Preach Jesus Christ

Two weeks before Easter, on Sunday, April 14, 1991, I felt the Holy Spirit’s invitation for me to repent and accept Jesus Christ, the risen Son of God as my personal Lord and Savior.  A year later I began experiencing the call to preach God's Word.  Surrendering to that call was not easy.  For over a year I struggled.  I knew nothing about the Bible and was not raised in church.  That was my argument and it was totally focused on my works and not God’s power.  In 1993, I did surrender, accepted the call to preach and began my studies at Emmanuel College in Franklin Springs, Georgia.  Since 1993, I have come to know the One that I call Savior better each day as I have follow Him through the pages of the Bible.  During my studies at Emmanuel I ran across a small paperback book written by the late Bishop Joseph A. Synan.  Each year around Easter I pull Synan’s book from my bookshelf and reread a section that helps keep my focus on Him.  I hope that you will be blessed as I have been by these words...

 

I trust that all of us have had experiences similar to what I am going to speak of briefly, and I’m sure that we have.  I have followed Him from His manger in Bethlehem to His cross on Calvary, and to the tomb in the garden, and to the morning of resurrection, and to the tomb in the garden, and to the morning of ascension, and have loved and admired and appreciated Him all the way.  I have seen Him seized by lawless men after having been betrayed by a friend.  I have seen Him spit upon, blindfolded and smitten by slaves.  I have seen Him scourged with cruel thongs until His back was a maze of bruises and stripes and blood.  I’ve seen Him crowned with thorns and mocked by the soldiers.  I’ve seen Him driven along the cobble-stone streets of Jerusalem, out through the gray stone gate and up the hill of Calvary.  I’ve seen Him lifted up on the cross, and mocked and jeered by the passing throng.  I’ve seen Him when the sun was draped in darkness and the mountain trembled and the graves were opened, and the veil in the temple was rent in twain from top to bottom.  I’ve seen Him forsaken of men and outcast by the world, and I’ve heard His lonely agonizing cry in the dark: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”’

And as I’ve seen Him, the embodiment of absolute purity, innocence, holiness and goodness, thus treated by men, I have felt in my heart drawn in an affinity of love and loyalty that made me feel as I followed Him through all those scenes of suffering that I wanted to love Him and be loyal to Him forever.  And I reached this conclusion that, if this life were all, if the grave marked the end of Jesus of Nazareth, and if it should mark the end of me, I would still rather be indentified with a man like Him than anybody else that I have ever met or read or heard or known of in this world.

 

But I’m thankful that the grave didn’t mark the end for Him, and that it will not be the end for us; but that He has gone through and come out on the side of immortal glory, and that He will lead us through and bring us out into worlds of life and strength.  And that, in the meantime, having been here and gone away, He is just as truly our friend and our Savior yonder in glory as when He was here, and He will be coming back again.  We can’t preach anything greater; we can’t preach anything more fascinating, anything more winning, than to preach Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the Savior of the world.

 

Synan, Bishop Joseph A. The Good Minister of Jesus Christ, (The Publishing House Pentecostal Holiness Church: Franklin Springs, Georgia), 1950, 49-50.

More Alive!

“Someday you will read in the papers that Moody is dead. Don't you believe a word of it. At that moment I shall be more alive than I am now. I was born of the flesh in 1837, I was born of the spirit in 1855. That which is born of the flesh may die. That which is born of the Spirit shall live forever.”
- Dwight L. Moody

Les Miserables and the Gospel

What if the film shows us a beautiful picture of law
as well as gospel?
(Written by Jason B. Hood)     

 

Cosper, Dalrymple, and Strachan rightly see a beautiful depiction of the gospel in this film. Dalrymple began his post: "I cannot think of any work of fiction that conveys the contrast between Law and Grace as vividly and profoundly as Les Miserables." All three authors cite the distinction between law and grace in the titles of their posts, and this has been a common theme in analysis of Les Mis.

