The Power of the Gospel

Satan sometimes shames seekers when they begin to take God and His word seriously. The enemy plants seeds of doubt related to intellectual honesty and the fear of being labeled a religious fanatic. The devil wants Jesus' believers to be apologetic and embarrassed to live for the Lord, not declaring His teachings as the gospel truth. But, there is no shame in standing up for Christ and His commands. Faith reveals His fame. We are facing a challenge concerning the strength and tenacity of our faith. There is a battle raging between the truth and the lies of deceiver. The deceiver seeks for the church to "mingle" the truth with the various religious messages of our world. BUT we must resist that temptation and remain true to the message of Truth that Jesus declared. Jesus still remains "the Way, the Truth, and the Life." I am glad that I took heed to the Word of God and received Christ as my Savior. A line from an old song declares, "...Hold to God's unchanging hand..." Each of us need to live out that desire on a daily basis so that the name of Christ can be exalted and lifted above the "gods" of this world.

Moving Forward

I participated in a meeting of leaders this past Sunday night. Isn't it true that leaders are always looking to improve their ability to lead and serve? We could say that we "are looking for an edge" against our adversary. We realize that satan is our adversary and we are committed to the defeat of that adversary. We are always looking for creative ways to share the message of the gospel with those we contact on a daily or weekly basis. But there is one characteristic that we can not afford to lose and that characteristic is consistency. We must not lose our focus on the intended goal and we must stay committed to finish that which we started. I want to share a story from the Peanuts Comic strip that I believe summarizes the attitude that we must practice day by day. Charlie Brown: "Our first game of the season! What do we need to do to win? Lucy: "Courage, Fortitude, and Dedication! Charlie Brown: "How did you know that?" Lucy: "I wrote down what you said last year." Moral: Some things never change from year to year. We will need courage, fortitude, and dedication if we are to be successful leaders in the work of the kingdom of God!

Our View vs. God's View

Isaiah 55: 8-9,  "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." (KJV)

Each of us battle the problem that this passage identifies today.  We face the temptation to allow the perspective of our human thinking to override our confidence in the presence of God to meet our needs and direct our path.  I truly believe that satan can use the human thought process as a weapon against us.  Isn't satan's true purpose to overthrow our faith?  We may be strong enough to resist the temptation to give up completely yet his tactics can hinder our faith if we allow them to have free reign in our minds.  The enemy wants us to place our hopes, confidence, and trust in the things of man.  It is difficult for us to fully fathom the greatness of the things of God in comparison to the things of man.  But we must learn to turn our focus away from the ways and thoughts of man and look for the ways and thoughts of God.  The initial effort of the enemy may not cause us to look completely away from God but he does have a plan for our demise when he begins to sow the seeds of doubt, fear, insecurity, etc. in our hearts.  Satan may not cause us to have demonic or satanic thoughts BUT he does seek to influence our thought process.  Faith will call us to look at the ways of God versus the ways of man.  Faith will call us to look at the thoughts and plans of God versus the thoughts and plans of man.  Faith will cause us to look away from the strength and ability of man and look to the strength and ability of God.  Faith will call us to look away from the infidelity of man and look to the fidelity of God.  Each of us must remember that the ways and thoughts of God are HIGHER than our ways and thoughts.

Personal Reflections

I continue to sense a call from God concerning the message of the cross.  I believe the message that comes from the cross and comes through the cross is the message that our culture needs to hear at this time in our history.  We hear such conflicting messages from various sources today yet the message of the cross has remained the same throughout the ages.  There have been times that the message of the cross has been diluted and in some cases even hidden by the opinions and ideas of humanity.  Yet the cross continues to reflect and declare the true love of God for humanity.  Humanity looks for the complicated and God has given us the simplicity of the Gospel.  Humanity is given the option to believe the truth and as we release our faith we are able to receive the forgiveness of our sins through the Mercy and Grace of God.  It is no wonder that we can celebrate the "amazing Grace" of our God that was revealed and released through the life, death, and resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ.  Would you join in the celebration with me today?  Would you join me in encouraging others to declare that marvelous message?  And would you practice the reality of that message among your friends and family?  The message of the Gospel can and will make a difference in your journey through life.  

