WHY FORMER PRESIDENT GERALD FORD SUPPORTED THE CAUSE OF A

Journalist James Cannon gave us the following reasoning in his 1994 book Time and Chance: Gerald Ford's Appointment with History, Harper Collins.

Cannon tells the story of young Dorothy Gardner fleeing her abusive husband of eleven months, Leslie King. She left on foot carrying her 16-day-old infant in her arms, after King beat her repeatedly and threatened her and her infant with a butcher knife. Later details revealed that Mrs. Gardner-King brutally punched his twenty-year-old bride in the face while on their honeymoon for nodding at a man on an elevator. Throughout their eleven-month marriage, King beat his wife repeatedly until she left him and obtained a divorce in December 1913.

Living in Harvard, Illinois, Doroothy's parents gathered their daughter and their grandson together and moved from Harvard to Grand Rapids, MI where they had Real Estate holdings. Two years later, Dorothy met and married a bachelor named Gerald Ford. Dorothy's son came to adore his stepfather and eventually took his name and almost sixty-one years after his mother fled her abusive marriage thatinfant boy was sworn in as President of the United States--August 1974.

"I was so lucky that my mother divorced my real father, who I hate to say was a bad person in many repects," concluded President Gerald Ford, "She had a lot of guts to get out of that situation. And now you know, as Paul Harvey used to tell us, "the rest of the story."

FOR ONE ANOTHER

The Christ-life is not a solo journey on a private highway. Christianity is a faith community comprised of followers of JesusChrist who are personally committed to “one another.” This phrase, “one another” occurs throughout the New Testament and a variety of writers use it.

Each writer uses it to exhort “one another” in following in the steps of Jesus--THE ONE who is not just the written word on the pages of our bibles, but he is the Logos that lived in the flesh (cf John 1). He is God's one-of-a-kind“ atonement” (at-one-ment, i.e., Jesus) and we find him on the cross at Calvary (Hebrews 8:6-13).

He is the Person we walk with through life in relationship with him (discipleship)rather than just read about as ritual. Jesus taught his twelve disciples that he was the Messiah, the fulfillment of Israel’s prophetic promises to the Chosen People. As such, Jesus brought the Grace of God and fulfilled the requirements of the Law.
Jesus taught his disciples the LAW and the GOSPEL could be summarized in two essential teachings:

1) Love God supremely; and,

2) Love your neighbor as yourself. 

Consequently; we have this recurring theme throughout the New Testament that affirms the new covenant by which all believers live--“one another.”  In affirming one another, we mutually love God and we mutually share responsibility for one another. Note the following exhortations:
I John 3:11 – Love one another.

Romans 15:14 – Instruct one another.

I Thessalonians 5:11 – Encourage one another.

Hebrews  10:24 – Stir up one another to love and good works.

Romans 12:15; I Corinthians 12:26 – Rejoice with one another.

Romans 12:15 – Weep with one another.

Ephesians 4:32 – Forgive one another.

Ephesians 4:2 – Forbear one another.

James 5:16 – Confess your faults to one another.

James 5:16 – Pray for one another.
The Church is God’s “social construction” not ours. We become part of the people of God when we enlist in the Church of God (cf I Cor. 1:1-2). Becoming people of God, author Curtis DeYoung notes that, “we cannot sit around griping about the rise of immorality and violence in homes, cities and across the globe. We are not at liberty to be mere observers of the dismantling of family life, the disaster of public education, the increasing environmental pollution or the debacle of urbanizing. Jesus expects the people in his church to be caring and commonsense stewards.
DeYoung concludes, “He once told his disciples a parable about a king and his servants. Before going on a long journey, the king gave some of his servants specific assignments with the command, “Occupy till I come” (Luke 19:13, kjv). The inherent message was that, until Jesus returns to earth at the end of the age, the people of God are agents and heralds of all God’s truth, including the message of holistic reconciliation between God and humankind and between hostile people. We are God’s ambassadors entrusted with the word of reconciliation” (p72, Beyond Rhetoric, Judson, 2000).
From now on, declared the Apostle Paul, “therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once regarded Christ from a human point of view, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation, the old has passed away, behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ rconciled us to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of econciliation. So we are ambassadors for Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:16-20 rsv italics added)... and this is walkingwithwarner.blogspot.com

J. B. F. Wright

I moved to Texas the winter of 1951-52 and among the people I would meet is the author of the poem that I have copied here. In my files I have a bundle of these forms printed on halfsheets of paper with a poem on each side, each written by the undersigned. Later it became my privilege to pastor in Ft Worth, TX and while there I became better acquainted with the family of this Church of God pioneer poet.

For several years it was my pleasure to pastor nenbers of the Wright Family: Son Leonard (wife Lee; son Chuck) and two of Leonard's sisters. They were proud of their Church of God heritage and of their family, but adding to my interest was the fact that my wife had spent her childhood in Oklahoma where her parents had frequently hosted another Wright: evangelist and song writer-author G. E. Wright. The Wrights were relatively unknown to the Church of God but G. E. Wright was well known in the southwest, for his evangelistic ministry as well as being the brother of the author of the much acclaimed  song, "Precious Memories."

Half a centeury later I made a Facebook friend and discovered they had very fond family ties going back to the Wright families. That prompted this response when I happened across one of JBF's poem sheets. That further churned the wheels of my mind in thinking about people we meet along this highway of life. We currently find ourseleves in political turmoil with people lining up in opposition to one another for their ideologies, but beneath all of our idealogies we do after all share a common humanity that deserves a basic respect.

