(John Vann)

Serve even when discouraged

I want to talk a little bit today about 1 Kings chapter 19. I want to talk a little bit about the prophet Elijah. Elijah’s mission was to rid Syria and Israel of the worship of Baal. Elijah first comes into the story when he appears suddenly one day and tells king Ahab that it would not rain anymore because of the evil that the people were doing. he proclaimed that through God there would be a great drought. Elijah trusted God and he went where God told him to go, which was to live among the people that wanted to kill him.

God sent him to live with a widow and her son and God provided them with food when they were in desperate need.
He and the widow both trusted that God would provide, and God did. But, one day the widow’s son fell ill and died . Through God, Elijah raised the young man from the dead. From there, Elijah went to Mount Carmel to challenge the profits of Baal.
There God showed his power and with Elijah as his spokesperson,Baal was decisively defeated and 850 profits of Baal and Astera were killed.

It had been victory after victory for Elijah, but then something bad happened. He started doubting himself, he started feeling sorry for himself, he became depressed and discouraged, and all it took was someone telling him that the King and Queen were out to kill him. That’s all it took to make him want to give up. Why? Why would this news come as some surprise to him? After all the king had been looking to kill him for three years now. Elijah should’ve known that God who had been providing for him, was not going to just abandon him. So what happened? The same thing that happens to us all. I’ve said it a lot of times that you take a little problem and you add another little problem to it and then another and then another, and all those little problems become one great big monster of a problem. You become overwhelmed and it makes you want to give up.

My memory takes me back to the year 2020 when there was great talk about a great sickness going around called Covid. Then came the year 2021 and in January my dad got sick and was hospitalized. The end of January came with the worst cold spell that we had had for years. We had no electricity we had no water and everyone in my family got Covid at the same time and my dad got put into hospice. February came with dad passing away and during this time we were going through all sorts of shutdowns and shortages that were due to the Covid epidemic.

Among the shutdowns were churches. Our church ceased all activities except for having Facebook church on Sunday morning. It was really kind of depressing, but we did what we could do under the conditions. Then a couple of months later we went back to our regular church services, but it was not quite the same. Sickness, death, and Covid had taken his toll on our attendance. There was not hardly anyone here on Sunday night or Wednesday night or for the fourth Sunday singing. We had not had choir practice since the first of the year. Our church did not give up. It would be easy to side with some of the other churches, the ones who don’t have Wednesday night church. Some don’t even have Sunday night church.

Then around June 2021, I was diagnosed with melanoma. As you can see, it had been a pretty rough year and it would be awfully easy to just give up. I remember thinking that I was going to die and I had excepted it and was sort of looking forward to it. I was tired and disheartened, just like Elijah. But after my surgery, I realize that I wasn’t going to die quite yet. I realized that God still had something for me to do and it wasn’t to just be out there in the world, no quite the contrary. He allowed me to live in order to serve him. I’m here to tell you that’s why we’re all allowed to live. That is the very purpose we were born for. To serve God whenever, however, and as often as we can. Friends, the church doors are open more than just on Sunday morning, and there’s more to serving God then just coming to church. My mom used to say don’t look for something unless you want to find it. So, if you don’t want to find Jesus, don’t look for him. If you don’t want to serve Jesus, don’t look for ways to serve him. If you’re like Elijah and you’re tired and downtrodden and you’re ready to give up, just remember what Brother Jerry used to say ”if you’re carrying your troubles around like it’s a 50 pound sack of potatoes slung over your shoulder and it’s weighing you down and you’re carrying them with you everywhere you go. Then come up to this altar get down on your knees and give that burden to Jesus. Don’t get up from your pew, throw that sack of potatoes over your shoulder and take it home with you.”

Today, sickness and death is still taking a toll on our church attendance. We no longer have choir practice. Now instead of fourth Sunday we have fifth Sunday singing. For a while, we had three or four people that would come up in the choir and would sing on Sunday morning, but we don’t even have that anymore. I still remember when we used to do choir specials and I miss those times.
I realize that there are some things that are beyond our control.

It’s time that we acknowledge that God is in control. If we strive to do his will, then we will be blessed. Not with worldly blessings, but with Godly blessings. Always be faithful and never doubt God, God is always there for you. Never doubt yourself for you are God‘s creation and he loves you. That alone should bring great joy to your life in troubled times.

Nothing is impossible with God.

(John Sanders)

I have a confession to make.  When I read or study the Bible (notice I made a distinction between reading and studying), I often times skip through the “begats” and “begots”.  I understand they are important or God wouldn’t have put them there, but for me, there’s not much a much better way to put me to sleep than start reading those.  I barely know who my own cousins are, much less a whole genealogy.  Shocking, I know.

Imagine my surprise then, when I figured out something really cool regarding the genealogy lists in the new testament. 

