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Peruse Bible teachings and church happenings

Peruse Bible teachings and church happenings

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Sheep-Centric Leadership

Wednesday, August 28, 2024

“Leaders must be aware of who they’re working with. If you have a team of people whose ability level is a 4 or 5 out of 10, you can’t just throw all the policies and doctrines at them and expect them to turn into 9’s and 10’s. But if you’re leading a group of 9’s and 10’s, you can’t treat them like 4’s and 5’s because they’ll easily become discouraged.”

So goes the wisdom from leadership teachers everywhere: that our leadership must be tailored to our followers in order to best help them. The leader must not see his followers as his servants; he must be their servant and lead in a way that is attentive, dignifying, and respectful of whatever level they are at… while still seeing the potential for what level they could be at.

This mindset is eminently Biblical, and it’s easiest to see in the shepherd model. In contrast to cowboys, who drive cattle from the rear of the herd, shepherds lead sheep from the front. But in that we have an even finer lesson: A shepherd cannot take off running at his full speed and expect the sheep to keep up. He does best to go just a touch faster than sheep-speed, so that they will move in the right direction but not be left behind.

It’s no wonder that Solomon’s wisdom was, “Know well the condition of your flocks, and give attention to your herds” (Prv. 27:23). This wisdom will help us whether we are leaders at work, in our homes, or in our families. In order to lead well (which is really to serve and be a blessing to others), we must know who we’re leading and use wisdom to help them in the way that is most helpful for them.

- Dan Lankford, minister

Called Out Of Comfort

Wednesday, August 21, 2024

A friend of mine from Florida made an interesting statement in his sermon this past Sunday as he was discussing 1 Kings 19:19-21 — the passage where Elijah literally gives his mantle (a cloak or jacket) to Elisha as a sign of the one’s ministry passing to the other. This was the quote from my friend that caught my attention: “We need to note that Elisha wasn’t a bad guy being called out a life of sin. He was a good man being called out of a life of comfort.”

My friend’s point in the sermon was that Elisha was doing good and honest work in God’s world, but he was needed for something more meaningful. In order to do what God called him to, he had to accept something beyond his well-worn groove of a comfortable life. Elisha had to leave some of the life he knew to follow a better path outlined for him by God. And you a similar thing in the callings of other prophets: Moses made excuses to God (cf. Ex. 3-4). Gideon did too (cf. Jdg. 6). Isaiah presents us with a positive example, but could have just as easily said to God, “Here I am! Send someone else?” (cf. Isa. 6:8). And then Paul presents yet another example of someone who, at one point in his life, was doing right things, and yet was called by God for something more needed (cf. Acts 16:6-10).

That’s the same call for all of us—not always to leave a life of sin, but often to leave a life of comfort—especially in matters of church family, church life, teaching, and relationships. How many of us are uncomfortable with any number of church involvements, and yet we don’t seek the teaching or guidance or practice to improve our skill and actually accept the responsibility we’re being called to? How many of us could take on more responsibility for everything from basic organizational tasks to visiting orphans and widows to showing hospitality, and yet because we’re uncomfortable with some aspect of it, we continue to hope that ‘someone else’ will do it?

Let’s just commit to picking up the mantle of the things that matter most and giving what God asks of his people in his kingdom. That doesn’t always mean that we need to be doing more, but it does mean that we need to be giving him our best… even when that requires a step out of our comfort zones.

- Dan Lankford, minister

Faith-Building Fridays | Innocent Until Proven Guilty

Friday, August 16, 2024

Let’s talk about the Gospels, those four wonderful books that we cherish so deeply. Without them, we’d know precious little about the life of Jesus. Without them, the foundation of the entire Christian system would crumble. In terms of the Christian faith, there have never been four books more valuable than Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. 

