When the KC Mayor began making noise about extending the stay-home order (calling it Phase #1 which is not much different from the Church’s perspective), I reached out to a contact we’d developed within the Jackson County Health Department.   This person has maintained “no change” (full re-opening on May 15) all along – and then on Wednesday, May 6 the County Commissioner brought Jackson County in line with the rest of the KC Metro Area and delayed our opening, indefinitely.

I’m hopeful that we will again be able to gather some time before Fall.  In the meantime lets’ keep loving each other in deed as well as word.  Let’s look for ways to be a blessing.  Let’s not forget to bring our full tithe into the storehouse.  And let’s pray for each other and for our elected and appointed officials to strike a good balance of security and freedom.  ~Pastor Scott

Do you not know? Have you not heard?
The Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth
Does not become weary or tired.
His understanding is inscrutable.
He gives strength to the weary,
And to him who lacks might He increases power.
Though youths grow weary and tired,
And vigorous young men stumble badly,
Yet those who wait for the Lord
Will gain new strength;
They will mount up with wings like eagles,
They will run and not get tired,
They will walk and not become weary.

I am frequently asked for my opinion on what God is doing.  Why a world-wide pandemic?  Truth is, we may never get a satisfying answer to the big why, remember how He answered Job?  God is God and God only answers to Himself.  That said, because He is God, He is the Master multi-tasker; and I imagine we can each find some little (personal) whys if we just take a minute and quiet our hearts.   I would also ask us each to pray that God would use this crisis to draw people everywhere closer to Himself and that He might use you and me in that process.

I really like what J.I. Packer said about how God uses these hardships:

Grace is God drawing sinners closer and closer to him. How does God in grace prosecute this purpose? Not by shielding us from assault by the work, the flesh, and the devil, nor by protecting us from burdensome and frustrating circumstance, not yet by shielding us from troubles created by our own temperament and psychology, but rather by exposing us to all these things, so as to overwhelm us with a sense of our own inadequacy, and to drive us to cling to him more closely.

This is the ultimate reason, from our standpoint, why God fills our lives with troubles and perplexities of one sort and another — it is to ensure that we shall learn to hold him fast. The reason why the Bible spends so much of its time reiterating that God is a strong rock, a firm defense, and a sure refuge and help for the weak is that God spends so much of his time showing us that we are weak, both mentally and morally, and dare not trust ourselves to find or follow the right road. When we walk along a clear road feeling fine, and someone takes our arm to help us, likely we would impatiently shake him off; but when we are caught in rough country in the dark, with a storm brewing and our strength spent, and someone takes our arm to help us, we would thankfully lean on him. And God wants us to feel that our way through life is rough and perplexing, so that we may learn to lean on him thankfully. Therefore he takes steps to drive us out of self-confidence to trust in himself, to — in the classic scriptural phrase for the secret of the godly man’s life — “wait on the Lord.”

James Packer, Your Father Loves You, Harold Shaw Publishers, 1986.

You may, in your surfing of YouTube or FaceBook, have noticed that different churches have been able to accomplish different varieties of services during this social distancing era.  And you maybe wondering why Word of Grace Fellowship hasn’t had a drive-in service or worship music, etc…  so I thought I’d take a shot at answering a couple of those:

Drive-In Service: In the weeks before Palm Sunday I asked the City of Raytown for permission to do a parking lot service on Palm Sunday and Easter.  I proposed that the congregation would stay in their cars.  We would broadcast to their FM radios and to Facebook Live.  The City of Raytown redirected me to the Jackson County Department of Health.  I left voicemails and sent emails, but they did not respond.  Once upon a time, we used to say that silence gives consent, but given our experience with the county I wanted permission in writing, so the drive-in service was a bust.  The churches closest to us that I am aware of which held drive-in services published that they had received their waivers from their local police stations.  I guess I missed that step.

