Category Archives: Uncategorized

A Season of Thanksgiving

Bible Baptist Church Posted on by

Autumn has been my favorite time of the year for a long, long time for many reasons. As I grow older and hopefully wiser, I try to take some time to contemplate as often as I can. I like to think that mostly I’ve usually been a thankful person, but the longer I live, the more I realize I have so much to be thankful for. The obvious things that most of us think of when we count our blessings during this Thanksgiving Season and into the Christmas and New Year usually start with family, home, health and the like. I’m thankful for all of these too, but with every year and certainly with certain life events that pass, I find that I’m thankful for things that some may not even consider.

I’m thankful for the mistakes I’ve made over the years and especially the ones that taught me the hardest but best lessons. I’m thankful for injuries and illnesses that remind me of the frailty of life and the necessity to care for the body that the Lord has blessed me with. Additionally, some of these injuries and illnesses have forced me to slow down or even stop, consider, perhaps rest or redirect in the way the Lord desired that I go. On the other hand, I am thankful for the health and strength that the Lord has blessed me with to allow me to do what He’s called me to do.

I’m thankful for my wife of 23 years and our seven beautiful children. Many have wondered at our large family and even criticized us for various reasons, but I would answer that raising seven children to love Jesus Christ with all their heart, soul, mind and strength is one of the greatest legacies we can leave. I’m incredibly proud of each of them and love seeing them grow in stature and in grace and knowledge of the Lord.

I’m thankful for the opportunity to serve our nation in the armed forces, even though the church has to adapt sometimes when duty calls. I’m thankful that they so enthusiastically support me and my family in my military service. I’m thankful for the perspective that this service has shaped over my years of service in different locations and jobs.

I’m thankful to live in the greatest nation on earth where opportunity is generally available and the next step depends on what I believe is the balance of divine providence and personal responsibility. I’m thankful for the physical and mental strength and stamina the Lord has blessed me with over the years in order to provide for our family while my very capable wife gladly oversees the household in her noblest calling. I’m thankful for godly parents who are enjoying their heavenly reward awaiting the time when we’ll be reunited again.

I’m thankful for teachers, coaches, employers, mentors, supervisors and friends who have helped to shape me into who I have become today, whether those interactions were positive or negative from my perspective at that time. I’m thankful that I’ve mostly done my best to learn from my mistakes and the mistakes of others to improve my life and my walk with the Lord. I’m thankful for the opportunities I’ve had to maximize positive interactions when possible over the years.

I am especially thankful for the opportunity to personally own a copy of God’s word, the Bible without fear of imprisonment or worse. I’m thankful for the time I have each day to read a portion of it, personally and with my family in order to properly prioritize my life.

More than anything else, I am thankful for the gift of salvation only available though Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior. I am thankful that even after attempting to live life on my terms, rejecting Him, he still saw fit to cover my sins with his precious blood. I’m thankful that He has provided a plan and a way for me to serve him with the gifts and abilities he has blessed me with.

America Has a Problem (Part 1: The Big Picture)

Bible Baptist Church Posted on by

It’s more than the recent news headlines, which have been sensationalized by many news outlets that these observations are shared. As a nation, we have more than slid into the ditch morally and in so many other ways. No, we haven’t simply “slid into the ditch” as I just mentioned, we’ve jumped off the cliff after flirting with the crumbling edge for so many years.

Before I go any further, every death, especially of those who do not know Jesus Christ as Savior is tragic. The recent “mass shootings” are absolutely tragic, but for too many people who have been watching the moral fabric of our nation shredded over the last 40 years and more could have and should have warned that this is coming. I read an article this morning, esssentially warning that, no matter what we do at this point, it’s not going to get any better anytime soon. https://www.wnd.com/2019/08/why-the-mass-shootings-will-continue/

Just to get a better idea of some of the things going on in our nation today, though the statistics are as recent as I could find, I did just a little bit of digging. I’m essentially a nobody on anyone’s radar and whether I have a small or large audience matters little to me. With that being said, I’m simply echoing what many have already said over and over, yet no one listens because for too many people, their minds are already made up and “confusing them with the truth,” simply isn’t helpful and certainly not desireable. America does not “have a gun problem.” America does, very much “have a sin problem.”

A firearm is an inanimate object. Fully loaded, regardless of its size, appearance, round capacity, caliber or any other characteristic it does not “kill people” unless it is acted upon by some outside force. I have considerable experience with firearms of all types, though that is not the point of my comments. As I stated earlier, I did a little bit of research to get just a sliver of the picture of many of the problems that contribute to the overall sin problem in our nation today. The statistics all come from a single source to eliminate any possible bias. My source of information is the Centers for Disease Control website. All figures include the latest data available from the website, which may not all be from the same year, but all the most recent available.

According to the CDC, there were 14,542 firearm homicides in the United States in 2017, which translates to nearly 40 per day. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/homicide.htm Taking into consideration ALL firearm related deaths, accidents and suicides, that number jumps to 28,663 for the year 2000 or about 79 per day. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/rr5214a2.htm

Alcohol usage in America has directly led to even greater problems in our country, but there is no public forum anywhere calling for a ban on alcohol. According to the CDC, ” Drinking too much can harm your health. Excessive alcohol use led to approximately 88,000 deaths and 2.5 million years of potential life lost (YPLL) each year in the United States from 2006 – 2010, shortening the lives of those who died by an average of 30 years.1,2 Further, excessive drinking was responsible for 1 in 10 deaths among working-age adults aged 20-64 years. The economic costs of excessive alcohol consumption in 2010 were estimated at $249 billion, or $2.05 a drink.3” https://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/fact-sheets/alcohol-use.htm . Alcohol related deaths are at 88,000 deaths annually or an average of just over 241 per day.

