Teague Bible Church

BARE MINIMUM ?
In 1975 I worked, part-time, at Auto Convoy in Dallas. Two of us believers made it a point to not isolate ourselves from the others at lunchtime. Some of the guys, however, wanted to smoke dope at their lunch time, hidden away in their car from the rest of the crew. We were not invited, of course, and we sat in a car right beside them and had a Bible study time, and ate our lunch.
One day, when lunch was done, a man from the “smoking car” ask what we had been doing at our lunch break. My Christian brother told him. The man said he believed as we did, but did not restrain himself from any pleasure, as we did. In fact, he ask us,” What is the bare minimum to follow Jesus?”
In a speech I will never forget, my Christian friend said this to him; ” _____, Nobody who knows anything about Jesus would ask that question! He was murdered on a cross for you, and you casually ask, as you stand here stoned out of your mind, ‘what is the bare minimum?’ ”
I have never felt such love and rebuke coming from the Holy Spirit, through my friend. The closest thing I could give, in relationship to it was Jesus’ speech in Matthew 23. Please go read that!
My friend began to cry; and I began to cry. It was a powerful and overwhelming moment. The unbeliever understood a reality that day that could not be denied. I never know what happened to the man in the “smoking car” after a few years passed. I hope he turned to Christ. I know that day he was touched by the tender call of the Holy Spirit to repent and believe.
We, as Christians, have to continue to make sever breaks away from the lust of the world to be effective in our witness for Christ. Simply saying we will “try harder next time” to keep our heart clean, will not cut it! You have to surrender again to do God’s will. Romans 12:1-2 is the only solution to walking in the power of the Spirit.
At the time, my friend and I were about 20 years old, and struggling ourselves to live a holy life. Yet, there is a difference in learning to become stable in your walk as a believer and saying what this man said. There is no hypocrisy in learning to grow from one level of maturity to the next.
God’s DNA has entered into every child of God and they have a supernatural hunger to grow in God’s character and purpose. Romans 8:28-39. Christians never ask. ” Hey, what is the bare minimum on this thing called the Christian life? I will try to work that into my schedule!”
” For from days of old they have not heard or perceived by ear, nor has the eye seen a God besides You, who acts in behalf of the one who waits for Him. You meet him who rejoices in doing righteousness, who remembers You in Your ways.” Isaiah 64:4-5a. JWP 12/15/17

WHAT DO THEY SEE IN US THAT WILL “DRAW” THEM TO CHRIST?
Sunday we talked about having that supernatural peace inside us that can only be experienced by knowing Christ. John 14:27. We spoke also about the fact that a believer can be rattled by the problems of daily life, so much so that we forget how to live in that peace.
We spoke about the fact that the only thing the world may believe about our Lord is what they see in us; mainly His peace working and being revealed in us, and out through us. We spoke about the fact that the world would not want something in their life they already have; a stressful, meaningless life. What are they seeing in us? We spoke about the need for the world to be “drawn” to Christ through us.
“Now judgement is upon the world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. And I , if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself. But He was saying this to indicate the kind of death by which He was to die.” John 12:31-33.
When you weld copper water pipe together it is done in a way you would not think. For instance, if I glue something together with super glue I simply “rub on” the glue to the joint to make it stick together. In soldering copper pipe you cannot just melt the solder onto the joint and make it seal. If you do so, any water pressure applied the joint will bust open at that joint, and you have a leak. The way you do it is to put the two pipes together and put all the heat on the pipes. The main thing is; the heat on the pipes, and then, when they are glowing hot, you simply touch the solder to the joint and it is “drawn” deep into every gap of the joint; deep inside ever crevice. Amazingly, it can be “drawn” into the joint in any direction! Gravity has no effect on the “drawing in” process! Watching that solder run uphill, for instance, is spell-binding to me!
In the same way, people are drawn to your Savior by your witness, because of the daily walk you have with Him, in private. Of course the Lord will use your words, but your words can never overcome your lifestyle; what you have been doing in private. Our relationship with the Lord, in private devotions, where we are warmed up in His love, “draws” the unbeliever to decide for or against Christ. Your walk— makes the decision clear— for them.
By the death and resurrection of Christ we see the purposes of God most clearly. God has made the heart of man in such a way that man cannot deny the reality and purpose of the cross. All will be “drawn” toward the cross, yet some will stubbornly reject the clear message. Some are “drawn” to the reality of the cross and receive the free gift of eternal life. I have a friend who starts many of his public prayers with this statement, ” Lord capture our hearts more fully. Your great love draws us again to You.”
The cross and resurrection of Christ is the main turning point of all reality. That is not an overstatement! There is no meaning in lesser activities, nor in our noble- sounding causes, unless the cross and resurrection are a reality! Do you understand why this is so?
“I would catch a glimpse of the cross- and suddenly my heart would stand still. In an instinctive, intuitive way I understand that something more important, more tumultuous, more passionate, was at issue than our good causes, however noble they might be….I should have worn it….It should have been my uniform, my language, my life. I shall have no excuse; I can’t say I didn’t know. I knew from the beginning, and turned away.” Malcolm Muggeridge, ‘Jesus Rediscovered.’
So you are up to bat. Christmas with friends and relatives. Going to talk them to death, or “draw” them to Christ? You may find pleasant surprises and breakthroughs if you will carve out the time to be with Jesus in private devotions, way before you get together with them. Those family members you want to see saved will feel the warmth coming from you. May the Lord “draw” folks to Himself, through us in this special season. JWP 12/12/17

