Some of you may remember studying the fall of the Roman Empire in school – it’s a little eerie when you realize how closely we are following the same course:

1. The rapid increase of divorce; the undermining of the dignity and sanctity of the home, which is the basis of human society.
2. Higher and higher taxes and the spending of public monies for free bread and circuses for the populace.
3. The mad craze for pleasure; sports becoming every year more exciting and more brutal.
4. The building of gigantic armaments when the real enemy was within, the decadence of the people.
5. The decay of religion — faith fading into mere form, losing touch with life and becoming impotent to warn and guide the people*.

Obviously, if the Lord tarries, the West may certainly follow the same path…. But our families don’t have to!  Let’s remain zealous for good deeds as we look for His appearing! (Titus 2:11-14)  And let’s live like we believe! (Philippians 1:27-30).  Never forget that someone is modeling himself after you, even as you are modeling yourself after Christ (1 Cor 11:1).  And finally, keep in mind, that it doesn’t ALL depend on you!

Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.  (Jude 24-25 KJV)

*The above list is attributed to Edward Gibbon, author of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1789)

As you know if you attended, or are on social media, or clicked through to here from the Newsletter, we just came off a fantastic 4 day Missions Conference.  We were blessed and challenged by the ministries of Dr. Cone, the Sells, the Hoskins, and Suermans.  We were reminded over and over again of God’s Grace and His Faithfulness.  We even laughed, a lot….  here’s a a funny tearjerker purely for your reminiscence and enjoyment!

Early missionaries to the Marshall Islands in the central Pacific received their mail once a year when the sailing boat made its rounds of the South Pacific. On one occasion the boat was one day ahead of schedule, and the missionaries were off on a neighboring island. The captain left the mail with the Marshallese people while he attended to matters of getting stores of water and provisions. At last the Marshallese were in possession of what the missionaries spoke about so often and apparently cherished so much. The people examined the mail to find out what was so attractive about it. They concluded that it must be good to eat, and so they proceeded to tear all the letters into tiny bits and cook them. However, they didn’t taste very good, and the Marshallese were still puzzled about the missionaries’ strange interest in mail when they returned to find their year’s correspondence made into mush. 

I was asked by our Board Chairman to outline where I see the the next phase of our building program going.   Obviously, I’m not an architect or an engineer and these ideas haven’t been approved by the board or by you, the congregation – but somebody has to get the conversation started!  🙂

As you may remember, when Mr.  Steve Guenther originally drew up plans for the remodeling of this building he did it in several ambitious phases.  Since that time we have made the phases slightly more bite-sized. A huge thank you to Mr. Jim Lee for spearheading the renovation and for all the others who have volunteered hours and hours of their time!  The building looks fantastic!

We are nearing completion of Phase One (defined as what we could do with money in hand) which included:

• Signage
• Acoustic spraying on Fellowship Hall ceiling
• Painting of Fellowship Hall and new classrooms
• Moving several electrical outlets
• Installation of a platform and sound booth in the Worship Center and the Youth Room
• New Screens, Projectors, and Sound System
• Removal of the “hut” in Fellowship Hall
• Installation of double doors into the Worship Center
• Two new adult classrooms
• Large storage/work room
• New counters in Fellowship Hall  
• Window shades throughout the Fellowship Hall
• The creation of an office or two (Pastor Jim is going to move into the office storage room that currently houses the copier)
• Expansion of the Conference Room into a full-sized classroom
• Lots and lots of drywall mud, joints, sanding and mudding!  
• Mini-Phase One should take us through:
  • Painting of the Worship Center and the KidZone
  • New Speakers in the Worship Center
  • Hopefully, the rearranging of the walls in three classrooms on the north side of KidZone
  • Lord willing, the building of a wall behind the platform in the Worship Center
  • And Window Treatments in the Worship Center

Phase Two, for which funds will have to be raised, will focus largely on our front door.  We need to (and this will be more clear after it’s accepted by the board and drawn by the architect):

• Either center up and go to one double door at the front entrance OR go to two double doors  
• Then at about 6 feet in, do it again forming a vestibule between the front door and the Fellowship Hall
• Add walls and doors and a window for the secretary on the left (as you are facing in from the parking lot) and a window to the new pastor’s office to the right inside the vestibule space, as above
• The current pastor’s office would become the worship pastor’s office
  • Essentially, I’m talking about enclosing in that entire overhang (Senior Pastor’s office on the south end, glassed-in vestibule in the middle, secretary’s office north of that with a window facing the vestibule, and security office on the north end)     
• Division of the room behind the café counter into a cooking kitchen* and a mop room, with individual doors  
• Two more classrooms
  • One, carved out of the space in the southwest corner of the worship area that was originally designated “office”
  • The other, behind the SE wall of youth room (currently a storage room/workshop)
• Sufficiently improve rear parking lot so as to begin using Westridge gate for westbound 350 traffic coming from Lee’s Summit.

