The Reformation Continues...Just Had to Share!

Below is an email I recently received.  I met a wonderful Christian sister at the Foundations of American Christian Education (F.A.C.E.) leadership conference.  We were fortunate to be able to minister at this conference and distrubute D6Reformation materials.  Anyway, this wonderful sister took our Battle for the Children DVD back to California, gave it to their youth director, who "in tears" drove it to their pastor's home.  Below is the email the pastor sent to his entire church. (Names changed.)

Please understand, we take NO CREDIT.  Soli Deo Gloria! Half the stuff in the DVD I learned from Voddie Baucham anyway. LOL.  I'm just posting this that CRCC and all who subscribe to D6Reformation principles might be encouraged.  It ain't over yet! :)

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My Dear Ones in Christ,

Over a year ago, I preached a series of messages during the Sunday morning worship services titled Homeland Security.  It had to do with God’s mandate for parents to disciple their children and was based on the Words of God that are found in Deuteronomy 6:6-9.  Christian parents need to understand that mandate to disciple your children is your mandate not that of the church.  At best, through Children’s Church, AWANA, and Youth Groups, Christ Bible Church comes alongside of you, supporting you in fulfilling your mandate.

I came home from a motorcycle ride this past Sunday afternoon to find a DVD on my doorstep.  It was titled The Battle for our Children by Dr. Carlton McLeod, Pastor of Calvary Revival Church in Chesapeake, Virginia.  I have just finished watching it and will watch it again.  In one message, Pastor McLeod covered everything and more than I did in four weeks from the same passage.  His call is clear, the failure to answer that call is grave.  Today, children who have been raised in Christian homes and brought up in Christian churches are abandoning their faith in droves.  What has gone wrong?  As the senior pastor it is a question that I must prayerfully lay before the Lord.

I wanted to purchase a copy of this DVD for every family in the church, I don’t have an extra $2,000 to do that but I did find the message, preached in its entirety on YouTube.  I will tell you up front that it is an hour long sermon.  But I am begging you make the time to watch this video.  I am asking every staff member of Christ Bible Church as well every elder and deacon and every Children’s Church teacher and every AWANA leader to please watch this video. Seldom have I ever asked you to watch something like this but today I am asking, from the bottom of my heart. 

If you say, I don’t have a spare hour in my schedule, then I will give you permission to miss a Sunday service at Christ Bible Church and watch this instead one Sunday morning.  I feel that strongly about the Christ Bible Church family seeing this video.  I am sure that we can all find that hour somewhere in our week.  It would be a great video to watch during an evening one night instead of your favorite news broadcast or your favorite television show or sports event. There is only one thing at stake, the eternal souls of our children. –Pastor Tim

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So I'm in the Pulpit on Sunday...

...in our second service, and I start hearing voices.  Seriously.  Not audible.  Just really strong mental impressions.

Ok...nobody freak out.  It may have been just me.  Maybe it was the food I ate the night before.  But I'm just reporting the facts.  I heard (Edit:"felt" is probably more accurate):

--"What you are saying makes NO sense to them."

--"This is a waste of time.  They don't and won't get it."

--"They are not understanding.  Give it up."

--"This church won't grow like this."

--"What you are saying is all jumbled and mumbled and nonsensical."

--"You are not a very good teacher.  You are losing them."

--"This is all so confusing.  They are confused."

Not kidding here.  Now those who know me know I'm not the "I heard a voice say" type of preacher.  The safer route to me has always been to simply present the Text of Scripture in context.  But I'm telling you...this was so clear.

So I began to pray to the Lord for help and somehow got through the service, fighting for each word I said next.  After service I met with our new deacon-selects and their wives.  My first question was, "Friends, did that message make ANY sense at all or did I sound like Charlie Brown's teacher?" LOL! :)

They reported the opposite.  According to them, Christ's vision and commands for us (what I was preaching) was very clear, concise, connected, and Christ-honoring.  We were simply looking again at the commands of Christ for CRCC discipleship (we call those commands our "vision"), which emcompases the full-preaching of the Gospel, small-group fellowship accountability, family reformation, holiness, helping others, a biblical worldview/education, biblical manhood/womanhood, and biblical stewardship.  But we do recognize that many of these areas are hot button areas.

Sooooo...what in the world was that?  Am I losing it or was that the devil?  What say you?

Casting!

Warning: Transparency Alert :)

1Pe 5:1-7 ESV

So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed: (2) shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; (3) not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. (4) And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. (5) Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." (6) Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, (7) casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.
 

Have any of you ever "held on too tight?"  By God's grace I've had a couple of weeks to reflect, pray, and take another look at where I am with the Lord.  I've realized that if I'm going to "finish my race," I need to become pretty good at casting my anxieties on Him.  I won't finish otherwise. 

Regardless of the sphere of Kingdom leadership, I'm learning that if there is not a continual "dying to self," a constant refocusing on Christ, and a surrendering of leadership (and those you lead) back to God over and over again, so many bad things can occur:

1. Pride
2. Anger
3. Frustration
4. Loss of joy and faith
5. And the one that gets me the most: a continual anxiety and insecurity that drains the joy from ministry.

