Hopefully you all are reading the bible regularly in your homes.  As believers in Jesus, we should all love him and his word.  As the psalmist says, it should be our delight.  We should love reading his word and being transformed by it.  Sometimes this may be easier said than done.  Much of what is in the bible is very straightforward and easy to understand.  However, there are some passages that are more difficult.  We should be reading prayerfully and relying on the Holy Spirit to help us understand God’s word, and some passages require more study than others if we are going to understand exactly what is being communicated.

I want to offer 6 questions (Who? What? When? Where? Why? and How?) that we can ask when reading the bible.  Answering these questions will help us to come to a better understanding of those more difficult passages, but they will also help us even to understand the easier passages more fully and more consistently.

In order to keep these blog posts short enough to be read and digested in a timely manner, we will consider these questions over a few posts.  This is the second.  The others can be accessed below.

Part One     Part Three     Part Four

2. What?

A second important question to ask is “what.”  In some ways, this is the easiest question to answer—or at least the most straight forward one.  At some point, all of us have been reading and after several sentences, paragraphs, or even pages, realized that we don’t really know what we have read.  Often our minds wander, we get distracted, or for whatever reason, we do not fully comprehend what he have just read.  This happens with all types of reading, and it happens when reading the bible too.

We cannot begin to think about why the passage was written or how it applies to us today (questions #5 and 6 in this series) if we do not remember what it is that has been said—the basic information.  There are several tricks that can be used to help us to remember what we have read, and different ones may work for different people.  I have found that four pretty simple techniques have been helpful for me.

• Read the passage more than once.

Reading the same thing more than once can help us to comprehend what we are reading.  If we read a passage three times for example, we are less likely to miss the same things each time; so, after the third reading, we will have a pretty good understanding of what has been said, what has happened, and etc. in a particular passage. 

You may even want to make a habit of reading each passage three times and looking for certain things each time.Maybe the first time you read a passage through you look for the overall main idea and the main flow of the passage.The second time, you could read with the main idea already in mind looking for more details.The third time, you might try to notice the emphases and other nuances that we often miss on a cursory reading.

Depending on the length of the passage you are reading and the amount of time you have, you may not be able to read this in depth all the time, but at the very least, if you are reading and find yourself unable to remember what you read or to summarize the main ideas, you would want to go back and read part of the passage or the whole thing again.

• Read the passage out loud.

A second strategy for comprehending what we read that may appeal to some of you is to read the passage out loud.  This adds another layer of activity.  This way you are not only seeing the words on the page and thinking about what is being said, you are also hearing what is being said.  This method can be really helpful.

• Write the passage as you read it.

If you have the time and are really struggling with understanding a passage, you may want to add a third level of interaction.  This does two things.  It forces you to read much more slowly, and forces you to use another part of your brain as you not only read but also write.  You could also combine this with the strategy above and read out loud as you write.  Again, this method may be less practical if you are reading a large passage, but it could be helpful in the right situation.

• Write a short summary of each paragraph.

Another way to help you comprehend what is being read is to try and summarize what you are reading or put it in your own words.  This doesn’t have to be anything big.  It could just be stopping at the end of each paragraph and summarizing it in a few words—no more than one simple sentence.  The famous passage in Matthew 21 could be summarized as simply as “Jesus drove the moneychangers out of the temple.”  Many modern translations divide passages into sections with headings.  While these are not inspired, they can be helpful for this purpose.

Some passages are easier to understand than others.You may not need to use any of these techniques for some passages, but for others you may find one or more of these methods to be helpful.You may have other tricks that you already use to help you read with understanding/comprehension.The key is to find a way that helps you to remember what you have read.

Be sure to check back in the next few days for part three.

Hopefully you all are reading the bible regularly in your homes.  As believers in Jesus, we should all love him and his word.  As the psalmist says, it should be our delight.  We should love reading his word and being transformed by it.  Sometimes this may be easier said than done.  Much of what is in the bible is very straightforward and easy to understand.  However, there are some passages that are more difficult.  We should be reading prayerfully and relying on the Holy Spirit to help us understand God’s word, and some passages require more study than others if we are going to understand exactly what is being communicated.

Below, I want to offer 6 questions (Who? What? When? Where? Why? and How?) that we can ask when reading the bible.  Answering these questions will help us to come to a better understanding of those more difficult passages, but they will also help us even to understand the easier passages more fully and more consistently.

In order to keep these blog posts short enough to be read and digested in a timely manner, we will consider these questions over a few posts.  This is the first.  The others can be found below.

Part Two.     Part Three     Part Four

1. Who?

• Who wrote what you are reading?

Knowing who wrote the Bible passage you are reading can be really helpful in many cases.  Different writers sometimes used different words in very different ways.  For example, John and Paul both used the word “flesh” in their writings.  However, when John used that word, he was referring to the physical body.  Paul used “flesh” to refer to the sinful nature.  So, John says that Jesus took on flesh or became flesh meaning that Jesus became human including all the physical aspects of humanity.  Paul believed that Jesus became human, but he would not use the word “flesh” to say that.  Instead, he told us to avoid the works of the flesh (sinful nature).

Also, knowing who wrote can be helpful because it sometimes gives us a better understanding of the author’s purpose or life situation.  In the case of the gospels, knowing which author we are reading (and his specific purpose for writing) can sometimes help us to understand why he included certain stories or emphasized certain aspects of Jesus’ life.  Knowing that Paul wrote a certain letter can help us to understand some of its significance if we also know where he was and what he was doing when he wrote it (Was he is prison?  Was he traveling between churches?  Etc.)