Phase Three, after we prove we would use it, would be to:

• Insulate, and otherwise improve, the large spaces in the other two buildings to make them useful for all weather for games, activities or things not yet dreamed of
• Create green space inside the wall on the east side of the property (picnic, playground, and/or sports)   

*We need the cooking kitchen ASAP but the cost of hooding a stove has seemed prohibitive.  If one can be located (a going-out-of-business restaurant?) on budget we might be able to do it as part of Phase One.

On a completely unrelated note; the kids are going to be singing “These are the Days of Elijah” in the service in the coming weeks.  I’m often asked if I’m OK with that song – Turns out when I read the composers heart, I am! 🙂

https://robinmark.com/the-story-behind-days-of-elijah/

I’m not even sure what made me pause today, before rushing on with my own Bible reference search, but I happened to take note of the verse(s) “in focus” on my Bible program.  They were:

“Making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.” (Eph 5:16);

“Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity.” (Col 4:5)

Of course the word “opportunity” jumped out at me, as it was supposed to, and next thing I know I’m looking through my illustration file under that subject heading.  I want to share these two with you.  They are both true, although 600 years apart, and both speak to the fact that we NEVER know what opportunity may lay before us!

In 1269 Kublai Khan sent a request from Peking to Rome for “a hundred wise men of the Christian religion…And so I shall be baptized, and when I shall be baptized all my baron and great men will be baptized, and their subjects baptized, and so there will be more Christian here than there are in your parts.” The Mongols were then wavering in the choice of a religion. It might have been, as Kublai forecast, the greatest mass religious movement the world has ever seen. The history of all Asia would have been changed.

But what actually happened? Pope Gregory X answered by sending two Dominican friars. They got as far as Armenia, could endure no longer and returned home. So passed the greatest missionary opportunity in the history of the church.

~ Dunkerly, in Resource

We missed him. Our chance to change things came and passed and we did not know it was there. A dark-skinned little boy sat through Sunday School classes for three years at a great Baptist Church (First Church, San Antonio) but someone missed him. His name was Sirhan Sirhan, and at age 24 he shot and killed Senator Robert Kennedy. In a welter of words and the shudder of grief throughout our nation, the persistent thought keeps recurring…someone missed him.

~ Dr. Jimmy Allen, former pastor of First Baptist Church, San Antonio, Texas, in Pulpit Helps, May, 1991.

 

Would you pray right now, and every day hereafter, that God would give you at least ONE opportunity to touch ONE life?  Even if it’s something as simple as, “Hey, may I pray for you?”  We never know where someone has been, nor where they are going – but God does!

In His All-Knowing Grace,

Pastor Scott

In his book One Crowded Hour, Tim Bowden describes an incident in Borneo in 1964. Nepalese fighters known as Gurkhas were asked if they would be willing to jump from airplanes into combat against the Indonesians. The Gurkhas didn’t clearly understand what was involved, but they bravely said they would do it, asking only that the plane fly slowly over a swampy area and no higher than 100 feet. When they were told that the parachutes would not have time to open at that height, the Gurkhas replied, “Oh, you didn’t mention parachutes before!”

The word translated “disciple” in the New Testament means “student or follower.”  Jesus upped the ante (yes, I did it again) for His disciples by saying they would need to deny themselves and take up their crosses to follow Him.  Jesus’ final commission to His disciples was to go into all the world and “make disciples.” (Matthew 28:19-20) Fast forward less than three months and Peter is preaching a sermon at Pentecost at which 3,000 people are saved.  These new disciples formed a church and immediately devoted themselves to the Disciples’ teaching, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer (Acts 2:42).

In the coming weeks (or months if we keep having weather delays) I plan to begin a class/Bible study to help in the area of becoming better disciples/disciple-makers.  I’m hoping to find a few “Gurkhas for Jesus” among us! 🙂

Pastor Scott

There were two question/statements that didn’t get to me in time to answer on Sunday before the benediction.

The first was a response to a statement I made that we don’t know from where Eliab’s anger in 1 Samuel 17:28 came.  The texter said, “Sure we do, see: 1 Samuel 16:6-7.”   Those verses record God directing Samuel to pass over Eliab, Jesse’s eldest son on His way to David the “baby.”  I agree with the texter that the root of Eliab’s bitterness can be found there, I was just struck by how combustible it was.

