Tomahawk Missionary Baptist Church

Enemies Without a Cause

In The Grace of Giving, Stephen Olford tells of a Baptist pastor during the American Revolution, Peter Miller, who lived in Ephrata, Pennsylvania, and enjoyed the friendship of George Washington. In Ephrata also lived Michael Wittman, an evil-minded sort who did all he could to oppose and humiliate the pastor. One day Michael Wittman was arrested for treason and sentenced to die. Peter Miller traveled seventy miles on foot to Philadelphia to plead for the life of the traitor. "No, Peter," General Washington said. "I cannot grant you the life of your friend." "My friend!" exclaimed the old preacher. "He's the bitterest enemy I have." "What?" cried Washington. "You've walked seventy miles to save the life of an enemy? That puts the matter in different light. I'll grant your pardon." And he did. Peter Miller took Michael Wittman back home to Ephrata--no longer an enemy but a friend. 

A reporter was interviewing an old man on his 100th birthday. "What are you most proud of?" he asked. "Well, " said the man, "I don't have an enemy in the world." "What a beautiful thought! How inspirational!" said the reporter. "Yep," added the centenarian, "outlived every last one of them."

Jesus said in Luke 6:35 “But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil.”

Notice that Jesus didn’t say to quit doing the good you are doing that makes your enemy your enemy.  He didn’t say to compromise the truth to make your enemy feel better about you.  He didn’t say to join your enemy in his evil.  He said that we would have enemies if we followed Him because mankind is against the truth of the word of God. 

There is only one truth and that is God’s truth.  We all have different opinions about many things.   Our opinion becomes evil when it opposed the truth of God.   That’s where God’s enemies come from. They oppose the truth of the gospel and the truth’s in the Bible. 

John 15:25  “But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause.”  While we must agree on the gospel and the basic truths of the Bible, you can’t possibly agree with everyone on everything else.  We have different likes in music, food, activities and on and on. 

You might have an enemy because they don’t like your favorite sports team.  You might have an enemy in the family because of jealousy.  Make sure your enemies are enemies without a cause.  Make sure you are not the jealous one or the one angry because someone is a Duke fan and not a UK fan.  Make sure those that hate you don’t hate you because you are hateful. 

Pastor Jack Ward is on facebook under the name “Jack Ward” and iTunes under “Tomahawk Missionary Baptist.”  Hear Pastor Jack each Sunday Morning at 10:30 Am on WSIP FM 98.9.    Check out the website tomahawkmbc.com



Sign Of The Times

Southern Baptists elected a president J. D. Greear, who has been endorsed by Steven Furdick, Tim Keller, Mark Dever and David Platt. These are all cultural Marxists. What is a Cultural Marxist? It is a revolutionary leftist idea that traditional culture and values are the source of oppression in the modern world. Traditional culture is to blame for the oppression of minorities, LGBT people, border crossers, the poor and animals. Traditional culture is responsible for gun violence and anything and everything else that is harmful in their view. They insist upon political correctness, and make perpetual attacks on the nuclear family, marriage, patriotism, Biblical truth and morality and law and order. They blame free enterprise, capitalism, white males, the constitution and conservative Christians for every cultural evil.

They have coined the term “woke.” What they are trying to do is wake people up to their cause of a cultural Marxism takeover of our nation. The idea comes from the Frankfurt School of Thought. I urge you to google that term some time.   You will be surprised, maybe even shocked that this is happening to our nation and it will all make sense to you then. 

The Devil knows that his time is short.  So, he is working his deadly schemes behind the scenes and in the heart of unconverted church leaders.  He has managed to plant unsaved people in church pulpits all across our land.  He has put unsaved preachers, pastors, seminary professors, and denominational leaders in every denomination in our country.  How else can you explain the promotion of Cultural Marxism, LGBT people as church leadership and the open acceptance of Islam by church leadership? We are in the day of “Reprobate Minds” described in Romans 1:28 with a “form of godliness, but denying the power thereof” of 2 Timothy 3:5

Cultural Marxism has been coming to my denomination for a long time but the Bible believing conservatives in the denomination held it off until now. I am very, very concerned that the world’s largest Christian denomination that long stood for basic Biblical truths and inerrancy of the word of God has finally begun it’s decent down the slippery slope of ecumenicalism, one world religion and paganism as prophesied in the word of God. Jesus said “be not deceived” three times in Matthew chapter 24 when talking about the signs of the times.   I’m afraid the Southern Baptist Convention has been sorely deceived and God is not pleased with us right now.

 The Flesh

John Mason Brown was a drama critic and speaker well known for his witty and informative lectures on theatrical topics. One of his first important appearances as a lecturer was at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Brown was pleased, but also rather nervous, and his nerves were not helped when he noticed by the light of the slide projector that someone was copying his every gesture. After a time he broke off his lecture and announced with great dignity that if anyone was not enjoying the talk, he was free to leave. Nobody did, and the mimicking continued. It was another 10 minutes before Brown realized that the mimic was his own shadow!

