28 YEARS OF GOSPEL MINISTRY

This Sunday, June 5, will mark my 28^th Anniversary in the ministry. After completing a degree in Business Administration at the University of Illinois in 1980, I graduated from CHRIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY on the last Sunday of May 1983. 

The very next day I reported for work as a full-time associate Pastor at Crusaders Church in Urbana, Illinois. My great Father was the Senior Pastor and my boss. (Truthfully that was no different than the day before!) Because I had the privilege of growing up in the parsonage and have always enjoyed the work of the Lord, I loved my new assignment.

Our Sunday School Bus ministry grew to average over 300 riders on 7 routes. Our record attendance shot above 800. We began a Saturday Afternoon Bible Club that grew to nearly 50. We started a ministry in the Illinois Department of Corrections Facility near the church. We edited and expanded FAITH IN THE FUTURE, our monthly publication read by over 2,000 families in 30 states. We began a radio ministry called THE CRUSADERS PULPIT that was aired on 4 radio stations and heard internationally in Latin America. We went Door to Door calling every week, preached outdoors on the campus of the University of Illinois, and organized Open Forum Ministries at the University of Illinois, Purdue University in Lafayette, IN, and at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, IL. We met with the Teens on Fridays. I taught at KINGSWOOD SCHOOL, a K-12 Christian School led by my Brother Marsh. I helped my brother with the Citizens For Decency, a grassroots effort against pornography, and then was co-founder of the Coalition for Traditional Values in Champaign County. Those were great days.

In 1996 my new bride and I (Vickie and I were married on June 21 of that year), moved to St. Louis to launch a Crusaders Church in St. Louis. We called the new church FAITH COMMUNITY CHURCH. Our first Sunday, September 15, we were thrilled when 27 from St. Louis attended services in the Knights of Columbus Hall on Adie Road in St. Ann, MO.

From that humble beginning, FCC has grown into a thriving ministry touching hundreds of souls each week with the message of full salvation. Often we have to go where the people are, but that’s our calling! There are people in heaven today because FCC reached them with the Gospel. The Gospel Truth is preached in love without compromise. Our altars are not barren. Those hungry for salvation, seeking sanctification, and longing for God’s touch have prayed their way through to victory here. Young people have met, couples have married, and children have been born and dedicated to the Lord. Time and time again the family of God known as FCC has reached out to help one another. 

We are strategically located along a major St. Louis thoroughfare (25,000 cars pass our church each day), on 2 acres of land with a lovely colonial building that seats 250 and has nearly 100 parking spaces. Our congregation is growing. Our record attendance of 282 will not stand long. The Lord has provided for our financial needs. We have a mortgage of just under $550,000 on this great 11,700 square foot building. And though we seldom have had any extra, we have had enough, month after month. PRAISE GOD!

I’ve taken this trip down memory lane for a reason:

I WANT TO PRAISE GOD FROM WHOM ALL BLESSINGS FLOW! 

I WANT TO GIVE GOD ALL THE GLORY FOR HELPING ME FULFILL MY CALLING. Looking back over the past 28 years I’ve said so many stupid things, acted without thinking, and been distracted when I should have been paying attention, that I am absolutely sure that any good that’s been accomplished has been because GOD IS FAITHFUL!  

I WANT TO THANK GOD FOR HIS SAVING AND SANCTIFYING GRACE! Though I have failed, He has never failed. Hallelujah! I’m so glad that Mercy’s door is wide open. I like the Apostle’s creed, “Forgetting the things which are behind, and reaching forth to the things that are before, I press toward the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus!” In Jesus’ name we press on!

I WANT TO THANK GOD FOR HIS GOOD PEOPLE WHO HAVE STOOD WITH ME! Without the prayers and support and help of God’s people no minister can persist. You have loved, cared, given, supported, lifted, encouraged, and been there when the burdens were greatest. You have prayed for me. I will be eternally grateful for God’s good people.

I WANT TO PRAISE THE LORD FOR A WONDERFUL WIFE AND A LOVING FAMILY. Many a minister has been discouraged from the work of the Lord by a critical and unwilling wife. I have been blessed with a loving, supportive, and faithful wife. She and her family have been a great blessing throughout these 28 years. And Tressa, our precious girl, is growing in grace. I am so thankful that she is saved and seeking to do God’s will.

