Author: pastorscottwordofgracefellowship

I received a question via text, that asked, “If someone rejects God’s love when they’re young, is the door closed for them, or is it possible for God, through the Holy Spirit, to draw them again?”  An excellent question!

This past Sunday we concluded the series on David’s life by looking at the passing of the torch to Solomon (1 Chronicles).  At one point in David’s address he says something troubling, ESPECIALLY to those of us with wayward family members! 

“If you seek Him, He will let you find Him; but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever.”  (1 Chronicles 28:9b)

As much “fun” as it might be to try to demonstrate “seeking and forsaking” by comparing and contrasting David, Saul, and Solomon, we live in the Church Age so we really ought to see what Jesus had to say.  He, through the Apostle John, reminds us that we are all under judgment until that moment of faith. “He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” (John 3:18)  So the rejector, the denier, and the unbeliever are all in the same camp until they believe – the same camp, incidentally, as the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-31).  I believe rejection of Christ only becomes eternally fatal upon death. So keep praying, keep loving, and keep sharing the faith!

Pastor Scott

Earlier this week, in preparation for another study, I was looking at Revelation 4:11 (Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.)  Which clearly states that we were created by God’s will or, “for His Pleasure.”  Revelation 4:11 brought to mind the “worthiness language” applied to the Son in chapter five.

And they sang a new song, saying,

“Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.

“You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth.”

Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice,

“Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.”

And every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying,

“To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.”

And I realized, that even at the end of ages we will be Praising God for His double ownership of our lives.  He both made us and He bought us back!  I, for one, want to start living that life of purpose fulfilling gratitude BEFORE I get to heaven.  You?

Pastor Scott

This next Sunday we’ll be looking at David’s out-pouring of praise and thanksgiving in 2 Samuel 22.  I ran across a poignant little story that well illustrates a point a want to make on Sunday about verse 29 and the limits of lamp light on a long dark path (the point I’m going for in this illustration is NOT the self-reliance piece)

When a person is suddenly alone, often panic and fear come.  I distinctly remember my mother saying to me after my father’s death, “I cannot go on without him.  I depended on him for everything.”  My mother believed that, but she did go on without him.  In fact, she lived twenty-five wonderful years after my father died.  I remember that one of the things that bothered my mother was that she could not drive a car.  She learned that she could live without driving a car.  I feel that the most creative years of my mother’s life were the years when she was forced to depend on herself.  She had her anxious moments, but somewhere along the way she learned the old expression, “Life by the yard is hard, life by the inch is a cinch.”  Charles Allen, You are Never Alone (Old Tappan, New Jersey, Fleming H. Revel, 1978), 88.

So if we find ourselves twisted up with worry – or to sticking with the analogy – if we keep tripping up – perhaps we’re trying to look too far into the future, while God is only shedding light on our next steps! 

I understand this is the wettest Spring we’ve had since records have been kept.  It’s certainly been hard to keep the grass cut and the rivers and streams are all well past “flood stage!  I’m sure I’m not the only one who has seen some dramatic footage.

I saw one water rescue in Iowa (or maybe Nebraska) caught on a cell phone where passersby were trying to get a family out a car that had started to float away.  The thing that was striking is that they instinctively tied themselves, with whatever they could find, to higher; firmer ground.  As they got the last passenger out, the car swished away, but the passenger was reeled in safely, because the human chain was anchored to an old oak with deep roots.

Chances are I’ll never be floating down a churning river in a car with my family; but my soul encounters churning waters from day to day.  How about yours?  The cool thing is as believers our souls are anchored to roots WAY deeper than an oak’s!

This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.  (Hebrews 6:19-20)

The “Presence” behind the veil is YHWH Himself and through His death, Jesus anchored us in Him.  That’s true weather we “feel” it or not.  So next time the waters churn I can act like the baby who doesn’t trust his daddy in the pool and cry and carry on as if He’s going to drop me; or I can relax and rejoice that He’s got this!

Pastor Scott

As we look forward to saying goodbye to our brother in Christ next Friday we, of course, cling to the promise of eternal life for all those that believe in Jesus (John 6:47) and as Paul said, we grieve with hope (1 Thessalonians 4:13)!

Of course the passing of a beloved member of our body ought to remind us of our own own mortality.  Causing us to appreciate again the gift of salvation bought with the blood of Christ and secured by faith alone; but I for one, would also like to be remembered well; and to that end, I offer you this poem I found stashed away in my files.  It’s dated “1992” but sounds a bit older than that, still I think it’s worth a minute or two of your contemplation.