We all have to put up with each other in this great universe that a relatively unknown poet has described with considerable feeling of reverence. It causes me to to stop and pause how I treat the people I meet along the way. Like JBF Wright, I may be relatively unknown, altho I may have created a song that literally millions of people have sung unaware.

Now, half a century later, I am piecing together thoughts I wanted to share with a FB friend thinking it would provide a bit of nostalgia and momentary pleasure. It brings to mind a story from the life of the childhood teacher of Martin Luther, who allegedly always took off his hat in the presence of the children he taught: he did not know what kind of greatness he might be standing in the presence of.

It behooves each of us to be respectful of one another. We just might find our past and our present strangely connecting at some distant time in our lives. So; whatever you get from my meandering thoughts, enjoy the reverence I find in these ten verses of JBF Wright as he thought very unscientifically about this universe we live in.

"THE UNBOUNDED UNIVERSE" 
by J. B. F. Wright, 
Brownwood, Texas

They looked through the heavens, those                              mysteries to trace,
Millions and billions of miles out in space;
Those millions of galaxies, of stars every where,
The wonders and glories of God they declare.

They look every where, in every direction,
They find no thinning out, but constant                               reflections;
Of twinkling lights, still further in space,
Those wonders of heaven they definitely trace.

Will they find an edge to the firmament blue,
Where millions and billions of starts peep thru;
Those millions of galaxies like our own milky                     way,
There is no thinning out, no edge they say.

Our great universe, profound and unbounded,
The wisdom of earth, their wits astounded;
Those incomprehensible worlds out in space,
The hands of Divinity each one there did place.

Sometime, somewhere, in eternity's great past,
Before there were skies, with stars overcast;
God stretched forth His creative hands,
Placing those galaxies according to plan.

Those beautiful stars, so sacred divine,
So high, so lofty, they twinkle and shine;
They are not accidents, just happened to be;
They were planned and created by great "Divinity."

Our great solar system, our great milky way,
Spread out thru the Heavens, a wondrous display;
Those myriads of galaxies thru the universe abound,
Incomprehensible, so vast and profound.

Our great imagination reaching out thru the blue,
With our masterful telescopes,but we can't see thru;
There are always new visions, new galaxies abound,
In every direction, no edge is yet found.

That infinite wisdom those mysteries have planned,
Thru eternal ages those galaxies expand;
Those millions of stars out yonder to space,
From the tips of His fingers each one found their place.

Thru millions of miles in that great blue yonder;
They look, they gaze, in awe they ponder;
Those millions of stars in space so immersed,
They find no edge to our great universe.

This poem composed by J. B. F. Wright, author of the internationally
famous song "Precious Memories" and many other songs and poems.
                                                        very truly yours
  J. B. F. Wright
Route 3, Box 37
Brownwood, Texas       

WHO IS THIS

Mark 4:35-41 NKJV

GOODSPEED offers this interesting translation of v. 41:
The disciples take an eventful evening boat ride across the Sea of Galilee. Terrorized by a sudden storm, they observe the storm become quiet at the command of Jesus. "Who can this be," Goodspeed translates it, "For even the wind and the sea obey him" (Mk 4:41; Luke 8:22; Mt 8:27).

THIS IS THE DEFINITIVE QUESTION OF ALL HISTORY.

The disciples saw him as different;
"even the wind and the sea obey him." Elton Trueblood made the observation: Jesus Christ an be accepted; he can be rejected; he cannot reasonably be ignored."

The Church has not always understood Jesus, but has always recognized him as different.
He was born of a maiden who never had sex with a man. He was called Jesus (Mt. 1:21--save people from their sins). The disciples saw him do miracles (text, as did others. Unusual circumstances followed his death, in that he was seen by many during 40 days following; Paul claims at least 500 saw him; Paul and Peter both testified that "God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ (2 Cor. 5:19).

History gives us four historically definitive statements:
321 Arius
said Christ was less than God but more than man, but the Nicene Creed declared him fully                  divine (God and man).
381 Apollinarius 
thought Jesus had human body/soul but divine mind (not fully human), but the Council of Constantinople declared Jesus fully human.
431 Nestorius 
said Jesus was two-people: one human, one divine and thus schizoid, but the Council of Ephesus declared Jesus one person.
In 451 Eutyche
thought Jesus  had two natures: Pre-incarnation and during the incarnation, but the Council
of Chalcedon reaffirmed Christ had two natures in one person and Christian Theology has built around these four theological concepts throughout church history.

Doubters still ask:  Is Jesus human, divine, both, neither? Is he a lunatic? a Liar? or Lord of Life? Mk 3:22--possessed of 'Beelzebub--not who he claimed.
Paul said he arose or our faith is false and he is a liar (I Cor 15:12-18).

Was Jesus paranoid, like the man who thought he was Napoleon? If so; he was a lunatic!

Was Jesus a false prophet? (John 9:16--he broke the Sabbath)
He didn't know what kind of woman Mary was that annointed his feet.

1988 Martin Scorsese produced film "The Last Temptation of Jesus" showing Jesus struggling with his humanity. The film portrays him in his dream as a depraved, lusting swinger who commits fornication/adultery etc as the grossest of sinners, but very different from the Bible.

GOODSPEED TRANSLATES, 'WHO CAN THIS BE?"
Is Jesus the historical man living in Mark 4, or is he the lusting swinger of Martin Scorsece?

