December 2021

Are You Prepared?

When the first Christmas came, when Jesus was born, most people missed it. Of course, there were no telltale signs like reindeer on front lawns. No Christmas songs had been written. There were no colorful, twinkling lights or sales at the downtown market. Children did not find it hard to sleep that night, because it was a night like any other night.

But the first Christmas was not without its signs, which dated back a few centuries. The Hebrew prophets had predicted the Messiah was coming, and they were very specific in pointing out that he would be born of a virgin in the little village of Bethlehem: " 'But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to Me the One to be Ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting' " (Micah 5:2).

On the first Christmas, it was pretty much business as usual. Things had been bleak for the Jewish people for some time. There had been an icy silence from heaven. Four hundred years had passed, and there had not been a single prophet to speak for God. There had been no miracles performed. They were under the tyranny of Rome. Things were very dark. It was time for the Messiah.

Yet when He finally arrived, so many missed it: The innkeeper. The people of Bethlehem. The scholars. Herod. All of Rome. Only a handful of people got it and were ready.

Jesus Christ is coming back to this earth again. The question is, have we done more to prepare for the celebration of a past event than we have for a future one? We may all be ready for Christmas, but are we ready for the return of Christ?

Travis Henkle

Elder

February 2022

Congratulations on reading the newsletter this far down! Maybe you’re an over-achiever. Maybe you’re looking for encouragement... maybe you’re here for both. I may not be the best one to come to for an encouraging word, as I’m a natural born pessimist. I like the joke, “If you don’t have anything nice to say, come sit by me.”
I see some of what is going on in the news and it is pretty discouraging! But I guess that’s been that way since the fall of man. I find that I cannot listen to the news too much. It just gets on me. I know that traditionally, Christianity grows the best when it’s persecuted, but I certainly don’t want to go through that. I can’t help but think that the latest fad of canceling people and organizations is headed for the church, and eventually this church. We have to speak what is true, in love, but it seems that speaking truth can be dangerous in today’s culture. There are many other issues that I could bring up that could spiral us all down into division and despair, but you get the idea of what I’m saying. It all makes me think of a quote from the book “A Divine Conspiracy” by Dallas Willard. He says, “Absurdity reigns, and confusion makes it look good.” To me, that’s a witty little saying that’s full of truth. Confusion is a strategic way of the evil one that’s designed to create fear.
Sometimes I ask myself, and I would ask you to answer this for yourself – What would your faith look like if you were persecuted? I answer myself, “You know, that might be a good thing. It would definitely sort out the real believers!” Until I realize that it would be ME and my life that we’re talking about.
This is where my mind goes when I think about persecution and death: There’s a scene in the movie The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King where a young character named Pippin is talking with the wise old wizard Gandalf as they are about to be overrun by an evil army:
Pippin says: “I didn’t think it would end this way.
Gandalf replys: “End? No, the journey doesn’t end here. Death is just another path... One that we all must take. The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all turns to silver glass... And then you see it.” Pippin looks at him with suspense and says, “What? Gandalf?... See what?”
Gandalf looks into the distance, and says, “White shores... and beyond, a far green country under a swift sunrise.”
Pippin smiles, and says “Well, that isn’t so bad.” Gandalf smiles back and says, “No... No it isn’t.” To me, it’s just a good thing to remember that the fear of death is another one of the evil one’s tools, and that Jesus has defeated death.
I, probably like you, can be scared because of the thought of persecution or death. It’s scary because I have many things to love. And that’s a good thing.
So if your mind works like mine, I hope that you’ll take encouragement from these words from Romans 8: “If God is for us, who can be against us?”

Jason Peck

Elder

Romans 12:2…     

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

It’s not easy to not be conformed to this world. 

According to one source, the French pastor, theologian, and reformer of the mid-1500s, John Calvin, thought it was so hard to not be transformed to this world that he would often preach eight times a week, and some times more. He believed that only being exposed to God’s word once or twice a week did little to resist the relentless diet of false illusions emanating from the world. He was persuaded that Christians needed all the time they could give to hearing God’s word. [1]   Of course back then there weren’t many copies of the Scriptures around yet, so hearing is how a person got it.

If Calvin thought there was a relentless diet of false illusions in the 16th century, I wonder what he would think about the relentless diet of false illusions in the United States in the 21stcentury. TV programing and commercials, with sex and violence from one end to the other. Radio and it’s music, with songs about suicide and murder and drugs and sex. The internet. Oh my, you can find any kind of evil thought on there. Anything you can imagine. Social media where people tell each other every move they make in an effort to be thought highly of. 

What are we to do with all this? It seems so overwhelming. Shall we all become hermits so we can separate ourselves from the world, or wear a black hat and a bonnet and live in a time past? Even though folks who do such things may have the best of intentions, I don’t think so. The devil’s game has always been to take things that were intended for good, like TV, radio, internet, and social media, then twist and contaminate them and use them for his evil purposes. No I think Calvin’s advice is still good for today. We need to saturate our lives with God’s word daily. On the internet, at “Bible Gateway”, there are 54 English versions of God’s word. Let’s you and I find one we like and saturate our lives with it. We could start by memorizing these verses: 2Peter 1:3-4, 1John 2:15-17, Philippians 2:12-16, James 3:17-18, John 16:33, 1John 4:1-4, 1Corinthians 10:13,

Jack Meehan

Elder

[1] – “The Gospel Shaped Life” by Ian Hamilton, page33

March 2022

The following is a devotion I read that was written by Tozer

The Holy Spirit: The Daunting Task

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.—Romans 1:16

The greatest event in history was the coming of Jesus Christ into the world to live and to die for mankind. The next greatest event was the going forth of the Church to embody the life of Christ and to spread the knowledge of His salvation throughout the earth.

It was not an easy task which the Church faced when she came down from that upper room.... Left to herself the Church must have perished as a thousand abortive sects had done before her, and have left nothing for a future generation to remember.

That the Church did not so perish was due entirely to the miraculous element within her. That element was supplied by the Holy Spirit who came at Pentecost to empower her for her task. For the Church was not an organization merely, not a movement, but a walking incarnation of spiritual energy. And she accomplished within a few brief years such prodigies of moral conquest as to leave us wholly without an explanation—apart from God. Paths to Power, 7-8.

"We continue to need that power, Lord, or we still are hopelessly incapable of the task You've left us. Empower us for our work, Holy Spirit, even as You empowered the early church. Amen."

Darren Whiteley

Elder