Ministry

Brief moments of Kingdom consciousness
followed by days and days of self-sovereignty and self-interest.
I give so little of me yet I have received so much of You.
I treat ministry like a big giant step out of what is mine into what is yours.
You have purchased me with your blood.
All that I have and all that I am belongs to you
for your keeping for your using for Your kingdom for Your glory.
All that I am wherever I am whatever the time used in service of you.
This is my calling this is Your will.
 Paul David Tripp

Preventative peacemaking through breakfast

“Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the sons of God.” That is what Jesus said in Matthew 5:9. Life is busy and there are times that even families begin to live like a bunch of people who are simply sharing a common space for room and board. It is easy to do. This person gets up early, the next person late. One person has practice here and another needs your constant attention. Before you know it you are running an Inn instead of a home. The result is often disconnectedness and chaos. Children are fighting and yelling at one another, parents are stressed out and discouraged because it seems all they do is discipline and all you can think about is moving to a new Inn.



But Jesus said blessed are the peacemakers; happy are they! Sounds good to me. Over the last two weeks Heather and I were in just this situation and we have found that sharing breakfast together has resulted in our entire family getting along with one another. We pray, discuss a Bible verse, make known our plans for the day and, of course, eat. Sounds simple enough but the result is the difference between living as a family versus living life at an Inn.



God has called us to peace. Often the easiest way to peace is simply to live as God has commanded us to: husbands love your wives, wives respect your husbands, children obey your parents. However, all of these require a little more than simply living under the same roof. We must have and nurture our relationships with one another. The result is peace and God is glorified!

—Pastor Corey

Blessed are the meek and justification by faith alone

We discussed on Sunday morning how being meek is the natural response to understanding we are poor in spirit and then also mourning our sins. On Sunday evening we began to discuss the Letter to the Galatians and that Paul’s main point in writing this letter was to correct the Galatians on the issue of justification by faith alone. These two issues go together. Because we are justified by faith alone, there is no place for boasting, which would be the opposite of being meek.

Another way of saying it would be that we are meek because we are justified by faith alone, and therefore, there is no reason for us to boast in ourselves. The only place for us to boast is in the cross of Jesus Christ. It is Jesus who deserves the praise and glory, because He paid the price for our sin. Paul said it this way, “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Rom 5:8 ESV)

When we live daily in the knowledge of Christ’s grace and mercy toward us, we truly begin to live! So be meek; it’s a good thing.

Blessed are those who mourn.

After a discussion with someone who will remain anonymous, I feel the need to explain a bit further why I understand the second beatitude to refer to mourning of sin and not simply mourning from the hardships of life. The very first point you must understand is that I believe Matthew 1:21 is foundational to understanding Matthew’s gospel. It says, “And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” It is here we must remember not to get off track with the purpose of the gospel which is not primarily to give us earthly comforts, but rather spiritual comforts.

The second reason I believe Jesus is referring to mourning our sins is due to the point of the first beatitude, blessed are the poor in spirit. I believe the mourning Jesus is referring to is primarily a spiritual mourning. Now this text ends with “for they shall be comforted.” This portion of the beatitude draws us back to Isaiah 40:1-2 that says, “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem , and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins.” Yes this text refers to comfort from the physical hardships of life, but the reason for those hardships for Israel was due to their sin! So while comfort will come, it will only come to those who come face to face with the reality of their sin and then mourn!

One last thing. I mistakenly had a reference to Romans 14:26, but there is no verse 26. It should have been verse 23, which ends by saying, “whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.”

Have a great week.