Grandchildren

Ann and I are blessed with four grandchildren.  They range in the ages of eleven (11) to five (5) years old.  Our oldest son and wife have two sons and our youngest son and his wife have a son and a daughter (let me add that she has already learned to play the gender card with comments such as "Poppy, you know that I am your only granddaughter.").  Each of these grandchildren have their own gifts, talents, abilities, and personalities.  We have been blessed with the privilege to watch the development of their individual personalities.  We have watched them grow physically, emotionally and spiritually.  I have been privileged to have baptized the three oldest grandchildren and I am already looking forward to baptizing the younger one.  Why am I going into so much detail regarding the changes that have taken place in their lives?  It is more than just the words of a proud grandfather; it is the realization that our Heavenly Father is aware of our daily development concerning our walk with Him.  He was aware of us before our conception and before our birth.  He has been aware of every day of our lives and He will be aware of the remaining days of our lives.  He has planned for us to spend eternity in His presence as we are called to gather with the other members of our spiritual family.  He created us with our various gifts, talents, abilities, and personalities.  He is aware of our strengths but also our weaknesses; yet He has never given up on us.  He has watched our spiritual development and He is aware of those days that we struggle with the onslaught of the adversary.  We can rest assured that the love of God is a daily presence in our lives and we can find comfort and hope in the fact that God has a plan for our lives and that He promises always to be with us.  I can not adequately describe the love that I have for our grandchildren and neither can I adequately describe the love that God has for each of us.  But by faith I accept the fact that God has made His declaration of love over my life and I can walk in the strength of that declaration.

The Power of Gospel

The past few weeks have been challenging me to reflect on my desire to be known as a "Gospel Preacher." Many different titles are attached to a preacher but in my opinion the one that describes our call and purpose is the title associated with the Gospel, or the "good news" message. We witnessed the intended result of the Gospel message this morning as two young people surrendered their lives to Christ. I am convinced that the Gospel is the message that the world needs to hear. There are many "messages" being declared across our nation today but there is only ONE message of truth and that is the message of Jesus Christ. I firmly believe that the Holy Spirit is calling each of us to a renewed commitment to a faithful declaration and support of the message that Christ purchased at Calvary. This commitment is one that has to be a spiritual recognition and not just a mental recognition of this call from God. We must respond to this call in a manner of faith as we see God directing us into the mission field. The fields are ripe for the harvest and we are being called to present ourselves to God as laborers in this end time harvest.

Successful Ministry

Success can be measured in many ways and from many different standards.  There are times that ministry success may be measured in the size of a building, the number of people who attend that particular ministry, or even the size of a budget for a particular ministry.  But is it possible that true success should be measured through our recognition and dependence on Christ to be the leader and director of our ministry?  After all it was Christ who gave His life that we might have a message to declare.  If we would be honest with ourselves we would realize that we don't have a message outside of the message of Christ.  Christ is the MESSAGE and He gives us the awesome privilege to share that message with sinful humanity.  We must be careful and not allow carnal or fleshly attitudes to attach itself to our ministry efforts (and I am not just referring to preaching, singing, teaching, etc.) so that we fall into the trap of taking credit for those things that have been accomplished.  Pride in who we are or pride in what we have accomplished can lead to the downfall of not only the ministry effort but it can contribute to the demise of our personal relationship with Christ.  I believe the Apostle Paul showed us the appropriate way to be successful in ministry.  On many occasions He made sure that he kept pointing people to Christ and away from himself.  Although history reveals that Paul was "successful" in his Apostleship I believe that he was always careful in making sure that the credit and recognition was given to Christ.  I desire for my life to reflect the greatness of God that is at work and not just recognize the human contributions to the process of ministry.  There are times that we recognize the human side of ministry and fail to recognize the Divine side of ministry.  We will all fail without the Divine side of ministry being evident in our attempts to reach people with the message of the Gospel.

Warren Wiersbe shares his definition of ministry: "Ministry takes place when divine resources meet human needs through loving channels to the glory of God."  I think the key words of that statement are contained in the portion that reads: "...divine resources meet human needs..."  We must remember that we can not meet the needs of our fellow human beings but Christ can.  Can you sense and feel the involvement of Christ in your life?  If not, then you need to turn from yourself and turn to Christ and allow Him to have complete and full sway over your life.



