Marching Forth!

I received word that our information has been loaded on the Shepherd's Staff website. We look forward to uniting in the pursuit of God's glory in Australia! If you want to see the page, follow this link ! Not only do we have the inestimable power of God to protect and provide us, but God is building a team to serve God together with us. I am reminded of Ephes. 4:15-16 : "... but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head--Christ-- [16] from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love ." It is comforting to know that the call for some is to go, and others are called to send. We are not in the business of self-promotion, but the ministry of God-glorification . When the Body of Christ is united in a venture of faith, God will be faithful to lead, guide, and p...

Today in the high school group we discussed the marks of faith in God. Faith is not based on what we receive from God, but is active reliance upon the character of God as revealed in scripture. It is a tragic fact that many people read the Word of God, but do not know God personally. In a day when the focus is predominately on what God has done or can do for us, it is high time we started simply magnifying the character of God's nature. The reason why we are blessed by what God does is because of who He is. God is good, so all He does is good. God is righteous, so all He does is perfect. A biography gives a small glimpse into the heart of a person. An autobiography even more so, because it is written from a first-person perspective. The Bible is God's autobiography, His living will and testament. In its pages we see that God is all-powerful, all-knowing, and without sin. Every attribute of God is infinite: He is just as well as gracious, loving as well as true. Not ...

Laura and I are very excited about our partnership with Shepherd's Staff . We are grateful and blessed to be affiliated with such a ministry for many reasons. For those who are interested, I'll do my best to explain the relationship that Shepherd's Staff will share with our family. Though we are being "sent out" by Calvary Chapel El Cajon, I will no longer be an employee of the church as I have for the last four years. I will be "employed" by Shepherd's Staff, though they will not pay me. People will choose to support our venture in faith, make tax-deductible donations on our behalf to Shepherd's Staff, and they will pass along the funds to us. When I go to Brisbane, I will not be allowed to make any money in Australia. I will be traveling on a Tourist Visa, which enables me to stay for up to three months at a time. Funds that God provides through friends and family will be sent from Shepherd's Staff to us. In addition to financial ...

There is a certain amount of janitorial work I perform at church every week. I enjoy monotonous tasks for the reason I can do them well and meditate on the Word, pray, or think things over. Because of the call of God upon my life, there are certain preachers that I connect with who are solid in doctrine, heavy on challenge, and are completely unapologetic concerning God's truth. Speaking for myself, it takes a challenge to move me to change. Sometimes the challenge come straight from the text and sometimes the Holy Spirit uses a man to put His finger on something. Today while cleaning bathrooms and mopping floors I thought about prophets in the Bible, prophets who trusted God and spoke for Him. The first thing that is clear about them is they were owned by God and not influenced by men. They were steadfast messengers of God's truth, not flavoring the word with flowery speech or trying to soften the blow with flattery. One amazing thing about good prophets is I cannot rem...

I was reading the Word last night before bed and a verse in particular caught my attention. Jesus says in Matthew 7:14 , "Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it ." The word "find" jumped off the page. Most modern evangelistic messages omit this point. In fact, often we are taught that salvation is only to be received, not found. Salvation must be sought in Christ, found through Christ, then received from Christ. It seems that many professing believers today have received pseudo-salvation. They have what Tozer calls a "nominal" faith, faith in word but not in deed. It is not real faith. It is not a faith that saves. In a sermon I heard yesterday, Tozer says that nominal faith believes a text and accepts what he is told. This man believes what he reads wholeheartedly. But real faith in God is belief in God, depending upon the character of God. The text exists to point to God. Many p...

How important it is that we fulfill the purpose God has ordained for us! All things have been created by God for His good pleasure. It is so easy to fashion our lives according to man's opinions or even our own whims. The devil would like nothing more than to distract the church from the center of God's will. If the church is led from the Shepherd, we cannot fulfill God's purposes. If we would be honest, even Bible-teaching churches can fall prey to focusing on social issues rather than spiritual regeneration. Instead of making disciples of all nations, we can neglect discipleship even among our congregations. Vance Havner had this to say in his book, Moments of Decision : " The meaning of the church is that Christians are God's called-out ones. The mission of the church is to preach the Gospel, to make, baptize, and teach disciples. The message of the church is the Gospel that Christ died for our sins and rose for our justification. The ministry of the...

