Thursday, February 18, 2010

Giving Glory to God...

One of my favorite hymns is “To God be the Glory” because it’s a reminder to celebrate the work of God in bringing us to redemption. It challenges us to praise the Lord, to let the earth hear His voice and let the people rejoice. The final phrase of the chorus is “Oh come to the Father, thro’ Jesus the Son, and give Him the glory, great things He has done.” Well this past Sunday, we saw the Lord move in tremendous ways in both services. First of all, I challenged us to be faithful to catch up on our tithes and offerings because we had to cancel the previous week  and only had one service the week before. God’s people responded and our offering was $36,596.53 which is huge considering we still had a number of people who could not attend because of the conditions. Our weekly budget need is $18,002.00 so we exceeded our budget need for the last two Sundays by a little over $296.00. In a tough economy, with lots of added expenses for groceries, snow removal and all the expenses that goes into dealing with a blizzard of the magnitude we’ve experienced in the last two weeks, I believe a holy hallelujah is in order to praise God for providing for His Bride this way. Many churches are struggling financially at this time and cancelling a service nearly means disaster for them because typically people don’t catch up on their tithes and offerings. I’m so proud of our church family for being obedient to bring the Lord’s tithe and an offering to Him on the Lord’s Day but this is not our doing, it is the Lord working in our lives and for that we must give Him praise!

Secondly, we must praise and give God the glory for the movement of the Holy Spirit in our services. Because it was Valentine’s Day, I preached on God’s Amazing Love from John 3:16 and at the end, I challenged the church to take two sets of two cards we had made, one a “My Influence Card” and the other was a simple “Invite Card.” With the influence card, we were to list the names of 3 people we believe to be lost without Christ. When we finished that card, we were to keep one as a reminder for us, and come forward and place the other card in a basket as an offering to God that we were making a commitment to pray for an opportunity to invite those lost people to come to Calvary and that they would come to know the Lord this year. The “Invite Cards” are simple business cards that we will use to invite people to be our guest at Calvary. It has our worship times, church info and a map of how to get here.  I had no idea what to expect but shortly, one by one, people began to leave their seats and walk forward with cards in hand, then groups of people began to come forward, whole families, young people, older people, children. In both services, I saw people with tears in their eyes as they were burdened for lost friends, family, co-workers, or even mere acquaintances, they were going to pray for to come to know Jesus.  At the end of the services, I held up that basket of names and we prayed right then for these people to come to know Jesus. This is the very heartbeat of God but sadly it is not the heartbeat of many Christians. Winning people to Christ is not a natural thing for us to do. I asked people to pray that God would help us see people the way He does, they are either saved or lost and all of the ways we segregate people do not matter. I was so amazed to see the way the Holy Spirit moved in people’s hearts.  We had 223 cards turned in with at least one name on the card and 210 cards with  3 or more names printed on the card.

Most of our invite cards were taken but we’ll have more for you to pick up here at church each week. This means we’ll continue to see guests come through the doors at Calvary. Remember church family, each one of these people is someone Jesus died to save. We only get one chance to make a first impression so be sensitive to guests, people you don’t know and don’t recognize. It matters not how they’re dressed, what they have tattooed or pierced, whether they are wearing a suit or their Sunday best and look like they stepped out of a magazine, if you don’t know them, please greet them warmly and welcome them to Calvary. Then pray that they’ll respond to the Gospel message I’ll be bringing that day.

I want to praise God for working in our hearts and lives, for challenging us and stretching us and I’m so thrilled to see the Holy Spirit’s movement here. Glory to God, from my little corner of the world to yours…

Ralph Green

Senior Pastor, Calvary Baptist Church

www.calvarybelair.com

Subscribe to Pastor Ralph's Blog: http://pastorralphgreen.blogspot.com/  

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Posted via email from Pastor Ralph

Sunday, February 7, 2010

The Theology of Snow...

Working the dumb end of a snow shovel gives you time to think, and think and think some more because of the amazing and record amount of snow we got here in Maryland. It snowed for roughly 29 hours straight and the results are incredible. The news people were urging people to be careful saying this is a heartattack making snow storm - meaning the weight of it and the exertion of shoveling it could send you into cardiac arrest. I have to admit, I was extremely frustrated because I used to have the equipment to deal with such a storm when I was a pastor in New England - a ginormous snowblower that would cut through the worst New England blizzards had to offer like a hot knife through butter. I gave it to my lost neighbor and witnessed to him once again when we were moving to Houston. The more I shoveled by hand, the more frustrated I became because I felt like I was using a soup spoon to empty the ocean of snow blanketing my driveway.