Was Brown's shadow real? Of course. Does a shadow have the power to control a person's actions? Of course not. It can only mimic us. But in Brown's case, his shadow did take control momentarily. Why? Because he allowed himself to be so distracted -- "addicted," if you will - by it that he completely forgot what he was supposed to be about. That's a pretty good description of the sin nature we carry within us as redeemed people. It can cause havoc, even though it has been made powerless by our identification with Christ.  Taken from “Today In The World” 1992

We cannot understand why we are so captivated by sin until we realize we still have a sinful nature called the “flesh.”  We won’t be shed of our “flesh” until we leave this world either through death or hopefully the soon rapture of the church.  .  It always wants it’s own way. It is very selfish. It wants and wants and wants.  The “flesh” is powerful it will figure out a way to get what it wants.  It has no concern whatsoever about your walk with Christ.  It wants no part of holiness and righteous living. 

Paul had to battle his flesh just like we all do.  Romans 3:18-19 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.    It is a battle.  But the best thing is you never have to lose to the “flesh.”  Why? Because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.  You already have the victory. 

1 Corinthians 15:57 But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.  Victory over our sin nature and the “flesh” is assured when we have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.  Your faith has declared you the winner over the “flesh.”  So just declare to your “flesh” …..I don’t need you…I just need and only trust in Jesus.  1 John 5:4-5 For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?

LONGEVITY

In 1972, NASA launched the exploratory space probe Pioneer 10. According to Leon Jaroff in Time, the satellite's primary mission was to reach Jupiter, photograph the planet and its moons, and beam data to earth about Jupiter's magnetic field, radiation belts, and atmosphere. Scientists regarded this as a bold plan, for at that time no earth satellite had ever gone beyond Mars, and they feared the asteroid belt would destroy the satellite before it could reach its target. But Pioneer 10 accomplished its mission and much, much more. Swinging past the giant planet in November 1973, Jupiter's immense gravity hurled Pioneer 10 at a higher rate of speed toward the edge of the solar system. At one billion miles from the sun, Pioneer 10 passed Saturn. At some two billion miles, it hurtled past Uranus; Neptune at nearly three billion miles; Pluto at almost four billion miles. By 1997, twenty-five years after its launch, Pioneer 10 was more than six billion miles from the sun.

And despite that immense distance, Pioneer 10 continued to beam back radio signals to scientists on Earth. "Perhaps most remarkable," writes Jaroff, "those signals emanate from an 8-watt transmitter, which radiates about as much power as a bedroom night light, and takes more than nine hours to reach Earth.'" The Little Satellite That Could was not qualified to do what it did. Engineers designed Pioneer 10 with a useful life of just three years. But it kept going and going. By simple longevity, its tiny 8-watt transmitter radio accomplished more than anyone thought possible.

So, it is when we offer ourselves to serve the Lord. God can work even through someone with 8-watt abilities. God cannot work, however, through someone who quits.   Two of my favorite passages on this.  Philippians 3:13-14 “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” Hebrews 12:1 “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.”

Don’t quit just rest and refresh and get going again.    Jesus said in Mark 6:31And he said unto them, Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while to come apart and rest.  If you don’t come apart you will come apart. 

Passing The Test

It is at this time of year we think of graduation ceremonies which by the way should all be over by now.  Congratulations to all of those who have passed the test and graduated.

Some of you are considering furthering your education.  If you think the SAT tests are tough, don't bother applying to the University of Al Azhar in Cairo, Egypt. Though the ancient school has been graduating students for more than a thousand years, the qualifying exam is far more challenging than any devised by the Educational Testing Service. Each year, every incoming freshman is required to recite the entire Koran from memory. The text of this Islamic holy book is nearly as long as the New Testament and takes three days to repeat. But every one of Al Azhar's 20,000 students has passed the test.

"What do you think you're doing?" the professor asked as the student stood in front of him about to put down his exam on one of the neatly stacked piles of exams (the professor had plenty of time to stack the mountain of papers while he waited) It was clear that the professor had waited only to give the student a hard time.

 "Turning in my exam," retorted the student confidently. "I'm afraid I have some bad news for you," the professor gloated, "Your exam is an hour late. You've failed it and, consequently, I'll see you next term when you repeat my course." The student smiled slyly and asked the professor "Do you know who I am?"   "What?" replied the professor gruffly, annoyed that the student showed no sign of emotion.   The student rephrased the question mockingly, "Do you know what my name is?" "No", snarled the professor.

 The student looked the professor dead in the eyes and said slowly, "I didn't think so", as he lifted up one of the stacks half way, shoved his test neatly into the center of the stack, let the stack fall burying his test in the middle, turned around, and walked casually out of the huge lecture hall. 

God gives us only one test for eternal life.  He only has one requirement to pass the test and to graduate with honors. 

1 John 5:12  “He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.”

Have you already passed God’s test? 

 Face To Face

The hymn writer Fanny Crosby gave us more than 6,000 gospel songs. Although blinded by an illness at the age of 6 weeks, she never became bitter. One time a preacher sympathetically remarked, "I think it is a great pity that the Master did not give you sight when He showered so many other gifts upon you." She replied quickly, "Do you know that if at birth I had been able to make one petition, it would have been that I should be born blind?" "Why?" asked the surprised clergyman. "Because when I get to heaven, the first face that shall ever gladden my sight will be that of my Savior!" One of Miss Crosby's hymns was so personal that for years she kept it to herself. 