The ways and thoughts of God

Yesterday we discussed Isaiah 55 in the sermon but as with most texts of scripture there is always more to discuss. Yesterday I covered rather quickly verses 8 and 9 which say, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” In the sermon I discussed how God’s ways and thoughts about grace and compassion are higher and much different than what we would consider or even think about doing. But the meaning of the text goes much further. Specifically, in the context of the wicked and the unrighteous, God’s ways and thoughts go deep, they go directly to the motives of our heart.
Jesus addresses this very idea as He preaches the Sermon on the Mount. He reminds us of what the commandments say but says that our understanding of how to obey them is too superficial. We must obey them even in the thoughts we produce.
The point of Isaiah 55 and the point Jesus is making in the Sermon on the Mount is that we are totally depraved. From the actions we do to thoughts of our mind, to the desires of our hearts we miss God’s mark and are in need of his power to transform us. But as God works in us to give us a new heart we are called to turn away from our sinful past and turn to God following his ways and learning his thought as we follow the Lord Jesus Christ.
No matter how far away from God we may be or others we have been pray for to know Christ we must remember God has power, absolute power and he is able to do abundantly beyond all we could ever ask or wish for. He is able!

Love the world

On Sunday morning Karen Duke recited for us 1 John 2:15-16 which says, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world.” The love of this world was exactly what the devil was using as temptation to get Jesus to sin, but it did not work. This is an easy verse to say, “don’t love the world”, but the application of this passage is much more difficult for us earth dwellers. We live here, we love people and places and things here. But this is not our permanent home. This is just a temporary lodging place on our journey to our permanent home: heaven. There seems to be in the call of Christ a tension between loving the world and not loving the world. Here in 1 John 2:15 the call not to love the world is a call to avoid the rebellious, God-avoiding aspects of this world; the things that pull us away from worshiping and enjoying God.

In the call in Matthew 28:18-20 to make disciples, the implied assumption is that we do it out of love, first for God and then for others; others who are in the world. So how do we love the world and at the same time avoid loving the things of the world? Jeff Purswell, in the book Worldliness, gives us three tasks. The first task is to enjoy the world – God’s creation. Rejoice in all that He has made. Enjoy the creation in a way that glorifies God and does not pull you away from Him in rebellion. Now I know as the sunshine begins to increase, our tendency is to run to recreation. That is a good way to enjoy creation. However, when our recreation pulls us away from what God has commanded us to do, i.e. assemble together, we have begun to love the world in a sinful way.

The second task is to engage the world. We love the world by engaging it. Now this is where we need much improvement among the body of Christ. It seems we are either very good at engaging the world without a Christian witness or we are horrible at engaging the world for fear of being rejected. We need to learn how to ask simple questions that show we care and are truly interested in what others think and what they love to do. When we begin to engage the world, we will open the door to the third task.

The third task is to evangelize the world. Love the world by making disciples. This is not hard. Jesus has loved you so much, now share that love with those who need to know it. Tell them what He has done for you, how you have grown and changed, how you have peace with God and how He has filled you with love and joy.

Go love the world, but don’t love the things of the world.

sola scriptura

In my reading I came a across a sermon C.H. Spurgeon once wrote from the text Hosea 8:12 where God says, “Were I to write for him my laws by the ten thousands, they would be regarded as a strange thing.” This sermon caused me to think about my own treatment of the Word of God. In this passage of Scripture the Lord, through the prophet Hosea, is rebuking Israel for its sins of idolatry and hypocrisy in the worship of Jehovah God. Verse 12 comes near the end of the chapter where God is laying out all their sins and then tells them that He could have written ten thousand laws and they would have regarded them as a strange thing. As we read the Old Testament, it is very easy to begin judging the people of Israel for their disobedience, but the reality is we are not much different in principle.

God has given us His Word. In fact, most of us have several copies of it. The people in Hosea’s day were not so fortunate, but were still held accountable to know it and live by it. They were treating the laws of God as a strange thing by simply ignoring them, as if God were asking them to do something that was abnormal.

If we are honest, we do the same in our treatment of the Word of God. We read it, or at least carry our Bibles around, and hear it preached, but when it comes to living it out there are parts and aspects we just simply ignore. We treat it as a strange thing. God could have used men to write certain passages over and over again, but we would still regard them as a strange thing. The Word of God is no strange thing. It is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give an account (Hebrews 4:12-13).