Where firearm control or an outright ban is the ideal of many, and unrestricted access is the other side of the coin, the same can be said about abortion. According to the CDC, there have were 638,169 “legal abortions” performed in 2015 or over 1,748 per day. https://www.cdc.gov/reproductivehealth/data_stats/abortion.htm.

These statistics do not even take into account other actions that the Bible calls sin. There are things that we have turned a blind eye to as a church, collectively and as a nation. Regardless of garbage “revisionist history,” the truth is that our nation was indeed founded on morality and religion. For the most part, based on our own founding documents and the writings of our own founding fathers, we were established on a Judeo-Christian foundation. The first article that was referenced is profound and, I believe, right on target, unfortunately.

Let me sum up my thoughts here by some succinct comparisons of three of the statistics offered. Go search it yourself, by the way. The links are there. For the years available for the most current results there were 14,542 firearm homicides or nearly 40 per day in 2017. Alcohol use gives us 88,000 deaths on average or just over 241 per day. Abortion accounted for 638,169 innocent deaths or over 1,748 per day in 2015. Just a little more perspective here: for every single firearm homicide in the statistics available from the CDC, there were almost 44 innocent babies slaughtered per day.

Firearms, alcohol, abortion and more. America has a sin problem. To be continued…

Pastor Joe

Who are You to Say??

Bible Baptist Church Posted on by

There have been a lot of things going on in the news lately as well as in daily conversation, social media and generally on a lot of people’s minds, it seems. I’m sure my observations and comments won’t be exhaustive, but I have been involved with reading, hearing, discussing, watching and considering many of these “social issues” in everyday life. If you have different thoughts, I’d love to hear about them.

The purpose of this post isn’t to completely hash out the social issues in the news, including abortion, homosexuality/transgenderism, immigration, gun control, welfare and well, I’m sure you get the picture. If I feel it’s necessary in the future, perhaps if it’s requested, or depending on where the news (social, mainstream or otherwise) may go, some individual topics may be adressed in the future. In considering these issues, whether in discussion or news reporting, of course everyone has an opinion. The more important consideration is in all aspects is the “final say,” if you will.

Since everyone has an opinion on these issues, are there any absolutes to be considered? Is every opinion valid or is there a truth to be known in all the jumble? As many may say we either “need to keep ‘religion’ out of the discussion.” Or, “religion defines or at least guides the answers.” I would submit that “religion” is sometimes a part of the problem if “religion” is simply to be defined as a “belief system.” For some people who are passionately involved in the discussion, or interested observers with strong opinions, “religion” may be a big part of the discussion, but I would contend they are missing the forest for the trees.

I will contend that God and His word are the ultimate and absolute authority and He will have the “final say” in these issues. I also will contend that anyone who uses God’s Word, the Bible as their foundation and absolute authority when discussing these issues is right. Unfortunately, I’ve experienced “Christians” who have strong opinions about this one way or the other, who don’t seem to even consider what the Bible has to say. The other aspect of this is that some will attempt to use what they THINK scripture SEEMS to say to support their strong opinions one way or the other.

I’m not exactly sure what happens, but in many cases to me it seems that “Christians” use some kind of a digital search tool to find a verse of scripture which seems to support their preconceived ideas regarding some issue. They find what they think supports their position, but don’t take the care or the time to read the surrounding verses or similar passages of scripture to get the context. Then when anyone counters their position with proper biblical exposition, the true student of scripture is called all sorts of names or derided as being “hateful, judgemental, narrow-minded” or worse.

Some of the people involved in these heated discussons are everyday people but some are well-known in some way. Ministry, politics, business and such. I get the popularity game often played by businessmen and especially politicians (where have all the ‘statesmen’ gone?), but it’s the ‘ministry leaders’ that are especially troubling to me. I don’t get how some appear to feel the need to be popular to be able to get the message out. The true message of the Bible is that Jesus Christ came in to the world to save sinners, as the Apostle Paul stated in 1 Timothy 2:15. A huge part of that message is that sin separates people from God and left to itself the separation will be eternal (Hebrews 9:27).

Regardless of whether the person discussing the issue is an ‘everyday’ Christian or some well-known ministry leader, can we just get back to the sufficiency, inerrency and infallibility of scripture? God’s word cannot contradict itself and remain valid. God does not and will not contradict himself. Essentially, he said what he meant and meant what he said. Your thoughts and feelings hold no weight against the very word of the Creator of the Universe. When disagreements come, attempting to argue feelings or out of context verses of scripture as your proof-text simply won’t work. In that vein, the ‘arguments’ are not with me, but with God and His word.

So, considering the thought of the title, “I” am not saying anything that God has not already said. While I don’t always say it perfectly, God does. I do try to explain my position as standing on God’s word as patiently, carefully and lovingly as possible, but there are times when I certainly don’t do it as well as I could or should. I do try to employ the spirit of Colossians 4:6 in these discussions to the best of my ability by the grace and power of God’s indwelling Holy Spirit. (“Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man. ~ Colossians 4:6)

The bottom line is that God is who he said he is and what he said will stand forever. Overall, the answer is only found in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Once that’s settled, the continuing effort should be to know and understand His word by regular, continuous and diligent study (2 Timothy 2:15). The follow-up to that is consistent obedience and then boldly standing firm on His word, regardless of the opinions or actions of a sinful world.