Hello friends,

If you aren’t a regular attender of Adult Bible Study on Wednesday evenings, let me challenge you, now that the kiddos are out of school, and it is still a plenty light at 7:30pm, to join us in the Sanctuary as we wade into the summer.  If you have particular supper traditions at particular times, or if you need to be home and readying for bed by specific times, I respect that too; but let me challenge YOU to watch our Adult Bible Study sessions via YouTube on Wednesday evenings, or another time.  It is worth noting that you cannot experience the sweet fellowship of brothers/sisters in Christ on YouTube.  Since it is going to be so light out, so late this summer (and so hot), you can go with a friend or few down to Main Street and grab some ice cream before heading home!  That’s just another benefit to such a Wednesday evening excursion!

I don’t mean to be ham-fisted about this plug, but I do want to earnestly commend to you the Roll Through the Bible series we are presently in the midst of during our Adult Bible Study sessions.  It has been so fun for me to teach in this series, and from what I have gathered from so many of you, it’s been fun to hear too!  We are clipping along at a one-book-per-week pace.  It’s been a challenge to distill a 35-chapter book down to a one-hour study (minus prayer request time = about 48 minutes).  Needless to say, each week, there has been much left on the “editing room floor”, but the study has been fun for me.  This is a very different pace of study than we are accustomed to, but this change of pace is helpful in a few different ways…

First, y’all know I love the “weeds”.  I like to go slow, digging into the depths of God’s Word, walking through passages, paying attention to details and soaking up everything I can learn along the way.  In this “Roll Through” series, we aren’t crawling, or walking, or even running; we are “flying over” a book from a 5,000- or 10,000- or 15,000-foot level.  If a book has only four chapters, we can swoop down and see more of the “trees”, but to see all 50 chapters of Genesis in one evening, we had to pull back on the joy stick, climb pretty high, and see only the large “forests” along the way.  This inability to go slow and pay attention to detail naturally allows us to pan out, seeing the over-arching story of redemption from Genesis to the Revelation.  This pace of study causes us to maintain a focus upon God’s grand story, and helps us to see how a particular book fits into the broader whole of the bible.

Second, a fun effect of this pace of study is to side-swipe really great stories.  Obviously, we couldn’t spend more than about 60 seconds on the low-light of Tamar & Judah (Genesis 38) while we “flew over” Genesis.  My hope, is that several of you went home and read through that chapter on your own time later that week.  Along the way, I have attempted to make a point of mentioning high-lights, and low-lights, along the way.  I hope you will read these stories, or vignettes, on your own.  What always amazes me, is how God works even through the sad moments of failure, profound sin, or hurt.  So, by joining us for this “Roll Through” series, your appetite might be whetted to further investigate the weeds of particular stories on your own!

Third, by deliberately charging through the whole bible, we will roll through books that perhaps you haven’t studied before, or that you may not have read in a long time.  I don’t think I have ever preached from Song of Songs, and rarely do we spend time studying random passages from relatively obscure minor Prophets.  This series will force us to touch all the books, even the ones we rarely touch, and this is a very good thing!  My hope through this is that God will elevate our individual levels of biblical literacy, which will advance our church’s corporate degree of biblical literacy.  My hope is that we will stumble across random stories that you learned many moons ago, but you can’t even remember where they are in the bible.

Fourth, and this is not in stone yet, but Pastor Pat and I have nearly decided that we are going to NOT adhere to canonical order (the order of the Table of Contents in your bible).  Instead, we are mulling the idea of trying to maintain (as best we can), a chronological order.  My hope in this effort will be to help us see more clearly how the various sections of God’s Word fit together according to the time line.  We aim to complete the Old Testament, circle back to the O.T. over-view, review the four centuries between the testaments, give a New Testament over-view, and then moving on into Matthew!

Finally, this pace of study will give us the freedom to pause and restart the series.  None of us thought that we began this series in February 2026, only to take 66 Wednesdays in a row to mow through it all (we blew that in March!).  We will have advent events, alternate schedules, social evenings, guest speakers, and perhaps inclement weather again.  That will result in fits and starts, and it will be alright.  We aren’t bound to a hard, fast time table; we will get through the 66th book whenever we get through it!  I have so enjoyed our Roll Through the Bible thus far, Pastor Pat has enjoyed it thus far, and many of you have already expressed to me that you are enjoying it thus far.  My hope is that more and more of you will come to enjoy it too!  Historically, Baptists have claimed to be “the people of the book”; this is a great way for us to put our money where our mouth is.  Isn’t it a good thing to be continually renewed in our love for God, by falling in love with Him over and over again by studying His Word?

Holy Bible, book of love, tell me of our God above;
He who made me loves me still, helps me know and do His will.
Holy Bible, once again tell of God’s great love to man;
how He gave His only Son, how Christ died for everyone.
--A.J.

Aaahh choo!

I hope your head isn’t as full of pollen as mine is!  It’s been a struggle in recent Sundays to have a clear enough voice to speak, but at least my ability to sing bass has never been better!  My Jeep has a coating of yellow on it too, but aren’t we thankful for the beauty of the flowers this spring?  “March winds and April showers bring May flowers” as the old saying goes.  I so love the crisp mornings before it gets too warm for my liking.  Many of you have been praying for rain like I have been, because we have been so dry in recent weeks.  Multiple people in our church family have bee hives, and I hope those amazing little creatures have been busy lately too, because I love good honey!  It is staying lighter, longer (irrespective of “Daylight Saving” Time) also, which makes many of us happy.  It is indeed a beautiful, and in many ways encouraging, time of the year!