Kenneth Osbeck, author of several books on hymnology, says its revelation to the public came about this way: "One day at the Bible conference in Northfield, Massachusetts, Miss Crosby was asked by D.L. Moody to give a personal testimony. At first she hesitated, then quietly rose and said, 'There is one hymn I have written which has never been published. I call it my soul's poem. Sometimes when I am troubled, I repeat it to myself, for it brings comfort to my heart.' She then recited while many wept, 'Someday the silver cord will break, and I no more as now shall sing; but oh, the joy when I shall wake within the palace of the King! And I shall see Him face to face, and tell the story--saved by grace!'" At the age of 95 Fanny Crosby passed into glory and saw the face of Jesus.

1 Corinthians 13:12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

There are pretty faces and there are faces not so pretty.  But everyone has a face.  The face of someone you love is unforgettable.  That face means so much to you.   A person’s face is that person to you.  It’s how you identify them.  It’s how you know them because you talk to the face.   You read their emotions through their face.  You kiss the face of your loved ones. 

Can you imagine seeing the face of Jesus!  It will be the most loving, kind, and beautiful of all faces! And He will see your face it will be a face to face meeting when we see Jesus.  You won’t be bashful, you won’t be ashamed, you won’t turn away and you won’t be afraid at all.  You’ve heard of the wonderful, glorious meeting of two people who have loved each other for many years and have talked to each other but have never seen each other face to face.  One was blind or they may have lived many miles apart for one reason or another. 

There is no meeting like the meeting we will have when we see Jesus face to face!  Remember the old hymn…Face to face with Christ my Savior.  Face to face what will it be?  When with rapture I behold Him, Jesus Christ who died for me.  Face to face I shall behold Him far beyond the starry sky.  Face to face in all His glory, I shall see Him by and by.

Will you see Him face to face?  You will if you have trusted Him and your Lord and Savior!

Who Is Your Star-Lord?

Major Dalton has this story…..”When the Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy meet for the first time, neither group knows the others allegiance. During the battle, Dr. Strange realizes that both teams may be fighting for the same cause.

Have you noticed that, in both the Marvel universe and ours, what we serve changes how we live. Allegiance direct actions. So Dr. Strange asks Star-Lord to declare his:

Doctor Strange: “Let me ask you this one time. What master do you serve?”

Star-Lord: ” What master do I serve? What am I supposed to say, Jesus?”

Well, the answer is actually, “Yes!” Sometimes life imitates art. Other times it is the other way around. Chris Pratt, who plays Star-Lord, appeared on the February issue of Vanity Fair. In the interview, Pratt shares the story about a night that changed his life. He was sitting outside a grocery store. He was waiting on some older friends who were inside purchasing beer for a party when a stranger walked up to him; “You going to go party. . .Drink and do drugs? Meet girls, fornication?” Pratt responded “I hope so.”

Let’s just own it. Everyone has a master. You, me, and a young Chris Pratt sitting outside a grocery store waiting on friends to by him beer. He was serving a master of pleasure and self. It is a relentless master, never satisfied, always hungry for more.

In the interview, Pratt explains what happened next:

It should’ve made me nervous but didn’t. I said, ‘Why are you asking?’ He said, ‘Jesus told me to talk to you . . .’ At that moment I was like, I think I have to go with this guy. He took me to church. Over the next few days I surprised my friends by declaring that I was going to change my life.

Ultimately, you may serve many different people, a boss, a coach, a parent. But you can only have one master. And this subjection will change how you do battle in this life. And if you want to change your life, change your master. Pratt became a follower of Jesus that night and that faith has been a principle part of his life, a very successful and fulfilled life.

So Jesus is Star-Lord’s master. Is he yours?”

Are You Prepared?

William A.V. Cecil owns the largest private home in America, the Biltmore mansion in Asheville, North Carolina. He used to go to the estate every day to make sure every detail was done right. When he left one area, employees would get on their two-way radios and warn people in the next area he was coming so they could be at their best.

Didn’t Jesus tell some stories that make the same point? It is best always to be ready when the king or master returns.

There's a Savior in yonder glory I have loved for many years,

He has cleared my guilty conscience and has banished all my fears.

He is coming in a moment in the twinkling of an eye,

And no time will be allotted for you to utter one good-bye.

No time to kiss the husband or embrace the loving wife,

If they are but united in the bonds of holy life.

Are you ready, Christian, ready, for shout and trump and voice?

Will His coming make you tremble or cause you to rejoice?

Are you walking, talking with Him daily, taking Him your care,

Do you live so close to heaven that a breath would waft you there? 

At the height of WWII, Protestant theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer was imprisoned for taking a stand against Hitler. Yet he continued to urge fellow believers to resist Nazi tyranny. A group of Christians, believing that Hitler was the Antichrist, asked Bonhoeffer, "Why do you expose yourself to all this danger? Jesus will return any day, and all your work and suffering will be for nothing." Bonhoeffer replied,  "If Jesus returns tomorrow, then tomorrow I'll rest from my labor. But today I have work to do. I must continue the struggle until it's finished." 

Matthew 24:44.  Be ye therefore ready, in an hour ye think not the Son of Man cometh.”

How many of us are not ready?  We are not serving the Lord.  We are not giving glory to His name.  Yet we expect to waltz right up to heaven when we leave this world.  I’m not saying that salvation is by any works on our part.  Salvation is a free gift of God’s matchless grace but our faithfulness to Him will be tested and tried by fire.  

