Vacation Bible School is always an incredible week in the life of a church for both children and adults.  Last year we saw God save one of the adults who had been helping. At the time he was actively investigating the gospel and wanted to be around Christians. So we set him up with a group to help the teachers and assistants who were leading the children in VBS  and before the week had ended Chris Cain had given his life to Jesus Christ.  It was incredible to see how God spoke through the lessons intended for children and brought Chris to the end of himself.  It was a marvelous week!

This last week has been great too and it all began during our Sunday kick-off services on July 10th! We had the church decorated like New York City for our theme The Big Apple Adventure so that children and parents would be excited and energized about participating in VBS.  Our stage area had buildings made of cardboard stretched from floor to ceiling.  I dressed like a NYC drug enforcement officer and our worship leader dressed like a sheriff’s deputy.  The pulpit was moved out and in its place we created a miniature Central Park, made up of several trees and flowers alongside a portable hotdog stand like those found on the streets of New York.

Needless to say, there were plenty of things that were different about our Sunday services and lots of things that could have distracted those who were there.  The morning service went great and all the children seemed to be really excited about the coming week.  For Sunday night we were back in our series in Acts (Action Figures) and we were looking at the story of the conversion of Paul, showing the amazing power of God to save sinners.  I closed that sermon by calling people to pray for God to save individuals during VBS.  I even reminded everyone about how God had saved Chris (who was sitting in the back of the church smiling as he helped run the sound and powerpoint).   I reminded everyone that we serve a God who is in the business of saving people and changing lives and because of that we needed to be praying for God to do that this week.  I closed with the story of Charles Haddon Spurgeon who once had someone ask him why he thought his preaching was so successful.  He answered the question by saying, “every time I preach there are over five hundred people in the boiler room below our sanctuary - praying for God to save people.”  The secret to powerful preaching is the power of God working through the lives and prayers of his people.

With that said, God’s power was put on display for all of us to see. What happened was one of the most incredible things God has allowed me to witness – the undeniable work of God’s grace in the life of my friend Glenn Kelly.  Normally during our Sunday evening service we don’t have a formal time of invitation and response. We do in the morning service, but in the evenings we usually let people know that if they would like to talk to a pastor then we will be available following the service.  That’s what I was planning but God had something else in mind. I was about to pray and dismiss our service when God gloriously interrupted.

Let me give you a little background on Glenn before I finish the story.  Glenn is a big, tough guy who along with his family has been coming to our church for about a year, usually being present for every service. He had been investigating the gospel for all of this last year, often spending time in my office asking questions.  In one of those meetings he was telling me that he was talking to his wife about all the things that he does that God wouldn’t approve of, and that he knew if he became a believer those things would have to change.  He was counting the cost to be one of Jesus’ disciples. He understood that Jesus wants everything.  Throughout the last year Glenn and his family kept coming, and those of us who are his friends kept praying for him. In many ways it seemed like a long year and I must honestly say that I was confused about what God was doing in Glenn’s life.

Then came Sunday night. I asked the church to pray as we dismissed and as I did Glenn stood up with a hand raised and quickly sat back down, lowering his hand.  Before Glenn had settled back in the pew I asked, “what do you need, man?”  Before my words had time to reach his ears, he was out in the center aisle and walking toward me.

Now remember, Glenn is a tough guy. He can be a little intimidating, and here he was marching down the aisle toward me with a serious look on his face.  I’m ashamed to say it, but my first thought was, “I hope he’s not mad at me!” That thought quickly disappeared as he began to cry, tears rolling down his cheeks and with each step he was crying harder and harder.  About half way down the aisle he said, loud enough for everyone in the church to hear him, “I’m sorry but this can’t wait any longer.”   I was standing there waiting for what seemed like forever, but when he got to me he bent over and hugged me, weeping like a baby.  He looked into my eyes, and I asked, “Glenn what is it that can’t wait?”  He replied, “I’m ready to give my life to Christ! I’m sorry for interrupting but I can’t put it off any longer.”  The congregation heard every word through my microphone and they burst into applause and tears.

This is the powerful, amazing, matchless grace of our great God and Redeemer.  No obstacle is greater than the great barrier-removing power of the Spirit of God! The apostle Paul was marching toward the city of Damascus seeking the lives of Christians when he was brought to his knees before a holy God.  Glenn was sitting in the back of a sanctuary decorated like New York and listening to a preacher dressed like a cop, who was challenging Christians to pray for God to save people and expecting Him to do it, and all the while we were still surprised when Glenn walked the aisle!  It’s so awesome to know that the success of the gospel doesn’t rest in us.  It is not in my power or anyone else’s power to save, but only in the powerful message of Jesus Christ. If you have never encountered that grace, never been moved by that power, or believed that amazing message, then I hope that you will come running. At any time and at any place, even when we least expect it, you have an open invitation.

