Here It Comes

So this coming up Sunday I will begin teaching the adult Sunday school class at Kirk 'O the Isles. This opportunity came as a surprise to me after a morning service a couple months ago. Someone came up to me and said, "Travis we're really excited about you teaching this summer." I'm thinking: I am? As it turns out, Pastor Neil granted to me this summer to teach--to get my gifts looked at by the church, and to hopefully edify and exhort the congregation.

While the Bridegroom Tarries

"Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept. But at midnight there was a cry, 'Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.' Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, 'Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.' But the wise answered, saying, 'Since there will not be enough for us and for you, go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves.' And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut. Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, 'Lord, lord, open to us.' But he answered, 'Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.' Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour. --Matthew 25:1-13

     The Bible gives us a description of what will happen at Christ's return. The Church (all born-again Christians) will be united with him in heaven with a marriage-like ceremony.

William Jay's Insight on Trials

The following is an excerpt from a British pastor from the late 17/early 1800's. He gives an amazing insight into why God seems to be distant from us at certain periods of our life. (Be sure to read it slow)



May 8.—"I will look for him." Isaiah 8:17

     This is peculiar language. It is the language of none in heaven. There all have found him, and are for ever with the Lord. It is the language of none in hell. There they are only concerned to escape from his hand, and to elude his eye. It is not the language of any in the World. There they are sufficiently active and eager ; but they rise early, and sit up late, and eat the bread of sorrow, to glain some temporal advantage, honour, or pleasure —but none saith, "Where is God my Maker, who giveth songs in the night ?" It is not the language of all in the Church. There are some happy souls who know the joyful sound, and walk in the light of God's countenance: in his Name they rejoice all the day, and in his righteousness they are exalted. But there are others, whose desire is to his Name, and to the remembrance of him; whose wish is, " O that I was as in months past, when the candle of the Lord shined upon my soul, and the Almighty was yet with me." These, these are the persons who are saying—and they cannot do better than say—" I will look for him."

Why I Feel Called to Full Time Gospel Ministry

4 years ago this wretched young man had his eyes spread open to fully see the Gospel in it's true beauty. It was not as if I never heard it, because I was in church twice a week as a youth and didn't neglect it my freshman year. But even though I was amidst the Gospel, the Gospel hadn't changed me--because I didn't want it to. I wanted my life the way I wanted it. My mindset was: Jesus would be #1 when I'm dead, but I'm #1 now. Would my soul have been demanded before April '06, I would've never known the Gospel and an eternal separation from God in hell would've been the just and true consequence for my disobedience to God. I committed cosmic treason, sinned against an infinite God which brings his holy wrath. I can say with Paul in Titus 3 that I was foolish, disobedient, led astray, in slavery to various passions and pleasures, passing my days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another (v. 3). But God, being rich in mercy as Paul states in Ephesians 2, for reasons unknown to me, made me alive with Christ, His grace appeared and saved me according to His own mercy--having regenerated me to seeing my sinfulness and His holiness, and sending me the Holy Spirit whereby I became His adopted son. God granted me repentance, leading me to repent of almost 19 years of iniquity and raising up my filthy hands to reach out in desperation to a great Savior.

So Long Childhood, Hello Manhood

Proverbs 20:29 "The glory of young men is their strength, but the splendor of old men is their gray hair."

     I can remember vividly the first moment I saw a gray hair sprouted from my scalp, I was about 16; it was right in the front, though a needle in a haystack, the light beamed off of it to show it's presence. Since my hair is black is wasn't that hard to notice, but it did come as a shock: "I'm not supposed to get these until I'm older; what's the deal?" Fast forward to today, almost 23, more and more have sprouted along the sides and it's no longer hidden: T-rav's clearly got miniature patches of grays. In this particular proverb, Solomon shows the difference between the delights of a young man versus an older one: physical strength versus applied knowledge.

Bryan Chapell, I'm Confused...