How will your faithful Christian life stand up to the fiery test of our Lord Jesus?

Anger

In the spring of 1894, the Baltimore Orioles came to Boston to play a routine baseball game. But what happened that day was anything but routine.

The Orioles’ John McGraw got into a fight with the Boston third baseman. Within minutes all the players from both teams had joined in the brawl. The warfare quickly spread to the grandstands. Among the fans the conflict went from bad to worse. Someone set fire to the stands and the entire ballpark burned to the ground. Not only that, but the fire spread to 107 other Boston buildings as well.   All because John McGraw lost his temper.

The 18th-century British physician John Hunter, who was a pioneer in the field of surgery and served as surgeon to King George III, suffered from angina. Discovering that his attacks were often brought on by anger, Hunter lamented, “My life is at the mercy of any scoundrel who chooses to put me in a passion.” These words proved prophetic, for at a meeting of the board of St. George’s Hospital in London, Hunter got into a heated argument with other board members, walked out, and dropped dead in the next room.  John Hunter lost his temper, he lost his life.  Actually you don’t lose your temper…you find it!

“Be ye angry and sin not”  Ephesians 4:26  How can you be angry and sin not?  Anger never does us any good.  It is never constructive unless…..you get angry at sin!  You can get angry at innocent people that are being abused by others sinful actions.  Jesus got angry and cleared the Temple money changers out with a whip.  But Jesus never got angry about what anyone did or said about Him.  So next time don’t count to ten when you get angry about what someone does to you….don’t even count to one!  Don’t get angry at all when someone does YOU wrong.  

Dr David Seamands put it this way…..”Anger is a divinely implanted emotion. Closely allied to our instinct for right, it is designed to be used for constructive spiritual purposes only. For example the person who cannot feel anger at evil is a person who lacks enthusiasm for good. If you cannot hate wrong, it’s very questionable whether you really love righteousness.”

Moronic Minds

If you were a senator would you let a warped ideology that legitimizes decapitation, stonings, rape, domestic violence, female genital mutilation, execution of homosexual’s, it teaches children to kill Jews, has a record of horrible treatment of women and a number of other abhorrent human rights atrocities…….. Freely practice these things in your country? I don’t think so.  

Yet all of these appalling acts are frequent in one particular part of the world, the Islamic world. Radical Islamists will openly cry out “Allahu Akhbar,” before committing a terrorist attack, or any of the other human rights violations aforementioned, as if their God would be pleased with their barbaric actions.  They want to come to our nation and establish their barbarism your town.  And to the dismay of most of us they are defended by many American’s who are as warped as the barbarians they defend. 

Recently an American Senator called those who would were warning congress about Islam coming to America as “Islamaphobe” and “Anti-Islam.”  He actually believes along with other congressmen and activists, despite all the evidence to the contrary, the rhetoric that Islam is a religion of peace.  What has Islam ever done to facilitate peace anywhere in the world?  No Nobel prize winners.  It has not led any peace initiatives.  The word “freedom” to them means they are free to force all to submit to Shariah.  What is Shariah?  Go back to the first paragraph.  It is the law of Islam.  Islam even means “to submit.”    Yet many in our nation ignorantly support their cause. It’s Roman’s 1:28.  We been given over to “rebrobate minds” which actually means “moronic minds.”  Some of our lawmakers and activist’s are “morons.”  If you elected them what does make you? 

Of course, we love the Muslim people.  But we must call out any religion that does not glorify Jesus Christ.  We must correct any religion that preaches another Jesus as the apostle Paul warned us about.  The Jesus of false religions is just a good man and a story teller that got himself killed.  The Jesus Christ of the Bible is the Son of the living God!  He is the creator and sustainer of the universe.  He is King of Kings and Lord of Lord!.  He is the ONLY way to salvation.  In fact “there is none other name given under heaven whereby we must be saved.” 

God has turned us over to have moronic minds because we have not repented of our sins, we have not turned to the Lord Jesus Christ and we allow other religions to usurp the Lord Jesus Christ.  So God as He did with Israel, is allowing invaders to come into our land and infiltrate our churches and destroy our values that we hold so dear.  

Tolerance

I am amazed that we have become so afraid of offending someone in America.  But also, I think we have become very dumb.  We think we are doing the right thing morally about immigration and same-sex marriage but it quickly has become a disaster.  We excuse it by calling it tolerance and acceptance.  Tolerance is the dumbest word in the world today.  We don’t tolerate those who are intolerant to our views and we tolerate and accept only those who think like us.  

I don’t care what people think and say as long as you let me think and say what I want.  That’s tolerance.  But when you don’t like what I say and try to keep me from saying it…that’s intolerance.   What if someone says something bad about my loved ones?  I won’t stop them from saying it but I will certainly challenge the truth of their assumptions.   Why don’t Muslim’s challenge the assumptions of their critics if those assumptions are wrong? It’s because their critics are not wrong!  So, all Islam has left is to shut down truth so they can carry out their agenda without backlash!  We are dumb if we can’t figure that out.

But I’m not surprised because the Bible predicted that people would lose their sense of right and wrong in the last days.  Romans 1:28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient.   “Reprobate mind” means “moronic” minds in the Greek language.  I think of the Three Stooges when I hear that word. Moe called Larry and Curly “morons” because they were always trying to do something right but it always would up a disaster.  Why?  Because they truly were morons!   God has allowed us to become morons in our sense of right and wrong in these last days.  We accept anything except Biblical Christianity out of our attempt to take the moral high ground of intolerance so we become the frog in the boiling kettle. 

