Blessed and being a blessing in 2015

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2015!!  We have made it into a new year!  What shall we do?  At Watterson Trail this past Sunday afternoon (28^th) I asked the church about Jesus’ Sermon on the Mountain in Matthew 5-7.  Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, and those who are persecuted for righteousness sake.”  Are you…am I poor in spirit?  Am I sensitive to those who are in distress?  Are you…am I a meek person?  Do you…do I hunger and thirst for righteousness?  Are you…am I merciful, pure in heart, a peacemaker?  Do you…do I understand what a privilege it is to be persecuted for being like Jesus? 

I want to be blessed and to be a blessing to others.  So, in this New Year 2015, I resolve to be blessed and a blessing by being poorer in spirit, more thoughtful and sensitive to the sorrows of others, and a meek person, more gentle and understanding.  I resolve to hunger and thirst more for righteousness, to be more merciful, and purer in heart.  I resolve to be a peacemaker and not a negative person or a troublemaker.  I resolve to show my fellow Christians and those who have not yet decided to become a Christian how a man of God should react when he lives for Jesus and is persecuted for it.  I have already begun my quest to be a better man for God.  He certainly is everything to me.  I should be everything for Him.  We’ll see how it goes.

Maybe you have been thinking about making a real change in your life.  Now is the time to make that change.  Jesus Christ extended the greatest, most honest and sincere invitation ever extended in Matthew 11:28-30.  He said, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”  Beautiful!  Simply beautiful.  Put you faith in Jesus.  Repent of your sins; the thoughts, words, and actions that have caused so many troubles for you.  Confess Jesus as the Son of God.  He is.  Be baptized to wash away those sins.  We can certainly help you with this.  Then, live a new life, saved and dedicated to God.  Upon your obedience to the gospel of Christ, Jesus Himself will add you to His church (Acts 2:47).  You become a Christian brother or sister to all who have experienced the new birth.

The church of Christ at Watterson Trail is a kind, generous, and loving congregation.  We pray all the time.  We laugh a lot and truly want to show and share God’s love.  We support each other and help each other.  We worship according to God’s pattern in the New Testament.  We are called Christians because that is what the followers of Christ are called in the Bible.  We look to the Bible for our pattern for life and living.  We invite you to come and see.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year my Friends

2014 is quickly coming to a close and the New Year 2015 is just on the horizon.  This week many of us will be traveling to visit family and friends for Christmas.  Be careful out there on the highways and byways of life.  Stop.  Look.  Listen.  Be patient with those around you.  I hear that Christmas is one of the most stressful times of the year.  Why?  Well, I’m thinking that too many of us spend more than we should.  We often don’t get enough rest.  Our normal routine is affected by shopping, traveling, and visiting.  And more than anything else, we forget what the holiday season is about; Christ Jesus coming into the world to teach us and to show us what love really is. 

The sermon this week on Sunday morning (21^st) is entitled “Why did my Savior come to earth?”  Our text is taken from Luke 4:16-20.  Jesus had just been baptized.  He had endured the devil’s temptations.  He had returned to Nazareth, His hometown.  It was Saturday.  He entered the synagogue as His custom was and was handed the Old Testament to read.  He turned to Isaiah 61:1-2 and read this passage.  He then said these words to those who were present there; “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”  He was telling the truth as He always did, but those who heard His words were filled with anger and attempted to kill Jesus then and there.  They didn’t and couldn’t because His time had not yet come.  Isn’t it amazing that Jesus fulfilling Isaiah’s prophecy could be so disturbing to those who were watching and waiting on this very prophecy to be fulfilled?  Our world today desperately needs to hear gospel preaching.  We need healing for our brokenness.  We need freedom from the chains of sin.  We need to see, to understand God’s will for us.  We who are downtrodden and oppressed need liberty.  We need Jesus in our lives today and every day.  It is my sincere desire every day to show and share God’s love embodied in His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.  How about you? 

 

2015 can be the greatest year yet for you and your family.  Consider your life, what you have done, good or bad and what you are doing now.  Consider where you are.  Are you where you should be, where you want to be, where you need to be?  Consider who you look to for authority, inspiration, pleasure, and guidance.  Consider all the possible “why’s” as to how you got where you are.  Now decide if the person you are is who you need to be.  If the person you are is the person you need to be, great.  Keep on keeping on.  However, if the person you are is not the person you need to be, then make a decision to make a move.  Remember that the longest journey begins with but a single step.  Jesus extended the greatest invitation ever in Matthew 11:28-30.  He said, “Come to Me.”  How about it?  The church of Christ meets at 9607 Watterson Trail in Jeffersonville, Kentucky every Sunday morning at 9:30 for Bible study and then at 10:30 for worship together.  We meet at other times too for worship, fellowship, study, and prayer.  End the year with a revival and begin the coming year stronger than ever before.

You Prayed for Me - Thank you my friends

Hello from a lovely, growing, and very busy Watterson Trail Church of Christ in beautiful Jeffersontown, Kentucky.  We’re doing fine…the weather is simply gorgeous…I just love the holidays.  I hope you are having a very happy season so far.  Christmas is now less than two weeks away.  Hang in there.

The staff at Watterson Trail does a fine job putting together the church newsletter “Watterson Trail Religious Reminder” each week.  This week it was my turn to write the article for the newsletter and you’ll find it below.  I have always been a prayerful preacher but lately, due to so many drastic changes in my life, I have not taken the time to pray as I should.  That changes today.

