Monthly Archives: September 2009

Sep 28 2009

The Lord’s Supper – Proclaimation


This is the second post in the series “The Lord’s Supper”. The last post made the point that one of the primary reasons for the eating and drinking of the Lord’s Supper is to focus us on Christ’s sacrifice for us, and especially to remember his body. “This is my body….” and “This is the blood….” are to be rememberd and appreciated by believers. Communion, if done properly, will accomplish that goal. Not only are we to remember him and his sacrifice of himself but when we share in communion we proclaim his death.

“For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” (1 Corinthians 11:26)

It is very important that we continually proclaim the good news to each other. I think some Christians believe that as we mature we move on from the gospel to deeper things. I have news for you, the gospel is the deepest thing! We must be gospel centered people to be the people God uses.

Paul’s letter to the Romans was a letter primarily to believers. In fact he gives thanks that their faith is known throughout the whole world. (Romans 1:8) And yet immediately before his statement about the gospel being the power of God unto salvation (Romans 1:16) he wrote these words.

“…I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.” (Romans 1:15)

Christianity is the gospel! It is the historical facts of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus and their present and future implications upon which we stand and have staked our eternal destiny.

Never, never, never, should we stop preaching and teaching the gospel to each other and one of the ways we do that is by eating the bread and drinking from the cup as we remember the Lord’s body and shed blood for sinners.

In most of our churches on a given Sunday there will likely be those present who have not yet become Christians. We should be aware of that fact and make sure that when we participate in the Lord’s Supper that we are reverent and sincere knowing that we are by these acts proclaiming the Lord’s great sacrifice for sinners to a watching world.

We are to keep proclaiming the gospel facts until He returns. The emphasis is never on the “how” or even on the “when” but wholly upon the “what” and the “who” of the good news.

We remember and we proclaim as together we eat and drink together.

for Jesus,
Royce

Sep 25 2009

WORLD RADIO


worlradio

For almost a half century the good news has been going to the far reaches of the globe from West Monroe, Louisiana through the ministry of World Radio, a missions ministry of the Whites Ferry Road Church of Christ. In 1963 some great men of God took seriously Christ’s command to preach the good news to every people group. My friends Bill Smith, Alton Howard (presently in heaven), and others, were men of vision who dared to dream they could get the story of Jesus to people literally everywhere! Now forty six years later tens of thousands have claimed Christ as Savour and Lord and thousands of local churches have been established in far away places by people who learned the story of Jesus and God’s redemption while listening to a radio broadcast.

World Radio is a local church ministry with a world wide vision. Presently WR is beaming the gospel into 89 countries. 155 radio speakers are preaching across the air waves in 49 different languages. World Radio in the early days produced broadcasts from studios in the church building in West Monroe, LA but as technology grew the methods changed and for many years WR provides radio time for indigenous preachers to share Christ in the languages of the people who listen. People are hearing the good news in their native tongue in Bolivia, Brazil, Cambodia, Cameroon, Chad, Colombia, Croatia, Dominican Republic and many, many more countries all around the world. And, they are coming to Christ.

World Radio speakers working with others are able to offer free Bible correspondence courses and to connect people with other believers in their communities where they can be loved and discipled. One of the most recent, and for me one of the most exciting, new broadcasts is a Spanish language broadcast in a very needy place, metropolitan Dallas/Ft Worth. A wonderful Mexican brother and gifted servant, Sixto Rivera is reaching the huge Latino audience with the message that sets men free. The response has been awesome with listeners requesting CD’s of the broadcasts to send to relatives in Mexico and countries in South America. Many listeners are being connected with DFW congregations who are equipped to minister to them the grace of God in Christ Jesus. There is no match for gospel radio! How better to reach the hopeless masses than in their cars and homes and work places?

I invite you to visit the World Radio offices in West Monroe, Louisiana if you are in our area. Or click on World Radio’s weblink and learn more about this wonderful open door for the gospel of Jesus. I am proud to say that our own Ben Adkins was recently appointed by the WFR elders as World Radio Team Leader. Ben is uniquely gifted and equipped to lead such an international ministry. He is a great husband and father, preacher and teacher, and humble servant. Open doors abound and are only limited by the funds coming in as Ben, his team, and our elders and church wait upon the Lord in faith.

Will you prayerfully consider World Radio for some of your mission giving? There is no better way on earth to get the gospel to so many people for the dollars spent. WR can literally blanket the world with the good news if God touches enough hearts to partner with this ministry in the gospel. At a minimum, please pray for Ben Adkins and his team at World Radio.