I WANT YOU TO KNOW THAT I FULLY EXPECT THAT OUR JOB WILL GET TOUGHER BUT THAT GOD’S GRACE WILL ALWAYS BE SUFFICIENT! He has never failed us! Though professing Christian pretenders are preaching “another Gospel” that is not pure—GOD’S WORD WILL NOT FAIL! Though the church world is filled with compromise with the flesh, accommodation with the world, and the deceptions of the devil—GOD’S TRUTH IS MARCHING ON! Though wicked men will grow worse and worse, though evil men will try to strangle God’s messengers, and though the enemy will incite fierce persecution against us—WE WILL NOT BEND, WE WILL NOT BOW, AND LIKE THE HEBREW CHILDREN, WE WILL NOT BURN!

As the 87 year old John Wesley lay dying in London, surrounded by his friends and family, he rallied one last time and proclaimed in an unusually strong voice, “BEST OF ALL GOD IS WITH US!” Praise God! FINALLY I WANT YOU TO KNOW THAT OUR FAITH IN THE FUTURE IS NOT FOUNDED ON THE EMPTY PROMISES OF MEN, BUT ON HIM WHO GAVE US THE EMPTY TOMB! We rejoice that indeed the wrong will fail, and the right will prevail! GOD IS WITH US.

Crowns and thrones may perish, kingdoms rise and wane,

But the church of Jesus constant will remain.

Gates of hell can never ‘gainst that church prevail;

We have Christ's own promise, that can never fail.

OH LORD, HOW LONG?

Until 9/11 America seemed impregnable. No longer. 

Who could have imagined that Islamic Jihadists huddled in an Afghan cave, could have been so successful at shattering our sense of safety, and challenging our world-class military complex? 

Peggy Noonan writes in today’s Wall Street Journal, “It marked the end of ‘we are protected,’ and the beginning of something else.”

It was a wake-up call that should have driven our nation to her knees in prayer to the God of our Fathers—but tolerance, now our foremost virtue, demanded we pray to the God of the Bible, and to the Great Spirit, and to the deities of the Hindus, and to the god’s of our own making, and even to Allah—the God who supposedly ordered this attack. Church attendance climbed for a few weeks after the attack, but it wasn’t long until football, fun-times, and family outings, were again our Sunday priorities.

It was a wake-up call that should have awakened us to our moral deficits—but we are more concerned with fiscal woes and government spending deficits. Immorality and irresponsibility are expensive. We must somehow find the funds to continue the party.

When a few ministers suggested that America’s immorality—abortion, sodomy, the breakup of the family, and unbridled greed—had lifted God’s hand of protection from our nation, they were quickly scorned into retractions.

It was a wake-up call that should have strengthened the resolve of America’s 350,000 ministers to call our nation to repentance, moral rectitude, and Biblical truth—but tragically there are fewer Men of God, who will prophetically and unapologetically stand for Scriptural holiness and righteousness. On a per capita basis there are fewer than at any other time in our nation’s history. (Barna)

It was a wake-up call that should have, and could have, been the beginning of a national revival of Scriptural Christianity, but it was not.

The attack of 9/11 was not a wake up call. But that’s not all!

The hurricanes were not.

The earthquakes were not.

The sunamis were not.

The tornadoes were not.

The fires were not.

The epidemics were not.

The great recession was not.

It seems that nothing will drive us to repent.

How long then should we continue to preach the truth of God’s Word?

How long then should we persist in our efforts to reach the lost of this nation?

How long then should we open the doors of our churches for services? (If they will not come should we keep opening the doors, turning on the lights, and preaching to empty pews?)

It was a question that Isaiah asked in His day. And the answer God gave him is our answer to the question.

“Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate, And the Lord have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land.” Isaiah 6:11,12.

WHEN THE CAPTAIN TURNS THE "FASTEN YOUR SEATBELT" SIGN ON

With all the troubles in our world, our nation, and in the churches today, I sometimes feel like I'm on an airplane going through the ups and downs and turns of severe turbulence. As I was thinking about our plight, it occurred to me that if we were actually flying, the captain of the plane would be turning on the FASTEN YOUR SEATBELT sign right about now. 