I submit that Jesus is neither liar, nor lunatic, nor false prophet, but can on be the Lord of Lords.  If he was only deluded about being God; he was not only a liar and a false prophet but            Christianity is built upon a delusion and a scam. It is a fraud. If Jesus built his ministry on
deceit and trickery, the world has been cruelly deceived and Jesus is guilty of being an unmitigated scoundrel of the worst proportion in history and is deserving of hell fire for eternity (remember his temptation in the wilderness?)

Reason offers no middle ground: Jesus is fully God, fully man; with two nature's in one person as taught by early Councils, or he falls to the level of Martin Scorsece 1988 movie.

MOST IMPORTANTLY; WHO IS JESUS TO YOU AND ME? cf John 20:30-31.

Col. 1:16--The Bible reveals him as our clearest picture of God.
To the Artist ... he is the "one altogether lovely"
To the Architect ... he is the 'Chief Corner Stone"
To the Astronomer ... he is the "Sun of Righteousness"
To the Baker ... he is the :"Living Bread"
To the Banker ... he is the "Unseachable riches"
To the Biologist ... he is "The Life"
To the Builder ... he is the "Sure foundation"
To the Carpenter ... he is "The Door"
To the Editor ... he is the "Good Tidings of great joy"
To the Educator, he is the "Great Teacher"
To the Electrician ... he is the "Light of the world"
To the Engineer ... he is the "New and living Way"
To the Farmer ... he is the "Sower and Lord of the harvest"
To the Florist ... he is the "Rose of Sharon, Lilly of the Valley"
To the Geologist ... he is the "Rock of my salvation"
To the Horticulturalist ... he is the "True Vine"
To the Jeweler ... he is the "living precious stone"
To the Jurist ... he is the "Righteous Judge of all men"
To the Lawyer ... he is the "Faithful and True Witness"
To the Philanthropist ... he is the "unspeakable gift"
To the Policeman ... he is the "Power of God"
To the Preacher ... he is the "Word of God"
To the Sculptor ... he is the "Stone cut without hands"
To the Servant ... he is the "Good Master"
To the Sheep-raiser ... he is the "Good Shepherd"
To the Statesman... he is the "Desire of all nations"
To the Student ... he is the "Incarnate Word"
To the Theologian ... he is the "Author-finisher of our faith"
To the Toiler and Workman ... he is the "Giver of rest" and need we go on?
There is yet one more:
To the Sinner ... he is the "Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world" (Jn 1:29).

In 1988 I attended Ontario, Canada Camp Meeting and met John and Betty Walker Campbell. I knew John but had never met Betty. On meeting her, she recognized me from a picture with her brother with whom I had spent the summer of 1945 with at AC. Thus, she accepted me as a fellow believer.

On this saame trip I visited with a young Dutch woman, raised by atheist unbelievers. She immigrated to Canada, married, divorced and was now struggling with addiction to tobacco. She had met a Christian friend and was searching to know who God is. i learned she discovered God dealing with her life---this god who is no God, for she was an atheist. Yet she found him real and discovered freedom from addiction, forgiveness of sin, and became  a
dynamic follower of Jesus.

FOR YOU SEE, GOD IS REAL AND TO THE BELIEVER HE IS 
"SON OF THE LIVING GOD"
"SAVIOR  WHO REDEEMS US"
"LORD OF ALL HOPE AND GLORY."
I am walkingwithwarner.blogspot.com

The Kingdom of Peace

Saul of Tarsus became a Christ-follower at a time when special-interests polluted the landscape and undermined individual and community interests. Good without God was not good enough. Following Jesus was swimming upstream and proved easier to proclaim than to practice. In becoming an Apostle for Christ, Saul entered the Gentile world and encountered a demolition derby dominated by warfare for-and-against Rome. Racial strife stirred in everywhere imaginable. Special interests undermined individual and community interests.

As a new Christian, Paul followed a person rather than a religious ritual. To convert people to his new faith, he invited them to repent of their personal sins and confess the failures of their culture or religious system and accept the sovereignty of Jesus as God’s Messiah (Eph. 4:1, 7, 26).

Saul was a self-confessed terrorist. He admittedly terrorized people in the name of God. After being rescued from the tyranny of his misguided Judaic legalism, and following his dramatic encounter with Christ on the Damascus Road, Saul began viewing life as Paul. He now viewed humanity through the eyes of “God, who made the world and everything in it.” He abandoned his former “worldly point of view” (Acts 17:24 NKJV; 2 Corinthians 5:16, NIV, emphasis added).

Paul’s transformation from the former Saul redefined his views of humanity and prompted him to add new dimensions of “the divine” into his life. Saul’s transformation brought transition from the inside out and Paul turned about face from the inside out. This conversion from self-serving Saul, into Paul the Apostle—the bond servant of Christ (doulos), transformed Paul into a new and truly converted man that now served as God’s roving Ambassador for the Messiah.

Sensing his commission from God, Paul committed his life to proclaiming God’s eternal Kingdom of peace (2 Corinthians 5:16-21). He now spent the remainder of his mortal life taking his story where it had not been before. By the time of Paul’s death, his epitaph readily read, “as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone” (Romans 12:18).

When Paul introduced his message of Jesus into the Athenian Pantheon of gods and goddesses, he acknowledged their traditional beliefs and tailored his message accordingly. This became typical of Paul’s gospel as he reached for common ground with his audiences, before introducing his resurrection perspectives and reflecting on how God lives, moves about, and resides, or has his being, in all of humanity (Acts 17).

