piercing, and he looks terribly angry and dangerous. You squeeze your daddy's hand a little more tightly. He feels it and responds with a firmer grip. The man stops about ten feet in front of you and stares into your face and says, "Hey stupid! You still like to hold hands with your mama?" As he glares at you, you feel terrified. And as you turn your face away from this terrible threat, you look up at your daddy's face. Now let me ask you, what do you want to see when you look up? Let me answer it for myself. I don't want to see the same face that I was enjoying one minute ago. At this moment I don't want to see mainly kindness, tenderness, warmth. I want to see strength, indignation, and confidence. And I want to feel a new kind of grip, that is so tight it would be uncomfortable in ordinary circumstances, but now says, "You won't slip even if you faint, and no one can take you out of my hand." And as you look up, your father steps between you and the man and says, "You better cool it mister. I'm his father." And then he shields you as he walks boldly right by the man and leaves him behind. The point of this picture is simply this: we need to see the rugged, steep, granite cliffs of God's character as well as the soft, green, clover-covered grasslands. We need to see the tough features in the face of Christ as well as the tender ones.This comes from: "What Judas's Death Teaches Us About The Spirit" - a sermon by John Piper This is your new blog post. Click here and start typing, or drag in elements from the top bar.
UPDATED!! The Adult Christmas Party date has changed. It is now on Tuesday, December 20th at 6:30. ----------------------------------------------------------- The month of December is one month in the year where most of it is filled with celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. And we have many opportunities for you to celebrate with your faith family this month. Here’s a list of dates and activities: December 11th – Sunday School Christmas Program – 6:00 PM December 17th – Christmas Caroling – 6:00 PM (meet at the church) December 20th – Adult Christmas Party – 6:30 PM @ the Buckleys December 24th – Christmas Eve Service – 6:30 PM December 25th – Christmas Worship Service – 10:30 AM (No Sunday School) "For unto YOU is born this day, in the city of David, a SAVIOR, who is CHRIST, the LORD." Our hearts are burdened, our minds constantly thinking of the Rye family, we weep in personal grief and in mourning for the family - so we pray.
Pray, my church family, and then pray some more knowing that our Sovereign God who brought Rick home also brings His blessings and grace to earth through the prayers of His people. Your prayers are not wasted! For the family, pray that the writings of the Scriptures would be written deeply in their hearts: The righteous cry, and the LORD hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all. (Psalm 34:17-19) Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. (Psalm 73:25-26) For the funeral - that the hope of Jesus Christ would be on the move. All attending believe in Heaven, many are not on their way. Pray that I can preach and people will hear and believe this message: Our confidence that Rick is now safe and uncondemned is not that he was innocent, but that he was forgiven and he was counted righteous because of Jesus Christ. The Bible is very plain that we are saved from our sin and from God's punishment by grace through faith in Jesus Christ who died in our place and rose again from the dead. Pray, my brothers and sisters! Pray with me and may we know that our prayers are a significant part of being ambassadors for Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20). "Indeed, the devil thinks more true thoughts about God in one day than a saint does in a lifetime, and God is not honored by it. The problem with the devil is NOT his theology, but his desires." There's a short passage in Scripture that I would enthusiastically nod my head in agreement with, but also lower my head in the reality that it isn't often true of me. It's found in the book of Psalms and it goes like this: "Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever" (Psalm 73:25-26). God is the most satisfying thing in the universe. NOTHING on earth compares to knowing Him and walking with Him. Yet, this truth is blurred by so many other voices calling out for our hearts, our minds, our thoughts, our affections. We're like a diabetic living in a candy store. The wafts of temptation are sweet smelling, and leading us to our demise. And sometimes (often??) we "follow our noses" believing the sweet smell to be better than God, better than His truth, better than His way. But God.... Our God is rich in mercy and unending in grace and is forever faithful to us. Though we are vulnerable, He is our Rock and He pursues after us with goodness and mercy all the days of our lives. So even when we stray (God forgive us!) He gives us a bad taste in our mouth for these idols, and gives us a hunger for Him. If you have tasted and seen that God is good, than you will want more of Him. May this be the song of your heart: Ray Ortlund is a pastor in Tennessee and a guy who often speaks to my heart through his blog. I would urge you all to frequent his blog and read his short, pithy, edifying posts (click here to check it out right now!). Going along the lines of something I (David) posted last Saturday ("Getting the most out of tomorrow's sermon"), Pastor Ray has posted a provocative (insightful/challenging/edifying/clarifying/etc....) blog