• Who is speaking (if different than the author)?

This question can be really helpful when we are reading historical or narrative passages (parts of the bible that read like a story, biography, or history).  For example, in the book of Job, it is often helpful to know whether we are reading words spoken by Job or one of his friends, or God.  In the gospels, sometimes we read words spoken by Jesus, sometimes words spoken by one of the disciples, a demon, a pharisee or sadducee, or etc.  Sometimes, in the gospels or Acts, it can be helpful to know whether the person speaking is Jewish or Gentile.  In Acts, it may be useful to know what we are reading is coming from a person preaching or from a person responding to preaching, whether the words we are reading were spoken by someone who has trusted in Jesus or someone who has not yet.

This is true in other historical or narrative books as well.  For example, if we are reading at the end of Genesis, we would want to keep track of whether the words we are reading are coming from Joseph, one of his brothers, Pharaoh, Jacob, or etc.  In the early chapters of Genesis, we definitely want to make sure we know who is speaking—God or Satan!

• Who was what you are reading written to?

This final “who” question is important as well.  Figuring out who the passage you are reading was written to can help you to understand the purpose and meaning of a passage of scripture.  If you are reading a passage from he Old Testament, you might want to figure out if it was written to Israel or to the whole world—whether it was written to all of Israel or just to the priests or the prophets or kings.  If you are reading a passage from he New Testament, it is helpful to know whether it is addressing believers or unbelievers.  Is it written to a specific church that was facing a specific situation/problem or is it written to all Christians in general?  It the small section that you are reading addressing the whole church or a group within the church (e.g.: pastors, deacons, women, men, children, or etc.)?  We will talk about application later (question #6), but this is one of the first steps in applying the Bible rightly.  You do not want to take something that was written specifically to women or deacons or etc. and try to apply that to all believers in general.

Be sure to check back in the next few days for part two.

1.  Good Friday is Good Because It Shows Us the True Nature of Our Sin.

It is good for us to reflect on the the extent of our sin.  When we see the penalty that our sin cost, it forces us to come to terms with just how bad our sin is–and this is good.

2.  Good Friday is Good Because It Shows Us How Amazing and Overwhelming the Love and Grace of God Are.

Jesus willingly went to the cross.  He was beaten, mocked, spat upon,  humiliated and ridiculed, and  he suffered these things willingly.  He even prayed that the very ones doing these things would be forgiven!

Scripture tells us that one of his motivations was the love he has for his people.  In fact, Romans 5:8, Paul tells us that “God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”  He did it for us!  In John 15:13, Jesus said, “No one has greater love than this, that someone would lay down his life for his friends.”  Jesus said that; then, on Good Friday, he did it!

3.  Good Friday is Good Because in the Cross, Jesus Won Our Forgiveness.

At the moment of Jesus’ death, he said, “It is finished.”  It was finished.  Jesus fulfilled his mission and won forgiveness for his people.  We can be sure that we will not have to face the punishment for our sins.  We can experience forgiveness because Jesus has already taken that punishment on our behalf!

4.  Good Friday is Good Because in the Cross, We See the Glory of God More Fully and Clearly than in any Other Event in History.

As Jesus hangs dying, we see the full picture of God’s character.  It is a clear display of his glory as he, himself, steps in our place to take the punishment that we deserve.  We see his justice and holiness and righteousness as he acts rightly against sin and his wrath is poured out on Jesus.  We also see his forgiveness, grace, love, and mercy as they are poured out on us.

5.  Good Friday is Good Because it is Not the End of the Story.

We know that Easter Sunday, Resurrection Sunday, was just around the corner.

Good Friday was not a surprise to Jesus.  It was the very reason that Jesus was born!  Jesus had been foretelling his death and resurrection in his words and actions throughout his earthly ministry.  He said that he would tear down the temple and raise it in three days.  He raised Lazarus, Jairus’s daughter, and the widow’s son showing that he has authority over life and death.

He said that no one takes his life from him but that he lays it down willingly–and that he would also take it up when he wills.  This is why his death brings forgiveness.  In his death and resurrection, he overcame death.

Finally, I want to remind you that Good Friday is not necessarily good for everyone.  It is only good for those whose sins have actually been forgiven.  It is only good for those who have turned from their sins and are trusting in Jesus’ death for forgiveness of sin.  I pray that this is true for all of you reading this right now.

Here, I have offered 5 reasons that make Good Friday good.  Of course, if we were to take the time and make the effort, we could come up with countless reasons that Good Friday is good. I invite you to add reasons that you are thinking of in the comments below.

(To view the Good Friday service where this sermon was originally preached, follow the link. https://youtu.be/qJHT7V5vAFc)

It is common in our culture today for people to view organizations and institutions with suspicion.  People, especially younger generations, are increasingly looking to “authentic relationships” and small groups of family, friends, and colleagues to find meaning, purpose, fulfillment, and contentment.

Unfortunately, that mentality has infiltrated the church as well.  Although there are some good things to be found in this way of living, it has also led some believers to question whether there is a place in today’s world for the organized church.  Many have challenged or even abandoned the need for engaging in real face to face ways with other believers.

Below, I want to offer five reasons that you (and I) need the church—five reasons that the church is a necessity for solid, growing, mature believers in Jesus that cannot be rejected without grave consequences.