Of course, the sophisticated Athenians rejected Paul’s resurrection teaching. Although they recognized the soundness of Paul’s reasoning, their limited humanistic  perspective polluted their landscape and undermined their individual and community interests at all levels, tossing it aside as a wild herring “—"such things just do not happen.”.

They reacted rather than respond with reason and became defensive with Paul. Consequently, he chose to trust God’s Living Spirit to guide them into the truth and to sustain him as he went his way. In moving on, Paul avoided getting mired in cultural issues and venting ill will toward those who opposed him. Like the prophets of old, Paul left them in God’s Hands, and he leaned hard on the mediation of God’s Spirit, thereby maintaining the good will of the people as much as possible.

When Paul entered Ephesus, Paul found certain infantile views in the young church that he challenged. He taught them to mature spiritually through deeper commitment to their Sovereign Lord, Jesus Christ, He taught them how to put on the whole armor of God; i.e., wear the garments of grace that only God can give (Ephesians 6:10; 4:14-16; 1:6-7).

Paul understood that when we view one another through our naturally human eyes, we sort out and divide people according to our natural human biases and our demographics of difference. Jesus, on the other hand, commissioned his disciples to love one another in ways that unified their differences, forgave their wrongs done to them, and reconciled their fractured relationships (Matthew 28:19-20).

The Lord who is the Sovereign of the Kingdom of God continually calls us to become his peacemakers; yet, we find ourselves continually confronted by wars, rumors of war, and unreconciled relationships.  Consequently when we find that we have nothing new to offer, our Sovereign reminds us we can at least offer the stranger in our midst a cup of cold water in ‘Jesus’ Name.’

One June evening a few years back, I found myself approaching a black man at a church convention—Dr. James Earl Massey. Without either of us stopping, he nodded and we locked eyes for a moment, and he greeted me with these words: “May the peace of God be with you, my brother” That word “Shalom” from my friend and brother, Jim Massey, later prompted me to reconsider the words Jesus spoke to His disciples, when he said: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you” (John 14:27, NIV).

We were two men passing each other in a sea of people. Each of us carried our shipload of freight. Each of us reflected our differing ethnicities. Each of us were part of a bigger world that readily assimilated us into in its variety of turbulence, terrorism, broken lives, fragile relationships, and social advocacy. What we shared in common, however, was that peace of which Jesus spoke when he instructed his disciples “Do not let your hearts be troubled and … afraid.”

Living on the outskirts of South Haven, MI  as the nineteeth century rolled into view, a young teenager wrestled with himself while listening to the frontier evangelist and reformer, D. S. Warner. Sixteen-year-old Barney Warren accepted the invitation and committed himself as a disciple of Jesus Christ. He soon joined Warner’s evangelistic team and spent his life as a preacher-song writer. In describing the peace and joy he found in the Christ-life, that he could not otherwise express; he found that it fortified his life and remained a “sweet” memory.

Envisioning this “Kingdom of Peace” Barney Warren took his pen in hand and wrote these words to his fellow Church of God Reformationists:

            ‘Tis a kingdom of peace, it is reigning within,

                        It shall ever increase in my soul;

            We possess it right here when He saves from all sin,

                        And ‘twill last while the ages shall roll.¹

This is: walkingwithwarner.blogspot,com inviting you to join in …

“There’s a theme that is sweet to my memory,

          There’s a jo that I cannot express,

There’s a treasure that gladdens my being,

          ‘Tis the kingdom of God’s righteousness.

…

What a pleasure in life it is bringing!

          What assurance and hope ever bright!

O what rapture and bliss are awaiting,

          When our faith shall be lost in the sight!

             ¹“The Kingdom of Peace” Barney E. Warren. Worship the Lord, Hymnal of the Church of God. Anderson, IN: Warner Press, Inc., 1989, p. 481.

_____

Mandate For Mission

An American described his Sunday morning corner of the globe as a bustling city of yuppies loitering on crowded sidewalks and the common lot headed for the nearest coffeehouse, Sunday brunch, or body-building salon. The sidewalk crowd varied from Asian to Middle-easterner with a smattering of Hindu couples. Further down the street and almost out of sight, a smaller crowd of white people threaded their way into a white protestant church.

The observer noted that the white crowd seemed to be a little out of step with the clashing colors, blended cultures and mixed creeds on the crowded sidewalk. With the media awash with issues of emigration, terrorism, genocide, and  catastrophic weather, how do you respond when you gather for fellowship at your church and listen to the gossip about our fractured and fragmented mass of humanity?

Do you feel a need to identify more closely with the needs of God’s World, or do you passionately wish for a return to more normal days when our problems all looked and acted just like you?

Accept the Idea

Finding your Mandate for Mission begins with accepting the idea that our mission is God’s idea and not ours. God calls us to saturate our world with His-story. It is not our option to choose or reject; it is his mandate for us to accept.

Any vision of the Church’s Mission  must begin with understanding who we are as people of God. It is essential that every congregation develop a firm conviction of who it is and what God has called it to do. When the church does not reach outward, upward, downward, and around it, who will?

Jesus launched his ministry by calling-and-commissioning twelve students to “go” and disciple others. He mentored his dozen ordinary citizens and trained them to go forth and represent him, in his name. Thus equipped, he sent them out to offer peaceful solutions to their fragmented humanity that badly needed reconciling with God.

