2021 – Page 4 – Just Keith Harris

Refresh & Restore — November 25, 2021

¹If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. ²Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. ³For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. ⁴When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
Colossians 3:1-4

⁸Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. ⁹What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.^[1]
Philippians 4:8-9

"Kept Through the Trial: Jesus's Letter to the Church at Philadelphia" (The KING is Coming) – Refresh & Restore | A JustKeithHarris.com Podcast

📖 Revelation 3:7–13We’re back!After a few months off, The King is Coming returns in 2026 with one of the most encouraging letters in Revelation — Jesus’s message to the faithful church in Philadelphia. In a world filled with opposition and weakness, Jesus opens a door no one can shut.In this episode, Keith Harris and Jamie Harrison explore:✔️ Jesus’s identity as the Holy One, the True One — God Himself✔️ What the “key of David” means and how Jesus alone opens and shuts✔️ The debated phrase “I will keep you from the hour of trial” — and how to read it biblically✔️ Why “little power” doesn’t disqualify faithfulness✔️ How being kept through the trial glorifies Christ’s strength in us✔️ What it means to be a pillar in God’s presence foreverThis church had no rebuke — only encouragement. And Jesus’s call still stands today: “Hold fast what you have, so that no one may seize your crown.” (Revelation 3:11, ESV)🔗 Missed earlier episodes in the series? You can click here to catch up and listen from the beginning.✍️ If you’d like to see a written version of this podcast, complete with footnotes and cross-references, you can find it here.

Happy Thanksgiving, Sojourner!

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays! It is so nice to have a day when people take the effort to focus on what they are thankful for instead of allowing themselves to look at things that cause stress or distress in our lives. What is interesting to me, especially as an adult (and one who must fight against jaded negativity), is that all of the things that cause trouble do not disappear, yet the forced focus on what one is thankful for gives a reprieve from all of the normal ills.

To a certain extent, that is what Biblical meditation is supposed to do. It is not a form of escapism where we ignore the ills of society. It is a show of trust in focusing on Him who is sovereign, focusing on the Savior. It is not us ignoring our problems but followers of Christ choosing His ways and His words over ignorance and submission to our troubles.

Another reason I love Thanksgiving is the food. There are dishes and desserts that I only get to eat at holidays. Some of these are just because of their difficulty to make and expense. Holidays justify both of these as labors of love. The primary reason is that many holiday foods, at least the ones I am hoping for as I type this, do not belong in our regular diets (and I’ll definitely need a regular diet by January). This brings to mind Don Whitney’s thoughts on Bible intake from Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life:

“There simply is no healthy Christian life apart from a diet of the milk and meat of Scripture. The reasons for this are obvious. In the Bible God tells us about Himself, and especially about Jesus Christ, the incarnation of God. The Bible unfolds the Law of God to us and shows us how we’ve all broken it. There we learn how Christ died as a sinless, willing Substitute for breakers of God’s Law and how we must repent and believe in Him to be right with God. In the Bible we learn the ways and will of the Lord. We find in Scripture how to live in a way that is pleasing to God as well as best and most fulfilling for ourselves. None of this eternally essential information can be found anywhere else except the Bible. Therefore if we would know God and be Godly, we must know the Word of God—intimately.”^[2]

So, pies are tasty, but pies minus needed nutrition will kill me. The reasons for this are obvious, and there is no substitute for my soul, nothing that will or can satisfy the new heart Christ gave me, than the Word of God regularly.

Thomas Watson, a Puritan pastor, put it like this: “The reason we come away so cold from reading the Word is, because we do not warm ourselves at the fire of meditation.”^[3] It is my hope that the verses today – all of which center around being thankful for God, specifically His name – will warm you, fill you with His Spirit, and leave you thankful for Him above all else and to Him for everything else.

¹⁰Therefore David blessed the Lord in the presence of all the assembly. And David said: “Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of Israel our father, forever and ever. ¹¹Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all. ¹²Both riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all. In your hand are power and might, and in your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all. ¹³And now we thank you, our God, and praise your glorious name.^[4]
1 Chronicles 29:10-13

I will give to the Lord the thanks due to his righteousness,
and I will sing praise to the name of the Lord, the Most High.
Psalm 7:17

⁶With a freewill offering I will sacrifice to you;
I will give thanks to your name, O Lord, for it is good.
⁷For he has delivered me from every trouble,
and my eye has looked in triumph on my enemies.
Psalm 54:6-7

We give thanks to you, O God;
we give thanks, for your name is near.
We recount your wondrous deeds.
Psalm 75:1

¹Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!
²Serve the Lord with gladness!
Come into his presence with singing!
³Know that the Lord, he is God!
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
⁴Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
and his courts with praise!
Give thanks to him; bless his name!
⁵For the Lord is good;
his steadfast love endures forever,
and his faithfulness to all generations.
Psalm 100

⁵Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, ⁶who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, ⁷but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. ⁸And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. ⁹Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, ¹⁰so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Philippians 2:5-11

³Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, ⁴who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. ⁵For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. ⁶If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. ⁷Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.
2 Corinthians 1:3-7

³¹What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³²He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? ³³Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. ³⁴Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. ³⁵Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? ³⁶As it is written,
“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
³⁷No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:31-39

¹Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. ²And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. ³And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. ⁴He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
⁵And He who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also He said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” ⁶And He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. ⁷The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. ⁸But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”
Revelation 21:1-8

¹Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, ²but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. ³He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, ⁴having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.
Hebrews 1:1-4

⁴Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. ⁵Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; ⁶do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. ⁷And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
⁸Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
Philippians 4:4-8 –

His Name is Jesus!

He is God!

He is Savior!

He is Lord.

And He is alive!

Hallelujah, and amen!

^[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Col 3:1–4 & Php 4:8–9.

^[2] Donald S. Whitney, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 1991), 28.

[3] Thomas Watson, “How We May Read the Scriptures with Most Spiritual Profit” (1674).

^[4] ESV, 1 Ch 29:10–13.

Refresh & Restore — November 18, 2021

¹If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. ²Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. ³For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. ⁴When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
Colossians 3:1-3

⁸Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. ⁹What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.^[1]
Philippians 4:8-9

"Kept Through the Trial: Jesus's Letter to the Church at Philadelphia" (The KING is Coming) – Refresh & Restore | A JustKeithHarris.com Podcast

Greetings, Sojourner!

I hope that our first look at the idea of Biblical meditation has been helpful. This week, I want to take it a bit deeper by looking at it in a historical sense to help us see that this is not a new idea but an idea that has been hijacked by the world and falsely-religious customs.

The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church describes meditation as “associated with prayer, because some of the favourite biblical texts are themselves prayers, and thinking about Christian truth sharpens a desire for God’s gifts, and thinking about life reveals man’s need of God”.^[2] I think this is a particularly good description first because it helps us know what to do with what we are meditating on (pray), and, second, because it helps us gauge the appropriate end result (namely, a right view of God and a desire to worship/follow Him).

In that same article, there are four lenses through which meditation has been viewed throughout church history: 1) the memorization of Scripture to be used or recited, 2) holding onto verses/passages for reminders of truth and inspiration when needed, 3) thinking on the things of God to increase understanding and devotion to God, and 4) applying the truths found in Scripture to our various responses in our lives. I definitely think this is the scope of why various Sunday school teachers, pastors, and disciple-makers encourage the memorization of Scripture.

Those ideas fit so well with Psalm 119, the magnificent center chapter of the Bible that centers around the magnificence of the Bible. Psalm 119:9 asks and answers how a young man can “keep his way pure” by showing that it is in guarding that way – his life – “according to [God’s] Word”. Psalm 119:11 speaks of storing up God’s Word in one’s heart to keep from sinning against Him, which sounds a lot like meditation and memorization. Psalm 119:15 shows an effort to “meditate” on God’s precepts and “fix…eyes” on His ways. There are many more verses, just in that single chapter of the Bible that emphasize the same truth over and over, that we need God’s Word at the forefront of our minds if it will ever impact our lives (vv. 27, 30, 37, 43, 48, 52, 54, 59, 74, 78, 92-93, 97, 99, 105, 114, 116, 123, 133, 140, 143, 153, 164, 166, 174-176).