For that reason, it’s not surprising that those who oppose the faith vigorously challenge the validity of these four books. If they can manage to undermine the credibility of the Gospels, then they’ve won the war. Game. Set. Match. So, it’s important for us to think about why these Gospel are so worthy of our trust. For the next few weeks, we’ll dig into what makes the Gospels so reliable. That starts with a phrase you’ve heard before… 

Innocent until proven guilty. That’s the standard we use in a court of law, and it’s a reasonable and rational standard. If you are going to convict someone of a crime, then you should first be able to prove that they committed that crime, and, until you do, we must take them at their word when they profess their innocence. Innocent until proven guilty. It makes sense. 

Too often the Gospels don’t get the same treatment. Too often these historical documents which chronicle the life and teaching of a Man named Jesus of Nazareth are cast aside as unreliable, untrustworthy fairy tales before they are even examined. Too often the Bible writers are labelled as fraudsters spinning a lie, gullible simpletons falling for a trick, even pitiable souls suffering from a shared hallucination. These accusations are tossed around, repeated, believed, and accepted without a shred of evidence. Let that sink in… 

Over the next few weeks, we’ll examine some of the evidence that supports the reliability of the Gospels, but we should begin by appreciating that there simply is no basis for the charges brought against them. In criminal court, charges without evidence are thrown out before the trial begins, and that’s exactly what should happen in this case. Innocent until proven guilty. 

- Jonathan Banning

Faith-Building Fridays | Your Science Is No Good Here

Friday, August 09, 2024

“The reason that no one should believe in miracles—especially the miracle of resurrection—is because it can’t be tested by the scientific method.”

The Scientific Method is the technical term for the type of empirical measurement and testing of certain behaviors based in the natural world. Its key to success is its dependence on repeatable scenarios—testing, observing, and documenting the behaviors of substances, animals, weather patterns, etc. in the natural world. And we would do well to be magnanimous: We owe much of the modern world’s convenience and safety to the scientific method and the findings that have been wrought through it. But its dependence upon repeatable scenarios is a double-edged sword: it leads to greater reliability but is also a limitation that we must acknowledge.

The trouble for Christian apologetics is not with the Method itself, but with those who see it as a universal template for determining all knowledge and reality. When we believe that “science” is what will make humanity whole and essentially *save* us, we have put far too much faith in it. This is the problem of those who make the claim from this article’s first sentence: It is that when we approach the Bible’s events, we are dealing with historical people (which, by definition, are not repeatable) and supernatural scenarios (which, by definition, cannot be measured empirically).

As a general rule, Christians would do well to temper our faith in “science,” so far as that is defined by a naturalistic worldview. It’s certainly not always a bad thing, but we must realize its limitations. Believers ought to read with a discerning eye when anything claims that “science” has discovered the key to something which the Method cannot sufficiently explain. For some examples, consider some magazine and online article headlines: “Science discovers why we’re unhappy,” or “Science discovers why some people are good parents and others aren’t,” or any such thing. Likewise, we ought to temper our faith in its promises for the future, especially when we are told that it will make humanity whole. For some examples, consider promises like these: “Someday, science will help us stop every disease and injury from happening,” or “With enough scientific advances, we’ll be able to stop all wars, because all the resource and commerce problems will be solved.” Only when Christ is fully accepted by faith in every believing heart can we expect to see the world saved in such ways. It won’t be “science” that saves us; it will be God, through his Son Jesus of Nazareth.

At the end of the day, our acceptance or rejection of the Bible’s history comes down to faith. Do we have faith in the Scientific Method to tell us all that is real in the world? Or do we have faith in the One who created the world which the Method can only measure? The Bible’s miracles, and especially the resurrection, must be accepted by faith (see Jn. 20:30-31’s emphasis on belief). But with the preponderance of other evidence for Christianity and the Bible, we have all the reasons necessary to put our faith in them.

- Dan Lankford, minister

Excuses for Lackluster Service

Wednesday, August 07, 2024

When God called Moses into his service, he made several excuses for why he couldn’t (or didn’t think that he should have to) serve as he’d been called. Each time that Moses made an excuse, God answered it with a clear and simple statement that showed just how flimsy it actually was. Ultimately, God persisted in calling Moses and Moses did answer the call to be the chosen deliverer of God’s people.