Issues

The reflections and celebrations of this past week continue to speak to my heart.  I trust that our reflection on the death, burial and Resurrection of Christ will not just be a "passing fancy" that comes and goes at certain times in our spiritual journey.  But I pray that this powerful revelation of truth will continue to make a difference as we live in and respond to the challenges of modern day culture.  I am convinced that the Gospel (Good News) of the Bible has the power to change our lives in such a manner that we will fully reflect the Glory of God on a daily basis.

I was presented with an odd paradox last week during prayer time.  In my mind I began to review and think of the endless list of "issues" that Pastors have to address almost on a weekly basis.  Now, let me make this statement very clear, "I believe that the power of Christ can and will address every issue of life that we may face!"  The issue that concerns me this morning is the fact that it may be possible that we have ignored the message of the cross and learned to only focus on the issues of life that we face.  Let me explain a little further my thought process.  I know that dealing with issues is considered to be an integral part of the Minister's responsibility.  But can we truly expect any spiritual success if we only address the issues and not point people to the Christ of the cross?  In many cases the trend of our society appears to lean more to the human approach to the issues that we face rather than the "Christ approach."  The Spirit through the Apostle Paul issues a great challenge of truth and a message that will lead to victory in 1 Corinthians chapter 1.  Let me remind you of what verses 17-18 declare to us; "For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect.  For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." (NKJV)

The power of the message of the cross will triumph the issues of life that we face if we will put our faith and trust in the Word of God!  No sin, issue, situation, problem, or circumstance, etc is too great for God to address. Will we choose to trust Him today and turn our hearts back to the power of cross?

Weekend Update

BREAKING NEWS!!!!! BREAKING NEWS!!!!!! I interrupt this blog post to confirm the news concerning the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. I have read of the Resurrection in I Corinthians 15 and I personally believe that account. Paul lists the names of several individuals to whom Christ appeared and these individuals were eye witnesses of that declaration of power over death, hell, and the grave. But I can report that I witnessed other manifestations of the Resurrection this past weekend at New River Worship Center. I have encountered these manifestations before in my journey as a Preacher of the Gospel. I heard people testify of salvation; I heard people testify of being healed; and I also witnessed people come forward to receive the elements of Communion as we reflected on the sacrifice of the life of Christ on the cross for the sins of humanity. During our Resurrection Celebration I saw people offer their praise and Worship to our Risen Savior. During our Resurrection Celebration I saw people respond in approval of the Word of God that was declared to them. During our Resurrection Celebration I was privileged to pray with people who came forward during the invitation. I could sense the presence and anointing of the Spirit as I stood to declare the Word with boldness and courage. Contrary to the attitude of some people in our present culture, CHRIST IS MAKING A DIFFERENCE IN THE LIVES OF PEOPLE! Stay tuned for further updates! This is Michael Willingham of the Good News (Gospel) Channel reporting from Radcliff, Kentucky.

Crucifixion of Jesus

Today is the day that we traditionally accept as the day that Christ died for the sins of humanity.  There are certain scholars/theologians/ministers who lean to the idea that Christ died on a Wednesday or Thursday versus the accepted understanding that He died on what we now refer to as Good Friday.  I read some articles this week that espoused that particular understanding of history and the teachings of the Old Testament.  I do not want to sound trite or disinterested in truth when I make the following statement but I am truly thankful that Christ died for my sins whether He died on a Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday.  The principle of salvation still remains in effect regardless of the day that the crucifixion took place.  Christ still offered Himself as a the sinless sacrifice for fallen humanity.  We can still lift our voices today and shout "Thank You Jesus" for your willingness to take my place on the cross and die for my sins.  We must never forget the agony and pain that our Savior endured that mankind would have the opportunity to find relief, forgiveness, and deliverance from sin.  Today we can celebrate our spiritual freedom as we reflect on the events of the cross on the hill called Golgotha.  Let us make sure that we honor the death of Christ through a lifestyle of Christianity that reflects our desire to serve God to the best of our ability.  Christ gave His all and He gave His best for us.  What are we giving back to Him in return for the sacrifice that He gave for us?

Let us take a moment and read a passage of scripture that depicts a portion of the crucifixion of Christ.

