The December edition of the West Virginia Southern Baptist is available for download here. In it you will find a short bio of Lottie Moon as well as stories of some homegrown missionaries.
1 month ago
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
What Are You Looking For?
Have you found what you’re looking for? The people in today's passage thought they found what they were looking for in Jesus--but He wouldn’t have anything to do with them. Why was that? They were looking for a king, but they were looking for the wrong kind of king.
Monday, November 23, 2009
It Is Well
On this day in 1873, the steamship Ville du Havre was struck by an iron sailing vessel while crossing the Atlantic. 246 people died, including the four daughters of Chicago lawyer Horatio Spafford. You might recognize the hymn that he wrote while traveling to meet his wife after the tragedy. This video tells the story:
HT: Justin Taylor
HT: Justin Taylor
Extreme Wisdom
James 1:5
Witnesses falsely testified against him. “We heard him cursing Moses and God. This man talks nonstop against God’s law. We even heard him say that Jesus of Nazareth would tear this place down and throw out all the customs Moses gave us.”
The chief priest of the high counsel turned to the defendant. “What do you have to say for yourself?”
Calmly he rose, and his gentle tone changed. “Your ancestors killed anyone who dared talk about the coming of the Jesus. And you’ve kept up your religious traditions—you traitors and murderers, all of you. You had God’s law handed to you by angels—gift wrapped!—and you squandered it!”
Screams and curses broke out in response, but Stephen was undeterred. He looked up into heaven and declared, “Oh! I see heaven wide open and the Son of Man standing at God’s side!” They blocked their ears with their hands, rushed him, and dragged him outside of the city. One of the Pharisees named Saul quietly collected the robes of the others so that Stephen’s blood wouldn’t stain them.
As the stones began to pound Stephen’s body, he cried out, “Master Jesus, take my life.” Then he knelt down, praying loud enough for everyone to hear, “Master, don’t blame them for this sin”—his last words. Then he died.
Keeping cool in the face of difficult situations is the wisest move. Things as trivial as being cut off in traffic, receiving a low grade in school, and being reprimanded on the job are all it takes these days to lose it. However, maneuvering through uncommonly stressful situations takes more than common sense. It takes divine wisdom. When faced with false accusations and even the threat of death, Stephen exercised true wisdom. He did not retaliate. He did not curse his accusers. He simply clung to what he knew to be true and what the Pharisees refused to believe—Jesus is the Son of God. This same Jesus who embraced Stephen as he died will also embrace you when you need the wisdom that only comes from God.
Readings taken from
Extreme Devotion: The Voice of the Martyrs
Witnesses falsely testified against him. “We heard him cursing Moses and God. This man talks nonstop against God’s law. We even heard him say that Jesus of Nazareth would tear this place down and throw out all the customs Moses gave us.”
The chief priest of the high counsel turned to the defendant. “What do you have to say for yourself?”
Calmly he rose, and his gentle tone changed. “Your ancestors killed anyone who dared talk about the coming of the Jesus. And you’ve kept up your religious traditions—you traitors and murderers, all of you. You had God’s law handed to you by angels—gift wrapped!—and you squandered it!”
Screams and curses broke out in response, but Stephen was undeterred. He looked up into heaven and declared, “Oh! I see heaven wide open and the Son of Man standing at God’s side!” They blocked their ears with their hands, rushed him, and dragged him outside of the city. One of the Pharisees named Saul quietly collected the robes of the others so that Stephen’s blood wouldn’t stain them.
As the stones began to pound Stephen’s body, he cried out, “Master Jesus, take my life.” Then he knelt down, praying loud enough for everyone to hear, “Master, don’t blame them for this sin”—his last words. Then he died.
Keeping cool in the face of difficult situations is the wisest move. Things as trivial as being cut off in traffic, receiving a low grade in school, and being reprimanded on the job are all it takes these days to lose it. However, maneuvering through uncommonly stressful situations takes more than common sense. It takes divine wisdom. When faced with false accusations and even the threat of death, Stephen exercised true wisdom. He did not retaliate. He did not curse his accusers. He simply clung to what he knew to be true and what the Pharisees refused to believe—Jesus is the Son of God. This same Jesus who embraced Stephen as he died will also embrace you when you need the wisdom that only comes from God.
Readings taken from
Extreme Devotion: The Voice of the Martyrs
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Cause of Discontent
1 Timothy 6:8
Discontent arises from being so very sensible of the evil of affliction and senseless of the evil of sin. People's bodies are tender, and their senses quick, and therefore even the biting of a flea or the scratching of a pen is presently felt. People are so tender of their reputation, profits and delights, that the least touch in these is a cross to them.
