What Do You Intend After Easter?

     In the KJV, the word, "Easter," is found only once in the Bible  in Acts 12:4 which includes the phrase, "intending after Easter." That leads me to ask, what are you intending after Easter? The Sunday designated as Easter will be a day of crowded churches and fresh spring clothes. What are the crowds that gather for their once a year ritual of church attendance intending after Easter?

     Dr Bobby Moore was the pastor of the great Broadway Baptist Church in Olive Branch, MS. He was a truly great man of prayer and wrote a book every Christian should read entitled, "Your Personal Devotional Life." I was privileged to preach for him many times. On one occasion, he asked me to preach his Easter service, and he asked me to preach the best evangelistic sermon I could muster. I asked him for his reason for such a request. He replied that there would be hundreds there that day who only come on Easter and probably had the resurrection message memorized. He continued by saying that some just might get saved if they heard an evangelistic message, but if they got upset, they had a year in which to get over it. I did as he asked and 121 adults were saved that day. 

     You need to honor the Risen Lord on the day we honor his resurrection but in reality the proof of whether you truly believe Christ rose from the dead is how you live that precious truth in your life the following 364 days of the year. Does Paul's desire for himself ring true for you as he expressed in Philippians 3:10 where he exclaimed that he wanted to know the power of our Lord's resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings. I tell you this. That's my intention after Easter.

On Good Friday, All Of Us Will Make One Of Three Decisions

     Good Friday is a day for remembrance of the agonizing death and the shed blood of Jesus at Calvary that provided salvation for mankind. 

     Today, I have been thinking of three Roman centurions who stood at the base of the cross that day. I believe each of them made decisions that reflect decisions made by everyone in today's modern world. I think you will understand as I present each centurion for your contemplation, because I believe two made the wrong decision and are in hell today, but one made the right decision and is in heaven.

     THE FIRST CENTURION MISSED SALVATION BECAUSE OF DISTRACTION. He was gambling for the seamless coat of Jesus, probably with his back turned on the most important event in human history. There is nothing either moral or immoral about wanting a coat. His problem was that he was distracted from Jesus. Modern Americans have little or no time for Jesus because of their being distracted by sports, family, careers, politics, etc. I believe hell will have huge crowds of people who were actually moral, good people, but people whose attention was on things that in and of themselves were good things but nevertheless kept people from gazing upon the Christ of Calvary.

     THE SECOND CENTURION MISSED SALVATION BECAUSE OF A USELESS

DEED. He cast a spear into the lifeless body of Jesus. That was a useless act. It made no sense. A spear is an instrument of combat against a living person. However, he must have despised our Lord so much that he could not restrain himself from this non-productive deed. There are millions who will be in hell because like this centurion they will choose some useless, non-productive sin rather than accepting Jesus as Savior. I believe at the judgment all of heaven's angels will mock them for the choice of a useless sin over the Son of God. 

     THE THIRD CENTURION MADE THE RIGHT CHOICE BECAUSE HE GOT AS CLOSE TO JESUS AS HE COULD AND ADORED HIM. In Mark 15:39 we are told that this centurion, according to the KJV, got over "against" Jesus. To be so close that you are against someone is to be as near that person as possible. And, once he was there, according to verse 39 of Mark 15, he saw Jesus as he gave up the ghost and then said, "Truly this man was the Son of God."

     On this Good Friday, as we ponder the cross, which of these centurions represents you? Are you so distracted by even good things of this world that you have no intimacy with Jesus? Are you too committed to a useless sin that you will not obey our Lord's commands? Or, are you as near to Jesus as possible and adoring him as the Son of God?

So What If They Did Backtrack In Indiana...

    It is extremely disturbing to me that there are preachers and laymen in the Christian community who believe it is a good thing when legislators and governors change enacted laws because of an unusually heavy backlash by not only their constituents but also by economic threats coming from out-of-state groups. We are seeing this presently in Indiana, the state in which I now have my residence. It is one thing if opposition to legislation is based upon the actual statements included in the bill, but it is quite another to stir up a mob mentality through screaming vitriolic falsehoods by alleging conditions in the bill that do not exist. This acquiescence to whichever group can shout the loudest will lead to anarchy, a total breakdown of an orderly government of laws and reason.  And, lest you think of me as a right-wing fanatic, let me assure you that I have friends of a more liberal political persuasion than mine that are also very concerned about this kind of socio-political protest that distorts facts to fit its own agenda.