WHAT WILL I DO TO HONOR THE LORD AT CHRISTMAS?

It is a good thing to establish honorable traditions at your family gatherings. You may not be in a position to do so. Maybe your kids are grown and it is hard to get them all together. Perhaps you are single.
Perhaps either one, or both, of your parents are now gone from this life. So either personally, or as a group, these things might help.

We read the Birth narrative of Jesus in Chronological order before the presents, but after the food! Do a short version if you have little kids, or adults with short attention spans. ( You should be laughing at this spot.)

The long version in the proper order:
Luke 1: 5-80 then Matthew 1:18-25 then Luke 2: 1-39 then Matthew 2: 1-23.

To do the brief version it is:
Luke 1: 26-38 then Matthew 1: 18-25 then Luke 2: 1-20 then Matthew 2: 1-23. I have found that if you practice reading it a few times before you can keep a 4 years old interested for 9. 45 minutes, depending on how many pancakes they had. Put a little zip in the reading, please! Do not bore them with the most exciting book ever written! Lol.

We would sing a few Christmas songs. A max of two verses only.

We would start it all with pray and thanks to God, and that included a prayer done with a review of good things and bad things that happened during the past year.

( Like all great battle plans, have a backup plan if things go sideways. Just don’t make the presents the main thing.)

We also let each person say something about the past year. If that is a 6 year old, well, the reflection will be brief. Give the threatening look to the other, older kids when the youngest is saying stuff that is serious to them, but funny to the rest. You can laugh about it privately later!

We break out the old photo album and let each person in the room tell about the picture. This is always a good thing!

We make a birthday cake for Jesus, since He is the guest of honor, and it is His birthday. We always put one candle on it; but I do not know why. That would be the next year right? ( He was actually born in 4 B.C.; ask me about it; and while you are at it, ask me about my grandkids! Is that bumper sticker still available?

 We all tell something we like about one or more of the family members present. Once, when the kids were not so amiable towards one another, (because the one got up Christmas morning at 5 a.m. and woke the others up,) we were entertained by a praise of the family dog that would bring a tear to a glass eye!

A Few Facts For Fun:
Matthew 2- The wise men narrative- happened at least 3 months and up to two years later. ( 900 miles -Ezra 7:9/ 8:31) When I set the Nativity scene I put the wise men as far away from the manger scene as possible and let the kids know that the wise men visited Jesus when He was a toddler, and not at the manger when Jesus was born, but later, at a house. I still get that look that says, “Really; this is life-shaking information?” And I still get my little feeling hurt over it. Lol. Oh da’ pain!

Nowhere does it say there were 3 wise men; it could have been 50. Unlikely only three took such a dangerous trip. We assume three because there were three gifts. Are we bored yet?

Nowhere does it say they were kings. No where does it say they were from the far east (Orient.) The “East” would be Persia
( Iraq and Afghanistan.) Daniel’s prophecies, given when he lived in this area, in the 600’s B.C. would be well noted by the wise men. They were religiously trained men, not kings.