 

I got really excited about preaching an original sermon, "WHEN THE CAPTAIN TURNS ON THE 'FASTEN YOUR SEATBELT' sign. Then I was more than a bit deflated to Google that title and discover that several other preachers had beat me to the punch. Oh well. Wasn't it Solomon who said, "There's nothing new under the sun."

 

Yet the concept is still something worth considering. And it seems to that Psalm 37 was written to passengers facing circumstances like we are facing.

 

FRET NOT thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity.

 

TRUST IN THE LORD AND DO GOOD so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed...

 

DELIGHT THYSELF IN THE LORD and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.

 

COMMIT THY WAY UNTO THE LORD; TRUST also in him; and he shall bring it to pass...

 

REST IN THE LORD and wait patiently for him: ...

 

CEASE FROM ANGER and forsake wrath: fret not thyself in any wise to do evil...

 

The STEPS OF A GOOD MAN ARE ORDERED by the LORD; and he delighteth in his way.

Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand...

 

WAIT ON THE LORD, and keep his way, and he shall exalt thee to inherit the land: ...

 

Remember the story of the lad who was a passenger on a plane heading into turbulence. The older passenger seated next to him was anxious and fearful, while the lad was calm and assured. When finally the older man asked why the lad was so confident the boy replied, "THE PILOT IS MY DAD!"

 

What a great comfort and joy it is know that we can trust the Pilot of our Souls! Nothing we face will come as a surprise to Him. No question we face is greater than His wisdom. No enemy we face is stronger than His power. 

 

Actually the only question we must answer is this: Will we let HIM be our pilot? Those who take the controls into their own hands are destined to defeat and destruction. Those who yield to Him, will testify,

 

I have found a deep peace that I never had known
And a joy this world could not afford -
Since I yielded control of my body and soul
To my wonderful, wonderful Lord.

Chorus My wonderful Lord, my wonderful Lord By angels and seraphs in Heaven adored! I know Thou art mine, my Savior divine My wonderful, wonderful Lord.

I desire that my life shall be ordered by Thee
That my will be in perfect accord -
With Thine own sov'reign will
Thy desires to fulfill



All the talents I have I have laid at Thy Feet
Thy approval shall be my reward.
Be my store great or small
I surrender it all
To my wonderful, wonderful Lord.
 

PASTOR RICK JONES
FAITH COMMUNITY CHURCH of ST. LOUIS - CRUSADERS CHURCH USA2969 N. Lindbergh Blvd, St. Ann, MO 63047
Tel. (314) 298-5840; Cell. (314) 607-1424

E-mail: PastorRick@FCCToday.org
Web Page: www.FCCToday.org
Blog: www.PastorRickJones.blogspot.com

7 MAXIMS YOU SHOULDN'T LIVE BY

The songwriter declared, "Like a mighty Army moves the Church of God!"  But in too many quarters, the Church today is not mighty, it is not an Army, and we are not moving anywhere but backwards.

It is our conviction that so long so long as we are retreating from our Biblical mandate and pursuing after cultural relevance, rather than Spiritual excellence, we will never be the Church prevailing against the gates of hell.  We need a Gideon's band, a select force chosen by God and choosing God, who will take up the Cross and battle for the right.

In our series of messages ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS we are urging God's people to put on the whole armor of God.  It was not by accident that the Lord inspired the Apostle to urge God's people to first put on the belt of Truth.  Like wars between nations, in the war between Christ and satan, truth is often the first casualty.

We live our lives by "Maxims"--concise statements of what we think are basic truths, or laws of life.  Some are true. For example: "Don't count your chickens before they hatch," "Deeds speak louder than words," and "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder."

BUT THE TRAGEDY OF OUR TIMES IS THAT SO MANY ARE FOLLOWING MAXIMS WE SHOULDN'T LIVE BY.  Here are 7:

1. BELIEVE IN YOURSELF.
I like the way G. K. Chesterton reacted to this popular maxim.  "Thoroughly worldly people never understand even the world; they rely altogether on a few cynical maxims which are not true.  Once I remember walking with a prosperous publisher who made a remark which I had often heard before; it is indeed a motto of the modern world.  Yet I had heard it once too often, and I saw suddenly that there was nothing in it.  The publisher said, “That man will get on (be successful); he believes in himself.  …”Shall I tell you where the men are who believe most in themselves?  Asylums are filled with men who truly believe in themselves...  If you consulted your business experience rather than your ugly individualistic philosophy you would know that believing in yourself is one of the commonest signs of a rotter."  ORTHODOXY 1908.