One of the lists is in Matthew 1 verses 1 through 17 and it is a Jewish geneology.  It goes from Abraham down through the legal line to Jesus.  Matthew structures this genealogy into three distinct periods of fourteen generations each: from Abraham to David, from David to the Babylonian exile, and from the exile to Christ. This tripartite arrangement suggests Matthew deliberately organized the genealogy to emphasize theological significance rather than merely recording historical succession. By anchoring Jesus’s lineage to Abraham—the father of the covenant people—and to David—the ideal king of Israel—Matthew frames Jesus within the grand narrative of God’s promises to Israel.  This is the legal line.

There is another in Luke starting at Chapter 3 verses 23-38.  The genealogy list in Luke speaks of the humanity of Christ from Adam.  From David, he doesn’t go through the royal line of Solomon, he instead goes through Nathan down to Mary.  This is the bloodline.

Now here is the cool thing I found.  A third genealogy that I had not recognized before.  The Gospel of John, chapter 1 verses 1-4.  This genealogy of Christ describes His pre-existence as a member of the Godhead:

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The same was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

And later in the gospel of John, Jesus extends his genealogy to us! Listen to this chapter 17 verses 20-23

20 “I pray for these followers, but I am also praying for all those who will believe in me because of their teaching. 21 Father, I pray that they can be one. As you are in me and I am in you, I pray that they can also be one in us. Then the world will believe that you sent me. 22 I have given these people the glory that you gave me so that they can be one, just as you and I are one. 23 I will be in them and you will be in me so that they will be completely one. Then the world will know that you sent me and that you loved them just as much as you loved me.

Now I can’t promise that I won’t skip over those “begats” and “begots” in the future.  I can’t promise not to fall asleep when I am reading them.  But I’m really happy to know that I am part of that through Jesus Christ!

(John Vann)

What does God want me to do ?

Have you ever asked yourself this question perhaps you were faced with making a big decision and you really wanted to do what God would have you to do.
Maybe you were searching for a closer relationship with God and you thought maybe there were some sort of steps you have to take or rules you have to follow in order to find him. Maybe you’re asking yourself what does God wants you to do because you can’t seem to find any purpose or meaning in your life. Maybe you suspect that God has something else that he wants you to be doing. Whatever the reason is that you were asking yourself this question the Bible has the answer for you.
Maybe you should be asking yourself the question what does God want me to be?Other than what does God want me to do?
First of all, we are human beings. We are not human doings.
We were created in God‘s image as human beings to communicate and to work in harmony with God. Doing is a result of being. Let me explain it to you this way. Birds sing because they are birds they do not sing in order to become birds. They sing they fly and they feather their nest because they are birds.
So, what God really wants from our doings is to have our doings come from our beings.What I’m saying is that because you are a Christian,what you do should stem from the fact that you are a Christian. God doesn’t want you to begrudgingly do something for him.He wants everything that you do for him to come from your heart. Whatever we do for God must come up from a heart that is overflowing with love, worship for God and a complete surrender to his will.
First of all, God wants you to accept his offer of salvation by putting your faith at his son Jesus.
After you accept Jesus as your savior, God will send the Holy Spirit to do the job of transforming you to become more like him. He wants you to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
He tells all about it in the book of Malachi when the people ask the question “what does God want from us?”Well, actually the question they asked was “will the Lord be pleased with thousands of Rams and 10,000 rivers of oil.”
Malachi answer them and said “he has shown you, oh mortal what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy, and to work humbly with our God.”
When Jesus was asked the question which commandment of the law was greatest or other words, what does God want from us the most? Jesus replied, “love the Lord, your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind and all your strength.”Then he said “secondly, love your Neighbor as yourself.”
So what God really wants from us is that everything we do should be motivated by these two Commandments. If you are motivated by anything else, it is a fleshly effort and in Romans 8:8 it says that those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
People like to complicate things, tacking on rules and man-made laws. This just brings about confusion and frustration and it kills the joy of following Christ. God wants us to love him with all of our hearts, and let our obedience stem from our heartfelt desire to be pleasing in his site.
David understood exactly what God wanted when he prayed “you do not delight in sacrifice, you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. My sacrifice, oh God, is a broken spirit, a broken and contract heart you, God will not despise.”
So let’s walk humbly with our God and seek his blessings. And let’s seek his approval on our life decisions. God does not want to merely be part of our lives. He wants our lives to be completely devoted to Him.
I think there could be no better answer to the question”What does God want us to do?”than what Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:33.
In Matthew 6:33 Jesus says”But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”
Jesus said “you will know the tree by the fruit that it produces.”
So you see, we do not serve God to become Christians we serve God because we are Christians.

(John Vann)

The first commandment

Exodus 20:1-6” And God spake all these words, saying, I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.  Thou shalt have no other gods before me.  Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;  And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.”

So what are other gods? Other gods can be anything that can deemed to be more important to us than our one true God.It can be a possession,it can be anything that we focus our desires upon.It can be our goals or it can even be another person.It can be anything that we become infatuated with.It is where we focus most of our attention.Because where our thoughts are there also is our hearts.

So you should have no other gods before me means we must put God first in our lives. He is more important than anything or anyone else. God loves us deeply, so we must also love him with all of our hearts. 