As many of you may know already, we hold a weekly Chapel service for the children of our New Life Center.  We sing some songs and we teach the little ones a brief bible lesson.  Since spring began, we have been teaching about the different days of creation, and God’s day of rest, and how Eve was made to be a companion for Adam from Genesis 1 & 2.  It has been a great joy to see the wide-eyed marvel of the little ones when we think about the stars in outer space, and how vast God’s creation is!  We’ve talked about the different kinds of plants, some of which we eat, others of which we get to look at and enjoy their beauty.  We have also talked about the many, many different kinds of animals and how fun they are to study.  All of these aspects of creation are given to human beings as gifts.  We, and only we, are made in the image of God, and He has given dominion over His creation to mankind, and only to mankind.

I have never considered myself a “tree hugger”.  In fact, I usually prefer the comforts of in-door life, but it is a good thing for Christians to behold (and protect) the beauty of God’s creation.  From the stunning colors of spring (yes, even while watching The Masters) to the glory of the Blue Ridge Parkway in the autumn, it does our souls good to slow down and enjoy God’s creation, and it’s many gifts to us.  From the top of Hanging Rock, looking out for miles and miles, to the edge of the sea, where we are reminded of Genesis 1:9, to looking at the night sky, where indeed we are made to feel small, all of us ought to pause regularly and bask in the beauty of God’s creation.  The beauty of creation should remind us of the beauty of its Creator, our Creator.

I am neither smart enough, nor do we have here the time or paper space to unpack what it means to be created in the image of God, but at least one of the ways we reflect God’s image is that we too can be creative.  I asked the little ones what it means “to create”.  One of the young fellows said “like to make something”!  We can make things, and in so doing, we are image-bearers of God.  Aren’t we thankful for men and women that are creative in expressing the performing arts, and those that write the music, and those that fashion the instruments from raw materials?  Isn’t it amazing to watch painters, or potters, or sculptors, or caricature sketch artists capture the beauty of things God created?  Doesn’t it take our breath away to think of folks designing and building a car, or a home, or a sky-scraper, or a computer [that you can put in your pocket].  Whether engineering from Lego bricks, or massive beams of steels, or tiny pixels, we can build, reflecting the image of a Master Builder.  I ponder the greatest minds in laboratories deconstructing molecules in attempts to find cures for cancer, and the fact that God created those molecules in Genesis 1.  We can be creative, because we bear the image of our Creator!

From the barely-touched sections of creation, to the most complex systems of the greatest metropolises, if we slow down enough to consider it, we ought to be left in awe and wonder of our great and mighty Creator.  We ought also cultivate a mentality of stewardship over these things.  We should be faithful stewards of the raw materials of the natural world.  “Reduce, reuse, and recycle” is just a fancy way of telling us to not be wasteful.  As we steward the natural world, we should also be faithful stewards of the knowledge we share.  As we research, and learn more, God has blessed mankind with the understanding of how to better use our resources such that output is maximized.  As modern medicine and technology continue to advance, it is incumbent upon us to make use of these tools in God-honoring ways, promoting the blessing and flourishing of our fellow man.  We practice biblical stewardship, because we want to honor the great Creator who has given these good gifts to us.  He gives us gifts for our good and for His own glory!  Isn’t our Creator beautiful?

When through the woods and forest glades I wander,
and hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees;
when I look down from lofty mountain grandeur,
and hear the brook, and feel the gentle breeze,
then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee;
how great Thou art, how great Thou art!
--A.J.

Hey gang!

Christmas or Easter!?!  Here we go!  What do you prefer?  Which is more fun for your family?  Which is more fun for us as a church family?  I was asked last week whether I enjoy Christmas more, or Easter.  Without even letting the question mark come out of the mouth of the person asking me, I fired back “EASTER!”  No doubt, no hesitation, I didn’t have to think about it.  So, here, let me attempt to give my best defense of why I answered that way.

First, let me go ahead and acknowledge how little I enjoy “special events”.  Many of you know that about me already.  I absolutely subscribe to the Adrian Rogers approach to church events: our church has 52 special events per year; that’s enough for me.  I love worship services on Sundays, every week.  I want them to be well-planned, well-executed, high-quality affairs.  I want the sermon to be clear, stirring, convicting, encouraging, Spirit-driven, and completely centered around God’s Word.  I want music to be good; I want the Choir to sound great (they do!).  I want prayer to be a central component, I want God to speak to our hearts, I want us to leave looking more like Jesus than we did when we arrived.  If Sundays are quality events, what else do we need?  I have a soft spot for out-reach events, because I want the unchurched to be drawn to our fellowship, but “special services” usually just stress me out.  I don’t love “special events” around Christmas; I don’t love “special events” around Easter.  That can’t be why I prefer either.

In my family (my mother’s side in particular), both days involve a trip to Gramaw’s house, and both occasions involve ham.  It may go without saying that the food is spectacular both times, but I’ll give the edge to Christmas.  When I account for having to bring gifts (and the shopping that’s required before that), Christmas loses it’s edge, so it remains a wash.

