The Gift of the Pastor/Teacher - Ephesians 4:7-16

The Pastor/Teacher is one of the four gifted persons God gave in light of the victorious campaign Jesus accomplished on earth in fulfilling the will of the Father. This is the traditional war language in Ephesians 4.  When a conquering king would return from battle with the spoils of victory from the enemy, his subjects would receive gifts in honor of the victory. 

Paul quotes Psalm 68:19 which is a psalm of victory composed by David himself celebrating with the Jewish people the conquest and return of the Ark of the Covenant back to Mount Zion. Paul now uses this Psalm to speak of Jesus when He returned back to Heaven after a successful conquest of Satan, hell, sin, and death.  There is in his triumphant march are those who were once captives to Satan and sin but now are free due to His successful campaign.

That is all of the saved, the elect (Ephesians 1:3-11), those washed in the blood.  We were chosen in Him before the foundation of the world, but our freedom was not possible until Jesus returned to Heaven as the triumphant King.

Then a second aspect of this triumphant (4:8) is "And gave gifts to men."  As previously mentioned, this was common in every parade of victory.  But each previous scene was just pointing to this ultimate scene when God would "give gifts to men" on behalf of His Son.

We know these gifts are the spiritual gifts given to all believers, but for Paul's argument here, he notes specifically four gifts unlike anything else mentioned elsewhere in Scripture and different in style.

All other spiritual gifts are abilities, here the gift is a person.  God gives four persons to the church.  These four are apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastors/teachers.  

I will deal with these four next week, but for the moment note...these gifts are persons, not just talents or abilities residing within a person enabling them to do God's work in God's way with God's power.  No, these four are actually the people themselves.  Unique.

An apostle is a gift from God to the church.

A prophet is a gift from God to the church.

An evangelist is a gift from God to the church.

A pastor/teacher is a gift from God to the church.

So when someone gives us a gift, our response should be to open our hands to receive it and our mouth to say, "thank you."

Blessings;

David

6 Ways to Find (and Protect) the Time You Need to Read Books by Tony Reinke

Invest Time Carefully
I read a lot of books. My annual goal is to read seventy-five books, which may sound like a lot. And it is a lot, but not compared to some of my extraordinary friends. 

So how do I read seventy-five books each year? I don’t read a lot of books because I have a ton of free time. My calendar is full, my honey-do list is long, my three kids are hyper, and my boss is active (or is it the other way around?). And my running shoes are neglected, my weight bench is dusty, and my yard is overgrown. I live in the real world, just like you.

The short answer is that I find the time to read because I invest my time carefully. Sometimes I read over my morning plate of scrambled eggs; sometimes I read over my lunchtime can of tuna salad; and sometimes I read over my cup of evening tea. I read at the DMV when I renew my driver’s license. I read in airports and in jets as I travel for work. I read when I’m waiting on my barber. I read books to my kids. Sometimes I read when the kids are climbing all over my back on the living room floor. And on my day off, I retreat for a couple hours to read at a local coffee shop. All of this “found time,” added up, equals books read.

Words Per Minute

But just how much time do we need to read books? Since I took the same college algebra class three times, I can run a few mathematical equations for you.

First, most people can find sixty minutes each day to read. It sounds like a lot, but it really isn’t: fifteen minutes in the morning, fifteen minutes at lunchtime, and another thirty minutes in the evening. No problem. At this pace, you can devote seven hours to reading each week (or 420 minutes).

The average reader moves through a book at a pace of about 250 words per minute. So 420 minutes of reading per week translates into 105,000 words per week. Assuming that you can read for one hour each day, and that you read at around 250 words per minute, you can complete more than one book per week, or about seventy books per year.

Some weeks will provide more, or less, time for reading. But by carving little pockets of time throughout your week and by using your time well, it is not impossible to read a hefty stack of books each year.
So how to find those pockets of reading time in the first place? Here are some tips that have helped me.

1. Expect War
When we set out to read important books, we can expect opposition from our hearts. Reading is a discipline, and all disciplines require self-discipline, and self-discipline is the one thing our sinful flesh will resist.