     We are living in a time unprecedented in the history of our nation. There is an increasing gathering of storm clouds that is speeding toward all who follow Christ. Since Trinity Seminary has students and alumni in over eighty denominations, I believe I am in a unique position to speak on this subject because we have Christian leaders in this vast array of denominations who serve across the spectrum from very conservative churches to very liberal churches. Let me warn all of you. If this trend continues, none of you will be safe from government interference to preach your convictions concerning anything that touches at all on moral issues. This activist effort to use the government to squelch the faith convictions of business owners will never be satisfied. So, if you are of a more liberal theological leaning and perhaps even agree with the backtracking in Indiana and Arkansas, please consider the history of the USSR and its evolution into an atheist state. Before the fall of that country, not only were conservative churches banned but liberal churches were outlawed as well. It is extremely important that all believers in Christ, and I mean all believers, conservative or liberal, should immediately and very soberly look toward the future of America in terms of your ability to leave your particular religious faith to your posterity. 

     The best defense against an uncertain future that includes the possibility of a religious purging in America is the election of statesmen, not mere politicians, of high moral character to serve in both major political parties. We need men and women in elected office who cannot be threatened, coerced, intimidated, bribed, bought or sold. We need people who possess a reasonable mind who will listen carefully to opposing views; men such as Tip O'Neill and Ronald Reagan who fiercely argued their respective positions and then went out to dinner together. We need people of a resolute spirit who will not listen to the howling mobs or watch the latest polls but rather make decisions based on earnest convictions and then firmly stand on them even if it means the loss of re-election. We need people with a religious foundation that is anchored on "Thus saith the Lord!" as found in their regular study of God's Word. We need champions, not cowards, statesmen, not snivelers; and godly, not godless. 

     Finally, my appeal to all who name the name of Christ is that you determine within yourself that "as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!"

     

I Loved Being A Pastor

     Okay, I'll admit it.  I loved being a pastor.  For twenty-eight years at five different churches, I was the senior pastor; and I loved everything about it. More than once, I was told by Ministers of Music that I should march into the sanctuary with the choir instead of being out there shaking hands and visiting briefly with members already seated in the pews. Many pastors try to avoid hospital visits or nursing home worship services, but I looked forward to those times. I loved the beauty of weddings and the hope through grief of funerals. Put it down; I thoroughly enjoyed being a pastor.

     Several years ago, I was asked to preach at the very influential Morning Star Baptist Church in Cleveland, Ohio, a predominantly African-American congregation. Dr Earl Preston was their noble pastor. After the service, I asked one of the men why he so obviously loved the pastor. He responded that several years earlier, as a young man not yet living for God, he and some of his friends were stranded on a cold wintry night when their car had broken down. They didn't know what to do. His godly aunt had told him that if he ever got into a real problem with no where to turn, he should call Pastor Preston, so that's what he did. He said Dr Preston could have sent someone to assist them, but he came himself. He continued by saying that Dr Preston took them to the finest hotel in Cleveland and paid for their rooms. They tried to persuade Dr Preston 

that a cheap hotel would be more than they deserved to which he replied, "Young men, God set this meeting up between us tonight, and God wouldn't keep you in a dump so I won't either." This church member concluded by saying that Dr Preston had a big heart that reached every member of the church individually and the unsaved outside the church too. That, dear friend, is a real pastor.

     As I write this, it is near midnight. It's also near midnight for many people in their personal lives as they struggle through day after weary day of dark despair. A kind word, a hug or a sympathetic ear by a pastor can brighten their days. I am now a seminary president, but of late I have been pondering in my heart and soul the possibility of starting a church that I could pastor.....a place to love the unlovely, to embrace the lonely, to give hope to the fear-stricken. I have always had the dream of preaching verse-by-verse through the Bible which according to my estimates could be done in eleven years although my original plan called for seventeen years. That would be a veritable fountain for the huge reservoir of Bible truth I carry in my heart.