Special church events aside, let me score the trappings surrounding each of these holydays.  Christmas is in winter: that’s one point (or a dozen).  It’s cooler, I can wear a coat and be comfortable.  Easter is in the spring.  I love a chilly early Easter, but it’s always a gamble, because on many years, I’m sweating already.  Spring is when the flowers are blooming, or to put it more accurately, spring is when the pollen is blowing up my nostrils.  The new life of spring is why pastels and eggs become symbolic.  I know that rabbits mate in the spring, but I still don’t understand why a bunny represents anything!  For that matter, the word “Easter” has pagan roots.  For these reasons, Christmas takes a strong lead.

In the words of the angel Gabriel (played by Nate Bargatze) to Mary and Joseph [in Nate’s 2024 Christmas special]: “it’s going to have a real Scandinavian feel”.  Saint Nicholas (Ni’Claus) didn’t wear a fuzzy red suit or a stocking cap, and the reindeer entering the picture is a particularly weird piece of the imagery.  Add the special music and movies and decorations (tasteful and not) and hilarious sweaters to the mix, and Christmas pulls way ahead.  For that matter, it has such an over-whelming cultural lead, that Jews and Muslims and Hindus and atheists the world over are completely comfortable celebrating Christmas with their families!

Christmas is sweet; it makes us feel warm and fuzzy.  Few are really offended by the story of a baby.  Even the folks who refuse to believe the bible, like the Christmas story (I mean, who doesn’t love a baby?).  Easter is offensive.  Death is not fun to discuss; crucifixion is particularly gross.  The idea that sin has consequences because God hates it and is the righteous judge, tends to step on too many toes.  When we talk about which groups of people are responsible for killing Jesus, things get awkward.  So, let’s just prefer Christmas.

However, when we discard family traditions, and shove all the trappings and ridiculous traditions aside, let’s ponder – simply – Jesus life and the biblical story.  When decorations, and menus, and music, and even church services are stripped away, all we are lift with is God’s Word, and the ministry of Jesus in our hearts.  When we sharpen our focus upon Him, we can see Him in the manger, and preaching by the Sea of Galilee, and healing just outside the Temple, and drinking wine at a wedding banquet, and feeding a great crowd, and napping in a boat during a storm, and kneeling in the garden, and silently taking the beating, and hanging upon a cross, and walking by the Sea again, and ascending to heaven!  His life and ministry culminate in redemption.  His atoning sacrifice is THE reason for His incarnation (and birth) to begin with; and aren’t we all-the-more thankful that His redeeming sacrifice was not the end of His ministry.  On the third day, once and for all, He defeated death and sin, vacating His own tomb!!  This is why Resurrection Sunday is my preference.  This day is the day of celebration!  This day is the day where we receive the benefit of His birth, and life, and death, through His resurrection!  Were it not for Easter, we wouldn’t have anything to celebrate on Christmas.  Join me in preferring Easter!  Nah, I don’t care what you prefer.  Join me in celebrating, and worshipping Jesus!  Join me in making and keeping all the holydays (and every day) all about Him!  Hallelujah!

Christmas has its cradle, where that Baby cried;
in the Easter garden Christ lay, crucified;
when death’s power was conquered, God’s life through Him poured;
Christmas has its cradle, and Easter has its Lord!
--A.J.

Greetings and salutations!

If you’ve previously been part of a Catholic, or Orthodox, or Lutheran, or Anglican, or Methodist church (or a dozen others), you may have observed Lent at some point or other in your life.  When I was recently asked about it (or lack thereof) in our church family, I wanted to say “baptists don’t do Lent” and let it be that simple, but join me as I think through Lent.  It’s good to understand what it is, and what it isn’t.  It’s good to unpack its symbolism, ponder its purpose, and consider what God might have to say to us.

Let me first tell you Lent exists (as most liturgical traditions exist) because for a majority of Church history, the Church was illiterate.  The recitations of memorized prayers and creeds trace their roots backward to the fact that with the exception of the clergy, no one could read God’s Word for themselves.  The same is true of ritualistic worship services that seem exactly the same every week.  The same is true of seasons of feasting and fasting across the liturgical calendar.  All of these things reinforce the understanding of biblical principles in the lives of congregants.  In other words, now that we can read and study God’s Word for ourselves (in our own language), it’s perfectly legitimate to eliminate some of these traditions.  It’s perfectly legitimate to continue them too, but it’s certainly not necessary.

Let me second tell you why Lent is dumb (yes, I am using hyperbole, like Jesus did in Matthew 5:29-30).  It begins 40 (or so) days before Easter; it’s actually 46 days ending on Maundy Thursday, but that explanation is too long for this article.  Certain traditions have particular rules about what you can and can’t eat on particular days of the week, but that too would be too long to explain (though everyone should search the advent of the McDonald’s Filet o’ Fish on Google!).  Many observers of Lent begin the season by receiving the “imposition of ashes” upon their foreheads.  This reminds me of what a member of my ordination council once said to me about the process of ordination (paraphrasing): ‘what does it matter if a bunch of unholy men put their unholy hands on my unholy head?’  I do see so many people on television news wearing the smudge on their heads, and wonder if they participated just to look the part for the world to see (then again, sometimes I am just a cynic).  What makes the Lenten season even more absurd is that the day before Ash Wednesday is known as “fat Tuesday” (“Mardi Gras” if you speak French).  For many, who will abstain from some thing during Lent, alcohol perhaps, or sweets, or some other indulgence, “fat Tuesday” (and the days leading up to it) provides a time to use up all that they already have.  This is the beginning of the drunken, debaucherous, gluttonous, hedonistic party traditions that characterize the Gulf coast, culminating on that Tuesday.

