Ambiance

“And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea: who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews. These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so. Therefore many of them believed; also of honourable women which were Greeks, and of men, not a few.” (Acts 17:10-12 KJV)

My wife is always my best source for excellent illustrations from life. She observes things (mostly from purely a woman’s perspective) and interprets them for me. Case in point, recently we went out with some members of our church to celebrate our daughter-in-law’s birthday. Occasionally, we like to try a restaurant of which we have not previously visited. Someone suggested a particular Italian restaurant not too far away from our home so we chose it for the meal. Everyone in our party seemed to enjoy the food they ordered and the service was good. However, the next morning my wife commented that if she were asked where she wanted to go on her birthday she would not choose the restaurant we had tried. I asked her why she felt that way and she said, “I enjoyed the food, but the atmosphere left something to be desired.”

So it is too many times with folks today who are looking to find a church. They seem more concerned about the “shell” than they are with the “Spirit.” Most people will want to go to a cathedral rather than a cave to worship, even if it means to forsake the truth. Yes, décor will win out over dedication almost every time.

It’s all about ambiance.

Give Me Thine Heart

“My son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways.” (Proverbs 23:26 KJV)

Raising children in a Christian home is a ministry all in itself. It is a task that is the work of a lifetime. Contrary to society’s philosophy of turning children out at age eighteen, there is no place found in Scripture which indicates or insinuates such a practice. Even though there is a point where an individual becomes accountable for their own decisions and actions, parents are still responsible for prayer and counsel.

Christian parents like to use Proverbs 22:6 as a “safety net” for raising children, but an important element seems to be overlooked in many cases and that is getting the heart of the child. If a child will not surrender their heart to the parent, there will be no training in the way they should go. One father said that if there was a single thing he could go back and do over in the raising of his son, it would be to teach his son to be a “giver” and not a “taker.” This man never got the heart of his son and therefore, the boy grew up never having his eyes directed to observe the ways of his father. As a result, he lives a life of self rather than productivity.

How does a parent get the heart of their child? Ask for it. This is what our text indicates. If our Lord asks for the heart of the sinner in order to redeem them, the parent must ask for the heart of the child to raise them. The heart must be surrendered from a free will. Start when they are young. Ask with love. Ask often. Pray the child will be trainable and yielded to instruction. Then you better teach them something or you will raise “Cain” rather than a Christian.

Jesus' Prayer Request

“Please pray for my husband… children… neighbor.” “Please pray for my job.” What a privilege it is to pray for people and their needs. I can’t describe the blessing it is when I pray for someone’s request and they later come to thank me for praying because God answered that request! To think that I had a part in that answer to prayer!

Prayer requests are found throughout the Bible.

· The children of Israel to Samuel—“Cease not to cry unto the LORD our God for us, that he will save us out of the hand of the Philistines” (1 Sam. 7:8).

· King Jeroboam to the prophet of Judah—“Intreat now the face of the LORD thy God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored me again” (1 Kings 13:6).

· The Apostle Paul requested prayer— “Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified” (2 Thess. 3:1).

What if Jesus gave you a prayer request? Well, He has. In fact, it is the ONLY prayer request He ever asked us. Although He taught us how to pray, He only made this one request. “Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.” (Matthew 9:37-38)

Pastor Clint Miller, pastor of North County Baptist Church in Escondido, CA. Several years ago he and his two sons Cheyenne and Cody were in the airport at Ontario, CA. His sons came up to him excited and said, “Dad, there is a movie star in this airport!” They saw Nedra Volz, who played the maid Adelaide on the TV show Different Strokes. Clint Miller asked the boys, “Did you give her a tract?” They said they had not. “Well, we’d better go give her one. Let’s go.” As he walked up to her, she said, “Do you want my autograph?” Clint said, “No ma’am, we wanted to give you something,” and he handed her a gospel tract. Nedra then asked, “Are these your sons?” He said, “Yes, ma’am.” She said, “They are fine looking boys.” He said, “Thank-you. May I ask you a question?” She agreed. “If you died today do you know for sure that you’d go to heaven?” When she said she didn’t, Clint Miller led her to Christ right there in the airport. When they were finished, she told him, “I want you to know this means a lot to me.”