In Christ,

Toby

This summer at FBC Henryville we are planning to enjoy Picnics in the Park (PNP) on June 12th and August 7th. In July, our PNP will be a VBS Celebration at the church. In June and August, however, we will be enjoying an afternoon at the Clark County Forestry just north of Henryville. After our morning worship service (11:00 am) we will dismiss and meet back at the park between 12:30 and 1:00. The next few hours will be spent with fun, food, music, games, laughter, and lots of fellowship. Additionally, the church picnic will take the place of our Sunday evening worship service. When the picnic is over we want to encourage everyone to spend the rest of the day with their families and friends.

We hope that you’ll make plans to be at the Picnics in the Park. Bring some food, some drinks, some games, some lawn chairs, and your friends and neighbors and plan to have a great time!

And one other thing…these special events that we plan aren’t simply fun activities. They are important! Just today I read (and have provided a link to) an article by Pastor John Piper entitlled “Toward a Theology of Church Picnics.” (THE LINK TO THE ARTICLE IS THE TITLE!) I hope you’ll read it as you begin preparing for all the many things FBC Henryville has planned for the summer!

      Just this last week I had a conversation with a friend about Ernest Hemingway’s great memoir A Moveable Feast. The conversation started me thinking about the book that I’d not picked up in years and over the last few days it has simmered into my own reflections about the life of the Christian and the ministry of the church. If you haven’t read the memoir, Hemingway’s book recounts the years (during the 1920’s) that he lived in Paris alongside many other well known American expatriate authors. The title was supposedly stirred from a conversation in which Hemingway, reflecting on those formative years in Paris, remarked that “If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast.” The years that he spent in Paris stuck with him and the impact that it continued to have in his life was akin to packing up Paris in a “to-go-box” and taking it with him throughout his life.

     For the Christian, the feast that we are to savor is the Word of God – the Bible. There is no nourishment for the Christian’s life apart from the daily and weekly diet of Scripture. Christ, as he was engaged in the great temptations in the wilderness quoted Scripture in response to Satan: “Man cannot live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Just as we cannot expect to physically live apart from eating physical food, the Christian cannot live apart from the life giving strength of the Bible.

     Sadly churches are far too often filled with emaciated and malnourished Christians who live through each week believing that their meager and shallow lives are the norm, when in fact their lives are meant to be far more vibrant if they would only take, taste, and see the delights of Christ’s feast found in the texts of Scripture. Far too many Christians, and far too many churches, weakly survive because of their spiritual starvation while the abundant delights and delicacies that nourish the soul lie unopened on their bedside tables.

     What about you? Are you enjoying the feast that God has placed into your hands? Do you feel a bit sluggish in your walk with Christ? Are you savoring the supper that Christ has provided, or are you allowing yourself to waste away while a feast is calling your name? If so, I want to encourage you to take and eat:

     First, recognize the great wonder of the feast that we are allowed to savor. So many Christians throughout the centuries (and even in many places around the world today) have not had the access to the Bible like we do. No generation in history has had more copies of the Bible in their language, more versions of the Bible in their language, and more technological helps for reading and understanding the Bible (Bibles on iphones, free online concordances, commentaries, devotional helps, word studies, maps) than Americans living at the beginning of the twenty first century. How will God judge us if we ignore this great gift? To whom much is given, much is required. 

     Imagine two neighbors living next door to one another. In one house the family has an abundance of food, snacks, and beverages in their pantry and refrigerator. They have so much excess that on a daily basis their dumpsters are filled with the food that they are wasting, and yet on a daily basis they refuse to eat what they have, choosing instead to stubbornly starve themselves while they lay in the very lap of luxurious plenty. In the other home, a family scrapes to survive – eating meager crackers and stale bread and drinking tap water because it is all they can afford. Each night the children in this second home are put to bed with rumbling stomachs and dreams of a good meal. Such a disparity should outrage us! Yet every day Christians in churches just like ours never touch their Bibles, while our neighbors around the world would give anything for just one copy of the Bible to have as their own. We are far too comfortable with the abundance that we have, and woe to us if we carelessly reject it.