Their hearts are so hard, and consciences seared, that they can lie securely under all the curses of God's book, have mountains of wrath abide on them, and feel nothing. Therefore afflictions lie so heavy because sin lies so easy. Whereas, if a person knew what sin is, and saw at night what wrath he had treasured up all day, he would rather wonder why he was out of hell than murmur that he was in trouble.
—Edward Lawrence
Readings taken from Day by Day with the English Puritans
Discontent arises from being so very sensible of the evil of affliction and senseless of the evil of sin. People's bodies are tender, and their senses quick, and therefore even the biting of a flea or the scratching of a pen is presently felt. People are so tender of their reputation, profits and delights, that the least touch in these is a cross to them.
Their hearts are so hard, and consciences seared, that they can lie securely under all the curses of God's book, have mountains of wrath abide on them, and feel nothing. Therefore afflictions lie so heavy because sin lies so easy. Whereas, if a person knew what sin is, and saw at night what wrath he had treasured up all day, he would rather wonder why he was out of hell than murmur that he was in trouble.
—Edward Lawrence
Readings taken from Day by Day with the English Puritans
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Spurgeon Saturday
Ephesians 4:30
All that the believer has must come from Christ, but it comes solely through the channel of the Spirit of grace. Moreover, as all blessings thus flow to you through the Holy Spirit, so also no good thing can come out of you in holy thought, devout worship, or gracious act, apart from the sanctifying operation of the same Spirit. Even if the good seed be sown in you, yet it lies dormant except he worketh in you to will and to do of his own good pleasure. Do you desire to speak for Jesus—how can you unless the Holy Ghost touch your tongue? Do you desire to pray? Alas! what dull work it is unless the Spirit maketh intercession for you! Do you desire to subdue sin? Would you be holy? Would you imitate your Master? Do you desire to rise to superlative heights of spirituality? Are you wanting to be made like the angels of God, full of zeal and ardour for the Master’s cause? You cannot without the Spirit—“Without me ye can do nothing.” O branch of the vine, thou canst have no fruit without the sap! O child of God, thou hast no life within thee apart from the life which God gives thee through his Spirit! Then let us not grieve him or provoke him to anger by our sin. Let us not quench him in one of his faintest motions in our soul; let us foster every suggestion, and be ready to obey every prompting. If the Holy Spirit be indeed so mighty, let us attempt nothing without him; let us begin no project, and carry on no enterprise, and conclude no transaction, without imploring his blessing. Let us do him the due homage of feeling our entire weakness apart from him, and then depending alone upon him, having this for our prayer, “Open thou my heart and my whole being to thine incoming, and uphold me with thy free Spirit when I shall have received that Spirit in my inward parts.”
Readings taken from Logos Bible Software version of Morning and Evening: Daily Readings by Charles Haddon Spurgeon
All that the believer has must come from Christ, but it comes solely through the channel of the Spirit of grace. Moreover, as all blessings thus flow to you through the Holy Spirit, so also no good thing can come out of you in holy thought, devout worship, or gracious act, apart from the sanctifying operation of the same Spirit. Even if the good seed be sown in you, yet it lies dormant except he worketh in you to will and to do of his own good pleasure. Do you desire to speak for Jesus—how can you unless the Holy Ghost touch your tongue? Do you desire to pray? Alas! what dull work it is unless the Spirit maketh intercession for you! Do you desire to subdue sin? Would you be holy? Would you imitate your Master? Do you desire to rise to superlative heights of spirituality? Are you wanting to be made like the angels of God, full of zeal and ardour for the Master’s cause? You cannot without the Spirit—“Without me ye can do nothing.” O branch of the vine, thou canst have no fruit without the sap! O child of God, thou hast no life within thee apart from the life which God gives thee through his Spirit! Then let us not grieve him or provoke him to anger by our sin. Let us not quench him in one of his faintest motions in our soul; let us foster every suggestion, and be ready to obey every prompting. If the Holy Spirit be indeed so mighty, let us attempt nothing without him; let us begin no project, and carry on no enterprise, and conclude no transaction, without imploring his blessing. Let us do him the due homage of feeling our entire weakness apart from him, and then depending alone upon him, having this for our prayer, “Open thou my heart and my whole being to thine incoming, and uphold me with thy free Spirit when I shall have received that Spirit in my inward parts.”