And that is our goal: to elevate God’s Word to its proper place by spending time in it and thereby elevate Him to where He should be if He is our Lord and Savior to stir our hearts up in worship and obedience to His Word as we forget this world and our desire to sin.

It is my prayer that, through our verses today, you will be able to “set your minds on things that are above” (Colossians 3:2), that you will be able to think and meditate on things that are “true”, “honorable”, “just”, “pure”, “lovely”, “commendable”, excellent, and “worthy of praise” (Philippians 4:8) – His name is Jesus! Our verses for meditation today are on the hope that comes from “the blessed hope…our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good” (Titus 2:13-14 ^[3]).

Matthew 11:25-30 –

²⁵At that time Jesus declared, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; ²⁶yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. ²⁷All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. ²⁸Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. ²⁹Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Isaiah 53:4-6 –

⁴Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
⁵But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.
⁶All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

John 3:16-21 –

¹⁶“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. ¹⁸Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. ¹⁹And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. ²⁰For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. ²¹But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

Philippians 2:5-11 –

⁵Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, ⁶who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, ⁷but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. ⁸And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. ⁹Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, ¹⁰so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Ephesians 2:1-7 –

¹And you were dead in the trespasses and sins ²in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— ³among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. ⁴But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, ⁵even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— ⁶and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, ⁷so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

Titus 3:4-7 –

⁴But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, ⁵he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, ⁶whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, ⁷so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

Colossians 2:13-15 –

¹³And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, ¹⁴by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. ¹⁵He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.

Ephesians 2:8-10 –

⁸For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, ⁹not a result of works, so that no one may boast. ¹⁰For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Romans 5:1-5 –

¹Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. ²Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. ³Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, ⁴and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, ⁵and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

John 16:33 –

³³I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”^[4]

Hallelujah, and amen!

^[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Col 3:1–4 & Php 4:8–9.

^[2] F. L. Cross and Elizabeth A. Livingstone, eds., The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), 1072.

^[3] The Holy Bible: New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1984), Tt 2:13–14.

^[4] ESV, Matt 11:25-30, Is 53:4–6, Jn 3:16–21, Eph 2:1–7, Phil 2:5-11, Tt 3:4–7, Col 2:13–15, Eph 2:8–10, Ro 5:1–5, Jn 16:33.

Songs for Sunday, November 14, 2021

Tomorrow is Sunday, and God is good!

Meditating on God’s goodness is always a good thing. And that’s what we will be doing in worship tomorrow at Christ Community.

We will look ahead in God’s Word to how good God’s plans are for the future of His people. We will look back in God’s Word to how good God has always been. But it is my prayer that, as we read the Word together, sing the Word together, and see what He has for us, we realize that He is especially good to us right now.

Here are a few passages that have been on my heart that, hopefully, will kindle a fire in your heart to gather with God’s people to worship Him tomorrow:

God blesses us in our gathering by using His Church to help us focus on the hope that comes from Him alone, to stir each other up to His works done in love, and to encourage each other through His Spirit.

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
Hebrews 10:23-25

Think of how similar we are today to Israel in faithlessness and trouble. If God never wavered in His promises to them – and has indeed NEVER been unfaithful at all, how good is it that we can trust in Him now!

Not one word of all the good promises that the LORD had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass.
Joshua 21:45

We can fully trust in God because He is eternally able.

…fully convinced that God was able to do what He had promised.
Romans 4:21

So, yes, tomorrow is Sunday, and, Lord willing, we will get to gather to worship Him. He who promised is faithful. He has always been good to us. He will forever be good to us. And, rest assured, He is good to us now!

Here are our Scriptures & songs:

Revelation 21:1-8 —

¹Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. ²And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. ³And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. ⁴He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
⁵And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” ⁶And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. ⁷The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. ⁸But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

Blessed Be Your Name —
Scripture References / Inspiration for the Song: 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, Psalm 72:18-19, Psalm 36:8, James 1:17, Romans 5:3-5, Psalm 107:8-9, Psalm 23:4-6, Job 1:21-22, Daniel 2:19-20, John 10:10, Hebrews 3:7-10, James 1:2-4, 1 Peter 4:12-19

Revelation Song —
Scripture References / Inspiration for the Song: Revelation 5:6-12, Revelation 1:8, Revelation 4:8, Romans 3:25, Hebrews 9:5, Revelation 5:13, Revelation 17:14, John 15:5, Psalm 33:8-9, Revelation 4:2-3, Revelation 4:5, Luke 5:17-26

Psalm 23 —

¹ The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
² He makes me lie down in green pastures.
   He leads me beside still waters.
³ He restores my soul.
   He leads me in paths of righteousness
for his name’s sake.
⁴ Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.
⁵ You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies;
   you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
⁶ Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life,
   and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
forever.

Goodness of God —
Scripture References / Inspiration for the Song: Deuteronomy 6:5, Lamentations 3:22-23, Isaiah 64:8, Psalm 139:16, Deuteronomy 6:7, Psalm 113:3, 2 Timothy 2:13, Psalm 27:13, Psalm 31:19, Psalm 145:9, Psalm 150:6, Psalm 107:1, 1 Kings 19:11-12, Hebrews 1:3, Isaiah 43:1-3, Jeremiah 23:23-24, John 15:14-15, Psalm 23:6, Luke 9:23-24

Good, Good Father —
Scripture References / Inspiration for the Song: John 5:25, Revelation 3:20, Matthew 25:23, Hebrews 13:5, 1 Chronicles 16:34, Psalm 119:68, Nahum 1:7, Psalm 68:5, Psalm 36:5-7, John 3:16, John 15:13, Romans 5:6-8, Ephesians 2:4-5, Colossians 2:6-8, 2 Timothy 3:16-17, Psalm 139:4, Matthew 5:48, Romans 11:33, Ephesians 3:8, 1 John 4:7-11

(invitation) So Will I —
Scripture References / Inspiration for the Song: Genesis 1:1-3, Colossians 1:16, John 8:58, Psalm 33:6-9, Psalm 66:4, Psalm 13:6, Psalm 19:1-4, Isaiah 55:11, Genesis 1:26-27, Luke 19:39-40, Colossians 2:13-14, John 8:12, Psalm 22:1, Psalm 103:10-14, Romans 6:23, 1 Corinthians 15:3-8, 1 Corinthians 15:20-26, John 3:16

(offertory) He Will Hold Me Fast —
Scripture References / Inspiration for the Song: Psalm 73:21-23, 2 Timothy 2:13, John 15:5, 2 Corinthians 3:5, 2 Corinthians 12:9, Revelation 2:4-5, Psalm 149:4, Zephaniah 3:17, John 6:39-40, Joshua 21:45, Romans 4:21, 2 Corinthians 1:20, Hebrews 10:23, 2 Peter 3:9, Matthew 20:28, 1 Corinthians 5:20, 2 Corinthians 5:21, Colossians 2:13-15, John 3:15-16, Revelation 21:3-4

We invite you to join us this Sunday at Christ Community Church in Grenada, MS!

We have Sunday School classes for all ages at 9:30a and worship – everyone is welcome – at 11:00a!

If you are concerned about social distancing or are at-risk, consider gathering with us at 10:00a for a small group Bible study in our worship center. There is plenty of room to spread out, but there is also opportunity to gather with others at the same time! No one will crowd you, and you can exit out of our side door and avoid the crowd coming in to worship after the Bible study!

We also continue to live stream from Pastor John Goldwater’s facebook page and have current and past services on the CCC YouTube page.

Christ Community Church

Refresh & Restore — November 11, 2021

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
be acceptable in your sight,
O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.^[1]
Psalm 19:14

²Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. ³Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.^[2]
Hebrews 12:2-3

"Kept Through the Trial: Jesus's Letter to the Church at Philadelphia" (The KING is Coming) – Refresh & Restore | A JustKeithHarris.com Podcast

Greetings, Sojourner!

