YOU and GOD

My son-in-law is a builder, having built multiple houses from foundation to finish, beautiful family dwelling places where families gather in comfort. I never cease to be amazed at the skill it takes to put together such a structure. I simply cannot imagine doing such a thing; and when I read the instructions God gave to build the tabernacle and later the temple in the Old Testament, my mind is simply boggled. I am glad for, and indebted to, craftsmen and women who are endowed with those special abilities.

Most of us will not be called upon to build a house, but probably all of us have been (or currently are) involved in building a home. Solomon spoke of the building of a house, the chambers of which would be filled with all precious and pleasant riches. (Prov. 24:3,4) He was talking about a home wherein abide people, family; a home that is built by wisdom, knowledge, and understanding. A young serviceman and his family were living in a hotel near the military base where he was temporarily stationed. One day his little girl was playing house in the lobby the of hotel when a lady asked, “Isn’t it too bad you don’t have a home?” The child replied, “Oh, we have a home, we just don’t have a house to put it in.”

What is a Christian home? Harold Bosley, church leader and author, offered this answer: “It is one in which the ideals for living found in the life and teachings of Jesus Christ are accepted, exalted, and exemplified.”

To build a Christian home, one must first and foremost build a Christian life. The oldest of all institutions ordained of God is the home, designed by the Creator to last a lifetime. Most of us intend, when we begin a home, to make it that which will last for the rest of our lives. For example, 3,000 teens were surveyed as to their dreams and expectations of a marriage that would last for all their days; 90% of the girls and 85% of the boys affirmed that their hopes in marriage were anchored in the “til death do us part” commitment.

Yet, we are all aware that about half of all marriages today will terminate not with death but divorce. It was never intended to be thus. Some of the most common culprits for the breakup of families are extramarital affairs, financial stresses, incompatibility, selfishness, and a lack of 100% commitment and effort on the part of one or both parties. In Proverbs 24:3,4 Solomon isolated three key ingredients necessary for the building of a home that would stand the tests of troubles and time: wisdom, understanding and knowledge.

First, wisdom is needed in laying the foundation so that our RESOLVES will be right. Married couples will be called upon to make myriad decisions in laying the right foundation for their home—especially decisions concerning worship, both at home and in a local church, where fellowship with believers of like precious faith is a must. (Roughly three in four children reared in a home where both parents attend church remain faithful in their faith as adults.)

Then, wisdom is a must for a right resolve in our walk—a walk in light, love, and circumspection. (Eph. 4:1; 5:2,15) We will need wisdom for a right resolve in our home concerning our witness, and a right resolve pertaining to our relationship to the world and all that is therein.

Finally, wealth is another area that requires wisdom. What is our attitude toward riches? Will we be faithful in the stewardship of material things that God entrusts to our management? Many incoming college students in this age have indicated that their first goal is to gain financial wealth and/or get a “high paying” job. It is a materialistic age. Rudyard Kipling spoke wisely to this here-and-now view of riches and wealth when he said: “Someday, you will meet a person who cares for none of these (material) things. Then you will know how poor you are.”

John D. Rockefeller learned early in life how to earn money, and he drove himself to the limit. He earned his first million at the age of 33, and 10 years later he controlled the biggest company in the world. By the time he was 53, he had become the world’s first billionaire. Then he developed a rare sickness; lost his hair, eyelashes, and eyebrows; lost weight; and became a shrunken man. His weekly income was a million dollars, but he could only digest milk and crackers. It is said that he was so hated in Pennsylvania that he had to have bodyguards day and night. He could not sleep, and he was never seen smiling. Doctors predicted that he would not live more than a month; newspapers prepared his obituary. But, those sleepless nights set him to thinking, taking inventory of his past and present, giving thought too of his future. He knew that he would not take a dime out of this world, so he decided to help churches and charities with his vast wealth. He established the Rockefeller Foundation to advance medical research, leading in time to the discovery of penicillin. He began to sleep again, eat, and enjoy life. Whereas his doctors predicted he would not live to see his 54^th birthday, John D died at the age of 98! He had gotten—the hard way—some wisdom!

