Posts Tagged with "forgiveness"

As we enter the Holiday Season, we will depart from our current study on 1st Timothy and will begin a new series of sermons focusing on the upcoming Holidays. He should have known better. He never should have stayed at home alone while his army was fighting in the field. He never should have lingered late at night on his rooftop. He never should have set his eyes on tha...

As we discussed last week, there are numerous passages in the Bible dealing with widows. God has a special concern for them, along with orphans and others in difficult circumstances. Many passages lay down laws to protect widows. God is described as their protector and judge: "A father of the fatherless and a judge for the widows is God in His holy habitation" (Ps. 68:5...

Dear Friends, I trust you are doing well and looking forward to Sunday. Few things are more controversial among Christians than the sovereignty of God. The issue is simply this: Is God truly sovereign (in control and supreme) over everything, including calamity, natural disasters, death, and demons, or is his sovereign control restricted to those things we typically r...

But his delight is in the law of the LORD and in His law he meditates day and night(Psalm 1:2, NKJV) As I continued reading and studying the Psalms, I truly enjoyed how our former Pastor Ken Hornok described Psalm 1. Pastor Ken expanded on these 5 main points, Separation from the world, Situated on the waterSaturated, Sanctified, and Satisfied by the Word of God. The go...

This Sunday as we continue looking at the back story of some of the great hymns of our faith and their scriptural bases for those hymns; today we focused on "There is a Fountain Filled with Blood". There is no greater or more eternally important theme in all of Scripture than that of the shed blood of the sacrificial substitute. For example, when Paul writes in Romans 3...

Dear Friends, I trust you are doing well and looking forward to Sunday. Connie and I are in South Carolina at Connie's sisters house.Yesterday, was Connie's Mom, Pat Chambers', 95thbirthday.We gathered around her bed and sang happy birthday.Not sure she was aware what was going on because she is dying.The hospice nurse has said she could depart this life at any moment....

Who is Jesus Christ? This question has been asked many many times. Even during Jesus' life, many asked, Who is Jesus? Is He reallty the Son of God, Is He the messiah? Is He the chosen one? Today we're going dive deeper into this topic and discuss who Jesus is and how we can present him to other? John Newton, a former English slave trader is best know for his hymn "Amaz...

A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver (Proverbs 25:11, NKJV Not everyone is comfortable speaking in a public setting. Many suffer from glossophobia, also known as fear of public speaking. I'm not talking about having jitters, or sweaty palms, I'm talking about physical fear, and discomfort. Early in my career as a rocket scientist, my supervisor...

Dear Friends, I trust you are doing well and looking forward to Sunday. This weekend Connie and I will be attending our niece's wedding in Texarkana. We are coming down to less than a half dozen nieces and nephews who remain single and like all our family weddings, we are looking forward to seeing our extended family. All my siblings will be there so it will be special...

Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all (Colossians 3:11, NKJV) God loves us all! This is true, but the big question is do we love all others? I know we normally associate with those who we feel comfortable around, but God loves all, even those who may make us a bit uncomfortabl...

Today we focused on the role of God in the Church. There are many religions and churches out there, some are truthful to the Gospel and others offer salvation at a price. What would Jesus think of those churches that offer salvation in exchange for your money, your possessions, but never preach the Gospel of Salvation through faith in Christ alone! In John 2 Jesus goes ...

This weekend we will be taking a break from our sermon series God's Blueprint for the Church. This Sunday's message is called "Never Waste a Crisis" it will be delivered by Pastor Dan Hornok. Having lived through a year with the Corona virus, it would be a shame to have lived it, without ever learning from it.Even after a year of lockdowns, social distancing, and all of...

Dear Friends, I trust you are doing well and looking forward to Sunday. On September 9, 1839, a little boy was born into the Hatfield clan of West Virginia. His given name was William Anderson Hatfield.While still quite young he got a nickname from his own mother that perfectly described his sinister disposition and aggressive nature. She called himDevil Anse. The name...

In our 17th message from our sermon series "God's Blueprint for the Church" today's message "A Good Minister of Christ Jesus." We're going to focus on the preacher or pastor and how their ministry can suffer because they see themselves a bigger than Christ. It is very important to recognize these ego or personality driven ministries. We will continue to address what sho...

Dear Friends, I trust you are doing well and looking forward to theLord's Day. Witnessing the fall of someone people greatly admire elicits deep, painful emotions. We feel betrayed, embarrassed and angry over what they've done. The more public our faith in them, the more public our shame and the deeper our anger. Those emotions describe the way many of us have f...

Today we continue with our new sermon series "God's Blueprint for the Church." Our 5th message, Fight the Good Fight focuses on identifying areas where we must fight the good fight, and those other areas where there is no fight! Join us again and for the next few weeks as we continue to carefully study 1st Timothy a marvelous letter.The fundamental nature of Christianity...

Dear Friends, I trust you are doing well and looking forward to theLord's Day. Bill Glass played a full career with the Cleveland Browns as an All-Pro defensive end before retiring for another career spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ. In his bookGet in the Game, Bill Glass tells of the time his team was battling the St. Louis Cardinals (back when they were st...

Dear Friends, I trust you are doing well and looking forward to theLord's Day. Corrie ten Boom is one of my heroes because of her ability to forgive! She wrote a number of wonderfully encouraging books about her experiences as a prisoner during World War II. Her crime, along with other family members, was hiding Jews in her home in order to escape from the Nazis du...