     Second, read the Bible daily! Make the reading and study of God’s Word as normal for your daily life as drinking coffee and having physical food. Place notes on your refrigerator or in your car that jog your memory into thinking of the Bible as being just as crucial to your life as eating. Make reading your Bible each day a priority.

     Third, savor the feast! Don’t simply gorge yourself hurriedly. Read through the passages slowly. Stop and pause. Meditate. Pray. Memorize. Write down your thoughts. Tis far better to slowly savor the Bible daily than to gulp down large portions of the Bible sporadically.

     Fourth, feast with your fellow Christians. The primary way that we are fed the Bible together is through the church’s weekly worship services and preaching ministry. Reading and studying the Bible alone is crucial. Yet it is absolutely essential for us to join the feast with other brothers and sisters in Christ through weekly worship services. Additionally, it is critical for you to make participation in every worship service a priority. Worship services are like family meals. Sunday morning worship services are like breakfast (the most important meal of the day!), Sunday evenings are like dinner, and Wednesday evenings are like lunch. It is good to come to one service a week. That’s certainly better than nothing! Yet if you only come to one worship gathering (like Sunday morning), then it is like you living your life while only eating breakfast every day, every week, every month, and every year. You need multiple meals! Your body needs to eat more than once a day! Sure, cereal, eggs, toast, and juice are great, but your body craves salad, chicken, vegetables, steak, and dessert! Your spiritual diet needs to be fed by more than one meal per week. So for a well balanced diet, come to the table with other Christians every time the dinner bell is rung!

     Finally, let what you hear and read daily and weekly strengthen and nourish you throughout the week. The Word of God is to be the Christian’s moveable feast. Like Paris for Hemingway, the strength we gain from our feasting on Scripture gives us the nourishment and life we need throughout our life. We eat our meals because we know that we will need our physical energy later in the day. We continue to eat food because we know that for every day that we live we will need physical energy. We read the Bible daily because we know that we’re going to endure hours, encounters, conversations, trials, and temptations that will make spiritual strength necessary. We feast with other Christians at worship services, hearing the Word of God proclaimed, because we know that in the next week we will face spiritual hunger, weakness, and trials that will make these meals necessary. We have a moveable feast greater than a city in France. We have the moveable feast of God’s Word, and if we neglect it we do so at our own peril.

Indeed He is Risen!!!  There was a time when this was how people greeted each other on Easter.  The first person to speak would say, “He is risen!”  Then the other person would respond with, “indeed He is risen!”  Now we greet each other with, Happy Easter!  Does anyone know what that means?  What is an Easter?  Is it a type of rabbit, or chicken?

Actually the word Easter has its origins in the passover.  The Hebrew word is Pesach (פֶּסַח) meaning the festival of passover.  The Greek translation of Pesach (פֶּסַח) is Πάσχα and another Greek word used is Ανασταση which means upstanding, up-rising, resurrection.  Now let me ask you a serious question.  Aren’t you thrilled to find out that Easter is not the name of a cancerous tumor that grows on a chicken’s ovary.  I say that in jest, to bring to light the reality that most people don’t know where the word Easter came from or what it means.

For many people Easter is just another holiday they get to celebrate by eating big meals and watching the kids find eggs in the yard.  I will admit I love eating those great big Easter dinners.  I can remember how fun it was to point Tyler and Dustin in the direction of eggs I could see.  However Easter is about infinitely more than rabbits, eggs, and Easter baskets. So when you greet people with the words, “Happy Easter” it could bring to their minds anything from eggs, to dinners they had with their family.  However, if we greeted one another with the salutation of old, “He is risen”.  What do you think people would think about then?

That is what Easter is all about.  think about what it must have been like for the disciples of Christ on the third day.  There hearts were crushed when they saw their master die.  Some of them watched, others heard about how humiliating His death was.  They were convinced that He was the one.  So much so that they were arguing a few days earlier about who was going to sit at His right hand and His left hand in His kingdom.  This is why Peter pulled out his sword and cut off the ear of the servant of the High Priest.  For them, it was all about throwing off Rome and setting up that earthly kingdom.  Jesus was the man who was born, according to the flesh, a son of David.  He was the man who could unify the Israelites and lead them into battle.

But now, He is hanging there.  His form so marred by the beating that He is hardly recognizable as a man.  His nakedness exposed for all the world to see.  His face covered with blood and spit.  The crowd cries, “He could save others, lets see Him save Himself.  Better yet, let God save Him, seeing how He claimed to be the Son of God.”  Can you hear them laughing as they taunted.  I wonder, Can you find yourself in that crowd?  Hey, you who said if we destroy the temple you could rebuild it in three days.  How you going to rebuild it when you are fastened to a cross?  Then He died.