Are you a homebuilder? What kind of a home are you building? Is your foundation Jesus Christ? Are you asking Him for wisdom? He says that if any man lack wisdom, he need only ask God, who giveth to all men liberally. (James 1:5 ) We need wisdom for a right resolve in matters of our worship, our walk, our witness, our relationship to the world, and our wealth. May our Father in heaven give us the wisdom that is required to build a home for the house in which we live. And may our homes—for better, for worse, through sickness and in health, for richer, for poorer—reflect God’s wise ways in all things pertaining to life and godliness.

“Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.” (Ps.127:1)

Ever been in a real stem-winder of a storm? Most of us have, and some have been recently. There have been many devastating tornadoes this spring and summer!

Some years ago, a gentleman in our church, an elderly man named Walter Smith, gave me a poem he wrote about a blizzard his family went through when he was a child. He wrote:

The blizzard on the farm in 1912, a boy of six and just the age to delve,
In everything that life would have to hold, to take in stride the new as well as old.
We had no radio to warn us then, to tell us of impending storms and when.
Four rings we heard, a special kind of tone, the warning to us was by country phone.
We then prepare to meet the storm ahead; for that was what the weatherman had said;
We’d gather logs for heat, it’s understood; we knew the fireplace took lots of wood.
And coal was brought to fill the kitchen bin; it might take days to bring a lot more in.
The stock is in the barn, we close the door; some bales of straw for warmth are on the floor.
The basement was our store for food and meat; of hams and bacon, there’s enuf to eat.
Around the water pump were bales of straw, and everything is done to help it thaw.
The chicken house, we know is never still; that coal-oil lantern drives away the chill.
The hogs would dig a hole in stacks of hay, when cold they’re sleeping mostly all the day.
By early morning snow was five feet deep, and thirty-five below we had to greet.
My father shoveled snow with weary back and legs, I was just big enough to gather eggs.
We had no plumbing then, I must confess; the first path that we cleared—I’ll let you guess!

All of us face storms through life. Sometimes, they are “natural” upheavals of the wind and of an earth that “groaneth and travaileth in pain” under what Paul called the “bondage of corruption.” (Romans 8: 21,22) Sometimes the storms of life are not from natural calamities but are emotional, mental, and spiritual tempests in our souls. We need to learn of God’s ways in the storms of life:

• 1. God can arrange storms in our lives: “For He commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof.” (Ps. 107:25) God prepared a vehement east wind that threatened Jonah and some seasoned sailors’ lives. (Jon.1:4) The Psalmist said “Thou rulest the raging of the seas; when the waves thereof arise, Thou stillest them.” (Ps. 89:9) What God can do in the natural realm, He can do in our day-by-day lives in order to stop us in our tracks if need be.

• 2. God can and sometimes does allow the storms to come into our lives: “They mount up to Heaven, they go down again to the depths; their soul is melted because of trouble.” (Ps. 107:26) God allowed Job to suffer an unthinkable family, personal storm. And, Joseph found himself in a stormy pit and in a prison; Elijah, too, running for his life from Jezebel. Every child of God has been at some time in a place of physical, emotional, spiritual distress. One person said, “I cannot say beneath the pressures of life’s cares today I joy in these; but I can say that I had rather walk this rugged way if Him I please.” Can you? Today?

• 3. God can acknowledge the confusion: “They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits end.” (Ps. 107:27) “Are you standing at Wit’s End Corner, Christian, with a troubled brow? Are you thinking of what’s before you, and all you are bearing now? Are you standing at Wit’s End Corner? If so, you are in the right spot to learn of the wondrous resources of Him, Who faileth not.” (Wit’s End Corner by Antionette Wilson)

• 4. God can alter the circumstances: “Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and He bringeth them out of their distresses.” (Ps. 107:28) “I am here by God’s appointment; In His keeping; Under His training and for His time.” (Andrew Murray)

• 5. God can allocate the calm: “He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.” (Ps.107:29) A grapevine hollered “Murderer” when the gardener came to cut on the vine with his knife. “Ah,” said the gardener, “I don’t mean to kill you. If I did not do this you would be the laughing stock of the garden before the season is over.” Months went by and the gardener came again and under the trellis where great clusters of grapes were hanging the grapevine said, “O thank you, Sir, You could not have done anything so kind as to cut me with that knife.” (copied)

• 6. God can author the conclusion: “Then are they glad because they be quiet; so He bringeth them unto their desired haven.” (Ps. 107:30)

So only trust Him, only trust Him. “One day many years ago, I stepped out onto the plank of faith and crossed over into the Good Ship Hope whose captain is Jesus and whose destination is the City of God. Choppy seas have beat upon that vessel, and threatening clouds have thundered overhead, but time and time again my Savior’s voice has come through the storm, ‘Peace, be still.’ Praise God, I’ve anchored my soul in the Haven of Rest…In Jesus, I’m safe evermore!” (copied)

“But now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and He that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Savior….” (Isa.43:1-3)

All of the apostles were mistreated by anti-Christian magistrates, rulers, and emperors. They were called to seal their confessions of faith with their blood, and nobly did they bear the trial.

