Your Labor is Not in Vain

Whenever a Christian is busy serving God, it's very easy to convince yourself that what you are doing really isn't making any difference. When you start thinking this way, you need to remind yourself of the promise found in 1 Corinthians 15:58.

"Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord."

Like many promises found in the Bible, there is a condition. Your labour will not be in vain "in the Lord." If you are trying to serve God in the power of your flesh, you will not make an eternal difference. However, if you serve with God's power and blessing on your life, you can claim the promise of this verse. You may not see the results you wanted or thought you might see, but God promises your labour will not be in vain. In other words, your labour will not be empty or pointless. There will be fruit. God promises.

Years ago, a young man named Shawn was attending Bible college. He was coming home for one weekend and his pastor asked him to preach for the Sunday morning service. Shawn immediately got excited about the opportunity. You see, he had many unsaved relatives living in and around his hometown where the church was. He worked and prayed. God blessed his efforts tremendously. Many family members were in attendance that Sunday morning including his parents, brothers and sisters, aunts, uncles and cousins. All of them were unsaved.

Shawn stood and preached a powerful Gospel message from John 3. The title of the message was, "Ye Must Be Born Again." The desire of his heart was obvious. He desperately wanted his family members to get saved. When the sermon was over and the invitation was given, not a single one of his relatives responded to the message of Christ. Every one of them walked out of church that day as lost as when they came in. Understandably, Shawn left the service very discouraged.

What Shawn didn't know was that there was a 16 year old boy sitting on the front row in church that morning. That was the first time that boy had ever attended a Bible preaching church and it was the first time he ever heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ. When the invitation was given that morning, that 16 year old boy left his chair to pray at the steps to the platform along with many others. The boy didn't even really know what he was praying. He just knew he needed what that young preacher was just talking about! A deacon from the church came and put his arm around the young man and asked him if he could pray with him. They went back to the pastor's office and a few minutes later, the boy received Jesus Christ as his Saviour.

The young man went on to get involved with the youth group. A few months later, God called the boy to preach. When he was 19, he went off to Bible college himself to train for the ministry. After graduation, God moved him to pastor a church in the Bay Area of California for 3 years. Recently, God moved that man and his family to Sherwood, OR to serve in a local church. Currently, that man is typing this blog post. That 16 year old boy was me!

Shawn preached that message from John 3 on June 9th, 1996 at Florence Baptist Church in Florence, MT. Even though he didn't see the results he wanted to see from his efforts, his labour was not in vain. God kept His promise. I'm eternally grateful for the fact that Shawn was faithful to preach God's Word. I'm glad he laboured.

Even when you don't see fruit for your labour, remember the promise of God. Your labour is not in vain in the Lord.

Computer Crash!

It has been a few weeks since I have posted a new entry on this blog. One of those weeks was not by choice. Let me give you a little piece of advice: don't download a duplicate file finder and let it do its thing without carefully checking which files it's going to delete. I made that mistake and the program proceeded to delete files that were vital to the livlihood of the Microsoft operating system. My computer was in the hands of the Geek Squad for 5 days.

My computer is back up and running great. Not a whole lot has happened in the last week or so. Our church is looking forward to moving in to our brand new building in just a few weeks. You can check out the progress at our website. God bless and thanks for reading!

Coffee Creek Baptist Church

Every Saturday night, about a dozen servants of God from Timberline Baptist Church hold a Bible preaching service at the Coffee Creek Correctional Facility, a women's prison in Wilsonville, OR. We affectionately refer to the weekly service as Coffee Creek Baptist Church. Of course, it's not an independent church. The Lord's Supper and baptisms take place under the authority of TBC. The ladies like having their own "church."

I got involved with this ministry the first Saturday after my family moved to Oregon. We like to warn prospective volunteers before they come to the service for the first time. The warning isn't about the danger of a riot or the possibility of a hostage situation. The warning is this: if you come, you'll be hooked. One visit to the service and you'll want to attend again and again.

I've heard of many churches that have prison ministries. I've never heard of one like this. A handful of volunteers started this ministry about 5 years ago. I think they started with less than 15 ladies in the first service. We now have over 100 ladies in attendance every week. The service is very exciting. The ladies are tremendously responsive to God's Word. Souls are saved every week. Many spend time in prayer during the invitation. The ladies greatly appreciate our willingness to come and hold the service. They love us and it's impossible not to love them back. There are people from every walk of life attending the services. The ages range from 18 to over 80. Pick a nationality and we have it.

When Saturday night comes around, I'm usually tired. The rest of the volunteers are as well. However, when we're done with the service, our hearts are always lifted. Please pray for the ladies at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility. God is doing an unusual and powerful work in that place. It's awesome to be a part of it.

Suing God

This is very interesting. I don't even really know what to say. At least the man believes in God. Of course, my belief in God would make suing Him the last thing I'd ever do.

Bitterness

Bitterness is something that can destroy our lives very quickly. The Bible gives a warning about bitterness in Hebrews 12:15, "Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled..."

The analogy of the root God uses here is a great one (all of God's analogy's are great ones). He describes bitterness as a root that springs up in our life. Bitterness starts on the inside. Like a seed in the ground, you can't see bitterness in its early stages. At first, it's possible nobody around you will be able to tell what's going on in your heart. However, that seed begins to grow and it breaks through the ground and everybody sees it.

When we think of bitterness, we almost always think of a time in our lives when someone hurt us. Bitterness is certainly a possibility when someone hurts us. I've heard Hebrews 12:5 quoted many times in a message when the preacher was warning us about the dangers of bitterness.

Just like any other powerful verse of Scripture, it's wise to take the verse in context. Like I said, bitterness can easily creep into our hearts when another person hurts us. However, that is not the context of Hebrews 12:5.