     I try to tell the pastors who are being educated at Trinity that three  things are 

basics for a pastor's ministry.  First, he must trust the Bible completely and preach each sermon after spending time alone with God until the message burns in his heart. Forget the one-liner jokes, avoid the melodramatic stories, but instead allow the Holy Spirit to speak what God wants said exactly the way God wants it said. Second, love your people by getting to know them and being there when they need you. Third, and most important, love Jesus....really love Jesus. 

     In summary, our churches and various denominations have plenty of preachers, but the desperate need of the hour and the aching hearts of hundreds of thousands of church members is for someone to whom they can share their burdens one-on-one and not from a distant seat in a sanctuary, but someone they can, as a result of his warm personal presence in their lives, say about him, "He's MY pastor."

     

     

Palm Sunday: A Day Some People Make A Bad Decision

     It is my opinion that Palm Sunday is under appreciated in its importance. The people who greeted Jesus that day didn't realize that it was the beginning of a time of decision for them. On that day, they wanted Jesus to be the promised Messiah, their king, who would deliver them from the shackles of oppression under the Roman Empire. They wanted freedom! They wanted deliverance from earthly cares!

    Is that not so today? Is it not true that today's followers of Jesus have a vast throng among them who welcome him because they expect him to reward their praise of him with prosperity and wealth and luxury? They have willingly accepted the self-serving sermons and teachings of religious motivators, of "name it and claim it" preachers and have now succumbed to the allure of so-called worship services that are really more about satisfying themselves than honoring the Savior.  So, they, as it were, throw "palm leaves" at his feet in an outward display of adoration.

     A few days later, these same misguided and deceived individuals turn their adoration of Jesus into anger of him. Their hosannas are changed into chants of "Crucify him!" Why? Because he was not the Jesus they wanted. He chose a cross instead of a crown.  And, it became obvious that he was showing that those who follow him must make that same choice. Their disappointment turned to hatred which meant that kind of Jesus must be destroyed, so they crucified him. 

     Today is Palm Sunday. Like those of old, you have a choice and that choice will determine if you really have a biblically wonderful Easter next week.  Be honest. Do you want Jesus for what he can do to make life better for you  today or do you want Jesus, regardless of the pain and suffering that following him may bring, so that at the end of this life as you enter heaven you may hear him say, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant."

     

Dealing With Ugly Racism

     In one of the churches I served as pastor, we had some people with deep racism that had its ugly grip on them. Soon after I began my ministry there, we were blessed to have a wonderful family begin to visit our services. The husband was not only white, he was a very white white, and his African-American wife was simply lovely with a very dark complexion. Their three little children were just beautiful with a shading of skin that was a combination of their parents.

     One glorious Sunday, this precious couple came forward on the invitation and gave their hearts to God. As I later stood at the church door greeting members as they left the building, one very aristocratic gentleman leaning on his silver-tipped cane said to me, "We've never had black people in our church. You've broken tradition by letting her join." I responded by saying, "She didn't just join; she got saved!" He said to me, "Are you going to baptize her?"  I answered, "Yes, I'm going to baptize her." Then he replied, "You know good and well that she joined here to cause trouble and probably at the urging of the NAACP." To that I said, "If you're right and she's here to cause trouble and I don't baptize her, next Sunday, we will have the NAACP out here on the sidewalk protesting. On the other hand, if you're wrong, and she really got saved and I don't baptize her, I'll have trouble with God. Now if I've got to fight somebody, I'd rather fight the NAACP than fight God." So, I baptized her. Without that couple knowing of this incident, they chose to sit on the same pew with this old codger. She began to brag on him, bring him goodies to take home to eat, and call to see how he was doing. I watched his heart melt. She became like a daughter to him. And, a couple of years later he said to me, "I was such an old fool. Look what I would have missed."

     In that same church, we had an African-American couple begin to visit. They were the parents of a newly-born infant. In our nursery, we had several workers, including an elderly lady who was prejudiced through and through. She told me plainly that she would not deal with any African-American babies left in that nursery. One Sunday morning, that couple left their little baby in our nursery, and that little fellow began to cry with might and main. One worker after another tried to calm him to no avail. Finally, he was thrust into the arms of this antagonistic woman whereupon that baby began to coo and gurgle contentedly. From then on, that was HER baby and she jumped to be the first to take that child from his parents' arms each Sunday.