The following was the fate of the apostles, according to tradition:

• Matthew was slain with a sword in a distant city of Ethiopia;
• Mark died at Alexandria, after having been cruelly dragged through the streets of that city;
• Luke was hanged upon an olive tree in Greece;
• John was put in a cauldron of boiling oil but escaped death in a miraculous manner, and was afterward exiled to Patmos;
• Peter was crucified at Rome with his head downward;
• James the Less was thrown from a lofty pinnacle of the Temple, then beaten to death with a club;
• Bartholomew (Nathanael) was flayed alive;
• Andrew was bound to a cross when he preached to his persecutors, until he died;
• Philip was tied up in a sack and cast into the sea (one tradition, says John MacArthur);
• Thomas was run through the body with a lance in the East Indies;
• Jude was shot to death with arrows;
• Matthias was first stoned and then beheaded;
• Barnabas of the Gentiles was stoned to death by the Jews at Salonica;
• Paul, after various tortures and persecutions, was beheaded at Rome by the Emperor Nero.

In His message to the church at Smyrna, Jesus encouraged saints to “be faithful…unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.” (Rev.2:10) There is no reason to think that this promise could not be claimed by the multiplied thousands of believers, past and present, who have suffered martyrdom because of their faith in Christ and their faithfulness unto death. Many of their stories have been told and are written eloquently in some of the history books; probably most of the stories of burning at the stake, and of violent deaths in the ultimate acts of persecutions, have never yet been told.

When Jesus was giving the eleven His intimate, last words in the Upper Room, he said: “I am the way, the truth and the life; no man cometh to the Father, but by Me. If ye had known Me, ye should have known Him and seen Him.” John records that Philip replied, “Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us,” and Jesus said: “Have I been so long time with you, and yet thou hast not known me, Philip?” (John 14:6-9)

Commentators jump on this and chide Philip for such an apparently dumb request. But not many hours later, as Jesus was being led away from the garden by Roman soldiers in the early morning darkness, the gospel accounts say that all the disciples fled. It would seem that if they had really grasped the truth—that Jesus was God, and that “he that hath seen me hath seen the Father”—they would have followed Christ all the way to Calvary. They did not. Some followed Him in what they thought was “incognito,” and some later came back. But their first impulse was to flee when Jesus was led away by force.

Then followed the crucifixion, resurrection and the post-resurrection ministry of the living Lord, and soon the day of Pentecost and the coming of the indwelling Holy Spirit. From that day forward, their foggy understanding of the Trinity—and of the teachings of their Master in the Upper Room that dark and dreadful night—became unclouded and clear. These eleven men would turn the then-known world upside down and, with Christ as the Headstone of the corner, they would become the foundation of His Church. It stands undaunted today, and it will until Jesus returns to receive the Church unto Himself. Reliable tradition reports that, to a man, the apostles were faithful unto death, and all of them but the aged Apostle John died a martyr’s death.

We may not be called upon to die violently rather than deny our Lord and Savior. But if called upon to give our lives at the stake, we who have the indwelling Holy Spirit can be assured that the same dying grace God gave the apostles in their last living moments will also be ours. And, whether we suffer martyrdom or die in some “natural” way, we can know that, if we are faithful unto death, the crown of life awaits us. That will suffice.

Let us then covenant to live for Him and to die for Him, if it be our lot. Amen.

“Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love His appearing.” (2 Tim. 4:8)

A culture is a consensus of popular opinions, lifestyles, and thought, along with trends in art, music, food, fashion, politics, and various and sundry other categories, that impact the daily lives of people within a community. It is based primarily on preferences rather than absolutes. So, to talk about a “church culture,” one would have to whittle down the common definition to apply it to any church. That definition might look something like “the personality, attitudes, esprit de corps, atmosphere, and dominant convictions and everyday practices of its members.”

