Featured Sermon: Mark Greening, The Power of Travailing Prayer

I do not often get time to listen to the messages I wish to. I actually have a large portion of space on my PC's hard drive with sermons that have gone unlistened. I suppose it is the same as the books on my bookshelf that go unread.

This message was worth the listen. It served as a good reminder of my personal obligation to prayer. It also demonstrates the typical attitude I develop toward the prayerless when in fact I am the one my rebuke should be delivered to.

Amen.

Meet a Missionary: Josef and Lina Urban

There are many things I could say about Josef and Lina Urban. In just the few little moments I have been able to spend with this brother and sister I can say that I have marveled at the power of God at work through their devotion for reaching the lost. Josef and Lina have been laboring in Mexico for the past two years on sheer unction from God to go! Josef has recently posted an update telling a little bit about the journey they have experienced through Gods grace in Mexico. Please remember them in your prayers and encourage them with your emails or letters!

Read Update Here

And hear Josef preaching in Detroit a few years ago,

Bearing Another's Burden

Empathy for another person's sin is best practiced by remembering your struggle and victory over that sin in Jesus Christ. Empathy, in the spirit of a Christian virtue is heeding the words of Paul, by bearing each others infirmities and giving counsel when their is fault (Gal 6:2-3). Haughtiness is bred when we believe that our own comfort, complacence, or victory belongs to us as a result of our own actions or works. But, the ability to lay claim to victory is birthed by the deception that there had been a battle we won of our own volition. Empathy and therefore true sympathy is possible through knowledge of a single victor, our Lord Jesus Christ (Rom 8:37).

If He has not loved us, then we are incapable of loving. Let us not become ensnared by the temptation to convert others to our own clever schemes of fulfillment and devices of gratification, but proclaim the truth of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, His victory over sin and death, and a divine transfer of true righteousness to our account.

Ravenhill on Appointing Elders

From the book Revival God's Way by Leonard Ravenhill,

Today, deacons and elders are usually 'men of standing.' In the New Testament Church they were 'men of kneeling"-- praying men. Who checks the prayer lives of the men to be elected? Usually no one. In other words, we will choose who we want and hope that the Lord will mercifully bless us.

Server Issues

We are having server issues once again. So if some links or graphics are not functioning/displaying it is directly related to the server issue. I hope to have it addressed at some point this week. Until then, thanks for your patience.

Paul Washer @ Berean Baptist Missions Conference

If you are looking for sermons from the 2009 Missions Conference at Berean Baptist in Livonia, MI and the messages being given by Paul Washer, you can find them updated daily here. You can also find sermons from Terry McIntosh as well. I hope you are edified by them. It sure has been an encouraging and challenging conference thus far, I'm sure the days ahead will bring further edification from the Word and I ask you to pray that it will cultivate hearts for the lost and inspire a zeal for missions in those who are resisting the call.

The Faces of those Awaiting Judgment

At one point or another we have all heard the saying "everyone has their day in court." Many of us, have actually had that luxury. Some have been privileged and experienced several days in court, and may even have more in store for the future. Granted this should not be preferential practice for anyone, for it is never enjoyable to face judgment as a defendant, even more so for those who seem to make more appearances than most.

It was sobering to see them all as I leaned against the wall and they all glanced at the new face that had entered the waiting area. I looked back with awe and recalled my own feelings of fear and anxiety as I too had sat in their seats awaiting judgment for my crime(s). I was often filled with doubts of the freedom I would have when my hearing completed, but held out for hope that the judge would go lightly and give me a 'second chance'.

Because I was there that day to have my record expunged from a crime I had committed in the past I was excited to see the Judge. It was the judge who sentenced me for my guilt just a short five years earlier, and that same Judge was now going to hear my plea for clearance of my record. And just as my previous appearance, my future would be dependent upon the mercy of the court.

I was relieved to not be experiencing the anxiety the other defendants were feeling that day. I had also arrived with an expectation that the will of the Lord would be done that day, and that it would be according to His purposes. Should I not have been cleared I would have still rejoiced that the Lord had saved me from His wrath. The previous five years of my life and the works I have done in them would all be worth it whether they contributed to my expungement or not. I think that there was something to be said for that feeling of grace I felt in the moment I looked upon those faces awaiting judgment. I felt gratitude that I will someday experience that feeling to much greater degree when I see the face of our Lord and King.

O' for that day...

False Professions and Fake Christians

Suso an alleged "mystic" from the 1300's writes,

I tell thee thou art right when thou prayest God to have mercy upon poor Christendom; for know that for many hundred years Christendom has never been so poor or so wicked as in these times; but I tell thee, whereas thou sayest that the wicked Jews and heathen are all lost, that is not true. I tell thee, in these days, there is a portion of the heathen and the Jews whom God preferreth greatly to many who bear the Christian name and yet live contrary to all Christian order... where a Jew or heathen, in any part of the world, hath a good, God-fearing mind in him, in simplicity and honesty, and in his reason and judgment knoweth no better faith than that in which he was born, but were minded and willing to cast that off if he were given to know any other faith that were more acceptable to God, and would obey God, if he ventured body and goods therefore; I tell thee, where there is a Jew or heathen thus earnest in his life, say, ought not to be much dearer to God that the evil, false Christian men who have received baptism, and act contrary to God, knowing that they do so?

I don't know much about the rest of this man's theological positions, but I do know this statement is one I can affirm, and should consider in my own life as well.

And They Crucified Him - Art Katz