 1.  You Need the Church to KNOW God Rightly

God has revealed himself to his people, and he has done so in three way.  First of all, God has revealed certain things about himself in creation.  The Bible says that in nature, among other things, God has shown his glory, his wisdom, his character, his nature, his provision for his creatures.  Secondly, God reveals himself in his word—the scriptures, the bible.  Finally, and most fully, God has shown himself to us in his son, Jesus.  When we look to Jesus, we see God fully and perfectly

We are able to see God in creation on our own—by ourselves.  We are also able to read and study the scriptures on our own—and we can even understand them on our own.  However, we also sometimes misunderstand them on our own.  This is why we need the church.  In fact, very few of the books of the Bible were written to individual people to be understood by individual people.  Both the Old and New Testaments are full of books written to either the community of Israel or to churches.

The point is that God has revealed himself to people, but he has revealed himself to his people—the church—and we need one another to understand his word rightly.  We need each other to correct our misunderstandings, our biases, our ignorance of certain parts of the scriptures, and our perspectives.  You need to be regularly engaged in bible study groups so that you can learn from others and others can learn from you.  Right now at FBCF, those groups are available on Sunday mornings at 9:30, Wednesday and Thursday mornings at 10:00, Wednesday nights at 7:00, in late night college bible studies, and in other informal groups and times.

You also need to regularly hear the word preached.  God is clear that the bible is not just given to be read and studied.  God also gave it to his people with the intention that it be preached.  The Holy Spirit works through the preached word in an extraordinary way.  You need to prioritize gathering together with other believers on Sunday mornings and Sunday nights to hear the word preached.

2.  You Need the Church to LOVE God Rightly

You also need the church in order to love God rightly or properly.  In Hebrews 3:12-14, God charges his people, “Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you and evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.  But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today,’ that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.  For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.”

You need other believers to help you continue following God.  You need other believers to help you continue holding fast to the Lord who has bought you and saved you.  It is easy for our hearts to turn aside and grasp onto things other than God.  The Old Testament is full of examples of the people of Israel doing just that.  The New Testament also contains examples of those who turned away from the Lord and made shipwreck of their faith.

Obviously the Holy Spirit is active in the hearts of his people, and God will ultimately keep all those who are his delivering them safely on the final day.  But, he uses means to do that.  He uses his word.  He uses prayer.  He also uses his church.  A coal by itself separated from others will quickly go out, but that same coal lying in a pile of other coals will stay bright and burning for a long time.  Likewise, you need other believers in your life to help you stay warm and alive for the Lord.  You need to prioritize the church for this very purpose.

3.  You Need the Church to FOLLOW God Rightly

Related to the last point, you also need the church to help you follow God rightly.  Later in the book of Hebrews, God says, “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” (Heb. 10:24-25)

The Holy Spirit not only uses other believers to help us stay focused on and devoted to God; he also uses other believers to help encourage us to live like his people in the world.  If we are honest, we would all agree that it is often hard to live as a follower of Jesus in our world.  It is often hard to resist the temptation to live the way the world does.  This is one of the reasons God has given us the gift of his church.

As members of FBCF, we have joined together under our church’s covenant to become members not only of a corporate group but as members of each other.  We have committed ourselves to each other.  We have taken on responsibilities toward each other, and we have also submitted ourselves to one another.  We have mutual expectations from and to one another—to encourage and be encouraged, to pray for and be prayed for, to hold accountable and be held accountable.  You need the church in your life to help you stay faithful to God in these ways.

4.  You Need the Church to MODEL God Rightly

You also need the church to model God rightly.  One of the callings you have as a follower of Jesus is to live the gospel out in various ways among your believing and unbelieving family, friends, coworkers, and acquaintances.  Without the church, it is almost impossible for you to do this.

The church gives you ample opportunities to be patient with other believers (and to have others be patient with you), to bear with other believers (and to be borne with), to confess sin to other believers (and to be confessed to), to forgive other believers (and to be forgiven), to serve other believers (and to be served).

You need the church and the family relationships it provides to live the gospel out in these real ways—to model for those around us how God treats his people.  As we do this consistently, the world around us will take notice.  However, even if the world around us does not take notice, God will be glorified—but, you can’t glorify God in this way without the church.

5.  You Need the Church to SERVE God Rightly

Finally, you need the church to serve God rightly.

God has gifted each of his children in general and specific ways.  These gifts are meant to be used within the context of a local church.  As all the members of a particular church come together recognizing and using their individual gifts, the whole and each of the members are strengthened in ways that they couldn’t be if they were not joined together.

You need the church to serve you, but you also need the church to rightly use the gifts that God has given you.

I have only listed five foundational reasons that we need the church here.  Doubtless, we could come up with others.  Feel free to add other reasons that we need the church in the comments below.

I also want to say, that this goes both ways.  It is true that you need the church.  But, it is equally true that he church needs you if you are a follower of Jesus.  That will be the topic of a future post here—“Five Reasons the Church Needs You.”

The Sandal of Jesus’ Birth

By Pastor Josh Wamble

When we think of Jesus’ life, several scandalous truths may come to mind.  It was common for Jesus to be seen eating and socializing with outcasts—even welcoming them though also challenging them with their sin.  In Matthew 8, Jesus said about himself, “the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”  It is scandalous that the King of the universe came to his creation in humility not in regalia.  It is also scandalous that as John says, when Jesus did come to his creation in humility, “his own people did not receive him.”