Music Online:  As I surf other services and see music being played online, my first thought is almost always, “I hope they have the right license!”  I seriously doubt the FCC has enough employees during this pandemic-driven online church era to police it, but I still believe we ought to obey the laws and contracts we agreed to when we bought the music we use. 

Here at Word of Grace and at most churches that want to use music produced in the 20th or 21st centuries, we use a copyright service to assure that the copyright holders get their royalties.  We pay an annual fee that is adjusted according to the size of the congregation for the right to project, play and sing their music.  We use a service called Christian Copyright License International (CCLI).   Up until a week or so ago our license only included songs we played in-house.  Therefore, tapes, CDs, and, lately, streamed services contained preaching only, because we didn’t have the license to record music.

Recently money was donated to upgrade our license.  We are now legal to stream the music portion or our Sunday service.  When we are back in business, if you are watching our service on Facebook Live or YouTube, you can watch the WHOLE service.  (That was the donor’s intent.)  The natural query that arises is what about now during the stay-at-home order?   I don’t know if you picked it up, and I can’t really wrap my head around it, since once something is “streamed” it’s recorded, but we can only live-stream.  We can’t record songs and then upload, which is how we are now doing Sunday messages, because we are all doing these from our own homes or at different times in order to follow the social distancing guidelines.  The only way we can abide by our license agreement and add music to our service is if we all gather on Sunday and stream the service at 9:30.  Frankly, too many of us fall into the susceptible category (me included) for all of us to gather on stage until we are sure it’s safe.  

If you really want to know the ins and outs of this, you can spend some hours on this website: https://us.ccli.com/  or email Pastor Tom.  🙂 

Pray with me this ends soon,

Pastor Scott

This past Wednesday night I felt like Eeyore all alone in his meadow with his broken balloon.  It’s been weird trying to adjust to preaching to the congregation through a camera lens, but then to find out mid-high point that the congregation couldn’t see or hear me… it was a tad deflating.  🙂

Anyway, I was in the middle of answering an Ask-the-Pastor question that reads like this:   

1 John 2:15-17 says that whoever loves the world does not have the love of God in him.  Does this mean he is not born again? How do we handle those who say they are believers and yet love the world and exude worldliness? 

There is a whole sermon in this question, but I’ll try to handle just three main points that jump out at me.

1. What does it mean to be born again?  In the opening paragraph(s) of Ephesians, Paul lists a number of things that happened before we were born (some before the world was created), and in verse 13 it says that when we heard the gospel and believed, we were sealed by the Holy Spirit into all of those truths.  In fact, in a survey of Paul’s, Peter’s, and the author of Hebrews’ writings, Dr. Lewis Sperry Chaffer famously distilled 33 benefits that accrued to our account the moment of salvation. I like to picture one of those old attic doors up in the ceiling with a pull string.  Imagine that you’re covered in honey and there are 33 feathers up there; faith is what pulls that string. In a moment, an instant, you are covered with all 33 feathers, benefits of salvation, and they are yours forever. (Chaffer’s list is below.)
2. “They say they are believers.” Here lies an issue.  #1 is a list of God’s promises and they occur at the moment of faith, but that moment occurs between the believer and God, not between the believer’s parent, pastor, or teacher and God.  Sometimes we need to take these opportunities to challenge a young person to make his faith personal. Secondly, we need to remember that when a child becomes a believer he is still a child and still has to grow up.  “Christian kids still get spankings” because foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child. Also, discipleship/Christian growth is NOT automatic, else there wouldn’t be so many issues the epistles had to cover. Sometimes the Holy Spirit convicts without the input of the Word or the Body, but many times it takes time and the input of both to sharpen the believer.
3. Finally we come to the verses in 1 John.  I believe John was a) writing about fellowship (1 John 1) and b) writing about false teachers (1 John 2:26).  So I don’t read the warning in 2:15, “If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him,” as being a warning to the recipients of the letter so much as it is a reminder that these false teachers who clearly love the world shouldn’t be listened to.  It reminds me of James teaching in James 3 about bitter and pure water coming from the same well. God’s love isn’t going to share space with love of the world.  Now, just because the force of the writing is toward false teachers doesn’t mean it’s not true of everybody.  If we are loving the world, we are not displaying the love of the Father. If we are truly saved, then we are walking in a manner that is unworthy (Eph 4:1) and the call is to repent!  