Big Mouths -Bad Message1 Timothy 1:3-7 As we continue with our new sermon series "God's Blueprint for the Church." Our 2nd message, Big mouths bad message focuses on what should the Church's message be. For the next few weeks we will continue to carefully study 1st Timothy a marvelous letter. If the world were free of all disease, we would not need doctors or hospitals a...

Dear Friends, I trust you are doing well and looking forward to the Lord's Day. In his acceptance speech for the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion in 1983, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn addressed the reason for the Russian Revolution that resulted in the slaughter of 60 million people. After spending fifty years studying this question, Solzhenitsyn summarized his con...

Of all the things that trouble our minds in these days of lawlessness, it is imperative that we remember that sin is our greatest problem. A just society apart from the Justifier of our soul, is folly. Now I know that this thought troubles the mind. It goes exactly against the grain of what the world says is possible; hence the reason it is exactly what we should do. ...

Dear Members and Friends, I trust you are doing well and looking forward to ourservice this coming Lord's Day! Years ago when I first began working for the Christian Medical and Dental Associations as a Regional Director I was introduced to a journal called First Things. The journal advertises itself as "America's Most Influential Journal of Religion and Public Lif...

Dear Members and Friends, I trust you are doing well and looking forward to our service this coming Lord's Day! One of the lessons I'm going to share from our study of Gideon in Judges 6 is that family relationships can be the most challenging. This is particularly true in spiritual matters, particularly evangelism. One of the greatest burdens on earth is reali...

Dear Members and Friends, I trust you are doing well and looking forward to our service this coming Lord's Day! Joe McKeever is a godly, seasoned Southern Baptist preacher who writes a blog for pastors. I always enjoy his insights because he doesn't write from an ivory tower. He's pastured for over 60 years! Recently he related the following story about a good ...

Dear Members and Friends, I trust you are doing well and looking forward to ourvirtual service on Sunday! This week at Bandon Dunes golf club in Oregon the 120th U.S. Amateur Golf Tournament is taking place. I enjoy golf and hope to watch some of the competition this weekend. The tournament consists of two days ofstroke play (total number of strokes counted), with th...

Dear Precious Saints of MBC, I trust you are doing well and looking forward to this coming Lord's day. People are coping with the current crisis in differing ways, most of which are only making matters worse. I have long held the belief that the best way to manage the anxiety and fears that arise from earthly chaos is by meditating on the peace and blessings ...

And also if anyone competes in athletics, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. (2 Timothy 2:5, NKJV) We all have to live by the rules. God gave us His 10 commandments for us to live by them. However we also have to live and abide by rules set by our elected officials. In athletic competitions one has to play by the rules. I became painfully aware o...

Dear Precious Saints of MBC, I trustyou are doing well and looking forward to this comingLord's Day. In Dale Galloway's book,"You Can Win with Love", he tells a story about John D. Rockefeller, the man who built the great standard oil empire. Rockefeller was a man who demanded high performance from his company executives. One day, one of the executives made a two m...

Showing kindness to others can come back to be a blessing to us. I was reminded of that truth this past week when I read the following story: When believers in Holland learned that the Nazi troops were systematically raiding the orphanages and taking Jewish children out, and then sending them to their deaths in the concentration camps of Europe, brave Dutch men would ...

Dear Precious Saints of MBC, I trust you are doing well and looking forward to this Sunday Last Sunday basketball great Kobe Bryant was killed along with his 13 year old daughter and 7 others in a helicopter crash. They were traveling by air to his daughter's basketball game at the "Mamba Academy" when the helicopter crashed into the mountain side. The cause of the ac...

Next Sunday we bring to a close our long and methodical journey through the Epistle of Paul to the Galatians. 29 messages ago, one Sunday shy of one year (2/22/2019) we began our study of this marvelous letter. It's been an exciting trip. The topic of God's grace has been dealt with so forcefully and effectively in this book that one cannot escape the overwhelming truth ...

One of the most popular falsehoods of our times is that we can do whatever we want without ever being held accountable for what we have done. That is a lie! It is a lie that I can do as I please and become spiritual later. It is a lie, wrote the Scotsman's John Brown, "that a man may attain ultimate happiness without living a spiritual life." Make no mistake about it -...

Dear Precious Saints of MBC, I trust you are doing well and looking forward to this Sunday with Matt Wilder. During these first few weeks of the New Year I've been suggesting some New Year challenges. The first challenge was to move from being a victim of circumstances to being a learner about life. Two weeks ago I suggested the challenge of mastering a gos...

When we partake in the Lord's table, what is our attitude? Do we remember Jesus died for our sins?...

Are we aware of our salvation and forgiveness? Do we recognize Jesus' sacrifice for us and His complete and total forgiveness?...

God calls us to forgive our transgressors, can we forgive those who hurt us? Can we forgive the person who hurt one of our loved ones?...

Is my salvation free? Can I help my salvation by being good and doing good deeds? What I don't believe in God, but I am still a good person, can my good works and deeds save me?...

Dear Friends, Living the Christian life is simple. It's not easy, but God has made it uncomplicated for us. We have only two possible ways we can go. We can either walk by the Spirit or we will carry out the desires of the flesh. There is no middle ground; no neutral position we can take. Every person who places their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation has the...

Justification, What does this mean for me that I've been justified by Jesus' sacrifice? ...