post entitled, "Sunday is not a second Saturday". Please take two minutes to read this post and pay special attention to the conclusion. For your benefit, I'll post the entire entry below: If we would stop treating Sunday as a second Saturday, one more day to run to Home Depot, one more day for the kids’ soccer games, another day for getting ready for Monday, if we would rediscover Sunday as The Lord’s Day, focusing on him for just one day each week, what would be the immediate impact between today and one year from today? By one year from today, we will have spent 52 whole days given over to Jesus. Seven and a half weeks of paid vacation with Jesus. He’s a good King. Maybe we should put him first in our weekly schedules. Not fit him into the margins of our busy weekends, but build our whole weekly routine around him. Just a thought. Much has gone on in the last 24 hours following yesterday's house fire at the Roffs. Here's a brief update:
- Jen is home from the hospital and doing well physically; emotionally she struggling; spiritually she is leaning on Christ - Jay has been transferred down to the burn center in Milwaukee - he's expected to be there for a week to 10 days - he's in a lot of pain with first and second degree burns on his arms, neck, and face. Jay's brother Billy is travelling today to be with him. - The kids are doing well - the children had no injuries - The house has extensive damage and is in the process of being reviewed by the insurance adjusters Please pray for the following things: - For strength and wisdom for Jen as she is striving to work through the entire process of recovery from a house fire as well as be separated from her injured husband - For Jay as he is in much pain from the burns and is incapable of leading his family through the recovery process - For the kids to find Christ to be their Rock as they recover from the trauma of this all - For health insurance for the Roff family - it just so happened that they were in between health insurance coverage and are not certain if their current coverage had been approved We will update you with any needs the Roff's may have. It's Saturday, and I (Dave) will be sharing God's Word with our faith family at Country Bible Church tomorrow. I'm still working on the sermon, praying and thinking and praying and thinking and writing and praying....
How about all of you who aren't preaching tomorrow? How are you preparing for the sermon? Nancy Leigh DeMoss is very helpful here; please consider reading this every Saturday for a year in preparation for the Sunday sermon, "How to get the most out of your pastor's preaching". A week from today, I'll have completed this sabbatical. I have so much more I'd like to get done this week, and I am praying for wisdom on how to finish strong.
This past week was quite productive. Very soon Titus will be applying again for a visa. I'll keep you informed on when he will apply and meet for his interview, but please be praying for this process. If he can get his visa, he'll be with us before we know it; if he can't get his visa, it will greatly delay his visit to us. I am grateful that God has blessed His church with such a library of great books. I have benefited greatly these past few months from God speaking to me through the voice of many friends, brothers and sisters, through their writings. I have so many books to recommend to you all! I have also done some slow reading through God's Word this summer. I read slowly through the gospel of John, even slower through Romans, and then started through Romans again. As I was reading through Romans the second time, I turned to Galatians (a condensed version of Romans, if you will... similar topic with a more directed message), and it has gripped me as I linger over it's message, hearing God speak to my heart through this book of the Bible. Just this morning, I opened up Galatians 3 and intended on finishing up the book again, but only made it through chapter 3. It is so very rich with the gospel for Christians. Check it out: http://www.esvbible.org/Galatians+3/ It has been a joy to attend worship services on Sundays with my family. We were blessed yesterday to attend Cedar River Community Chapel and worship with other believers there. Pastor Chad Johnson blessed me in his sermon from Ephesians 5. I have much more to share with you all. This sabbatical has been very nourishing, and I am, indeed, extremely grateful to the leadership and all of my family at CBC for giving me this opportunity. You have blessed me indeed with this very generous gift! Greetings to my Country Bible family! It was two weeks ago that the Buckley family was able to enjoy a great worship service with you all as our church hosted Emmanuel Jonah, our Liberian friend. I was very delighted that Emmanuel was able to be at CBC and our relationship with him and his ministry was able to be cultivated deeper.
Since that time, our family traveled to visit family in Pennsylvania. We left at 3:00 Monday morning (the day after our service with Emmanuel) and returned last night. We had a great time on vacation. The sabbatical was set up to be 8 weeks long with two weeks of vacation. With our vacation over, we are now in the home stretch, finishing that last weeks of sabbatical. I've planned a busy week with much reading, organization, and working through discipleship materials for our church. Please pray with me for a productive week that I trust God will use for His fame at Country Bible Church. |
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