Did he mean only for them to go, or did disciple them so they could eventually identify us, so that we too could accept that mandate and perpetuate it? A thorough penetration of the sidewalk crowd can happen only when we take the gospel continuously and share it perpetually with every person within our ministry area.

If we as believers do not accept God’s Mandate, who will?

Practice the behavior

The first-century Jerusalem church did more than just hold fellowship meetings and conduct worship services for the community. They saturated Jerusalem with their word-of-mouth literature and God did great wonders among the multitudes that came under the influence of the church. This created problems for the church and eventually caused the members to be scattered throughout Judea and Samaria and unto the uttermost parts.

As they went, they took with them the game-changing concept of the priesthood of believers and each believer became an active participant in the Kingdom of God, walking daily with the Lord Jesus and personally directed  internally by the Spirit of God. Can today’s church do less? If so, every nation become part us of our mission field, every congregation become a sending station, and every member becomes a missionary.

Once we accept this idea, leaders can teach the concept, devise strategies for accomplishing our identified mission, and lead us in modeling this behavior.

Promote the practice

Proclaim the practice and promotion of this Mandate from every pulpit. Teach it in every classroom. Model it in every congregation. Strong witness calls for involved leaders to guide the visioning process, to plan, and to organizing ways of providing opportunity for every member participation. Witnessing is every Christian‘s vocation.

Sunday school classes, small groups of every kind, and every part of church life should be a successful extension for witnessing and winning souls. Any organization within the organized church that does not contribute to the missionary mandate should be terminated

Prepare /Enlist and equip/ the personnel

Rather than focusing on the congregation as the minister’s mission field, believers need to elevate the concept of the priesthood of the laity, commission the people of God (the Laos) to do the work of ministry, and focus on the mandate of the church both inside the building and out in the community.

Begin with leaders that are committed to a biblical model. Enlist lay members in a variety of program opportunities for lifestyle and friendship evangelism. Do not neglect providing opportunities for confrontational and one-on-one evangelism.

Establish and maintain systematic ongoing witness-training classes. Equip people to present the claims of the gospel and make it a priority for every member. Sooner or later, every member will face an opportunity for leading another person to Christ; like any good Scout, be prepared.

Achieve your purpose by preparing to succeed

If you do not plan to succeed, you plan to fail. If you do not plan opportunities for market-place ministries, there will always be a reason for not doing it. Schedule regular outreach visitation. Conduct special projects. Provide opportunities for discovering new prospects. Enlist help for door to door witnessing, telephone calling campaigns, and community bible schools, but be sure to plan events that make the best use of the spiritual gifts available among current members.

Celebrate your victories

Hit and miss methodologies will not succeed in today’s complex world community. Only through total participation can you achieve total penetration. Therefore, expect every member to share the gospel with someone, somewhere, sometime, somehow.

Do not neglect celebration. When someone leads another to Christ, celebrate. Affirm one another for doing the one thing every member should be doing. When Jesus returned to the presence of the Father, his parting reminder to the church instructed us to be His witnesses. We begin at home where we live--Jerusalem. We model our faith in our community--our Judea. Some have influence among diverse ethnic peoples and will witness in Samaria. Others will become cross-cultural specialists and will witness to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8, NIV).

When every nation becomes our mission field, and when every congregation becomes a sending station, and when every member becomes a missionary, only then will we adequately fulfill our mandate to be God’s people on mission through ministry in God’s own unique and powerful way. This is walkingwithwarner.blogspot.com

The Baptism of Jesus

Theme - Jesus Baptism

Text – This is my Son, whom I love, with him I am well pleased (Mt  3:17)

Introduction – Coarse countrified corrective: The Baptizer flashed his

his proclamation across rural Judea like a meteor (Mt. 1:1).

“The axe is already at the root of the tree” he announced.  Those

accustomed to drawing upon the merits of their national icon

found this offensive and unpatriotic.

“Every tree not producing good fruit,” John warned, “will

be cut down and thrown into the fire” (Mt. 2:10 NIV).

While baptizing all who confessed their sins, he delared

The imminent arrival of another kingdom, ruled by a greater person

with a more powerful message.

Among those seeking baptism came a young Galilean and

what followed calls us to consider the lordship of Jesus. John

hesitated, recognizing superiority. “Permit it to be.” Jesus urged.

“It is fitting … to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew

3:1 NKJV). Jesus’ ordination announced his Sonship, declared

new citizenship and revealed a new life in the Spirit.

Jesus’ sonship

The baptismal announcement completed his ordination and

Jesus went preaching (kerussein, Matthew 3:17) what John

Heralded (kerysso, from keryz, a herald, kerussein, Mt 3:1).

New citizenship called for higher loyalty and total allegiance.

Israel accepted the role of chosen people, but linked

Salvation with their national liberation. Tasting freedom under

the Maccabees, they pursued it until 63 A.D. when destroyed by

Titus. John’s word of God’s imminent intervention came after four

centuries without a prophet and this thrilled the faithful but threatened

the faithless.

Matthew viewed Jesus as the promise fulfilled in the empowering presence

of Jesus (Mt 2:5, 1:23, 1:21). I was a young Airman when I met my wife.

We lived on a shoestring in tiny apartments. We ate lots of BLT sandwiches

but we had presence. Like Matthew, presence fulfilled promise.

Generations have since met Jesus and experienced the fulfillment

of Immanuel (God with us). Skeptics label him a fool, a fraud, and some

call him a phantasy, but none dare call him evil. Is it not more rational

to accept his Sonship than to believe he perpetrated history’s most

heinous hoax, thereby deluding us to accept faith, hope, and love?”