If you haven’t linked in to the WT Religious Reminder, please check it out on our website at www.wtcoc.com.  Our site is always a work in progress.  We are trying to show and share the love of our Savior Jesus Christ every day here in the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

I came across this wonderful poem in my studies this week and it reminded me of my own weakness in daily prayer to my Father God.  I do not know who penned it.  I have renewed my vow to God today and into the coming New Year 2015 to ask, seek, and knock evermore as Jesus taught in Matthew 7:7, to pray fervently and without doubting (James 1:5-6; 5:16), and to pray long and without ceasing as Jesus demonstrated by word and example (Luke 6:12, 18:1).  As your minister at Watterson Trail, I want you to know me as a man of prayer.  May we, the church of Christ at Watterson Trail be known as a prayerful congregation of the Lord’s people.  When I decide (I have) and you decide (Will you?  I hope you will), then we have decided.  Let us pray.  Let us pray every day.  Let us pray when we know what to do and when we do not know what to do.  Let us pray when we are glad and when we are sad.  Let us pray when in the sunshine and in the rain.  Let us pray before, during, and after.  Let us pray and keep praying.  God hears.  He answers. 

YOU PRAYED FOR ME

You did not know my need,

Or that my heart was sore indeed,

Or that my fears I could not quell,

But you sensed that something wasn’t well,

                And so you prayed for me.

My path had turned from light to black,

There seemed to be no turning back,

Then in my loneliness I felt God near,

And down the road a light dawned clear,

                Because you prayed for me.

And as your prayer to heaven soared,

God did on me a blessing pour,

                Because you prayed for me. 

ALL MEANS ALL - Come and hear in December!

Winter in Kentucky…70 degrees one day and 30 degrees the next…what an experience!  God has everything under control.  I’m thankful.  We’re doing well at the Watterson Trail Church of Christ here in Jeffersontown, Kentucky.  Jeffersontown is a part of the Louisville metro area.  I’m finally learning my way around the city on my way to my weekly visits to the members of the congregation.  I am thankful for the opportunities and the challenges that God gives me every day.  This week I had the great privilege of meeting a new friend at one of our local restaurants.  If you know me at all you know that I am always looking for friends.  This lady served our table.  I found that she was new to Louisville as I am.  She stated that she had few friends and of course, hearing this statement, I told her that she now had two new friends, my wife and me.  The conversation led to the church, a pathway that I am always eager to follow.  I gave her my card and an invitation to come and hear and see what God has in store for her and her family in His church.  She has two sons, one in high school (We have a fantastic youth and family minister, Spencer Clark and a good youth program at WT) and her oldest son is a freshman at the University of Louisville and plays on the Cardinals basketball team.  I actually watched him play on Monday evening (11/24) against Savannah State.  Louisville won by 61 points.  What a thrill it is for me to be a gospel preacher and have such wonderful experiences.  God is so good to me and to all who love Him and are the called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28).  I will be waiting in the lobby this Sunday to welcome this family to Bible study and worship, Lord willing.

This Sunday I will begin a new sermon series entitled “All Means All.”  Jesus has all authority.  He stated this in Matthew 28:18.  John wrote about Jesus authority in John 14:6.  He wrote of Jesus, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through Me.”  If Jesus has all authority (He does) then we cannot go to Moses or to the prophets or to David or to Solomon or to the angels for answers to questions about sin and salvation, life and living, or worship and what pleases God.  Now it is true that Moses and the Law, Psalms and Proverbs, the books of the prophets were inspired by God and were written for our learning, our comfort, and our hope (Romans 15:4).  I’ll study and preach and teach from the Old Testament until my dying day because the Old Testament was given to us by God to help us come to believe in Jesus as the Christ.  However, we must understand that though God gave us the Old Testament for learning, comfort, and hope, the Old Testament always points to Jesus Christ for authority in our lives today.

In Matthew 17 Jesus took Peter, James, and John up to a high mountain and was transfigured before them.  Moses and Elijah appeared and talked with Jesus.  Peter suggested that they build three tabernacles, one for each of the men present.  While Peter was still speaking, God spoke from the cloud and said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.  Hear Him.”  God wanted his followers to know who was in charge and who to listen to, not Moses, not Elijah – Jesus. 

Luke wrote in chapter 16, verse 16, “The law and the prophets WERE until John.  Since that time the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is pressing into in.”  In Acts 8 the eunuch from Ethiopia was reading Isaiah when Philip asked him if he understood what he read.  He didn’t and Philip began in Isaiah and taught the eunuch Jesus. 

In Christ the Law and the Prophets were fulfilled.  Psalms is one of my favorite books of the Old Testament and I often preach from Psalms.  Yet, David and the Psalms have no authority today except in directing us to and in Christ.  Solomon was only the second wisest man to ever walk the earth.  Jesus was the wisest.  Paul wrote to Timothy and told him to continue in the things which he had learned and been assured of, knowing from whom he had learned them.  Paul was speaking of the Old Testament.  Then he said that the things Timothy had learned, the Holy Scriptures, specifically the Old Testament were able to make him wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus (2 Timothy 3:10-17).  Again, note.  The Holy Writings, the Holy Scriptures, the Old Testament makes one wise for salvation through faith which is IN CHRIST JESUS. 

Note verse 1 of chapter 3 in 2 Timothy.  “But know this that in the last days perilous times will come.”  Now turn to Hebrews 1:1.  “God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in the LAST DAYS spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom He made the worlds…”  In “time past” God spoke by the prophets.  In “these last days” God has spoken to us by His Son.  Question: Who has authority in these last days, the days in which we live?  Jesus.  Only Jesus.  All means all.