But what if the film also shows us a beautiful picture of law?

In a famous scene at the beginning of the story, we encounter a thief named Valjean, newly released from prison named. After being turned away for being a convict he is finally welcomed by a priest. He repays the priest by stealing sliver at night and running away. When he is caught with the silver and dragged back to the priest, the priest forgives him for stealing and even gives him more than he had stolen. In the musical version, the priest sings, "By the Passion and the Blood, God has raised you out of darkness; I have bought your soul for God!"

Through this encounter with grace, which is far more beautiful than I can portray in this summary, Valjean is reformed and transformed. Meanwhile, the antagonist, a policeman named Javert, hunts Valjean down ruthlessly, convinced of his own righteousness.

The common approach to the story is that we see in this story a sharp contrast between the law (Javert) and the gospel (the priest and Valjean), and there's certainly a sharp distinction between the two approaches.

But there's another way to look at the narrative. When the priest and Valjean depict grace, they are in fact keeping the law. The priest is obeying the commands of Jesus: loving his neighbor, turning the other cheek, doing mercy, and forgiving freely as he has been freely forgiven by God.

In other words, we're not just seeing a beautiful portrait of grace and gospel in Les Miserables. We're seeing a beautiful portrait of law and commands.

What's more, when Javert ruthlessly pursues Valjean and sings, "Mine is the way of the Lord," he's wrong. His desire for justice and order is right, but his practice doesn't represent law in any sort of biblical sense. Javert didn't need to ditch the pursuit of law and justice; he needed grace and redemption that led to new law, a godly law that wouldn't imprison a man for five years for stealing bread. He needed to discover merciful justice that wouldn't imprison people inhumanely or treat widows or orphans with contempt. He needed a law more like Moses' law.

Rather than seeing Javert as a law-riddled villain and Valjean an anti-law or post-law hero, we should see two different approaches to law: one fueled by God's grace and the pursuit of mercy and true righteousness, the other fueled by anger and self-righteousness.

One of those approaches reflects the law in the Bible. When Moses gave Israel laws, he began by stressing God's gracious redemption of his people. When Jesus commanded others to lay down their lives, he only did so on the basis of the fact that he was doing the same for them. As Old Testament scholar Jay Sklar puts it, biblical laws "are windows into the heart of the lawgiver."

Many contemporary Christians see law primarily in negative terms, wrongly taking Paul's relegation of Old Testament Law—Torah—in Romans 6-7 as a rejection of any sort of command or law. But in Hugo's story, obeying Jesus' commands becomes a vehicle for grace or mercy in the case of Hugo's priest and, consequently, Valjean.

Or again, what if a healthy approach to law--an approach infused with beauty and grace--is possible, and contributes to the creation of a more merciful world? James K. A. Smith, philosophy professor at Calvin College, tweeted, "I must be a terrible person because I have remarkable sympathy for Javert. #LesMis". In conversation with Cosper, Alissa Wilkinson of The King's College, Makoto Fujimura and others on Twitter, Smith pointed out that some celebrations of the story seemed to reject law wholesale, leaving little room for the vital cultural task of lawmaking and the pursuit of justice. A radical dichotomy between law and grace can be unhelpful and culturally damaging, if uncritically accepted.

Joe Rigney, a professor at Bethlehem College and Seminary in Minneapolis, rightly inquires why we aren't using the label "legalism" (a ruthless, unbiblical application of constraints) instead of "law" to describe Javert. In today's climate, where law and constraint are dirty words and "freedom" and "liberty" are feted and glorified to the point of idolatry, it's all too easy for law to become a derogatory label.

Finally, consider the irony of trying to pit mercy against biblical law. Rigney observes that Jesus' critique of the Pharisees (Matt 23:23) fits Javert: by neglecting mercy and perpetuating injustice, he was showing his disregard for God's law, neglecting what Jesus called "the weightier maters of the law."

