A trip with the Senior Adults!

We recently went on a trip our Senior Adult group to the Holy Land Experience in Orland - it was a great trip and they are a great group! What an incredible opportunity...to be this close to Orlando and to be able to see a small scale of the Holy Land. While every part of the place was wonderful and the theatrics were amazing, the "coolest" part of the whole trip was a place called the Scriptorium - a place where our boys were able to see actual Bibles preached by Spurgeon and artifacts from the first churches of the puritans and the reformers. How incredible to spend time talking about how great men of God defended the Gospel and our rights to have a Bible in our home! It was truly a wonderful trip with a great group of people!

Just Words

I came across the following on Steve Camp’s post in response to Sinclair Ferguson’s message at the DG Conference on James 3 and the tongue.

Here is Sinclair's resolutions on the taming of the tongue taken from the book of James. They are powerful, convicting, humbling and encouraging. May they stir your heart as they have mine this very hour.
James 1:5 To ask God for wisdom to speak and with a single mind
James 1:9-10 To boast only in exaltation in Christ, & humiliation in world
James 1:13 To set a watch over my mouth
James 1:19 To be constantly quick to hear, slow to speak
James 2:1-4 To learn the gospel way of speaking to poor and the rich
James 2:12 To speak always in the consciousness of the final judgment
James 2:16 To never stand on anyone’s face with my words
James 3:14 To never claim as reality something I do not experience
James 4:1 To resist quarrelsome words in order to mortify a quarrelsome heart
James 4:11 To never speak evil of another
James 4:13 To never boast in what I will accomplish
James 4:15 To always speak as one subject to the providences of God
James 5:9 To never grumble, knowing that the Judge is at the door
James 5:12 To never allow anything but total integrity in my speech
James 5:13 To speak to God in prayer whenever I suffer
James 5:14 To sing praises to God whenever I am cheerful
James 5:14 To ask for the prayers of others when I am sick
James 5:15 To confess it freely whenever I have failed
James 5:15 To pray with and for one another when I am together with others
James 5:19 To speak words of restoration when I see another wander

I have seen God work and have heard from others how He is working in our fellowship in many of these areas. It is humbling and a pleasure to be a part of such a people of God striving to live out what God lays out in His Word. Within the past year, Madison Street Baptist has experienced a growth spurt in His truth and in living out His truth. The tongue can be so destructive. We all have seen and experienced the conflagration resulting from rebelling against His Word. Words! So much potential for edification or for destruction. Words! Words of prayer; Words of confession; Words of restoration; Words of boasting in the Lord; Words of praise; and avoiding Words that create divisiveness and hurt. We must speak Words that ultimately bring glory to our Savior!
I encourage each of us to challenge ourselves to hold fast to these truths. I encourage each of us to watch our words with one another. I encourage each of us to look around our fellowship and appreciate when fellow brothers and sisters live out these truths, and be patient when we don't. Jesus told us that He will hold us accountable for every word uttered here in this life when we face Him at His judgment seat. Madison Street Baptist - I LOVE YOU, and THANK OUR LORD and SAVIOR for YOU. May the LORD our God shine His face upon you, and give you peace. Amen.

In Response

A comment was sent in response to a recent post that I made about Election….a Biblical Word. The post was from “billy bob” and it reads: “IF YOU BELIEVE IN THE ELECTION DOCTRINE, THEN THERE IS NO NEED FOR THE BIBLE – IT WAS A WASTE, AND SO WAS JESUS DYING ON THE CROSS, AND…”he drops off from there... and then he challenged me to post his comment….so, here it is, along with my response.

I believe this line of thinking is based in ignorance to the Biblical and true doctrine of election. You see, no one who understands the slightest bit of doctrine for a word mentioned 43 times in the New Testament alone (by the way, free will is mentioned 0 times) would ever take it so casually. The Bible refers to us as “believers” 2 times in the New Testament, as “Christians” 1 time in the New Testament and as “the elect” 16 times in the New Testament. I think it is obvious that this is a Biblical word and thus, if we believe in election, it is that we ARE believing the Bible – and I count it all joy that Jesus would die on the cross for me….as a matter of fact, it says in 2 Thess. 2:13, (Paul said) “But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth” and we know that there is no salvation apart from Jesus’ death on the cross. Now, believing that God does the amazing work of drawing us to Him through regeneration of our hearts by the Holy Spirit, does not negate our necessity to witness from a heart of love and pray fervently for the lost. John MacArthur writes “Those statements defining God's sovereign choice of believers are not in the Bible to cause controversy, as if God's election means sinners don't make decisions. Election does not exclude human responsibility or the necessity of each person to respond to the gospel by faith. Jesus said, “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out” (John 6:37). While it may seem as though these are opposing viewpoints inside the same Bible, they are indeed two sides of the same coin….God creates within us a heart to desire Him and a consciousness of our sinful, doomed state. Only through this awakened/regenerated heart can we see our need for Him and His love for us…then we will come to Him in faith and repentance of who we are, to accept all of who He is and who He wants us to be. Hallelujah what a Savior!