New Series - Undivided

This Sunday we will begin a new series – “Undivided,” which will take us through 1 Corinthians. The following is a background introduction to 1 Corinthians:

Corinth, the most important city in Greece during Paul’s day, was a bustling hub of worldwide commerce, degraded culture, and idolatrous religion. There Paul founded a church (Acts 18:1–17), and two of his letters are addressed “To the church of God which is at Corinth.”

First Corinthians reveals the problems, pressures, and struggles of a church called out of a pagan society. Paul addresses a variety of problems in the life-style of the Corinthian church: factions, lawsuits, immorality, questionable practices, abuse of the Lord’s Supper and spiritual gifts. In addition to words of discipline, Paul shares words of counsel in answer to questions raised by the Corinthian believers.

The city was filled with shrines and temples, but the most prominent was the Temple of Aphrodite on top of an 1,800-foot promontory called the Acrocorinthus. Worshipers of the “goddess of love” made free use of the 1,000 Hieroduli (consecrated prostitutes). This cosmopolitan center thrived on commerce, entertainment, vice, and corruption; pleasure-seekers came there to spend money on a holiday from morality. Corinth became so notorious for its evils that the term Korinthiazomai (“to act like a Corinthian”) became a synonym for debauchery and prostitution.

The basic theme of this epistle is the application of Christian principles on an individual and social level. The cross of Christ is a message that is designed to transform the lives of believers and make them different, as people and as a corporate body, from the surrounding world. But the Corinthians were destroying their Christian testimony because of immorality and disunity. Paul wrote this letter as his corrective response to the news of problems and disorders among the Corinthians. It was designed to refute improper attitudes and conduct and to promote a spirit of unity among the brethren in their relationships and worship. Paul’s concern as their spiritual father (4:14–15) was tempered with love, and he wanted to avoid visiting them “with a rod” (4:21).

Despite the often stern tone of the letter (4:18–21; 5:2; 11:17, 22; 15:36), Paul was thankful to God for the Corinthians (1:8) and felt a deep personal affection for them (16:24). Because of this love, and for the purpose of God’s glory (10:31), Paul wanted the Corinthians to become a well-constructed dwelling place for God’s Spirit (3:12, 16) and to be “guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1:8).

May God bless our journey to become Undivided in our allegiance to His Kingdom and Gospel,

- Bro. Dave

The Charge for the Centrality of Scripture

The centrality of Scripture means that the Bible is to maintain a vital prominence in our daily lives, our homes, and our church. 

2 Timothy 4:1-5 (ESV)
¹ I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom:
² preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.
³ For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions,
⁴ and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.
⁵ As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

Paul gives Timothy an extremely serious charge or directive on how to conduct his ministry. It centers on the matter of sound doctrine in the church.

    1. The Seriousness of the Charge (v. 1). The forcefulness and gravity of Paul’s charge comes across as he makes it in the presence of God and in view of His coming judgment and kingdom.

    2. The Execution of the Charge (v. 2). The instruction Paul gives is to preach God’s Word and to “… Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.”

    3. The Reason for the Charge (vv. 3–4). Sound doctrine is vital to the church. Paul taught, and we see even today, that many would distort Scripture to suit their own agenda or preferences.

    4. The Keeping of the Charge (v. 5). Those who minister God’s Word should be watchful, for affliction will come. We must continue to share the gospel nonetheless.

While this charge has been entrusted to Timothy and to all pastors, we all play a vital role in helping fulfill this command. We must not ignore the importance of scriptural preaching and sound doctrine. We must reject any teaching that rebels against biblical teaching and commit ourselves to share the gospel of Jesus Christ.

May God strengthen our commitment to keeping His Word central in our lives, our homes, and our church!

-       

          - Bro. Dave

Running the Race of Faith

I enjoyed John Auten’s sermon on Hebrews 12:1-2 on WMU Focus Sunday. I am thankful for his heart and emphasis on service and keeping our eyes on Jesus.  I pray that God will strengthen us towards greater service as we follow Christ. I have a brief devotion today from 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.” (Hebrews 12:1)


Paul knew about the athletic contests of his day, particularly the ones that involved running. This is evident from the fact that he refers to these races periodically in his writings. In our verse about running, Paul speaks of the witnesses, weights, and work involved in the running of races to compare it to living our Christian faith.


