The Master's Miracles (Message 1)

Wow, another great Sunday and a great service, wish you all could have been there!
I just began a three week series on the Miracles of Jesus, we spent our time today looking at the first of Jesus' miracles recorded in scripture.
Jesus, His mother and disciples were are all at a wedding in Canaan, and they ran out of wine, and Jesus tells the waiters to fill the stone pots and then dip their pitchers in and draw out some water and take it to the head waiter, and to their surprise the head waiter exclaims that "everyone brings out the good wine and then when people have had plenty to drink, then he switches to the poorer wine, but you, you saved the best wine for last" (loose paraphrase)
We will be focusing on several aspects involved with this and other miracles, this week we focused on the faith and obedience of the event. If the waiters, had not dipped out the wine and had not taken it to the head waiter, then what would have happened? Would there have even been a miracle? What about the miracle involving, the raising of Lazarus, or the lame man at the pool at Bethesda?
In each of these as will all miracles involving people there is an expectation of faith and obedience. When we examine these miracles though what we see are people who hesitantly act, not instinctively move expecting God to work wonders beyond their imagination. But is that not true for the majority of the Christians, we have this tendency for sight walking, even being short sighted when it comes to God and His ability to work miracles. We may even have a tendency to be corrupted in our thinking and believe like the world, as so many do not even believe that miracles even happen.
As we worked through this we examined the simplicity of the faith in each of these examples and how, oh what was it Jesus said, yeah, "if you had faith like a mustard seed you would say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and be planted in the sea': and it would obey you," so I pulled out a single mustard seed and stood at the edge of the riser and asked can you see, the size of faith it takes?
Anyway there were three main lessons today;
Lesson 1: Jesus enjoyed life, Jesus loved life and so can we and we should
Lesson 2: Life in the will of God gets better and better
Lesson 3: When it come to God and miracles, many times we just have to accept that which we do not understand

Bottom line believers must exercise their faith if we expect to grow and mature, we must get out of the boat and often, it is OK to expect a Big God to do Big things in our lives and in the world.

Here is another truth, you need to understand that the only way to enjoy the hugeness of God's grace, the Hugeness of God's peace and the Hugeness of God's miracles, then you must first give ourselves over fully to Him, accept Jesus as Lord of your life, accept His will for your life and stop the sight walking and walk in faith and by faith.

See the One True God will always keep you safe when you are wholly committed to being His and walking where He desires you to walk in obedient faith, then you can being to experience the hugeness of His peace, His grace, His love, and His miracles.


Well, until next week, be safe, be strong in your faith, in your walk, and always live a life that Lifts Him up!


FYI: if you want to hear the sermon, just click the title of this post!

Solemn Assembly

Yesterday as my first official act as the minister at Graves Chapel, we participated in the "Family Research Council's, Call2Fall." I felt that it important to join with the 5,000 plus other churches and pray for our country, repenting for the past and present, and praying for a time of renewal. The other reason I felt it important was the fact that yesterday was my first official Sunday as their new minister, and honestly I just felt that it was prudent to spend our first hour together in prayer. We prayed for our country of course,but we prayed for the church at large and for our own congregation. We prayed that God would forgive us for turning away from Him as a nation, we prayed that God would move our leaders to repentance and they would repent and fall to their knees and turn or return to Him and His ways. We prayed to seek forgiveness and healing, we prayed that God would move within our communities and bring a revival. In praying for the church at large, we asked that God would forgive preachers and congregants for not being diligent in handling His Word. We prayed that we would return to the Bible as our only source of authority and our only guide for growth and missions. That we would teach the Bible to people where they are and that God would again be honored not only in the church, but in our homes, communities, states and our country. That both the churches (corporate) and the individuals would train up their families, would make disciples and live lives that are Holy and Blameless before God and men.
The major difference in our gathering from the majority if not all the other churches around the country participating Sunday, was that instead of fasting, I felt it prudent that we celebrate this new beginning. We celebrated in anticipation of what the Lord is going to do, not only in our country,communities and lives, but in our congregation as well.
I shared this from the pulpit, "We need to act in anticipation of our prayer. We need to celebrate this new beginning, and celebrate in anticipation of what God is going to do among His people."
We will work toward a time of regular personal and corporate fasting, but yesterday we needed to praise God for the blessings He has already provided but for the blessings to come!
All in all it was a great Sunday and an even greater beginning, and I look forward to all that the Lord is going to do in our lives, our congregation, our community, our country and our world!

I am ever so amazed at the complexity of God, I have been preaching at this church for the last four weeks, and had applied at the church as their minister retired at the end of May, well they narrowed it down to two men, myself and a dear brother who I greatly admire. Well, today they had a congregational vote, and I am the new minister. It is so strange, that is what we came here for to become equipped to be ministers of the Gospel. So, today as I sit here and write I am amazed, amazed at a life transformed by the Power of God, amazed that while I once was so many horrid things, now I am a minister of the Gospel and am now responsible for a flock.

Lord, I said send me, and you did, Lord I said I am willing and You have given these people to me, Lord I said that I wanted You to use my life both old and new, to make a difference in this world and today we begin a new chapter of our life. Lord may I honor You above all and always use these opportunities to bring Glory to You, and may I be Salt and Light, and always yielded to Your will.

Lord Thank You and now that You have brought me here, I am looking forward to the work that You have prepared for us.

Who Really Killed Goliath?

I subscribe to Bible Study Magazine and they have an interactive side as well. While you get the printed publication you also get the cool advantage that only Logos could offer, web content. This month, they have a very interesting article on who really killed Goliath. There seems to be a manuscript variance that can cause what seems to be a contradiction, equip yourself today and find out more by reading the whole article.