We often make excuses (sometimes ongoing ones) for why we can’t (or don’t think that we should have to) serve God as we’ve been called. We sometimes believe that the qualities of true disciples won’t work in the modern world, that we don’t have enough ability to do what God’s asked of us, or that we shouldn’t have to do as we’re called to do because people will reject our efforts. But again and again, the Bible answers our excuses with clear and simple statements that show us just how flimsy they actually are.

Let’s just stop ourselves from making excuses for lackluster service to God. Let’s just decide that in whatever ways he calls us into his service, we will humbly and joyfully serve him. Always.

- Dan Lankford, minister

Your Kingdom Come

Sunday, July 28, 2024

King Nebuchadnezzar was a truly powerful world leader. His kingdom was richer, bigger, and more feared than almost any other national power before it or contemporary to it. And he knew it too (see Dan. 4). But God reminded him that even as great as he was, there was a kingdom that would far exceed his in influence, area, and power. In Daniel 2, God showed him a vision of a future kingdom that was built by divine hands—not human ones—and that would expand to fill the entire earth. That kingdom is the church of Jesus Christ—his people, living his way, sharing his grace with the world, shining with the light of his glory, and exercising a more powerful influence in the world than any kingdom of mankind ever can.

So how does that picture of the world accord with what we see today? When tensions between powerful nations threaten world peace and safety, and when we, the church, seem to just be carried along in the tide of victims to world leaders’ decisions, how can we believe the promises of the church’s power found in Daniel’s prophecies?

The reality is that the power of God’s kingdom doesn’t come from national laws and policies, or from military might, or from economic prosperity, or from the size of its territory. The power of God’s kingdom is his personal influence over hearts. That’s a power that no kingdom of mankind can ever have—the power to change the very heart of each citizen. And that’s a power that can work subversively in the regime of any man-made kingdom, even one that is actively trying to stamp out Christianity. No matter how much a government may try to police its people’s thoughts and control their decisions the best it can hope for is to control the behaviors of its people; not to create goodness from their hearts as God’s Spirit does in us. That’s what Christ was talking about when he said, “my kingdom is not from the world.” It’s not a kingdom that’s built by top-down control and coercion, but rather with inside-to-outside conversion, changing hearts that lead to changes in entire cultures.

So, if we look around at the world and wonder when God’s kingdom will expand into the grand influence that Nebuchadnezzar’s vision predicted, let’s be reminded that it’s up to us and our relationship with Christ and our influence in others’ lives. The power of Christ’s kingdom is not in politics, but in people. It’s not in our laws but in our lives. It’s not in elections but in the elect—his saved ones. Brothers and sisters, “we are” that kingdom that is expanding to fill and change the entire world as we teach the Good News to each new generation, to our friends & neighbors, and to everyone who will be saved and live by faith in the Son of God.

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on Earth, as it is in heaven.

- Dan Lankford, minister

How Relevant Is Church? How Relevant Should It Be?

Wednesday, July 24, 2024

Relevance. A handful of years ago, that was all that evangelicals seemed to talk about when it came to what they were looking for in a church. One side of the aisle were focused on “making church relevant,” by which they meant making it feel like something fun and exhilarating and definitively not church-y. On the other side were those who rebelled against that idea by refusing to preach and teach in ways that had emotional impact or met daily-life needs, because they saw the other side’s efforts toward “relevance” as frivolous and phony and therefore unspiritual.

While one of those impulses leans in a slightly more biblical direction, the reality is that neither is wholly correct. Both are reactionary—a rebellion against someone else’s problems by going in the extreme opposite direction, only to create a new problem. When we react to people like that, the pendulum just swings back and forth between opposing problems. So what’s the solution? It’s that we stop reacting to people’s problems and instead respond to God’s wisdom.