Your Brother in Christ,

Pastor Scott

Chaffer’s List (sans Scripture references because they were all hyperlinks)

1)  Forgiven

2)  Child of God

3)  Having access to God

4)  Reconciled

5)  Justified

6)  Placed “in Christ” 

7)  Acceptable to God

8)  Heavenly citizenship

9)  Of the family and household of God

10)  A heavenly association

11)  Within the “much more” care of God

12)  Glorified

13)  In the fellowship of the saints

14)  On the rock, Christ Jesus

15)  A part in the eternal plan of God

16)  Redeemed 

17)  A living relationship with God

18)  Free from the law

19)  Adoption

20) Brought near

21)  Delivered from the power of darkness

22)  Entrance into a new kingdom

23)  A gift from God the Father to Christ

24)  Circumcised in Christ

25)  Members of a royal and holy priesthood

26)  A chosen generation, a holy nation, a peculiar people

27)  His inheritance

28)  The inheritance of the saints

29)  Light in the Lord

30)  United to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit

31)  Blessed with the firstfruits of the Spirit

32)  Complete in Him

33)  Possessing every spiritual blessing

Me: Okay, God, here’s the thing. I’m scared. I’m trying not to be, but I am.

God: I know. Want to talk about it?

Me: Do we need to? I mean, you already know.

God: Let’s talk about it anyway… We’ve done this before.

Me: I know, I just feel like I should be bigger or stronger of something by now.

God: *waiting patiently, unhurried, undistracted, never annoyed.

Me: Okay. So, I’m afraid I’ll do everything I can to protect my family and it won’t be enough. I’m afraid of someone I love dying. I’m afraid the world won’t go back to what it was before. I’m afraid my life is always going to feel a little bit unsettled.

God: Anything else?

Me: EVERYTHING ELSE.

God: Remember how Jaxton woke up the other night and came running down the hall to your bedroom?

Me: Yes.

God: You were still awake, so when you heard him running, you started calling out to him before he even got to you… remember? Do you remember what you called out to him?

Me: I said, “You’re okay! You’re okay! You’re okay!”

God: Why did you call to him? Why didn’t you just wait for him to get to your room?

Me: Because I wanted him to know that I was awake, and I heard him, and he didn’t have to be afraid until he reached the end of the dark hallway.

God: Exactly. I hear you, daughter. I hear your thoughts racing like feet down the dark hallway. There’s an other side to all of this. I’m there already. I’ve seen the end of it. And I want you to know right here as you walk through it all, you’re okay. I haven’t gone to sleep, and I won’t.

Me: *crying. Can we sit together awhile? Can we just sit here a minute before I go back to facing it all?

God: There’s nothing I’d love more.

Copyright©️ Becky Thompson.

Note from Pastor Scott:  This piece is a sampling from a new mom’s devotional that is being previewed on a site I follow.  I don’t know the author, but she has good tastes in Bible Camps insofar as where she posted her preview.  It resonated with me, I think, because I’m “office-ing” at home these days and there be children here!  Here’s more about Becky’s book:

For more hope and encouragement, Order my new book, Midnight Mom Devotional: 365 Prayers to Put Your Momma Heart to Rest, releasing in one week! It’s available at Target, Walmart, Barnes & Noble, Amazon and just about everywhere books are sold.💕

“But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves; we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed;”  2 Corinthians 4:7-9