It isn’t the thing you do;
It’s the thing you leave undone,
Which gives you a bit of heartache
At the setting of the sun.

The tender word forgotten,
The letter you did not write,
The flower you might have sent,
Are your haunting ghosts tonight.

The stone you might have lifted
Out of a brother’s way,
The bit of heartsome counsel
You were harried too much to say.

The loving touch of the hand,
The gentle winsome tone,
That you had no time or tho’t for
With troubles enough of your own.

The little acts of kindness
So easily out of mind;
Those chances to be helpful
Which everyone may find.

No, it’s not the things you do,
It’s the thing you leave undone
Which gives you the bit of heartache
At the setting of the sun.

Pastor Scott

Tomorrow the stock market could crash.

Tomorrow Russia and China could bomb the USA back to the Stone Age.

Tomorrow a 767 could fall on my house.

Tomorrow the sun could come up and the day could go pretty much like today…..

The truth is I CAN’T know.

You CAN’T know.

Worry (overthinking, dwelling on) tomorrow will not change tomorrow.

Do today!

If you think of something you need to do tomorrow, write it on tomorrow’s list and leave it there.  But only concern yourself with today.

Does that sound too simplistic?  

Maybe a little sophomoric?  

If it does, it’s because we’ve been listening to the enemy.  

Our Creator, the Lover of our souls says we can only handle today.  

And if He said it, I imagine I’d be a fool not to believe it! Amen?

“So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”  ~Jesus

“God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me.” Genesis 21:6

Laughter is a blessing from the Lord. It’s the best stress-reliever there is. Through laughter, we can get through some of the darkest moments in life with a small smile. We can become closer with the people around us, celebrate moments of joy, and be thankful for the best friends we have. Laughter and smiles are the best universal communication available. Everyone understands the happiness that comes from laughter and its necessity in our daily lives. Today, laugh a little harder. Smile a little bigger. Appreciate the things that make you feel just that good.

{The other day I was encouraged by the simple inclusion of laughter into a conversation; you ought to give it a try – it worked for Sarah.  ~Pastor Scott}

Do you remember learning how to tie your shoes?  Me neither. Yet, I can do it without a thought, totally on autopilot.  That said, I vaguely remember my kids learning and I’m watching one of my grandchildren learn now.  There are steps.  They have to learn the steps.  They have to practice the steps.  Yes, they even have to fail a few times in their execution of the steps, but rare is the person who never learns to tie his shoes, because there are executable steps to learn, practice, and perfect.

What if I told you that blessing someone each day was as easy as tying your shoes?  It really is! PJ has already challenged us on more than one occasion to ask God to show us one person we can bless each day.  Let me break it down into five steps we can learn, practice, and, yes, perfect.

1. Add to your morning and/or evening prayer list a line something like, “Lord, please help me to see one person who needs a touch from Your hand, through me, today.”  (Luke 15:1-7)
2. Add five minutes of margin to your day.  Get up earlier, leave earlier, get done earlier.  I don’t know what you might need to do to feel less rushed, but many of us blow past opportunities because we are in a hurry!
3. Equip yourself.  Make sure you have your One Million Stories card in your wallet OR your WOGF postcard invitation in your purse OR your Living Water Gospel of John in your backpack.  Be ready to follow up.
4. BELIEVE God is going to do His part.
5. Just ask the question, “How can I pray for you?” as God lays it on your heart.  (People of all backgrounds are genuinely open to this question!)
   1. Beginner – jot down a request.
   2. Intermediate – quietly bow right there.
   3. Advanced – pull him/her aside, put hand on shoulder, pray intercessorially, invite him/her to call or come by church.

Yes, this is WAY more detail than you need, but just like tying your shoes, if you learn the steps and practice the steps, it becomes second nature.  If instead we simply acknowledge from a distance that this is something – like jogging – we could do, but never actually do…well, at minimum, we miss the blessing.

So at minimum, pray with me about this challenge!

Yours,

Pastor Scott

I love preaching and teaching; I even love doing a weekly blog.  But unlike preaching and teaching, I don’t always remember to do the weekly blog… until I’m at a meeting, in this case about Japanese Sign Language, and  get the Church’s email newsletter on my phone with last week’s newsletter still attached.  Of course God had me covered, because this little gem from GES was right next to it! ~ Pastor Scott

Can You Jump Out? (John 10:28-29)

By Shawn Lazar on Apr 26, 2019 09:00 am

Question 

Most of our pastors say a believer can jump out of God’s hand, based on John 10:28. How can I refute such a claim? 