God is very intolerant in the Bible.  He won’t tolerate sin. He won’t tolerate those who will not follow His word.  Though He is not tolerant, He is very loving and patient with us.  Not willing that any should perish.  He is trying to change our minds and draw our hearts to come to salvation in Jesus Christ. 

We claim to be tolerant but the Bible does not ask us to be tolerant but firm, steadfast and faithful unto death to our Lord Jesus Christ.  No room for compromise and tolerance when Jesus is the only way to truth and eternal life.  We cannot water down this most important of all truth with tolerance toward other religions. We love them but we hate their religion.  We love people but hate their sin.  God loves you but hates your sin.  So He is not tolerant of your sin so that you might have victory over sin and death, hell and the grave.

Praise God He is not tolerant but gives us a clear message that “the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”  

Threats and Intimidation

Facebook is threatening to shut down a fast-growing conservative page for its views on immigration and other topics.  The Counsel for American Islamic Relations, (CAIR) Southern Poverty Law Center and ANTIFA made phone calls to five hotels in the Milwaukee area.  They used threats and intimidation in an attempt to stop these meetings from happening.  Christians ironically were to gather at these hotels to hear speakers warn Americans that free speech is in danger.  In danger from being shut down by these very groups that shut them down.  The hotels response to the intimidation and threats……as predicted ….shut the events down.  They shut down free speech in America! 

I don’t care what someone wants to say…..in America we have the right to say it!  We stand for the right of even our enemies to say what they will. 

Why are American’s giving in to these groups that want to silence decenters?  Isn’t this communism?  Clearly, these groups are out to shut down the world view of Bible believing Christians in America.  And Americans are giving in to intimidation and threats.  Isn’t this the criminalization of Christianity?

Where have the courageous people in America gone?  Americans have become obedient sheep. What happened to the bold, courageous who are willing to stand up for truth in our nation!  Oh yeah, since Roe Vs Wade and 35 million children aborted, we probably aborted those who would have grown up and fought this attempt to subvert the constitution of our nation! 

This country was built on courage and boldness and freedom of speech!  But this generation is laying down those freedoms out of fear of retaliation and fear of offending someone.  We must not give up or back down where the truth of God’s word is concerned.  God give us courage in the last days!

Remember when the apostle were threatened by the Romans and the Jews for speaking about Jesus in the book of Acts?  They were beaten, jailed and threatened but what was their response?  Acts 5:29  “We ought to obey God rather than men.”  

Shouldn’t Christians sound the warning that Islam is not equal to Christianity and that the Koran is not “holy?” Don’t we have to right to say publicly that Jesus is the only way to God?  And when we get intimidated and threatened by them what do we do?   What did the apostles do when they preached Jesus Christ and Him crucified as the only way to God?  They went to jail and later to the chopping block, the cross or the spear. 

Should politics be kept out of church?  Absolutely.  Should warnings about false teachers be kept out of church. Absolutely not!  Should the church sound warnings to everyone in America about false teachings that will lead millions to hell?  Of course…that’s our job.  We are to go into all the world and preach the gospel and TEACHING them to observe all things…the truth.   

"The Christian hope is the hope which has seen everything and endured everything, and has still not despaired, because it believes in God. The Christian hope is not hope in the human spirit, in human goodness, in human endurance, in human achievement; the Christian hope is hope in the power of God." --William Barclay, The Letter to the Romans.

The Christian gets stronger when the world gets farther from God.  At least we ought to get stronger!  As this world gets farther and sours from all accountability toward God to the Christian Jesus is more precious and heaven gets sweeter and sweeter.

The church today has seen everything and we have endured all these things.   We endure because Christ endured for us.  We keep on because Christ is sitting at the right hand of God cheering us on.  Finish strong is the goal of every athlete.  Everybody starts out the same in every sporting event.  In baseball, basketball and football. The score starts zero to zero. In racing everyone starts at the same place.  But as the athletic event unfolds the victory goes to those who finish stronger than the others.  It’s never how you start but how you finish in every sporting event.  So it is in life also.

I am concerned that our nation that started with such great trust in almighty God and now we are falling apart in a barrage of secular humanism where man has replaced God. I see our nation as growing weaker and weaker until we no longer exist.  We started out great in faith and we are finishing very weak toward God.

That great preacher Adrian Rogers said “The world is growing gloriously dark.”  The Bible said that evil men would wax worse and worse.  But we as Christians know that everything is not falling apart but falling into place. 

The blessed hope of Christ’s return for His church has become the “blasted hope.” I have been called “one of those stupid prophecy teachers” and that is the attitude of most of American’s today about Bible prophecy and future events.  Instead of the blessing promised for those who bless Israel and believe in her future in the coming kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, we have cursed Israel.  We are siding with their enemies who are the enemies of the Bible and Jesus Christ Himself.  God promised to curse those who curse Israel.  Has God cursed this nation for years of cursing Israel?  Yes I believe He has. 

My advice is for living is the same for the past, today and the future.  It’s from Hebrews 12:1-2 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,  Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Your only hope is Jesus!  My only hope is Jesus!  America’s only hope is Jesus!  This world’s only hope is Jesus! 