Not long after that, Brother Miller received a picture in the mail of Nedra Volz with this inscription: “To my friend Pastor Miller. Thanks for what you did for me.” Two weeks later he received a phone call from her secretary, “I work for Miss Volz and she would like to know if it’s all right for her to visit your church this Sunday?” She came and Brother Miller asked her to give a testimony. She stood up in front of the crowd and said, “All my life I thought I had everything. However, now I have God. Your pastor led me to Christ!”

Everyone else saw a movie star—A chance for an autograph. Clint Miller saw a soul who needed Jesus. Incidentally, Nedra Volz went home to be with the Lord in 2003.

We need to pray for Jesus’ request.

Busy With Revival

I have already received requests for blog updates and I am sorry for being delinquent with it. My only excuse is that we (our whole family) have been busy with the work of getting ready for our Spring Anniversary (45th) Revival. Our church just celebrated its forty-fifth anniversary as we have in the past dozen years with a revival meeting. Only this one turned out to be REVIVAL! I have never seen a meeting “break open” so early in the week and continue on through the week as this one has been for us. Praise God! Not since the days of our tent revival in the front yard of the old building have we been visited by God in such a way. It was such a joy to be in every service. God blessed the music in such a way that some folks did not even wait for the preaching to go to altar. We saw folks that had not been to church for months come. And the revival was still on last Sunday. God is to be glorified and praised for all He gave us last week and last Sunday.

I Am An Orphan

“When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up.” (Psalms 27:10 KJV)

Yes, I am an orphan. Some are orphaned because their parents gave them up at their birth. Others are orphaned because they have been deserted by parents later in life. And there are those who orphan themselves by their rebellion, going out from the direction and fellowship of their parents. I am orphaned because my parents are both with the Lord now.

My father passed away one day shy of his sixty-sixth birthday having suffered for a half dozen years with several amputations from his right leg. He finally succumb to three heart attacks and three strokes. Dad was raise a farm boy in central Ohio and was a veteran of World War II, having served as a SeaBee in the South Pacific. He came to know Christ as his Saviour after the war, met and married my mother and together they had two living sons. There was another son who was miscarried. I look forward to seeing him someday in Glory.

Mother left us to be with Jesus just five weeks before her eightieth birthday. She was a Kentucky born and bred belle. She loved the Lord and did her best to instill that love in my brother and I as we were growing up.

They both have been gone for years now, but I still miss them. I wish I could hug their neck and kiss their face and tell them I love them. But I will have to wait until it is my time to see them again. Until then, the LORD will take me up.

There may be some orphan out there reading these words wondering whether there is anyone caring for them. Let me assure you that God wants to be your Father and He will take you up.

Who Do You Trust?

“Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” (Proverbs 3:5-6 KJV)

Years ago there used to be a game show on TV called “Who Do You Trust?” This seems to be the game folks are playing today. “Should we trust God and what He says in His Word, or should we trust our own heart and instincts?” From the tragedies that we see in society today, most folks would do better by the flip of a coin than to live by the decisions they have made for themselves.

The world is an uncertain place. We do not know what each day holds. As the song says: Many things about tomorrow, I don’t seem to understand; But I know Who holds tomorrow, And I know He holds my hand.

A football coach wants the ball in the hands of the best ball carrier, the best receiver, the strongest and most capable hands. The NASCAR team wants to put a driver behind the wheel who believes he can win the race and knows how to do it. The best hands we can place our lives in are the hands of the One: Who flung the stars into space; Who hung the moon; Who breathed life into our being; Who triumphed over death, hell and the grave! Our Lord never fumbles the ball, He never kicks the ball short of the goal, He never goes out of bounds, He never loses a race.

Our Scripture for today reminds us that our relationship with God is dual-sided. Our side is to trust in the Lord, not ourselves, and acknowledge Him in all we do. His side is to direct our path. The problem lies with us trying to do His part. We do not seem content with the Lord directing our life. Remember, God’s will is not a road map – it is a relationship.

Eat Dirt!

“Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.” (2Timothy 2:3 KJV)

I get a bit discussed with 21st century Christians. Everything has to be so sterile we can not even be totally honest with one another for fear that we may offend each other. Now, I do not desire to be abusive to anyone, especially a brother in Christ, but we need to toughen up a bit when it comes to spiritual maturity, quit walking on egg shells around each other. Pampering and codling a brother when offenses come along will not produce a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

We need to eat dirt! When I was a kid we picked food up off the floor, blew on it and ate it. We played in the dirt with worms and bugs. We shared a coke out of a glass bottle, yep, passed it around and every kid took a sip. No one got sick, we were tough because we built up a resistance to the germs. No one had tubes in their ears or used inhalers. We got the mumps and got over it.

Bottom line…Christians need to endure hardness, without a bunch of crying and complaining. The few, the saved, the redeemed.

Ugly!

“But what I do, that I will do, that I may cut off occasion from them which desire occasion; that wherein they glory, they may be found even as we. For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.” (2Corinthians 11:12-15 KJV)

As believers, we want sin to be ugly. It is rarely so, at least not until its end. (“Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.” James 1:15 KJV).

We desire to view the adulterers and whoremongers of Hollywood to be ugly. To us, the lying politicians and bureaucrats ought to be ugly. The false apostles and deceitful workers of today ought to be viewed with distain. But it is not so.

But then it goes a step farther. That which should be ugly is considered to be something of beauty to be admired. The Hollywood star is idolized, the athlete is copied, the self-serving politician is elected, and the false prophets are praised, angels of light, blessings!

The undiscerning spiritual eye is incapable of seeing the horror and deceit. It is frustrating from time to time, but always remember…we all will stand before the same Jesus. It is He Who is the righteous Judge.

My Daddy Told Me

“The word which came unto Jeremiah from the LORD in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, saying, Go unto the house of the Rechabites, and speak unto them, and bring them into the house of the LORD, into one of the chambers, and give them wine to drink. Then I took Jaazaniah the son of Jeremiah, the son of Habaziniah, and his brethren, and all his sons, and the whole house of the Rechabites; And I brought them into the house of the LORD, into the chamber of the sons of Hanan, the son of Igdaliah, a man of God, which was by the chamber of the princes, which was above the chamber of Maaseiah the son of Shallum, the keeper of the door: And I set before the sons of the house of the Rechabites pots full of wine, and cups, and I said unto them, Drink ye wine. But they said, We will drink no wine: for Jonadab the son of Rechab our father commanded us, saying, Ye shall drink no wine, neither ye, nor your sons for ever: Neither shall ye build house, nor sow seed, nor plant vineyard, nor have any: but all your days ye shall dwell in tents; that ye may live many days in the land where ye be strangers. Thus have we obeyed the voice of Jonadab the son of Rechab our father in all that he hath charged us, to drink no wine all our days, we, our wives, our sons, nor our daughters; Nor to build houses for us to dwell in: neither have we vineyard, nor field, nor seed: But we have dwelt in tents, and have obeyed, and done according to all that Jonadab our father commanded us. But it came to pass, when Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon came up into the land, that we said, Come, and let us go to Jerusalem for fear of the army of the Chaldeans, and for fear of the army of the Syrians: so we dwell at Jerusalem. Then came the word of the LORD unto Jeremiah, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Go and tell the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Will ye not receive instruction to hearken to my words? saith the LORD. The words of Jonadab the son of Rechab, that he commanded his sons not to drink wine, are performed; for unto this day they drink none, but obey their father’s commandment: notwithstanding I have spoken unto you, rising early and speaking; but ye hearkened not unto me. I have sent also unto you all my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them, saying, Return ye now every man from his evil way, and amend your doings, and go not after other gods to serve them, and ye shall dwell in the land which I have given to you and to your fathers: but ye have not inclined your ear, nor hearkened unto me. Because the sons of Jonadab the son of Rechab have performed the commandment of their father, which he commanded them; but this people hath not hearkened unto me: Therefore thus saith the LORD God of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring upon Judah and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem all the evil that I have pronounced against them: because I have spoken unto them, but they have not heard; and I have called unto them, but they have not answered. And Jeremiah said unto the house of the Rechabites, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Because ye have obeyed the commandment of Jonadab your father, and kept all his precepts, and done according unto all that he hath commanded you: Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Jonadab the son of Rechab shall not want a man to stand before me for ever.” (Jeremiah 35:1-19 KJV)
Of the two kingdoms of Israel divided, the northern kingdom called “Israel” and the southern kingdom called “Judah,” the southern kingdom was the last to apostatize, but it did apostatize. And this is a good example of why. In the next chapter (Jeremiah 36) is an interesting story of not only ignoring the word of God but trying to destroy it.