Readings taken from Logos Bible Software version of Morning and Evening: Daily Readings by Charles Haddon Spurgeon
Friday, November 20, 2009
Be Still
Psalm 46:10
The time for confession is now. Confess what you have done in word or action, by night or by day. Confess while it is the acceptable time, and receive heavenly treasure in the day of salvation. Blot out every earthly care from your mind, for you are running for your soul. You are completely forsak¬ing the things of the world. But the things you are forsaking are little, while what the Lord is giving is great. Forsake present things, and trust in the things to come.
Have you run in circles and busied yourself in vain with worldly things? "Be still, and know that I am God," Scripture said. Excuse yourself from saying many useless words. Don't backbite or willingly listen to backbiters. Rather, promptly run to prayer. In exercising self-denial, show that your heart is strong. Cleanse your vessel so that you can receive grace more abundantly.
For although remission of sins is equally given to everyone, communion with the Holy Ghost is given in proportion to each person's faith. If you have worked little, you receive little. But if you have worked hard, the reward is great.
—Cyril of Jerusalem
Readings taken from Day by Day with the Early Church Fathers
The time for confession is now. Confess what you have done in word or action, by night or by day. Confess while it is the acceptable time, and receive heavenly treasure in the day of salvation. Blot out every earthly care from your mind, for you are running for your soul. You are completely forsak¬ing the things of the world. But the things you are forsaking are little, while what the Lord is giving is great. Forsake present things, and trust in the things to come.
Have you run in circles and busied yourself in vain with worldly things? "Be still, and know that I am God," Scripture said. Excuse yourself from saying many useless words. Don't backbite or willingly listen to backbiters. Rather, promptly run to prayer. In exercising self-denial, show that your heart is strong. Cleanse your vessel so that you can receive grace more abundantly.
For although remission of sins is equally given to everyone, communion with the Holy Ghost is given in proportion to each person's faith. If you have worked little, you receive little. But if you have worked hard, the reward is great.
—Cyril of Jerusalem
Readings taken from Day by Day with the Early Church Fathers
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Suffering: A Survey of Job
I'm finally starting to get caught up on posting my sermons. You'll find several new sermons in the player below including the first three sermons from the four-part series on suffering, called Suffering: A Survey of Job.
When I Suffer (To be posted later)
Monday, November 16, 2009
Extreme Weakness
2 Corinthians 12:9
“If you will renounce your faith and trample the cross, you will go free,” the Bolshevik gang said. “If you do not, we will kill you.”
Reverend Mikhail had seen eighty thousand of his fellow Russian Orthodox leaders and lay people murdered by the Communists. Amidst all of that pain and suffering, he decided that God, if he did exist, would not have allowed such misery.
“I don’t believe,” he thought as he faced the gang. “What does a cross mean to me? Let me save my life.”
But when he opened his mouth to go along with the gang’s orders, the words that came out shocked him. “I only believe in one God. I will not trample on the cross!”
The gang put a sack around his shoulders as a royal garment and used his fur hat for Jesus’ crown of thorns. One of them, a former member of Mikhail’s church, knelt before him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews.” They took turns beating him and mocking his God.
Silently, the reverend prayed. “If you exist, please save my life.” As he was beaten, he cried out again, “I believe in one God.”
His show of faith made such an impression on the drunken gang that they released him. When he arrived in his house, he fell face down on the floor, weeping and repeating, “I believe.”
The Christian faith is full of paradoxes. Die to live. Lose to win. Be weak in order to be strong. In fact, unless we are willing to embrace our own failures, we cannot experience God’s strength. When we undergo hardship and trial or even witness the unjust suffering of others from afar, we may begin to doubt God’s goodness. That is a human, natural response. However, God does not reject our human weakness. He restores our weakness with his strength. Therefore, we can rejoice in our failures because they remind us that human strength is no substitute for godly power. We may fail, but our God remains strong. What are you learning about your own weakness? What does that teach you about God’s strength?
Readings taken from
Extreme Devotion: The Voice of the Martyrs
“If you will renounce your faith and trample the cross, you will go free,” the Bolshevik gang said. “If you do not, we will kill you.”
Reverend Mikhail had seen eighty thousand of his fellow Russian Orthodox leaders and lay people murdered by the Communists. Amidst all of that pain and suffering, he decided that God, if he did exist, would not have allowed such misery.