How sad that people are convinced to believe in their frail, carnal, wicked selves, rather than in the One who can justify, sanctify, and empower us to be "more than conquerors!"

2. YOU CAN'T LEGISLATE MORALITY
Oh really? Every law is an expression of moral principal. 

God Himself certainly thought that morality could be specifically legislated, “Thou shalt have no other Gods before me.” 

You cannot legislate compliance with the law, but you can legislate morality.  History proves that civilizations that align themselves with God's law will prosper.  Those who refuse God's Law, are actually refusing God himself. 

The reason men hate God's law is that they are carnal.  But the blood of Christ is not only sufficient to wash away the guilt of sin, but to "cleanse us from all unrighteousness," and sanctify the rebel out of our hearts.

3. IF IT FEELS GOOD, DO IT!
We have brought this maxim to bear on everything from how we treat one another, to what we do recreationally, to how we express ourselves sexually. 

Underlying this maxim is the assumption that feelings, not facts, are the arbiter of right and wrong.

When feeling is the foundation for moral principle, then the person who says “I feel that it is wrong for a man to marry 7 wives,” is no more wrong than the man who says “I feel like marrying a man.” 

4. GOD WANTS ME TO BE HAPPY!
Here is a partial truth that has led many into terrible tragedy.  When Jesus taught us how to Be Happy HE gave us the Beattitudes:  Mt 5:3-12

3 Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
7 Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called sons of God.
10 Blessed are they that have been persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 Blessed are ye when (men) shall reproach you, and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.
12 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets that were before you.
You will note that this does say you will be happy by doing your will, having everything your way, or doing what feels right at the moment. 

Happiness is inextricable from Holiness! 

5. ALL ROADS LEAD TO HEAVEN (ALL RELIGIONS ARE THE SAME)
What fallacy.  There is a world of difference between religions that urge their followers to board planes, slash the throats of pilots, and slam aircraft into skyscrapers, and the religion of the One who said, "love your enemies."  There is a vast difference between a religion that teaches a mother to toss her infant into the Ganges River, and one that is led by Him who said, "Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not."

In our day, sincerity trumps veracity.  Sadly many are sincere, but they are sincerely wrong. 

Those say that their religious views seem right, would do well to remember the Scripture, "there is a way that seems right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death."

6.BECAUSE GOD LOVES ME -- HE WOULD NEVER SEND ME TO HELL
It is a wonderful truth!  "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son..."

But the fact of God's unconditional love for us, is not what determines our eternal destiny. If God's love was all that mattered, then all would go to heaven!  God loves the world.  God is not willing that any should perish. etc.

What determines our destiny is our love for God. 

People get all excited talking about God's unconditional love for them.  But when we talk about God's requirement that we love Him unconditionally, and they are not so enthusiastic.

Unless we love Him without reservation He cannot welcome us into the Holy City.  Everyone in heaven does the will of God, all the time.

7. I'M FREE TO CHOOSE!
Indeed God has made us free moral agents.  We can choose whether or not we will serve Him.  But we are not free to choose the outcome of our choice. 

We are kidding ourselves if we believe that we are free to live our lives as we choose and then free to choose our destiny. The inspired Apostle Paul wrote:

Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.
Galatians 6:7-8 KJV

So DON'T BELIEVE IN YOURSELF... BELIEVE IN THE LORD JESUS CHRIST!

DON'T RUN FROM GOD'S LAW... SEEK TO KNOW AND FOLLOW GOD'S LAW!  It's perfect.

DON'T DO WHAT FEELS GOOD... DO WHAT IS GOOD!

DON'T SEEK AFTER HAPPINESS... PURSUE AFTER HOLINESS!

DON'T MISTAKE SINCERITY FOR VERACITY... SEEK TO KNOW HIM WHO IS "THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE!"

DON'T REST IN GOD'S UNCONDITIONAL LOVE FOR YOU ...GIVE HIM YOUR UNCONDITIONAL LOVE!

