Happy Birthday USA!

Today marks the 240th Anniversary of the founders signing the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia.

The world is vastly different than it was in the City of Brotherly Love on that hot Summer week in 1776. And yet in many ways it is very much the same. 

Different when it comes to conveniences, technology, and dissemination of information. 18th century communication relied on handwritten documents, rudimentary printing operations, and mail delivered domestically by foot and horseback, and internationally by sailing ships.  Today it is electronic, cellular, and satellite assisted.  News spread by word of mouth, then and by heralds in the public square. Now we have 24 hour news cycles, with events happening 12 time zones away being piped into our living rooms in real time.  Most of us carry small hand held communication and information devices that were not even dreamed of in those days.

Yep.  Different world.

And yet the same in so many ways.

People still long to be free.  Free to control their own destinies and to enjoy the inalienable God given rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We detest tyranny and will only take so much until we rise up and overthrow the grip of tyrannical governments.  We are willing to pay reasonable taxes and share mutual responsibility, but will not bear unreasonable burdens. We desire a government that is open to and responsible to the voice of the people.  The Declaration of such to King George signaled the beginning of the "great experiment" that soon brought about the necessity of citizen soldiers to bear arms against the invading armies and Navy of our mother country. Farmers, craftsmen and business men, alike, put to risk their lives, property, and personal fortunes, to create a sovereign nation from 13 loosely connected colonies stretching north to south along the Atlantic coast of the great North American wilderness.

Eventually our new leaders forged a Constitution, a founding document designed to "provide for the common defense and promote the general welfare, and to secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity".  Our Republic was formed.  Consequently added amendments, allowed for ideas not addressed in the founding document. Clarifying and codifying such rights as freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom to peaceably assemble, the right to keep and bear arms. Over the next two centuries other amendments were added as needed to clarify the freedoms and responsibilities shared by our population.

Our nation expanded in size, moving westward through the bravery of explorers and settlers. Our borders expanded with the Louisiana Purchase and the Doctrine of Manifest Destiny that led us to possess outlying territories reaching all the way to the Pacific Coastline.

American history is fascinating. It is ripe with stories of bravery, heroism and greatness. We have been called upon to send our sons and daughters into harms way to protect our own homeland, and to fight for freedom for enslaved persons in nations around the world.  Our history also contains shameful chapters such as slavery, a Civil War in which 600,000 Americans died, literally at the hands of their brothers.  There has long been the ugly spectre of bigotry and racial segregation, Even now the current American Holocaust continues, in which the innocent lives of more than 4,000 unborn Americans are snuffed out every day inside what should be the safest place on the planet - their mother's womb.

Alexis de Toqueville once wrote "America is great because America is good.  When America ceases to be good, it will cease to be great."

I believe that God has graciously blessed the United States of America down through the years, but we have fallen far from where we once stood for general morality, and an inherent desire to follow the principles taught in what we call the Judeo/Christian ethic.  I don't labor under the delusion that America was ever a "Christian nation", but I do know that we were founded with a reverence for, and a desire to follow the ancient teachings of the Bible.

Those days are gone. It is no wonder that America is no longer great.

I pray that there will be a resurgence of that spirit in our nation, but alas, as a nation we have generally forgotten God.  I believe we are living in a post Christian culture here, and apart from a mighty movement of God, our nation will likely never return to those original parameters of belief, and to the principals laid out in our founding documents.

My ultimate citizenship is not of this country, nor even of this planet.  By Grace, I am a citizen of God's Kingdom.  During this life I have been blessed to have been born and have lived in the greatest country on Earth.  One day I am moving to my eternal home.  Until then, I am praying for my temporary home, the United States of America, to return to the lofty goals that were signed onto by our founders 240 years ago.

My prayer could be expressed in the words of Irving Berlin:

"God Bless America, land that I love
Stand beside her and guide her,
Through the night, with a light from above.
From the mountains to the prairie
To the oceans, white with foam.
God bless America. My Home, sweet home."