For many months after my father passed away, I was actually dreading Sundays!  I walked into my church nervous.  "Is this the day the message is rejected?"  "Who is going to leave this week?"  "Will I make it to my car before I get more bad news?"  It began to take a real effort to leave my office to enter the sanctuary.  Seriously.

Now yes...some of that is the devil.  No doubt.  But some of that is just me: a weak, sinful, fragile man who began to focus a bit too much on himself and how he felt and not enough on Christ.  The Lord showed me this clearly in His Word and prayer. 

It is to Christ alone that glory belongs.  It is to Christ alone that we will answer!  It is Christ alone that opens the hearts of His people to hear.  It is Christ alone who must be preached.  And it is Christ alone who grows, holds, and advances His church!

So to all the anxieties I've sinfully held on to, I cast them upon Christ.  I'm so glad He cares!

To CRCC...I ask your forgiveness for any flesh I've allowed in the pulpit...whether you realized it or not.  And to CRCC...we again pledge to place Christ at the center...not just in our words (which I think we've done) but also in our motivations (the hard part of leadership).  In our desire to Reach, Teach, and Release people, we will attempt that God's way.  We will hold to Scripture with as much love as we can muster.  We will take our lumps when they come but we will be faithful!

So dear reader, what about you?  Could you stand to do a little "casting" today?  :) :)

Proverbs 12:25 ESV - Anxiety in a man's heart weighs him down, but a good word makes him glad.

The Third Persecution, Under Trajan, A.D. 108

From Foxe's Book of Martyrs:

The Third Persecution, Under Trajan, A.D. 108

In the third persecution Pliny the Second, a man learned and famous, seeing the lamentable slaughter of Christians, and moved therewith to pity, wrote to Trajan, certifying him that there were many thousands of them daily put to death, of which none did any thing contrary to the Roman laws worthy of persecution. "The whole account they gave of their crime or error (whichever it is to be called) amounted only to this-viz. that they were accustomed on a stated day to meet before daylight, and to repeat together a set form of prayer to Christ as a God, and to bind themselves by an obligation-not indeed to commit wickedness; but, on the contrary-never to commit theft, robbery, or adultery, never to falsify their word, never to defraud any man: after which it was their custom to separate, and reassemble to partake in common of a harmless meal."

In this persecution suffered the blessed martyr, Ignatius, who is held in famous reverence among very many. This Ignatius was appointed to the bishopric of Antioch next after Peter in succession. Some do say, that he, being sent from Syria to Rome, because he professed Christ, was given to the wild beasts to be devoured. It is also said of him, that when he passed through Asia, being under the most strict custody of his keepers, he strengthened and confirmed the churches through all the cities as he went, both with his exhortations and preaching of the Word of God. Accordingly, having come to Smyrna, he wrote to the Church at Rome, exhorting them not to use means for his deliverance from martyrdom, lest they should deprive him of that which he most longed and hoped for. "Now I begin to be a disciple. I care for nothing, of visible or invisible things, so that I may but win Christ. Let fire and the cross, let the companies of wild beasts, let breaking of bones and tearing of limbs, let the grinding of the whole body, and all the malice of the devil, come upon me; be it so, only may I win Christ Jesus!" And even when he was sentenced to be thrown to the beasts, such as the burning desire that he had to suffer, that he spake, what time he heard the lions roaring, saying: "I am the wheat of Christ: I am going to be ground with the teeth of wild beasts, that I may be found pure bread."

Trajan being succeeded by Adrian, the latter continued this third persecution with as much severity as his predecessor. About this time Alexander, bishop of Rome, with his two deacons, were martyred; as were Quirinus and Hernes, with their families;

Zenon, a Roman nobleman, and about ten thousand other Christians.

In Mount Ararat many were crucified, crowned with thorns, and spears run into their sides, in imitation of Christ's passion. Eustachius, a brave and successful Roman commander, was by the emperor ordered to join in an idolatrous sacrifice to celebrate some of his own victories; but his faith (being a Christian in his heart) was so much greater than his vanity, that he nobly refused it. Enraged at the denial, the ungrateful emperor forgot the service of this skilful commander, and ordered him and his whole family to be martyred.

At the martyrdom of Faustines and Jovita, brothers and citizens of Brescia, their torments were so many, and their patience so great, that Calocerius, a pagan, beholding them, was struck with admiration, and exclaimed in a kind of ecstasy, "Great is the God of the Christians!" for which he was apprehended, and suffered a similar fate.

Many other similar cruelties and rigors were exercised against the Christians, until Quadratus, bishop of Athens, made a learned apology in their favor before the emperor, who happened to be there and Aristides, a philosopher of the same city, wrote an elegant epistle, which caused Adrian to relax in his severities, and relent in their favor.

Adrian dying A.D. 138, was succeeded by Antoninus Pius, one of the most amiable monarchs that ever reigned, and who stayed the persecutions against the Christians