Perhaps the most scandalous part of Jesus’ life is that he died the death of a disgraced, humiliated, criminal on a cross for the sins of his people.  The fact that the God who created the heavens and earth and holds them together died is scandal enough.  The manner in which he died adds to the scandal and magnifies it almost beyond belief.  Yet there is another aspect of Jesus’ life that is scandalous, and it comes not at the end of his life but at the beginning.

Matthew begins his gospel with a genealogical introduction to Jesus.  He traces Jesus’ family lineage through Joseph and David back to Abraham.  There is nothing particularly noteworthy about this.  Genealogies are fairly common in the bible, and this is how Luke begins his gospel account as well.  What is noteworthy about Matthew’s account is some of the people he includes.  In particular, Matthew includes five women in his genealogy of Jesus.  None of these women are necessary to the genealogy.  If Matthew had left them out, we would still have a full account of Jesus’ ancestors from Joseph to Abraham.  Yet, Matthew included them on purpose, I think, to teach us something about Jesus and about us.  As we look at the background and history of these five women, we will attempt to see just what that is.

1. TAMAR

The first woman mentioned is Tamar.  Tamar’s history is found in Genesis 38.  She was the daughter-in-law of Judah, and yet Matthew says that Perez and Hezra were Judah’s sons through her.  What happened was Tamar married Judah’s firstborn son, Er.  Er died without having an heir.  So, based on Jewish custom and law, Judah gave Tamar his second son, Onan, to provide an heir for Er.  Onan didn’t like the idea of having a son who would be counted the son of his older brother, so he sabotaged the marriage bed and refused to fulfill his duty toward his older brother.  Because of this wickedness, the Lord struck Onan, and he died too.

Tamar was now left a widow of both Judah’s sons.  Judah came to her and promised that he would give her his last son, Shelah, as a husband once he reached marrying age.  when Shelah grew up, Judah failed to give him to Tamar because he was afraid that he would die like his two older brothers.

When Tamar found out, she devised a plan.  She found out about a trip that Judah would be taking, and she set a trap.  She dressed as a prostitute, set up on the road the Judah would be traveling, and waited for him.  When he came by, she enticed him to sleep with her.  Judah did, not knowing that she was his daughter-in-law.  Tamar became pregnant with twins, and one of them, Perez, is an ancestor of Jesus.  God used Tamar and Judah despite both of them acting through immorality, trickery, and unrighteousness. 

2. RAHAB

We first read about Rahab in Joshua chapter 2.  Joshua is preparing to lead the Israelites into the Promised Land but before he does, he sends out two spies to check out the land—especially a city called Jericho.  When the spies reach the city, a prostitute named Rahab invites them into her house.  She tells them that she has heard all about what God had done for the Israelites—how he parted the Red Sea and delivered them from Egypt and how he protected them through their migration.  She told them that she knew God had given them the land and that he was the true creator of heaven and earth.

When the King of Jericho heard that the spies were there and sent men to find them, she hid them on the roof of her house amid the flax crop.  She sent the King’s men on a wild goose chase and gave the spies directions on how to leave travel back to their camp without being caught.

Before she let them down by rope through a window cut in the city wall, she made them promise that they would return the favor when they Israelite army invaded Jericho.  She made them promise that they would not destroy her or her family.  They promised that no harm would come to her or anyone who took refuge in her house when God gave them the city.

In Joshua chapter 6, we read about the Israelites keeping their promise.  God supernaturally caused the walls of Jericho to fall, and the Israelites conquered the city utterly destroying it by fire.  However, they did not harm one prostitute and her family who were citizens of Jericho.  Instead, they accepted them as Jewish proselytes.  When Joshua wrote his history, he even indicated that Rahab had lived in Israel up until his very own day.

Matthew tells us that Rahab was assimilated into the Israelite people so fully that she even, at some point, married Salmon and became the mother of Boaz who was David’s great-grandfather and a distant ancestor of Jesus.  So, not only did God use immoral, unrighteous, conniving people like Judah and Tamar, but he also even used a Canaanite prostitute to bring about the birth of his son into the world. 

3. RUTH

The third woman listed in Matthew’s genealogy is Ruth.  Ruth has an entire book in the Old Testament dedicated to telling her story.  She was a gentile Moabite who ended up being the great-grandmother of David and an ancestor of Jesus.

An Israelite named Naomi and her husband, Elimilech, moved to Moab with their sons Chilion and Mahlon to escape a famine in Israel.  While in Moab Naomi’s husband, Elimilech died, and the two sons, Mahlon and Chilion, married Moabite women named Orpah and Ruth.  After living in Moab for around ten years, both of Naomi’s sons, Mahlon and Chilion, died as well.  This left Naomi, along with Orpah and Ruth, as widows.

Naomi pleaded with Orpah and Ruth to return to their families, remain in Moab, and remarry so that they would be provided for and taken care of.  Orpah complied, but Ruth refused and accompanied Naomi back to Israel.

When they returned to Israel, Ruth went out to glean grain from he fields and met a generous man named Boaz.  Boaz, a relative of Naomi’s husband, Elimilech, ended up marrying Ruth as her and Naomi’s kinsman redeemer and providing an offspring, Obed, who became the grandfather of David.

So, in the case of Ruth, we see that God providentially set up a famine, a “chance” meeting between Chilean and Ruth, another chance meeting between Ruth and Boaz, and the Hebrew custom of Levirate marriage and the kinsman redeemer to work it out so that a gentile Moabite was included in the genealogy of Jesus.