And DON'T BE DECEIVED INTO THINKING THAT YOU WILL ESCAPE THE LAW OF SOWING AND REAPING.

Onward Christian Soldiers!

PASTOR RICK JONES
FAITH COMMUNITY CHURCH - A CRUSADERS CHURCH OF AMERICA
2969 N. Lindbergh Blvd, St. Ann, MO 63074
Cell Phone (314) 607-1424
Facebook: Pastor Rick Jones (I would love to be your friend!)
Blog: www.PastorRickJones.blogspot.com
Web: www.FCCToday.org

Preaching Services: Sundays 11:00 AM & 6:30 PM

WAR A GOOD WARFARE

Nearly everyday I hear from Pastors and Christian leaders who are discouraged, disheartened, and disillusioned by the cultural and moral disintegration we are watching around us. Prophets and pundits agree--the Church of Jesus Christ and the civilization built upon the Christian ethic is under an all out assault by the world, the flesh, and devil. But what are we to do at a time like this?

It is our abiding conviction that as the Church has lost her confidence in the Truth of God's Word--written and incarnate, and as the Church has sought after the Spirit of the Age rather than the Spirit of the Ages—that Holy Spirit of the Living God, she has been rendered incompetent and incapable of meeting the challenge of this hour.

Some have suggested that the Church should surrender some or most of the territory she once claimed for Christ. Others have called for the Church to retreat into support groups. Most have been so intimidated by the onslaught that they have decided to do nothing.

There is a way forward! There is a way for the Church to regain her footing, engage the enemy, and prevail against the gates of hell.

Rather than thinking of the Church as a social club, or a support group, or a political organization, or the greatest show on earth, we must be THE CHURCH MILITANT! Ours is a holy Crusade for Christ. (Not a “CRU” but a CRUSADE FOR CHRIST).

Think of the hymns we sang when the Church was claiming territory for Christ:

ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS

A MIGHTY FORTRESS IS OUR GOD

AM I A SOLDIER OF THE CROSS?

I’LL BE A SOLDIER FOR JESUS

THE FIGHT IS ON

SOLDIERS OF IMMANUEL

STAND UP FOR JESUS

SOLDIERS OF CHRIST ARISE

How different from the hymns of this namby pamby, sissified, effete form of godliness that presents itself as the Church today. No fight. No blood. No victory.

The inspired Apostle Paul urged Timothy, “WAR A GOOD WARFARE!” Tragically the modern church has lost her fight—and that’s why we’re losing the battle.

IF THE CHURCH MILITANT IS TO ENGAGE AND PREVAIL in this battle for souls, we need enlistments who will 1) Accept the discipline, 2) Put on the uniform, 3) March to the distinct sound of heaven, 4) Engage the enemy together, and 5) Protect the flag, at any and all costs.

1. ACCEPT THE DISCIPLINE!

“Oh Sergeant, that’s so legalistic!” One can only imagine the fate of a Marine enlistment who blurted out such a complaint to his drill sergeant. Yet today most of those in the Church refuse to accept the disciplines of Christ. Some are so adroit at explaining away their lack of discipline they have made a virtue out of lawlessness. “Sin boldly that grace may abound.” How tragic.
It’s no wonder the world refuses righteousness—the professing Church herself absolutely will not yield to the law, the disciplines of Godliness. We’re not calling for legalism, we’re calling for legality! All who love God love God’s law. If we do not love God’s law, we do not love God.

We simply cannot prevail so long as everyone is doing what is right in their own eyes. WE NEED DISCIPLINE.

2. PUT ON THE UNIFORM!

“Commander, do I have to wear that? I feel more comfortable in my street clothes," the recruit complains.

Refusing to wear the uniform is grounds for expulsion from the armed forces. Inattention to the details of the uniform is grounds for discipline.
Just as soldiers wear the uniform that is proper and appropriate for their unit, we who are a part of the CHURCH MILITANT must wear what God’s Word directs. It must be gender specific ( “A man shall not wear that which pertains unto a woman, and a woman shall not wear that which pertains to a man”), it must be modest (“with modest apparel”), and it must not engender pride (“not with gold, or pearls, or costly array”).