Answer 

I’m sorry to say your pastors are wrong (or, actually, I’m happy to say they’re wrong): 

1.) John 10:28-29 does not say anyone can jump out of the Father and Jesus’ hands. That is not taken from the words or the context of those verses. 

2.) John 10:28-29 says “no one is able” to snatch them out, which would include the believer himself. 

3.) John 10:28-29 says the Father is greater than all, including the believer. 

4.) John 10:28-29 promises that believers “shall never perish.” If you could lose salvation by “jumping out” or by any other way, you could perish, and Jesus’s promise would be false. 

5.) John 10:28-29 promises that believers have “eternal” life. If you could lose it, it wouldn’t be eternal. 

On Easter we are going to concentrate on the effect the resurrection has on our lives (spirit/heart); so it seemed only fitting that my pre-Easter blog deals more with matters of the mind.  The list below is one that was first published in 2017 under the heading “Ten Fascinating Reasons to Accept the Historicity of the Resurrection.” I think it’s worth the read.

PS

1.   The First Eyewitnesses were Women. The first eyewitnesses of the resurrection were women. All the Gospels note that the first individuals to discover the tomb empty were women. Matthew notes that “After the Sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to view the tomb… The angel told the women, ‘Don’t be afraid, because I know you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here. For he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay” (Matthew 28:1, 5-6). [1] Women were not held in high esteem. In Greco-Roman culture, a woman’s testimony was not admissible in court. In Jewish circles, it took the testimony of two women to equate that of one man. If one were to invent a story, the last people one would place as the first witnesses would have been women, unless it were otherwise true.
2.   Minimal Facts Concerning the Resurrection. Gary Habermas has popularized the so-called minimal facts argument for the resurrection. The minimal facts are those things that are accepted by nearly all New Testament scholars. The minimal facts are “1. Jesus died by crucifixion. 2. Jesus’ disciples believed that he rose and appeared to them. 3. The church persecutor Paul was suddenly changed. 4. The skeptic James, brother of Jesus, was suddenly changed. 5. The tomb was empty.” [2] These facts are nearly universally accepted by New Testament scholars, including liberals.
3.   Transformation of the Early Disciples. As noted in the minimal facts, James, the brother of Jesus, was changed from a skeptic to a believer because of the resurrection. James along with his brothers did not believe in Jesus during Jesus’ early ministry (see John 7:5). However, Jesus appeared to James (1 Corinthians 15:3-9), who then became a leader in the early Jerusalem church. His death is recorded by Josephus. [3] Paul is another example of one who was completely transformed by the resurrection of Jesus. Paul had been a persecutor of the church. After witnessing the risen Jesus, Paul became a proclaimer for the church.
4.   Embarrassing Details of the Resurrection. Historically speaking, embarrassing details add veracity to a historical claim. The fact that women were the first witnesses, that a member of the Sanhedrin (the same Sanhedrin that executed Jesus) had to give Jesus a proper burial, and that the disciples were fearful and fled all serve as embarrassing factors for the resurrection account.
5.   Willingness to Die for What Was Known. Many people will die for what they believe to be true. But no one will die for something they erroneously invented. The disciples knew if they were telling the truth. Yet, one finds that the disciples were willing to die for what they knew to be true. Stephen died by stoning (Acts 7:54-60), James of Zebedee died by the sword at the hands of Herod (Acts 12:2), James the brother of Jesus died, [4] and Peter and Paul died at the hands of Nero. [5]
6.   Documentary Evidence. The documentary evidence for the resurrection of Jesus is quite good. The historian seeks to find how many primary and secondary sources [6] can be gathered for an event to determine the event’s historicity. Concerning primary sources, the resurrection has Matthew’s account, John’s account, and Paul’s account in 1 Corinthians 15, including the additional references by James (if one accepts that James wrote the letter attributed to him) and Jude. The following are secondary sources for the resurrection: Luke, Mark, Clement of Rome, and, to a lesser degree, Ignatius and Irenaeus.
7.   Circumstantial Evidence. Douglas Groothius notes that circumstantial evidence for the historicity of the resurrection is “namely, the practice of the early church in observing baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and Sunday worship.” [7] Baptism is based upon the analogy of Jesus’s death, burial, and resurrection. The Lord’s Supper is a symbol of Christ’s sacrificial death. In addition, it is quite odd that faithful Jews would move their worship from a Friday evening into Saturday to a Sunday morning unless something major had occurred on a Sunday morning. The major Sunday morning event was Jesus’ resurrection.
8.   The Missing Motive. J. Warner Wallace has noted in his lectures and books that when a conspiracy is formed, three motivating factors are behind such a move—power, greed, and/or lust. [8] The disciples would hold no power behind claiming the resurrection as history. They were running around while often being threatened by the Jewish and Roman authorities. As far as greed, they taught that one should not desire earthly possessions, but spiritual ones. Lust was not a factor, either. They taught celibacy before marriage and marital fidelity after marriage. In fact, N.T. Wright notes in his classic book, The Resurrection of the Son of God, that the disciples had no theological motivation behind claiming that Jesus had risen from the dead as they were anticipating a military hero and a final resurrection at the end of time. What motivating factors existed for these disciples to invent such a story? None! The only reason the disciples taught the resurrection of Jesus was because Jesus’ resurrection had occurred.
9.   Enemy Attestation of the Resurrection. Historically speaking, if one holds enemy attestation to an event, then the event is strengthened. When one considers the claims of the authorities that the disciples had stolen the body of Jesus (Matthew 28:11-15), the testimony of the resurrection is strengthened. The early belief that the disciples had stolen the body of Jesus is refuted by the discovery of the Nazareth Inscription that orders capital punishment for anyone who steals a body from a tomb. [9] In addition, several refences to Jesus and his resurrection include citations from Josephus, [10] Tacitus, [11] and Suetonius [12] among others (including the Babylonian Talmud).
10.   Multiple Post-Resurrection Eyewitnesses. Finally, there are multiple eyewitness testimonies pertaining to the resurrection of Jesus. Several people had seen Jesus alive for a period of 40 days. The eyewitnesses include Mary Magdalene (John 20:10-18), the women at the tomb accompanying Mary (Matthew 28:1-10), the Roman guards (Matthew 28:4), the Eleven disciples (John 21), the two men on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35), an indeterminate number of disciples (Matthew 28:16-20); over five hundred disciples (1 Corinthians 15:6), James (1 Corinthians 15:7) and Paul (1 Corinthians 15:8-9). I am certain that there were many other witnesses who are unnamed.

