Sermons from FBC - Jesus is the Better Hosea

This is the third in our sermon series that looks at Christ in the Old Testament.  This week we'll be looking at Hosea.  We'll get an overview of Hosea, and we'll see how Jesus is the better Hosea.  There will be a lot to unfold, I think you'll learn something, so grab a cup of coffee and enjoy...   

To read (or listen to message) click here:

    Jesus is the Better Hosea

Hope you enjoy - love to hear your comments!

The Evils of Religion...

A few years ago, I saw a newspaper article with the following headline: "Atheists will be among friends at group’s annual convention." There is an organization called the Freedom From Religion Foundation that had a convention. Atheists and agnostics from all around the country attended.

I’m not writing about this so I can jump on them for promoting atheism or agnosticism, just so we as believers should be aware that they are out there. They are evangelizing – telling their story. We need to be able to defend our faith against their attacks. 

Actually, I support the right of this group to meet. Freedom of religion isn’t just limited to my religion, and atheism is not a lack of religion, it’s not freedom from religion, as they might say.  Atheism itself is a religion. In fact, it might take a lot more faith to believe what they believe.  However, I will challenge their concerns with religion. They claimed religion - and they were speaking of Christianity - was evil.  I do think they are terribly mistaken on that one.  

I once attended a Fall Missions Festival at the Hunt Baptist Church. They had speakers from about a dozen Mission Outreach programs. People who are offering free clothing, and greatly reduced groceries, school supplies, Christmas gifts, etc. All this in the Hunt, NY area – a very small, very rural community. And as I look around this very rural community, and I see what the church is doing to help others, there is a noticeable lack of anybody else doing anything to help others. 

Where is the Freedom From Religion group when they see people in need? What are they doing to feed and clothe their neighbors who are struggling? Are they helping with school supplies? One group we saw was soliciting donations of computers to be used in Africa in an initiative to greatly improve education in that country. What is the Freedom From Religion group doing to improve education in Africa?  Or even here for that matter?

While they believe that religion is an “evil”, it seems to me the charity of the church is helping where no one else is. Locally, in the Waverly area, there are six food pantries in the valley.  All of them run by church organizations.  It’s the church that has the only homeless shelter in our county.  It’s the church that’s helping people put food on their tables. It’s the church that is clothing the poor and feeding the hungry with free meals on Thursday through the Bridge. All of these services are available free of charge to the recipient. 

The church scores very high marks in national tragedies, as well. Several years ago now, when Hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit the Gulf coast, the church responded in incredible ways. And I saw a report that of the main groups that responded, as far as the satisfaction levels of those who were being helped, the Church was way out in front. Less than half of the people served were satisfied with what FEMA could do. The Red Cross had a huge response, but the satisfaction of what they could do was only 65-70% level. The church was over 90% - over 90% of the people helped were satisfied with what was done for them. And these were people that came because they wanted to, because they saw a need, and their love for their fellow man prompted them respond. 

The group, Freedom from Religion, calls for a nation without God. I don’t know what a nation without God would look like, but I wouldn’t want to live there. We need each other, and we need the church. The comfort and compassion that the church gives is desperately needed. And we won’t see that kind of comfort and compassion from organizations like the Freedom From Religion Foundation. 

A Higher Way - A Pastoral Letter from Rev. Dr. Lee Spitzer

I sometimes like to share things of interest from other pastors, and that's what I'm doing today.  The Rev. Dr. Lee Spitzer is the General Secretary for American Baptist Churches - USA, and he recently wrote a pastoral letter addressing what he sees in society today.  Here is an excerpt:

In brief, our culture suffers from a form of spiritual amnesia.  Having forgotten or ignored the Baptist and biblical core conviction of the infinite worth of every human being because we are all made in God's image, many movements and individuals no longer act as if longing one's neighbor is a fundamental and necessary manifestation of a just and healthy society.  We are so quick to judge, denigrate, criticize, attack, and assume to be superior to those with whom we differ.  There is precious little grace, courtesy and mutual respect remaining in American discourse and life.  We must recapture these virtues which can resupply society with much needed social capital.  

