Jim_Alaska

These two disciples do not meet the definition of a church Sure, they were followers, but not a church. The church began when Jesus called out his Apostles as the scripture says. 

1Cor. 12:28 And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues.

Good, I guess I just missed the joke part Jordan. But my excuse is just that I'm old.

4 hours ago, Jordan Kurecki said:

My church started in the 70s

Jordan, if I am reading your reply correctly you may need to brush up on church perpetuity. Just because your church started in the 70's does not mean it is not the Lord's church.

Church perpetuity works this way; A church sponsors a mission work, or sends out a missionary. Once a mission is established and grounded they petition their sending church to be organized into a New Testament Church.

An organization service is held, after which the mission work is then a totally Independent New Testament Church. In this manner the church that Jesus built is perpetuated down through the years.

Incidentally, the book, "The Church That Jesus Built", is a must read for all Independent Baptists.

God bless you as you serve Him.

28 minutes ago, Alan said:

Thank you for the fine study. I am glad that I belong to the Lord's assembly (church).

It is also refreshing for you to bring out 1 Corinthians 12:28 (most folks forget this verse). 

God bless!

I agree Alan. I think that  1 Corinthians 12:28  is foundational to understanding when the church began. I'm glad you liked the short study.

15 hours ago, Alan said:

Jim,

Thank you for giving us the experience with Chung Wu. I am sure that he was blessed with your conversations. In eternity we will see the fruits.

Thank you also for not only encouraging Bro. Mike but all of the rest of us.

Alan

Bro. Alan,

You are to be commended for not correcting my misspelling/pronouncement of my friend's name. I only thought of this after I wrote about it. I spelled his name the way it is pronounced and actually the reverse from Chinese culture. It should have read Wu Cheng.

At least I did remember that part of our Chinese language lessons. Family name first, personal name second. 

On 5/26/2016 at 4:13 PM, Ukulelemike said:

Good post and timely.

Sunday I am preaching a lesson on Hezekiah, particularly when he opened the doors of the temple, and called on Judah and Manasseh and the others of the southern kingdom to come to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover, and to humble themselves before the Lord, after 16 years of his wicked father building up paganism and idolatry. And how, even though it was the command of the king to do that which God commanded, yet many who read the message mocked and scorned the very idea. I will bring this around to how many good, godly churches, teaching the truth of God and just wanting to Honor and obey Him, are often more and more emptying out, as people become 'seekers' seeking entertainment, and distraction and programs.

We have grown pretty small, and inevitable, someone looks around and says, "Is this all today?" It can be discouraging, but my point it, right is still right, and even a minority of people doing God's will, is still the right thing to do, and with the Lord, we are never the minority, and we WILL be blessed if we continue to do well, though so few might want to.

Building a church is tough-so is maintaining it. Solomon built the temple, and later kings kept shutting it down and turning the people to idolatry, and then another king would have to start from scratch. I'm celebrating 14 years as pastor and we are running about 7 right now. One person is a mess-he wants to raise his hands during prayer, just to do it because someone, sometime, ONE time said to him that it was what Christians do in church. Now, last Sunday, during a song, he put his book down and laid prostrate on the floor until the song was over. Apparently he saw or heard something about that. And of course, we had a guest family, who I suspect we won't see again. And while it is a small disturbance, it's not really anything WRONG I can point to, but I suspect he doesn't help anyone want to be here. Not like open sin or rebellion that I can send him out for.

Sorry, starting to complain. God lesson above. Thanks 

Bro. Mike, your church may be small, but when I came to preach for you it was very evident that the few that you had were attentive and interested in Spiritual things. Small towns tend to produce small churches since there are not many people to draw from, but I am sure you know that by now. Keep up the good work brother and know that your rewards will be proportionate to your efforts, which efforts are commendable in your little section of the country.

God bless you as you serve Him.

Alan,

When I still lived and worked in Alaska I had the privilege to meet and work with a Chinese man who became a good friend. We both worked for a scientific research facility. He was a Plasma and Atomic scientist from Beijing. His name was Chung Wu.

He did not speak english well and we quickly made a deal for me to teach him English and him to teach me Chinese. The result was 50/50 he learned English and I did not learn Chinese. lol I still retain three words of Chinese, but that's about it, it is a difficult language to learn, at least for me.

He had never driven a motor vehicle, only rode a bike in China. So I also taught him to drive, which made him very happy.

We became fast friends with me inviting him to dinner at my house where we usually had language lessons after dinner. When he learned that I attended church he became interested and began to attend with me. We had many opportunities to talk about The Lord in private also. I believe he came to know The Lord at that time. He never actually gave a testimony to that fact, but he did show evidence of being saved in that he developed a burning desire to take his newfound Christianity back home to his people when he returned home. We had many private Bible studies together.

Unfortunately shortly after he had to return to Beijing he passed away. I believe he is now with The Lord. He was a dear friend and I sorely miss him, but rejoice in his conversion and enthusiasm for spiritual things. I thank The Lord often for putting Chung Wu in my life and the opportunities we shared.

Very timely and well done Alan. I especially liked the way you addressed the time factor in church building. Many times supporting churches get discouraged because they don't see a mission work organized into a NT church in the time frame they think it should be.