Alright, now that I have lampooned some of the frivolous aspects of Lent, let me encourage you with its beauty.  First, seasons of feasting and fasting are indeed biblical.  It is good to abstain (from whatever) for a period of time when we earnestly seek the face of God.  It’s also good to break the fast with a celebratory feast, having heard from God.  It is a precious thing to “taste and see that the Lord is good”, as Psalm 34 declares.

Second, hearing “you are dust, and to dust you shall return” is a direct quotation of Genesis 3:19.  It is good for our soul when we hear this truth.  It reminds us of our smallness, our insignificance, our unrighteousness, and God’s contrasting majesty.  We ought to know this daily.

Third, whether receiving the smudge of ash physically or not, we would do well to spend more time in the ashes.  Sackcloth and ashes were common symbols throughout the bible of a good posture: repentance.  Spending 40 days of repentance is a good thing; spending 365 days of repentance is a better thing.  Repent.  Repent more.  Indeed we are dust, and we have sinned against a holy God.  I deserve an eternity in hell, and I need to repent, every day.  May we mourn our sinful selves; may we mourn the cost of our sin; may we be poor in spirit, as the Beatitudes teach us.

Fourth, it is a good and godly thing to experience a season of preparation.  May we set things aside and focus our hearts upon God.  May we cry out for Him to reveal Himself in a new way.  May we seek His face, expecting for Him to show up!  May we Q-tip our ears, and get on our knees, and dig into God’s Word, and cry out to Him, and expect Him to show us aspects of His goodness and grace that we haven’t ever seen before!

Fifth, about the rhetorical question near my ordination, the answer is: “it doesn’t matter”.  It matters not if unholy men put their unholy hands upon my unholy head, unless the Spirit of God is in it.  However, if the hands and the head are seeking the will, and empowerment, and grace of God, it can be a most precious symbol.  Whether you’ve had a smudge upon your forehead or not is frankly irrelevant to me, but if the Spirit of God is involved, it is a precious and powerful symbol.  With or without the symbol, may God hear our prayers of repentance, may the Holy Spirit indwell our souls, direct our paths, and instill the peace of Jesus throughout our lives.

Whether you give up something or not is irrelevant to me too.  Sometimes I laugh at symbolism; other times I worry that participants are most concerned with the shallow symbols.  It’s good for us to learn what the symbols mean, and appreciate the beauty of the substance beneath.  I challenge you to metaphorically clothe yourself in ash, bending to a posture of repentance, understanding and appreciating your own lowliness and unholiness.  I challenge you to repent.  I challenge you to seek the face of God, crying out to Him, preparing your heart, and waiting, waiting for Him to show up.  As we wait, let’s remember that the Lord’s Day is coming!

Savior, when in tears and dust, low we bow to you in trust;
when repentant, to the skies, scarce we lift our weeping eyes,
mindful how you suffered pain, that God’s love in us might reign;
help us claim what we would be; hear our solemn litany.
--A.J.

Hello dear friends!

As I sit down to write this article, I can look out the window and see frozen precipitation.  I believe I am seeing a thin layer of snow, laid atop a thicker layer of sleet.  Regardless, it is white, and has beautified all the buildings, trees, surfaces, etc.  While I enjoy feeling the luxury of gas logs, I know that it is cold outside, and will get colder as the sun sets.  The coming days are supposed to get yet colder, which causes me to think of those who have to work outside: first responders, the Walnut Cove public works crew, those who work in hospitals, and folks who work for the electric companies.  I am also concerned for the people whose home may not be as warm as mine.  I haven’t lost electricity, yet.  Not everyone has gas logs.  Not everyone has this kind of roof over their head.  May we be mindful of those in need, and may we do what we can to be a blessing to our neighbors, no matter the circumstance.

I didn’t set an alarm clock this morning, and it is admittedly nice to have a lazy Sunday.  I am so thankful for Ms. Leigh and Andy & Dakota Cheek for meeting me yesterday afternoon to record today’s worship service.  I won’t have to go “to work” tomorrow; my job doesn’t require me to be in a specific place.  If you have the option to work remotely, or have the flexibility to take a day off on short notice, let’s remember our childhood.  I remember praying for winter weather as a school kid, waking early to turn on the television and wait for the scroll to announce what my school system would do (by the time I got to high school, I would fail to complete my homework, go to bed, and hope I didn’t have to finish in the morn).  Every now and then, there it would read “Guilford County Schools: closed”!  Mama would dress my brother and me [not unlike Randy in A Christmas Story] and let us go outside to play for hours at a time, coming inside to eat grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup, drink hot chocolate, and make snow cream together.  After we thawed, we’d go back outside to play.  O what fun we had, and the biggest care we had was whether we could get the snow balls to stay packed together.  The kid inside me is praying for school to cancel tomorrow, just so these little ones can have a day to play, a day like I remember.  Aren’t we thankful for the joys that God gives, filling our hearts?

As I [barely] work ahead [until football kicks off], I am chewing on Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, which we will preach through in the coming months.  It is heavy in the theme of sanctification, and full of practical applications in “Christian living”.  This has me thinking: will any of us go to heaven because we walk in obedience?  Will we inherit the earth because we strive to be holy, or follow certain rules, or serve our neighbors better, or vote a certain way, or stop others from doing certain things?  Most certainly: no!  Does God care about what we do?  Yes.  Does God care even more about the heart behind our actions?  O yeah!