It's the law informed by grace and mercy, not pitted against it. We find that law in the Bible; I also think we can see it in Les Miserables.

Jason B. Hood is author of Imitating God in Christ: Recapturing a Biblical Pattern (InterVarsity Press 2013).

WESTMINSTER SHORTER CATECHISM (Questions 1-15)

Q. 1. What is the chief end of man?
A. Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.

Q. 2. What rule hath God given to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him?
A. The Word of God, which is contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, is the only rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him.

Q. 3. What do the Scriptures principally teach?
A. The Scriptures principally teach, what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man.

Q. 4. What is God?
A. God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.

Q. 5. Are there more Gods than one?
A. There is but one only, the living and true God.

Q. 6. How many persons are there in the Godhead?
A. There are three persons in the Godhead: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory.

Q. 7. What are the decrees of God?
A. The decrees of God are, his eternal purpose, according to the counsel of his will, whereby, for his own glory, he hath foreordained whatsoever comes to pass.

Q. 8. How doth God execute his decrees?
A. God executeth his decrees in the works of creation and providence.

Q. 9. What is the work of creation?
A. The work of creation is, God’s making all things of nothing, by the word of his power, in the space of six days, and all very good.

Q. 10. How did God create man?
A. God created man male and female, after his own image, in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, with dominion over the creatures.

Q. 11. What are God’s works of providence?
A. God’s works of providence are, his most holy, wise, and powerful, preserving and governing all his creatures, and all their actions.

Q. 12. What special act of providence did God exercise towards man in the estate wherein he was created?
A. When God had created man, he entered into a covenant of life with him, upon condition of perfect obedience; forbidding him to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, upon the pain of death.

Q. 13. Did our first parents continue in the estate wherein they were created?
A. Our first parents, being left to the freedom of their own will, fell from the estate wherein they were created, by sinning against God.

Q. 14. What is sin?
A. Sin is any want of conformity unto, or transgression of, the law of God.

Q. 15. What was the sin whereby our first parents fell from the estate wherein they were created?
A. The sin whereby our first parents fell from the estate wherein they were created, was their eating the forbidden fruit.

Ministering to Broken People

 

As ministers, we work with people who have broken lives.   Sometimes this brokenness is caused by a person's own sin or sins.  Sometimes this brokenness is cause by the sin or sins of other people.   Sometimes the brokenness is caused by the fact that we live in a world that has sickness and weakness – things which are the general effects of the fall into sin of Adam and Eve.   Many times it is a combination of these things.   Sin is the problem.  We have Jesus Christ who came into this world to save sinners.   We have Jesus Christ who not only saves people from the curse of sin but also saves people from the power of sin.  He can help!  So, when we minister we need to think carefully about where Jesus Christ fits in every situation.   How can we present the gospel as good news for the person who asks for our help?   How can that good news become even better good news as Jesus Christ continues to do His work in that person and in us?  

Letting Our Light Shine in 2013

Cape Lookout, North Carolina

 