4. URIAH’S WIFE

Matthew doesn’t mention the fourth woman by name.  Instead, he refers to her as the wife of Uriah.  I wonder if this is because he wants to emphasize the sinfulness of Bathsheba’s introduction to David.  The story begins with the narrator signally to us that David was not fully meeting his duty as the king.  It was in the spring when kings go off to war, yet David was at home.  Through a window of his palace he noticed Bathsheba bathing.  He was attracted to her, and instructed his servants to bring her to him.  They did, and David slept with her.

When she became pregnant, David began planning ways to hide his sin.  First he called for Uriah, her husband, to come back from battle.  He hoped that Uriah would sleep with Bathsheba, and everyone would assume that he had fathered the child.  Uriah refused on the grounds that he did not want to enjoy any comforts that his fellow soldiers did not have access to.  David’s second attempt was to throw a banquet in Uriah’s honor the next night, get him drunk, and send him home to Bathsheba.  When Uriah still refused to sleep with her, David had to resort to extreme measures.

He sent Uriah back to the battle with sealed instructions for his commander.  The commander was instructed to put Uriah on the front lines of his forces, charge the enemy, and then call for a retreat without telling Uriah.  Left by himself, Uriah was easily killed by the enemy army.  Once David received word that Uriah had been killed, he married Bathsheba, and everyone assumed the baby was conceived after their marriage.

While Bathsheba may have been entirely a victim in the story recorded in 2 Samuel 11, the encounter is full of sin on top of sin, immorality, attempts to cover up sin, and even murder.  Yet, Matthew includes her in Jesus’ genealogy.

More importantly, God includes her in Jesus’ genealogy.  Again, we see God take a totally messed up situation and not only bring good out of it, but use it to bring about his good and perfect purposes—even his very will to send his son as the savior for people involved in such messed up situations.

5. MARY

The last woman mentioned by Matthew is, of course, Mary—Jesus’ mother.  Her story is preserved for us in the succeeding chapters of Matthew’s gospel as well as in other parts of the New Testament.

While Mary was not involved in any sin as far as giving birth to Jesus was concerned, she was perceived by those around her as immoral and adulterous.  God could have worked it out so that Jesus was born as the son of a King or a nobleman.  However, it was God’s plan for the messiah to be born of a commoner in a way that would be unbelievable as far as earthly logic goes.  The true explanation was impossible if not for the work of the Holy Spirit.

Even her betrothed, Joseph, who knew her best and rusted her most did not believe her until an angel appeared to him and confirmed that the baby she was carrying was in fact conceived by the Holy Spirit not through sexual unfaithfulness and immorality.  It was not until then that he changed his mind about divorcing her and putting her away (even if he had planned to do so quietly so as to save her reputation as much as possible).

In this genealogy, we see five women included.  I think it is undeniable that Matthew includes them on purpose and for a reason.  In fact, I think he means to teach us several truths.  Some of them are listed below:

1. One of the biggest truths illustrated here is that Jesus is one of us.  Just like many (all?) of us have families that are messy and often messed up, Jesus comes from a long line of sinners as well.  He truly did become one of us.  He had black sheep in his heritage just like we do.  Further, it doesn’t seem that he is ashamed of that—in fact, the author of Hebrews in Hebrews 2:11 tells us explicitly, “He is not ashamed to call them brothers.”

2. Secondly, we see that God’s plan will come about.  God is the sovereign ruler of his creation, and he will do what he wants to do.  He providentially controls the events of the world and the decisions of his creatures in a way that brings about his purposes.  He will bring his messiah into the world and keep the promises that he made long ago.

3. Finally, and related to the last truth, the success of God’s plan is not dependent on the righteousness of people.  God will succeed in spite of our failures.  In fact, God uses our failures to bring about his plan.

God was able to take Tamar in spite of her immoral conniving against a sinful Judah, Rahab in spite of her history as a Canaanite prostitute, Ruth inspire of her background as an idol worshipping Moabite, the immoral incident between David and Bathsheba, and the supposed immorality of Mary and bring about his plan to provide the world with a savior.

A corollary of this is that God is also able to take sinful people like you and me and (in spite of all our sinful histories, situations, and actions) establish and expand his kingdom in the world.  He is able to providentially take our disobedience and unfaithfulness and use it to bring about the salvation of the nations and our own sanctification.  And, make no mistake, he will bring his plan to completion through an imperfect and often less than fully faithful church.

One day, Jesus will return to judge the world in righteousness and remove the last lingering remnants of sin forever!  When he does, we will be able to look back and see how he providentially worked a million situations just like Rahab’s and Tamar’s and mine and yours into salvation for us and for the nations around us!

Investing in the Word

By Pastor Josh Wamble

As 2018 has gotten off to a start, it is only natural for people to begin to evaluate 2017 and set goals for 2018.  Many people make one or more “New Year’s Resolutions.”  Others are not as formal but still have in mind ways that they want this year to be better than the last.  For believers, often we look back, evaluate our use of the spiritual disciplines over the past year, and resolve to be more disciplined in prayer, evangelism, bible reading, and the like in the year to come.

Often this takes the form of a plan to read all or part of the bible during the new year.  Sometimes this looks like reading the entire Bible by the end oft he year.  Sometimes this looks like reading just the New Testament or some other portion of the bible by the end of the year.  I personally have made it a goal to read through each of the minor prophets multiple times during this year.  The minor prophets are a portion of scripture often overlooked, so that will be my focus this year.  There are 12 minor prophets and 12 months in the year, so I have made a schedule to read each one 5 times during this year.