Witnesses. “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses.” Some of the witnesses here refer back to the great characters spoken of in chapter eleven of Hebrews, the chapter that precedes our verse. The crowd at a race or other athletic contest can be a great help in inspiring and cheering you on in your performance. When we read of the lives of the great saints recorded in chapter eleven of Hebrews, it inspires us to do well in our performance just as a crowd inspires athletic performances.


Weights. “Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us.” To run a good race, the runner does not carry around any unnecessary weight. That would slow him down and greatly hinder his running. From reducing the weight and fat of his body to removing the long and heavy robes that would weigh him down and entangle him when running, the runner gets ready to run. Sin is spoken of here as the great hindrance to living the Christian life.


Work. “Let us run with patience the race that is set before us.” Here is reference to the actual running. First, we are to run fervently. “Run.” We are to be fervent in our faith. Second, we are to run steadfastly. “Patience.” Runners know that during the race the whole body cries out to stop long before the race is over. To run well we must run faithfully. And third, we are to run correctly. “The race that is set before us.” We are to run the course prescribed by God. He has a calling for each of us. We must run that course, we must go the way He directs, or we do not run correctly.


May God increase our level of service as we keep our eyes on Jesus!


-          Bro. David Crowe

Loving the Word of God

Psalm 119:25,

My soul clings to the dust; give me life according to your word!

Psalm 119:25,
My soul clings to the dust; give me life according to your word!


Have you ever felt something of a love/hate relationship to the Bible? At times our hearts are alive to the word of God, while at other times our hearts feel dull and almost dead. We find a similar feeling in a surprising place: Psalm 119. I say “surprising” because Psalm 119, as we learned Sunday, is a poem of love for the word of God. Help for someone who feels this way comes in the stanza devoted to the Hebrew letter daleth (Psalm 119:25–32).
The psalmist cries out in anguish that his “soul melts away for sorrow” (Psalm 119:28). His struggle, however, is not simply sorrow. The psalmist confesses that his soul “clings to the dust” (Psalm 119:25). “Dust” here is not a generic way of saying that he is struggling. It is a pointed reminder of the brokenness that comes from our sinful condition. This word for dust appears as part of God’s curse upon the human race: “till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Genesis 3:19). The psalmist, like us, finds himself struggling with the effects that flow from his own fallen, sinful state.


But the fall is not the final word. We can find hope to delight in God again, even in a fallen world. This stanza opens with the psalmist “clinging to the dust,” but it ends with the psalmist running in the way of God’s commandments because God has enlarged his heart (Psalm 119:32).
So how can we move from clinging to dust to running the race of faith?
The answer lies in the life-giving power of God’s word. The opening verse (verse 25) consists of both a confession and a prayer: “my soul clings to the dust” (confession), “give me life according to your word” (prayer).


First, overhearing the psalmist pray for God to give life to dust takes us back to Genesis 2:7. “Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.”


Second, God’s breath of life shows up again in 2 Timothy 3:16 in connection with the word of God because “all Scripture is breathed-out by God.”


These connections help us see that now God breathes his breath of life into a book, not directly into us. We breathe in that breath of life when we read the Bible.


May God move us from clinging to dust to delighting in His Word! May His breath fill up our lungs to run the race of faith!


-       Bro. Dave

Fun from our Fellowship

The 2012 Chili Cookoff was a huge success! I want to thank all 16 chili makers, judges, kitchen crew, and youth group who helped make this year’s fellowship one to remember. The winners of the 2012 Chili Cookoff are:

1st Place - Margaret Lowe

2nd Place - Lyric Brown and Traci Rice

3rd Place - Julie Honnaker

Hottest Chili - Margaret Lowe

Sweetest Chili - Scottie Newby

I think I’m Gonna Die Award (Heat and lots of Beans) - Lyric Brown and Traci Rice

Meatiest Chili - Julie Honnaker

What is in this? Award - Laura Britton

Happy Heart Award (Most Beans) - Wanda Peavler

We also played some great game shows and had a lot of fun. The following game show winners were:

Wheel of Wisdom (Wheel of Fortune) Abi Camic

Shepherdy (Jeopardy) John Gibson

Who Wants to Win a Dollar Bill (Who Wants to be a Millionairre?) Terry Honnaker

Terry walked away from the night with a crisp dollar bill to spend! (Wow!) 