I was reading up on churches on a website and saw something that I believe marks a disturbing trend in so-called Christianity. The pastors of a particular church were called " part of an emerging generation of leaders, whose ministry is marked by relevance, inspiration and encouragement ." My opinion, which matters very little, is that folks of this persuasion ought to go back to the holes or skins they emerged from. Would you say that the ministry of Jesus Christ is primarily marked by these things? It depends on your definition, but I can say that these were certainly not the foundational virtues that marked the ministry of Christ. We live in a day when "relevance" is as important as being relative. It is something many Christians try to become. Relevance often means "becoming like the world in an attempt to reach the world." Is God's Word relevant for today? Of course! God's Word is His living will and testament for our lives. His La...

We should refuse to settle down when the Spirit stirs us up. Lot settled down in Sodom, but Abraham kept his gaze fixed on a city not made with hands where God reigns. I've been reading a book of sermons by Vance Havner that contains a wonderful illustration I thought I'd share: "I have read somewhere of a wild duck on migration that came down into a barnyard where tame ducks were feeding. He liked the food so well that he stayed a day, a week, a month, then the whole season. One day he heard a familiar honking high overhead an he recognized the call of his erstwhile companions winging their way home. his eyes sparkled, his heart beat faster, and he rose to join them. But, alas, he had fed too well and could get no higher than the eaves of the barn! The story goes that he said to himself, "Oh, well, what difference does it make? I like it here." So he spent the rest of his life in a barnyard. The day came when his old companions passed over and he neve...

I was reading Vance Havner's message called "Growing Goliaths and Developing Davids" and it caused me to think about the story of David. Havner's main point is instead of engineering a program or discussing the means to defeat the giant, we need people in the church who will simply do it in faith. If we only plan, we will never do: as followers of Christ we are to follow His plan. Goliath had been taunting the Israelites for forty days, and due to his harsh language and imposing frame the Israelites literally ran from him. David, a youthful shepherd boy, heard Goliath's defiant words and within a day he had killed the giant, decapitated him, and Israel had been granted a stunning victory by God. Stunning that is, to everyone but God and David. David knew that the battle was the LORD's, and that he would prevail over the enemies of the LORD. God protected David from lions and bears, and He would protect him from Goliath. An interesting part of the sto...

Today we met with my sister's father in law to discuss managing our house. We decided to rent it out before I leave for my Sept. 21 to Nov. 19 trip to Australia. Since my last day of work at the church is on Sept. 20th, I won't have a paycheck to cover the mortgage during my trip. I think it is wise to have the family settled in to reduce the stress of having such a move without me around. God has always provided for us, and now is no exception! My folks have graciously offered to let us stay in their home, another display of the gift of hospitality and generosity modeled by my parents. Both Laura and I have terrific parents and families who pitch in constantly to allow us to minister unto the LORD and have time together. I've been working on cleaning up the garage: sanding adhesive off the floor, painting the walls, and throwing stuff away. As my baseball and soccer trophies went in the trash along with all the junk that accumulates that some day you might use (bu...

When it comes to thoughts about heaven, I think we have it all wrong. We have it wrong because our thoughts typically center around us: what will we do, who we will see, where we will live, what our crowns will look like, how big our mansion will be. We bring our selfish earthly perspective right up into the presence of the Almighty God! I believe this occurs because we have a very small view of God in light of His infinitude. Instead of magnifying the character or qualities of God, we tend to magnify the personal impact of those attributes. We are trained to dwell on the fact that God loves us rather than meditating on the truth that God is love. We think about how God's mercy has impacted us rather than realizing that God is merciful. We relish how God's grace has granted man salvation through faith instead of worshiping God for being gracious. Like Romans 1 states, we can worship the creation rather than the Creator. Is it wrong to thank God for what He has done for...

When words don't suffice, go to the WORD! Psalm 103:1-22 A Psalm of David. Bless the Lord, O my soul; And all that is within me, bless His holy name! [2] Bless the Lord, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits: [3] Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases, [4] Who redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies, [5] Who satisfies your mouth with good things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle's. [6] The Lord executes righteousness And justice for all who are oppressed. [7] He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the children of Israel. [8] The Lord is merciful and gracious, Slow to anger, and abounding in mercy. [9] He will not always strive with us, Nor will He keep His anger forever. [10] He has not dealt with us according to our sins, Nor punished us according to our iniquities. [11] For as the heavens are high above the earth, So great is His mercy toward those who fear Him; [12] As fa...