A “culture of grace” is espoused by some as that which every New Testament church should strive to emulate. Grace is, of course, unmerited favor bestowed by God upon recipients. There is “common” grace meted out to all of mankind, such as rain that falls on the just and on the unjust; and there is “special” grace, that which is given to those who are believers through faith and recipients of God’s gifts and enabling power through the Holy Spirit. Salvation begins as one accepts God’s plan of salvation by believing and receiving His Son as Savior, for “by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.” (Eph. 2:8) After salvation, we are exhorted to “grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.” (2 Pet. 3:18) So, to say that any church ought to bask and exult in the grace of God is to express a truism.

But, love should not take a second place to grace when speaking of a church’s culture. In all of John’s epistles, the word grace appears only once. Love is his major theme—God’s love and our love for Him and for His. Peter mentions grace only a few times, as does James. And the magnificent book of Hebrews, written to folks who had been tutored in the law but found through faith the goodness of grace, mentions it just a few times as well. This is not to diminish the value and blessedness of grace. But, to elevate it above God’s love, holiness, or His mercy as the first and foremost trait that should define every New Testament Church cannot be supported scripturally. Every church seeking God’s commendation should be known as Biblicists, followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, loving, caring, gracious, and merciful.

I think the expression “grace culture” has been coined and used by those who are “sovereign grace” adherents. Their main chord, as Calvinists who also major on the doctrine of election, is that salvation is all of the grace of God. Everyone who believes the Bible agrees with that; and all Bible believers would agree that we are “elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father.” (I Pet.1:2). But we, believers, also proclaim without hesitation that “whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved.” (Rom. 10:13) And, we agree that God “will have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (I Tim. 2:4) Again, Paul says that Christ is the “Savior of all men, specially of those that believe.” (I Tim.4:10)

But Calvinists and proponents of Reformed Theology isolate grace and elevate it above all in promoting a “culture of grace” because it fits the theology that they have superimposed upon the Bible. Every Bible-believer cherishes what God’s Word says about His marvelous grace, but not to the neglect of what His Word teaches concerning the fact that He is “long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9)

Calvinists will retort: “All men are sinners, dead in trespasses and sins. All are deserving of and condemned to eternal damnation. But God, solely by grace, chooses to save the elect, though we are all worms deserving of Hell. What grace!” They will ask: “Why should God save anyone?” (Though I have never heard them follow their logic and question: “Why does not God save everyone?”) But these teachers do not, in the same breath, also remind us that Christ died for all men, and that “Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out.”

So, a culture of grace? Yes—and a culture of love, of mercy, of justice, of long-suffering, of kindness, and of holiness as well. A culture of grace to the exclusion of these other virtues of our great God cannot be Biblically defended.

Any sincere follower of Christ who embraces the label “Calvinist,” or Reformed theologian, or anyone who embraces the doctrine of grace, would also not flinch at being called a Biblicist.  But all who sincerely call themselves Biblicists would not want to be known as Calvinists. I am a Biblicist in that I believe whatever the Bible says is so. But I do not hold to the so-called doctrine of grace as taught by Calvinists or those immersed in Reformed Theology. I appreciate the truths that dawned upon the Catholic priest Martin Luther as he was reading the book of Romans. I acknowledge that he was “defrocked” as a priest, that his teaching formed the basis of Lutheranism, and that he helped inspire the reformers and reform movements of the Protestant Reformation. Before protesting the evils of the Church of Rome in the Middle Ages, they had been steeped in Augustinian theology, the bedrock of what would be later known as Calvinism and/or Reformed theology, from whence the “culture of grace” was birthed.

Independent Baptists love that grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. We were never part of the Reformation movement, nor have we ever been adherents to Augustinian or Reformation theology. We see no need, therefore, to cultivate a “culture of grace.” We want to be known as those who love to proclaim the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ—a good-news message that is full of both grace and truth.

“For I have not shunned to declare unto you the whole counsel of God.” (Acts 20:27)

You probably are one. Parents are teachers, pastors are teachers, teachers are teachers in school, in Sunday School, in seminars and seminaries. There are all kinds of teachers, as a good part of life is about learning—and much of one’s learning comes through the dedicated efforts of faithful teachers. The worth of a good teacher and of good teaching cannot be overstated.