I enjoyed seeing everyone talk and laugh and believe that this is one of our most successful fellowships yet. We have some more planned for this year and I can’t wait to see what great things lie ahead. 

May God continue to bless our fellowship!

- Bro. Dave

The Clarity of Scripture

Several OT passages affirm an expectation that the words of Scripture are able to be clearly understood. For example, our text from Sunday morning:

And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. (Deut 6:6–7)

The command to teach children assumes an ability to summarize and make plain, at some level, “the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27) regarding many different topics.

Other passages in the OT also assume that God’s words are able to be understood by his people:

For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that you should say, “Who will ascend to heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?” Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, “Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?” But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it. (Deut 30:11–14)

The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. (Ps 19:7)

The idea here seems to be that God’s testimonies make even simple people to be wise, and if they make wise the simple, then surely they make everyone else wise as well. A similar idea is found in Ps 119:130: “The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple.” Elsewhere in the same Psalm, the metaphor of a lamp conveys the idea of imparting understanding, namely, how to live in the ordinary events on the “path” of life: “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Ps 119:105). The apostle Peter expressed a similar view of the OT writings: “And we have something more sure, the prophetic word, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts” (2 Pet 1:19).

May God grow us in Christian maturity as we read and obey His Word!

- Bro. Dave

Mission Trip Opportunities for 2012

There are a number of mission opportunities that are coming up this year that I would like to call your attention to. If you have any interest in the following mission projects, please call our church office this week, or my cell number at 859-325-0528 to let us know. You will also find some sign-up sheets on the church bulletin board.

Mercer County –

1)      Kentucky Changers, Harrodsburg, KY. June 9-16, 2012 – More than 300 students from around the state are coming to Harrodsburg to help fix homes and share the gospel. Volunteers are needed to drive food to work sites, prepare food, be a “runner” for a team (go get materials), or to serve as a site construction crew chief for a team. Can you help us?

2)      Summer Backpack Program, Harrodsburg, KY. – Mike and Amy Riley are working on a summer project for us to help our county students with the backpack program throughout the summer. We would be working with other churches to get food to more than 80 families that need assistance. Volunteers will be needed to assemble the backpacks and to deliver the backpacks. Could you lend a helping hand for this needed ministry? Be in prayer for this outreach as it is in the planning stage.

Kentucky –

1)      Summit Community Church, Hazzard, KY. Dates T.B.A. – Summit Community Church, with pastor Mark Combs, is one of the state’s fastest church plants. This new church has been reaching out in innovative ways to the people of Hazard and has seen incredible fruit. Pastor Mark has asked me to help bring in teams of people who can help with evangelism and outreach. Can you help us? We are planning the dates and will have them available soon.   

World –

1)      Malta, May 28-June 8.  – Earl and Robin Pinkston are seeing some incredible growth in their 11^th year of ministry on the Mediterranean Island of Malta. They are asking for some help this summer to do some bible distribution and evangelism. With only 0.4 % of the people of Malta being involved in a Gospel preaching church, the Pinkston’s depend heavily on volunteer teams to help get out the message of Christ. Will you pray about helping? Note - this trip is open to and is safe for children who have completed the 8^th grade.

2)      Moslem Country (Edited for Protection), Dates T.B.A. – Our recent friend from [censored] shared with us an opportunity to go and meet with the underground church of the [censored] country in the world. This trip would be a once-in-a-lifetime experience to meet with persecuted Christians and offer support and encouragement. It will also involve some light service project work. Note - any youth that would like to go on this trip need to have completed 12^th grade.

The opportunities to serve Christ this year are unprecedented. Will you pray about joining with your brothers and sisters in Christ to help see the Kingdom of God grow!

-         -  Bro. Dave