When basic principles in construction are ignored it will always lead to ruin. The building must be constructed in accordance with a set of drawings prepared by a trained architect. The materials used in building must meet or exceed specifications. A slab must be poured level with concrete that is strengthened with steel. The walls erected should be plumb. This seems very logical because we have seen how erosion, bad planning, poor quality of construction, or inferior material can ruin a project. Yet when many preachers take the pulpits on Sundays across America, they can make the mistake of ignoring the basic fundamentals of a good sermon. They build according to their own design; their foundation is anything but flat; their walls anything but plumb. It is as if they build their sermons from cream or froth, depending on their mood. Creativity trumps substance, and opinion has replaced truth. This is not intended to be a rant on the present-day lack of Biblical preaching, ...

I was reading a portion of scripture the other morning and was struck by the profundity of a verse: 1 Cor. 16:9 says, "... For a great and effective door has opened to me, and there are many adversaries ." Whenever God opens a great and effective door for ministry, there will be enemies to contend with. The word "adversaries" here means, "to lie opposite, be contrary, to oppose." As we follow Jesus Christ we must be watchful for all opposition, whether subtle or obvious. It is for this reason we must fervently pray God would grant us discernment of spirits, so we may know what is of God and what is of the enemy who masquerades as an "angel of light." Satan, the enemy of our souls who seeks to steal, kill, and destroy ( John 10:10 ), will always seek to distract, deter, confuse, and oppose the work of God. In proclaiming our allegiance to Christ, we now pose a threat through the Holy Spirit's power to the strongholds of Satan through...

I'm in a mood that is rare for me, waxing philosophical. I'm also fed up with something that I have recently come to realize. In our modern day Christian view, the wilderness experience has been classified as unwise. We are so "production" oriented that many feel that spending a day walking and talking with God is not really "doing" anything. I can hear the conversation: "Honey, what did you do at work today?" "I didn't go to the office this morning." "You didn't go to work?" "Oh, I was working alright...I walked along a trail and talked with God." This poor idiot may lose his good-night kiss over such a stunt (No offense, ladies - these actors are arbitrary). But seriously, we can perhaps justify a day of talking to God. How about a week strictly dedicated to seeking God? No paycheck, and not on vacation time. How about a whole month? How about 40 days? Or longer? Can you imagine Jesus arguing w...

Ever wondered how God can be completely just and yet forgive sinners? Tozer lays it down right and proper with this one: http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=823071654412 Click on the green "play" button to listen to the message by this anointed preacher.

We are in the midst of Vacation Bible School at Calvary Chapel El Cajon. Colorful balloons are tied daily to the handrail leading from the upper to lower hallway. In the morning when I come in to work, most of the balloons are laying on the ground, their limp ribbons bowed under the weight. Every day, however, a couple of the helium filled balloons are still in the air. By early afternoon all the balloons are smaller and on the ground. "There's a sermon here Ben," Pastor Dale remarked. So I thought about it awhile. The only reason the balloon lifts from the ground is because the helium gas that filled it is lighter than air. The balloon in itself is inert and incapable of doing anything. A lot of our activities at VBS involve water balloons. My dad says, "It's amazing the fun you can have with a little water in a balloon." Again, the enjoyment that we find in balloons is due to the virtue of what we fill them with. Sometimes we find enjoyment of...

Saturday our youth group had one of our favorite events, the "Thrift Store Dinner." We team up and rush off to neighboring thrift stores to find clothes that likely would never be sold unless there was a global time warp to the 1980's. We then wear these clothes to Souplantation, a local buffet-style restaurant. Some of our most memorable experiences together as a youth group have spawned from this event, and this year was no exception. As we visited the Salvation Army Thriftstore looking for accessories (wigs, jewelry, ties, headgear), a baseball glove buried among helmets and cheap trinkets caught my eye. Could it be? No way! It was a genuine "Heart of the Hide" Rawlings Gold Glove Pro88. This is what I called a "six-finger" glove as a kid and was a symbol of status and skills. I looked at the price tag and my eyes lit up like I was 12 years old: $2.50. It is a glove that sells for $200 online at a fraction of the value. I laughed to mysel...

One of the things that stood out for me in Brainerd's diary is that salvation never seemed to come easily. People would sit under preaching unaffected for some time and then the Spirit would quicken them to great concern for their souls. For months and even years they would labor under the weight of their sin before surrender to Christ. After this season of wrestling, there is hardly a single instance of backsliding mentioned. A.W. Tozer once said that he loves a man to be stubborn in coming to Christ: if he can be easily be persuaded to follow Christ he will likely be easily disuaded to abandon Him. Jesus entreats a man to count the cost of following Him: it will cost you your life. Here is a quote from the diary that I am compelled to agree with, and amazing that it was written in 1745! " Could not but think, as I have often remarked to others, that much more of true religion consists in deep humility, brokenness of heart, and as abasing sense of barrenness and want ...