Happy Birthday U.S.A.

Redeeming the Time

After the rush of the Christmas season, as the last week of the year rolls around, it is our wont to look back and take inventory of the past 12 months.  We note the things accomplished, and rue tasks and opportunities that have been left undone.  We often make resolutions and plans for the coming year, and the cycle continues.

As of the time of this writing, the year 2016 is halfway gone.

I propose that we, as a church family, take a moment right now to take inventory of the past 6 months, and prayerfully consider where God may lead us in the remainder of this half gone year.

I rejoice in the fact that we have witnessed the baptisms of 9 new believers in the past 6 months, and have received a number of other new members during that time. We had a successful Upward Basketball and Cheerleading season, and incorporated several of our members into service in that important children’s ministry.  We have reached several new families as a result of that program.

We completed another year of Good News Bible Club at Central City Elementary, impacting the lives of 26 children with the Gospel of Christ every Thursday afternoon.  We have seen a year of growth in our Children’s ministry unparalleled in a number of years.

Several of our members have been involved in pro life activities, planning for the October Life Chain Sunday, and others volunteering at the New Beginnings Crisis Pregnancy Center.

WE gave to outside missions through the SBC Cooperative Program, and also financially supported church planters in Toronto, Huntington, Barboursville, and Negros Oriental, Philippines.

We performed funeral services and ministered to the families of six precious souls who have departed us in this life.

As far as facilities go, we have been blessed by God to complete the parking lot project, upgrading of our heating and cooling system, install security cameras, and make some other necessary repairs.

In addition to the above, we have done 6 months of other “churchy” things.

Where do we go from here?

The first thing I am looking forward to, and praying about is the selection of our new “Associate Pastor for Discipleship and Student Ministry” I am praying that this additional staff member, who God sends to us, will serve as a catalyst in reviving our nearly dormant youth ministry. He will work as a resource person and provide guidance for the faithful volunteers who teach and work in our Children’s and Youth Ministries.  He will be our contact person in the local schools.  He will lead the entire discipleship ministry of our church – evaluating, tweaking where necessary, and bringing new discipleship ministries into our work here. He will be responsible for recruiting and training new teachers and workers in our Discipleship ministry.  He will also fill the pulpit on occasion, both in my absence, and on other scheduled times.

Our church will have a presence at “Westmorelandpalooza” on Saturday, July 16^th at Westmoreland Park (formerly known as Corbin Park). We’ll be there to meet our neighbors, share the Gospel, and pray with those who wish us to do so. This will serve as a great tipoff for Vacation Bible School which begins the next day.

VBS will take place July 17-21, providing fun, refreshments, and Bible truths for children, from preschool to high school.

A visiting Mission Team from Florida will join us the week of July 24 as we intend to “Crossover Westmoreland”, seeking to make contact with every resident in our part of the city. We will meet new people, get to know our neighbors, share the Gospel and offer prayer to those who desire it.  Our people from Westmoreland Baptist will team up with the Floridians to cover pre planned mapped out areas of our community.

A three night revival service will also be held here at the church that week, with the visiting pastors from Florida bringing the messages.

School will be starting shortly after these activities.  We plan to do something special for the Teachers on the first week of school.  We will also be prayer walking around each of our schools just prior to their opening. Prayerfully, WBC will have a greater presence in our local schools than any time in recent memory. Fifth Quarters and other youth activities will abound this Fall, and we plan to host our annual Fall Festival on Trick or Treat night.

Upward Sports will continue for the young ones, but we are also planning a more competitive league for the older children this year. Planning meetings are beginning now.

I also look forward to planning a Church Leadership Retreat to take place in late October.  More on that to come.

To sum it up, time is passing ever so quickly.  We cannot literally buy back a single day. Therefore let us “redeem the time” by purposing in our hearts to heartily do whatever God places in our hands, and to do it expeditiously – not for our glory or to our credit, but for His purpose, His honor, His glory.

