Part of the Body

I just wanted to express to all of you my gratefulness for praying for me with these headaches and migraines. The doctor that I saw recently is a neurologist and his specialty is headache medicine. He gave me a new prescription for “preventative” maintenance that seems to be working well. He also gave me a new prescription for when the migraines come on unexpectedly.

Last night I could tell that I was headed (no pun intended) for a migraine. I took the new medication and today I am headache free!
So why would I tell you all of this? Isn’t this “personal” information? Well, yes it is personal. However, it is good for us together to rejoice when one rejoices and to weep when one weeps and to grieve when one grieves and to love as we are loved and so on and so on. It is the gift that God has so graciously given to us – this opportunity to be part of His Body – the Church. Notice what Dr. Luke writes in Acts 2:40-47:

40 And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation.” 41 Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them. 42 And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. 43 Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. 44 Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, 45 and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need. 46 So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved. (emphasis added)

What a great passage of Scripture the Lord has given to us to consider as His Church. Notice the words above. Dr. Luke uses words like: they…apostles’ doctrine…fellowship…breaking of bread…prayers…every soul…all…together…all…their…all…they…all…people. Notice that they are all in the plural. The apostles’ doctrine, fellowship, breaking of bread and prayers are a continual thing that the early Church did together. They had all things in common with each other (this means all of their goods were common among each other…they were actually sharing stuff with each other!). Notice also that they found favor with ALL people.

Now you’ve heard me say it before, A-L-L means A-L-L – it means everyone. In this context it meant they had favor with all believers. But there is also an idea that they had favor with all people around them – saved or unsaved alike. They were reaching out together to those who needed to hear the Gospel message of the Lord Jesus Christ (as if there is any other gospel). Verse 41 says there were 3,000 added to the church on this one day. Verse 47 says that the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved. So the favor was with ALL men – inside and outside the Body of believers.

So, Beloved, what shall we say to this? I say we ought to be together sharing the Good News of the Lord Jesus Christ and, if need be, sharing our stuff with those who in the Church who have need. It is high time that we get busy doing this. “But how can we do this, Pastor?” you might be asking. Well, it’s quite simple really. If you have stuff to share, then share it! We are very fortunate to be a debt-free Church. I know of churches in our blessed State of Texas who are up to their ears in debt. Our Fellowship should never be indebted to anyone or any bank. Why? Because it hinders us from being able to use our resources and materials for sharing this precious Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Here’s another thing that we should all be doing. Go to www.freegiftforlife.com and you can write out your testimony and I have 2,000 cards that you can simply hand out with your name on it to send people to this website for free to share your testimony. You might even want to know what verses you can share with someone by using the Romans Road (Romans 3:10, 23; 5:8; 6:23; 10:9-10, 13). You might want to wear a bracelet from the “I Am Second” campaign. This allows you to be able to point people to another website where they can hear testimonies of salvation from the famous to the not-so famous. I had an opportunity to share Jesus Christ with Donnie at Cracker Barrel in Greenville, Texas on Sunday evening. I was wearing one of these bracelets from the “I Am Second” campaign. We have tracts in the office that perhaps you might be able to hand to someone who is struggling with some issue or just needs to be uplifted.

What I’m trying to say is that we – together – can lead others to the Lord Jesus Christ by being who we are. We are Christians. We love Jesus Christ. We love the prophets and the apostles’ teachings. We love to tell the Story. We love to be together. We love to break bread together. We love to fellowship together. We love to pray together.

The Adoption

If you haven't heard, Sandra Bullock adopted a baby boy from New Orleans in January. She and her soon to be ex-husband, Jesse James, apparently had applied for adoption nearly four years ago. In January, just after Bullock accepted the Best Actress award from the Oscars for her part in "The Blind Side", she revealed to People Magazine that they had adopted Louis Bardo Bullock.

Now the magazine has not yet published the article but you can see from the above picture that Bullock must love this little boy. People Magazine has quoted her as saying, "He's just perfect!" And when you look at this little boy - or if you look at a little girl - you do see the beauty of the child. To consider that God has created this child in his/her mother's womb is an exceptional miracle. However, when you consider adoption, this is when the adoptive parents are actually choosing the child to be their very own.

Now there are different types of adoption. There are public adoptions, private adoptions, kinship adoptions, stepparent adoptions, transracial adoptions and intercountry/international adoptions. The average number of adoptions in the United States right now is between 51,000 - 89,500 adoptions per year.

But there is an adoption that is far more superior than these. It is the adoption that God gives to us and we trust in Jesus Christ. It is His adoption of us. Read what the Bible says in Ephesians 1:3-6:

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing int he heavenly places in christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, 5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.

Wow! Now that's adoption!

The Stuttering Statesman

Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr. is our 47th Vice President. He served in the United States Senate from January 3, 1973 until his resignation on January 15, 2009 when he was elected as the Vice President of the United States of America. His career as a United States Senator is the 14th longest in our nation's history.