God’s Kingdom

Jesus’ sonship pointed higher than Israel. It brought

Heavenly citizenship into the Gentile world, creating a new

community, built on faith in God, and revealing greater

understanding of God’s mission to humanity (Hebrews 8:7-13,

9:15, 28-29).

God’s kingdom is for people of faith, not ethnic purists.

“Whoever does the will of my Father” finds an open door  declared

Jesus (Mt. 12:50). Our New Testament is our New Covenant,

Our peace, the story of the One who “made the two (Jew and

Gentile) one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of

hostility … to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus

making peace … to reconcile  both … through the cross” (Ephesians

2:14-16 NIV).

“The law and the prophets were until John,” Jesus

confirmed, “since that time the kingdom of God is preached and

every man presseth into it: (Luke 16:16 KJV). No mere historic

parenthesis, the church of the redeemed became an expression of

The Spirit’s empowerment, offering God’s grace to everyone

Accepting it.

There is Life in the Spirit

Jesus’ baptism was fitting (NKJV), proper (NIV) “to fulfill

all righteousness.” The time was right (Hebrews 1:1-3). Israelite

nationalism was axed, but repentance opened the door into the

kingdom. Jesus’ baptism clearly evidenced the Trinity, making

us Trinitarians when we accept his Lordship and live under his

Spirit.

The Holy Spirit administers God’s Grace Department. He applies

and distributes what comes from joint-headquarters. He revives our

recall of Jesus, illuminates His Word, quickens our consciences,

renews our minds, and confirms our acceptance (cf. Mt. 3:11;

John 16:8; Ephesians 1:13-14).

Our decadent society compromises men and ministries,

churches and individuals and leaves its stench behind. Charles

Swindoll and his family returned from their vacation to a stinking house.

They found it saturated with the odor of maggot-filled possum

in their attic. They searched feverishly until they found a product

called “Anti-Icky-Pooh,” guaranteed to rid the odors of the dead

and decaying flesh.

A debilitating atmosphere of worldliness sickens today’s church that

Is badly in need of rediscovering the Lordship of Jesus. Truth provides the

fulcrum on which the Holy Spirit’s lever rests. Faith in Jesus’ sonship

is the conveyor carrying salvation.  The Holy Spirit empowers and

brings wholeness and health, holiness and  healing.

He is Lord, He is Lord

He is risen from the dead and He is Lord!

Ev’ry knee shall bow, ev’ry tongue confess

That Jesus Christ is Lord (1)

_____

1 Worship the Lord, Hymnal of the Church of God, Anderson:

Warner Press. Inc., 1989), p. 223.

Facing Temptation As Church Leaders

Background Scripture – Mark 1:9-14

Two things necessary to understand Jesus’ ‘temptation

1.       Confirmed his messianic consciousness

2.       Conscious of his mission to be fulfilled through suffering

THREE TEMPTATIONS CHURCH LEADERS FACE—we do not face the temptations Jesus did but we see the similarity in the way workers are tested and the principles are the same—

Text for exposition---Matthew 3:13-4:11. We do well to fortify ourselves with the knowledge that 1)       Jesus was tested; and 2) Workers and  church leaders face their own kinds of temptation, not faced by just every disciple:

I. Since you are the Messiah AVOID SUFFERING … The Jews did not expect a suffering Messiah and Jesus was tempted to exempt himself.

A.       Jesus alternative was to accept a spiritual mission

B.       You will be tempted to exempt yourself from what you expect of others under you.

C.       You face the deceit of a mission satisfied with physical successes rather than spiritual.

       II .  Jesus tempted to presume on God’s goodness – will not God care for you – jump off -- use                  sensation and be sensational Savior—He realized spiritual goals not achieved via shortcuts.

            A. You will be tempted to use your authority and position. As teacher, you feel assured you                        know what your pupils need.

             B. You will be tempted to use any means possible because you have good intentions.
             C.       You will be tempted to form a coalition with God.

     D.      Since you are the Messiah, and you intend to win, compromise with me (Satan) and I will help you (SH          ORTCUTS)

1.       Jesus was tempted to accept the Devil’s help via compromise and do God’s Work the Devil’s way.

a.       Jesus to Peter – Mt 16 – Get thee behind me Satan

b.       Jesus constantly  told those he healed to tell no one.

2.       You will be tempted to do God’s Work the Devil’s way or use the World’s measure of success

a.        Compromise your zeal.

b.       Compromise your concern for people.

c.       Compromise your preparation.

    1)      Song leader only  helps people worship God

    2)      Singer does nothing to detract personally but lift to God

    3)      Teacher is God’s instrumental for using God’s truth for God’s mission

    4)      Committeeman whose service is not directly motivated by God’s redemptive            purpose has compromised

         d.      You will be tempted to see your struggle as other than the spiritual warfare it really               is, but this is the point of Jesus’ success: he recognized Satan.

CONCLUSION…Jesus refused to compromise because sin-Satan cannot be conquered by yielding to it.

           1.       You face principalities and powers but you do so with the resources of God’s Word,                               Presence.

           2.       Worldly standards can never measure the work you will do if you acknowledge Gods                           purposes for man and acknowledge yourself as an instrument of his will

           3.        Jesus gave his answer in Mt 4.10 – You shall worship the Lord your God and him only 

                   shall you serve.