These are verses we all love to go to in hard times.  And they stand alone very well, but if you have a moment, I would encourage you to read the whole of chapter 4.  Note how it starts and ends with the phrase “we will not lose heart.” We, as a nation, as a church, as families, are going through a rough patch right now.  Paul’s entire ministry life was a rough patch (cf. Acts 9:16) and yet he didn’t lose heart or stay down because his eyes were fixed on the eternal prize (2 Cor. 4:18).  Let’s try to remember throughout this and any other trial Satan sends our way that our hope is NOT in this world. With Christ, we can live to fight another day until He takes us home.  I love this purely physical story of Andrew Jackson’s persistence. Maybe it will help you as it has helped me to not stay down! 🙂 PS  

The story is told that Andrew Jackson’s boyhood friends just couldn’t understand how he became a famous general and then the President of the United States. They knew of other men who had greater talent but who never succeeded. One of Jackson’s friends said, “Why, Jim Brown, who lived right down the pike from Jackson, was not only smarter but he could throw Andy three times out of four in a wrestling match. But look where Andy is now.” Another friend responded, “How did there happen to be a fourth time? Didn’t they usually say three times and out?” “Sure, they were supposed to, but not Andy. He would never admit he was beat — he would never stay ‘throwed.’ Jim Brown would get tired, and on the fourth try Andrew Jackson would throw him and be the winner.” Picking up on that idea, someone has said, “The thing that counts is not how many times you are ‘throwed,’ but whether you are willing to stay ‘throwed’.” We may face setbacks, but we must take courage and go forward in faith. Then, through the Holy Spirit’s power we can be the eventual victor over sin and the world. The battle is the Lord’s, so there is no excuse for us to stay “throwed”!

In the late ‘90s, when I was the associate pastor here at BRBC ->WOGF, we took the whole church through an intensive gifts discovery program.  During that process my primary gift was identified as “faith” rather than teaching, and that conclusion was buttressed by the fact that my faith was actually strengthened and sharpened throughout my public school and public university experience.  Of course, that’s all to God’s glory; I have nothing about which to boast!

I bring it up because I keep seeing articles about how we as churches aren’t equipping our kids to deal with the stuff they see on the internet and hear in college.  (Upwards of 80% are walking away during those years.) And it’s true I didn’t have the internet when I was in college, but I did hear all the same arguments against Christianity, the same assumptions that we would put away fairy-tales now that we were at university.  And yes, my faith never wavered…. But I wonder now if it was not as much a spiritual gift so much as that I came from an era when we were taught to think.  Beloved, belief in Jesus is a matter of faith.  The exclusivity of our belief in Jesus, which is the primary line of attack the enemy uses, is only logical.  Consider this overview of the argument from a Giesler lecture:   

CHARLOTTE, North Carolina (by Christian Post reporter Jessica Martinez)  – Evangelical scholar and Southern Evangelical Seminary co-founder Norman Geisler spoke on the pluralistic aspect of Christianity at the school’s 20th annual Christian Apologetics Conference last weekend and answered the question of whether there are several ways to God.

Religious pluralism is the belief that all religions are true and that all faith-based roads lead to heaven.  Geisler focused his message on the Biblical passage of Acts 4:12, which states that salvation is only found in Jesus Christ and no one else.

“Jesus is the only way because the Bible says it to be true,” said Geisler. “Why? Because only He can bridge the gap between God and man; there’s no other way.”

He said that, although it seems narrow to suggest that Jesus is the only way, the notion holds true while adding that it is logically possible, historically probable, biblically necessary and morally justifiable that He is the only way to heaven.

“All views can’t be true because all views are opposite; this is the logical aspect. For example, Islam says we are good in nature; Christianity says we are born in sin. Islam says God is a man; Christianity says He is more than a man, He is God, all truths can’t be the same,” said Geisler.

Historically speaking, Geisler said Jesus is proven to be the only way to God because Christianity is a form of exclusivism, meaning the belief that only one religion is true and others opposed to it are false. He emphasized that the Bible has been the world’s bestselling book, and that Jesus has the most followers in the world compared to other religious figures. In addition, he noted that Jesus’ principles have been admired by people, including non-Christians, for many years.