Our spirit may be eager to read a book, but our flesh is weak. Our flesh would rather self-indulge on passive entertainment. Movies and television can be wonderful gifts from God if we use them wisely, but unchecked they will hijack our schedules and rob us of our reading time. Book reading is not just a matter of time management; it’s a matter of warfare. Wherever sinful self-indulgence dominates our free time, we can be certain that personal idols are at work in our flesh, seeking to divide and conquer the soul (1 Pet. 2:11).
Idols of entertainment and pleasure make the discipline of book reading a battle with our flesh. We’d rather avoid discipline and be occupied with easier tasks like e-mail, Internet browsing, and movies. We neglect books because our hearts reject the discipline required to read them. And that is a spiritual problem, a lack of personal discipline, not a lack of time. 

And until we apply the sin-freeing gospel to our own hearts—and the idols therein—we may never cultivate the self-discipline required to read books. Our flesh wars within us. If we don’t kill the idols of laziness and self-indulgence, these idols will kill our literacy.
So expect a fight from your flesh.

2. Make Time, Not Excuses

In 1964 Robert Lee calculated the leisure time available to Americans. In his research he compared the leisure time available to modern Americans to the leisure time available to an average American worker in the mid-1800s. What did Lee discover?

It is a striking fact to note that the working man of a century ago spent some seventy hours per week on the job and lived about forty years. Today he spends some forty hours per week at work and can expect to live about seventy years. This adds something like twenty-two more years of leisure to his life, about 1,500 free hours each year, and a total of some 33,000 additional free hours that the man born today has to enjoy!¹
That is a stunning amount of free time! So why is this leisure time so elusive when it comes to finding the time we need to read books?

For many of us, reading is more a lack of of desire than of a lack of free time. C. S. Lewis wrote, “The only people who achieve much are those who want knowledge so badly that they seek it while the conditions are still unfavorable. Favorable conditions never come.”² The same is true of reading. Favorable conditions for reading books never come.
There are always interruptions and other things to do. We can all find excuses for why we cannot read: we’re too busy, we’re too tired, we’re too burned out from the day, we’re too                     (you fill in the blank). But we all find time to do what we “want” to do. The problem is not that we don’t have time to read, but that we don’t have the desire to read. So learn to love reading—because it’s easier to find time to do what you love to do.

3. Read Great Books

How do we cultivate that love? Start by researching and finding the very best books available. Ask your friends for recommendations. Great books can be found in every genre, from novels that grab your heart with the twists and turns of a brilliant plot, or history books that open your imagination to experience decisive moments in the world, or Christian living books that bring clarity to your soul and focus to your life. Nothing cultivates a love of reading more than a steady diet of great books.

I think the only books that should be burned—or at least banned— are mediocre ones. Find books that grab you. Read the books that make you lose sleep at night. Perhaps that’s a book that you have already read. Reread it.

Aim to become a reader who sits down late in the evening after a long day and grabs for a book to relax. This is a reader who loves to read! You may not be there yet, reading may be a chore, and television and movies and browsing the Internet might hold more sway over your leisure time. Press on. Keep searching for great books.

4. Set Reading Priorities

Our reading may not be disciplined, efficient, or fruitful until we read with purpose. Before you begin reading a book, determine why you are reading it.
We will often neglect what we don’t prioritize. And book reading is often neglected because it fails to be a priority; and it fails to be a priority because we have not defined our reading goals clearly. Once we define the purpose of our reading, it becomes much easier to see the practical value of books in our lives.
Factor everything you want to read and need to read—even factor in your fun reading. Then choose books that align with those priorities.

5. Stop Something

But for all the extra leisure time available, we each have a limited number of days in our lives (Psalm 90). The brevity of life requires that we limit our priorities. Are you still waiting for the time to read? You may need to stop doing something else. Novelist Alan Bissett understands this. He wrote,

The reader is under assault from hundreds of television channels, 3D cinema, a computer-gaming business so large it dwarfs Hollywood, iPhones, Wii, YouTube, free commuter newspapers, an engorged celebrity culture, instant access to all the music ever recorded, 24-hour sports news, and DVD box-sets of shows such as The Wire, Mad Men and Lost that replicate some of the scope and depth of literature. Unprecedented levels of consumer debt, and now a recession, have seen everyone working longer hours. A leisure time that was already precious has been chewed into by text-messaging, Facebook and emails. Almost everyone I speak to claims that they “love books but just can’t find the time to read.” Well, they probably could—they’re just choosing to spend it differently.³

What competes for your reading time? What is less important than your reading? Nothing squanders time away more than pursuing things without a purpose. And given that the average American adult (18–34) invests only 10 minutes each day reading, yet watches 116 minutes of television, I think many of us have time that we can spend differently.⁴
So what in your life needs to stop happening so that reading can start happening?