Although he has had a long and illustrious career, he has had a few problems with some of the things that he has said. For instance, on the mother of Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen, who is very much alive, in Washington, DC, March 17, 2010, Vice President Biden is quoted as saying: "His mom lived in Long Island for ten years or so. God rest her soul. And...although, she's...wait...your mom's still...your mom's still alive. Your dad passed. God bless her soul."

On October 15, 2008, Vice President Biden, in Athens, Ohio, while speaking of Senator John McCain and his bid for the White House, remarked: "Look, John's last-minute economic plan does nothing to tackle the number-one job facing the middle class, and it happens to be, as Barack says, a three-letter word: jobs. J-O-B-S, jobs."

What about this gaffe while being interviewed by Katie Couric of CBS News on September 22, 2008: "When the stock market crashed, Franklin D. Roosevelt got on the television and didn't just talk about the, you know, the princes of greed. He said, 'Look, here's what happened." Mr. Vice President, are you aware that FDR was not the President of the United States when the stock market crashed in 1929? Are you aware that only experimental TV sets were in use at that time?

Well, these gaffes may seem minor to some. However, Vice President Biden said something more recently while there was an open microphone nearby. While congratulating President Barack Hussein Obama at the signing of his new health care reform bill in Washington, DC, March 23, 2010, Vice President Biden said: "This is a big f****** deal!"

As a professing Catholic man, Vice President Joe Biden would do well to read his Bible more often and surrender himself to what it is that Jesus Christ has taught us in Matthew 15:16-20:

16 Are you also still without understanding? 17 Do you not yet understand that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and is eliminated? 18 But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. 19 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. 20 These are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man.

Integrity

Brian Davis is not the most famous golfer in the world today. In fact, he probably doesn't even rank in the top 100 golfers. However, in my book he is number one!

Davis was about to win the Verizon Heritage as he was competing against Jim Furyk in a playoff. He was about to win when something happened of which to the average spectator would have been a minor infraction. This infraction cost him his first-ever PGA Tour win. What was the infraction?

According to PGA Tour Rules, hitting any material around your ball during your backswing constitutes a violation of the rule against moving loose impediments, and is an immediate two-stroke penalty. And in a playoff, that means, in effect, game over. The thing about Brian Davis is that he called the penalty shot himself! That's right: He called it on himself!

"It was one of those things I thought I saw movement out of the corner of my eye," Davis said. "And I thought we'd check on TV, and indeed there was movement." As soon as he made the shot, he called a rules official to review the shot by television. After review, the rules official called the penalty shot against Davis. The only way that he even saw the movement was by watching this shot in slow motion.

Davis conceded the victory to Furyk. Jim Furyk was stunned; the crowds were stunned; the rules official was stunned. Davis still won second place (with winnings in the amount of $615,000). Furyk took home $1.03 million for the win.

So why would I tell you this story? Because Brian Davis showed integrity. This trait of integrity is something that is missing in our society, and apparently it has been missing since the fall of man in the Garden of Eden.

Read what King Solomon wrote in Proverbs 11:3, "The integrity of the upright guides them, but the perversity of the treacherous destroys them." I say "thank you" to Brian Davis. With the Tiger Woods fiasco - another PGA Tour winner showing a lack of integrity - it is great to see this happen.

Gloom, Despair and Agony on Me!

As a young man I used to love watching Hee Haw. It was one of the funniest television shows on CBS-TV and ran from 1969-1971. After its original run, it went into syndication for the next 20 years. One of their most popular sketches, usually performed by four male cast members sitting around in hillbilly garb surrounded by moonshine jugs and looking overtly miserable, would sing an old favorite song. The song began with the chorus, which all of them sang with each one alternating (in lip-synch) a mournful howl after each of the first three lines. The chorus went:

"Gloom, despair and agony on me-e! (HOWL!)
Deep dark depression, excessive misery-y! (HOWL!)
If it weren't for bad luck I'd have no luck at all! (HOWL!)
Gloom, despair and agony on me-e-e!"

Have you ever felt this way before? So many times we Christians face so many different things in life that we just get to thinking that maybe...just maybe...we will never see the light of day again. Gloom and despair, those twins that we know so well, will be with us until the day we die. Agony is taking its toll on each of us because of everything going on around us, in us and to us!

So what are we to do? To whom shall we turn? Well, I'm glad that you asked me these questions.

Let me just type out a passage of Scripture that I think can help us in our times of gloom, despair and agony. It comes from James 1:2-18:

2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord: 8 He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

9 Let the lowly brother glory in his exaltation, 10 but the rich in his humiliation, because as a flower of the field he will pass away. 11 For no sooner has the sun risen with a burning heat than it withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beautiful appearance perishes. So the rich man also will fade away in his pursuits.

12 Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. 13 Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. 14 But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. 15 Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death. 16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. 17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. 18 Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.

Gloom, despair and agony on me...thank God that I can rest assured on ever good gift and ever perfect gift from above.