One of the great joys of God’s people is to wear the uniform that God Himself has prescribed! I love to be identified as a soldier of the Cross. God’s people look different, smell different, act different, and sound different from the world. HALLELUJAH! WE ARE DIFFERENT!

3. MARCH TO THE BEAT OF ANOTHER DRUMMER

The Church Militant will never prevail so long as we are marching to the sensual, carnal, beat of the night-club. Our music should be as distinct from the world as the light is from night. We are children of the Light!

Why is it that Churches don’t want to look like churches, sound like churches, or act like churches? Maybe it’s because their cushioned chairs are filled with people who aren’t churches.

My father used to tell the story of the little guy who gave his heart to Jesus on Sunday and went to school the next week. When his friends tried to get him to join them in doing something wrong he stood up and said, “Oh I can’t do that, I’m a church!

You know the word “Church” means “called out ones.” The reason so many don’t want to look, and sound, and act “called out,” is because they have not been “called out!”

Whoever it was that convinced us that to gain adherents, and to advance the cause of holiness and righteousness, we needed to look and sound like the world, has surely made a mockery of the professing Church. Compromise with the world and the flesh and the devil never has, and never will grow the Church.

4. ENGAGE THE ENEMY TOGETHER!

In his soon to be released book, WHAT IS IT LIKE TO GO TO WAR,” award winning Marine Karl Marlantes writes of the transcendent force of “WE” on the battlefield. He wrote of a key battle fought on a hill in Vietnam. Under fierce assault from the North Vietnamese, Lieutenant Marlantes and his forces called for a helicopter to assist. The chopper crashed in a hail of enemy fire. He writes,

“Knowing for sure that the chopper crew were dead for sure if we didn’t break through to them, we simply rushed forward to reach them before the NVA [North Vietnamese Army] killed them. No one gave an order. We, the group, just rushed forward all at once. We couldn’t be stopped. Just individuals among us were stopped. Many forever. But we couldn’t be. This too, is a form of transcendence. I was we, no longer me.”

As I read the account a rush of emotion flooded my heart. I couldn’t help but think how great it would be if the Church Militant could act so today. In His High Priestly prayer Jesus prayed for us, “Sanctify them…I in them, and thou in me that they, that they may be made perfect in one.” (John 17:17ff).
If the “I” of self-interest, self-promotion, and self-will, would be sanctified out of our hearts—If we would abandon our plans, our ambitions, our wishes, for the cause of Christ—then we would unleash a purifying, and sanctifying force like no other known to man.

5. FINALLY, PROTECT THE FLAG AT ANY AND ALL COSTS

For generations Americans have been inspired by the photograph of American marines raising Old Glory at Iwo Jima. Warriors know that when the flag is raised, it is a declaration of victory for all to see. This territory has been won.

Too often the only flag the professing Church has been raising is the white flag of surrender. We have surrendered our faith in the infallible inspired Word of God. We have surrendered our Lord’s teaching on the permanence of marriage—“For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife,…what therefore God has joined together let not man put asunder.” (Mark 10:7ff). We have surrendered up heart holiness. We have surrendered up the holy life.

Surrender has left us powerless, purposeless, and people-less!

It is high time that the Church Militant rise up to champion the cause of Christ! It is time that the Church militant face the enemy squarely, and boldly stand for righteousness and holiness.

CONCLUSION:

The Apostle Paul gave his son in the Gospel “A Charge to Keep!” “War a good warfare!” he urged. Let the Church be the Church! If we will, We have Christ’s promise, “The gates of Hell will not prevail against us.”

A charge to keep I have,

A God to glorify,

A never-dying soul to save,
And fit it for the sky.


To serve the present age,
My calling to fulfill:
O may it all my powers engage
To do my Master’s will!


Arm me with jealous care,
As in Thy sight to live;
And O Thy servant, Lord, prepare
A strict account to give!


Help me to watch and pray,

And on Thyself rely,

Assured, if I my trust betray,

I shall for ever die.

Charles Wesley

OUR CONFIDENCE

Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward.  Hebrews 10:35

Two out of every three Americans believe our nation is on the wrong track.  And it is.

Tragically only a few seem to understand why. 

