Dear friends, thank you for your prayers. It is 10 pm Mountain time. A little over a half hour ago my dear Dad went to heaven. He slipped quietly away. With the hiss of the oxygen going I didn’t even notice his passing.

My dad was a faithful Christian man. He led me to the Lord many years ago. I thank God for him. He has been the single greatest influence on my life. I’ll write more later.

Praise God for redemption, for Jesus Christ, and for the Sweet Comforter. We sorrow not as those who have no hope.

Maranatha! Don Johnson, Jer 33.3

Last Wednesday’s Psalm:

Bless the Lord, O my Soul (1) (Ps 103:1-22)

This is the second and last of the psalms named "A Psalm of David" in Book 4 of the psalms. It reflects the thoughts of a mature David, admonishing his own soul in a time of discipline with his knowledge of the Lord’s past benefits and the Lord’s everlasting goodness. David’s thoughts become a hymn for our admonition as well.

Today’s Sermons:

Grace Magnified (Rm 5:16)

Today the contrast between Adam and Christ highlights the incredible magnitude of Christ’s gracious gift. The act of Adam plunged all men into sin – we all sinned in Adam. But we didn’t stop sinning with that one sin. Our lives are filled with sin. The gift of God in Jesus Christ answers every one of those human sins – working out of the many sins it pronounces the sentence: "Just before God". Hallelujah!

Towards an Understanding of Worldliness (2)

Today we make an attempt at defining the term ‘worldly’ and begin to look at a key passage for understanding worldliness, Titus 2.11-12.

Women’s Adorning (1 Tim 2:9-10)

Our message today looks at the topic of women’s dress, especially in the context of public worship. The way a woman dresses should flow from a godly inner testimony, but it does reflect itself in an appropriate, sober, modest style of dress.

One of the interminable theological debates is the source of faith. Some insist that faith is given by God. Others insist that faith is what a man does himself when he believes. I doubt very much that a blog post by me will bring this debate to any sort of resolution.

What I want to talk about, though, is something I heard in a recorded sermon preached by a friend of mine. He said something like this (loose paraphrase from memory):

God gives you faith. He gives it to you in such a way that genuine Christian faith will lead you to persevere in that faith. They won’t be able to burn it out of you, you will persevere to the end.

And such like…

Well. This raises some questions in my mind:

[Read more...]

Here are the blurbs from our church website:

As a Man Does (Rm 3.15-17)

depravity displayed by conduct

Our text is essentially a quotation from Isa 59.7-8, part of Paul’s proof of the proposition that all men are sinners in need of righteousness from God. These verses point to the violence and wickedness that are seen everywhere in the world. The violence of some men proves the depravity of all men because though all men are not as violent as they could be, all men are cut from the same cloth, all are of the same nature. Again our passage proves the need of all men for righteousness from God.

Pilgrim’s Progress (2): Entering the Celestial City

Our study of Pilgrim’s Progress comes to a close this week. We follow the pilgrims through the last period of danger, the Enchanted Grounds, then watch their sojourn in Beulah Land. It is from here that pilgrims are called to the Celestial City and we see  numbers of them called on to glory as Bunyan’s allegory closes. Next week we will have a testimony time for our folks to talk back to me about what the Lord taught them in this series.

He is Clean (Lev 14)

Our series in Leviticus takes us to the regulations for restoring a healed leper to the congregation. The ritual teaches us that access to God is available only under God’s terms, not man’s. It also makes a visual parable for us of the new birth, as the cleansed leper is covered by the blood of the sacrifice and sanctified by the oil of consecration.

~~~

We had a great day today, with most of our regulars in attendance plus five visitors.

Here are our sermons for this week:

As a Man Speaks (Rm 3.13-14)

Man’s depravity is betrayed by speech – by throat, tongue, lips and mouth. The wicked nature of man is universal, comprehensive, and constant. As we consider these themes in Rm 1-3, we see increasingly how desperate is man’s need of the power of God unto salvation with the righteousness that comes from God.

Pilgrim’s Progress (2): The Delectable Mountains

In this section, we see the pilgrims working their way along the way from just past Vanity Fair to the Enchanted Ground. On the way, the men of the party dispatch Giant Despair and rescue two fainting pilgrims, they meet the Shepherds of the Delectable Mountains and learn more spiritual lessons there, and meet a new manly Christian, Mr. Valiant-for-truth.

Our Church and Evangelism (Mk 16.15)

In this message we talk about our responsibility in the world as Christians, the business of preaching the gospel to the world. In our passage, as in Mt 28, going is the assumption, not the command. The activity to which we are called is preaching (heralding) where every task in the ministry of a church plays a part. And every creature is the opportunity. May God give us the courage and zeal to reach our world for Him.

What Dost Hinder Me to be Baptized?

Guest Speaker: Bill Carter, Capital City Baptist Church

This afternoon we had the great joy of offering our church building and baptistry to our fellow-workers and friends, the people and pastor of Capital City Baptist Church for a baptismal service. Three were baptized today, a great blessing to see. Several of our folks stayed for the fourth service of the day to celebrate the baptism with them.

Pastor Carter preached a solid message on the meaning and theology of message for us which we offer here for you. We pray that both churches may succeed in reaching our city for Christ.

~~~

A long day, but a good day in the Lord. It was a blessing to see three folks baptized and a privilege to serve a sister church.

I’d like to call your attention to a little book by D. A. Carson. He published this book last year, a truly wonderful tribute to his father, Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor: The life and reflections of Tom Carson.

These Memoirs tell the story of every pastor, especially those pastors who lead small churches (most of us.) I have heard statistics that 50% of all churches are less than 100 in membership. If that is true, most men who enter the ministry will see long years of labour in small works with little increase. Such ministry can be very discouraging – the temptation to quit can ovewhelm. [Read more...]

Guilty as Charged (Rm 3.10-12)

In this message we begin to consider the proof of Paul’s proposition: all men are sinners under the wrath of God. The proof comes from God’s written revelation, the only authority for faith and practice. It conclusively proves man’s guilt as the depravity of his character is revealed.

Pilgrim’s Progress (2): Gaius Welcomes the Pilgrims

In this section we cover two homes which host the pilgrims (and provide brides for Christiana’s sons). One of these houses is in the midst of Vanity Fair, where they find less trouble than Christian and Faithful did, due to a greater number of pilgrims and the guilty consciences of those who dwell in the Fair. The pilgrims are pictures of victorious Christians living in the midst of an evil world.

Willful Ignorance (2 Pt 3.5) [Creation]

Our message this afternoon is motivated by wide spread recognition of the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth. We show that God calls such unbelief ‘willful ignorance’ and that such willfulness is an attempt to excuse some indulgence of lust, but at an awful cost.

~~~~

Today was a ‘cool’ day at church. We are due for new gas furnaces in two weeks, so we wanted to make sure we used up as much of our fuel oil as possible. Well… we used it all up, so we huddled together in our first service (with temp. in the mid-50s … chilly, but not too bad) and moved to our fellowship room for the afternoon service.

Nevertheless a good day, with good attendance and a good spirit by all.

I am typing one-handed, my right arm in a sling. They told me I can’t use my puter for two days! That’s almost as bad as no Timmies!

The concern was possibility of blocked heart arteries, today’s procedure was an angiogram. They discovered some minor buildup in an area that doesn’t concern them, so treatment is medication, diet, and exercise. Thanks for your prayers.

Maranatha!
don j
jer 33.3