  I was also frustrated in that this is the second weekend in a row our weekend church activities had to be postponed, rescheduled or cancelled completely because of the snow. I talked to the Lord alot about it wondering why the business world doesn't get interrupted during the week day but church does with snow on the weekend. After all, the Lord can control when this happens and I know He's not oblivous to the fact His people assemble on Sunday. Well a couple of thoughts came to mind that I thought I'd share today since we're not going anywhere soon and we aren't in church.

  First, I thought the Lord is serious about the 10 commandments, even in the 21st century. The 4th commandment is "Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it Holy" (Ex.20:8). The thought occured to me that the vast majority of people in our community and nation for that matter have no regard for the Lord's Day whatsoever. The Lord helped me see how He could orchestrate it to where people had no choice but to stay home on the Lord's Day by sending enough snow to where they couldn't go anywhere - no mall, no shopping, nothing. Stay home and watch my power. Whether humans remember the Sabbath Day and keep it holy or not, God still does.

  Secondly, I researched what the Bible has to say about snow and found some interesting things. Only twice in Scripture is actual snowfall recorded and these both refer to the same incident. 2nd Samuel 23:20 says "Benaiah was the son of Jehoiada, the son of a valiant man from Kabzeel, who had done many deeds. He had killed two lion-like heroes of Moab. He also had gone down and killed a lion in the midst of a pit on a snowy day." (See also 1st Chron. 11:22). This warrior was one of David's mighty men of valor. This made me thankful for our men and women of valor who work in emergency services and serve the public even in the middle of a storm. I saw police officers on patrol in my neighborhood, a fire truck drove in on a call also, not to mention the city workers plowing, and nurses & doctors caring for people at the hospital. I heard a news account of a national guard soldier who had to rescue a stranded motorist in a humvee and said it was scary driving even in a humvee. I'm sure David was thankful for Benaiah and I hope you're thankful for these modern "Benaiah's". I prayed for those firemen and policemen I saw while I was holding the dumb end of my shovel.
 
When the Lord was helping old Job see the reality of His might and power by asking Job if he knew of the inner workings of the universe, He said in Job 38:22-23 "Have you entered the storehouses of the snow or have you seen the storehouses of hail, which I have reserved for the time of trouble, for the day of battle and war?" In other words, the Lord is reminding me "there's more where this came from and I have my purposes in it." As I was shoveling with my little shovel, working for hours and barely making a dent, I bowed in my heart and mind and told the Lord I was in awe of His might, His power and His majesty. I told Him I fear Him and acknowledged how small I am and how great He is and continues to be. I thanked him for His grace and mercy in the middle of the storm and His provision for us. I guess you could say I was worshipping the Lord on the end of that shovel.
 
Thirdly, as I write this, the brightness of the sun and snow is overwhelming to my already squinty eyes. It's hard for me to gaze very long at it as my eyes cannot handle the brightness. It simply a reminder that our God is pure and Holy, the Scriptures describe Him this way:
Daniel 7:9 "I watched till thrones were put in place, And the Ancient of Days was seated; His garment was white as snow, And the hair of His head was like pure wool. His throne was a fiery flame, Its wheels a burning fire;"
Mark 9:3 "His clothes became shining, exceedingly white, like snow, such as no launderer on earth can whiten them." This is referring to when Jesus was transfigured in the presence of His disciples to show them a glimpes of His glory.
Revelation 1:14 "His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire;" This is how Jesus appeared to John the Revelator who saw Jesus in all His glory in eternity future. All of these demonstrate the purity and holiness of God.
 
Finally, the Scriptures share with us God's desire that we too be holy, clean and pure, like God Himself. In Psalm 51:7, after David's great sin with Bathsheeba and his murder of Uriah, He said "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." Isn't that an awesome description of the cleansing power of God and the forgiveness He offers? In Isaiah 1:18 the Prophet said "Come now, and let us reason together," Says the LORD, "Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool." There is no sin you've ever committed or will commit that God cannot forgive and cleanse. (Yes - I know of the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit - that's a different discussion for a different day.) 
 
The story is told years ago of a woman in Wales who was walking with her infant baby she had wrapped in a blanket. Sadly, an awful blizzard swept in before she could get home safely. The next day, searchers found her frozen body partially buried in the snow. They did not understand why she had no clothes on when they found her but as they lifted her frozen body, they found a blanket and to their shock, they found that infant child, wrapped snuggly in his mother's clothes and blanket alive and well. She used her own clothing and body warmth to shield and protect that child so that he might live. In the midst of the tragedy of a white out blizzard, life was found because of the sacrifice and amazing love of a dedicated mother. That's how our sins can be made white as snow, because Jesus laid down His life, shed His blood and covered us so that we might be saved. There's great theology to be found in snow. Theology is simply the study of God, so while we're snowed think about the lessons you can learn in studying God via the teaching tool of snow. Something to think about, from my snowed in corner of the world to yours....