And this is where we find a solution to the challenges with “relevance” in church. God said that his word “is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hb. 4:12). It doesn’t need to be made relevant. It already is. If we preach and teach it rightly, then we will easily see its impact on our lives. And the impact of true, sincere worship will be felt among any group that offers that (cf. 1 Cr. 14:24-25). Put those together, and we’ll find that we automatically have a church where the impact is truly relevant in every generation.

On the other side of the coin, it’s not wise for us to only give discourses on the Bible’s literary design, it’s ancient cultural significance, and its philosophical value while neglecting to teach how it impacts our lives, our thoughts, our speech, and our relationships. There must be a proper balance, guided by the Spirit in the fullness of the spoken word, by which we lead one another into “all the truth” (Jn. 16:13).

So we need not make the things of God relevant since they already are, and we dare not make them irrelevant and stand in the way of God’s life-giving power. In everything we do, we ought to speak “the oracles of God” in their fullness, both for information and transformation. The ways of God are eternally righteous and wise, giving guidance to us in this era as they do in every era.

- Dan Lankford, minister

Mountaintop Experiences

Sunday, July 21, 2024

There are some really exciting events and moments in the life of a Christian. Especially in the lives of young Christians, camp or vacation Bible school can bring so much joy into our times of learning and worshiping God. Bible-related activities, building new relationships, creative teaching techniques, excited singing, bonding experiences, and a general increase of spiritual thinking all come together to renew our sense of dedication and excitement about spiritual things. We walk away from events like those on a spiritual high, thinking things like, “I had forgotten how good we have it as Christians!” Or, “I wish we could have things like this more often! They do so much good for my Christian walk!”

These peaks of spirituality are a healthy thing, and we should thank God for them when they come. While there may be an impulse among some believers to equalize (or suppress) our levels of emotion in all spiritual things, I don’t see any Biblical reason to do so. If camp or VBS or some other spiritual experience is done righteously and it’s exciting, let it be so. In fact, I hope that’s what happens for all of you who are going to camp this week—I hope that it rejuvenates you!

Let’s also remember to wise about those emotional moments in life. And here’s just one consideration in that regard:
Often, when we experience a spiritual high, we think “This is how Christianity is supposed to feel.” And so for that reason, we double our efforts in spiritual pursuits like Bible study and prayer and we expect to keep experiencing the same highs because it’s supposed to feel a certain way.

We need to be careful of striving for how Christianity is supposed to feel. God talks surprisingly little about that. Instead, he talks much more about who we should be and what we should do as Christians (see Eph. 2:10). Doing spiritual things with the goal of experiencing a feeling is what we would usually call emotionalism, and that’s not God’s intention for us.

Consider Jeremiah’s example: he may not have experienced a single day of these emotional highs, and yet he pleased God. We need not fall into thinking that we need those emotional highs in order to keep our efforts as Christians up to their full potential. We should be serving God at full capacity no matter what. And we need to not allow ourselves to become discouraged because somehow our Christian experience doesn’t feel just right. The goal of spirituality is not emotions; it’s faithfulness. So let’s enjoy the mountaintop experiences when God gives us to them, and let’s also be committed to living a life that pleases God in all places and times.

- Dan Lankford, minister

Rhinestone Cowboy and The Emptiness of Life

Wednesday, July 17, 2024

What gives your life purpose and fulfillment? What is your basis of meaning and joy, and what do you consider a successful life? Is that thing substantive, real, and permanent? Or is just a veneer of joyfulness that’s installed over a life of emptiness?

When we serve ourselves and seek to fulfill our own desires, we end up with treasures that waste away in one way or another. When we desire fame, money, love, influence, thrill, reputation, power, and pleasure… we may gain them, but eventually we’re left grasping for handfuls of dust as they blow away. We build what looks like a fulfilled and satisfied life, but with a little reflection, we realize that it’s phony—a flimsy veneer used to hide the emptiness that is the real story.