When we come to the Word of God it is like a mirror that exposes who we really are and where we need to change and grow in the grace and love of Jesus Christ. Don’t regard the Word as a strange thing, but as a good, wonderful, and glorious treasure!

THE BATTLE AGAINST SIN

Yesterday we discussed the repentance that John the Baptist was preaching in the Judean desert. The reason we need to repent is sin. It is man’s biggest problem and is the reason Jesus came to this earth. He came to die for our sins, to make atonement for them. However, today our culture does not want to discuss the issue of sin. Rather, we have become a culture of victims. Psychology, beginning with Freud, has told us that we are victims of our upbringing. Our parents have messed us up, our environment has confused us, and our culture’s morals have limited our natural human expression. This therapeutic thinking has opened wide the doors for men and women to feel O.K. about sinning because they just cannot help themselves.
The Bible tells us something much differently about ourselves and about sin. It tells us that we are dead in our sins and trespasses and that we stand guilty before God. This is not because of something someone else did or did not do to us, but because we ourselves have sinned and are guilty, responsible, and have to face the sentence due our sin: death. But that is exactly what Jesus came to redeem us from - the consequences of sin. Jesus came to forgive us our sins and give us new life and eternal life with Him.
Our problem as believers, however, remains to be sin that so easily entangles us and prevents us from taking hold of that abundant life Jesus offers us. So how do we tackle sin? C.J. Mahaney, in the book How Can I Change?, offers two steps we must take in order to battle sin. First, he says, we must attack sin. Colossians 3:5 says, “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.” When we are battling against sin we must be aggressive in our attack against sin and we must be on the offensive. We must go on the attack because if we wait, we will be in the defensive position very quickly.
The second point Mahaney makes is that we must avoid sin. Novel idea - avoid the sin you are attacking, putting to death. We far too often do not avoid it, but rather see how close we can get to the edge before we fall. If we are going to be serious about putting to death the sin that remains in us, we must learn to avoid it and avoid the things that make it easy for us to slip into the sins that so easily entangle us.
With you in the fight against sin,
Pastor Corey

The Heavens declare the Glory of God

Yesterday we covered Matthew chapter 2 in the Sunday morning sermon. I did however; leave out the first half of the chapter that gives us the story of the wise men who have come in search of the new born king. Notice I did not say the three wise men. The reality is we do not know how many men there were we only assume there were three based on the number of gifts presented. But that is not my point this morning. As I was thinking about these wise men that have come from the east following a star in the sky I was reminded of Psalm 19:1, which says, “the heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.” What an amazing event. Here we have these scholars from the east, most-likely pagans looking into the sky and reading the ancient writings and there in the sky the glory of God is revealed, a star shining bright over the little town of Bethlehem. While the religious leaders were becoming more self-righteous in Jerusalem, pagans were looking into the sky and see the glory of God and come and worship Jesus Christ. These gentiles coming to Jesus as a little baby foreshadow the future ministry of Jesus who will send his disciples out into all the world to make disciples. As the first advent of our Lord is in the past, we do await his second advent, his second coming, and I hope we who profess the name of Christ will be watching and ready like those wise men from the east. Have a great week.

Mercy in a culture of entitlement

Why Memorize Scripture?

Why Memorize Scripture?
Some of you may be asking on Sunday mornings, “Why is Pastor Corey making a big deal about memorizing Scripture?” When it comes to Scripture memorization, I have heard all the excuses: I’m not good at memorizing; I can’t remember the reference; I don’t know which translation to use; and the excuses go on.
There are two main passages of Scripture for me that tell us we need to memorize Scripture no matter how hard it is for us to do. Psalm 119:9-11 says, “How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments! I have stored up your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.” As we saw also from our study of Ephesians last fall, it says in 4:12, “to equip the saints for works of ministry.” The works of ministry are primarily the ministry of the Word. That is, giving nuggets of truth, or at times even applying Scripture to one another’s life situations, that it may bring grace to the hearer.
We are memorizing Scripture corporately so that we can encourage one another to press on in the faith, and be prepared to minister the Word to one another and to ourselves, so that we might not sin against God. Have a great week and begin to memorize the sweet honey of the Word of God.