Do you remember some of your earliest teachers? Many of my grade-school teachers were single women, most of them older and seasoned. They left an indelible mark on me that more than 70 years has not erased. Miss Chitwood, Miss Flame, Miss Sharp, Mrs. Groce, Miss Yearing, and many, many more. I thank God for each of them, including Sunday School teachers, teaching pastors and youth leaders, teaching parents and professors, and friends. Most taught for the love of teaching and watching students grow in learning. Their attitudes and actions were infectious, and, though I do not consider myself primarily a teacher, I was infected by this cadre of careful teachers—some professional and some not—whose love for the process and product helped to shape my character and my desire through life to “teach others also.”

A London editor submitted to Winston Churchill a list of people who had been Churchill’s teachers. Churchill returned the list with this comment: “You have omitted to mention the greatest of my teachers—my mother.” (Pulpit Helps, May 1979) Many of us could and should thank our mothers and grandmothers, our fathers and grandfathers, for their faithful, consistent, patient teaching by exhortation and example. Paul indicated that his protégé, Timothy, had learned the scriptures from early childhood, being taught by a faithful mother and grandmother. Their living and loving instruction can never be gotten past.

And, those elementary, intermediate and secondary teachers who impacted our lives in such a way that, for many, what we have become started the first day of class. Whether it be Latin, or math, or science, or typing, or English, or music, or history, we can never forget the faces if not the names of those gifted (for the most part) men and women whose lives touched ours in a way that few others could have. President Ronald Reagan recognized the incalculable worth of these often unseen and unsung tutors when, awarding Guy Doud the “Teacher of the Year” honor in 1986, he quoted Pulitzer Prize winning author Clark Molenhoff: “Teachers, you are the molders of their dreams, the gods who build or crush their young beliefs of right or wrong. You are the spark that sets aflame the poet’s hand or lights the flame of some great singer’s song…You are the guardian of a million dreams; your every smile or frown can heal or pierce the heart. You are a hundred lives, a thousand lives. Yours the pride of loving them, and the sorrow too.”

And, what about those faithful Sunday School teachers who, without pay or promotion or praise, show up to love their little ones (or not so little, too) through a lesson from the Book of Books, a lesson for life that is aimed for the heart even more than the head, that will be a compass for them as they chart their course for life. Teachers such as Daisy Hawes in Louisville, Kentucky, whose faithful, loving instruction from God’s Word reached the heart of a 14-year-old boy, who went on to become one of God’s choice servants. From a humble beginning in the small village of English, Indiana, in 1909, Lee Roberson would impact literally millions of people. In time he pastored the Highland Park Baptist Church of Chattanooga, Tennessee, and founded the Tennessee Temple Schools, including a college and seminary—from which pastors, missionaries and evangelists would encompass the four corners of the earth in carrying out the Great Commission (Matt. 28:18-20). The ripple effects of one life touching another, ad infinitum, cannot be measured. But for the 20^th century giant of the faith, Dr. Lee Roberson, it largely began because of a caring and conscientious Sunday School teacher.

“A diamond in the rough, is a diamond sure enough; for before it ever sparkles, it is made of diamond stuff. Of course, someone must find it, or it never will be found; and when it’s found it’s ground, and when it’s burnished bright, that diamond’s everlastingly just flashing out its light! O Teacher in the Sunday School, don’t say, ‘I’ve done enough!’ That worst boy in your class may be A Diamond in the rough!” (Unknown)

Teaching can be considered an eternal investment. “If you write upon a paper, a careless hand may destroy it. If you write upon parchment, the dust of the centuries may gather over it. If you write upon marble, the moss may cover it and the elements may erase it. If you engrave your thoughts with an iron pen upon the granite cliff, in the slow revolving years it shall wear away and when the earth melts your writing will perish. Write, then, upon the heart of a youth. There engrave your thoughts and they shall endure when the world shall pass away, and the stars shall fall and time shall be no more. For that heart is immortal and your words written there shall live through eternity.” (Unknown, White Wing Messenger)

I read once that, in 1915, the Russian radical Leon Trotsky attended a Sunday School with a friend in Chicago. The class teacher did not show up that Sunday morning and had not notified anyone of his intention to miss the class that day. Trotsky walked away from that class and never attended another one (as far as is known). He returned to his homeland of Russia and, in 1917, helped lead the Bolshevik Revolution in his native land, which brought the Communist regime to power there.

