First Baptist Church

The first time I remember hearing the word “providence” was when Michael W. Smith sang a bouncy song called Hand of Providence on Christian radio, back in 1988. There was also a TV show called Providence in the late ‘90s. Before that, I never really heard or used the word much. I had a pretty good theological education in college, but our group was always afraid someone might think we were Calvinists. So we shied away from anything that might be construed as “Calvinistic”…like the word “providence”.

That’s too bad, because what the Bible teaches about God’s providence is incredibly rich, mysterious and comforting. It’s one of those words that hardly appears in the Bible. It isn’t found in most modern translations, and only used once in the King James Version, in Acts 24:2. Some of the Apostle Paul’s accusers were trying to make their case against him before a Roman governor named Felix. They started by flattering Felix’s ego, saying: “…by thee we enjoy great quietness, and…very worthy deeds are done unto this nation by thy providence.” The English Standard Version renders the word “foresight”, and that is exactly the meaning. Pro- means “before”, and video means “to see”. Combined, it means “to see before”, or “to see what is needed beforehand, and make arrangements to meet that need”. This is exactly what someone is doing when they exercise “foresight”: they are seeing to something beforehand.Read More

Every Sunday Afternoon, after the morning service at the church, the Pastor and his eleven year old son would go out into their town and hand out Gospel Tracts. This particular Sunday afternoon, as it came time for the Pastor and his son to go to the streets with their tracts, it was very cold outside, as well as pouring rain. The boy bundled up in his warmest and driest clothes and said, “OK, dad, I’m ready.” His Pastor dad asked, “Ready for what? “Dad, it’s time we gather our tracts together and go out.” Dad responds, “Son, it’s very cold outside and it’s pouring rain.” The boy gives his dad a surprised look, asking, “But Dad, aren’t people still going to Hell, even though it’s raining?” Dad answers, “Son, I am not going out in this weather.” Despondently, the boy asks, “Dad, can I go?” His father hesitated for a moment then said, “Son, you can go. Here are the tracts, be careful son…” “Thanks Dad!”

And with that, he was off and out into the rain. This eleven year old boy walked the streets of the town going door to door and handing everybody he met in the street a Gospel Tract. After two hours of walking in the rain, he was soaking, bone-chilled wet and down to his very last tract. He stopped on a corner and looked for someone to hand a tract to, but the streets were totally deserted. Then he turned toward the first home he saw and started up the sidewalk to the front door and rang the doorbell. He rang the bell, but nobody answered. He rang it again and again, but still no one answered. He waited but still no answer. Finally, this eleven year old trooper turned to leave, but something stopped him. Again, he turned to the door and rang the bell and knocked loudly on the door with his fist. He waited, something holding him there on the porch!Read More

Psalms 115:1-8 Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness! (2) Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?” (3) Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases. (4) Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands. (5) They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see. (6) They have ears, but do not hear; noses, but do not smell. (7) They have hands, but do not feel; feet, but do not walk; and they do not make a sound in their throat. (8) Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them.

In Psalm 115, Israel was in effect saying that God needed to give his name glory for the sake of/because of his love… why?

God’s people viewed themselves and their dealings with the nations as being tied up with the glory of God. If the nations were oppressing Israel, it had an impact on God’s perceived glory.

Was this a false dilemma? No. Not perceptionally. If the other nations were “winning,” it meant that their gods, who did not have ears or eyes, or mouth (v 4-7) looked better than the God of Israel. It was a slap in the face of God’s glorious name.Read More

I recently had the pleasure of spending four wonderful nights preaching in revival services for Pastor Tom East and the Williams First Baptist Church of Williams, Indiana. Williams is down near Bedford, more-or-less. You drive to Bedford, turn right, and then drive to the edge of the world.

When Pastor Tom called to invite me, at first I turned him down. My first thought was: “It sounds exhausting!” Then I thought: “I don’t want to be the guy who just wants to sit in a rocking chair!” I debated back and forth internally, talked to my wife, talked to our chairman of deacons and a couple others. Finally, after much vacillating and asking God what to do, I told Pastor East I’d come. (Then I immediately had second thoughts!)