The Butterfly

"The Christian hope is the hope which has seen everything and endured everything, and has still not despaired, because it believes in God. The Christian hope is not hope in the human spirit, in human goodness, in human endurance, in human achievement; the Christian hope is hope in the power of God." --William Barclay, The Letter to the Romans

We have hope because Jesus is alive!  We have hope because the Bible is alive!  Why is the Bible alive?  Because of Bible prophecy.  The Bible’s verses contain 31,102 verses of which 8,397 are prophetic.  All of the prophecies about Jesus, about Israel returning to their land and the prophecies in Daniel about the weeks of years for Israel are on their way to being fulfilled or have already have been fulfilled.   Those prophecies about the end times are being fulfilled every day when we look at the days headlines.

But this article is not about prophecy, but it’s about the future.  You lose hope when you have no future.  You lose all desire to go on when you look at a bleak or non-existent future.  We humans live on hope.  We hope all the time.  We hope for tomorrow and we hope it will be better and it usually is better.   But when we are facing death or a terrible loss of some sort we lose all hope and we give up on life. 

But Jesus came to defeat our greatest foe, death.   Now we die all will die physically (unless we are raptured!).  We all dread death.  But for the Christian we have hope after death.  Death for the Christian is just shedding these physical bodies that hold us down and going into a glorious physical state that we cannot even imagine.     

It’s like a caterpillar.  How hopeless it seems.  It is a gross looking worm that is limited to crawling in the mud and mire.   It crawls up a tree one day and makes a cocoon and shortly is transformed in to a glorious beautiful butterfly.  The butterfly is free to fly and is experiencing things it could never have imagined while a worm.  It is beautiful and glorious.  It is still a worm that has been transformed forever into a new creature.

When we trust in Christ the Bible says we have become new creatures.  The Bible says we look now through a glass darkly but soon face to face.  The Bible says we cannot even imagine all the things God has prepared for those that love Him.   We have a hope in a glorious future.  Our hope is steadfast and sure.  We will be transformed into something beautiful and glorious. 

The next time you lose hope, look at the butterfly.  He was once that old saying “lower than a sow’s belly.”  Now look at him soar!

A Faithful Church Member

Polycarp, the bishop of Smyrna was brought before the Roman authorities and told to curse Christ and he would be released. He replied, "Eighty-six years have I served him, and he has done me no wrong: how then can I blaspheme my king who saved me?" The Roman officer replied, "Unless you change your mind, I will have you burnt." But Polycarp said, "You threaten a fire that burns for an hour, and after a while is quenched; for you are ignorant of the judgement to come and of everlasting punishment reserved for the ungodly. Do what you wish."

We should be thankful that we in America don’t face death for our faith as 90,000 Christians do each year in other nations of the world.  I just wonder how we would do if we did.  He is a letter a church member wrote to their pastor….

Dear Pastor:

You often stress attendance at worship as being very important for a Christian, but I think a person has a right to miss now and then. I think every person ought to be excused for the following reasons and the number of times indicated.

Christmas Holidays (the Sunday before & after) 2

New Years (the party lasted too long) 1

Easter (get away for the holidays) 2

July 4th (national holidays) 1

Labor Day (need to get away) 2

Memorial Day (visit hometown folk) 1

School closing (kids need a break) 1

School reopens (one last fling) 1

Family reunions (mine & wife’s) 3

Sleep late (stayed up too long Saturday night) 9

Deaths in family 2

Anniversary (second honeymoon) 1

Sickness (one per family member) 5

Business trip (a must) 1

Vacation (three to four weeks) 6

Bad weather (ice, snow, rain, clouds) 2

Ball games 2

Races 2

Unexpected company (can’t walk out) 2

Time changes (spring & fall) 2

Special on TV (superbowl, etc) 3

Pastor, that leaves two Sundays per year. So, you can count on us to be in church on the 4th Sunday in February and the 3rd Sunday in August unless we are providentially hindered.

Sincerely,

A Faithful Member.

Yep, I would say that kind of sums up most of the Christians in America.  Why would you die for Jesus when you won’t even make the time to go to church?

Hope

Alexander Solzhenitsyn was a prisoner in Russia.  He was on a program of hard labor and slow salvation.  One day he felt like giving up.  He felt his life could not make a difference.

He sat down on a bench knowing that when he was spotted by a guard he would be ordered back to work when he failed to respond the guard would bludgeon him to death. As he sat waiting, head down, he felt a presence. slowly he lifted his eyes. Next to him sat an old man with a wrinkled, utterly expressionless face. Hunched over, the old man drew a stick through the sand at Solzhenitsyn’s feet deliberately tracing out the sign of the cross.

As Solzhenitsyn stared at the rough outline his entire perspective shifted.

Yet in that moment, he knew that the hope of all mankind was represented by that simple cross - and through its power anything was possible.

Solzhenitisyn slowly got up, picked up his shovel and went back to work - not knowing that his writings on truth and freedom would one day enflame the whole world.

It is the cross that gives us hope when there is no hope.  Is there any hope beyond the cross?  Can we hope in government?  Government’s come and go. Can we hope in our health?  Health comes and goes.  Can we hope in our family?  Families come and go.  Can we hope in money?  We all know money comes but it mostly goes!  Can we hope in eternal life?  Yes, we can but only through the cross! 