I recently began thinking about this as I combed thru some famous songs of yesteryear. One that caught my attention was Rhinestone Cowboy by Glen Campbell. As I listened, I realized just how ironic the song’s message is. It’s about a country singer who wants to become famous, and his obsession with that goal robs him of the good life again and again. But he he does eventually get the fame that he seeks, and when he does, he describes it this way: “Like a rhinestone cowboy, riding out on a horse in a star-spangled rodeo… getting cards and letters from people I don’t even know.”

To me, that doesn’t sound like much of a reward for all the compromises he’s had to make along the way. A rhinestone cowboy’s life sounds like a sham, because everything in it lacks substance. Rhinestones have no value in the real-world experience of cowboys; they’re just delicate decorations—all for show. And the relationships that he celebrates aren’t actually meaningful; they’re just letters from people he doesn’t even know.

There’s no substance to a life like that. There’s nothing real in a life with shallow relationships and a lack of true, God-centered fulfillment. James said it this way: “You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.” (Jas. 4:3-4) And Jesus told it to us this way: “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all [the things that you really need] will be added to you.” (Mt. 6:33) And there could be quoted countless other places where the Holy Spirit clearly communicates the same concept: that If our desire is for God, we can have him, and he is enough, and we will not lose him. Once that relationship is in place, our lives will have substance and we will gain fulfillment that cannot be taken away or ruined. And it will be more than a facade of satisfaction; it will be the real thing in such abundance as to make others ask about the reason for it (see 1 Pt. 3:15). Only a theistic worldview offers this. And only a worldview in which we put our faith in a God who loves us offers it so deeply.

I wonder if the songwriters behind Rhinestone Cowboy meant for it to ironically portray a life of emptiness. I’m not sure, but I’d bet that most people who’ve heard the song over the years have failed to see thru the facade. As Christians, though, we see with eyes of faith that penetrate human thinking and help us realize that all self-serving desires will ultimately leave us empty when we pursue them. But when we pursue the reign of God and his righteousness, we can be assured that everything we need will be added to our lives. And when our focus is on him, we will find real purpose and fulfillment that last through this life and through eternity.

- Dan Lankford, minister

Faith-Building Fridays | One Miracle Trumps Them All

Friday, July 12, 2024

All of Christianity’s most essential teachings center on the person of Jesus Christ. His divinity, incarnation, doctrine, life, death, and resurrection are The Gospel. But if you had to boil it down to the single most essential and distinctive belief among those, it would have to come down to his resurrection. C.S. Lewis observed from the book of Acts that for the apostles and early saints, “to preach Christianity meant primarily to preach the resurrection.” It was that message, more than any other, that they proclaimed to a lost and dying world, and it turned the world upside-down.

Skeptics and opponents of the faith have long been aware of the importance of this doctrine too. Many have denied its existence, even in the face of compelling historical evidence. One notable, extreme example, a bishop in the Anglican church, is notorious for publicly disbelieving that Jesus rose. He has written somewhere, “That the apostles had a transformative experience of some kind is evident, but it had nothing to do with the resuscitation of Jesus’ body.” This is, of course, tantamount to denying the entire Christian faith, as Paul said: “if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.” (1 Cr. 15:17)

And so the resurrection is the greatest among God’s many important miracles. And the evidence for it stacks up strong: there is a bank of prophecy behind it, a cadre of witnesses concurrent to it, a multitude of converts following it, and a host of martyrs clinging to it for eternal hope. Many people—on one occasion, more than 500 of them—saw him. Others touched him. Others watched him eat meals. The deniers never revealed his “stolen” body to disprove the resurrection story, and even the false testimony of its disappearance corroborates what really happened. The bottom line is this: It happened. He rose from the dead. And that matters.

It matters because the resurrection is the core belief by which we receive salvation from him. We are saved by grace through faith in who he really is: the crucified and resurrected Savior and Messiah. And even in the saving act of baptism, we are buried with him and raised with him to new spiritual life (Rm. 6:1-5). The resurrection is the place where the discipline of apologetics overlaps the most with the discipline of evangelism, because “if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, and you are still in your sins… [and] we are of all people most to be pitied.”

- Dan Lankford, minister

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