Jesus quoted Deuteronomy 6:5 when he said. “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.”

This was a summarization of the first Commandment. Jesus set the example in putting God first. When Jesus was in the wilderness fasting for 40 days, he responded to Satan‘s Temptations by saying “man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”  Living by the word of God involves having a commitment to always live our lives in accordance to what God teaches us in the Bible.  We  are not to lean on our own understanding. Jesus then told Satan “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God” because after all, God is not some sort of a genie in a bottle that does our bidding for us.  Then Jesus told Satan, ”you should worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.”  Jesus later said, you cannot serve God and also serve materialism.  He said our focus and priority must be to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. The first Commandment is a reminder to focus on the power and majesty of our creator.The one and only true God.

God’s power was on display when he appeared to the Israelites from the top of Mount Sinai In Exodus 20:18  “And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off.”

In verse 20 “Moses said unto the people, Fear not: for God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not.”  King Solomon said “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.”  Jesus told his disciples do not fear those who can kill the body, but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.  We as humans tend to fear the things that we can see with our eyes.The things that our human understanding teaches us to fear.  But the fear of God, is not a fear of punishment or retribution, but it is an act of reverence and of deep respect and  it is a recognition of God’s Almighty power.  The fear of God kindles inside of us a feeling of amazement and ultimately it gives us a great love for the one who has the greatest of love for us.

Our respect for God should grow into a deep appreciation of God‘s love. A deep appreciation for his laws and a deep appreciation for his way of life. We must grow from obeying God out of fear to obey God out of love.  

So never put anyone or anything above God. Never be boastful or prideful because that is putting yourself above God.  Remember, God is greater because God made you who you are. God is greater than your possessions because God gave you everything you have . God is greater than anyone else in your life because God put them there.  Putting God first would be thanking him for all the things that he’s done.  Putting God first would be thanking God for everything that he’s given you.  Putting God first is loving him deeply, the way that he loves us. We should show our love for God by keeping his Commandments.  We should show our love for God by showing that love to others and not just to some others but to everyone.  All the other Commandments hang on this one commandment.  Keep this one commandment and you’ll keep them all.

(John Sanders)

I’ve just started reading a new book.  I bought it because I found the title made a BOLD claim and I was curious how the author would pull it off.  The title of the book is “Learn the Bible in 24 Hours” by Doctor Chuck Missler.   I want to also say that I have read several books by this particular author and while some of the things he says I find myself very much disagreeing with, most of what he says makes me pause to think, to double check by going to the Word of God and seeing if what he says could be true.  Acts 17:11 speaks of the Bereans saying “These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.”  My advise is to try to be a Berean and search the scriptures after hearing me or anyone say something that you have questions about.

So, while I have just started reading this book, I wanted to read parts of Chuck Missler’s introduction because it describes the Bible differently than I’ve ever read or heard.  I enjoyed it and wanted to share it with you.  It seems to me like a great way to get someone who hasn’t read the Bible to get interested and want to start reading it.  Ok?  Here we go…

[paraphrased]

You are about to embark on the ultimate literary adventure.  It’s not just a fascinating read; it’s a participation that will determine your eternal destiny.

You’re going to reach far beyond earth’s pre-history, behind the mist of legend and folklore to discover the greatest drama of all literature.  You’ll encounter the greatest evil – betrayals, revenge, deceptions, and the ultimate Prince of Darkness.  You’ll also encounter the greatest good, the highest achievements, the greatest courage and sacrifice; in fact, the ultimate sacrifice – the Kinsman Redeemer of all mankind!

You’ll find yourself in a courtship between a sovereign God and His rebellious offspring.  You’ll explore the ultimate ironies of all literature – hidden surprises on every page.  

You’ll experience the rise of the great empires, as well as their fall, through dreams and visions and secret messages.

You’ll discover letters written to great leaders from extraterrestrial sources, outlining their careers and achievements in advance, giving them instructions on how to proceed.  You’ll thrill to the hero conquering enemies against impossible odds, betrayals of thrones and retributions, vendettas and conspiracies extending to many generations.

You’ll also probe the greatest mysteries ever to confront mankind – the nature of time, the issue of predestination versus free will.  You’ll explore the purity of God and the frustrations of man, the search for good and the reign of evil; the nature of evil – where it comes from and why.

You’ll stand in awe of the biography of a Superman:  His origin, His mission, His manifest destiny, His understated powers and His completing “Mission Impossible” – the Creator Himself entering His creation to repair the damage introduced by a dark intruder.

It’s the only book that holds the key to your eternal destiny:  the ultimate love story, written in blood on a wooden cross erected in Judea some two thousand years ago.

Enjoy your journey to the most fantastic adventure imaginable.

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If you are interested in this book, here is the information to look for it:
Learn the Bible in 24 Hours: An Overview of the Whole Bible by Chuck Missler (published by Thomas Nelson in 2011)
(ISBN-13 is 978-1418549183)(ISBN-10 Is 1418549185)