6. Read Three Books at a Time

Having trouble finding reading time? It may be that you need to read more books. Seriously. A curious thing happened in my own life. I discovered that when I began reading three books at a time, I found more time to read. Why? It’s pretty simple, actually. I found that different times in my day allowed me to read different types of books.

I enjoy reading historical novels, but I don’t read a historical novel right after I roll out of bed in the morning. I enjoy reading theology, but I rarely read theology at night before I go to bed. I enjoy reading long epics like Lord of the Rings, but I can’t get into an epic novel while traveling.

Different genres are suited for different times, and having three books from different genres gives me greater flexibility in capturing fragments of time throughout the day. On the other hand, reading only one book makes it harder to find time to read, because it restricts the number of contexts.

The Point

The point is that we can find the time necessary to read books. But this requires thought on a number of related topics.

• Expect resistance from your heart.

• Make time to read, not excuses for why you don’t read. We all have good excuses.

• Cultivate a hunger for books by reading (and rereading) great books.

• Set your reading priorities, and let them drive your book selections.

• Stop doing something else in order to make time to read.

• Try reading three (or more) books at a time and take advantage of your environments.

You don’t need to be a professional book reviewer to read a lot of books. And you don’t need to be brilliant either. But you do need to be purposeful and consistent. And if you can discipline yourself, you will find the time you need to read.
Notes:

1. Robert Lee, Religion and Leisure in America: A Study in Four Dimensions (Nashville, TN: Abingdon, 1964), 37.

1. C. S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory (San Francisco: HarperOne, 2001), 60.

1. Alan Bissett, “Who Stole Our Reading Time?” Books Blog, The Guardian, February, 2010, http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2010/feb/02 /who-stole-reading-time.

1. National Endowment for the Arts, To Read or Not to Read: A Question of National Consequence, no. 47, November 2007, http://www.nea.gov/news /news07/TRNR.html.

This article is adapted from Lit!: A Christian Guide to Reading Books by Tony Reinke.

The Open Door in Heaven

Last Monday I wrote about my love for the book of Revelation because of the theme of Jesus Christ.  Among other things, in chapter four there is a statement that causes me excitement.  Verse 1: "After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven."

Did your Mother ever tell you, to shut the door.  You left the door open.  Or who left the door open?  It normally is not a good thing to leave a door open because it means our nice cool (or warm) homes will become like the outside, or someone or something from the outside will come into our home that should not belong.

But there was a door open in Heaven.  WOW.  But this is not the first time something in Heaven is open to the believer.  Malachi 3:10 God promises to "open the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it."

I just love the thought...Heaven is open.  

There is no feeling of disappointment in going to a restaurant only to arrive to see a "Closed" sign on the door.  There is no feeling of rejection to be closed off from friends or family.  There is no feeling of need due to the source of your answer being shut off from you.

Oh, Heaven is open today!!  Tonight!! Tomorrow!!  All the time!!!  

Heaven is open for us to see Jesus - that is Revelation 4.

Heaven is open for God to pour out blessings on us - that is Malachi 3

Heaven is open for us to come boldly in prayer to find help in time of need - that is Hebrews 4:16

Heaven is open for anyone to look and be saved - that is Isaiah 45:22

Look up - the door and window of Heaven is open today.

This Lord's Day (February 25, 2024) at Rainsville First Baptist

We are honored this Sunday to welcome Tim Anderson back to Rainsville First Baptist Church.  Tim was with us in 2018.  Since then retired last year as Pastor of Clements Baptist Church near Athens, AL where he had served since 1994.  He has long been involved with the International Congress on Revival (ICR) but became full-time President and Director of the ministry last year.

Learn more about ICR here.  It was the ministry Manley Beasley started, Bill Stafford continued, and is now under the leadership of Tim.

Tim and his wife, Sherry, have three children and six grandchildren.  