This is walkingwithwarner.blogspot.com:  "How will you answer in your time of testing?"

Jesus Christ

Dr. Richard Halverson, former Pastor and Chaplain of the U.S. Senate wrote this statement regarding Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ is the FINAL - ABSOLUTE - INCONROVERTIBLE ground for Christian faith...
If He can be discredited--Christianity is discredited.
If he is wrong -- Chrisianity is wrong...
If He can fail - Christianity will fail!...
Christian faith rises and falls with Jesus Christ!
NOT OUR DOCTRINE ABOUT Him--but Jesus Christ Himself.

Our doctrine is fallible - He is not.
Our doctrine may be wrong - He is not.
Put all the theology together--every thought
man has ever formulated about Jesus Christ
---He is greater by infinity than the sum total of all dogma
conceived by the mind of man.
You cannot escape Jesus Christ as a fact of history...
He was actually born in a certain place at a certain time under a certain condition...
He lived a certain kind of life--taught many things--did many things...
And finally died as a common criminal in the method most accepted in that day for capital punishment.

History is divided by Him. In the words of Charles Malik of Lebanon 'Jesus Christ is the hinge of history."
The fact of Jesus Christ's existence is indisputable...
But the minute you accept Him as a fact of history--you cannot explain Him on any other ground than that He was God in the flesh!

He was unique in His birthl...
He weas unique in His life...
He was unique in His death...
He was unique in His victory over death --
the resurrection
-----copied-----

What is the True Gospel?

Before Jesus went to the cross, he gave his disciples a last final comprehensive commandment: “Love each other, you must love each other as I have loved you. All people will know that you are my followers if you love each other” (John 13:35 NCV). Commenting on this sermon text last Sunday, Pastor Allan Hutchison concluded, loving one another is the best way to live out the church life.”

Pastor Allan offered three adjectives that he believed define God’s love: 1—love undeniable; 2—love unselfish; and 3—love unconditional. God’s love as expressed in John 3:16 is without question, undeniable. The long history of Israel as the People of God had but one purpose and that was to introduce the Messiah (Jesus) as Emmanuel, “God with us,” The New Testament is the church's witness of the undeniability of God’s love as expressed in John 3:16-17.

We know political Israel missed the truth of the Messiah’s coming and they rejected Jesus, sentencing him to a Roman cross. Nonetheless, declared the Apostle to the Gentiles, God showed his love for us via the death of Jesus while we were still undeserving sinners. That love was revealed as both unselfish and unconditional (Romans 5:8). Paul consequently challenged us to live for God by becoming our own LIVING sacrifice and be changed from the inside out (Romans 12:1-2).

This transformation is elsewhere described as the New Birth, or being Born again (i.e., born from above and beyond the natural—supra-natural) This is above and beyond anything we can do for ourselves, but God does it by his own plan. Paul announced “God has made us what we are. In Christ Jesus, God made us to do good works, which God planned in advance for us to live our lives doing” (Ephesians 2:10 NCV).

Should you question this way of thinking, you need go no further than the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus said when you love those that love you, you are only doing what is expected of you; therefore, love your enemy and pray for those who deceitfully use you (Matthew 5:44)). Love is uncompromising. When we love God supremely within our Christian fellowship, we also love our neighbor as we love ourselves; and, we live at peace with all humanity as much as is within our power (Romans 14).

Why is this so important, you ask: because if there is any one thing that is clear in reading John’s epistles, it is that God is light and love in his essential nature. Paul concludes  that love is the supreme gift and that if we do not love, our good works become nothing more than tinkling cymbals and clanging bells (I Corinthians 13).

This is not a philosophical dialogue of war vs peace or militarism vs pacifism. It becomes an issue when the world sees-and-hears  us the church expressing militarism and a militant diplomacy as a biblical expression of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The world is not seeing the true church when the church aligns itself with political power and the military-industrial complex. This presents a false church that is heretical in its very essence because it twists and perverts the biblical view of God, God’s people, and the true nature of the church. At best, military might offers a substitute gospel as the best way to live out God’s diplomacy of love and reconciliation. 

The militancy proclaimed by current premillenialist Franklin Graham and President Donald Trump unequivocally denies the gospel of suffering that found Jesus in the Garden praying ”Not my will but … thy will be done.” It offers a substitute gospel of retaliation and indescribable damage ... if you touch me wrong. It serves as the spirit of anti-Christ (study I John 2:18-25).

Power offers military strategies of selective assassination of enemy leaders. Military diplomacy promises bombs rather than bibles. Power practices tit for tat and results only in an unhealed future that promises even greater hostility and more powerful retaliation. "My power" becomes the issue of greatest importance, rather than the healing of the nations.

From Warner's World, this is:
                                      walkingwithwarner.blogspot.com -
                                                                                             to which gospel do you subscribe
_____

THIS THING WE CALL PROGRESS

Long before environmental issues became such a political football, I followed the writings of Al Gore through the pages of the Southern Baptist Home Missions Magazine. Gore was a Baptist layman and I was a non-Baptist graduate of a southern Baptist Seminary. I was a Michigan pastor that found Gore’s writings helpful in understanding environmental issues as related to climate change and interpreting them in a constructive Christian manner.

The YEAR 2020 finds me retired and relocated in the Kentucky Blue Grass. This has landed me in a very different climate of partisan politics where I face conflicting political views about clean air and water and pollution as well as wind energy and the struggles of coal miners. It is not my purpose to divide readers between issues of wind and the survival of coal. I have friends on both sides of this issue and I can only follow the teaching of The Master Teacher who instructs me to love God supremely so that I might also love my neighbor as myself.