As one old preacher said many years ago, we should plan our activities and our work for the Lord as if we knew we had a hundred years to work, but to work with such urgency as if we knew Jesus was coming this evening!

One day, He surely will come.  Let’s get to work!

Repainting The Fence Posts

We are creatures of habit.

There is no doubt about that.  We like things that are familiar, comfortable, in the same places as always, and in done in the same way we have always done them. In short, we like the Status Quo.  We want to maintain things the way “they have always been”.  But the fact of the matter is if you leave thing alone, you actually leave it to a torrent of change.  Let me give you an example.

In my old neighborhood a house across the street had a white picket fence.  The front gate hung between two large, ornate fence posts with a trellis that arched from post to post.  When the fence was put up, my mother (who never seemed to envy the possessions of others) remarked how beautiful it was and how she would love to have such a pretty fence with those beautiful posts.  The fence was painted vivid white and was a landmark of sorts in our neighborhood.

The lady who lived in that house had been a resident there for many years. The fence and its beautiful entrance brought her place just to the way she had always wanted it to be.  She was very satisfied.

She was getting up in years, now, and was unable to do a lot of maintenance around the place.  Time began to take its toll on her home, and upon the beautiful white fence. It maintained its luster for a while, but eventually, under the rain, wind, snow, freezing winter weather and the torrid days of Summer, the fence and its beautiful posts began to lose their luster.  It didn’t happen overnight, but eventually the white fence posts and trellis, began to turn gray, and darker each succeeding year.

The fact is, if you leave a white post alone, it will eventually become a black post.

Dr. Chuck Kelley once put it like this.  “If you particularly want it to be white, you must always be painting it again. The fact is, if you really love the OLD white post, you must always be preparing a NEW white post.”

Isn’t that the way it is with our church?

We like the Status Quo.  We enjoy the comfort zone. But nothing ever stays the same. Nothing, that is EXCEPT the message of the Gospel.  The methods we use to share that never changing message, however, must always be evaluated, tweaked, and updated or else we become stagnant, and weather, and darken, and eventually will rot.

Westmoreland Baptist Church has a wonderful history dating back over a century. There have been some glorious times, and times of difficulty. Things have changed a lot since this little mission was begun on this corner in 1915. When the church was in its “heyday” in the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s and 80’s it was hard to see it coming, but change was going on all around us.  The community was changing. Jobs were changing. The economy was changing.  Culture was changing.  In the midst of it all there were churches like ours, and ours, itself, that wanted to cling to the status quo. If we’re not careful, traditions sometimes become more important than mission. Opinions and preferences become more important than ministry. And in the midst of the comfort of “sameness” the fence posts go unpainted and we lose our luster for the Lord.

It is time for us to look past personal preferences and likes and dislikes, to get a clear view of the purpose and mission of our church.  I’m not talking about making wholesale changes in how we do things.  I’m not referring to change just for the sake of change. Our history hasn't changed.  Our identity doesn't change. Our Mission doesn't change. And most certainly our message never changes.  However, we must find the most effective ways to share our unchanging message with the changing culture around us, and be willing to keep repainting the fence posts as necessary - until Jesus comes again!

Let us look to the Lord.  Let us look ahead and not behind. Let us evaluate our ministries and programs in light of our threefold mission (Magnify God. Minister To People. Make Disciples) and be willing to repaint the post where needed. If we open our eyes and our hearts, the Lord will help us.

As we seek to serve the Lord in this Post Christian Culture and Age, let us seek new ways to serve Him, and let us not be guilty of repeating the 7 last words of a dying church, “We never did it that way before!”

Have We Crossed The Point of No Return?

The unlawful (IMHO) edict from our president (I will no longer use a capital P in the title as long as he holds the office), in the latest bout of this ridiculous and totally unnecessary transgender restroom war has just gone over the line. This is wrong on so many levels.