Well, it was exhausting, but also renewing for me personally. I’d have to let the people of Williams First Baptist tell you how they thought the meetings went; but for my part, I stood up at the right time, faced the right direction, and managed not to say anything too embarrassing.Read More

There’s a waitress in a restaurant in Indianapolis where I eat with my Dad when I go to see him. The first time she waited on us, she looked at me and said: “Did anybody ever tell you that you look like John Lennon?” I laughed out loud. Now every time we go in there, she calls me John. My Dad gets a real kick out of it.

The reason I laughed is because, as a matter of fact, I have been told I looked like John Lennon before. Several times over the years, someone has made that remark to me.

The first time, I was sitting on a bench in the mall at Terre Haute, reading a newspaper and waiting on my wife. I became aware that someone had stopped right in front of me, and I looked up…right into the smiling face of a pot-bellied fellow in overalls, grinning at me. He said, “Anybody ever tell you you look like John Lennon?” Since this was the first time, I could have honestly said no. Instead, engaging my lightning-swift wit, I opened my mouth and said: “Uh-h-h-h-h…?” Then he looked over his shoulder and in a very loud voice, he called out, “HEY, HONEY: C’MERE! THIS GUY LOOKS LIKE JOHN LENNON!” Then he turned back to me and said, “I hope you don’t mind me sayin’ you look like John Lennon?” By this time, the shock was wearing off a little, so I said, “Well, I guess it’s okay to look like a dead guy.” And he said, “I don’t mean it like that, but you sure do look like ‘im!” Then he grinned at me again and sauntered off…leaving me shaking my head, and laughing to myself.Read More

Have you seen what’s going on upstairs in our Education Wing? Lots of volunteers of all ages have been painting, spackling, hammering, sawing and otherwise just making a wonderful mess upstairs, all to transform an unused room into a delightful place for Children’s Church.

It’s called The Treehouse (a name chosen purposely to dovetail with the Youth Group’s theme of Roots), and the idea is to make it into a place kids can walk into and think: “Hey! This is really cool!” We want them to have a great time in Children’s Church. We want them to like it, and to have fun. (Wouldn’t it be great if kids really wanted to come to church?) And in the midst of all the fun, we want to make sure that they are hearing the Gospel of Jesus in a way that they can understand and respond to.

There’s always some who raise objections to presenting the Gospel to children. But research has shown over and over again that most conversions happen when a person is younger. Every decade a person lives, the liklihood of them becoming a Christian diminishes drastically.Read More

Right in the middle of all the snow we got after Christmas, I saw something that made me laugh out loud. My son-in-law was driving us from my Dad’s to my in-laws’ house in his 4-wheel drive SUV. As we were making our way on a snow-covered country road toward our destination, we saw another SUV coming toward us. The rear window on the driver’s side was rolled down, and out of the window stuck the heads of two of the happiest dogs you’ve ever seen in your life! They were loving the snow, and their noses in the wind, and just riding in the vehicle! After all the grim weather-casters predicting “snowmaggeddon”, and people worrying and complaining about the snow, those two dogs were, well, a breath of fresh air.

I don’t currently have a dog (and no, I don’t want yours), but I love dogs, and some dogs have been very old and dear friends of mine. So when one of my professors from college emailed me this column, it made me smile. And I think it’s good enough to share with you.Read More

I love words. I fell in love with words early, through the venerable medium of comic books. The pictures caught my eye, but the words told the story. In fact, the words made all the difference: the same picture could mean something entirely different, depending on the words (e.g., Lois could be saying, “Superman! Thank goodness you saved me!” or “Put me down, you big lug!”).

Words are powerful. Speech writers labor long and hard over just the right words. They know that saying something the right way can win your argument, while saying even the right thing in the wrong way can mean ruin. The right words have stirred men’s hearts and been remembered by history. The wrong words have cost elections, ruined careers and destroyed families. Proverbs 18:21 says, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue…”

Sometimes people try to say that words aren’t very important. I suspect the bottom line here is that they want to be able to talk any way they want, without anyone telling them “no”. Not too long ago I heard someone say, “I think Christians get too hung up on words. They’re just words.” Specifically what was being referred to was swearing or cursing… or cussing, if you like. The idea was that it didn’t matter if a believer in Jesus used foul language because, well, they’re “just words”.

But God takes a decidedly different view of the matter.Read More