This is a very well written document that, I hope, will get you thinking about your position on some issues.  Some of the issues he brings up are considered political issues, and he calls out the need for discourse and biblical thinking wherever you are in the political arena, and whatever your political affiliation. 

He talks about loving our neighbor, and the need to have that love which motivates us to serve all people in need.   He goes on to talk about what that love would look like in the context of racism, immigration, and those who suffer from violence, especially violence in the form of sexual harassment and human trafficking.  And he talks about showing our love to our 114 churches in Puerto Rico who have lost so much from recent hurricanes.

The letter is bit long, but it's well worth a read.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear your comments...

          A Higher Way: American Baptists and Our Neighbors

Sermons from FBC - Jesus is the Better Adam

This is the second in our new sermon series that looks at Christ in the Old Testament.  This week we'll be looking at Adam, and how Jesus is the better Adam.  There will be a lot to unfold, I think you'll learn something, so grab a cup of coffee and enjoy...   

To read (or listen to message) click here:

    Jesus is the Better Adam

Hope you enjoy - love to hear your comments!

When God Seems Distant

In the book, Sacred Reading, The Ancient Art of Lectio Divina, by Michael Casey, he brings out something that I think deserves some reflection.

He talks about times when God seems absent. There are times, I suppose when you start any new discipline, that spiritual growth comes quickly, and you feel it. But then there are times, often after doing the same discipline for some time, that spiritual growth doesn’t seem to come at all. It almost seems that God has moved on and has left you alone.

Aldous Huxley calls this phenomenon “induction” – the principal that “every positive begets its corresponding negative.” Casey writes, “Any striving after specific virtues is followed by an almost irresistible tendency to backslide.”

I don’t know if I agree with that exactly, but I know that in my own life my spiritual growth has been very cyclical. I experience highs of incredible growth and special closeness with God, followed by times of dryness and distance from God. I suppose all of you have experienced something similar to this.

Perhaps the positive in this is that this happens to everyone. Maybe it goes back to our sinful nature. Maybe any commitment toward God brings up an unconscious pulling away. Maybe it is a spiritual battle being fought, the enemy not willing to give up on us. Whatever it is, the key to moving on is persistence on our Bible Study, in our devotions, in our prayers, and in our disciplines.

God is there, even when you don’t feel him. Persist in moving toward him, and I bet you will feel him again…

Favorite Chapter...

Yesterday I talked about being asked what my favorite verse was.  I answered with Galatians 2:20, which we talked about yesterday.  But I also shared a favorite chapter.  That comes from Psalm 121.  If you've ever had me visit, I've probably shared that passage...

I lift up my eyes from the hills - where does my help come from? 
My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.  

He will not let your foot slip - he who watches over you will not slumber;
Indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. 

The Lord watches over you - the Lord is your shade at your right hand;
the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night.  

The Lord will keep you fro all harm - he will watch over your life;
the Lord will watch over your coming and going both not and forevermore.  

That's my favorite - I'd love to hear yours.  Please leave a comment...

Favorite verses...

At a small group a few days ago, we talked about our favorite Bible verses.  I actually had a favorite verse, and a favorite chapter.  I thought I would share them with you.  I guess I'll share the verse today, and the chapter tomorrow...

My favorite verse is Galatians 2:20, "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.  The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me gave himself for me."

To me, this verse speaks of the new life we have when we come to faith.  Our past problems can no longer hold us back, our skeletons in the closet can no longer haunt us.  We are new, because the sinful people we were are gone, and now, Christ is in their place.  We live our lives in the body secure in the love Jesus has for us, it is Him who gave us this new life.  

To go on living as we have is folly.  That life is dead.  And only Christ lives now.

That's what it means to be a Christian.

I'd love to hear your thoughts.  Drop me a comment and let me know your favorite verses...