Think about how defeated all of the followers of Christ were.  It was over.  Their hope was dead.  The one they loved was gone.  I mean they left their homes and jobs to follow Him.  They really believed there was something different about this guy.  He had command over the winds and the waves, but now He is dead.  Three days they have been in despair.  Trying to wrap their minds around what just happened.  They are probably thinking, “why didn’t He let us fight?  Why didn’t He even try to defend Himself in the courts?  Why didn’t He come down from the cross?  Why?  Why?  Why?

On the third day the ladies decided that they will go to the tomb to pay there respects one more time before going on with their lives.  To their amazement He is Risen.  The ladies run back to the disciples and become the first ones to greet with that magnificent sentence.  I can imagine her breathing hard.  Gasping for air and trying to get the words out.  They can see that something has happened.  She left this morning crying and defeated.  Now she is consumed with excitement.  Can you see her?  Can you hear the words as she cries them?  HE IS RISEN!  I can hear the disciples asking, Mary what are you talking about?  THE LORD!  I HAVE SEEN THE LORD!  HE IS  RISEN!  Writing these words makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck.  I can imagine that is exactly what happened to the disciples.  Peter and John took off running.

This changes everything.  I could imagine John saying that to himself as He outruns Peter to the grave.  And change everything, it did.  For the next forty days Jesus revealed Himself to His followers.  Once they saw Him it completely changed their lives.  Can you see them as they are walking through the streets of Jerusalem.  Or better yet can you hear them as they see their friends along the way.  What words do you hear them crying out as they begin running to the friend they saw in the distant.  HE IS RISEN!  Waving their hands in the air.  HEY!  HEY!  HE IS RISEN!  HE IS RISEN!

Should we be any less excited about sharing that news than the disciples?  Is it weird for us to great people with those words?  He is Risen!  I don’t think so.  That’s what Easter is about.  In fact that’s what every Sunday is about.  We come together and remind ourselves and each other that He is Risen.  We proclaim to the lost every Sunday that Jesus Christ died a ransom for His people.  That they placed Him in a tomb, and three days later He arose.

I hope this Sunday, and everyday for that matter, that the thought that fills your heart and mind is that He is risen.  I pray that the salutation that flows from your heart and out your mouth is, HE IS RISEN!  I pray the hair stands up on the back of your necks when you hear it spoken back to you.  INDEED, HE IS RISEN!

Because He Lives,

Toby

Taste and See: Tithing, Trusting, and Treasuring Christ

Week 1: What is Tithing?

Malachi 3:10

            Throughout the month of April we want to call our church to  a commitment to pray, study, and worship through our being obedient to God by tithing. April is the month of taxes and while we’re all thinking about fulfilling our obligation to our government we want to call ourselves to dwell seriously on our obedience to our God.

            Over the next few weeks we want to explain what tithing is, why it is important, and how it glorifies God in the local church. We want to especially show how trusting Christ in our finances is not meant to be a burden but a liberating delight in the goodness of God. God is not the government and the call to tithe is not meant to be a dreaded strain like tax season. Tithing to God, trusting God financially, is all about abundant liberty and joy.

            So what is it? Simply put tithing is the commitment made by followers of Jesus Christ to trust God with their incomes through giving a portion of those incomes back to God through the local church. Essentially tithing can be understood in six ways:

1. Tithing is willingly giving a portion of your income to support the ministry of the local church and the proclamation of the gospel. Normally that is an encouraged portion of ten percent. A good motto might be “if you have a dollar, give a dime.”
2. Tithing is obedience to God. God demands both that we hold nothing back from him and that we support the ministry of the local church. Members of the church are not merely the recipients of ministry but are participants in ministry. To not tithe is to disobey God. (Malachi 3:8)
3. Tithing is a visible and tangible way we participate in the ministry of the local church. Through our tithes we all unite together to support preaching, evangelism, missions, and ministry.  (2^nd Corinthians 8-9)
4. Tithing is a declaration that God owns everything and that every good gift we enjoy comes from him and him alone. Sometimes we don’t like the idea of tithing because we believe our incomes are really ours. Tithing forces us to remember that nothing we enjoy is truly owed to us. We deserve nothing. Everything we have is a gift from God –  even our paychecks. (Psalm 24:1)
5. Tithing is a physical display of trust in God to provide everything we need. Money, incomes, taxes, bills, and basic needs all have a tendency to lead to anxiety and fear. God calls us, however, to confident trust in his provision. God promises to take care of us. Tithing expresses our confidence that his words are true. (1^st Timothy 6:17-19)
6. Finally, tithing is the freeing invitation to find our greatest delight in God. There is a reason why Paul called the love of money the “root of all evil” (1^st Timothy 6:2-10). Money, and our need of it, has an almost unimaginable tendency to make us want it more and more. Additionally, we are always tempted to use money as a means of achieving greater happiness in things which ultimately can never satisfy. Tithing, giving a portion of our incomes back to God through the local church, is a discipline which displays our great joy and satisfaction in God alone. It is a testimony that he and he alone is our treasure. He and he alone is the object of our great love. He and he alone is worth more to us than any material object we could purchase, and he has given himself to us freely by his grace. When we tithe we do not buy his joyous presence. We simply declare outwardly that his joyous presence has been given to us and we are finding everything we need in him and him alone. (Psalm 37:4; Matthew 6:19-21)

Next Week: What Tithing Isn’t

Why is it that we don’t look forward to death?  Is it because we are afraid?  We look at the Apostle Paul like he is nuts when he says “to live is Christ and to die is gain!” For so many of us death is a scary date in our future that we don’t want to think about! We have no reason to be afraid, however. Christ has defeated death, and because of that Christians should wait for death like I waited for the Poison Ivy shot the doctor would give me when I was a kid.   I can remember how afraid I was going to the doctor knowing he was going to give me a shot.  I don’t think they knew about pills yet.  If you had a stomach ache they would give you Pepto through a syringe!

Anyway, I remember going back to that room at the doctor’s office agonizing because I knew what was coming.  The nurse came in the room and she could read me like a book, so she would reach down and pull open a bottom drawer in a medicine cabinet.  I could hear the Hallelujah Chorus fire up in the background.  My doctor kept a drawer full of little toys in the room where he gave the shots, and they were all for his victims…I mean patients.

The nurse would come in and pull open the drawer and tell me that I could look and decide which one I wanted, but I couldn’t have the toy until I was a big boy for the doctor and let him give me a shot without making a fuss.  Dr. Bolton was a very smart man.  I would dig around in the drawer of toys until the doctor came in and said, “young man did you find something you like?”  “Yes sir, I replied.”  He said, “Well pull your pants down and lets get this over with and you can have your toy, and if you are real good, I might just let you have two”.  I jerked my pants down so fast it would have made your head spin, and as I waited for the sting of the needle my eyes would be glued to that open drawer of toys by the door.  I wanted him to give me that shot.  I would have even been mad if he decided not to give me  a shot.  I was excited with joy about getting a shot!

What happened to me?  Why did my attitude about the shot change?  Was it because the needle wasn’t going to sting?  Was it because the medicine wasn’t going to burn like fire as it moved through my hip?  Was it because I wasn’t embarrassed to pull my pants down in front of that nurse and doctor?  No! No!! and NO!!!  It was going to sting. It was going to burn like fire, and I didn’t even want my mother to see me with my pants down.   I endured the stinging and burning though.  I even endured the embarrassment of pulling my pants down  – because of the joy that was set before me in that open drawer.  My attitude changed about the shot because my eyes were fixed on the prize to come.

Paul wasn’t crazy.  He just had his eyes so fixed on the prize to come that he believed dying was gain.  In Philippians 3:14 Paul wrote “I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”  Do you see?  The prize that Paul was focused on was Jesus, and Jesus was so beautiful to him that he considered all things in this life nothing but rubbish, (or as the KJV translates ”dung!”) so that he might be found in Christ. Compared to the indescribable joy of being in the presence of Jesus, nothing in this world and not even the pain of death itself mattered.  Listen to what Paul said in Philippians 3:7-9 “But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.  Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ  and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.”

This is not the rantings of a deranged old mad man.  These are the words of a man who had opened the drawer of this life and seen the prize that awaited him. It was so beautiful that he was willing to lose everything so that he might gain it.  He was like the man who found the pearl of great value in Jesus’ parable in Matthew 13:45-46.  When he found this one huge and amazing pearl he sold everything he had in order to buy it.  Paul’s eyes were so fixed on Christ that when he looked at all of the hardships he went through (like being beaten, shipwrecked, and homeless)  he replied, “the sufferings of this world are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us through Christ Jesus.”