Phrase Study

Wow, another semester gone! It is hard to believe that with the commencement of the 09-10 school year I will be a senior. I have been preaching more recently and have been doing some more personal study too, I much prefer to do study when it is for me rather than an assignment, though I do enjoy many of those also.
Recently, in doing a phrase study from the Greek text, I ran across some interesting similarities across some texts that many render into English different ways. My first reaction is to scratch my head in wonder. How can three to five words that are in the same context, the same case, gender, number etc mean two different things?
I have to come down on the side of order and put my presuppositions to bed and look intently at the meaning of each and in doing so I have come to a new conclusion. What is that conclusion you might be asking yourself or what in the world is this nut talking about. Well, I do not want to try and sway you by saying what I have concluded just yet. I will, in due time. I would really love to do this in a discussion format as it would be much more profitable to your own study. But since hardly anyone ever reads this blog, that would make discussion impossible. Since that is the case, I would ask that if you have any preconceived notions about works, or about the blood of Christ, John's Baptism or Christian Baptism, put them to bed and let them get a good rest while you wrap your mind around these facts. I have prepared a phrase study sheet that I made as I went through this it is a concise sheet, and I ask that you pray earnestly before you read beyond the solid line that separates this section and the phrase sheet. I would ask that you look at each of these in the Greek text, as I have given you the words and if you have a Bible software like Logos and have a language package use it, do not be afraid of the Greek, if you do not have a program go to this site from there you need only put in the text and click the Greek tab and you will go to that text and they use mouse over technology so it will show you the grammar. The idea is that if grammar rules apply then you can have one and only one way of understanding these texts, if the rules do not apply then scripture can be made to mean whatever we want it to be. Though some days that option would be nice, especially when I am running behind and the speed limit is not as fast as I would have it to be,you know what I am saying, but that is not God or His way. He is not a God of chaos, He is a God of order, or law and order. Which means that He has set rules that must be obeyed if we are to truely understand and enjoy the full richness of His word and His Kingdom. I pray that you will be strengthened, encourage, and blessed by this study, and further more I pray that you will consider that once I believed differently than I do now. And the change came because I have taken the time to learn the language and do dozens hours of tireless study all the while not favoring what I want to hear or favoring what is popular. Rather, I have desired to know God's truth no matter how hard it is to understand, no matter how much it flies in the face of man centered teaching, or no matter how unpopular it may be. I also ask that you remember God said He would use that which seems foolish to confound the wise, which my dear brother or sister I no longer consider myself wise but woe, according to the popular mindset I am a fool, and I am grateful to God for humbling me. The last thing I would ask is this, Pray, Pray that God would give you a real desire to know His truth, and that no matter what, you would come to Him in total submission and that if you find what you currently believe in contradiction to what you are about to study, that you would be honest with God and yourself and that before you close your heart and your mind that you would bow in prayer again and ask God to help you understand. Well, here you go, May the Lord richly bless your desire to know the truth and may the truth set you free and may you mine from the study the wealth of the Kingdom riches!_____________________________________________________
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(Mark 1:4, NASB95) "John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins."

(Luke 3:3, NASB95) "And he came into all the district around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins;"

(Luke 24:47, NASB95) "and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem."

(Acts 2:38, NASB95)"Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."

(Matthew 26:28, NASB95) "for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins."

εἰς ἄφεσιν ἁμαρτιῶν. The words are pronounced Ace, Aphesin, Hamartion, which in the English is for forgiveness “of” sins.

The first word εἰς “Ace” The preposition “for” (Greek, eis) means “to obtain” (Thayer, 94). The phrase may be rendered: “so that sins might be forgiven” (Arndt, 228)

The second word, ἄφεσιν “Aphesin” is a Singular Feminine Noun in the accusative case, the accusative case is the case of the direct object

The third word, ἁμαρτιῶν “Hamartion” is a Feminine Plural Noun in the Genitive case, this case roughly corresponds to our English possessive case. Hence, the genitive expresses possession.

Some believe that this phrase in Acts 2:38 means that we are baptized because our sins are already forgiven, and if this is true then we must by the rules of grammar, hold that grammatically in each of the examples the same construction must be true.

For example:

(Mk 1:4 & Lk 3:3) John was preaching a baptism because the sins had already been forgiven.

(Lk 24:47) And Jesus talking to His disciples would be saying that we repent because our sins have already been forgiven

(Act 2:38) would be baptism because sin has been forgiven, (please note the only grammatical difference in this text, is the article and the personal pronoun, denoting your personal sins)

(Mat 26:28) would have to read that Jesus’ blood was poured out because sin was already forgiven. (No body holds to this, though they should if they say Acts is to be rendered this way)

In each of these examples if we interpret them as I have described above, the Christ’s death was senseless, as would be repentance.

However the truth is, the rules of grammar, will not allow such a loose and inconsistent interpretation. We know Jesus’ blood was shed for the forgiveness of sin, not because sin had been forgiven, then by the rules of grammars we must conclude that Repentance and Baptism are for forgiveness. Christ’s shed blood makes it possible for all to receive forgiveness, and in order for us to receive it we must believe, confess (both our sins and Jesus’ name), repent, and be baptized. It is not salvation by works it is submitting to God’s will, and doing God’s will, God’s way, not ours.

This phrase study was inspired by Brother Alger Fitch, from a conference in which he spoke on Baptism, in 1998 which I purchased from our church library.