Notice these other verses in Hebrews 12...

Vs. 5, "And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him..."

Vs. 11, "Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby."

The true context of Hebrews 12:5 is the chastening of the Lord. The author of Hebrews is warning us of the greatest kind of bitterness...bitterness towards God Himself. When we sin, God loves us enough to punish us. Hebrews 12:6, "For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth." Through His chastening in our lives, He is trying to show us the dangers of our sin and how badly He wants a close fellowship with us. Bitterness towards other people is obviously very dangerous. However, bitterness towards God is even more dangerous. When God chastens you, make sure you don't get bitter about whatever consequences you are facing. Remember that God is simply proving His love towards you with His actions.

University of Vermont Adds 'Gender Neutral' Bathrooms

When I read this article, I didn't know whether to scream or cry. The University of Vermont has added, as a part of recent renovations, bathrooms for transgendered individuals. Let me start out by saying that the blending of the sexes in any society is a sin against our Creator. (He is your Creator, whether you want to acknowledge it or not.) It is also a tremendous mistake when branches of the government (a state college) or other parts of society begin to accommodate such behavior.

My favorite part of the story is the quote from Annie Stevens. She is the assistant vice president for student and campus life at UVM. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that she's a liberal. I know it's a reach, but I think I nailed this one.

Here is her brilliant statement: "It's about inclusivity and accessibility and the importance of meeting all people's needs, not just a few."

Keep in mind, we're talking about the need for 'gender neutral' bathrooms, not just bathrooms for men and women. Here's my question: What percentage of society is transgender? Is it 1%? 2%? I think 5% would be a ridiculously high estimation. In any case, that means at least 95% of the American population is NOT transgender. Yet Ms. Stevens believes that having separate bathrooms for men and women only meets the needs of "a few." Brilliant.

I am in awe of the lack of intelligence among those whose task it is to offer "higher education."

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Addition:

I was discussing this article with my mom and she made a great point. Ms. Stevens implied that these 'gender neutral' bathrooms were a necessity to "meeting all people's needs." My mom pointed out that having male and female bathrooms actually does meet all people's needs. Everyone is either male or female...even if they haven't figured out which one they are.

Great Post on Justification vs. Sanctification

Pastor McEntire is the author of a blog entitled Fully Persuaded Baptist. I read this blog on a regular basis. Pastor McEntire writes in a way that is extremely understandable, thorough and Biblical. He recently posted an article on the difference between the doctrines of justification and sanctification. He also comments on how these doctrines are misrepresented in mainline Christianity today. You can find this post here. Take a moment to read it. You will be edified and challenged.

A Fundamental Difference

I just read an article on Yahoo news about CNN's upcoming six-part documentary on religious fundamentalists. The documentary covers Jews, Muslims and Christians. Obviously, you can't stereotype each group by the examples studied in the documentary, but you probably will get an idea of the differences.

Personally, I wouldn't put a whole lot of stock in a CNN documentary on religion. The lady overseeing the project is apparently a well known and well respected journalist. Her name is Christiane Amanpour.

You might ask why I doubt the integrity of this documentary. The answer lies in a question from Amanpour referred to in the aforementioned Yahoo news article. When interviewing a fundamental Christian, she noted that young ladies received encouragement to wear long dresses. She then asked how they were any different from the Taliban. (Of course, strict Muslims have strong dress codes for women.)

You have no idea how bad I wish Amanpour would have asked me that question. Here is the answer: Fundamental Christians don't send suicide bombers to kill masses of innocent people.

I totally understand how she could miss that one. Anyway, that kind of unintelligent question is the reason for my lack of faith in this documentary.

No Accountability

If you follow sports at all, then you've probably heard about NBA referee Tim Donaghy. He has plead guilty to gambling on and fixing NBA games. Of course, this kind of activity totally compromises the integrity of the sport. Fans who watch the game simply assume they are watching two teams play as hard as they can with the same rules applying to everyone on the court. The team that plays better wins if everything is on the level. This scandal puts doubts in the minds of fans about how level the playing field really is.

The whole situation is sickening to me as a basketball fan. However, I read a statement from Donaghy on Foxsports.com that sickened me more. He said, "I'm very sorry about what happened..." At first glance that sounds good. He's sorry. He's contrite. He wishes he never did what he did. I don't think so. If he was really sorry, he would have said, "I'm sorry for what I did." This kind of attitude is prevalent in our society. There is no accountability for his actions.

I'm sorry for what happened too, but he should be sorry on a different level. He was the one who was gambling! He was the one who was fixing games! I know that in the scope of eternity, this situation has almost no bearing at all. I just view it as a microcosm of our society.

What's Wrong With This Picture?

I recently started a new job here in Oregon and one of my responsibilities is to drive to construction sites all over the west side of Portland to pick up concrete samples. While driving through Beaverton today, I drove past this sign in front of a "church." When I saw it, I had to pull over to take a picture.

Your eyes are not playing tricks on you. It is a church made of Lutherans and Catholics...and they are proud of it! I don't agree with every thing Luther taught, but I have a feeling he'd roll over in his grave if he knew about this "church." Notice that they have a "Father" and a "Pastor."

You can find their website here. Here is an excerpt from their homepage: "Mission of the Atonement is a community of Roman Catholics and Lutherans. We are a single community of two traditions, with each maintaining its own identity. We respect our two traditions, while at the same time we celebrate our unity in Christ." What these people don't understand is that you can't sacrifice truth for unity. Since neither Lutherans or Catholics preach truth, I guess it's easy to see how they'd decide to just hold hands. You can also find information about a "covenant" they made with a local Islamic mosque after 9-11. It all sounds good on the surface, but understanding Bible teaching regarding end times and the False Prophet really makes this whole situation a little scary.