I know why so many of us are afraid to die.  I can tell you why we sing in agreement with Kenny Chesney, “everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to go right now.”  It is because too many of us have not opened the drawer to behold the most beautiful prize that awaits us.  The drawer, of course, is the Word of God (the Bible), and the prize is not some 50-cent plastic toy.  It is Christ Jesus himself!!  Open up His Word and look at Him, and I promise that the longer you look the more beautiful death becomes.  It won’t take long before you see death as gain, and you will look at Christians who are afraid of dying and think “why won’t they just open the book and look at the prize!”  If they would do that they would see Him, and they would know that death is only the sable-coated butler that leads us to Him -  to the one who has holes in His hands and feet.  Death is a beautiful limousine that drives us to the home of the one who loves us more than we love ourselves.  WOW!!!  I can’t wait.  I get excited just thinking about it, and I hope you do too!

Now, if you don’t know Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord, then you really do have a big reason to be afraid, but it’s not death that you should be afraid of – it’s the wrath of God that will be poured out on sinners apart from the grace of Jesus Christ (Romans 1:18).  I have good news, however.  Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved (Acts 16:31). The hope of life in the face of death is only found through a relationship with Jesus Christ through faith.  I pray that you know him. I pray that you love him. I pray that you are awestruck by his beauty. I pray that you are joyfully awaiting the moment when we will be in his presence. For those of you who do love Christ, I pray that you will join in with creation and groan for the day when Christ will come and make all things new.  Let us cry the words of Revelation 22:20: “Even so now come Lord Jesus!”

In Christ,

Toby

We want to begin the year by encouraging your own personal growth in following Jesus Christ. To help you in that growth, we want to give you some suggestions regarding resources that we believe can help. We hope that God will use these resources to draw you deeper into a relationship with him over the course of the next twelve months.

Obviously the most important, and only truly essential resource for the Christian is a Bible. You need your own Bible and you need to be reading it daily. We like the ESV (it’s the version our staff uses), but the important thing is for you to find a Bible that you can understand. After you have the Bible, the second step is to make a commitment to read it daily. We want to encourage you to make it your goal this year to read through the entire Bible over the course of the next year. That sounds like a daunting task, but it is eaily doable with only a few chapters a day.  The best way to read through the Bible is to have a reading plan to help organize and guide your daily readings. We have copies of some great reading plans, and if you’d like one please let us know! Several copies of a great reading plan will be available at the front of our church over the next few weeks.

In addition to reading through the Bible, we also want to point you in some good directions for some other great reading over the course of the next year. The goal shouldn’t be to read tons of books, but to read good books. Thats why we have selected a list of books that we think are some of the best.

First, here is a list of twelve books that we just generally think are fantastic for growing in faith and discipleship. Many of these books are short, and as far as we know are all available either on cd or through audio download on i-tunes.

1. The Cross Centered Life by C.J. Mahaney

2. Humility by C.J. Mahaney

3. What is the Gospel? by Greg Gilbert

4.  Desiring God by John Piper

5. God is the Gospel by John Piper

6. Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis

7. The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan

8. Dug Down Deep, by Joshua Harris

9. It is Well by Mark Dever and Michael Lawrence

10. Knowing God by J.I. Packer

11. The Prodigal God by Timothy Keller

12. 40 Questions About Interpreting the Bible by Robert Plummer

We think that each of these books would be worth your time and effort and would be more than rewarding! If you’re looking for some great books about individual topics, however, these next books suggested by category might be a great place to start.

The Ministry of the Church: Nine Marks of a Healthy Church by Mark Dever

Church Membership: Membership Matters by Chuck Lawless

Evangelism: The Gospel and Personal Evangelism by Mark Dever

Missions: Let the Nations be Glad by John Piper

Devotional: Taste and See by John Piper or Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

Biography: George Muller: Delighted in God by Roger Steer

Theology: A Concise Theology by J.I. Packer

Biblical Theology: The Glory of God by Christopher Morgan et. al.

Church History: A Short History of Christianity by Stephen Tomkins

Christian Growth: The Discipline of Grace by Jerry Bridges

We hope these books help you as you go through the next year. They have been a blessing to us, and we believe God can and will use them in your own growth in grace as well. If you can’t read them all, we still encourage you to pick a few this year and dive in. It will be well worth the read.