Personally, I find much encouragement in a future energized by the winds that blow in varying amounts at all times and in many places, both advantageously and destructively. I also find much to support when considering the problems of the Coal Industry. My sympathy goes out to those coal miners who today live with black lung disease. I grieve for those citizens that are forced to deal with issues of water, air, and land pollution such as those endured by citizens in places like Martin and Floyd County, Kentucky. I feel the pain of friends whose livelihood is dependent upon the Coal Industry. Far be it from me to make their lives more complicated than they already are.

I do not profess to know the answer, but I look to the Wisdom of the Ages, and “I lift up my eyes to the hills. From whence does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth” (Psalm 121:1 RSV). The one thing I feel most assured of is that His wisdom will leave me loving him so supremely that I am left no choice but to love my neighbor at least as much as I love myself.

This takes me back to something I read a few decades ago, a piece of wisdom shared by J. David Newman in a 1991 issue of Ministry Magazine (p5). For what it is worth, I share it with you to allow us to face our issues today in ways that allow for win-win situations and avoiding the I-win you-lose syndrome. Following is a portion of a letter written by Martin Van Buren, then governor of New York, to President Andrew Jackson on January 31, 1829. For what it is worth, here is Van Buren’s approach to his subject.

“The canal system of this country is being threatened by the spread of a new form of transportation known as railroads. The federal government must preserve the canals for the following reasons.

“One, if boats are supplanted by railroads, serious unemployment will result. Captains, cooks, drivers, hostlers, repairmen, and lock tenders will be left without means of livelihood, not to mention the numerous farmers now employed in growing hay for horses.

“Two, boat builders would suffer, and towline, whip, and harness makers would be left destitute.”

Three, canal boats are absolutely essential to the defense of the United States. In the event of the expected trouglooe with engoand, the Erie Canal wouod ge the hoy means y which we couod ever j9ge the supplies so vital t waging modern war.

“As you may well know, Mr. President, railroad carriages are pulled at the enormous speed of 15 miles per hour by engines that, in addition to endangering life and limb through the countryside, setting fire to crops, scaring the lifestock, and frightening women and children. The Almighty certainly never intended that people should travel at such breakneck speed.”

Fast-forward back to 2020 and I wonder what the Governor of New York would say today about this thing we call progress. Yes; progress makes change inevitable Change suggests that we (I) must be flexible and adaptable if we want to survive changing times. Some are helped by change. Some are hurt by change, but change is part of life and demands the best of wisdom of the ages. The one thing of which I am sure is this: each of us can choose whether we shape the changes life throws at us, or we can let those changes shape us.

Because I love God above all else, I will look above and beyond the hills to the wisdom that comes from above and I will love my neighbor enough to work with him or her or them and we will cooperate and reconcile our progress in ways that allow us to each benefit from our relationship and we will avoid trying to one-up the other.

This is walkingwithwarner.blogspot.com

Facing Our Opioid Crisis

The current Kentucky Opioid Crisis has local Media on edge. They are reporting these days on individuals like M. B. who graduated from the local high school in 2011. This individual was an active girl scout. She was active in local academic affairs. She was, devout in her church and an active church member until "the pressures of life took over. She began to question herself … She began socializing with different people She lost her faith and lost her relationship with the church” her mother suggested.

“This young lady began to self-medicate to deal with mental and emotional pain. The self-medicating became an addiction, reprogramming her brain to such an extent she could no longer control it.

"She wanted to be better for herself,” her mother reported, “But this demon was a formidable adversary that she could not overcome” and she died in the local hospital just before her 26^th birthday, as reported by the local newspaper.

This girl was survived by her son. She was someone’s daughter, sister, cousin, friend and her baby’s mothers. Her departure left family and friends with holidays, birthdays, and special occasions forever different.

            
Her mother continues to ponder why her daughter left her stage of life so soon; she was but 25 years old.”

As reported in the local newspaper, this young woman now takes her place as  a memory for a Rally4Recovery as local citizens rally to save one more life, re-unite one more family, to help one more person break that cycle of addiction.

The Prophet Isaiah understood this crisis of which we are all apart. He understood our need to turn back from our religiosity, our political structures and all such panaceas. He announced that we must once more establish our days acceptably as unto the Lord that issued this challenge:

"Is not this the fast that I choose to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and hide not yourself from your own flesh?

Only "Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily; your righteousness shall go before you, and the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, Here I am. . .” (58;5-) RSV).

It is obvious to me that we have some repairs to make in the breaches of our 2020 social structures. Our political solutions and our humanistic philosophies are no longer adequate. It is no longer sufficient for us to define ourselves as Republi-cans or Democrats, Independents, Libertarians, or Socialists; we are flooded with disasters of genocide, struggles for power, and calamities of faith.

To avoid the disasters of humanity we must once again turn to the ONE GREAT I AM, WHO IS TODAY AND WILL BE TOMORROW and remember once more from  where true healing comes.            

We must once more point to the Lord God of all humanity, who says, I the Lord love justice, I hate robbery and wrong; I will faithfully give them their recompense, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them” (61:8-9) 

Who today has the courage to walk within hearing distance and hear this word of the Lord and follow the example of Isaiah when he said, "Here am I, Lord; send me?"

I am ... walkingwithwarner.blogspot.com