The second question/statement wondered if David’s gathering of 5 stones demonstrated a lack of faith.   Which is not only a great question pertaining to this text, but a great question pertaining to our everyday life.   The question goes to preparation and faith.  David had a shepherd’s bag/pouch which, presumably, held five stones.  So in my view, he was preparing for battle by filling his pouch.  Just like a modern day soldier would fill his/her clip.  If he hadn’t would he have been presuming on God (Matt 4:7)?  On the one hand “faith” says I can hit the giant with one stone.  Just like faith might say, I can pass that test without studying, I can preach that message without preparing, or I can build that house without planning.  BUT if I God gives me time to study or plan (or load my quiver); wouldn’t He expect me to use it (2 Timothy 2:15)?  This question is near and dear to my heart, because on more occasions then I can count I’ve had to rely on my gift to preach/or teach with a moment’s notice.   In those times not only has God come through, but it seems that often in those times that I get to see people respond in dramatic and fulfilling ways.   Given that, I sometimes wonder why I feel compelled to do “due diligence” in my studies every week.   I think it’s the same reason David chose 5 stones; to do any less would be to do less than his best.

That said, there is a more traditional and a much more fun answer!  At camp and revival meetings across America whenever the preacher gets to 1 Samuel 17:40 – five smooth stones –  he looks up at the audience, grins and say, “Because, Goliath had 4 brothers!” (2 Samuel 21:22)

🙂

I typically write Friday’s blog on Thursday and this Thursday happens to be Valentine’s day!  My social media pages, that aren’t filled with posts bemoaning the weather or the state of politics, are filled with John 3:16 acrostics!

John 3:16, of course, comes from a discussion that Jesus was having with Nicodemus about why He came and my eyes are always drawn to the beginning of this thought in verse 14 where Jesus makes reference to an OT story.   Jesus could have referenced the complicated procedure of Yom Kippur, in Leviticus 16, with the multiple blood washings and the scapegoats that illustrate the high cost of sin. He could have cited the exacting incense formula in Exodus 30 to illustrate His holiness. Instead He simply said, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up.” Interesting that he picked that one with so many other examples to pick from….

The Bronze Snake

4 They traveled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea, to go around Edom. But the people grew impatient on the way; 5 they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!”

6 Then the Lord sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died. 7 The people came to Moses and said, “We sinned when we spoke against the Lord and against you. Pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us.” So Moses prayed for the people.

8 The Lord said to Moses, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.” 9 So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived. (Numbers 31)

Did you see how non-complex God made it for the people?  “Look and Live!” (OT) “Believe in Him!” (NT) In both Testaments life is a free gift; not because it was cheap, but because its worth is an expense beyond what any human could bear.   It is an act of the Almighty God and He does not share His glory! So this day after Valentine’s day look to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, for your salvation, for your peace, and for your daily power to live the life He created you to live!  Just LOOK and BELIEVE!

Lord, I believe!  Help my unbelief!

Pastor Scott

I tend to waste a lot of paper printing out sermon illustrations and then forgetting to read them.  Here’s one from a couple of weeks ago, enjoy:

This past Monday was a federal holiday honoring the late Dr. Martin Luther King.  He is remembered for many things and much of his work and words were encapsulated in these 35 words:  “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”

Two years before that speech the late President John F. Kennedy spoke these 17 memorable words: “And so, my fellow Americans: Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.”

I can imagine that if either man were still alive, he’d be very disappointed in this nation.  We still are more interested in what people portray outwardly and we are still more interested in what we can get rather than what we can give (at least that is the picture we most often get on the news), and it is a tragedy that we enshrine these values while we stomp on them.

The thing that intrigues me about this walk down memory lane is, that while neither of these men would likely have followed the same theological track 60 years later that brought us together to WOGF, they were both dead-on in their points!  God does call us to NOT see one another as white or black (Jew or Gentile); poor or rich (slave or freeman); churched or unchurched (circumcised or uncircumcised)*.  He calls us to see one another as one in Christ, and those who aren’t in Christ as people who need Christ!**

And, as His disciples, He calls each of us to lay down our lives and pick up our cross*** – not asking what He is doing for us, but asking what we can do for Him.

Some holidays inspire our patriotism.  I hope this one also inspires our holy fervor!

Yours, because I’m His,

Pastor Scott

* “…a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all.” ~Colossians 3:11

**  ”For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”  ~Romans 1:16

***  “Then Jesus said to His disciples, ‘If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me’”  ~Matthew 16:24