The Sanctity of Human Life

The sanctity of human life is a foundational belief for those of us who hold to the authority of the Bible. On Sunday afternoon, I decided to watch the movie Amazing Grace, the story of the life of William Wilberforce. His life is a testimony to upholding the sanctity of human life. He did not give up his fight against the cruel business of the slave trade and he made it his life’s ambition to end that business in the British Empire. Oh to be a people who have strong Biblical convictions and to act upon them to change the world; to be salt and light in the darkest places.
When God created man in His own image and likeness He forever linked Himself to humanity. In doing so He made us more than the rest of creation, He made us unique. We are created beings that need God in order to live and breathe and move, but we are also persons who move and make decisions. It is those decisions that will either show forth the beauty and grace of the image we bear or deface it. The doctrine of the image of God lays a foundation for many other doctrines and helps give them greater meaning. It shines light upon our greatest problem of not living up to the very image we bear, and our need for redemption and restoration. What will you now do with your belief in the sanctity of human life? I hope we will all begin by treating our fellow man and woman with dignity, but also stand against the evil practices of our day that treat human life with disrespect.

Pastor Corey Mitchell

Birthdays and Waiting

Birthdays and waiting
My birthday is this week and as I think about my birthdays in the past my minds is drawn to those birthdays that I waited to arrive. For me as a young boy, I couldn’t wait until I turned 12 so I could go to the hunting camp and go hunting. We can’t wait until we turn 16 so we can have the freedom of driving. As we grow older we are just happy birthdays come and go. But the two ideas of both birthdays and waiting can have a spiritual side to them. Our birthday is a great time for us to reflect about our lives, how am I doing spiritually or do I have any goal I should set for the next year? But even more than that it is a great time to remember where God has taken you and how God has brought you to this present place in life. And as we do that I am sure we will be reminded of something for which we are still waiting.
Yesterday we discussed in the sermon our church’s mission statement: Exalt Jesus Christ, Evangelize the Lost, and Edify the Believers. I spent some time on the 2nd point because it is where we are in most need of improvement and encouragement. And I wonder: are you still waiting for the Lord to work in the life of someone special to you? Have you been sharing and praying for someone for a long time and it just seems that they are no closer to the kingdom of God than when you first prayed? Don’t give up! Keep praying, keep sharing the gospel, keep loving the person. In the evening service we looked at the story of Joseph who finally gets to see all of his brothers after 20 some years. Can you image 20 years of your life waiting for God to restore your family. But he waited faithfully and God in His timing answered his prayer. Have a great week and remember God is at work!

Being Prepared and Being Holy

Well, Happy Monday to you all. Sorry for the delay in getting this out to you. Yesterday we discussed 1 Peter 1:13-16, Be Prepared and Be Holy. As we begin a new year together here are some questions for you to think about as you decide what you need to prepare to do and in what areas you need to work on with regards to holiness:
1. What’s one thing you could do this year to increase your enjoyment of God?2. What’s the single most important thing you could do to improve the quality of your family life this year?3. In which spiritual discipline do you most want to make progress this year, and what will you do about it?4. What is the single biggest time-waster in your life, and what will you do about it this year?5. What is the most helpful new way you could strengthen your church?6. For whose salvation will you pray most fervently this year?7. What’s the most important way you will, by God’s grace, try to make this year different from last year?8. What one thing could you do to improve your prayer life this year?9. What single thing that you plan to do this year will matter most in ten years? In eternity?
(these questions were taken from www.BiblicalSpirituality.org)