This renewed focus on the bible and on reading it has made me think through again the purpose of reading it.  We do not read the bible simply to know what it says—to memorize it or to learn it like we would some other subject or trivia.  We are committed to reading it because we believe that it is one of the means the Holy Spirit uses to make us who God would have us to be.  We believe that the very words of the bible are the very words of God himself, and we believe that through reading them we are transformed into different kinds of beings—we gradually take on the characteristics of the new creations that we are in Christ.

When we start to think about what the bible says about itself, a few prominent passages come immediately to mind.  In Isaiah 55, Isaiah tells us that God’s word is effective—it is guaranteed to accomplish the goal that God has set for it.  Perhaps no passage of the bible speaks of scripture itself in a more comprehensive or moving way than does Psalm 119.  Yet, another passage that comes to mind is 2 Timothy 3:16-17.  In these two verses, Paul tells us that the entire Bible is breathed out by God himself.  As mentioned above, it is literally God speaking to us.  Paul goes on to say that because it is God’s word, it is profitable—it accomplishes its goal—in at least 4 ways:

1. It is profitable for TEACHING
Because the bible is literally God speaking to us, it is our only authoritative source of truth.  Whatever it says is absolutely true.  Because it is the source of truth, we learn from it.  In it, God tells us everything that he deemed it important for us to know.  Everything god wanted to say to us is written in the words of scripture.  The only way for us to know what God thinks about any topic, how he would have us to live, or what he would have us to trust in is for us to faithfully read it, and learn from it.

2. It is profitable for REPROOF
Because the Bible is the source of truth, it is the standard that we must measure ourselves against.  When we read the bible regularly, it becomes evident to us the many ways in which we do not measure up to that standard.  The bible acts like a mirror.  As we read it, we cannot escape the truth of who were are and what we are like.  It reproves us—shows us that we are wrong.

3. It is profitable for CORRECTION
Not only does the bible reprove us—or show us that we are wrong; it also corrects us—or shows us how to be right.  The 66 books of the bible contain everything that we need to know in order to live a life that is pleasing to the Lord.  Most importantly, it corrects our default belief that we must find a way to make ourselves measure up to God’s standard and shows us that God desires humility, repentance, and a heartfelt devotion to him.

4. It is profitable for TRAINING IN RIGHTEOUSNESS
Finally, the bible is said to be profitable for training in righteousness.  This happens because the bible is not like any other book that has ever been written.  When we read the bible, we learn new pieces of information; we progressively understand how those pieces of information fit together; we see ourselves in a new light; but those are not the only things that happen.  In addition to these benefits, there is a supernatural dimension to our reading the bible.  When we read the bible, the Holy Spirit is working in it and through it and in us to train us in righteousness—to make us more like Jesus.

Finally, at the end of this passage, Paul tells us that all of these benefits are meant to work together to accomplish a unified purpose—the scriptures teach, reprove, correct, and train in righteousness “that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.”

Our goal in reading the bible should not be to simply gain more knowledge of what the bible says—although that is one good goal.  It should not be to mark off each section in our “read through the bible in a year plan”—although having such a plan is a good thing.  It should not be to become bible trivia masters.  Our goal in reading the bible should be that we would be competent and equipped for every good work that God has prepared for us.  This competency is acquired as the Holy spirit goes to work through our prayerful reading of the Bible asking the questions:

1. What is this passage TEACHING me?
2. How is this passage REPROVING me?
3. How is this passage CORRECTING me?
4. How is the Holy Spirit TRAINING ME IN RIGHTEOUSNESS through this passage?

How Did We Get Here?

By Pastor Josh Wamble

Have you ever been on a trip, gotten off the Interstate, and turned onto a highway only to find yourself wondering, “What would life have been like if I had grown up in this town—in that house?”  Or, “I wonder how my life would have been different if I had gone to this school and had different friends, teachers, and coaches or if my family had been members of that church with different friends, Sunday School teachers, and pastors.” 

When you think about it, our lives are made up of a succession of small interactions with various people, situations, and events.  Each of these episodes end up shaping us and forming us into the people that we are.  I grew up in a small town in West TN, Trenton, and really am who I am today because God used the people in that town to form me.  I moved away to college and was influenced by the teachers and friends that I met there.  I moved to Louisville, KY for graduate school and ended up in Fairdale, KY for some 12 years and am still being changed by the people I have met here.

I have been influenced and changed in innumerable ways by friends I went to school with like Will and Brian and Patrick, Luke and Jana and Cicily, Clint and Derek and J-Raz.  I have been influenced and changed in innumerable ways by coaches like Tim Haney, Jim Nunelley, and Todd Lumley and by teachers like Faye Parnell, Mrs. Nowell, Geraldine Taylor, Broeck Horner, Ray VanNeste, Brad Green, and many others.  I have been influenced and changed in innumerable ways by the pastors and people in the churches I have been a part of like Walter Lockhart, Lee Tankersley, and Josh Powell, Josh Greene, Bob and Raymie Samuels, Russell and Linda McDaniel, Tony and Kathi Burriss, Bob Barton, Bettie Lou Powell, Bruce and Dorothy Niven, Jodi Marsh, and Annette Darnell just to name a few.  I have also had many coworkers like Mr. Mast, Venus Sudduth, Chris Harper, Brett O’Laughlin, and Tim Ferree who have made a deep impact on me.  And, if I had grown up in a different house, in a different town or if I had gone to a different school in a different place the influences and shapers of my life would have been completely different.  Even with the same family, in many ways, I would have ended up as a different person.