Some point to our economic malaise.  Others argue that the political system, or more specifically the politicians in that system, should shoulder the blame.  There are those who believe that it is the fault of the media and the press.  A few critics accuse our faltering schools.  And a growing number of observers see the breakdown of the family as our greatest challenge.

Yet it is our conviction that all of these are only evidences, or symptoms that our nation is heading the wrong way.  The cause is deeper.

We have thrown trillions of dollars at our problems.  We have expended thousands of hours in speech-making and politicking.   We have tried to legislate and educate to liberate ourselves out of this morass.  And yet we are still heading the wrong direction.  Things are not getting better.

Even more serious than our economic deficit is our nation’s moral deficit.

Precise definition is critical at this juncture.  It is private morality, or more actually immorality, that is at the heart of our problem.  

It is easy to demagogue the decline of morality by citing corporate fraud, governmental misappropriation, or societal injustice.  Everyone agrees that these instances of public immorality are wrong.

But it is hard to judge ourselves. 

If we judge ourselves according to the lives of those around us, we succumb to what former U. S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan called, “defining deviancy down.” Our over-exposure to the evil in those around us has numbed our moral sense.  We rationalize, “I may be bad, but I’m not that bad."

On the other hand, if we judge truthfully so many of us fall short of the mark that we find ourselves unwilling to point an accusing finger at others, for fear that our own sin might be found out.  We’re afraid that we will be judged by the same standard.  We know that we will be found wanting.  We even have an out of context Bible verse to justify our amoral stance, “Judge not that ye be not judged!”

Yet until the Americans in America get themselves on the right track, the nation will continue what Robert Bork calls, “Slouching Towards Gomorrah.”

The only way that America has prospered to this hour is by expending the moral capital garnered by past generations.  We have enjoyed the blessings of Providence showered upon those people who in times past feared, and honored, and loved the Lord God.  We have spent what they earned, but we have failed to add to that moral capital by virtuous living and the pursuit of personal holiness. Today we are morally bankrupt.

It is the demoralization of our civilization that has brought us to these desperate times.  Decades ago the Soviet KGB agent, Yuri Bezmenov defected to the West.  He warned that our enemy’s strategy was to first demoralize, then to destabilize, and finally to destroy us.  Fortunately for us, the immorality within the Evil Empire brought them down first.

But America is not far behind.  At the heart of our national moral crisis is our loss of confidence in God.  We say, “In God we Trust,” but never have we trusted Him less than we do today. 

If our nation can be demoralized, destabilized, and ultimately destroyed by a loss of confidence in the Author of Liberty and His Law, so our churches can also be demoralized, destabilized, and ultimately destroyed when they lose confidence in the God of Scripture, and when they jettison their commitment to the Scriptures of God!

And if nations and churches can be demoralized, destabilized, and ultimately destroyed, so also can Christians!  It is the heart-break of every Pastor to see the numbers of those who once traveled on the highway of holiness now trudging that hard road to destruction.

If your confidence is in the Creator who made all that is, and your confidence is decidedly not in the creation, yourself included…

If your confidence is in the Savior, who was born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, buried, and rose again from the dead, and your confidence is decidedly not in your own self-righteousness…

If your confidence is in the Spirit of Holiness that raised up Jesus from the dead, who convicts, who sanctifies, who satisfies, who guides, who gifts, who bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God, who intercedes for us, who is our Comforter, the Paraclete, the Holy One, the Spirit of the Living God, and you confidence is decidedly not in the spirit of this age or the spirit of unrighteousness…

If your confidence is in the inspired, inerrant Word of the Living God, the 66 books of the Old and New Testament, written by men who were moved by the Holy Ghost, and perfectly revealing God’s will for us, and your confidence is decidedly not in your pathetic, paltry, vain  philosophy…

If your confidence is in the way of Holiness and true Righteousness, and it is decidedly not in the subjective, self-determined, do-what-you-want-to-do way that leads to destruction...

…THEN DON’T CAST AWAY YOUR CONFIDENCE!

Don’t cast away your confidence when you’re feeling bad.

Don’t cast away your confidence when you’re feeling great.

Don’t cast away your confidence when things are going wrong.

Don’t cast away your confidence when things are going wonderfully.

Don’t cast away your confidence when you’re tempted.

Don’t cast away your confidence when you’re discouraged.