Were they named Casper, Melchior, and Balthazar? NO. Although I assume they were friendly. Was one a black man? NO. Did they follow a comet or a star to the location in Bethlehem? No. It was the supernatural light called the Shekinah Glory. No natural star could lead to such an exact, small location. Bethlehem had about 1000 people at this time.

When you share about Jesus, that name must be a daily reality to you and if so, they will “catch” the truth of the resurrected Lord as they see Him, presently, in you. Do they see Him in you and me? Do I walk in the peace the angels were talking about? Do you walk in the peace the angels were talking about? Best gift you can give your family this year is something they will “catch” from you and from me. Be contagious! Gods bless you my dead brothers and sisters in Christ. JWP

John 14: 27 ” Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives, do I give to you, let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.”

Pascal And The Peace Only Christ Gives
” Nothing is more intolerable to man than a state of complete repose, without desires, without work, without amusements, without occupation. In such a state he becomes aware of his nothingness, his abandonment, his inadequacy, his dependence, his emptiness, his futility. There at once wells up from the depths of his soul weariness, gloom, misery, exasperation, frustration, despair. Sport, pleasure, entertainment and society are so often pursued not because they bring pleasure, but because they take men’s minds off themselves.”
Those words were spoken by Blaise Pascal. They sound like the modern-day quest of lost men for sure. But these words were written about 1660. This really reflects the motives of lost people for doing what they do. This statement by Pascal is not about doing nothing with your life. This is about a real and current peace. No one can live in a continued state of mental and emotional agitation! It is ashamed that believers can sometimes fall into this state of misery Pascal describes.
” “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, good will toward men.” King James Version. It is not so much that the KJV got it wrong here as much as it misleads a bit. Literally, in Greek it reads, ” Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, among men with whom He is pleased.”
1. This peace is a “present tense” peace,not a future peace. Something you can have right now, even in this fallen world. It is your best outreach for Christ, because while they may listen to you tell them about Christ they are really thinking, “Do I want what they have in their life?” If you are hassled, stressed and hurried, just like the world, then why would they want what they already have?
2. This present reality offer of peace is only to certain people. Those who accept Christ’ offer of eternal life. There is no way God can smear over the top of unwilling people any of His peace. Only a changed heart can have peace.
The proof is in verses that say Jesus did not come to bring a peace that the world would accept. Luke 2: 25-35 and Matthew 10: 34-37 point this out. Come this Sunday and learn more about it, but mostly come and experience it after you learn. Your entire eternal destiny depends on it. You cannot manufacture your own brand of deep and abiding peace. You have been trying for years now, right? Peace is something you receive, you cannot work for it or earn it.
I would love to close with some “feel-good” generalized message of happiness to you during this holiday season. I cannot do that. If I tried you would rightly ignore it. I have something solid and significant to say Sunday. I did not manufacture it. It was given to me. It is the Word of God which makes a promise of current peace for you and for me.
” Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you: not as the world gives, do I give to you, let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful. John 14:27″ JWP

What Do You Think?
It is difficult not to be disturbed by daily news reports. Continued bad reports can make us feel that we, the individual, can make little difference in stemming the tide of the terrible direction the world seems to be going.
Constant exposure to bad news has been proven to make us less likely to be active in doing good. You have to decide to listen to God so that you can change the world around you for good.
You have a new life in Christ. You have the power to live differently than the world. You will never help change the world, through your lifestyle witness, if you don’t feed your new nature. It is really as simple as that.
” Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4: 6-7.
This above passage is a command, and yet a great joy. It is the best thing that you can do to effect the world. Too many Christians are trying to give a drink of water out of an empty bucket. You have to be full of the Lord’s presence to ever help anybody else.
I became a Christian at 19 years old. My mother was wise to keep her personal walk with the Lord strong, even in the mist of my life going way off the rails. You would think that she would be so worried about me that when we talked that there would be great anxiety in her voice and manner.
She was the opposite of that. After I was saved, we talked about what she was thinking during those days. “I knew that you needed to see the kind of life you could have in Christ. I kept asking myself, ‘Does he want the life that I have?’ I gave my worries about you to the Lord and lived in the joy of the Lord. That is where the real power is. Not in me acting like Jesus could not change you, and trying to control you, or change you myself.”
Way to go mom! I worked myself silly trying to impress my friends as the party guy, but was empty inside. My mom never let the current condition of the world keep her from her commission to represent Christ to me. She did not take her clues on what to do, based on the news.
” Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. The things you have learned and received and heard in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.”
So, verses 6-7 is what you pray.
Verses 8-9 is what you do.
It really is as simple as that. JWP 11/27/17

Please join us in today’s word. And let us know what you think….either in our comment section or in person at our next service. Join us every Sunday at our new worship times–9:30am for Sunday School and at 10:45am for Worship Service. We’d love to see you here!

