This is a recent article I wrote which should appear in the Herald Bulletin on a Saturday sometime this month.

     A while back a man in our church told me about a conversation in which a friend had asked him, “You are not in one of those churches that believes you have to be there every time the doors are opened, are you?”

     When I first heard the question, I had a mixed response. On one hand, I hope our people don’t feel that way, just coming to church out of guilt. But on the other hand, I screamed inside, “Yes, that is part of being a church!” 

     Church is not a building or something one does once a week, rather it is who we are a called to be when we become Christians. I Corinthians 12:12 says, “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.” (ESV) 

    If you are a Christian, don’t just go to church; bethe church, for the body will not function correctly without all the parts. I doubt anyone has ever been asked, “You are not one of those people who think all the parts of your body have to be there when you go out with your wife, are you?” It is absurd to think of leaving your foot or hand at home. The Scriptures instruct us to think this way about the church. We are part of one another. Paul goes on in 1 Corinthians 12:19, “If all were a single member, where would the body be?” (ESV) 

     This may be a question some pastors ask each week, “Where is the body? I see an arm, a foot, a neck, and a knee, but where are the rest of the parts?” 

     We should think of our commitment and attendance to church and ask, “If the body is there, why wouldn’t I, the hand, be there?” When we see it in this light, we should also see that we each have a God-given role within the church. Therefore when we gather, we are all to be actively functioning as one. When a member is not there or not active, it hurts the entire body, but when the church body functions together, it is a glorious sight in God’s eyes.

Saturday was an exciting day for our family.  (I will add pictures to this post later).  Tyler scored a goal for the first time!  I have started helping coach the girls team so I did not get to watch him play last week.  This week he asked before the game if I was going to come watch him.  So, I was running over to catch a minute of his game when I saw a ball roll into the goal and the cheers for Tyler erupt.  I went over to him and asked what had happened.  He shrugged and said, I play soccer.  I then asked if he had kicked a goal, he said, “nope I missed it.”  By the time he told his uncle and grandpa the story got better, “I kick it higher and higher and up and score!” 

Lauren did well and got in the mob of 6-7 year olds and kicked the ball twice.  She was pretty excited, and this was a big step for her.  Somthing clicked this week for Kara.  She has had some nice defensive type kicks so far but no shots on goal.  In the 4th quarter she had 4 kicks on goal and 2 goals!  It was fun to watch something click mentally that gave her confidence to go after it.   

There are just 2 games left in the season.  I would encourage anyone from Edgewood to come on out to Lapel and watch a game.  There are about 11 kids from our church body that play in the league.  All games are played around 10:30 AM.

While John Owen and Jonathan Edwards may have been two of the greatest minds of the Puritan movement, John Bunyan impact is felt in his ability to make simple foundational biblical truths. Although He was not a well educated young man and was far from a Christian as a youth, Bunyan is a testimony to understanding and grace. In his autobiographical writings it reads:

It was my delight to be taken captive by the devil at his will: Being filled with all unrighteousness; that from a child I had but few equals, both for cursing, swearing, lying and blaspheming the holy name of God.”

It is refreshing to hear one write of such a life as sinful and captivated by the devil. So little is thought of cursing and using the Lord’s name in vain in our culture. These are the least of offenses in our minds, and yet Bunyan in his understanding of the Word of God and sensitivity to it states it simply, it is allowing oneself to be captive by the will of the devil. It is to disregard God and his way and follow darkness. Sin is so rarely spoken of, therefore it is becoming more difficult to detect. We put things in terms of discernment, good and best, rather than veiwing them from the spiritual relm of right or wrong before God. This was the brilliance of Bunyan, he was able to see the spiritual relm, the invisible, clearly. John Piper writes of him,

In 1672, about 50 miles northwest of London in Bedford, John Bunyan was released from twelve years of imprisonment. He was 44 years old….He looked back over the hardships of the last 12 years and wrote about

how he was enabled by God to survive and even flourish in the Bedford jail…

He quotes 2 Corinthians 1:9 where Paul says, “We had this sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not

trust in ourselves, but in God that raiseth the dead.” Then he says,

By this scripture I was made to see that if ever I would suffer rightly, I must first pass a sentence of death upon every thing that can be properly called a thing of this life, even to reckon myself, my wife, my children, my health, my enjoyment, and all, as dead to me, and myself as dead to them. The

second was, to live upon God that is invisible, as Paul said in another place; the way not to faint, is to “look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

The phrase that I have fastened on for the title and focus of this study of Bunyan is the phrase, “to live upon

God that is invisible.” He discovered that if we are to suffer rightly we must die not only to sin, but to the innocent and precious things of this world including family and freedom. We must “live upon God that is invisible.” Everything else in the world we must count as dead to us and we to it. That was Bunyan’s passion from the time of his conversion as a young married man to the day of his death when he was 60 years old.

In Bunyan’s most famous work, Pilgrim’s Progress, the church is left with a treasure which unveils the invisible. Derek Thomas encouraged the Pastors at Basics 2007 that it was already May, if we had not read through Pilgrim’s Progress this year, there was still time! It is that kind of a book. One that should be read over and over.

Any information on the whereabouts of these criminals will be greatly appreciated. And if I were them, I would learn to be light sleepers!

If you haven’t noticed I have added a photo page to my blog.  Look at the menu above.  The kids are playing soccer this fall.  I will have to get more pictures of the Lauren and Tyler, but here is one of Kara.  I still haven’t figured out my camera (Nikon D70)  I tend to get the focal point wrong or have blury pictures more than I want.

Edgewood 13 - Heritage 8

It was another great year of getting together with the guys from Owensboro.

This year all but one player earned a point for his team.  Dave O’Neal and Mike Nuce were 2-0 on the day as a team and both won their individual matches giving them each a 3-0 record.  As a result, Dave O’Neal earned MVP honors for Edgewood for 2007.   Edgewood is now 6-1 in River Cup play and Heritage is now challenging us to Softball, Dove Hunting, Fishing, Ping Pong….Basically, anything but golf.

 Thanks to all who participated from both churches. We look forward to going down south next year to defend the Cup!

James Durham is called “one of Scotland’s brightest lights” by Meet the Puritans.   His biographical information draws focus upon the providence of God and the preciousness of Christ.

The providential hand of God was clearly upon Durham to save him, sustain his life, and call him to preach Christ.  Durham was unconverted at the time of his marriage to wife Anna, but it was through the influence of her family, shortly after their marriage, that he attended the preaching of God’s Word and was drawn to the preciousness of Christ.   From there he was called to serve in the Scottish Army during their Civil War.  It was during that time that God providentially spaired his life:

Durham’s life was remarkably spared, first, when his horse was shot and killed from under him, and second, when an English soldier who was about to kill Durham saw him dressed in black clothes and, thinking he was a minister, spared his life.

Little did that man know that God was calling Durham to the gospel ministry.  As a minister Durham was known for his ablility to dealve into the inner most parts of man and to bring salvation very low for man to cling to.  He was also know for his humility.  There was one occassion where Durham and a pastor friend were walking together to go preach at seperate services.  They both noticed that more of the hearers were heading toward the building where his friend was to preach.  Durham’s response was:

I rejoice that Christ is preached and that His kingdom and interest is getting ground, and that His honor and esteem doth increase though my esteem in people’s hearts should decrease; for I am content to be any thing, or nothing, so that Christ may be all in all.

Busy trying to get a few extra things done this week, but did not want to miss the opportunity this week to post a little tribute to all of my Michigan Fan Readers:

Some are calling it the greatest upset in College Football history! Mountaineers 34, Wolverines 32