Mark 15:33-41, "33 And when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. 34 And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?  35 And some of them that stood by, when they heard it, said, Behold, he calleth Elias. 36 And one ran and filled a sponge full of vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink, saying, Let Him alone; let us see whether Elias will come to take him down. 37 And Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up the ghost. 38 And the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom. 39 And when the centurion, which stood over against him, saw that he so cried out, and gave up the ghost, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God. 40 There were also women looking on afar off: among whom was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the less and of Joses, and Salome; 41 (Who also, when he was in Galilee, followed him, and ministered unto him;) and many other women which came up with him unto Jerusalem." (KJV)

Contemplation

I felt impressed to share this familiar passage of scripture as we continue to reflect on the sacrifice and death of Christ.  It is very challenging to fully understand and comprehend all of the benefits and blessings that have been provided to the children of God as a direct result of the death of our Savior.  But we can rejoice in the fact that the love and care of God was revealed at Calvary.  We can understand that the declaration in John 3:16 is full of power, truth, and the revelation of grace.  It is no wonder that the people of God can walk by faith and confidence as we face our daily challenges and struggles.  Take a moment and read this passage and allow the Word of God to speak strength to each of you.

Isaiah 53:1-7

"1 Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?  2 For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, And as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; And when we see Him, There is no beauty that we should desire Him.  3 He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.  4 Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted.  5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.  6 All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.  7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth." (NKJV)

Reflection

Yesterday I closed the blog post with a reminder concerning the need to spend some time in reflection and contemplation this week.  We need to keep those words at the fore-front of our thought process as we move toward Good Friday.  Good Friday serves as a reminder of the willingness of our Savior to place His life on the cross as a living sacrifice for the sins of humanity.  Is it possible that this story from the Bible can lose its impact on us because of familiarity?  We can rehearse the story of Christ in our minds but does it penetrate our hearts?  Is it possible that we have learned the scripture passages and the songs that accompany these passages yet we have forgotten the true impact of the truth that is contained in those passages?  We must remember that it is the "truth that sets us free."  The application of Truth serves as the basis of our freedom from the chains of sin and disobedience.  Those chains were the driving force behind our decisions regarding the way we lived our lives.   Today we can rejoice over the fact that God has made a way for us to walk in freedom that comes through a personal relationship with Him.  I encourage you to take some time this week and seriously consider all that Christ endured for the sake of our salvation.

Celebration

Yesterday (Sunday) was referred to as Palm Sunday.  Historically this represents the day that Christ entered Jerusalem to the sounds of praise, worship and to a certain degree acceptance and excitement.  That entrance would set in motion a week that would not only include this triumphant entry but also a week of suffering and shame.  The week would culminate outside Jerusalem on a hill called Golgotha where Christ would die for the sins of humanity.  Many churches have an extra atmosphere of excitement on Palm Sunday through the use of dramas and special music.  But in reality every day is a day of celebration for the people of God as we recognize and remember the victory that Christ won for us as He willingly gave His life as a sacrifice for fallen humanity.

Sports fans in America have been involved in the NCAA Basketball Tournament for the past several weeks.  Tonight their will be a champion decided as Kentucky and Kansas match up in the championship game in New Orleans. The past few weeks have found teams and the fans of those teams either in the mode of celebration or in the mode of disappointment.  But as believers in Christ we can live in the spirit of celebration.  Our Champion faced all of the tactics and strategies of the enemy and He conquered each and everyone of them.  Our Champion faced and conquered the temptations of the enemy so that we could have the ability though Christ to overcome the temptations that satan would bring against us.  Our Champion faced the ridicule and rejection of His own people so that we could understand that rejection and ridicule does not have to interfere with our walk with Christ.  Our Champion defeated every foe that came against Him so that we might be able to live our Christian life victoriously.  A few words from an old song declares that we are an "heir of salvation, purchase of God, Born of His Spirit, and washed in His blood." 

Let this be a week of reflection and contemplation as we realize the great price that Christ paid for our release and redemption from the power of sin.  Let it also be a week of celebration as we exalt the Savior who was willing to die in our place on that old rugged cross.  He was willing to die so that we could go free and live with a great hope in our Risen Savior.