We begin a new year with an expression of joy even though the world is very troubled.  While most of us can celebrate, for twenty children and eight adults their life on earth ended suddenly and tragically on Friday, December 14th.  Their families and loved ones probably are not doing much celebrating.  And even on the last day of 2012 our country is on the brink of a fiscal cliff.  There is probably not much celebrating going on in Washington, DC as our leaders are being pressured to prevent an even worse economic collapse than we have already experienced in recent years.  2012 has demonstrated that life is uncertain and fragile.  The difficult truth is that every day of every year life goes on for some and ends for others.  Jesus has taught us many things and has given us gifts of the Spirit to equip us for reaching those who are without Him.  He has instructed us to reach out and help those around us in need.  We have the opportunity to make a difference in the new year by letting the Light of Christ shine.  We carry Light into the darkness every time we feed the hungry or do anything that shows someone that someone cares about them—that God cares about them.  We carry Light into the darkness every time we share our faith in Christ and the good news that God loves them so much that He gave His only Son for them.  That through Christ they can be forgiven their sins, restored to wholeness, and gain life eternal.  We carry Light into the darkness when we teach others the Truth that Christ taught us, that God has a plan for our future and we can trust Him.  Jesus teaches us to be always alert and prepared for His return, but not by waiting around for a catastrophic event.  On the contrary, we are called to go out and make disciples, baptizing (freeing them from darkness and joining them with the Light) and teaching (equipping them to know and trust) that God cares about all of us and wants none of us to be lost in darkness.  Epiphany occurs on January 6th and marks the beginning of the season of Epiphany which runs until we begin the season of Lent in preparation for Easter.  I have an epiphany—a great and inspired idea—let’s boldly share the Light of Christ with everyone we can as we begin a new year.  Let us boldly carry the Light of Christ into every dark corner of our community and as far as we can reach.  Who knows how many will be saved?  Who knows how many will learn how much God loves them and have new hope for a better future.  We need not fear darkness for the Light of Christ is within us, and Jesus promises to abide in us to the very end of the age.  Happy New Year!

Trip to the Biltmore House

Click on photo to view our trip to the Biltmore House

Such a great place to call home... Carteret County, NC (The Crystal Coast).

Introduction of Bikers for Christ Motorcycle Ministry

Easter Sunday 2012 Engagement Video

Invitation to Graham Memorial Pentecostal Holiness Church

Mrs. Teresa Denning

My beautiful wife!

Ekklesia

Ekklesia is a Greek word that means "called out ones."  This word is used to describe/define the Christian Church.  Throughout our lives we will get to listen to quite a few different people share their opinions on what Christianity is supposed to be, what the Christian Church is supposed to be, what Christian worship is supposed to be, and so on.  The problem with these opinions is that they all have bias attached to them.  It’s as though with every experience that we go through in life - success or failure, happy or sad – there are a pair of prescription glasses we’re wearing that are being continuously altered to change the way we look at things.  We all have bias.  I certainly do too. However, when we let these biases become Christian doctrine, we set ourselves up to look as foolish as Pharisees standing before Christ.

The “Holy Christian Church” and the “Communion of Saints” that we confess in the Apostles’ Creed are ways of saying “all believers past and present who are recognized children of God through faith in their Savior Jesus.”  

The word “church” today is so intricately connected with the idea of a building that you can hear in the way people talk that they have no idea what the New Testament is referring to in the concept of “church.”  “Our church looks really nice all decorated for Christmas.” “Our church is freezing today.  Someone needs to adjust the thermostat.” “We go to church weekly.“  Even we pastors misuse the word church.  Ever heard a pastor say something to the effect of “It’s great to be in the House of God today!” ?  Or, have you heard parents reasoning with their kids, “We need to behave because we’re in God’s House now.”?  Honestly, none of this really has anything to do with New Testament Christianity or the New Testament Church.  And it’s not just benign talk either.  The reality is that it reflects more the mentality of Judaism and paganism, which ultimately has some damaging consequences.

Old Testament Judaism revolved around 3 basic elements – the Temple (where God’s local presence dwelled), the system of priests as mediators between God and man, and the system of sacrifices to atone for sin and make believers right with God.  In short, when Jesus came, he brought an end to each by fulfilling the purpose of each.

In the Roman Empire, paganism had similar elements – temples (specific buildings for worshipping gods), priests (specific individuals you had to go through to worship gods), and sacrifices (specific things you had to do to please the gods).  New Testament Christianity didn’t know these things.

In not one place in the New Testament do we find the term church (ekklesia), temple, or house of God used to refer to a building.  In fact, the first recorded use of the word “church” to refer to a specific meeting place comes from the church father Clement of Alexandria in 190 AD.  He was also the first person credited with using the phrase “go to church.”