I am especially excited about this brief study because its contents and substance has helped me so much over this past year. At the same time, it has also been my joy during that time to get to share with you about our Savior and King Jesus Christ and how we can be refreshed by time spent in His presence through the study of the Word and restored to the purposes He has for us. Over the next few weeks, it is my hope that what has helped me will help you and that you can find solace in Him through meditating on His Word.

It may seem odd to take part in a Bible study looking at the value of meditation because of the way it is featured in Eastern mysticism. But Biblical meditation is much, much different. Traditional meditation has you look inside yourself, but Biblical meditation looks to God through His Word – and sees Him looking back at us to change us (Hebrews 4:12-13). Traditional meditation seeks to find one’s center inside themselves, but Biblical meditation helps us remember that Christ is at the center of everything (Colossians 1:15-20).

I love the way that Don Whitney describes this in his book Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life:

“While some advocate a kind of meditation in which you do your best to empty your mind, Christian meditation involves filling your mind with God and truth. For some, meditation is an attempt to achieve complete mental passivity, but biblical meditation requires constructive mental activity. Worldly meditation employs visualization techniques intended to ‘create your own reality’. And while Christian history has always had a place for the sanctified use of our God-given imagination in meditation, imagination is our servant to help us meditate on things that are true (Philippians 4:8). Furthermore, instead of ‘creating our own reality’ through visualization, we link meditation with prayer to God and responsible, Spirit-filled human action to effect changes.”^[3]

We see it in the words of David in Psalm 19, which is an entire psalm written in worship and celebration of God’s Word. Our first verse for today comes from Psalm 19. In it, David looks at the glory of God in creation and extends that glory to the Word, which is described as “perfect, reviving the soul” (v. 7a), “sure, making the wise simple” (v. 7b), “right, rejoicing the heart” (v. 8a), “pure, enlightening the eyes” (v. 8b), “clean, enduring forever” (v. 9a), “true, and righteous altogether” (v. 9b), and more valuable than any amount of gold while being sweeter than the most delicious honey (v. 10). It is only in that Word that those who serve the Lord will find “great reward” (v. 11) – Jesus, God Himself, is the reward! Meditating on this (v. 14) is how our words and hearts can be “acceptable in [God’s] sight”. Meditating on Him as our “rock” and “redeemer” will see that we are not moved.

So, today, I am going to stop talking and share with you some verses that focus us on our “great reward” – that “fix our eyes on Jesus” (Hebrews 12:2 NIV₈₄). They are going to be bite sized chunks, short enough that you can read one several times and keep it in your mind throughout the day. Or, as I find helpful, you can read them or listen to them at various times throughout the day to “turn [your] eyes from looking at worthless things” and find “life in [His] ways” (Psalm 119:37). Either way, here are some precious verses that speak much of Jesus. May you find Him in them.

²⁵At that time Jesus declared, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; ²⁶yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. ²⁷All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. ²⁸Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. ²⁹Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Matthew 11:25-30

¹In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²He was in the beginning with God. ³All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. ⁴In him was life, and the life was the light of men. ⁵The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
John 1:1-5

¹Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, ²but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. ³He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, ⁴having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.
Hebrews 1:1-4

¹⁵He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. ¹⁶For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. ¹⁷And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. ¹⁸And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. ¹⁹For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, ²⁰and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
Colossians 1:15-20

⁵Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, ⁶who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, ⁷but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. ⁸And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. ⁹Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, ¹⁰so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Philippians 2:5-11

¹¹For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, ¹²training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, ¹³waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, ¹⁴who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.
Titus 2:11-14

¹⁴And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
John 1:14

¹Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, ²looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.^[4]
Hebrews 12:1-2

Hallelujah, and amen!

^[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Ps 19:14.

^[2] The Holy Bible: New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1984), Heb 12:2–3.

^[3] Donald S. Whitney, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 1991), 47.

^[4] ESV, Mt 11:25–30, Jn 1:1–5, Heb 1:1–4, Col 1:15–20, Php 2:5–11, Tt 2:11–14, Jn 1:14, Heb 12:1–2.

Songs for Sunday, November 7, 2021

Tomorrow is Sunday – and we get an extra hour of sleep! I can hardly think of a more exciting combination.

This past week has been more than a little anxiety-ridden and definitely one that I am definitely ready to finish. I love that the first day of the week – of every week, but especially this one – is the Lord’s day, a day where we get our focus back on Christ. For the Church – the Bride of Christ – every Sunday is supposed to gather in remembrance and worship of all that Christ has done for us, but, most importantly because “He is risen, as He said” (Matthew 28:6), we gather to honor our resurrected Savior who is our “living hope” (1 Peter 1:3)!

There is plenty to distract us from that hope. It is as Jesus said in Matthew 6:34, “Sufficient for the day is its own trouble”. But, rather than be distracted, let us be reminded all the more of Who our reason to hope is!

I love the dual promises found in John 16:33 that “in the world you will have tribulation” but that we should “take heart” because Jesus has already “overcome the world.

I love the reminder Jesus gave to Paul in the midst of his great trial and thorn (2 Corinthians 12:9): “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

And I love and rejoice in the hope that one day I – and all believers – will be with Him forever, the Sovereign all-powerful God and His ransomed, adopted, redeemed Church, where there will be no more “mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away” (Revelation 21:3-4) and the final tear will be wiped away by a hand still bearing the scars of the wounds by which we are healed (Isaiah 53:5)!

Tomorrow, I hope you’ll gather with us. It’s likely you need reminding, too. There world is a hopeless place, but this world is not all there is. So, tomorrow, we’ll gather as our little corner of the Kingdom and make much of Him in worship to prepare for the eternal life that is to come!

Here are our Scriptures & songs:

Psalm 130

¹ Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord!
²O Lord, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive
to the voice of my pleas for mercy!
³If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities,
O Lord, who could stand?
⁴But with you there is forgiveness,
that you may be feared.
⁵I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
and in his word I hope;
⁶my soul waits for the Lord
more than watchmen for the morning,
more than watchmen for the morning.
⁷O Israel, hope in the Lord!
For with the Lord there is steadfast love,
and with him is plentiful redemption.
⁸And he will redeem Israel
from all his iniquities.

Chain Breaker
Scripture References / Inspiration for the Song: Matthew 11:28-30, John 8:44, Hebrews 11:35, Isaiah 53:4, John 14:6, Galatians 5:1, Acts 16:25-26, Psalm 116:16, Romans 6:20, John 1:4-5, John 8:12, Galatians 6:9, Romans 3:10-18, Romans 10:9-13

Great I AM
Scripture References / Inspiration for the Song: Psalm 73:28, Philippians 3:20, 1 Corinthians 15:54-56, Revelation 5:9-13, Psalm 113:1, Isaiah 6:3, Revelation 4:8, 1 Samuel 2:2, Revelation 5:4-6, Revelation 15:3, Revelation 11:17, Exodus 3:14, John 8:58, Psalm 145:18, 1 John 3:16, 1 John 4:13-18, Proverbs 8:13, Psalm 119:63, Ezekiel 37:1-14, Isaiah 64:1, James 2:19, Luke 8:31-33, Luke 10:17, Psalm 76:7

Galatians 3:10-14

¹⁰For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.” ¹¹Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.” ¹²But the law is not of faith, rather “The one who does them shall live by them.” ¹³Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”— ¹⁴so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.