     Dr E V Hill was a great black pastor and orator who is now with the Lord. He was a guest preacher for me on an occasion. We were chatting in his hotel room before services about the issue of race relations. He said to me the whole issue would be resolved if we understood "racialism" and "racism."  He defined racism as being when an individual looks at people of another race as inferior. He defined racialism as being when an individual makes his own race the dominant consideration when interacting with individuals of another race. He said that both make race relations impossible to be anything other than virtually irresolvable.

     My conclusion is simple. A few years ago, I saw a news story telling of a masquerade party with first-graders at a school during Halloween. Thirty-one little boys and girls were in the class, and only one little boy was African-American. The teacher asked if the children could identify each other. Even though the little dark-skinned African-American lad's hands were exposed, he won the contest. Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. was right when he exhorted us to judge each other by content of character rather than the color of skin. I will put it this way. Racism is is not a skin problem; it is a sin problem.

     

     

"I'll Vote Democrat, Republican.....But Jesus?"

   Either Jesus is Lord of all, or he isn't Lord at all.  That is not just a cliche, a trite saying; it is truth! Certainly all believers heartily attest to that!  Or do they?  Sadly, I think not; indeed, I know not.

     I will address you who are reading this blog very directly and plainly. If an open discussion is considered by you as an attack on your political party and causes you to have a defensive passion that you do not have when hearing our Lord's name being cursed, you are simply not right with God. 

     To set the record straight, I will vote for no man or woman based on whether he or she is a Democrat or Republican.  Every vote cast by a Christian to determine an election of a candidate or the fate of a referendum should be decided on one issue.....how closely does this candidate align himself with biblical moral principles? Someone might take issue with me and state that as a religious leader I should understand the principle of the separation of church and state.  While this principle has fervent arguments either supporting its existence or in opposition to its existence, there is one thing for sure....our Founding Fathers did not support separation of GOD and state. Proof? One example can be found in the Declaration of Independence which speaks of our being "endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights."

     From what authority did those early founders of our nation find the concept of the Creator? They found it in the Bible though some were Congregationalists, others Catholic, others Protestant, others deists, etc. Their religious authority held in common by them was God's Word. Therefore, common sense would dictate that that same authority which guided their penned belief that it was God who gave individuals their rights would also be the authority which governed those same individuals in the proper exercise of their rights.

     Proverbs 6:17 clearly says that one of six things God hates is "hands that shed innocent blood." This is one very good reason that I will never cast a vote for a candidate, Republican or Democrat, who supports legalized abortion. Someone may counter by asking if I support the death penalty, and if I do support the death penalty,  am I not a hypocrite because innocent men have been executed?  There is a huge difference. While I will agree innocent people have died in the executioner's chamber, the death penalty was designed as a public policy for punishment of guilty people. All of the victims of the public policy of legalized abortion are innocent. 

     Of course, another argument is that before a woman delivers, she is simply carrying a blob of fetal tissue which cannot be considered as a person with either innocence or guilt. Psalm 139:16 says, "Thine eyes did see my substance yet being imperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned when as yet there was none of them." Please note that this verse totally dispels the modern myth of a fetal blob. God sees the UNFORMED baby being FASHIONED, that is, being developed in the womb. This one verse clearly confirms life begins at conception, so abortion is the ending of that innocent life, an act that Proverbs 6:17 says God hates. That being so, how in the name of all that is holy and rational  can a person who calls himself a believer politically support a candidate for any office who endorses a public policy which is a policy that God hates?

     This is only one example of the many reasons that sincere believers understand that the Bible must  trump the arguments of any pro-choice group or candidate's platform. Some of you who read this are, this very moment, angry with me and think that I am taking the Bible too seriously with a complex societal and political issue. You have an entire arsenal of non-biblical responses to shoot my way. Let me answer your concern for my narrowmindedness this way....when I stand before God, I'd rather hear Him say, "Harold, you took the Bible too seriously," as to hear Him say, "Harold, you didn't take the Bible seriously enough." For me, if Jesus is, indeed, in actuality, Lord of all, that includes the voting booth.