Please join us in today’s word. And let us know what you think….either in our comment section or in person at our next service. Join us every Sunday at our new worship times–9:30am for Sunday School and at 10:45am for Worship Service. We’d love to see you here!

SHORT-TERM THANKFULNESS
“Eat all your food! You should be thankful you have so much! There are kids starving around the world tonight and you are being picky about what I put on your plate!”
The above represents a good attempt by parents to get their kids to appreciate things. Nothing is worse than a thankless child! It is such an irritating thing to endure. Yet, even if the kid, “Gets it,” it seems they, and we, only stay thankful for just a little while before they, or we, are back into the negative territory of complaining about something that is not right around us.
When someone has gone out of their way to do something nice for us we usual express thankfulness to that person. I wonder why thankfulness does not last in us; to become a settled condition in us?
The Scripture calls thankfulness a “sacrifice” in several texts. Talk about an understatement! It hurts, at first, to be thankful. But it is exercising true faith, because you are called to be thankful, before you feel it. Then after a while you “feel” the blessing of a continued thankful life.
We had a kid in the youth group who got the idea of wanting to be thankful at all times. She realizing this was 100% the will of God for all of us. ( I Thessalonians 5:18- “in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”)
Her mom was so negative that the daughter would say to her, on occasion,
” Mom now that you stated a problem, tell me three things you are thankful for.” Mom simply blew that off as trivial. Good kid; poor mom.
So thankfulness by default, which means being thankful only because somebody else has it worst, is not the heart of thankfulness. The person who is only thankful in that setting, is also the person who can be really negative a moment later as they also compare themselves continually to the person who has it better than them. Even when there are thankful by default, they have a condescending attitude toward those less fortunate. What a mess; what a short-term view of thankfulness.
Thankfulness is like the heat given off by the light of the sun. If you stand in the sun (Son), you will warm up. It is the idea of knowing God’s heart and sharing His life which is in you by being a believer. Not so much trying to be thankful, by gritting your teeth to get it done, but rather being in the presence of God. Go where His heart stays.
I was in Colorado once and was engaged in a conversation about thankfulness with a friend. As we looked across the Continental Divide at Wolf Creek Pass, I ask why we seem to be so pathetic at giving thanks, at all times. He had two responses.
First, we are always looking for an excuse for our failures. If you have a lot to be thankful for, then someone outside of you might wonder why you are not happier. So being hypercritical makes you look smart, and covers up your self-absorbed life. Ouch!
Secondly, he told me to look around and breath in this mountain air. I did. Then he said, “You just have to live here to have this. Where do you live again?” I told him, but he really wanted to know where my heart lived. A few visits to the mountains is nice, but not a big help, long-term.
There is a real Godly thankfulness that transforms our lives, but we have to live there; short visits rarely help. Even unbelievers are good at being thankful by default. Believers must exhibit the real thankfulness. It starts as a sacrifice, it moves to joy, and is noticed by all who should say of us, “He must live in a wonderful place! I want to be like that!” JWP