I am humbled that God has allowed me to worship with the most wonderful people I know for the last 9 years. I have never known a local church with such world vision, and such unconditional love for the down and out and the up and out. In addition to World Radio the global relief ministry WFR Relief also calls Whites Ferry Road Church home. We Care, Mexico Medical Missions, church planting, Celebrate Recovery, Grief Share, Divorce Care, and perhaps a dozen other local and international ministries are undertaken by our people. There is but one way to get men fit for heaven and eternal life, Jesus Christ our Lord. We preach Him!

for Jesus,
Royce

 

Sep 24 2009

The Lord’s Supper – Remember


In the church of Christ tradition our church eats the bread and drinks the cup every Lords’s day. There are many ideas about the meaning, the motive, and the method of this holy communion. One thing is very clear though. The central purpose is to keep us centered on Jesus.

23 For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” (1 Corinthians 11:23-25)

By this wonderful reminder we are again and again pointed to Jesus. By taking the bread we remember that he suffered and died in a real body. He offered a real human body for us so that we might live in a new body when he comes. And, as we drink the fruit of the vine we remember that his pure blood purchased the new covenant that assures us of heaven.

Remembering Jesus is not the only message of the Lord’s Supper but it is the most important. Mark is down, Christians are to be centered on the gospel and on Jesus. People who are centered on Jesus are not given to foolish controversies, divisions and factions, fights about worship styles and attacking other believers.

The next time you take a bit of communion bread remember the Lord Jesus and what he suffered that you might have life. And when you drink from the cup remember the royal blood that was shed to take away your sins. Focus on Jesus and you will clearly see how he wants you to live in his stead on this earth.

for Jesus,
Royce

Sep 21 2009

Where Then Is Boasting?


humility

I will not take the time to give historical info as to how the two schools of thought called Calvinism and Armenians came to be. I’m sure that most of the readers of Grace Digest know the story. The bottom line is Calvinists believe that God chooses individuals to be his own and draws them to himself granting repentance, faith, and obedience. The other camp, Armenians, put the emphasis on man’s free will, man’s faith, and man’s obedience.

I am not a 5 point Calvinist but I do believe the following things.

God decides who is going to believe before they actually believe.

This is clearly illustrated in Acts 13:48.

“Now when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. And as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed”.

It was not the faith of the listeners that caused them to be appointed to eternal life but the opposite. It seems from the text that all the people were glorifying God but out of the crowd only those appointed to eternal life believed.

Again in Acts we can find the same thing. Acts 11 records Peter’s report to the elders about the conversion of Gentiles. After he explained that they received the gift of the Holy Spirit just like he did (when he believed) verse 18 says,

“When they heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.”

Those 1st Century men understood that God enables sinners to have a change of mind and believe the good news. God always initiates the work of redemption in a person’s life. In both of these accounts in the book of Acts it is also clear that not everyone is “appointed to eternal life” and not everyone has “been granted repentance”.

Dead men have no will.

Ephesians chapter 2 is one of my favorite passages of the Bible. Read the inspired words of Paul about the condition of sinners and how God saves them.

“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins  in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—  among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.  But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,  even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,  so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

How terrible, how awful, and how hopeless our sinful state? All of those who are unsaved and all of us before we were saved were spiritually dead, walking in trespasses and sins, following the devil and his rule in the world, living out the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of our bodies and minds”. If that were not bad enough he says too “we were by nature children of wrath”. That is total depravity! It is the picture of sinners who are hopelessly lost and unable to help themselves.

Now the good news, God is a God of mercy and grace! We were like all of mankind in our sad condition but because of God’s mercy and love he “made us alive”! He did not make all of mankind alive, just “us”, the same ones he had chosen in chapter 1.

So the wonderful parenthetical phrase in verse 5 “By grace you have been saved”!

 He raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly places, why? He tells us why. “

V7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus”.

Never forget this, our salvation is not about us, it is about him and his glory. He does not need me or you but we must have him.

This great salvation is not our doing, not apprehended by our works; we can lay no claim to our eternal state in Christ. You and I contributed to our salvation in the same way Lazarus contributed to his resurrection when Jesus made him alive, not a whit! We can only give God glory because of his great love and mercy.

God saves at this own discretion.

1 Peter 2:9-10 “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.  Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy”

Why us and not them? Why did we receive mercy and others didn’t?

1 Peter 2:  “So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe,

   “The stone that the builders rejected
   has become the cornerstone,” 8and
   “A stone of stumbling,
   and a rock of offense.”   

   They stumble because they disobey the word, as they  were destined to do”.

How can I read this plain teaching and disagree that some are destined to disobey the word? I can not and I will not.

I don’t understand fully the God I serve but I do know some things. I don’t have to know a “why”, mine is only to trust.

For Jesus,

Royce