It is neat to think that God uses all of these people in all of our lives to form us into the people that he would have us to be, but it is even neater to realize that He not only uses them but also plans them and sets them in place.  In Acts 17:26, Paul says, “And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place.”  That means that not only does God use the people around us but he plans for us to be in certain places at certain times.

God decided and planned for you and me to be born where we were and when we were.  He decided that your neighbor would be your neighbor and that your coworker would be your coworker.  He decided that your pastor would be your pastor and your church family would be your church family.  And, he did this for a reason.  Romans 8 says that He is working all of these things together so that we would be conformed to the image of his Son, Jesus.  God has you where you are so that all of these people around you would be agents of change in your life influencing you in different ways to make you slowly and gradually more and more like Jesus.

Finally not only has he put them in your life for this reason, but he has put you in their lives for the very same reason.  God has planned it and worked it out so that the gas station attendant and the grocery store checker and the Wal-Mart employee are here in this place and this time so that you might have an influence on them.

As we go about our everyday lives this new year, let us look for ways that we might influence those around us for Christ and openings through which we might speak to people around us about Christ.  God has placed us here and now for this very purpose.

The Age of Creation

By Pastor Josh Wamble

How old is the earth?  When did God create people?  Did God create the universe directly micro-managing each particular aspect of creation or did he do it indirectly using one or more natural forces such as evolution?  These are big questions, and they are questions that sincere God-loving, Christ-following, Bible-believing Christians have genuine, and sometimes heated, disagreements over.  One reason is because the Bible does not speak directly to this question.  While God has given us lots of information about who created, what was created, how it was created, and why it was created, he does not definitively answer the question of when creation took place.  However, the scriptures do give some very clear guidelines.

If we are to be a bible-believing and bible-committed people then we must stay within the boundaries of the scriptures even on questions that are not directly spoken to.   Even in those situations, we still must make judgments and take positions that are consistent with what the bible does say and in no way contradict it.  We absolutely can disagree over the age of the earth and remain united to one another, but we can only do so if the positions we take honor and affirm everything the bible says.  I believe there are at least four of these non-negotiable positions that every follower of Christ must affirm whether we end up concluding the earth is very old (several million years old) or relatively young (several thousand years old).

1. God Created the World.  The universe we see around us did not come about by chance or by natural processes alone.  It is the result of a supernatural direct act of God.  Several passages of scripture say this outright.  In Genesis 1:1, we read, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”  And as Genesis 1 and 2 continue, we are told in more detail exactly how he did it; he spoke it into existence.  If we are to believe what the Bible says, one non-negotiable truth that we cannot deviate from is God created everything that exists outside of himself.

2. God Did it Without any Pre-Existing Materials.  The Bible teaches that God is the only eternal being that there is—nothing else is eternal.  Some say that God and matter are both eternal and God used the matter that was already here and formed it into the world that we see around us.  The Bible is clear that God alone is eternal, and if we are to believe what it says, then we must believe that God created the world without using any pre-existent material.

3. Adam and Eve were Real Historical People.  If we are going to believe what the Bible says about creation, then we must believe that Adam and Eve were real historical people.  We cannot write them off as mythological or figurative in any way.  If we read the creation account in Genesis 2 (where Moses tells us how God created Adam and built Eve out of his rib) in a straightforward way, it seems like God literally took dirt and formed it into a man and breathed life into him then took one of his ribs and formed it into a woman.

And, Genesis 2 is not the only place in the bible that leads to this conclusion.  There are also several places in the New Testament that either explicitly assert or assume that Adam and Eve were real historical people who really existed in history.  In Luke 3:38, Luke asserts that Jesus’ genealogy can be traced all the way back to a real human being named Adam who was created directly by God.  In Romans 5:12-14, Paul traces the origins of sin to one man—Adam.  He says that death reigned “from Adam to Moses.”  It seems like if we are consistent we must either believe that both Adam and Moses were real historical people or they were both figurative/mythological people.  It seems clear, that Paul believed they were both historical.  Further, just a few verses later in Romans 5:15-17, Paul makes an argument that places Adam and Jesus in parallel positions (Adam brings death; Jesus brings life).  Again, if we are consistent then either both Adam and Jesus are figurative/mythological, or they are both historical.  Paul presents them both as historical.

Finally, in 1 Timothy 2:13-14, Paul is making an argument about men and women being created to fulfill different (co-equal) roles in the world and, specifically, in the church.  Here he makes a reference to both creation and the fall as an illustration to prove his point.  It is interesting that here he doesn’t argue that Adam and Ever were real historical people, he simply assumes it as if it were a fact not in question.

If we are going to believe the Bible (Both Old and New Testaments) is God’s word and that Jesus is a real historical person, and that Jesus has a real historical family tree, it seems that we have no choice but to also believe that Adam and Eve were both real historical people.

4. Adam and Eve were the First Humans Directly Created by God.  Not only were Adam and Eve real historical people, but the bible is clear that they were the first real historical people who were created directly by God.  Again, beyond Genesis 2, Paul makes this point in the New Testament in 1 Corinthians 15:45-49.  He calls Adam the “first man” two different times in those short five verses.  This seems to exclude any notion that God began creation at some point several million or billion years ago, and left evolution to take its course gradually, through trillions and trillions of minute mutations over millions and millions of years indirectly producing what we now describe as Homo Sapiens some 200,000 to 3 million years ago.