Conclusion:

Many other evidences could be given for the resurrection of Jesus. Thinking about the methods of history, one must understand that there is a reason why Americans accept the first President of the United States as George Washington and not Spongebob Squarepants. History backs up the claim that Washington was the first President. In like manner, history backs up the reality of Jesus’ resurrection. Now the question is this: what will you do with such information? Some will try to ignore the event. Some will try to dismiss it. Others will acknowledge the factual nature of the event and worship Jesus as the risen Lord. It is my prayer that you will do the latter.

Notes

[1] Unless otherwise noted, all quoted Scripture comes from the Christian Standard Bible (Nashville: Holman, 2017).

[2] Gary R. Habermas and Michael R. Licona, The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2004), 48-50, 64-69.

[3] Josephus, Antiquities XX.200.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Eusebius, Church History XXV.5.

[6] Primary sources are documents written by eyewitnesses. Secondary sources are documents written by individuals who know eyewitnesses. For instance, my grandfather was an eyewitness to the biggest naval battle in World War II history. From the information my dad gathered from him, he would be a secondary source, whereas my grandfather would have been a primary source.

[7] Douglas Groothius, Christian Apologetics: A Comprehensive Case for Biblical Faith (Downers Grove; Nottingham, UK: IVP Academic; Apollos, 2011), 553-554.

[8] See J. Warner Wallace, “Rapid Response: I Think the Disciples Lied About the Resurrection,” Cold-case Christianity.com(October 17, 2016), retrieved April 11, 2017, http://coldcasechristianity.com/2016/rapid-response-i-think-the-disciples-lied-about-the-resurrection/.

[9] See http://www.biblearchaeology.org/post/2009/07/22/The-Nazareth-Inscription-Proof-of-the-Resurrection-of-Christ.aspx#Article.

[10] Josephus, Antiquities XX.9.1.

[11] Tacitus, Annals XV.

[12] Suetonius, Lives of the Caesars-Claudius 25 and Suetonius, Lives of the Caesars-Nero 16.

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