What is going on in our text?
• God tells the prophet Jeremiah to give wine to the Rechabites. So he tries to do so, but when he offers it to them they refuse.

• The Rechabites were told by their father, Jonadab, that they were never to drink wine, build houses, have vineyards, or plant seed.


• This may seem odd but they were taught that if they would do this their days would be long in the land. Let me give you some history about this family:
o This Rechab went into Samaria with Jehu and destroyed the temple of Baal where Ahab and Jezebel worshipped.
o One of Rechab’s sons, Malchiah, repaired the dung gate in the restoration of Jerusalem under Nehemiah.
o Because they obeyed their Godly father’s words, when all others were taken into captivity by Nebuchadnezzar, this family remained in the land.

• God was upset with Judah because here was a family who obeyed their father’s words, but Judah would not obey the Almighty, but ignored and questioned Him.

• Knowing human nature, I am sure there were times when the children of Rechab must have questioned the reasoning behind their family restrictions. They may not have liked what they heard. But what saved them from captivity was that they said, “We may not understand why, we may not like what we hear, but Daddy told us not to do these things and we are not going to do them.”
o They may have been laughed at.
o They may have been ostracized.
o They may have been misunderstood.
But they were not going to disobey Daddy.

Parents, may I say to you that within the Old Testament law and reiterated in the New Testament is this principle: Honor and obey thy parents. Why? That thy days may be long in the land, or upon the earth. Listen! If children are not taught to obey their parents, they will have a mighty hard time learning to obey God.

There are things in this life we need to just take God at His word and obey. It doesn’t matter if we understand at the time, we should just do them. It doesn’t matter if anyone agrees with us, we should just do them. It doesn’t matter if the whole world is going the opposite direction, we should just do them.

Faith for the Family in the Final Days

“But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.” (Hebrews 11:6-7 KJV)

“But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” (Matthew 24:37-39 KJV)

“And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.” (Luke 17:26-27 KJV)

There is going to be a repeat of Noah’s day just preceding the return of Jesus Christ. In other words, Jesus is saying that just before I come again, you are going to see the characteristics of that age repeated again.

When we think of Noah’s day and all that went on, we usually think of world-wide violence, youthful rebellion and sexual perversion. But very few folks think when Jesus says, “as it was in the days of Noe,” about a family that lived by faith; that is what I want to center our thoughts on today.

In the Word of God, it speaks of there being just a few who live by faith in the final days. For example, (Luke 18:8 “…nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” Not very many really live by faith today. It is usually, “Oh, God, what are we going to do? How are we going to pay our bills? What will we do if Obama or Hillary gets elected (or for that matter, McCain)? What if the bottom falls out of the economy?” One has never seen such agonizing and insecurity among God’s people as we see today. It is no wonder why our kids are the way they are. Laodicean Christians live by job, instead of like Job…by checking account instead of by a settled account…by Social Security instead of eternal security. I am not against those things as long as we are willing to turn all matters over to God.

But here in Scripture is a family that God says they lived by faith. That includes Noah, his wife and sons and daughters-in-law. May I say, they are not going to get on that ark unless they have faith. I heard another preacher say once, “They sure were a mess of a family.” Well, they may have been a mess, but they had faith enough to get on that boat. I am just saying that according to the Scriptures, this is going to be repeated in the last days.

Therefore, there are going to be a few families on this earth before Jesus comes that will be families of faith like Noah’s family, who will condemn this rotten world and look to God for redemption and trust Him to get them through this life into the next.

Will yours be one of the few?