Romans 11:33-36

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor? Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Postponed Due to Weather


In consideration of your safety, Brushfork Baptist Church will be canceling services tomorrow due to the weather. Although some main roads should be cleared by Sunday morning, most secondary roads (including mine) will remain impassable.

We will reschedule the Christmas Cantata and Children's Play for next Sunday.

Although we will not be having services, I encourage you to spend the day worshipping together as a family. Spend some time in God's Word, in prayer together and in worship together.

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Friday, December 18, 2009

The Weather Outside is (going to be) Frightful


The forecast is calling for up to 12 inches of snow today and tomorrow. If at all possible, we are still planning on having our Christmas Cantata in the 11:00 service and our Children's Play in the 7:00 PM service.

I will monitor the weather and if it is impossible or unsafe to continue with our plans, I will let you know through WVVA Snow Patrol, this website and Facebook.

If we have to cancel services due to weather, we will reschedule the cantata and play for next Sunday, December 27th.

In the meantime, stock up, bundle up, snuggle up and pray up!

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Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Christmas Book Giveaway


Over on Kingdom People, Trevin Wax is having his second annual Christmas Giveaway.  From December 15-25, you can register to win his 10 favorite books of the year PLUS and ESV Study Bible and a copy of his new book, Holy Subversion.  To register, click on the link above and follow the directions.

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Monday, December 14, 2009

Who the Light of Christmas Is


This is the second message of a three part Christmas series on the first 7 verses of Isaiah 9. Today’s message focuses specifically on the answer to the question, “Who Is Jesus?” Do you know the answer? This is the perfect season to find out.

The manuscript from Sunday evening's sermon is available here. You can listen online or download the .mp3 audio file or podcast from the player at the bottom of this page

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Answering Questions



Have you ever asked a question and not gotten the answer you were looking for? I think we all have. The fact is, that just because a person is asking a question, doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re looking for an answer. Especially if the answer goes against what they were looking for. That’s what happened in today’s passage.

The manuscript from Sunday morning's sermon is available here. You can listen online or download the .mp3 audio file or podcast from the player at the bottom of this page.

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Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Encouraging Frail Faith


When a person is born again, they are like a newborn baby. The disciples were really no different. They had a lot of growing up to do in just a short period of time, and all through the Gospels, Jesus grew them and nurtured them. He purposely put them in situations that would test their faith. In this message, we will look at one such test.

The manuscript from Sunday morning's sermon is available here. You can listen online or download the .mp3 audio file or podcast from the player at the bottom of this page.

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What the Light of Christmas Brings


This message is the start of a new three part Christmas series on the first 7 verses of Isaiah 9. Over the next three messages, we will be looking at What the Light of Christmas Brings, Who the light of Christmas is, and What the light of Christmas Promises. I hope you can join us each time.


The manuscript from Sunday evening's sermon is available here. You can listen online or download the .mp3 audio file or podcast from the player at the bottom of this page.

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Tuesday, December 1, 2009

When I Suffer


This is our fourth and final look at suffering in the book of Job—and today we’re going to get personal. We’re going to talk about how to deal with it when we are the ones who are suffering. How can we suffer well?


You can listen or download from the player at the bottom of this page. If you would rather, you can read the manuscript here.

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Casting Pearls


I don’t know why I do it…. I know Jesus’ command in Matthew 7:6, but I do it anyway. I have found that there are two groups of people who are virtually impossible to talk to seriously—homosexuals and militant atheists. I deal with them quite differently, but in my experience they have been equally hostile and antagonistic.

I will not debate matters of morality or lifestyle with a person who is living in a homosexual lifestyle. Each time I have had the opportunity to talk with a person living a homosexual lifestyle, I simply try to present the truth of the Gospel as plainly and clearly as I can. Invariably I am shrilly accosted as judgmental, intolerant and hateful. Rarely can dialogue continue—as a matter of fact, I do not remember a time when it has been able to continue. I have not enjoyed those occasions and because of that, have not run the risk of violating Matthew 7:6. Each time, I have presented the Gospel, taken the heat and moved on.

Atheists are a different story. I actually enjoy debating them—probably too much. In the past, most people who identified themselves as atheists were really agnostic. They held out the possibility that God might exist. Agnostics are fairly easy to talk to because, most of the time, they are open-minded. The problem is that, in recent years, more people who identify themselves as atheists are actually anti-theists. They have taken their cue from people like Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins in becoming evangelistic atheists. They combine their version of science with Michael Savage style debate tactics (read: ad hominum attacks).

I’m a big boy—I can handle personal attacks. What I find baffling is how inconsistent and incomprehensible their arguments are. “I can’t believe in God because you can’t empirically prove He exists. Your only evidence for Him is in a book.” They have no problem saying that, but simultaneously excoriate believers for saying, “I can’t believe in evolution because you can’t empirically prove it happened. Your only evidence for evolution is reading about it in a book.” They freely allow the interpretation of data according to their presuppositions, but believers are not afforded the same opportunity. Interpreting data according to their presuppositions is called science. Interpreting data according to Christian presuppositions is called myth (or worse). For examples of an ongoing debate along these lines, click here, here, and here and read the comments.

On the rare occasions I have seen someone converted from atheism, their eyes have been opened because they began to understand that they have believed in evolution by faith in the written testimony of others. When (by the grace of God) they came to that understanding, it was only a matter of time (and teaching) before they were able to see how much more reliable the testimony of Scripture is than the ever-changing testimony of “science”. When they come to see Scripture as reliable testimony, they can come to trust the One about whom Scripture is written.

Unfortunately, most of the time, their atheistic views have been formed and callused by years of anger and bitterness over a “religious” experience in their past that went terribly wrong. Maybe coincidentally (maybe not), most of the militant atheists I have encountered were raised in Catholic schools or came from nominal Catholic environments. Regardless, their deep-seeded anger and bitterness precludes them from hearing truth or accepting it when it is clearly revealed to them.

Years ago, a dear atheistic friend of mine finally admitted that he believed what he believed by faith alone. He admitted that the testimony in which he believed was far less credible than the Testimony in which I believed. Yet, through his tears and clenched teeth, he growled, “I refuse to believe in God.” I still weep for him.

Why do I continue to cast pearls? Maybe because I hold out hope that these really aren’t Matthew 7:6 people like my friend was.

Romans 1:18-23

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