In Christ,

Cade

Everyone knows by now that I absolutely love Christmas.  I love everything about it.  The lights, the gifts, the cold, the hymns, and I even like the plump, jolly old dude in the red suit.  I have watched the same Christmas movies for years and still love to watch them.  In fact, I watch the “Grinch that stole Christmas” all year long.  Still, I know that for some people it is a sad time of year because they have lost a loved one, and so the Christmas season is not the same.

I’m not going to preach to you as one who doesn’t know what you’re going through.  I lost my mother on December 9th 3 years ago.  Her birthday was Sunday.  I know what it’s like to long to see them.  My little brother died a little over 5 years ago, and I miss him like crazy.  I don’t say this in an effort to make you feel sorry for me.  The last thing I want you to do is to feel sorry for me.  I tell this testimony only in an effort to win a hearing with you.  I know that some of you have lost husbands, wives, and children, and I would never say that I understand what you are going through, because I don’t.  I do know what it feels like to lose someone, however, and I still believe that you can enjoy the Christmas season, even more than those who have not suffered loss.

That may sound crazy to you, but I am convinced that it’s true.  I think that many of us spend Christmas in the dumps because we let our hearts forget what Christmas is all about.  I’m not saying you’re guilty of this, but  I have noticed this sin in my own life. Only after I have recognized this sin and repented of it was I able to change the way I go through the Christmas season.

The sin I’m referring to is thinking that Christmas is all about getting together with family, thinking it is about Christmas dinner, thinking it is about buying and opening gifts, thinking it is about anything other than the celebration of the birth of Him who put an end to death.  Christmas is all about Jesus.  It is not a time for sadness, especially for those who have loved ones who have died.  If you’ve lost a loved one, then if anyone should be celebrating Christmas for what it really is, it is you.  Jesus told Martha, who had just lost her brother, “Martha, I am the resurrection and the life.  Anyone who believes in me, though he is dead yet shall he live.”  Then he asked her a staggering question, a question that your Christmas joy is tied up in.  Jesus asks Martha (and he asks you), “Do you believe this Martha?  Put your name in there.  Do you believe this _________?  If you can answer yes to that question, then why would Christmas not be exciting?  How could it not be joyful?!

I miss my mother.  I miss my brother.  I miss my paw-paw.  However, all of these dear family members are with Him who saved them by His grace.  I can only imagine what it must have been like the day they first laid eyes on him.  I just asked Cade that question today in my office.  We were discussing our sermons for this week, and I was contemplating Jesus suffering under the holy, righteous, wrath of God the Father.  Then my affections were stirred toward Christ in such a way I can’t explain.  To think that we can’t even begin to understand what the Father and the Son went through to pay the penalty of our sins.  Jesus went through pain and suffering unlike anything that we can imagine.  As I was meditating on what I said to Cade, I was struck by the question, “can you imagine what it’s going to be like to finally see Him face to face.”  To behold the holes in his hands and feet,  to see the scars where the stripes were laid that set me free,  to fall down like my sister Mary and kiss his feet, are things that I can’t wait to do. My point is this, your loved ones who believed the gospel and have died are there now with Him.  They are happier there with Christ than they were, or ever would be, here on this earth.  Do you believe this?

If you do believe, then you have more reason than anyone to celebrate the birth of Him who was crushed for our iniquities.  Let the truth of Christmas penetrate deep into your heart.  Instead of focusing on a Christmas tree adorned with lights, focus on the cross which was soaked with His blood.  Instead of focusing on your loved ones that died, focus on Him who after dying and being placed in a tomb was raised up from the grave.  Let His words to Mary flood your soul.  “Though you are dead yet shall you live.”  Do you believe this? For unto us is born a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

In Christ,

Toby Jenkins

“I can no other answer make but thanks, and thanks, and ever thanks.” So says Sebastian in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, and these words express my words to you on this Thanksgiving. The last year has seen lots of changes in mine and Amy’s life. We celebrated one year of marriage. We moved to a different state. Instead of teaching high school I entered the classroom again as a student, and instead of teaching high school students Amy began serving as a caretaker for senior citizens in Louisville. Things are certainly not like they were one year ago! Yet with each change in our life God has proven over and again the continued triumph of his grace through his endless mercy at every turn in our pathway. He has provided for us physically, emotionally, and spiritually, and his abundant giving is seen clearly in his gift of you to our lives. We have come to love Henryville as an adopted hometown, and we love all of our friends and family at First Baptist.  God has blessed us through you, and we are privileged to have the opportunity to serve you.  You are ministers to us in the gospel. You are encouragers and comforters to us through his Spirit. We are truly thankful for each of you, and we pray that God will continue to unite our hearts together in the coming months and years as we pray God’s richest blessings in Christ to you now and evermore.