You can now watch the five part video presentation of the PCA's sociological strategic plan for the future of the denomination as presented by Bryan Chapell. I am thankful that Scripture was not completely left out of this hour long presentation. A verse did actually make it in there at one point. What concerns me  the most about this video is the way that Chapell says, "In so many ways our motto as a denomination synthesizes our mission ideals and our history." While the motto is not actually an official part of the constitution of the PCA, Chapell treats it as having more authority than the Westminster Standards and the Book of Church Order.

Question: Can Christianity Exist if Jesus Did Not Resurrect?

John Dominac Crossan in the following video says it wouldn't affect his "Christian faith." Of course, this guy is one who denies the infallibility of Scripture, the deity of Christ, Christ's atonement for sin and the repentance & faith it requires, and so on. But what do the Scriptures say? Could Jesus be who he said he was if he didn't rise from the dead 3 days later? Should anyone read the Bible or even trust what it says if the resurrection was found to be a hoax?

A Good Thing Turned Bad

I have this book that contains daily readings from various C.S. Lewis works (A Year with C.S. Lewis), and this one struck me. This is a quote from The Screwtape Letters:

Thus is would be a good thing to make the patient decide that 'Love' is 'good' or 'bad'. If he is an arrogant man with contempt for the body really based on delicacy but mistaken by him for purity...by all means let him decide against love. Instil into him an overweening asceticism...If, on the other hand, he is an emotional, gullible man, feed on him the minor poets and fifth-rate novelists of the old school until you have made him believe that 'Love' is both irresistible and somehow intrinsically meritorious (you feel you have the right to have it). This belief is...an incomparable recipe for prolonged, 'noble', romantic, tragic adulteries, ending, if all goes well, in murders and suicides. (page 106)

With this particular of love, Screwtape explains how love can be misconstrued to 2 different extremes to harm an individual: the ascetic, and the "love-a-holic."

(1) The ascetic thinks of himself as not needing of love, and if any emotion, thought, desire, or pleasure arises, he thwarts it off as unnecessary or even to the extreme of beating himself up physically to make the desires go away.

(2) The "love-a-holic" feels that because he feels the desire to love, he will go to any extreme to make it happen. He will settle for any girl that winks her eye or blows a kiss. Nothing else matters but to obtain love; if it isn't reached, then he worries and worries, desperate to be satisfied, and could take him to the extreme of killing himself because that desire has got to be fulfilled.

How could this happen? What would push a man to push off love as if it's for sissies and hide his emotions? What would push a man to desperate measures just to get a girl to be attracted to and to love him? We must look at the source of where things first went wrong, and then from there look at solutions.

Adam and Eve, before the first sin, experienced a perfect relationship with God and with each other: no problems, no pain, no nagging, no loneliness. But, when Adam and Eve disobeyed God's command, at the first moment of sin and shame they were instantly frightened of another and God. One act of disobedience led to two breaches:

1. God and man were no longer intimate. A holy God could no longer dwell with unholy people.
2. Man and woman were no longer intimate. Now, every friendship and marriage experiences imperfection.

And with sin clogging our thoughts, minds, words, desires, things don't make sense in our world: the good we want to do--we don't do it, and bad we know we shouldn't do--we do it anyway.

"God is love, and in him is no darkness at all" - 1 John 1:5. When we look at how the Bible describes God, we see two things in this particular verse: He is loving, and He is holy. And this will lead the rest of what I'll say.

The supreme expression of love that God shows us is in the death of Christ and him being our substitute on the cross: "In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation of our sins" - 1 John 4:10. The punishment that we deserve for our sin was placed on Christ at the cross, so that you and I would have a restored relationship with God through Christ. A relationship with God is the ultimate thing that must be settled here and now, and is the anchor of understanding love and how to deal with it. Do you have an intimate relationship with God through Christ? I recommend you read John and 1 John to clarify.

In lieu of Christ's redeeming love, we see the perfect expression of love--so how does this apply to the ascetic and to the love-a-holic?