First, it shows the folly of how we have allowed our Federal Government to have such a financial choke hold on our own schools. Some bureaucrat, Federal Judge, (or an amoral chief executive) can make monumental decisions regarding the use of our tax money in education of our children, and "We The People" have lost control. Secondly, the president has no authority to make such decrees. While the office can issue lawful Executive Orders, there are still limits to that power. He is not a king and only heads up one of the three co-equal branches of our government. This must be stopped!

I could go on, but this incident is just another layer added to the decadent snowball that is picking up speed and growing as it is rolling downhill to a destination of total depravity in our society. Along with the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legitimized the American Holocaust, The more recent decision of the supreme court (also not going to use capital letters for them either) to legalize same sex marriage will most likely be looked upon as the threshold America has stepped over to the point of no return.

Our churches will be feeling more and more pressure (threats of losing tax exemptions - to eventual other federal control efforts) but we must stand for Truth. We should not be surprised at this, in fact we must embrace the memory of those early believers who lived under the debauchery of the Roman Empire. We must take on the mindset of them and other martyrs through history who have withstood evil government influence throughout the past 20 centuries - and even today in many ares of our world.

The family is the first institution on Earth and it is a earthly picture of the beautiful union of Christ and His Church. To blur the role of the sexes, even to the point of now making no distinction, is the end of what has come down through 5,000 years of civilization, understanding of natural science, and the God ordained differences between the sexes that were created by God, Himself.

Dr. Russell Moore has written this today:

"The truth is that the male/female sex difference is objectively real. Biological science is built off of this reality. More importantly, the mystery of Christ tells us that the male/female binary points us beyond nature to the gospel itself (Eph. 5). We must tell the truth about this. John the Baptist lost his head for saying that Herod could not have his brother’s wife. Some now will be targeted as culturally unacceptable because they tell Herod he can’t be his brother’s wife. That will take courage and compassion and, above all, it will take Christ."

You can read his entire post, by clicking this link

What To Do When You Feel Overwhelmed

Sometimes things simply take us by surprise. On the surface the circumstances seem insurmountable.  We know that the enemy is powerful, well equipped, and wily.  We don’t have a clue how to respond. 

That is when we must simply turn our eyes upon the Lord.  He is our protector and a very present help in times of trouble.

 In 2 Chronicles 20 Judah’s King Jehoshaphat was faced with such a situation.  Things had been going fairly well for Judah, and Jehoshaphat was a good King.  However, he received very disturbing news.  A federation of nations had formed against him and they were on the march to invade Judah.  Jehoshaphat knew that his army was no match for this force of allied nations.  What was even more frustrating was the fact that God had not allowed His people to invade or conquer those nations during the time of the Exodus, and the King could not understand why God did that and now allowed them to come against His people with overwhelming force.

 
So, what did Jehoshaphat do?
Send a party out to try to ask for peace?
Capitulate and surrender?
Gather his generals together and call up reinforcements and fight the battle under their own power?

No.  He called all of the people together for prayer. 

He prays publicly, himself, and says these words.

¹⁰ And now behold, the men ofAmmon and Moab and Mount Seir, whom you would not let Israel invade when they came from the land of Egypt, and whom they avoided and did not destroy— ¹¹ behold, they reward us by coming to drive us out of your possession, which you have given us to inherit. ¹² O our God, will you not execute judgment on them? For we are powerless against this great horde that is coming against us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.”

Well spoken!

In times of difficulty, uncertainty and crisis, there is nothing we can do that will be more effective than going to God as Jehoshaphat did. Acknowledging our own inability, our own might, but looking to the Sovereign One who is our refuge and strength.

It’s a great story as to how God brings Judah the victory.  Instead of giving them a fool proof battle plan of strength, God instructs the King to put the “choir” up front, going ahead of the fighting men.  A group of singers, “praising the beauty of holiness”.