Don’t cast away your confidence when your friends are casting theirs away.   

(Even those that you thought would never turn away).

Don’t cast away your confidence when the Holy Spirit is convicting you or when the Lord Himself is chastening you. “Whom the Lord loves He chastens.”

Don’t cast away your confidence as a child.

Don’t cast away your confidence as a teen.

Don’t cast away your confidence as a young adult.

Don’t cast away your confidence as a senior saint.

Don’t cast away your confidence when you have failed.   

(This is not a plea for unscriptural eternal security.  This is to say that if the enemy has exploited your weakness, and you have fallen into sin, you have disobeyed God, then don’t give up.  Get up!  Never lose confidence in the Gospel of Christ who came to seek and to save that which is lost.)

Don’t cast away your confidence though all the news around you is bleak.

Don’t cast away your confidence when the two-bit rulers of this world are thumbing their noses at the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords.

Don’t cast away your confidence though Israel is assaulted and Jerusalem is completely surrounded.

Don’t cast away your confidence when the Church of Jesus Christ faces the fires of persecution. “Lift up your eyes, your redemption draweth nigh!”

There are many who are heading the wrong direction, but for the blood-bought, redeemed, sanctified, Spirit-filled, people of the Living God, we’ve come too far to turn back!   “Cast not away your confidence.”

(I am grateful to Brother James Plank, from God's Missionary Church, Beavertown, PA for inspiring some of these thoughts).

As Unknown and Yet Well Known...

2 Corinthians 6:9 As unknown, and yet well known...

As Americans pause this weekend to honor those who have given their "last full measure of devotion" to the cause of liberty, we are humbled and deeply grateful for their sacrifice.

Yet, words of gratitude, elegant floral wreaths in cemetaries, and patriotic music are painfully inadequate. Writing in this weekend's Wall Street Journal, Mark Helprin reminds us that "the only fitting memorials to the long ranks of the dead" is for our generation to rise up with "resolution, vigilance, and sacrifice," to protect and to preserve the nation we are so blessed to call home.

Several weeks ago I came across a video history of the Second World War. I watched the footage of Americans landing on the beaches of Normandy amidst a hail of bullets and canon fire. I saw Americans soldiering forward with abandonment. These were the men "who more than self their country loved, and mercy more than life."

But establishing a toehold on the beaches was only the first step. There was literally a thousand miles between them and the head of the Nazi beast. Onward!

When their comrades fell, they reorganized and pressed forward. 120,000 Americans died in that dreadful and glorious march to victory. Eisenhower I know. Patton, Marshall, Bradley are names I recognize. These were the Generals who led our troops to triumph.

But who really won the day? Who was it that secured the victory? Who was it that finally tightened the noose around the neck of Hitler's monstrous Third Reich?

The nameless, the unknown, the unrecognized hundreds of thousands of soldiers who kissed their mothers and wives and children farewell, who left their family farms, walked away from small businesses, put their college education on hold, and enlisted in the great crusade of their generation. These were the true heroes.

Walk onto the hallowed grounds of the American military cemetaries and the rows upon rows of crosses are a touching reminder of their great sacrifice.

I remember my father talking about seeing Blue Stars in the windows of those homes that had sent soldiers. As a Jr. High student, he recounted walking down the streets of Lomax, Illinois and seeing what had been Blue Stars replaced with Gold Stars. Another casualty. Nameless. Unknown. But without their sacrifice there would have been no V-Day.

And then I felt a tear course down my cheek. I felt reproved.

You see, I have wanted to be a General in the Lord's Army--a John Wesley, a William Booth, a Charles Cowman. I've wanted to be known. I've wanted to be a leader. I've wanted to be successful. I chafe at my reality--unknown, unspectacular, and unsuccessful. I complain to God. He glances up from washing my feet, engages my eyes and says, "I have given you an example..."

He then reminds me that in the great conflict that rages between Heaven and hell, between Truth and error, between Holiness and sinfulness, HE is the General--the Commander in Chief. I am serving at His command. "Who am I?" "Without Him I would be nothing." God forgive me for wanting to share the glory that belongs only to Him.

He whispers, "Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life." Oh yes! That is what I long to hear.

I grab my jacket, find the key, and head out to drive the Sunday School Bus. Onward.