  Pastor Ralph Green
Senior Pastor, Calvary Baptist Church

 www.calvarybelair.com

Posted via email from Pastor Ralph

Thursday, February 4, 2010

The Manifest Presence & Power of God...

Recently, I had the opportunity to attend the Pastor’s Conference hosted by the First Baptist Church of Jacksonville Florida. It was wonderful time of refreshing for me spiritually to hear some of the greatest preachers of our day and a time of intense learning and understanding of the current trends and issues in the world today. It was encouraging also to dialogue with other pastors and ministries about what the Lord is doing in and through these churches and pastors. At one of the sessions I attended, Henry Blackaby, the author of “Experiencing God” spoke to us about “God’s Conditions for Revival.” Many of you would be familiar with this study but many of you may not know that the Lord has profoundly used this “Experiencing God” study in so many incredible ways literally around the world. Dr. Blackaby shared how the prison warden at the Angola State Penitentiary in Louisiana went through the study and in turn made the workbook available to all the inmates at his prison who wanted one, particularly focused on those inmates awaiting execution on death row. What has been happening in that prison is an absolute miracle as many of these inmates have come to know the Lord Jesus as Savior and revival is happening there. Dr. Blackaby shared from Matt.16:18-19 of Jesus’ promise to build His Church in such a way that the gates of Hell will not be victorious against the church. He made the point that the manifest presence and power of God will cause the doorposts of Hell to fall down around where His church is engaged in Kingdom business. However, he warned that revival does not happen unless the church repents first and becomes engaged in significant prayer efforts to learn of God’s will and work in their community.

Later in the conference we heard from Jim Cymbala, Pastor of the famous Brooklyn Tabernacle in New York. Pastor Cymbala’s church regularly has about 2000 people who come to their Tuesday night prayer meeting where the people gather to pray for God’s manifest presence and power to be made known there. Pastor Cymbala preached from Acts 12 regarding Peter’s imprisonment while “constant prayer was being offered to God for him by the church” (Acts 12:5). As I listened to these men speak about the need for prayer in the life of God’s people, I was reminded of a paper I wrote in seminary tracing the influence of the Holy Spirit in the ministry of Charles Haddon Spurgeon in London.  It is well documented that Spurgeon had hundreds of people praying for him in the basement of the Metropolitan Tabernacle nearly constantly. Spurgeon called it the “boiler room” and affirmed that the ministry of those prayer warriors pleading with God to work in mighty ways to bring people to faith in Christ in London and literally around the world the key to what God was doing there at that time.

As I meditated and thought about prayer in the life of our church and the desire to see the manifest presence and power of God taking place in this community, I wondered why we don’t see the gates of Hell crumbling around us. I wondered why we don’t see people being saved and baptized on a regular basis. Sadly, I also wondered how much of what we do around Calvary can be done and is being done without the manifest presence and power of God? In other words, how much of our ministry could and would take place if God didn’t show up? These thoughts convict me in my own life and I’m reminded of Jesus’ admonition to His disciples in John 15:5 that He is the vine, we are the branches and those who abide in Him bear much fruit. Jesus also said “without Me, you can do nothing.” Oh sure, we have much activity, we have a full calendar, but how much of it depends on the manifest presence and power of God? Please don’t misunderstand me, I’m not saying all of what we’re doing isn’t bathed in prayer because I know we have people praying, but I am trying to make us think in an honest fashion about prayer or the lack of it.

I believe we will see and experience the manifest presence and power of God if we will be willing to humble ourselves and pray. I will be intensifying my prayer efforts and I am asking you to join with me. I will be asking God to allow us see the gates of Hell crumble around us and that lives will be transformed by His grace and mercy. I will be praying that God will allow us at Calvary to see His mighty work, that His power and glory will be made known in this place and that His kingdom will be expanded, and that the Lord will do a fresh work in all of our lives. I long for the manifest presence and power of God, from my little corner of the world to yours…

Ralph Green

Senior Pastor, Calvary Baptist Church

www.calvarybelair.com

Subscribe to Pastor Ralph's Blog: http://pastorralphgreen.blogspot.com/  

Follow Me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/RalphGreen  

Posted via email from Pastor Ralph