Here is how the story ends:

²⁰ And they rose early in the morning and went out into the wilderness of Tekoa. And when they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, “Hear me, Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem! Believe in the Lord your God, and you will be established; believe his prophets, and you will succeed.” ²¹ And when he had taken counsel with the people, he appointed those who were to sing to the Lord and praise him in holy attire, as they went before the army, and say,

“Give thanks to the Lord,
    for his steadfast love endures forever.”
²² And when they began to sing and praise, the Lord set an ambush against the men of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah, so that they were routed. ²³ For the men of Ammon and Moab rose against the inhabitants of Mount Seir, devoting them to destruction, and when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, they all helped to destroy one another.

 

Every Pastor Would Understand!

I am fond of saying that being a Pastor is not a "job", it's a calling.

If it were a job, many of us would resign every Monday!

In fact, there is a book entitled "It Only Hurts On Monday: Why Pastor's Quit And What You Can Do About It." I have a Deacon here at Westmoreland Baptist that read that book years ago and he orders extra copies to give to new Deacons who come on board.  There is a lot of truth in that book.

Another dear friend and Deacon told me on several occasions, "You guys must be crazy to do this!"  Well...
Stress does come with the territory.  But who among us doesn't have to deal with stress.  The joy is, Pastors get to work through some special kinds of stress that may not be in the wheelhouse of most folks out there.  We do it because that is what God has called us to do, and no complaints here.  But I do often pray for God's grace, and over more than four decades in ministry, I have developed a hide somewhat like a Rhinoceros.

Sometimes folks can add to the stress - intentionally (and unintentionally) by comments, questions, and "important" items they want to share with us.
This morning I came across a blog post from Thom Rainer that I could really identify with.  It's called "Ten Sentences That Make A Pastor Cringe".  Every Pastor I know can relate, I'm sure.  You can read it by clicking  Here.

Have a nice day, and don't let the stress stop you.

Pray for Abby and Her Family

The picture at left is special to me.

Admittedly it looks a little weird, but it really has sentimental value to me.  It was given to me back in 2014 by Abby Lees (the young lady in the photo) and her Dad, Dave.

The occasion of the photo was after church one Sunday morning in May, 2014.  For those who may not know, the guy clowning around in the top hat was my Dad, Caudle Adkins Jr.  We didn't know it at the time, but that Sunday turned out to be the last time Dad would ever be in our church service. Shortly after he and I did the funeral service in Logan, WV for my Aunt Irene Stidham, who died on Mother's Day, Dad found himself in St. Mary's Medical Center with Congestive Heart Failure and Renal Failure.  On June 26th he went to Heaven.  That Sunday he showed up in the top hat was the last time I was ever in church with my Dad.

Sometime later that Summer, Dave and Abby brought me this photo, already framed, and it sits today in my office suite here at the church.  Dad always loved kids and they loved him.  He had some corny jokes for Abby and her brother that Sunday, and someone in the family snapped that picture.  I am glad they did.

It's amazing how Abby has grown over the 18 months or so since that photo was snapped.  Here is a current photo of her.

Abby is a sweet girl and has a great family, including brother, Drew, Mom, Jennifer, and Dave. They are very special to me and to our faith family here at Westmoreland Baptist.

Over the past few years Abby had begun to develop some curious health issues that baffled, not only her own parents, but also the local physicians that had tried to treat her symptoms.

Things got worse and the concerns in the family grew greater as she began to just "go out like a light", losing consciousness and experiencing convulsive symptoms.

Epilepsy was eventually ruled out, along with some other maladies, but no one seemed to be able to put a finger on what was causing these episodes.

As one can imagine, this became a frightening issue.  Dave and Jennifer began to get calls from school.  It would happen in Dance Class. It would happen in church services.

After several trips to Cleveland Clinic, Abby was diagnosed with a syndrome called POTS.

Her Dad has started a Blog which chronicles the family and personal issues involved when a family member has POTS.  you can read it here.

Let me encourage our readers to check this out, and above all to pray for Abby Lees and her family.  Their faith is strong, but they covet the prayers of other believers on their behalf.