Sunday, March 22nd, "The Life of the Apostle Paul"

This Sunday, Shiloh had a special visitor. The Apostle Paul came to teach us about how God wants to use scripture to change our character. He also reminded us that Satan wants to use our culture to further degrade our character and to destroy others. Paul shared stories from his life about his conversion and his years in the Arabian desert and how through out his life God used His word to develop Paul's character. That training resulted in the gospel being spread through out the entire known world. He ended his speech with his favorite verse from Philippians: "He who began a good work in you will not stop until it's completed."

Sunday, March 15th, "The Death of the Righteous"

This week our church witnessed the "death of the righteous." There was no doubt in any one's mind that Beulah Mardis was now in heaven. She is now alive and well in heaven. The Old Testament saints used to pray, "Let me die the death of the righteous." When I was a teenager I witnessed the death of such a saint. Her name was Marilyn Cromer. She had cancer, diabetes, and went to dialysis three times a week. Even so, she never missed church. If you asked her how she felt she would reply, "I'm joyful." One Sunday evening our pastor came to the pulpit and said, "Our piano player is sick tonight so we'll have to worship a capella Marilyn got up from her pew and walked slowly to the front of the church. She sat down at the piano and began to play one of the selected hymns. That night our little church worshipped louder and with more passion than I had ever heard before. As long as she was able she wouldn't dream of our church worshipping God without a piano player. (it just so happened that Anna Belle was present in our service this Sunday and Joanne, our regular piano player was sick, Anna Belle stepped up and played our piano) Her first Sunday back in 5 months and she played a vital part in our worship service.

The question of the day was, "So what makes a person righteous." The root word of "righteous" is "right". To be righteous simply means to have a right relationship with God. Jesus told Nicodemus that he must be born again. The only way to be right with God is to be born again. To be forgiven of our sins and accept Christ as our Lord and savior. However, their are things that we should do in order to preserve and enhance our righteousness in Gods eyes.

I've come up with five "oughts". Five things a Christian ought to be in order to be called righteous.

#1. A Christian ought to love God. Heaven is a place for those who love God. The Bible says, "Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, and with all of your mind."

#2. A person ought to hate sin. We ought to avoid sin like a plaque. We can't both be righteous and constant sinner at the same time. Paul said that's impossible. Even though we may never reach a point in our life where we will never sin we "ought" to try our best to avoid sin; even though sometimes we catch it's symptoms.

#3. A person ought to love the Body of Christ. The Christian life was not meant to live alone. The Bible says, "Do not forsake the gathering of yourselves together." Sometimes, I think people isolate themselves from the Body of Christ. They distance themselves over one reason or another. I know that sometimes we physically should not attend church; but in some cases I know that we allow our physical ailments to become more of a cover up for the real reason we don't attend. We ought to love the Body of Christ and attend as often as possible; even if we physically don't feel like it.

#4. We ought to keep the 10 commandments. If there was ever a list of rules a righteous person should keep it would be the 10 commandments.

#5. We ought to be people of prayer, scripture, and devotion. This is truly a lost art in today's churches.

What will your funeral be like. Will people witness the Death of the Righteous. Or, will they wonder where your soul will spend eternity. The book of James tells us our life is like a breath that is here today and gone tomorrow. We only have one breath; we ought to make sure it's a righteous one.

Sunday, March 8th, "Forgiveness"

Collosians tells us that we must forgive as we have been forgiven. This lesson was a hard one for me to learn. It can be very hard to forgive someone who has hurt us. But, Christ commanded us to forgive not just once but seven times seventy. Christ was not telling us to give our trespassers a blank check to continue to do wrong. He was telling his disciples to have an attitude of forgiveness. We ought to forgive easily because our forgiveness from Christ came easy. All we had to do was ask and repent and we were given grace. Why should we with hold grace when we've been given grace freely. Go to Matthew and re-read the parable of the Shrewd Manager. In this story we are reminded that to those whom much are given much is required.

If you have someone you need to forgive I would encourage you to do it right away. Harboring these feelings can destroy friendships, marriages, and even churches. Grudges can build walls a mile high and keep people from entering our churches. Grudges can leave a husband our wife in bondage for decades. Make that call today and extend forgiveness just as you have been given forgiveness by our Heavenly Father.

Sunday, March 1st, 2009 "My Crooked Pinkies."

I inherited my dads crooked pinkies. When I was a kid my brothers convinced me I was a adopted as a practical joke. I'm so different from everyone in my family that there were times when I actually believed I could have been adopted. That was until one day I noticed my dads crooked pinkies. As Forest Gump said, "They are as crooked as a question mark." I knew from that day on I was my father's son. God made me special even with my crooked pinkies.

Sometimes we forget that God took his time when he created each of us. He loves us and he knows every detail of our life. He told Jeremiah that while we were in our mother's womb he knew us and formed us.

God loves you. This is why he went to all the trouble of leaving Heaven in order to die for the sins of the whole world. You are part of the Body of Christ. As Christians we are part of the Body of Christ. We are sealed into a covenant with God that often reflects the covenant of marriage. We are sealed with Christ in sickness and in health, for richer for poorer, for better for worse even into eternity.

Next time you are having a rough day or feeling sorry for yourself remember God loves you. And regardless of your flaws remember God made you special.