May we act, and think, certain ways because Jesus is the Lord of our hearts.  May we hold certain values, or opinions, because we have been shaped by the truths of scripture, because God has our hearts.  May we strive toward holy living, toward spiritual maturity, because we want to look more like our Savior.  May we walk toward humility, looking a bit more like Jesus tomorrow than we do today, because His presence is transforming us from the inside, out.  May we be a blessing to our friends and neighbors, because we want them to walk with Him too.  We know that God cares about our obedience, our thoughts and actions; we also know that God cares about our hearts, the hearts behind our actions, the hearts of which He wants to be Lord.  Will any of us go to heaven because of our “Christian living”?  No, not one.  Do we live, striving to honor the Christ, because we are already bound for heaven?  O yeah.  We think, and do, and hold opinions, and treat our neighbors, and care for the needy, and strive for obedience, because we are inheritors of the Kingdom of God.

We “live Christianity” because the Christ already has our hearts.  The Holy Spirit is conforming us into the image of Jesus day by day.  We have been credited with His righteousness, making us justified.  As we walk with Him, growing in faith, striving toward spiritual maturity, we are being sanctified.  All this is possible because of what He has already done for us.  He has conquered sin and death, and given us the grace of eternal life.  He has taken away the hell we deserve, paying for our own sin, and given us an inheritance as sons of God (Matthew 5:9).  This is all because of what He accomplished upon the cross, His blood cleansing our hearts as white as snow.

Lord Jesus I long to be perfectly whole;
I want Thee forever to ransom my soul.
Break down every idol, cast out every foe;
now wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.
--A.J.

Hello friends,

At approximately 10:08, on Sunday morning, December 21, we were as distant from the sun as we ever get in Earth’s orbit.  At that point, the solstice began the winter season.  I love winter, for several different reasons, but I freely acknowledge that many of you do not!  In recent weeks I have learned a bit about “seasonal affective disorder”; whether because of the cold temperatures, or other reasons, it can be a difficult time of the year for many of us.  Be encouraged!  Between now and the third Sunday of June, our days will continue to get longer and longer and longer.  We’ll see more sun light, and indeed temperatures will rise (which, in turn, will make me sad, and sweaty)!

From Thanksgiving Day, through advent, and into the Christmas season can be difficult for many families.  Whether your loved ones live far away and aren’t able to travel to be together, or whether your family members have jobs requiring them to work on holy days, or whether you have experienced the loss of death within the past year, often times traditional events with family and friends can be bitter-sweet.  To these families and individuals, I want to offer you a bit of encouragement too.

A proper theological view of Christmas should force us to look backward, into the Old Testament.  Between Malachi (who most believe to be the latest of the writing Prophets) and Matthew (the beginning of the New Testament), were about four centuries of time.  Much happened in world history, perhaps most importantly the Roman Empire’s conquest of the Promised Land, but bible scholars refer to it as the “400 silent years”, because we have no written scripture.  In some respects, the children of Israel went without hearing from God at all.

Pastor Jim, on December 14, preached from Isaiah 11.  This text, Isaiah 9, Isaiah 7, Micah 5, and Jeremiah 31 are but a few of the Messianic Prophecies that would have seem to have gone unfulfilled… but, indeed the Messiah did come!  “In the fullness of time” Galatians 4 teaches us, God the Son became a human being, in the womb of a virgin girl from Nazareth!  As Isaiah 11 teaches us (like Pastor Jim said), we see all in one Prophecy, both the first coming and the second coming of the Christ!  Even seven centuries before Jesus was born, Isaiah had the privilege of catching a glimpse of His eternal Kingdom!  We see an even clearer picture in Revelation and other New Testament books!

Pastor Pat, on December 07, preached John 1.  John’s account of the “Christmas story” is found in John 1:14 – “the Word became flesh and pitched His tent among us” – John goes on to proclaim “we observed His glory; the glory as the One and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth”!  Have you observed His glory?  Do you have a personal relationship with Him?  If so, you know hope!

We live in a dark world, literally.  We are just past the longest night of the year.  We also live in a dark world, metaphorically.  Relationships are broken, people are enslaved to addiction, wickedness seems to prevail everywhere.  The curse of sin is apparent in our world.  Indeed it is dark.  Whether you experience seasonal depression, or grief has cast a pall over your family gatherings, or you seem to experienced the brokenness of our world acutely in recent days, we can have hope.  I Thessalonians 4 encourages us that we [who have a saving relationship with Jesus] “will not grieve like the rest” of the world, “who have no hope”.  Though our lost neighbors have no hope, we who know Jesus, and are known by Jesus, have hope!  Simon Peter calls it a “living hope”, because the embodiment of our hope resurrected the third day!!

Jesus is the embodiment of hope, the embodiment of grace, and the embodiment of light.  As Pastor Pat reminded us from John 1:5, “life was in Him, and that life was the light of men”.  May our encouragement, our hope, be found in this truth: “that light shines in the darkness, yet the darkness did not overcome it”!  Regardless of how dark the world seems to be, it cannot overcome the light of King Jesus!  Regardless of how difficult days might be for us, we can have a hope of His Kingdom yet to come to full fruition.  Even during the shortest days of the year, we have a hope of what is yet to come!  Spring and summer are coming; comfort and healing are coming; even on the day Jesus was crucified and died, Sunday was coming!  Be encouraged, church!  We know Hope, and His name is Jesus!

o sing “hallelujah”, our hope springs eternal,
o sing “hallelujah”, now and ever we confess
Christ, our hope, in life and death
--A.J.