Teachers make a difference that only eternity will tell. What a privilege to be able to teach! What an awesome responsibility. And, what a challenge, day in and day out, to live what we are teaching. Live in the light of eternity. Live truthfully. Live as Christ our Lord lived, of whom it was said: “For He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.” (Matt. 7:29)

“And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.” (2 Tim.2:2)

A nephew of ours is a pastor to members of the Cherokee nation in northwestern North Carolina. He recently shared a personal testimony that, with his permission, I’d like to pass along in hopes that it may help others. I was struck by this post of his, because  a very similar incident happened to me, some of the details of which I will rehearse at the close of Aaron’s article:

“I’d like to share a personal story if I may. About six years ago, we had just gotten married and were in a very difficult spot financially speaking. I wasn’t pastoring at that time, but I was an ordained minister and active in a different type of full-time ministry that only paid a part-time salary.

Christmas was tough that year. I was going through a season that seemed like everything was breaking and tearing me up. I received a $200 bonus for Christmas about two weeks before the holiday, and I’d already made up my mind that week to bypass paying tithes so I could afford everyone’s Christmas presents. After all, I reasoned to myself, ‘It’s just one week. It won’t hurt.’

I was convicted in my spirit for even thinking that way, but I decided to do it anyway. So, I went to the mall in Gastonia and spent a few hundred bucks and got my family’s Christmas presents. On the way out of the mall, I curbed my tire, pinching it, immediately hearing that dreaded sound. Literally, I looked up, and across the road from the mall was an NTB Tire shop that was still open. Guess how much the new tire with installation was? Yep. You guessed it. $200.

I got home that night, and because I was getting out of the car in a hurry, I dropped my cell phone in a few inches of puddled, melted snow that was now a mud hole. So. My cell phone died. In my hurry, I left the gifts in the car.

Next morning, I came outside and discovered that ALL 3 bags of gifts had been STOLEN! Now, I am not saying this is how God always operates, but this is one instance that I believe I heard the voice of God directly to my spirit. He said to me, ‘Aaron! We can do this the easy way, or the hard way. All this would’ve been prevented if you’d simply obeyed what I’ve commanded you to do with the tithe.’

Honestly, I’ve not missed a single week of tithe since then. I’m hard-headed, and God sometimes has to wake me up with a little harder shake or lesson than He has to use with others. That day I learned my lesson. The tithe is His. Don’t touch what belongs to Him!”

Thanks, Aaron, for your transparency and willingness to be a blessing and challenge to others who may be spared learning “the hard way!”

When Ellen and I were on our honeymoon—traveling with a small camper trailer that my folks had loaned us, pulled behind Dad’s ’59 Chevy Impala—we spent about two weeks moving from (first) the Cumberland Gap National Park to various camping sites, enjoying the summer days of August. When we got to the town of Keokuk, Iowa, not far from where I grew up in the southeastern corner of the Hawkeye state, there happened to be a roadside carnival going on as we drove by. For something to do, we pulled in, parked, and wandered through the small “fair,” stopping at a booth where, for a quarter, you could throw a ball at several props, such as stuffed animals, and win whatever you hit or get another chance at a bigger and better prize. I got sucked into the moment and made some good throws until, in a matter of minutes, I was going for a “big” prize (I forget now just what!).

Well, just married and “macho,” I wanted to impress my new bride and win the big prize for her. But, I did not win. I lost! And, leaving that “sucker trap,” I had to face the awful pain of realizing that I had gambled with $200 of our precious money. We were heading for Minneapolis in a couple of weeks without a place to live, without a job, and not knowing a soul there.  I was enrolled as a first-year seminary student at Central Baptist Theological seminary. I knew immediately what God was teaching me that evening.

I had not been practicing any form of stewardship—not tithing, tipping, nothing. I had worked in a Christian camp all summer before our wedding and did not make a great deal of money, but I had never yet begun to give God a portion of my income. I wept with my new bride, prayed, confessed to God my sin, and covenanted with him that we would give a tithe and more of what He entrusted to our stewardship. We have kept that promise from that date for the past 58 years, and could not begin to tell you how God has blessed us.