The result of this kind of thinking is that the supporting churches begin to pull their support of the missionary, virtually guaranteeing failure to bring the work to fruition.

My original church, where I was saved, started as a mission work. When the work was not formally organized in five years we began to hear complaints. It was interesting that many of the complaints came from churches that had not supported the work.

Our missionary pastor was a teaching pastor who knew the value of teaching grounding principals to his flock. Eventually this mission was organized into a solid, strong, NT church. We put home missionaries on four different mission fields in the time I was there. One mission field was especially difficult, it was far east Magadan Russia.

We were the first church to put Independent Baptist missionaries in Russia when the wall came down. The work was difficult and even dangerous with many obstacles to overcome. Two NT churches were organized there and still stand to  this day. The two missionary pastors from our church that went over there are now back home and pastoring home churches in Alaska.

Keep up the good work Alan and know that missionaries like you are appreciated. Prayer for our missionaries has never been more important than it is now.

 Joh 4:35 Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. 

Thank you Alan, I am glad you enjoyed it. I had a terrible time with the formatting when I copied it to the forum.

Well done Brother Mike. Trying to change or reason with supposed Christians that believe they must keep the law, or one part of it, is like banging your head against the wall. It does no good, even though it must be refuted.

I have a friend who is most likely not saved, but he will keep the Sabbath. He has to claim to be a spiritual Israelite in order for his arguments to be valid for him, they don't hold water for me.

Thank you for your thoughts and comments on this sermon WellWithMySoul. I am happy that this was a blessing to you and reminded you of the place we would be without Jesus, the Light of the World.

It is always a blessing to me when I study to present a message that actually has a positive affect on others and glorifies our gracious Lord.

God bless you as you serve Him.

Many times the storms of life are the catalyst that causes people to look to the only hope of salvation that can carry them through the storm. Peter is a fine example of Christian life experiences; though the storms of life may at times cause us to falter, our faith in our Savior God will always carry us through.  Ps 119:116  Uphold me according unto thy word, that I may live: and let me not be ashamed of my hope.

Thank you for this fine devotion Alan; we all need to be reminded that He who created and upholds all things is more than able to hold us up amid the storms of life.

I just wanted to come back and say that I have noticed that sermons and devotionals do not always show up as new content when they are posted. This one by Alan was done in November and just showed up in my unread content today. I also noticed this on some of my sermons too, they show as unread content much later than I post them. Must be some sort of glitch in programing. 

I, like Ronda, have no idea how I missed this wonderful devotion Alan.

What a wonderful blessing to be reminded of the peace that passes all understanding, the peace that can only come from God above.

Thank you Alan, and may God richly bless you as you serve Him.

Thank you for your thoughts on this message and also for your excellent points made about "time". This is a sticky issue. If people like you mentioned could just prioritize time, they would quickly see that what is most important is being left out of their schedule.

Thank you again lady.

Thank you Alan, I am glad you enjoyed this one.

Thank you for this devotion Alan, it was a blessing. I found it well done and right on the money regarding the various "types" in both individuals as well as circumstances.

Thanks for the nice comments folks, it is appreciated. 

Thank you, glad you enjoyed this one. I love teaching on sound biblical church doctrine. So many are deviating from sound practice concerning The Lord's Supper today that it is alarming.

Thank you again Alan. Funny you should mention other devotions since I was just about to post another one tonight. This one is of a more solemn nature. It is regarding something that has been on my mind and heart for quite a while and concerns lack of teaching concerning The Lord's Supper.

Thank you Alan. It was a blessing just preparing it.

Very well done Alan, thank you for the blessing.

You are welcome Alan, glad you enjoyed it.

Thanks to both of you for your encouraging comments. I have not written any tracts or books either. I have written and been published professionally, but not anything in the religious realm.

I wouldn't know how to go about writing a tract. I think I am bit too "wordy" to be able to condense it down to tract size.

I have years worth of sermons and lessons, but unfortunately they were hand written before I ever had a computer. I did start to put them on computer, but that's a lot of work to type them all out.

Thank both of you again for your kind, encouraging comments. I can only thank God for anything I accomplish for Him. No one knows better than I do that I am not capable of preaching or teaching without the guidance and ability that was given to me. I have no education to speak of, I made the sixth grade, but didn't finish it. I do have a GED, but no bible college. I was taught by my original missionary pastor for four years in preparation to serve God in the ministry he called me to.

I have had the privilege of being one of a team of four pastors that trained two missionary families in preparation for mission work on the Russian mission field. They were there for five years and were successful in establishing two churches under very adverse conditions. They are pastoring back home now.

See what I mean about being "wordy"?

God bless you both as you serve our Lord in your respective callings.

Thank you for your comments on my sermon Ronda. I write out my sermons and lessons completely because when I get to preach I most always have people who want my notes. If I gave them notes they would not be able to get the whole picture. I don't always follow my outline and adlib a lot as the Lord directs. But by writing them out completely anyone reading them will get the importance of the work.

I really enjoyed your recitation of your interaction with those on FaceBook too, thanks for sharing it.