“I don’t believe,” he thought as he faced the gang. “What does a cross mean to me? Let me save my life.”
But when he opened his mouth to go along with the gang’s orders, the words that came out shocked him. “I only believe in one God. I will not trample on the cross!”
The gang put a sack around his shoulders as a royal garment and used his fur hat for Jesus’ crown of thorns. One of them, a former member of Mikhail’s church, knelt before him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews.” They took turns beating him and mocking his God.
Silently, the reverend prayed. “If you exist, please save my life.” As he was beaten, he cried out again, “I believe in one God.”
His show of faith made such an impression on the drunken gang that they released him. When he arrived in his house, he fell face down on the floor, weeping and repeating, “I believe.”
The Christian faith is full of paradoxes. Die to live. Lose to win. Be weak in order to be strong. In fact, unless we are willing to embrace our own failures, we cannot experience God’s strength. When we undergo hardship and trial or even witness the unjust suffering of others from afar, we may begin to doubt God’s goodness. That is a human, natural response. However, God does not reject our human weakness. He restores our weakness with his strength. Therefore, we can rejoice in our failures because they remind us that human strength is no substitute for godly power. We may fail, but our God remains strong. What are you learning about your own weakness? What does that teach you about God’s strength?
Readings taken from
Extreme Devotion: The Voice of the Martyrs
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Walk in Humility
Proverbs 22:4
Walk in humility, take heed of pride. It is a deadly poison that spoils and kills all where it comes; so dangerous that another poison was used as a counter-poison to preserve St. Paul from it. And we are never more in danger of it than when we have done most, and made greatest progress in the profession and practice of piety.
For it is as the spleen in the body, that grows most when the other parts waste. It grows fast often, when other evils decay, and out of the decay of them, sucks matter to feed and foster itself with. This therefore must be carefully cast out and avoided. When we have done well, we must take heed how in that regard we begin to think highly of ourselves. If we do so, all is gone; we are undone.
Be affected rather as Paul was. After he had gone so far, and done so much, "I make account, that I come not short," says he, "of the very chief apostles" (2 Cor. 11:5). Yea, "I have labored more than them all" (1 Cor. 15:10). For, "from Jerusalem round about, even unto Illyricum (that is, from Syria to Slovenia) have I plentifully preached the gospel" (Rom. 15:19). Yet, "I forget what is past" (Phil. 3:13). That is, I regard no more what I have done than as if yet I had done nothing, or had clean forgotten what I did. “And I put on toward to what is before, pressing on toward the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" (v. 14).
He did as men in a race that look not back to see how many have passed, or how far they have progressed, but have their eyes fixed on those that have gained ground on them, and on the ground before them, that they are to measure, ere they can come to the mark. Let us not consider so much how far we have gone, and how many others come short of us, but how far we are to go, and how far we come short of that Christian perfection that we should all strive and contend to attain unto.
—Thomas Gataker
Readings taken from Day by Day with the English Puritans
Walk in humility, take heed of pride. It is a deadly poison that spoils and kills all where it comes; so dangerous that another poison was used as a counter-poison to preserve St. Paul from it. And we are never more in danger of it than when we have done most, and made greatest progress in the profession and practice of piety.
For it is as the spleen in the body, that grows most when the other parts waste. It grows fast often, when other evils decay, and out of the decay of them, sucks matter to feed and foster itself with. This therefore must be carefully cast out and avoided. When we have done well, we must take heed how in that regard we begin to think highly of ourselves. If we do so, all is gone; we are undone.
Be affected rather as Paul was. After he had gone so far, and done so much, "I make account, that I come not short," says he, "of the very chief apostles" (2 Cor. 11:5). Yea, "I have labored more than them all" (1 Cor. 15:10). For, "from Jerusalem round about, even unto Illyricum (that is, from Syria to Slovenia) have I plentifully preached the gospel" (Rom. 15:19). Yet, "I forget what is past" (Phil. 3:13). That is, I regard no more what I have done than as if yet I had done nothing, or had clean forgotten what I did. “And I put on toward to what is before, pressing on toward the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" (v. 14).
He did as men in a race that look not back to see how many have passed, or how far they have progressed, but have their eyes fixed on those that have gained ground on them, and on the ground before them, that they are to measure, ere they can come to the mark. Let us not consider so much how far we have gone, and how many others come short of us, but how far we are to go, and how far we come short of that Christian perfection that we should all strive and contend to attain unto.
—Thomas Gataker
Readings taken from Day by Day with the English Puritans
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