Anybody Can Understand the Word of God

I have never been anything but a preacher and pastor.  Well, not technically...but I don't remember much of the days in church life prior to me being a preacher (since I started when I was 11 years old).  I started going to Howard Extension (as it was known in the 70's from Samford University) as a young boy, then later got my Bachelor's from Samford.  Then on to New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary with a Master of Divinity degree. It could almost be said I have studied the Bible either formally or informally all my life.

But even with that, I was not great with the Biblical languages.  I struggled and still do.  I can look at those who took Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic (some of the Old Testament was written in Aramaic) and say, "I can't do what they do."

Saying all of that... maybe some look at me and think the same.  (I'm not sure why if you only knew my lack of learning too).  But maybe this is just the fallacy of human nature believing some things only certain people can know or experience.

Acts 4: 13 said of Peter and John, "When they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished.  And they recognized they had been with Jesus."

Now, Peter and John were not ignorant.  They were businessmen who owned a fishing company.  So they were smart men.  What the Sanhedrin was saying of them is they never went to rabbinical school to officially be educated in the art of biblical interpretation, or the traditions of the elders and rabbis.  

Maybe that could be said of you?  It can even be said of me because I did not get a Ph.D. majoring in Greek and New Testament or Hebrew and the Old Testament. 

But Peter and John shocked those who had the "degrees" because they knew the Word of God and the life of Jesus came through them.

Let me say it plainly...as believers who all have equal access to the Holy Spirit (the only teacher of the Word of God) and the Word of God, there are no "favorites" or "upperclassmen" with God.  We all can know Him, the Word, and the fullness of the Spirit of God in our lives. 

The only hindrance to this is not our education or heritage, but our discipline.  If we commit ourselves to being a student of the Word relying on the Spirit of God, there is no respecter of persons.

What an encouragement to our discipleship ministry here at Rainsville First and to every believer!!!!

The Purpose of the Book of Revelation

Revelation is my favorite book in the Bible that I have spent less time in than any other book.  Really.  I have never been drawn to Revelation to get a "scoop" on when the end is coming and I will be out of here.  And then I saw it one day that totally changed my perspective and love of Revelation.

The very first chapter, the very first verse, and the very first words: "The Revelation of Jesus Christ." Oh, this is the title of the book and this is what the book is about?  The book of Revelation is about Jesus Christ and not the end times.  It was then I began falling in love with the book.

Have you seen it, too?  Do you see it now?  Since Jesus is the love of my life, my Saviour from my sins, and my Lord and Master, then anything about Him I want to read.  And what a story it is.

Chapter one is a picture of Jesus we don't see anywhere else in Scripture.  That voice, his head and hair white as snow, eyes like fire, feet like brass, and in His hands are stars and a sword.  That is a different picture than Jesus stooping down to wash their feet or hanging naked on the cross in humiliation. 

Make no doubt about it, the book of Revelation contains some weird and gross scenes that are hard to explain and figure out.  But if the overarching theme over it all is Jesus is the Victor, then trying to figure out who the horns of the beast are.  I'm not saying they are not important, I'm saying seeing Jesus in all of the story is FAR more important.

So what is the response to seeing Jesus in Revelation?

John, the author, was the one who leaned on the breast of Jesus when they both were on the earth together.  Now, having seen the Lord in this position, he falls as a dead man at his feet (1:17), and there is constant worship and praise of this Lamb in Revelation 4-5 resulting in again falling at his feet to worship him (19:10).

Our Jesus is in control of the details of the end of the world and NOTHING and NO ONE will change that fact.  What comfort!!  What peace!! What reason to praise Him!!  No wonder there is a blessing promised to those who read Revelation (1:3).  

The Lord's Day (February 18, 2024) at Rainsville First Baptist Church

We, in America, really don't take naming children as seriously as they do in other parts of the world, and certainly has important as in Bible days.  The Biblical characters, names had meaning reflecting a dream or purpose for the child or answering what God is doing in the parents' life at the time of birth.

This is seen clearly in the life of Jacob when his eleven sons are named as recorded in Genesis 29-30.  As we observed last Sunday, these names reflected the turmoil of Leah and Rachel as they fought among themselves for the love of Jacob and to bear his children.