(1) The ascetic must realize he has made an idol out of himself, pride, and that the desire to love and be loved isn't a bad thing. Men, you can be honest about your emotions with other guys, and noticing the beauty of women isn't a sin (unless it's wrongful lust). Women, this goes for you too: be open with other women, and if you're looking for a godly man, nothing wrong at all--same warning though.

(2) The love-a-holic must realize he has made an idol out of himself also, pride and love are worshiped and not God. Instead of looking to God for his ultimate sources of security, significance, and satisfaction, he looks to himself (this applies to the ascetic also). It is more important that he feel loved from an individual rather than God. Men and women, we must realize that we were created for the primary reason to glorify God and enjoy Him forever--He is our utmost treasure. Only in Him can you really find the love you are looking for. God has given us friendships and marital relationships, but they can never surpass or become more important than our relationship with Him.

I hope this was clear, if not let me know and I'll elaborate more.

T-rav
Colossians 1:17 "And is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

Before It's Too Late

(Kind of wrote this in the style of a hymn)

If today you took your last breath,
and came face to face with death,
would you go straight to the Father,
to enter into heav'nly rest?

The passions of the world
fool you, only make you blind:
eat, drink, be merry--
for tomorrow you die.

God knows every careless
word, thought, and deed;
would you come to the Savior
to be washed and made clean?

Your righteous deeds are filthy
rags before the throne of God;
this gift of salvation
cannot by you be bought.

You have two major problems:
one bad record, one bad heart;
with this come hell's separation
from which you cannot depart.

You are dead in trespasses,
you hide your eyes from grace;
come and taste the living waters,
won't you rise and seek His face?

God commands you twofold:
repent and believe;
I know you're heavy laden,
cry out for this grace that's free.

Your life's but a mere mist,
think hard of what I've said;
please look up, see Jesus
before it's too late.

Endurance Through Trials

It is without a shadow of a doubt that the recent months and weeks have brought various kinds of trials: economical, physical, and spiritual. And, it is also true that many of us forget to tap into the storehouse of God's comfort found abundantly in His Word. We can become so boggled down with life's aches and pains that our eyes are taken off of Christ and we look horizontally on the earth for solutions and relief. And in addition, we forget the Fatherly hand behind it all.

In Peter's first epistle, endurance through trials is a dominant theme. It is addressed to those who have been scattered abroad to different regions, living in exile because of persecution. But we see right away from the second verse onward comforting words from someone who knew trials personally: Peter's faith was tested when he walked on water (Matt. 14:22-33), he defended the Gospel before the Sanhedrin and was threatened (Acts 4:1-31), and was imprisoned twice (Acts 5:17-42;12:1-19). And what we find in 1 Peter is a disciple of Christ sending comfort from which the comfort he himself received during hardship (2 Cor. 1:3-7). I would like to show just three things Peter mentions to comfort these believers.

In verse 2, Peter introduces the Trinity at work: God the Father foreknew these elect exiles, the Holy Spirit has sanctified them, and Jesus Christ sprinkled his blood for their obedience to him. We can endure any trial because the Godhead three-in-one is active in our life.

Secondly, in verses 3-5 Peter reminds the believers that they have been born of God "to a living hope;" Christ was raised from the dead, and so their dead hearts are now alive because of God's mercy. Their new birth in Christ is secure because "by God's power [they] are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time." And so our rebirth gives us the assurance of God's guardianship from salvation to future glory.

Thirdly, in verse 4 Peter teaches them about a promised inheritance they will receive that awaits them in heaven. In biblical times, it was important for the inheritance to be passed down from father to his children; Peter says that our Father has for us "an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven..." This inheritance is a sure reward and will never go away, unlike earthly possessions. As adopted sons, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, we have a priceless inheritance--we get God, and an eternity with Him.

I've only scratched the surface; Peter goes on with numerous theological points and exhortations, I encourage you to read into it. And I pray that having read this you have been encouraged. So in conclusion, remember that God is at work and is ever present with His children: you were foreknown before the foundation of the world, Christ paid for your sins on the cross, the Holy Spirit has given you new birth, and an inheritance awaits you.

Standing in grace,
T-rav