“If You Had Only Been Here”
We all get it set in our heads how this life is supposed to be. We assume a lot of things about life, but rarely ask these important questions, ” Where did that idea come from, and why did I latch onto it? Will this plan I have hold up under the rigors of this life?”
Even after we discover some ideas we have are false, we may cling to them anyway just to get along with others who expect us to acknowledge the ideas worth. We may not really believe it any longer.
One of my friends always answers the greeting, “How are you doing today?,” with the words, “Oh, just living the dream!” He does not mean it when he says it. It is meant to be a joke, but many do not see the joke. They are still in the illusion that they can carve out their own happiness in this life without coming to God.
Even some of the most dedicated followers of Christ do not fully understand that eternal life in Christ engulfs this temporary life and thereby transforms it and makes sense of it. This natural life can fly along pretty good for a while but something always comes along to foul things up. Reminds me of trying to protect a house of cards from the wind. The wind surely comes. At that point we have to decide what last and brings meaning to this temporary life.
In John 11:21-45 we have the story of the raising of Lazarus from the dead. You probably know the story. In His planned delay to the scene, Jesus gets a reaction. “Martha then said to Jesus, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.’ ” You know the rest of it.
” ,,,Could not this man, who opened the eyes of the blind man, have kept this man also from dying?” John 11: 37. These were the ones on the scene who felt the best thing for everybody to be happy was to never have had the bad event take place. God had other plans; God had deeper plans; God always has a far-reaching plan; God has the best plan. Those plans may come at the expense of our best, self-made plans.
“I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live (spiritually and eternally in heaven) even if he dies (physically,) and everyone who lives (physically) and believes in Me will never die (spiritually.) Do you believe this? John 11: 25-26.
So eternal life engulfs this temporal life and makes sense of it. All of our earthly dreams have to be transformed to something richer, and something not fully seen now. I get that, but I also get that Jesus is fully engaged in our present sorrows; our veil of tears we must experience while here.
” When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also who came with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled, and said, ‘Where have you laid him?’ They said to Him, ‘Lord, come and see.’ Jesus wept. So the Jews were saying, ‘See how he loved him!’ ”
We do not have to ask God to come near in sorrow. He is so near in such times we need to simply act upon the fact that He is moved deeply when we are hurting. We need not say, “If you have only been here.”
We may want to say, “Lord nothing is out of your control. You can do amazing things, even now, in this situation for temporal and eternal good. I trust you to work the good and bring people into Your kingdom, using me as part of that plan. Allow me to be close to you and feel the power and comfort of that future kingdom in present time. Transform my sorrows for good. My good plans for my life are well-meaning but short-sighted. Help my unbelief. Thank you for Your incredible peace in my heart, even now.” JWP 11/8/17

TIME DELAY
I had this great adventure presented to me in 1985. A man in our church told me he would teach me to fly his airplane for free. The plane was a normal gas engine plane. That means when you pulled the throttle you got an instance response.
Later He let me fly a turboprop plane which has a jet engine but normal propellers on the front. The difference? When you pull the throttle you get a delay before you “feel” the power. It is that delay I want to talk about.
On the positive side we see this delay when we pray. Several verses encourage us not to give up in prayer. Many times there is a delay, but sometimes you get an instant response. Luke 18:1,” Now He was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not lose heart.”
With the recent events in Texas I wonder why anybody would be puzzled when the demonic clearly shows itself. Someone on the news will take the side of this mass murderer and blame “society.” Really what you are seeing is a time delay. A world view fleshed out for all to see. Deep inside this 26 -year- old, all along his life, he made decisions. His world view was being established. There was a delay between his beliefs and his final actions.
He chose who he would hang around and what he read and what he looked at on the internet. He was free to choose differently but he did not. There are not enough safety nets in the world to forever keep someone from doing such a thing.
Each person is responsible for their actions. ” Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed quickly, therefore the hearts of the sons of men among them are given fully to do evil.” Ecclesiastes 8:11. The mercy of God gives all people a time delay to change their minds before it is too late.
This young man followed out what he really believed in the secret depths of his heart. The folks around saw many things in him that looked normal. That was only from an outside look, which is meaningless. He had set the throttle, and was probably shocked himself to see what came after the time delay expired; the final fruit of a tree planted long ago.
Flying a turboprop takes some getting used to. But once you set the throttle, and the power band rises up, you have another problem, a new problem. The power does not stop as soon as you pull back on the throttle! The point it that once you set your world view in motion you may get unintended consequences. You lose control, and forces take over which you cannot now stop.
Be very careful of what you put into your life. You may think it is ok to dabble in worldly things, or to run away from your problems, or blaming everybody else for your situation. You may think you can “fix’ it if the habits gets out of control. You would be wrong about that. Life is not a game. But this life can bring great purpose and joy if we abide in Christ daily.
And in those little daily inputs of “throttle” we will have a delay in results, but we will also have great reward and depth of heart that is more than a match for these evil days after the delay.
” For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome. For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world- our faith. Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.” I John 5:3-5

“Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.” Galatians 6:9

“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.” I Corinthians 15: 58

” For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” Hebrews 12: 3

11/6/17 JWP