Okay, so if church is not a building, what exactly is it you ask?  Of the 114 times the Greek word ekklesia appears in the New Testament, it always refers to an assembly of people.  In fact, until Emperor Constantine, Christian history and archaeology knows of no Christian buildings except the homes in which the early Christians met for worship.

Jesus is obviously responsible for what Christianity is today.  Perhaps more than any other human, however, Constantine is responsible for the way Christianity looks today.  What’s so scary about that is that even today scholars debate whether or not Constantine was actually a genuine Christian.

If you’re not familiar with who Emperor Constantine was, here’s the abbreviated version: In 312 AD, Constantine defeated Maxentius at the Battle of Milvian Bridge to become Caesar of the Western Empire.  On the eve of that battle, Constantine claimed he saw a cross in the heavens and became a Christian (if that sounds a little fishy, yeah, that’s not typically how Christians are formed).  He promised God at that moment that if he won the battle, he’d Christianize the empire.  He did…and he did.  Christianity went from becoming first officially recognized as a religion in Rome in 311AD under Galerius to becoming the official religion of the state only a few short years later.  In 324 AD, Constantine became Caesar of the entire Roman Empire.  And then the buildings began.

Over the next several hundred years, church architecture took several interesting turns from the basilica phase to the Byzantine phase to the Romanesque phase to the Gothic phase. However, the design, almost unwaveringly, seemed to continuously point more and more to the transcendence and awe-inspiring nature of God, rather than to God found in the gathering together of his body, the real “church.”  And thus God also seemed to go from accessible to inaccessible.

I’m not fully promoting a return to “house churches” today, a concept that has gained tremendous popularity in the past 30 years in our country.  What house church leaders don’t seem to fully grasp is that if early New Testament church leaders had the legal freedom to worship as we do, the early church might very well have done things differently.  But the point, nonetheless, remains that perhaps God (even by means of working through the oppression of the Roman Empire) was establishing the type of environment that best leads to the healthy assembly of Christians.  And that’s worth paying attention to.

Prayer by Thomas Merton

"MY LORD GOD, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone."

The Nicene Creed

We believe in one God,
The Father, the Almighty,
Maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
True God from True God,
begotten, not made,
of one being with the Father;
through Him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation
He came down from heaven,
was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary
and became truly human.
For our sake He was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
He suffered death and was buried.
On the third day He rose again
in accordance with the scriptures;
He ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory
to judge the living and the dead,
and His kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of Life,
who proceeds from the Father,
who with the Father and the Son
is worshiped and glorified,
who has spoken through the prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic church.
We acknowledge one baptism
for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. Amen

The Apostle's Creed (Traditional Version)

I believe in God the Father Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth;
And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord:
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, dead, and buried;*
the third day he rose from the dead;
he ascended into heaven,
and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic** church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.

*Traditional use of this creed includes these words: “He descended into hell.”
**universal (catholic here means "universal" not Roman Catholic)

The Lord's Prayer in Greek

Πάτερ ἡμῶν ὁ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς ἁγιασθήτω τὸ ὄνομά σου• ἐλθέτω ἡ βασιλεία σου• γενηθήτω τὸ θέλημά σου, ὡς ἐν οὐρανῷ καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς• τὸν ἄρτον ἡμῶν τὸν ἐπιούσιον δὸς ἡμῖν σήμερον• καὶ ἄφες ἡμῖν τὰ ὀφελήματα ἡμῶν, ὡς καὶ ἡμεῖς ἀφίεμεν τοῖς ὀφειλέταις ἡμῶν• καὶ μὴ εἰσενέγκῃς ἡμᾶς εἰς πειρασμόν, ἀλλὰ ρῦσαι ἡμᾶς ἀπὸ τοῦ πονηροῦ. [Ὅτι σοῦ ἐστιν ἡ βασιλεία καὶ ἡ δύναμις καὶ ἡ δόξα εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας•]

ἀμήν.