Greetings friends,

In recent weeks, we have thought a lot about the biblical principle of stewardship.  I do hope you have loved (half as much as I do) the illustration of the keys to the gate of the city walls of Edinburgh, Scotland!  I’ve challenged us all to think of ourselves as the Lord Provost, the “little man” with the velvet pillow, who, every summer offers back to the king of Scotland (and England) his keys upon the pillow.

My father used to work for Winn-Dixie, a grocery store; he was the manager of the Dairy & Frozen Food department, and later the Assistant Manager of a store.  Between those two roles, he was the “third man” (I always love asking him about his various vests of different colors!), at which point, he became a “key holder”.  In many a retail store, “key holders” are in positions of authority, because they have the responsibility of opening or closing the store.  They have financial responsibility to close the registers, perhaps they manage inventory, or over-see other staff.  “Key holders” must be worthy of trust.

My challenge to us: what “keys” do we hold?  Most of us have a decent education; we hold a decent intellect.  Do we hold relationships and networks that we can leverage?  Do we have physical bodies, of which, most parts work properly, most days?  Do we hold real estate, and homes, and vehicles, and bank accounts?  Do we have jobs, with pay checks?  Do we have work days free now because we are retired?  Do we have less busy weekends now that the kids are out of the house?  Do you have Tuesday evenings free after bowling season ends (yes, I am that cool!)?  Do you have musical talents to share?  Are you good at business management, or marketing and communications, or cooking, or sales, or accounting?  Do you have gifts of hospitality, or encouragement, or teaching, or are you really good at handling kids?  Is it possible that we are all holding more “keys” than we first realized?

As we have seen, in Job, and Psalm 107, and Malachi, and Luke recently, stewardship involved money / material possessions, but it certainly includes more than that.  Yes, stewardship includes giving, but it also includes taking care.  How can you give of your time, talent, and treasure to serve within our church?  How can you give to serve beyond our church?  How can you nurture and protect these gifts from God, to leave things better than you found them?  How can you reduce your waste footprint, to better steward limited resources, and steward God’s creation?  How can you leverage all these gifts, “keys”, to glorify God?  Did you know that the greatest way to glorify God is to use your gifts to bless others?

Did you know that the most precious “key” we hold is the Good News?  Are you being the steward of this gift God would have you to be?  Are you protecting it (guarding doctrine, biblical fidelity)?  Are you nurturing it (cultivating a relationship with God in your heart daily)?  Are you living it out, being the light of the world Jesus calls us to be?  Are you walking humbly, obediently, in the process of sanctification?  Are you sharing this Good News with our neighbors to who so desperately need to hear it?  Are you hoarding the Good News to yourself, or are you leveraging this gift to bless others?  Is your commitment to missions and evangelism, evidence that you are indeed a trust-worthy steward of the Good News?

I confess to you, I don’t think I have written so many questions in any essay or paper, EVER before.  I freely acknowledge that I have more questions than answers here, but I hope these questions challenge you, because they have challenged me in recent weeks.  I have tried to be a good “stock boy” (which my father was at the grocery store), learning that I am holding way more “keys” than I knew a few months ago.  Counting these “keys” has driven me to my knees in recent weeks, realizing that I have more reasons to be thankful, more and more and more.  When my spiritual posture is in this place, it’s then that the King of kings seems to whisper to me “I return these keys, being perfectly convinced that they cannot be placed in better hands than those of the Lord Provost and Councillors of my good City”.  May our hands be the trust-worthy hands of a faithful steward God would have them to be!

Bring ye all the tithes into the store-house, all your money, talents, time, and love,
consecrate them all upon the altar while your Savior from above speaks sweetly
“trust Me, try Me, prove Me” saith the Lord of hosts “and see
if a blessing, unmeasured blessing, I will not pour out on thee!”
--A.J.

Hello friends!

Just within the past week, my aunt gave me a box of Christmas Tree Cakes.  Several of you know that these are my absolute favorite Little Debbie product.  I have multiple t-shirts celebrating the cakes; I have been known in years past to stock up, freezing them, and eating them all year long; some might argue that it is my favorite aspect of the advent/Christmastide season.  Mind you, we still have several days before October ends.  I have been blown away how many houses have entire front yards full of decor, weeks ahead of time, as folks prepare for Halloweds’ Eve.  Before we fill those same yards with inflatable reindeer and candy canes, going full Clark Griswold-style adornment, let me encourage us to slow our rolls, allowing a moment for us to reflect in gratitude as Thanksgiving Day approaches.

The fourth Thursday of November is a federal “holi day” here in the United States, but I’d like to argue that it should indeed be a “holy day” for us as followers of Jesus.  Better yet, let’s scrap the idea of limiting it to a day, and let’s be thankful 365 days per year.  What makes our thankfulness holy, it not THAT we have things for which to be thankful.  What makes gratitude holy, is TO WHOM we express our thanks.  Every human being, if they truly stop long enough to count their blessings, has things for which to be thankful, but we, as disciples of Jesus, know Who deserves our thanks.