Philippians 1:3-11

Cade

Do you struggle to pray?  If you are like me, then you go through times of prayerlessness.  That is a very long word that represents the vast time of our lives that have been spent without prayer.  God has taught me much through my 11 years as a Christian.  I’ve not been the best of students either.  He usually has to take extreme measures with me.  For some reason I’m hard headed and think my way is best; so he has to get my attention with his staff.  Shepherds use their staffs for comforting their sheep and correcting them, if you know what I mean.  I have spent much of my Christian life being disciplined with that staff.  Don’t get me wrong; I love his discipline because it assures me of his love for me.  Those he loves he chastens, be zealous therefore and repent.

I say all this to say, that God has taught me much through suffering, pain, and hardships, and I would like to pass one of those lessons on to you.  I was a four-year-old Christian when I took the pastorate of my first church.  Talk about on the job training.  I knew I was doing what God wanted me to do, but I must admit that I was overwhelmed.  I had a full time job as the principal/teacher of a Christian School, and I was responsible to preach 3 sermons a week.  When I would get home from school I would close myself up in my office and start studying to preach.  I was so stressed and pressed about getting my sermons done that I wouldn’t even pray.  I think back now and blush.  What an idiot I was!  Basically I’m saying, “God!  I’m to busy working for you to talk to you.”  I mean I prayed but it wasn’t like it should have been.  It’s only by his grace that he let me live or remain a pastor.

One day I was reading a sermon by Jonathan Edwards, entitled: The preacher before the throne of God, and the Lord rocked me to the core of my being.  I put that sermon down, and fell on my face weeping before a Holy God.  The following Sunday I repented before the church in the sermon I preached.  That’s a hard thing to do right there.  Remember, I’m hard headed, so God has to take extreme measures to get my attention and make me remember.  I’ve had many more lessons since then, and I know that there are many more to come.

My whole point in telling this one story is to show you that I’m not writing to you from a white tower of holiness.  I am a sinner whose walk with God has been anything but perfect.  I want you to see that prayer is so very important to your life, and I want you to see how foolish it is to neglect it.

Adam broke relationship with God in Garden of Eden.  From that point on God doesn’t have a continuous relationship with anyone.  Sure, there are sporadic incidents throughout the Old Testament where God speaks with someone, but it can hardly be called true fellowship.  The people would go to the temple every year on the Day of Atonement to have their sins covered, but only one man went into the presence of God, and he went with fear and trembling.  Nobody was allowed to have a relationship with God because the blood of goats and bulls would not reconcile sinners to a holy God.  It only covered their sins so that God did not crush them under his holy wrath.

One day, over two thousand years ago, God became a man and gave his life to reconcile us to himself.  I like the way Charles Haddon Spurgeon said it, “God himself, gave himself, to save us from himself.”  When Jesus Christ gave his life on Calvary many things happened.  The one thing that I want to emphasize in this blog is that Christ made a relationship with God possible again.  His last cry from the cross was “tetelestia”.  A Greek word that means it is finished.

At that moment the veil in the temple was ripped.  This veil was that barrier that kept men from going into the presence of God.  The only person that could go behind that veil was the high priest on the Day of Atonement.   Why did God rip that veil?  He ripped it to show us that the blood of Christ has made access to God available for anyone who would come covered in Christ’s blood.  That is a pretty amazing thing to think about.  Christ died so that we could once again have continuous fellowship with God.

He was beaten unmercifully.  His beard was ripped from his cheek.  Your spit soaked his face.  He was nailed to a tree.  All of this and more were to take the punishment, guilt, and shame of your sin, and cloth you in his very own righteousness.  No longer must we go into his presence with fear and trembling.  We can approach the throne of grace with boldness because of Christ.  That which the people of the Old Testament could not do, we can because of the blood of Christ.  What folly it would be for those who have been offered a relationship with the creator of the universe not to have time for him.  If an earthly king offered to have you over for dinner, you would fall all over yourself getting there, but the King of Kings has a hard time getting on our schedule.

God wants to have a relationship with you.  He gave his life so you could be his friend.  You spit in his face, you pluck the beard from his cheek, you stripped him naked, you nailed him to a tree, and yet, he still died for you.  I can’t believe he wants us to be his friend and have a relationship with him.  I can’t believe we would neglect having fellowship with a God like that.

In Christ,

Toby