Jesus Paid It All (O Praise the One)
Scripture References / Inspiration for the Song: Matthew 11:28-30, John 19:30, Colossians 2:13-14, 2 Corinthians 4:15, Hebrews 12:28-29, Isaiah 1:18, Jeremiah 13:23, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Ezekiel 11:19, Revelation 4:10-11, Romans 6:4, Revelation 5:9-10

King of Kings
Scripture References / Inspiration for the Song: Proverbs 4:19, John 3:19-21, Ephesians 2:1, Philippians 2:5-11, Matthew 5:17, Isaiah 7:14, Luke 1:31, Isaiah 9:6-7, Luke 2:7, Psalm 3:3, Psalm 8:1, John 1:14, Psalm 136:3, Matthew 28:18, Revelation 19:16, Matthew 13:24-52, 2 Corinthians 5:18-21, Isaiah 53, John 3:16, Romans 5:6-10, Galatians 3:13, Colossians 2:14, Titus 2:14, Acts 4:33, 1 Corinthians 15:3-8, Matthew 27:52-53, Luke 15:7, Acts 2:1-4, Matthew 24:35, Ephesians 1:7, Galatians 5:1, Galatians 2:19-20, 2 Timothy 2:11

(invitation) Here Again
Scripture References / Inspiration for the Song: Deuteronomy 31:6, Psalm 23:4, Psalm 46:1, Matthew 28:20, John 14:16-17, Romans 8:38-39, John 15:5, Romans 5:6-8, Exodus 20:3, Matthew 22:36-37, Luke 14:26-33, 1 John 4:18, 2 Corinthians 12:9, Hebrews 4:13, Ezekiel 37:1-14

(offertory) I Wonder
Scripture References / Inspiration for the Song: Romans 1:19-20, Psalm 8:1-4, 2 Corinthians 3:18, Psalm 150:6, Psalm 104:1, Song of Solomon 8:6, Psalm 33:21, Romans 5:1-5, Colossians 2:13-15, Romans 7:14, Matthew 27:32-28:10, 1 John 2:1-2, 1 Timothy 2:5, Titus 2:11-14, Ephesians 2:1-5

We invite you to join us this Sunday at Christ Community Church in Grenada, MS!

We have Sunday School classes for all ages at 9:30a and worship – everyone is welcome – at 11:00a!

We also continue to live stream from Pastor John Goldwater’s facebook page and have current and past services on the CCC YouTube page.

Christ Community Church

Refresh & Restore — November 4, 2021

…but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect….^[1]
1 Peter 3:15

"Kept Through the Trial: Jesus's Letter to the Church at Philadelphia" (The KING is Coming) – Refresh & Restore | A JustKeithHarris.com Podcast

Greetings, Sojourner!

I’m excited to share this week’s devotion with you because it was written by one of my friends and former students, Reid Viner!

He originally wrote this as a profile essay in his English Comp class. It is a profile of Christianity and reads like the appeal of an apologist making a defense for the hope he finds in Christ and in His Word. I am thankful for his heart to share Christ, especially using his platform as a student, and wanted to share it with y’all today!

In a world where people fight to convert other people to their religion, one religion stands out the most: Christianity.

Christianity is a religion that wants people to know that what Jesus has done is true and available for them. There’s a great narrative in Acts 3 where Peter and John meet this poor man who has been paralyzed his entire life while they are on the way to the temple. He is looking for money, but they don’t have any. This guy is being passed over again and again. Some are likely casually tossing money his way. But Peter and John stop and get his attention – again, they do not have the money he needs – to share with him something money can’t buy. Peter says, “I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you”, and then tells the man that he has been healed by “Jesus Christ of Nazareth” – to “rise up and walk” (Acts 3:6)! Had they given him money, he would have still been paralyzed, but he offered the man Jesus. That same Jesus is what Christians want others to know about their faith.

The Uniqueness of Christianity

Christianity’s fundamental aspect of faith being Who that faith is in. Ultimately, the object of worship is more important than the act – which is how worship is inspired in the first place. The Who for Christians is Jesus. And the worship is inspired by what He has done and is doing (which is called the gospel, a word meaning to tell the good news). Basically, the gospel of Jesus Christ is that He is fully God yet also fully man; He came to dwell among us to bring us to Him rather than us seek to work our way to Him; He lived a perfect life in order to sacrifice Himself to pay for our sins; He made that sacrifice willingly to be our propitiation (fancy word that means He bore our sin to give us His favor), and He rose from the grave, living forevermore. So, Jesus – who He is and what He has done/is doing – Himself is that most fundamental aspect of faith.

Christianity is quite a unique religion, and I believe that the Bible speaks to what is most unique about Christianity. The Bible teaches about Jesus being Emmanuel – a word meaning God with us. John 1:14 and 2 Corinthians 5:21 speak to this beautifully. In John, we see God coming as a human to dwell among mankind. The 2 Corinthians passage tells us why: “for our sake”. He came to dwell among men because men needed Him to make a way to heaven. He traded His sinless life for the sinful life of any and all who would believe in Him. He would trade His righteousness for our shame – and our death.

This is different from other religions. Here is an analogy I have heard used to explain all world religions. Life is a journey up a steep mountain. The mountain represents all the insurmountable tasks we need to complete to make our way to the positive option of an afterlife. Failure to make it up the mountain leads to the negative option. Basically, all religions would be summed up as journeying up the mountain, overcoming obstacles and trials, to make one’s way to heaven. Yet the Bible teaches us that what is known as Christianity is unique because our God – who Christians believe to be the one and only true God – came down the mountain in the person of Jesus to carry those who trust in Him up the mountain. He overcomes the obstacles. His strength defeats the trials. He just chooses to share the victory with those He saves and loves.

Christianity & Societal Issues

All religions have their thoughts on societal issues, but Christianity’s are pretty interesting. And rather than looking at ways how Christianity has renounced issues surrounding societal issues, I would like to look at what God intended in the first place. All the way back in the beginning of what we know of as time, God created a man named Adam. He made him in His own image. And He noticed that Adam was alone. Deciding that it was “not good that the man should be alone” (Genesis 2:18), God sought to make him a helper.

The first companions were animals, but, other than keeping Adam busy naming them, they were not suitable. God had a better plan. Rather than starting from scratch like He did with Adam, He put Adam to sleep, took one of His ribs, and formed the woman who would be named Eve. Adam was impressed. He immediately responded in gladness that she was “bone of [his] bone” and “flesh of [his] flesh” (Genesis 2:23). And in that act of creation, God set the precedent for marriage. Man would “leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24). Some people want this to be ambiguous, but it is right there on page three (at least in my copy) of the Bible: one man and one woman to become one flesh.

The so-called “societal issues” become issues where people try to take different paths than God originally intended. So, let us briefly look at (they all really require longer, more personal conversations) these issues.

Premarital sex, what the Bible calls fornication, takes issue with the “one flesh” aspect of marriage. Sexual intimacy between a man and a woman is a deeper level of intimacy than casual relationships can bear. Think about how complicated sex makes things between people who are not ready for the level of commitment needed to accompany sex. This goes against the original design, and trouble follows. Teen pregnancy would be another result of this. I struggle with the wording of this because pregnancy is supposed to be a joyous thing. Why is it not a source of joy in this situation but instead is a source of stress and, sometimes, causes people to despair? It is because the casual “one flesh” produced a blessing that the people were not equipped or ready to receive. Kids are not ready to raise kids. Deviating from God’s plan takes that which was meant to be a blessing and makes the baby feel like a burden. It messes with His original design.

Now, we move on to the “issues” dealing with marriage. Rather than heap on verses that some use to condemn, let me move on to another passage that shows us God’s design. In Ephesians 5:32, Paul says that marriage is a “mystery” that “refers to Christ and the Church”, meaning that marriage is supposed to be a picture of God and His Church. What if God were to respond to His Bride, the Church, with divorce the first time we messed up? Then, He would not be the God that He says He is from the beginning – that He is “slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression” (Numbers 14:18). So, our willingness to divorce (Malachi 2:16) rather than reconcile (and, yes, there are extenuating circumstances in which divorce is allowed – see Mark 10:1-12 for context and the following quote) is because of our own “hardness of heart”. Ultimately, Christians believe the God who reconciled His enemies to Himself to become a part of His church (Romans 10:10) – a part of His bride – wants to see that reconciliation in the lives of His church.

As far as intermarriage (people of different religions marrying each other), this largely is the scope of Old Testament passages prohibiting marrying people outside of the nation of Israel. These were not racial prohibitions but religious. The best example of the issues that can come from marrying people of a different faith (other than the logical reality that opposing religions are not compatible) is Solomon. God gave Solomon great wisdom and riches, but He also warned Solomon about the consequences of sin and serving/worshiping other gods (1 Kings 9:6). Solomon then entered into a multitude – I think 700 wives and 300 concubines makes multitude a bit of an understatement – of marriage relationships. The result was that “his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God” (1 Kings 11:4). I think a divided heart speaks for itself.