While the age of creation is definitely not an issue worth dividing over, and while faithful, bible-believing, Jesus-following, God-loving believers can disagree over whether the earth is a few thousand years old or several million years old, it does seem clear that there are some boundaries beyond which we are not free to travel.

If we are going to be people who take the bible seriously and believe what it says, we must at least affirm these four non-negotiable beliefs about creation:  (1) God did it.  (2) He did not use any pre-existing material.  (3) Adam and Eve were real historical people who lived at a specific time in a specific place, had specific descendants, etc.  And (4) Adam and Eve were the first real historical people created directly by God the way described in Genesis 2:7 and 21-23.

The Look of  the Kingdom

By Pastor Josh Wamble

At our church’s Wednesday and Thursday morning Bible studies a few weeks ago, one of the attenders asked if we could think about what the Bible’s authors mean when they talk about the Kingdom of God or the Kingdom of Heaven.  So we did.  If you want to read about what this Kingdom of God is like, you can do that here.

Sometimes we are better at recognizing something than we are at describing it.  It may be difficult to come up with a good definition of “art,” but most of us can recognize art when we see it.  The Kingdom of God is often like this.  It has a look to it.  We can often recognize the Kingdom of God reigning in someone’s heart even if we are not able to give a detailed definition or description of what all the kingdom consists of.  Below, we will look at 15 scenarios from everyday life that exhibit the Kingdom reigning in the believer’s heart.

1.  The Kingdom looks like the countless martyrs who have been willing to give up their lives instead of deny the King because they knew that citizenship in the Kingdom is better than life itself.

2.  The Kingdom looks like a husband or wife bearing with the weaknesses and failings of his/her partner and faithfully keeping his/her vows even in spite of friends or family who habitually encourage them to divorce because “you deserve to be happy,” “you’re too good for him/her,” “they are not as devoted/committed/faithful” as you, or similar arguments.

3.  The Kingdom looks like a husband and wife sitting in a doctor’s office resisting the pressure to terminate their pregnancy through abortion because the yet-to-be-born child has tested positive for Down’s Syndrome, trisomy 13, or some other debilitating genetic disorder or disease.

4.  The Kingdom looks like something as simple as a believer who is totally committed to his local church.  One of the most counter-cultural things a believer can do is prioritize gathering with other believers to worship, study, and serve together on a regular basis.

5.  The Kingdom looks like a young believer who uses his vacation time from his job so that he is available to serve at his church’s VBS or youth camp or to participate in a short-term mission trip.

6.  The Kingdom looks like a senior believer who lives on a fixed income but scrapes together money to help support her local church or to send to foreign missionaries so that the Kingdom spreads throughout the world.

7.  The Kingdom looks like a “shut-in” believer who is no longer physically capable of regularly gathering with her local church but continues to faithfully pray day in and day out for her pastor, her church, and its ministries.

8.  The Kingdom looks like a man and wife leaving the comforts of their home, their families, their friends, and all they have ever known in order to move across the world to different cultures, to learn different languages, to get used to different foods, to endanger themselves with different diseases and sicknesses, and often to risk death, as they devote their entire lives to spreading the gospel of the Kingdom to those who have never heard of the King.

9.  The Kingdom looks like a believer who refuses to lie in her normal everyday business life knowing that the refusal to do so will likely prevent her from being considered for a future promotion with all the prestige, power, and financial benefit that would include because she is wholeheartedly convinced that the ethics of the Kingdom bring eternal rewards not even to be compared with their earthly counterfeits.

10. The Kingdom looks like a man who battles dyslexia and stage-fright week in and week out as he studies and thinks and prays for hours and stands before a crowd to preach the gospel week after week, year after year in a small unknown church until he dies in obscurity for the sake of the Kingdom expanding in the hearts of his hearers.

11. The Kingdom looks like a man who is dying of cancer who lives with more joy and peace and contentment than he has at any other point in his life and routinely encourages and strengthens those who visit to encourage and strengthen him and time after time comforts those around him by declaring that cancer is the best thing that has ever happened to him because it has forced him to rely on and trust Jesus more than he ever had at any other point in his life.

12. The Kingdom looks like a dad who, instead of going out to eat or to get drinks with co-workers after a long day of work, rushes home to spend the evening loving/serving/enjoying time with his wife and playing with his kids.  It looks like a dad who reads the Bible with his kids and leads his family in family devotions.  It looks like a dad who lovingly disciplines his kids so that they would learn self-control and responsibility and rightful authority so that they would develop a rightful, healthy, Biblical fear of the good, merciful, gracious, holy Lord God who lovingly reigns over the subjects of his Kingdom.

13. The Kingdom looks like a mom who sacrifices her time and energy, giving, teaching, loving, disciplining, and caring for her kids.  It looks like a mom who regularly reads the Bible with her kids and pours out her heart in prayer on behalf of her kids that they would come to love the God that she does.

14. The Kingdom looks like a man and woman who had been divorced from one another for several years hearing a sermon about divorce, realizing their previous divorce did not have a Biblical justification, and deciding to get re-married as a way to show that their commitment to God and his Word is greater than their commitment to their own convenience.  It looks like a renewed commitment and effort to love one another, forgive one another, serve one another, bear with one another, and please one another because they are convinced that their marriage is a picture of the gospel and the relationship between Jesus and his bride—the church.

15. Finally, the Kingdom looks like any number of “regular” mundane people who live their lives constantly giving thanks to God for all that they have, regularly resisting, confessing, and fighting sin, and loyally following Jesus as their Lord, Master, and King.