It is through the cross that we have been redeemed and made righteous.  The cross shouts to us that our hope is not based on what we have done but what Christ has already accomplished for us on that cross.  That is our hope.  Not hope in ourselves but in the one who died for us and rose again.   He rose again for His glory and for the assurance that our hope in the cross is not in vain!

Jesus died for my sins and yours.  He died so that we might have hope.  The word “Hope” in the Bible does not mean crossing your fingers, grasping your lucky charm and maybe all things will be alright……..”hope” in the Bible almost always means “the steadfast assurance that everything is already okay.”
 

Nobody on earth can promise you that everything will be alright.  We can only hope that everything will be okay.  Only Jesus can keep the promise that everything will be okay.  Not only did Jesus make everything okay…He makes it above and beyond anything we can imagine or dream.   The old hymn says “Our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteous.”  The cross.  It’s the only hope we have. 

Valentine’s Day

The story is told of a woman involved in bitter fighting with her husband. Seeking professional help she was asked by the counselor, "Have you tried heaping coals of fire on his head?" to which she responded, “No, but I tried a skillet of hot grease!"

A wife woke up one morning and said, “Honey, I just had a dream that you bought me a new gold necklace. What do you think it means?” “I don’t know, but Valentine’s Day is coming soon. Tuesday, you’ll know,” He replied.

A few nights later, she again woke up after having a dream, “This time, I dreamed you gave me a pearl necklace. What do you think it means?”
“You’ll know Tuesday,” He replied.
The night before Valentine’s Day, she again woke up telling him about her dream, “This time I dreamed that you brought me a diamond necklace. What do you think it means?”
“Honey, be patient. "You’ll know tonight." he said.
That evening, the husband came home with a package and gave it to his wife. Delighted, she opened it--to find a book entitled, "The meaning of dreams."

And, when asked how best to make a marriage work, 10-year-old Ricky perceptively replied: “Tell your wife that she looks pretty even if she looks like a truck.”

I heard of a couple who, as they were paying for groceries in the check-out line, were discussing their soon to be 50th wedding anniversary, when the young cashier interjected by saying, "I can’t imagine being married to same man for 50 years!"
The wife wisely replied, teaching the young girl a lesson at the same time, "Well, Honey, don’t get married until you can ."

So many people in relationships try to change the other person. Reminds me of the young fiancé who, after learning that her husband to be didn’t believe like she did, cried to her mother saying, “Mom, what should I do? How can I change his thinking? He says he doesn’t believe in hell?” The Mother said, “Honey, that’s alright, you marry him and both of us will make a believer out of him”...

A husband is advised by a psychiatrist to assert himself. "You don’t have to let your wife henpeck you. Go home and show her you’re the boss." The husband takes the doctor’s advice. He rushes home, slams the door, shakes his fist in his wife’s face, and growls, "From now on, you’re taking orders from me. I want my supper right now, and when you get it on the table, go upstairs, and lay out my best clothes. Tonight, I’m going out with the boys, and you are going to stay at home where you belong. And another thing, guess who’s going to comb my hair, give me a shave, and tie my necktie?"
His wife says calmly, "The undertaker."

The greatest Valentine: For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosover believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16

I Could Live Forever If It Were Not For Death

King Philip of Macedon charged one of his slaves with a unique responsibility. The King instructed his servant to awaken him every morning with these words: "Sire, remember you must die."

That is true of all of us. I want us to think about this subject of death today. Dwight L. Moody said, "If I can get a man to think seriously about death for five minutes, I can get him saved." I know we don't like to think about death. We don't like to talk about death, and we don't like to hear about death. There are some of you who wouldn't have come this morning if you had known that I was going to talk about death. It is a morbid subject that most of us avoid at all cost.

We are like the man I heard about one time who owned a cat named Albert. This man was very attached to his cat, he loved him. Well he had to go away on a business trip, and he lived with this cat, his mother, and his brother. Well he told his brother to take care of the cat, at all cost, and let nothing happen to it; that he would be calling everyday to check to see how everyone was doing, especially the cat. Well the next day this man called home and said, "John, how are things going?" He said, "Well, Albert is dead." The brother was shocked, and extremely upset. He said, "What happened?" He said, "Well, the cat got on the roof and jumped and fell to his death." The brother was livid. He said, "How insensitive can you be. You know how much I loved that cat. How could you just tell me all of a sudden he's dead?" The brother said, "Well what would you have had me do?" He said, "Let me tell you what would have been so much better." He said, "For example, I called today and you could have said, 'Charlie, the cat's on the roof. Now don't worry, everything will be fine. I've called the Fire Department. The Fire Department is on their way, and everything should work out alright, and I'll let you know how things are going tomorrow.'" Then when I call the next day you could have said, "Charlie, I have some bad news for you. The cat jumped off of the roof while the Fire Department was on their way, but don't worry we have taken the cat to the finest veterinarian in these parts. He is undergoing emergency surgery right now, and we expect the cat to be fine. I'll let you know how the cat is doing tomorrow." Then he said, "When I call back the next day you could have said, 'Charlie, the cat's not doing well at all. The cat is in a coma. The doctor's doing everything possible to save his life. Call me tomorrow and I'll let you know how the cat is doing.'" Then when I call back the next day you could have said, "Charlie, we did everything possible for your cat, but the cat died, and I'm so sorry." He said, "Now do you see how much more sensitive that is?" The brother said, "Well, I guess I do." He said, "By the way, how is mother doing?" He said, " Well, uh, she's on the roof."