Wrapping Up

To get back to the essence of what I want to say here, it is important to understand that God – the Creator of everything – has a distinct plan for how things work best. Any time we deviate from that is sin, and “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).

Lots of religions nowadays require you to be perfect, no room for sin, but that’s how Christianity is different. Now it is going to come down to how we define “Christian” to answer this. If by Christian we mean those who are born again (John 3) or made alive in Christ (Ephesians 2), then Hell is off the table. Paul clearly says in Romans 8:1 that “there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”. Jesus died in our place and rose from the grave, and all who have faith in Him are covered by His sacrifice because He has “forgiven us all our trespasses, by cancelling the record of debt that stood against us” by “nailing it to the cross” (Colossians 2:13-14). Jesus Himself says in John 10:28 that those who are His – those He has given “eternal life” – “will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of [His] hand”. On the other hand, there is nothing about the label of Christianity that protects against sin. One cannot invoke the name or be a registered evangelical Christian and get into heaven. God is checking whether or not we have been covered by His blood, not checking membership cards.
To get back to the essence of what I want to say here, Christians believe that it is important to understand that God – the Creator of everything – has a distinct plan for how things work best. Any time we deviate from that is sin, and “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). We can look at all the ways we sin and heap condemnation, or we can point people to the Savior who “shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Everyone who “calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:13).

^[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), 1 Pe 3:15.

Songs for Sunday, October 31, 2021

There has been a passage on my mind for the past two weeks. My pastor, John Goldwater, shared it in our last pastors’ meeting, we read it in worship at Christ Community last week, and, apparently, John and I were both still thinking of it because he posted it this morning.

The passage is Proverbs 30:1-4:

The words of Agur son of Jakeh. The oracle.
The man declares, I am weary, O God;
I am weary, O God, and worn out.
²Surely I am too stupid to be a man.
I have not the understanding of a man.
³I have not learned wisdom,
nor have I knowledge of the Holy One.
⁴ Who has ascended to heaven and come down?
Who has gathered the wind in his fists?
Who has wrapped up the waters in a garment?
Who has established all the ends of the earth?
What is his name, and what is his son’s name?
Surely you know!

I find myself wondering why this passage has been on my mind these weeks and why I have meditated on it so. I have come to the conclusion that it is for two reasons: 1) I am “weary…and worn out” and definitely “too stupid to be a man”, and 2) I KNOW HIS NAME!

Last week, when we read this aloud together in Christ Community, there were more than a few chuckles as we read vv. 1-2! We laughed because, sometimes, our stupidity is humorous. We laughed because we knew it to be true! We all often lack wisdom. We are all often ignorant of the knowledge we should have of “the Holy One” because we “have not learned wisdom” (v. 3)!

People say that ignorance is bliss, but how blissful could it be to be ignorant of God – to willfully ignore His Word? We are very likely acquainted that ignorance is due to the absence of learning, but I believe this passage highlights ignorance due simply to our ignoring the knowledge that is there. God knows all, and He knows us!

Psalm 49:10 describes the fate of everyone on the earth: “even the wise die; the fool and the stupid alike must perish and leave their wealth to others”! So, rather than remaining in willful ignorance, I would like to offer all of us the opportunity to cast off our ignorance and be obedient to the command of James 1:5:

“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.”

And in our seeking of wisdom, I pray that we find the answer to all the questions in that passage: His name is Jesus!

There is no greater spring of wisdom that in Jesus, who is the wisdom of God in human form! Jesus is “all the fullness of God” (Colossians 1:19) and “the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all” (1 Timothy 2:5-6) — fully God and fully man, unique and “preeminent” (Colossians 1:18)! He gave Himself – dying for the ungodly (Romans 5:6, 8) for the sins of the world (John 3:16, 1 John 2:1-2), yet He is alive today because “He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures” (1 Corintians 15:4) — “He has risen, as He said” (Matthew 28:6)!

Do you know Him?

He’s the answer to all the questions that the oracle Agur asked in our passage!

Who has ascended to heaven and come down? Our “great God and Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13, cf. John 3:13)!

Who has gathered the the wind in His fists? God Almighty (cf. Isaiah 40:12)!

Who has wrapped up the waters in a garment? The Sovereign God of the universe (cf. Job 26:8)!

Who established all the ends of the earth? THE LORD whose Name is above every name (Philippians 2:10-11, cf. Psalm 22:27)!

What is His name, and what is His son’s name? Surely you know!

His name is Jesus!

And He is who we are hoping to worship tomorrow! He is the substance of our preaching and our singing! He is the object of our worship and conversation – tomorrow especially, but – hopefully – every day. He is God, and He cares for us!

I hope you will join us tomorrow!

Here are our Scriptures & songs:

Romans 8:31-39 —

³¹What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³²He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? ³³Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. ³⁴Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. ³⁵Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? ³⁶As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
³⁷No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

God So Loved —
Scripture References / Inspiration for the Song: Matthew 11:28-30, John 7:37-38, John 4:7-15, Matthew 9:10-13, Psalm 28:6, Luke 13:29, John 6:35-40, Isaiah 58:11, Psalm 34:8-9, Proverbs 8:17, Jeremiah 29:13, John 3:16, 1 Corinthians 10:11-14, 1 Peter 2:24, 1 John 1:9, Psalm 55:22, Colossians 1:19-20, Colossians 2:13-14, Isaiah 40:11, Luke 15:20, John 14:3, Matthew 25:23, Revelation 20:14, 1 Corinthians 15:54-57, 3 John 2, Galatians 5:13-16, 1 John 4:9-10, Luke 2:14, Psalm 150, Psalm 17:7

There Was Jesus —
Scripture References/Inspiration for the Song: Colossians 1:15-21, Philippians 2:5-11, Matthew 7:24-27, Matthew 11:28-30, Psalm 51:7-8, Hebrews 13:8, John 14:6, 2 Corinthians 4:4, Ephesians 2:1-5, Hebrews 11:9-14, Colossians 3:16, Psalm 23, Isaiah 43:2, Revelation 1:8

Isaiah 53:3-6 —

³He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.
Like one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
⁴Surely he took up our infirmities
and carried our sorrows,
yet we considered him stricken by God,
smitten by him, and afflicted.
⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
⁶ We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Man of Sorrows —
Scripture References / Inspiration for the Song: Isaiah 53:1-12; John 1:29, 1:11; Galatians 3:13, 21; 1 Peter 2:24; Mark 14:16-62; Matthew 26:39-44, 26:67-68, 27:26-30; John 3:16; Romans 5:6-10; Psalm 145:3; Revelation 4:11; Philippians 2:5-8; Matthew 20:28; Titus 2:13-14; Colossians 2:13-15; Romans 6:23; John 8:36; John 20:1-7; Matthew 28:1-20; 1 Corinthians 15:3-8

Resurrecting —
Scripture References/Inspiration for the Song: John 19:2-5, Hebrews 2:9, John 13:1-17, Philippians 2:10, 1 Peter 2:24, Psalm 93:1, Matthew 4:16, John 1:4-5, 1 John 4:18, John 8:12, Acts 4:8-12, Isaiah 25:8, Hebrews 2:14, 1 Corinthians 15:55-57, Psalm 145:1, Romans 6:23, John 14:27, Romans 8:9-11, Galatians 4:6, 1 Corinthians 15:3-8, Galatians 2:19-20, Matthew 27:65-28:4, Acts 4:33

(invitation) Come As You Are —
Scripture References / Inspiration for the Song: Matthew 11:28-30, Psalm 147:3, Luke 18:13, Isaiah 55:1-3, Job 11:15-16, Luke 9:23-25, Romans 5:3-5, Psalm 34:8, Luke 13:29, Luke 15:11-32

(offertory) If We are the Body —
Scripture References / Inspiration for the Song: 1 Corinthians 12:12-27, Ephesians 4:1-16, Matthew 28:18-20, James 2:1-7, John 14:6

We invite you to join us this Sunday at Christ Community Church in Grenada, MS!

We have Sunday School classes for all ages at 9:30a and worship – everyone is welcome – at 11:00a!