I got a job the first day we were in Minneapolis and God gave us a fully furnished apartment to live in for $50 a month for the four years we were in seminary there. We left the Twin Cities with two children, all bills paid, and $1,000 in the bank. I have never shared this story with anyone except a handful of people. It was so very painful to experience. But I am deeply grateful that God so graciously drove that lesson home to me that evening. I had not been under conviction about it, nor had it been on my mind. But believe me, my heavenly Father did not have to send an angel to tell me what I needed to hear at that stage in my Christian walk. When I left the roadside park that evening I had immediately heard, in a not so still and not so small voice, “This is the way, walk ye in it.” Thank you, Lord!  

“Honor the Lord with thy substance, and with the first fruits of all thine increase: so shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine.” (Provs. 3:9, 10)

On Sunday, July 2, Pastor Mark Felber celebrated, with his family and church family, 40 years as pastor of Victory Baptist Church of Whiteland, Indiana. It was a day of thanksgiving, praise, rejoicing, and lifting of hands and hearts in recognition of God’s unspeakable goodness, grace, and faithfulness through these past four decades.

Ellen and I were privileged to attend this special day, along with more than 200 church members and other guests. Most of Pastor Felber’s family was in attendance, including his brother Mike Felber (a pastor in North Dakota) and nephews and nieces.

The Felber family has always loved good music, and they joined their voices in beautiful songs of praise to their great God. One special that eight of the Felber men sang was “Be Strong in the Lord,” a song that Pastor Felber’s mother had requested for the 10^th anniversary of her son’s ministry in this church in south-central Indiana, not more that 30 miles from where the Felber sons grew up in the great church their father, DeWayne Felber, pastored for many years, Burge Terrace Baptist Church. The Felber men who sang were, to a man, all “tenors.” They were somehow able to blend those trained voices into an ensemble that would have brought tears to Lena Felber’s eyes had she been present to hear her sons and grandsons sing that favorite song.

Pastor Felber, in the morning hour, shared some of the history of Victory Baptist Church, and how he had received a call 40 years ago—as a 24-year-old, single staff member of his Dad’s church—to accept the church’s invitation to be their pastor.

Meeting in a 100-plus years-old, 40 x 60 ft. building, it had declared itself an “independent” Baptist Church. Over the years it had benefited from the ministry of several pastors, but most of them were short-term ministers. Some served on an “interim” basis, and in 1983 one of those interims suggested the church leadership contact Burge Terrace Baptist Church in Indianapolis to ask if someone there could help out as a pulpit supply until they found someone to serve on a more permanent basis. They took that advice and contacted the senior Pastor Felber. After  some discussion, father and son agreed that Mark could help the Whiteland church as a supply for a few weeks. 

This arrangement was extended a couple of times until, lo and behold, the church asked Mark if he would consider “candidating” for the pastorate.  The young, fresh-from-grad school church staffer was a bit taken aback by the invitation, but as the idea began to “gel,” Pastor Felber sought counsel from older men in the ministry, including his father. To a man, they counseled him that he should give it prayerful consideration and, as the Lord would lead, proceed until the door closed. It never did. Forty years ago, the church voted in the young Felber as its pastor—a choice that has proven to be a very wise move on their part!

Mark faithfully served that flock for another 12 years—in a building that might have the furnace cut off and on in the winter, as the cold air gushed through decades-old cracks in the little (but really quite quaint and beautiful) white-framed church building, with a steeple stretching heavenward—before God gifted him with a beautiful wife whose life had been one of surrender and service to her Lord and Savior. Caryn Moody was living in Greenville, SC, and she and Mark had been acquaintances from their student years at Bob Jones University, but there was no romance between them during those years. That all changed sometime during late 1994, and by May of the following year they were married. Pastor Felber testifies that Caryn has been not only a perfect wife but a God-given complement to his ministry. Her eyes saw many things that would enhance the ministry of the little Baptist Church, which was soon cramped for space and desperately in need of a larger facility.

Not to worry. God had that covered, too. In time, they were able to purchase an excellent piece of property on which they built a stunning, attractive facility that continues to serve its congregation in a more than adequate way. Over the years, Pastor Felber’s humility, compassion, love of his people, skilled exposition of God’s Word, and steady hand at the helm have attracted like-minded people, who have worked together to cultivate a culture and an assembly of Christ-ones that have been a beacon of gospel truth in their community, carrying on the heritage of faith and faithfulness that Pastor Mark inherited when, with the trepidation of youth, he assumed the mantle of spiritual leadership bestowed upon him by the call of the church and the direction its Head, Jesus Christ, through the work of the Holy Spirit. Sunday’s victory service was a testimony to the faithfulness, goodness, and blessings of our Heavenly Father upon a work and workers committed to Him, His Word, and each other.