The night before I type this, my father and I were talking about his uncles and aunts, the ones who adopted 20-year-old him when he moved to North Carolina in the spring of 1978.  We talked about how I, as a kid, knew them better than his own parents, who retired to Florida after military service.  I told Dad “I was pretty blessed to have several extra grandparent-figures as a kid, but I didn’t appreciate it at the time.”  He responded something to the effect of ‘yeah, we’re all pretty good at taking things for granted; you don’t really appreciate what you have until you don’t have it anymore.’  In a world where we make lists, sprinting from one task to the next, I think it is a good and godly thing to slow down, looking around, and taking inventory of what we “see”.  Perhaps then, we will be better able to count our blessings, or at least attempt to begin to count them.

In the weeks ahead, I will be preaching a sermon series on stewardship.  I have sensed God leading me to do so for nearly a year now, and I must confess to you, I am nervous about it.  I want to honor the Lord, and I’d really like to avoid sounding like a televangelist with his hands out in the process.  I have found, in my preparations for this series, that generous, cheerful giving ONLY comes down-stream from healthy thankfulness.

Our American traditions of giving thanks in the autumn, as the harvest completes, paints a beautiful picture of why we are grateful.  God is sovereign over the sun and the rain; in some years the crops yield little, and in other years the crops yield much.  In times of plenty or want, we are reminded just Who controls all things.  Our baptist fore-fathers were among the English separatists who became the pilgrims to the new world.  Perhaps some of them voiced prayers of gratitude around Plymouth in the 1600s.  Allow me to commend to you, George Washington’s 1789 Thanksgiving Proclamation.  You can search online and find it easily.  Read it.  Read it this year, and many years.  Read it with your family and friends.  President Washington understood that he, and his fellow patriots had much for which to be thankful.  He also understood to whom he should give thanks.

As we fly through November into the advent season, decorate how and when you want to.  Join me in eating a Little Debbie cake or two (or 40).  Fill your home with laughter and loved ones (and football?).  Fill your kitchen and bellies with delicious food.  Fill your calendar with dinners and get-togethers, and shopping trips as you check of the lists.  It’s good to do all these things, but give pause, and fill your mind and heart with gratitude.  O give thanks – to the Lord – for He is good; His faithful love endures forever!!

With gladness in your heart, thanks-giving in your spirit,
be quick to praise the Lord, let all around you hear it!
Let others know what He has done.  Praise God who gave His only Son.
Sing, congregation, sing!
--A.J.

Greetings dear friends!

In recent months, I have been writing about how we ought to view missions, and how God calls us each to “live on mission”.  Though I took a bit of a break from this theme this-past month, I hope you took away the importance of commitment to an undiluted Good News, which further strengthens our ability to obey the Great Commission faithfully.  Last Sunday, I preached from Philippians 2, where we find King Jesus setting the ultimate example of humility.  It seems clear to me that God calls us to strive toward humility, understanding it as a synonym of “Christ-likeness” and “holiness”.  This striving goes hand-in-hand with the process of sanctification, where the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin.  As we continually repent, walking closer and closer with Jesus, we grow toward maturity, looking more and more like Jesus over time.

This process of sanctification is the natural course of spiritual growth for all followers of Jesus.  It is accelerated by intentional discipleship processes.  Let’s recall that the Great Commission (Matthew 28) doesn’t call us to “go and make converts”; it calls us to “go and make disciples”.  Discipleship is a life-long process, whereby we are “conformed into the image of Christ (Romans)”.  At the end of Matthew 28, the command to “make disciples” is explained with three participles: going, baptizing, and teaching.  Baptizing is the obvious one; making disciples assumes evangelizing the lost.  If we are being disciples who make disciples, souls will get saved, and those new disciples will get baptized.  Teaching is fairly obvious too; as we grow in our faith (sanctification), we need to learn more, teaching others, and being taught by others.  We all need a “Paul” who is an example for us to follow; we all need a “Timothy” who is following our example; we also need multiple people around us as “Barnabas” was to Paul, partners in ministry, sharpening one another in encouragement and brotherhood/sisterhood.

Going, is a bit more ironic.  Going is a prerequisite if we are going to meet new people on mission, evangelizing them.  No lost people will ever hear the Good News if the Church doesn’t go.  We absolutely must leave the house, but we don’t even need to go “on a mission trip” to live intentionally.  We can befriend, and get to know, and earn the trust, and share our faith with our neighbors, and waiters, and cashiers, and bankers, right here in town!  However, as we grow toward spiritual maturity, as we are engaged in the teaching of sanctification, our “going” becomes much effective.  As we grow in discipleship, we are better equipped to serve lost people, share the Good News through our testimonies, pray for sensitivity and discernment as we navigate conversations, and understand what the bible has to say about the issues raised by our lost neighbors.  As we are being made into more mature disciples, we will improve in our efforts to go and make further disciples.

Whether you prefer to call it “discipleship” or “sanctification”, it is an essential aspect of us being the followers of Jesus that He calls us to be.  I want our church family, and every member hereof, to be disciples who make disciples, who make disciples, who make disciples, who make disciples, until Jesus calls us home.  If we are going to be the church on mission that God calls us to be (that I very, very much want us to be), we must – individually – be followers of Jesus, living on mission faithfully.  If we are individually obeying the Great Commission, if we are corporately obeying the Great Commission, it assumes that God’s instructions to us trump our collective will.  Back to the notion of humility: as we grow toward humility, we are better able to set aside personal agendas, yielding to the lordship of Jesus.  May we all put our respective will aside, walking in selflessness (of which, Jesus is the ultimate example), keeping our eyes upon the objective of all people groups gathering around the throne of God in heaven one day.  In so doing, as subjects of King Jesus, let’s be who He calls us to be, let’s go where He calls us to go, and let’s do what He calls us to do!