We also continue to live stream from Pastor John Goldwater’s facebook page and have current and past services on the CCC YouTube page.

Christ Community Church

Refresh & Restore — October 21, 2021

¹⁴Remind them of these things, and charge them before God not to quarrel about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers. ¹⁵Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. ¹⁶But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness, ¹⁷and their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, ¹⁸who have swerved from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already happened. They are upsetting the faith of some. ¹⁹But God’s firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity.”
²⁰Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable. ²¹Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.
²²So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. ²³Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. ²⁴And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, ²⁵correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, ²⁶and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.^[1]
2 Timothy 2:14-26

"Kept Through the Trial: Jesus's Letter to the Church at Philadelphia" (The KING is Coming) – Refresh & Restore | A JustKeithHarris.com Podcast

Greetings, Sojourner!

I have thoroughly enjoyed looking at these But GOD moments in this series. We have seen them be as simple as trusting Christ in salvation and as beautifully complex as Him bringing those who are dead in their sins to life in Christ. We have seen God change the trajectory of men – change their entire lives by saving them and working through their lives. We have seen those men share Him with others and God give life to the seeds of their work by changing the trajectory of future generations, even unto our own.

I do not know whether or not I realized it when I set out to write this series, but I think – deep down – it has always been my goal to emphasize that there must be a change in the lives of those who profess that they were once lost but GOD saved them. If one’s testimony is that they are in Christ, it is that they were once dead but God made them alive. Remember that the conjunction “but” means that all before it is cancelled out by what comes after. So, if all of our past life is cancelled out by God, what comes after should be characterized by Him – we should be different. Our trajectory should be heavenward, even while still on the earth.

A Worker for Christ: Unashamedly Handling the Word

Paul’s second letter to Timothy is markedly different than his first. This is largely because both Timothy and Paul were different. They were both older. Timothy was no longer the young pastor who needed a guidebook for starting out. He had blossomed beyond needing to be reminded to not let his flock “despise [him] for [his] youth” to one whose “example” needed a bit of correcting (1 Timothy 4:12). Paul was at the end of his life and ministry in Rome, having “fought the good fight”, “finished the race”, “kept the faith”, and ready to accept that which was “laid up for [him by] the righteous judge [with] all who loved His appearing” (1 Timothy 6:7-8). He loved Timothy like a father loves a son and wanted to remind him to continue in what he had “learned and…firmly believed, knowing from whom [he] learned” it (2 Timothy 3:10, 14).

We need to be reminded that – despite the trials, tribulations, and trip-ups – God brings us from death to life to live for Him (Ephesians 2:10)! So, let us look at the reminders that Paul gave to Timothy and see how the Holy Spirit wants to remind us. Just as Paul wanted to remind his spiritual son of who he was in Christ, let us be reminded that we are sons and daughters of the King and we are who He says we are!

How we talk matters!

He mentions this several ways in this passage: “not to quarrel about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers” (v. 14), “avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness, and their talk will spread like gangrene” (vv. 16-17), “have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies [which] breed quarrels” (v. 23), “the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach” (v. 24), and “correcting his opponents with gentleness” (v. 25). All of these point to how difficult it is to control our speech; so much so that James says that if “anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body” (James 3:2) and that “the tongue is a fire” that sets the whole life afire via hellfire and “staining the whole body” (James 3:6)! It is no accident that Paul emphasizes it so much here.

If we are going to profess that God has changed our lives, our speech will be the first to betray the depravity of our hearts. We can see how Jesus condemned the Pharisees with the same evidence in Matthew 12:34 and 37:

“You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks…. …[F]or by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”

I realize that this concept seems harsh, but the fact remains that if one’s life has been changed by Jesus there should be evidence in that life of it.

In the earlier years of my marriage, my wife would be quick to tell me that “I’m sorry” loses its meaning if there is no change to follow it. How can repentance mean anything if our speech is still as quarrelsome as those who do not profess Christ? How can we “speak…all the words of life” (Acts 5:20) if our irreverent talk spreads like an infection through the body of Christ?

How we handle the Word matters!

Just as how we talk illustrates the reality of our heart, the place we give to the Word of God shows our hearts, too. I know that I have been guilty of proclaiming that I believe the Bible to be inerrant, infallible, and inspired, yet only following it on a level that was visible to church-folks around me. There was a certain amount of acting that was not being a doer of the word and deceiving myself and others (James 1:22).

Our lives will indeed reflect what we believe about the Bible. Several things that Paul reminds Timothy of in this passage reflect this: “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth” (v. 15), “let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity” (v. 19; cf. Isaiah 26:13), and to be “able to teach” so that “God may perhaps grant…repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth” (vv. 24-25). I can already hear the counterarguments of how no one will be able to be perfect and that all of us sin. Yes, and yes. I agree with you wholeheartedly and see the same difficulties in my own life. But I will respond with the same question I have to ask myself: what is God doing in your life, and what evidence is there that He has worked in it and is working in it now?

When Paul tells Timothy that he should do his best to be an unashamed worker, it is not a command to act a certain way or simply not to fail. No! It is a testament to following Christ. It is a testimony to the fact that repentance is necessary to continue following Christ despite our hang-ups and mis-steps. He is not telling Timothy to seek to earn his salvation but reminding him that the esteem given to the Word – the respect, focus, and usage (mileage, even) that it holds – will impact his following. Just as David wrote in Psalm 119:9 – “How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to Your Word.” – if we, like Timothy, will be willing to rightly handle the Word of truth, we will have no need to be ashamed because we will end up face-to-face with our Savior before His throne.

Usable Vessels and Willing Doulos-es

If God has changed our lives, we will actively follow Him. I do not believe that the Bible leaves room for a fruitless, evidence-less Christianity. Now, you could argue faith versus works and pull you a few proof texts (Ephesians 2:8-9 v. James 2:14-17), but, if we are rightly handling the Word and believe that all of it is “breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16), we need to recognize that all of its teachings are true and let its reproof and correction bring us to repentance. So, if you claim to belong to Christ, you must be willing to be His vessel.

Paul uses the illustration here of a house and the different kinds of vessels that can be found in it: gold and silver for honorable use, wood and clay for dishonorable. Much of Churchianity (a made-up word for churchy-religion in the place of biblical Christianity), gets caught up in who gets to be an honorable vessel and who gets to be dishonorable. In fact, too much focus is given to whether we are being honored at all. I want to help us all with a bit of perspective: 1) none of us are honorable until Jesus saves and redeems us, 2) this means that we are all wood/clay until Jesus gives us the value (His value) of gold/silver, and 3) it is much better to be a terracotta chamber pot in the household of King Jesus than a golden toilet in any kingdom of this world (yes, I went there).

If you are in Christ, be thankful for His cleansing (1 John 1:9)! Be thankful that He takes the dishonorable and gives it honorable usage (1 Corinthians 1:26-31)! Be thankful to be set apart, useful to Him, and excited for the “good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10)! But there is more to Paul’s reminder than we are comfortable with. Not only do we need to be willing to be His vessel; we also must be willing to be His doulos.

In verse 24, we see the phrase “the Lord’s servant”. Before I dive into the original Greek word translated “servant” in the ESV, I believe that the best place to begin is with the meaning of the Greek word for “Lord” in that same phrase. The word “Lord” is kurios, and it means Lord, master, or owner. It speaks of one who has authority over the entire life of another and goes beyond the realm of employer. In the context, doulos would refer to one who is in bondage to serve the kurios. This goes beyond being willing to be used – it recognizes that if we are in Christ that we “are not [our] own, for [we] were bought with a price” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). This is uncomfortable because of all the – rightful – negative connotations that go with slavery (both in the historical sense with early America and Britain and in the modern sense with human trafficking). But this ain’t that.

This concept goes back to the beginnings of salvation. In these devotions, we often quote Romans 10:9 as a guide to help us see what needs to happen to come to faith in Christ: “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved”. This is the submission that takes place. He is Lord/kurios, and we submit and lay down our lives to become His/His doulos. This is a willing submission that sees us go from death to life, from lost to saved, from bound to hell to bound up in His love, grace, and mercy. This sort of submission means that we entrust our past, present, and future to Him. It means that we step out of the driver’s seat and trust Him to lead, and, in that trusting, submitting to live like He has called us to live.