“Only Jesus has prophecies made hundreds of years in advance made literally true. Only He did miracles. Only His immediate followers claimed He died and rose from the dead, so in comparison, He comes out superior to other great religious leaders,” said Geisler.

The SES co-founder also said that any person who believes in the Bible needs to believe that Jesus is the only way because the Bible itself mandates all of God’s followers to uphold its teachings.

Regarding moralism, he said there are several moral objections that exist regarding Jesus as the only way to God, including the view that Christianity as an exclusive religion is unjust. However, Giesler said everyone has the light of God, the general revelation in nature and in conscience, to know that His truth is morally righteous.

“Pluralism is denied logically, inclusivism is denied scripturally, and that leaves us with exclusivism… You have to know that Jesus died and believe in it in order to be saved,” said Giesler.

Beloved, we have to teach our kids (and ourselves) to think logically and then we have to teach them this type of logic.  Yes, it’s important that they love Jesus and it’s important that they know Scripture but, if they can’t think, don’t send them to college or even let them surf that web unsupervised.  I’m dead serious! 

Feelings are fine for love songs and poetry, but they are too easily manipulated to be in the driver’s seat of our lives.  – Jeremiah 17:9

Pastor Scott – post-pandemic thoughts

Like you, I’ve been a little obsessed with the news these last few weeks.  And, also like you, perhaps, I find myself a little fearful (nervous) for my older loved ones, not to mention the stock and job market!  I am also a little skeptical that we are treating this event SOOOO much bigger than anything in my lifetime; and a little curious if there isn’t some eschatological ramification here that we may be missing.  As I interact with other believers online and personally, I gather we all have some mix of fear, skepticism, and end-times curiosity.  

I think we’ll deal with the fear/worry component on Sunday.  The skepticism component is a luxury of a democracy, but at the end of the day we are responsible to obey God by submitting to the governing authorities; if they are playing political games they will answer to God.  So what about a sign of His coming?

This pandemic brings together two threads for prophecy watchers:  

#1) In Matthew 24 Jesus predicts the times getting worse and worse; both in terms of persecution and natural disasters.  Paul in Romans 8:22 calls them birth pains, and this Novel Coronavirus appears to be a massive contraction. But in Matthew 24 it peaks with the Abomination of Desolation – which, from Daniel, we know will occur in the middle of the Tribulation (and I take the position that the Church will be raptured before at least 3.5 years before that event).  So thought #1 – the contractions seem to be getting bigger and therefore the rapture is getting closer!

#2) In Revelation we see that the world is under one government.  As the nations appear to be uniting to fight this virus and especially as there has been talk about how cash could be a means of transmission…  many prophecy watchers see the ground being laid for the Antichrist, his government, and his mark. Thought #2 – the Antichrist is an adult when the Great Tribulation starts and technology is in place; the Rapture could be the event that launches him to power…. It’s getting closer.  🙂

Even as the end gets nearer, let’s remember that the Biblical injunction is to look for our “blessed hope!”  Let’s keep our eyes and our thoughts on Jesus….  Who is always near to us!

Pastor Scott

On Sunday, March 1, I preached on the Baptism and Temptation of Jesus.  For some reason (and yes, I have a few guesses), I was pretty “off my game” during the whole first sub-point of the message.  At one point during my sermon (and yes, I went back to listen), I said that the Jews John was baptizing were saved and, therefore, just needed to have their sins forgiven “like we do.”  Well, I had intended to use a simile there, but I did, indeed, misspeak and use it in the wrong spot. I was trying to distinguish John’s Baptism of Jews looking toward the cross, preparing for the coming Messiah, with ours looking back to the cross, identifying with Christ who died for us.  I’m sorry for any confusion my wrong word choices caused!

Tolkien said in The Hobbit that shortcuts often lead to long delays, and that is also true with trying to find a verbal shortcut!

Please accept my apology!

Pastor Scott