Deep Creek Baptist Church

Paul worried if this strong rebuke was too much.  Ultimately, Paul knew that leading the church to a place of grief over thir sin was for their own benefit.  It’s good to feel sorrow over the wrong choices that we’re making.  It’s right to feel grief over sin that can lead us to some very important choices.  You don’t get to a better place with God until you recognize that where you are is not as good as where you should be.  Sometimes you have to receive a hard word, something you’d rather not hear, in order to get to the place the Lord wants you to be.

Week after week, I stand in the front of the Sanctuary and call people to pray or pray with them to grieve over their sin.  In my heart I feel compassion for them, but I do not want to short-circuit what the Lord is doing in their hearts.  I want to say, “It’s OK; but I know they need to feel grief in order to fully appreciate and experience God’s grace!  Paul rejoiced because he knew that only when the church was wounded by the reality of their sinful choices could they begin to experience the renewing power of the Holy Spirit at work in their lives.  Repentance is the moment when everything changes…Denial of sin only takes us backward and never forward.  Repentance alone opens the way for a fresh out-pouring of the Lord’s favor in your lives!   Think FRESH!

Jesus is singing praises to His Father in Heaven.  He knows what is about to happen.  His Thursday will end in a horrific way as Friday dawns.  Rather than dwell on what will be we find Jesus living in the moment…finding joy with His disciples and honoring His Father.  Jesus is above His earthly trouble…this is where we need to live our life with Jesus, above our earthly trouble.  In this world we will have trouble and strife, but take heart I have overcome the world. So no matter what your burden, sing to Jesus.   Sing to Him in the morning, sing to Him in the afternoon, sing to Him when things are going great, but also sing to Him when things are bad and you are in the dark.  If you sing to Him, He’ll keep you in tune; He’ll be light upon your path; He’ll be the Son which brightens your everyday!

The Apostle Paul and Silas sang to Jesus from a dark damp Philippian jail.  Their backs raw from a fresh beating and stinging with salt, found the strength in the dark to sing with Jesus.  He is our singing Savior.  Friends it is much easier to sing to the Lord than to cry in your grief and pity.  Feeling sorry for yourself starts all over again the more you think about it.  Next time you are low or down; feeling alone or alienated; frightened or intimidated’; beaten and attacked by the world, rather than self-pity and grief…SING with Jesus.  My brightest days have come on the heels of some of my darkest nights and in my hour of need, I opened my heart and sang with the Lord, the story of Creation and love Everlasting!  “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God, the Almighty, who was, who is, and who is coming.–Hallelujah

“Sing a new song to the LORD; sing to the Lord, all the earth.”

When approaching Jericho, Joshua saw a man with a sword in his hand, “Are you for us,…  In effect God is saying in the above verse, “I am not here to take sides: I am here to take over!”  So, the best we can do is to find out how to make sure we are on God’s side.  That will not guarantee that we will be spared as a nation but then again perhaps He will show us His favor.  Our greatest gift to this country is to return to the biblical priorities of the church, and, more importantly, in so doing we will be pleasing to our heavenly Father.

If God does sometimes stay His severe hand of judgment, how do we readjust our agenda as selfish people to reflect His priorities?  And how do we shift from wanting our will to be done to wanting His will?  Preparing our heart’s for what God wants to do rather than convincing Him to help us in what we want to do should be at the top of our agenda.  He owes us nothing; we owe Him everything…How do you get on God’s side?

It is the nature of sin to take good things and twist them, ever so slightly, so that they miss the target to which they were aimed, the target of God.  One requirement of discipleship is to learn the ways sin skews our nature and submit what we learn to continuing the will of God, so that we are reshaped through the days of our obedience.  The Christian has to find a better way to avoid the sin of Babel.  The pretentious work which became Babel and its pious opposite which developed at Thessalonica are displayed today on a broad canvas.  Western culture takes up where Babel left off; while eastern culture is grounded in deep rooted pessimism.

If we do not find the middle ground between both extremes, we will either become workaholics or drop-outs.  Friends neither of these will honor the Lord thy God.  Try reading Psalm 127 and apply it to your life so you may find both grace and balance as you walk a path in light of His wonderful love!

One of the most often ignored aspects of salvation is repentance.  Therefore, we need to seek to form testimonies, gospel presentations, Bible study sets and sermon that call to repentance rather than to mutual assent or touchy, feel good gospel so watered down you could never get a crisp clean drink of living water.  They must turn their backs on false saviors, repudiate tribal gods, reject the Qur’ran and the false pedophile prophet, cease worship in spirit temples and ancestral shrines and turn their back on worship of sex, money, power, and other metaphorical idols.

Simply put, we must preach and teach salvation by grace through Faith in Christ, and do so in a way that is faithful, meaningful and compassionate!  We must not only interpret the word properly but we must proclaim the Word clearly.  No more big smiles and empty promises; no name it and claim it nor blab it and grab it; not a prosperity gospel nor a social gospel.  It is the Gospel of Jesus Christ and its purpose is to save all mankind, not get men all fruity tuity feeling good and working to heal social injustices.  Salvation friend…in Christ and Christ alone!  Who have you shared the Gospel with this week?