For many, this is a deal-breaker. This is why many people reject Christ and do not follow Him. They do not want to submit to His will. This is also why many who follow cultural Christianity eventually fall away; they simply cannot abide with Christ being Lord and walk away when their will conflicts with His. This is also why I am bringing this up to you today, dear Sojourner. It is not a minor detail that can be dealt with later. It is foundational to who we are in Him – or not.

Look at how Paul shows how much this submission is going to cost Timothy. It is going to cost him some earthly comfort, respect, and put him in a position to receive some dishonor as he serves out his honorable purpose in Christ. To illustrate, let us walk through verses 24-26 to see why. There will be times where a quarrel will seem logical (or even right) and potentially personally-satisfying, but Timothy will have to choose to be kind and endure the evil. There will be times where his opponents will need clear correction, but Timothy will need to remember that kindness is commanded rather than seeking retribution as he corrects. There will be times that call for harshness, but Timothy will have to respond in gentleness. Why? First, because that is exactly what Jesus would have done (and does for us). Second, there is more at stake than Timothy’s (or our) honor – those who oppose him and are currently enemies of his and God’s are people who need Christ. And they are people that God allowed Timothy to be the honorable vessel to preach Christ to them.

Where do we go from here?

There was a time in my life where, if you had asked me what my life verses were, I would have given you 2 Timothy 2:24-26. They were my way of showing how humble I believed I was at the time. I first encountered them in a seminary class, and I felt that I was receiving more dishonor than I thought I could bear. I was encountering more opponents than I could count and used this as my mantra to show how much better I was than them. But, rather than seeking for God to grant them repentance, I became more and more self-righteous and highlighted and bemoaned my trials rather than preaching Christ to them.

I eventually dropped out of seminary and quit on those life verses. I even quit preaching Christ entirely for a time. During that time, I found myself clinging to that self-righteousness. I wore what I perceived to be mistreatment by “church-folks” and the dishonor that I felt I had suffered to be my reason for burning out and walking away. But GOD was not done with me!

God allowed my dishonorable vessel to be cleansed and filled once more. He reminded me of these things not through quarreling but His kindness. He gently corrected me, loved me because I am His, and granted me repentance that lead “to a knowledge of the truth” and allowed me to come to my senses and “escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will” (vv. 25-26).

He can do the same for you, and that’s good news! I do not know where you are in your walk with Him, but I would be willing to wager that you could desperately use a but GOD moment in your life.

Maybe you realize that you do not know Him and want to come to faith in Him. I would love to talk with you or help point you to a Bible-preaching/believing church where you live!

Maybe your vessel has gotten dirty and been used for the wrong tasks. I would love to pray with you and help you seek God in His Word and find cleansing in Him.

No matter your situation, know that you are loved, prayed for, and not alone! No matter what is going on in your life, if you are in Christ, Paul’s reminder to Timothy is both an encouragement and a challenge to us today:

“But GOD’s firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: ‘The Lord knows those who are His,’ and, ‘Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity.’” (v. 19)

Hallelujah, and amen!

^[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), 2 Ti 2:14–26.

Refresh & Restore — October 14, 2021

"Kept Through the Trial: Jesus's Letter to the Church at Philadelphia" (The KING is Coming) – Refresh & Restore | A JustKeithHarris.com Podcast

¹But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. ²I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, ³for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? ⁴For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human?
⁵What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. ⁶I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. ⁷So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. ⁸He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. ⁹For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.
¹⁰According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. ¹¹For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. ¹²Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— ¹³each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. ¹⁴If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. ¹⁵If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.
¹⁶Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? ¹⁷If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.
¹⁸Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. ¹⁹For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their craftiness,” ²⁰and again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.” ²¹So let no one boast in men. For all things are yours, ²²whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, ²³and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.^[1]
1 Corinthians 3:1-23

Greetings, Sojourner!

Our But GOD series is about to come to a close next week. It has been good for us to look at how God interjects Himself into our lives, our timelines, to change our futures as only He can.

If we are saved, it is only because He brought us from death to life. We can look back on our lives and see how we were once following after the course of this world and spiritually dead but God made us alive and gave us eternal life (Ephesians 2:4, Romans 6:23). Had God not interrupted our life with His grace, mercy, and love, we would still be dead and without hope.

If we are followers of God, there have been (and will be more and more in the future) situations that are difficult. There have been and will be battles, sorrows, tribulations, trials, and even suffering. But God stays true to Himself and His promises to care for those who are His (Nahum 1:7).

Yet with all the but God moments in our lives, we seem to suffer from spiritual amnesia. We allow good times and seeming successes to fool ourselves into thinking that we got here because of our own efforts – our own steam. In our amnesia, we re-write our history to make ourselves the hero. Sometimes, our re-writing the narrative makes others the heroes of our spiritual journey, but, while God definitely does use His people to meet the needs of others and point people to Him, there is no hope in human effort unless God interjects Himself and His power into the situation.

Paul, Apollos, or Jesus?

As I write this, it is Columbus Day – or Indigenous Peoples Day – or maybe it is the day we are supposed to remember that the Vikings landed centuries before Columbus sailed the ocean blue in fourteen-hundred-ninety-two (and that the Native Americans were, well, already native). There seems to be a discrepancy in who we attribute this holiday to or what we are supposed to be remembering. But where are those protesting the wrong attribution by going to work?!?!

Today’s passage shows that there were people whose testimonies (church word meant to describe one’s personal testimony regarding how they once were lost sinners but God saved them) had attribution problems, too. Rather than sharing what God had done in their lives, they argued over the celebrity preachers of their day – Apollos or Paul.

Thankfully, Paul sets a good precedent for us in that he seeks only to glorify Jesus and the work done by His Spirit to bring people to the Father! Paul genuinely believed what he wrote to the church at Galatia: “But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Galatians 6:14). He reminds the Corinthian church of their spiritual immaturity (vv. 1-2) and highlights that their problems are not spiritual but merely human (vv. 3-4).

I love the way that Paul explains it and the way his questions show how ridiculous it is to even consider himself or Apollos in regard to salvation (v. 5): “What then is Apollos? What is Paul?” He then answers his rhetorical questions: they are just servants (v. 5) and nothing compared to Christ (v. 7).

When the church at Corinth had testimony issues, Paul chose to remind them more about what Jesus had done than his meager efforts in serving Christ and spreading His gospel. He does not defend his efforts. He also does not diminish Apollos’ work, either. He simply seeks to magnify Jesus. One of them planted the gospel through preaching, sure. The other watered the seed through additional preaching and discipleship, absolutely. But the only sure thing in the entire equation – the Son’s Light to the sowing and watering – is that “God gave the growth” (v. 6).

He continues on to discuss the work of Christ in making believers His temple and how that temple is built up through the effort of God’s servants, yet the attribution remains consistent – followers of Christ carry out the mission He has given (Matthew 28:19-20, Acts 1:8) but God alone saves, God alone brings people from death to life, God alone blesses the work and grows believers into the image of His Son (Romans 12:2).

What About Us?

It would be easy to turn this around and make it all about us – our problems, our difficulties, our spiritual mistakes and foolishness, but I want to zero in on what Paul shared with the Corinthians: “but God gave the growth”.

As you look at your life and think through your testimony, to whom can you attribute the spiritual growth in your life?

Maybe you look back at your life and you find a string of your own efforts and failures instead of seeing the hand of God working things out. You may even find that you do not have a testimony because you might not be saved (born again, regenerated). In that case, rejoice because the seed of the gospel has been planted. Someone preached and you heard. Hopefully, you feel God’s Spirit convicting your heart of sin and drawing you to His grace, mercy, and love through what God has done for you in Jesus. If that is the case, all you must do is “confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead” and “you will be saved” (Romans 10:9). Once a lost sinner cries out to God, praying for Him to save them, their testimony begins with that but God moment.