That is the way we are toward death. We are like the man who said, "I hate death; in fact, I could live forever without it." But the fact is, we can't live with it, and we can't live without it. Every person has an appointment with death. Some sooner, some later, but all ultimately. Hebrews 9:27 “For it is appointed unto man once to die and then the judgment.“ There is only one way out and that is to accept Jesus Christ who died that you might live and overcame death by raising from the tomb three days later. John 14:19 “….Because I live, you shall live also.“ John 17:3 says “this is life eternal that I may know thee.“ 2 Timothy 1:12 “…For I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.“ Do you really know Him?

The Perfect Book

I want you to understand that the Bible is not just any book. It is not an ordinary book. It is THE BOOK! It is the Word of God! It is the Holy Writings! Because it is the Word and Book of God it is a perfect book. It is a book without error, flaw, or contradiction. Those who claim the Bible is full of mistakes, errors, discrepancies, and contradictions only reveal their spiritual ignorance and stupidity. Psalm 19:7 says, "The law of the Lord is perfect."

Throughout history there have been printing mistakes found in copies and publications of the Bible. An 1832 edition had Rebekah leaving her tent to meet Isaac with a group of "camel's" rather than "damsels." An 1810 version read, "If any man come to me, and hate not ... his wife (instead of "life"), he cannot be my disciple." The first English Bible printed in Ireland in 1716 encouraged its readers to "sin on more" rather than "sin no more." A version in 1631 had the seventh commandment saying "Thou shalt commit adultery" instead of "Thou shalt not commit adultery." A similar version in 1653 declared, "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall inherit the kingdom of God." An early American edition had the "Parable of the Vinegar" instead of the "Parable of the Vineyard." We may occasionally find a printing mistake in the Bible, but the Bible itself in the origianal texts is without error or mistake. It is a perfect book.

Because the Bible is The Book and the Word of God, it is also a permanent book. We read in Psalm 119:160, "Thy word is true from the beginning: and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth for ever." We also read in Psalm 119:89, "For ever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven." The nature of the Bible is eternal; therefore it will last for eternity.

Samuel Morris declared, "Men may spurn the Bible, they may burn it; they may abuse it, they may misuse it; they may seek to disprove it with their lexicons, their mathematics, their philosophies, their theories, their chemical formulas, by their spades and their prehistoric bones, but when they have said their final words, they will lie down in death like those who have gone on before them and some preacher of the simple gospel of Christ will be called upon to stand over the casket and read from its sacred pages, and while their bodies are crumbling back to the dust from whence they came, the Bible will continue on its Heaven-gladdening, life-purifying, sin-smiting, and soul-saving way."

The Bible is a book for which we should have great respect and reverence. To put it another way, it is a book that ought to have a very important place in our life. Our respect and reverence for the Bible shows our love for the Bible.

Living With Purpose

Boast not thyself of tomorrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth

Proverbs 27:1.

Come now, ye that say, today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain; whereas ye know not what shall be on the next day. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away

James 4:13-14.

I read a story years ago of a country that was overthrown by a military general. He had the king and the queen beheaded, and the young prince, the only son, was brought before him to decide his fate. He knew of an elderly woman, a very wicked woman, who lived in the city. And rather than taking the life of the prince, he decided to let this woman have custody of this young prince, and ordered her to turn him into the most vile, wicked young man she possibly could.

But when she began the very first day trying to teach him the language of the street, she began to try to coerce him to drink the liquor that she had in the house. She began to try to influence him to read the dirty literature that she had lying around. She tried every method she could to get this young man to violate the moral standard which he had been reared. But this young prince finally looked at this old woman and said, "You may beat me, you may even kill me, but I am a prince, a child of the king, and I will never become like you." That is to be our attitude as children of God, we are to be holy, without compromise, standing firm for the one we represent, live with purpose, the purpose of pleasing the Lord Jesus Christ our King

I heard about a country couple one time who decided to go into the big city and see all of the attractions there. And they came upon the country fair. Well they only had a few dollars and they went into the fair and spent just about all of their money on some trinkets, gadgets, etc. They had 15 cents left and the old man saw a carrousel, a merry-go-round. He wanted to ride it, but his wife didn't want him to. But he decided he would anyway. So he paid his 15 cents, which was all the money he had left he got on that merry-go-round. He went round and round and round and round. It stopped and he got off his wife said, "Now just look at you. Look at what you've done. You have spent all of our money. You got on this merry-go-round. You went round and round and round. You got off exactly where you got on and you ain't been nowhere."

That is exactly how the vast majority of people all over this world are living. Life for them is a merry-go-round. They're going to get off where they got on without ever having been anywhere. Listen, without Jesus there is no purpose in life. But with Jesus there is no life without purpose. I am so glad to know that my life is going to mean more in eternity than what I made, what I spent, what I bought, and what I left. I am so glad to know that I can, and I am, laying up treasures in heaven. That I can have an eternal impact in the lives of others, and that I am living with purpose, His purpose. www.tomahawkmbc.com