My will is not my own, ‘til Thou hast made it Thine;
if it would reach a monarch’s throne, it must its crown resign.
Make me a captive, Lord, and then I shall be free;
force me to render up my sword, and I shall conqueror be!
--A.J.

Greetings friends!

I am not a single-issue voter.  We have a very large, complicated system of governments, and I try to sift and weigh a number of policy factors as I consider how to vote.  On the majority of ballots, we are choosing between humans (vs. referenda) where decisions are further complicated by personalities and trust-worthiness.  Among the issues I weigh highly, is that of religious liberty.  It should surprise none of you that I am a big fan of a “high wall” separating the Church and the state (as defined by Roger Williams in the 1600s).  The state (government) need not fear the influence of good and godly people living out their faith, even in the public square.  The Church, however, should always be leery of governmental encroachment into the affairs of the soul, or groups of believers intending to nourish one another’s souls.

Thanks be to God that we have a country with a Constitution.  It’s very first amendment recognizes our right to freely exercise whatever system of beliefs we have.  As a pastor, I am especially sensitive to social, political, and legal issues surrounding religious liberty.  I want to protect our church, and all other religious groups, from the heavy hand of government getting into our spiritual business.

In July, the Internal Revenue Service shifted its definitions of how to interpret and enforce a specific amendment to our federal tax codes.  To be clear, the law is still the law, and stands in effect, but the I.R.S. (at least for the moment) is choosing to enforce it differently (or not enforce it at all, but that is another conversation for another day).  This tax code amendment was signed into law by President Eisenhower in 1954, and was named for Sen. Lyndon B. Johnson (Texas-Dem.).  I would argue that the “Johnson amendment” to our tax code was a well-meaning endeavor.  It states that any non-profit organization that campaigns for (or opposes) a political candidate stands in jeopardy of losing its tax-exempt status.  This applies to lots of different kinds of organizations, and would have been enforced by the I.R.S.  Churches are basically afforded the status of a 501(c)(3) organization (it’s a bit more complicated, but roll with me), so over the past 7 decades, this rule in the tax code has been widely understood to apply in this way: churches can’t endorse political candidates, so preachers can’t talk about politics in the pulpit.  Though it has never been that simple, enforcement of this law has been selective, highly subjective, and held over the heads of pastors for a long time.  Supposedly, the new definitions within the I.R.S. (at least for the moment) will give greater latitude for preachers and churches to publicly speak in favor of candidates now.

I appreciate a government agency actively loosening restrictions on religious organizations, and I will always advocate for the liberty to say whatever God lays upon my heart from our pulpit (or anywhere else), but frankly, whether or not the federal government gives our church tax-exempt status is irrelevant to me.  I am going to preach what God’s Spirit tells me to preach, and strive to be as faithful to His Word as I can be, regardless of consequence.  I appreciate our church being afforded certain legal and financial privileges, but whether we have them or not, our mission remains the same.

I know of WAY too many churches that spend WAY too much time talking about political issues already.  I know of pastors who have been openly spouting their political opinions (from both sides of the aisle) for far too long.  While I respect and appreciate their right to preach whatever they feel compelled to preach, I would humbly submit that they preach a different “gospel” than I do.  It breaks my heart that far too many pews are full of people who hear their preacher dilute, and hi-jack, and twist scripture to fit their personal agenda (political or otherwise).

To be clear, “male and female He created them (Genesis 1:27)”.  The idea that such a sentence is even viewed by some to be a political statement in this country today, probably has Presidents Eisenhower and Johnson rolling in their graves.  To be clearer, “God created man in His own image (same verse)”.  If human life has value, it is because we have been created as image-bearers of God.  I would argue that human life is measurably more valuable than all other creation; and that we do not begin to bear His image at birth.  I will always proclaim a message of the dignity and sanctify of human life.  Why?  Because the God of the bible proclaims such a message.  We may disagree over the finer points of application, but we are an unapologetically pro-life church because our God is a pro-life God.  In Genesis 2, God embeds in institution of marriage within creation.  He gives it to us, He defines what “marriage” is.  He has never given anyone else the right to redefine His institutions.  Theologically down-stream from this truth, are further teachings on the family and human flourishing, on human sexuality, and on the doctrine of the church.  God’s Word is clear, therefore, I shall strive to be clear.  Where the bible speaks, let’s speak!  I’ll go a step farther: I want us all as followers of Jesus to think biblically about issues, and I strive to apply God’s Word in everyday aspects of life.

That being said, while I am glad to be able to discuss anything and everything from God’s pulpit without fear of financial punishment (I mean, I would do it anyway!), I won’t.  Though I refuse to self-censor, I hope you agree with me that I have too many important things to say, than to waste our time with politics.  When I stand behind God’s sacred desk and proclaim “thus saith the Lord”, may He have mercy upon me if I water down, or distort, or add to, or detract one bit from exactly what He has to say!

Tell it!  Tell it out with gladness, God’s good news to every man,
sin forgiven, lives transfigured, all in God’s great loving plan.
In the Book is found a witness to His mighty acts of yore;
listen, heed, obey, and serve Him, kneel before Him and adore,
--A.J.