Yes, Sunday, July 2, was a celebration of praise for Victory Baptist Church, its pastor and people, and for all of us who got to share in that memorable day. To God be the glory, great things He hath done!

In a radio broadcast on Christmas Day, 1939, with darkening war clouds looming large over Europe and England, King George VI quoted what was then an unknown poet’s words: “And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year, ‘Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.’ And he replied, ‘Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.’ So I went forth and finding the Hand of God, trod gladly into the night. And He led me towards the hills and the breaking of day in the lone East.” (Minnie Louise Haskins)

American radio-show host Michael Medved spoke of the current culture as having a plague of pessimism, infecting millions of Americans. A survey of revealed that the word that least described “Generation X” was not “lucky” but “angry” and “stressed out.” Kurt Cobain, lead singer of the hard rock band, Nirvana, killed himself at the height of his career in 1994, dying at his own hands with all the wealth and fame a young person might have dreamed of. That generation (mid-60’s to late 70’s) was not alone in its pessimism. The current Alpha Generation (2010-2024) of tech-savvy, screen-glued young people has little more hope than their predecessors, called by various names. The cynicism of previous generations has been passed on from generation to generation, so that the outlook today is no rosier than it was when Gen X dealt with its peculiar darkness. It has always been so to a world estranged from God. “If in this life only we have hope…,” Paul muses. Yet some do not have hope in this life only—just despair, deep darkness and thoughts of death as a desired alternative.

But, there is hope! In the direst of circumstances, Jeremiah recalled God’s mercies and affirmed that “therefore have I hope…because his compassions fail not.” (Lam. 3:21,22).

We can rejoice in that we are saved by hope: “For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope.” (Rom. 8:24)

We are secured by hope. “That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us. Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast.” (Hebs. 6:18,19)

We serve by hope. “Who (Abraham) against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations.” (Rom. 4:18)

We suffer in hope. “And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope: and hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given to us.” (Rom. 5:3-5)

We stand in hope. “Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ.” (Titus 2:13)

So, for the believer, life begins and ends in hope! It is what caused an old-time evangelist to once say: “When I was 14 years old, I knelt by my dying mother’s bed. She smiled at me through the death shadow on her face and said she was going Home, and she asked me to meet her in Heaven. I gave her my promise. Her body sleeps in a lonely cemetery in the state of Alabama. As I have sat by her grave and listened to a funeral dirge played by the wind in the pine trees nearby, I have said, ‘Mother, I will see you again someday.’ Some people say I am dreaming. If I am, don’t wake me. If this world were all, I would want my Christian faith. My faith hangs a rainbow of hope over the dust of my dead, and kindles a smile on the brow of bereavement. This world is not all. There is a God. There is a heaven. There is a hell. I am playing a safe game. If there were only one world I have already won. Since there is an after-life, I win for two worlds. You don’t have to take any chances with your soul.” (Dr. Bob Jones, Sr.)

Dennis Fisher, writing in Our Daily Bread, tells of an 18^th-century French general finance controller, Etienne de Silhouette, who during wartime tried to increase revenues by raising taxes heavily on the wealthy. His victims complained and used the word silhouette to refer to their wealth having been reduced to a mere shadow of what it had been. Fisher makes the analogy between that and what Jeremiah the prophet felt as he lamented over the city of Jerusalem, which had been reduced to less than a shadow of what it had been in its greatness. But, in Lamentations 3, the weeping prophet embraces hope over despair when he affirms that because of God’s faithfulness and never-failing mercies, he did have hope!

Whatever your present miseries or anticipated future difficulties, there is always hope. George H.W. Bush, when he was vice-president, attended the funeral in Moscow’s Kremlin for the deceased Russian premier, Leonid Brezhnev. He noted that when the widow approached the open casket for a final farewell to her husband, she made over his body the sign of the cross, something that in a country where atheism was the official religion was a stunning move. It was as if the wife were saying, “There has got to be some hope. Even if atheism is the state religion, I am going to pin my hopes upon the message of the crucified one.”

Yes, there is always hope. After Paul said that if in this life only we have hope, we are of all men most miserable, he immediately exclaimed: “But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.” (I Cor.15:19)

Hope. Don’t leave home without it!

“In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began.” (Titus 1:2)