Maybe you are saved, but you have found yourself caught up in what you have done or what others have done. We must remember that, just as our works cannot save ourselves, our works and efforts cannot save others. We cannot follow after celebrity and find the same solace as following Christ. We cannot celebrate plans and methods over trusting in God to complete His saving work as only He can because even the best of human wisdom – as much as we might try to redeem it – is “folly with God” (v. 19). Rather than boast in men, let us boast in Christ and what He has done, and, when we see God’s people doing God’s work, let us rejoice in Him all the more that He is working through His people – that those who once were dead in their trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1) are now living and working through the new life that God gave them through Christ (Ephesians 2:8-10)!

So, this week as you go through life, be thankful for the work of the Apolloses, Pauls, and Cephases in your life. Be thankful for those who pointed you to Christ. There are more in my life than I could hope to mention. But they do not want their names listed here. Many of them have gone on from this world and are worshiping the Savior they pointed me toward in their lives.

Hopefully, you will get to plant the seed of the gospel in some lives this week or get to water some that have been planted by others. Most importantly, I hope we get the opportunity to point some people to Jesus who is so wonderful that those who find Him forget about us entirely.

As for me, I hope to be like this quote from Count Nikolaus Zinzendorf – who I know nothing of save this quote: “Preach the gospel, die, and be forgotten”. Forgotten because I pale in comparison to the One I seek to point to. Yet remembered by Him when I come into His Kingdom because He “loved me and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20)!

Hallelujah, and Amen!

^[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), 1 Co 3:1–23.

Songs for Sunday, October 10, 2021

It’s almost Sunday!

I have a passage on my mind that is going to seem odd considering how excited I am. It’s going to seem a bit sad though I am full of joy reading it. But, then again, that is what hope in Christ does – it flips the sad realities of this earth upside down through the hope of what He has done, is doing, and has promised to do in the future.

Here’s the passage:

By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion. On the willows there we hung up our lyres. For there our captors required of us songs, and our tormentors, mirth, saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!” How shall we sing the LORD’s song in a foreign land?
Psalm 137:1-4

When these words were written, nearly all of Israel was in exile. The punishment God had promised for the idolatry of their kings and the hearts of His people who were supposed to love Him above all had come into fruition. The temple lay in ruins. Jerusalem’s walls were in shambles. And God’s people were far from His promised land and seemed farther away from the covenant promises they had forsaken.

Those who led Israel in worship now found themselves in the crosshairs of mocking and shame. Where there had once been loud singing and music in their hearts, there was only shame. They hung up their lyres. They traded worship for weeping. All the while, their captors tormented them by asking them to sing some of their beloved “songs of Zion” – basically, sing some of those songs about how much you love the Lord and what all He has done for you….

They had no song or desire to sing, only tears.

Their memories of former glory and worship did nothing to satisfy their longing for rescue in their present. The rubble of the temple and reverence for past faithfulness had no effect on their current weeping.

Those feelings are not exclusive to Babylon.

There was a time in my life that I wanted nothing more than to hang up my guitar and sing no more of the Lord. In fact, I sold my guitar to pay the moving expenses to leave ministry behind to move back home ashamed of quitting and being burned out, afraid of the future.

I had barely been home twenty-four hours when a tormentor ridiculed, asking how dare I quit on the Lord and reminding, almost gleefully, of the shame I felt. And tears fell in my car the same as they had once fell by the waters of Babylon.

The joy I had once felt in leading in worship and preaching the Word were not enough to combat the present sorrow I felt during that time. In fact, all of my efforts were wrapped up in the past – past righteousness, past success, past calling, past motivation, past personal worship of Jesus. But, just as with those worship leaders in Babylon with lyres hung on trees and hopes hung up in their past, I found that the past was not enough to sustain my present, much less my future.

Thankfully, God brought repentance and, little-by-little, joy back into my life following after Him. Just as He did for Israel, He healed the pain of my exile, helped me follow Him more closely than I ever did in the past, and held out His mighty hand to me because “He cares” for me (1 Peter 5:7). I remembered that Jesus is alive and well, seated on the throne, and found myself rejoicing in the pains of my past because they highlight Him and how He was with me every step of the way.

And that’s how we will “sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land” tomorrow. That may seem odd since we will be in our homeland, so-to-speak, but this world is not our home because “our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Philippians 3:20)! We will gather together, not because of our past faithfulness but HIS! We will remember what He has done, but we will rejoice because our resurrected King is doing things – working for our good and His glory – NOW! And we will rejoice that our exile in this old world is not permanent and He has promised us future eternity with Him where the last of the tears from Babylon will be wiped away by His own hand (Revelation 21:4)!

So, I hope you will join us tomorrow as we make much of Jesus. You can’t do anything about your past, but – PRAISE GOD – He already has! And He has given hope for a better future than we could ever earn on our own.

Here are our Scriptures & songs:

Romans 6:1-5 —

¹What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? ²By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? ³Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
⁵For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

Holy Water —
Scripture References/Inspiration for the Song: Romans 10:9-10, Romans 5:12-15, John 8:34, John 3:3-21, Matthew 3:11, Romans 6:1-11, Galatians 2:19-20, Proverbs 16:24, 1 Corinthians 13:1, Numbers 19:17, Romans 6:1-7, Matthew 11:28-30, Acts 3:19-21

Mighty to Save —
Scripture References / Inspiration for the Song: Micah 7:9, Matthew 9:36, 1 Corinthians 13:8, Lamentations 3:22-24, Romans 5:5, Luke 24:47, Titus 3:4-5, Isaiah 11:10, Matthew 12:21, Titus 2:13, Job 9:4-5, Isaiah 63:1, Revelation 1:8, Hebrews 12:2, 1 Corinthians 15:3-5, 2 Timothy 1:10, Matthew 11:28-30, Ephesians 5:18, Luke 9:23-25, Romans 10:9, Matthew 5:14-16, Philippians 2:15-16

Romans 6:6-11 —

⁶We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. ⁷For one who has died has been set free from sin. ⁸Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. ⁹We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. ¹⁰For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. ¹¹So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Who You Say I Am —
Scripture References/Inspiration for the Song: Psalm 8:4, Luke 15:3-7, John 8:36, John 1:12-13, Romans 8:23, Colossians 2:14, John 8:34-35, John 14:1-3, 1 Peter 2:9, 1 Thessalonians 1:4, Hebrews 13:5, Romans 8:31-32

Way Maker —
Scripture References / Inspiration for the Song: Matthew 1:23, 2 Timothy 1:14, Philippians 1:6, Psalm 25:1, Psalm 86:4, Psalm 5:7, Psalm 63:1, Isaiah 43:15-16, Matthew 19:26, John 14:6, Job 5:8-9, Numbers 23:19, Joshua 21:45, 1 Kings 8:56, Romans 4:21, Hebrews 10:23, John 1:4-5, John 8:12, John 12:46, Colossians 1:13, 1 Peter 2:9, John 3:15-17, Ezekiel 36:26-27, Ephesians 2:4-5, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Psalm 51:10, Romans 12:2, Romans 10:9-10, Philippians 4:19, 1 Peter 1:8, Romans 8:26, Lamentations 3:22-23, Psalm 68:19, John 5:17, Zephaniah 3:5, Philippians 2:13

(invitation) The Well —
Scripture References / Inspiration for the Song: John 4, Revelation 22:17, John 8:7-11, Isaiah 55:1, Matthew 11:28-30

(offertory) Come Jesus Come —
Scripture References / Inspiration for the Song: Revelation 22:20, 1 Thessalonians 4:18, Romans 13:11-12, John 17:24, Romans 6:9, John 10:18, Colossians 2:13-15, Matthew 28:18-20, Titus 2:13, Matthew 25:31, Revelation 1:7, Hebrews 9:28

We invite you to join us this Sunday at Christ Community Church in Grenada, MS!

We have Sunday School classes for all ages at 9:30a and worship – everyone is welcome – at 11:00a!

We also continue to live stream from Pastor John Goldwater’s facebook page and have current and past services on the CCC YouTube page.

Christ Community Church