But these names were also prophetic and this is what we will discover together this Sunday as we gather for worship.  Each name will paint a picture of the future of their lives lived out from Egypt to the height of the Kingdom of David.  But this progression is also a story of the Gospel.

After the resurrection of Jesus, He was traveling road to Emmaus with some disciples when Luke 24:27 tells us "And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself."

This Sunday we will see how the naming of the sons of Jacob (who will later be called the twelve tribes of Israel) is a foreshadowing of Jesus and the Gospel.

The Impact of a Local Church

Local churches (community churches) seem to be getting a bad rap these days as being out-of-touch and slow to change.  But I believe the local church is still God's chief headquarters.  When I read the New Testament, Paul always identified the churches by the towns in which they served.  It was always a local church.

But the church is more than a location, it is a people.  I remember the story of Dr. W.A. Criswell, infamous pastor of First Baptist Church, Dallas, TX - at the time the largest Southern Baptist church in the world.  A reporter came to visit one day to his office asking about the ministry there.  As the interview was coming to an end, the reporter asked Dr. Criswell if he could see the church.  The Pastor responded with a surety but did not immediately make jesters to leave the room for a tour.  After a few minutes, the reporter pressed again to which Dr. Criswell replied, you will have to come back Sunday.  The church today is scattered all over the world. But on Sunday, it will come back together.

When I think about the local church in Rainsville called Rainsville First Baptist Church (where I am privileged to be pastor), I am amazed at the reach this church has from a small community.  We reach nine schools in DeKalb County as students and teachers serve in these areas.  Plus, we have students in seventeen different colleges. We have people who work from south Tennessee to Marshall County to Huntsville to west Georgia.  We have others who may be in Florida today and Arizona next week.  During the course of a year, you will find individuals and teams going to places like Massachusetts, Honduras, Nicaragua, Uganda, and other places where God is calling.

While the place where the church meets in located at 223 Church Avenue in Rainsville, AL., the church scattered is all over the world.  Don't underestimate what God can do through His local church. 

The Power of the States

Our forefathers, as I view history, always intended for the states to have more power and the federal government to have limited powers.  It seems over the course of the last 50-75 years the opposite is true, but with the overturning of Roe vs Wade I believe we are seeing the power reverting back to the states.

I know many are complaining that currently 28 of the states (see the chart here) have limited or no access to abortion in their state, but I thank God I live in a state where the leaders and majority of the people want a very tight reign on abortion.  In fact, Alabama was ready and didn't have to wait one day to have their laws to go into effect for almost no abortions in this state.  

Look at the state of Florida.  In 60 years, they have gone from a population of 5 million to 22 million (2020 census).  That is shocking.  And look at where the state of Florida is today politically.  Governor Ron DeSantis has been caring and leading that state so strongly to the conservative right that many thought he would be the next Republican nominee for President.  While I would agree he would make a good president, I am glad he is staying in the state of Florida to continue to lay out a plan and a pattern for other states to follow who wish to become more conservative.

As President, I'm afraid Governor DeSantis would have been handcuffed from implementing many of the programs and plans he had in Florida.  Every football coach will tell you he may have some great plans, but great players also make him better.  Every pastor will tell you, he may have a vision but great leaders around him and a great church to follow will always make him look better.

From library book selections, to state income tax, to school choice, and to abortion, Florida is one of the leaders.  DeSantis has recently began pushing for young people under the age of 16 not be allowed on any social media platforms. And people are flocking there because they want to live with other conservative people.

So let's continue to empower the states.  If you don't like to live in a state that is conservative, then the borders are open and you are free to move to a state like California that might suit your taste better.

The Lord's Day (February 11, 2024) at Rainsville First Baptist Church

Michael Bolton sings "When a Man Loves a Woman." But tomorrow as we gather for worship and open our Bibles again to Genesis 29-30, we will discover a different version of the song entitled "When a Man Does Not Love a Woman."  

Genesis is the book of "firsts." This is the first story of a romance in the Bible.  All the other marriages hadeen arranged, and certainly this one was, as well, by Laban; just not in the order Jacob had expected.

Genesis 29:31 is one of the saddest verses in the Bible when it reads "When the Lord saw that Leah was unloved."  First of all, this is a wife (Leah) who was not being loved by her husband, Jacob.  Second, this is the Lord confirming that, not Leah. 

We will watch as she reveals her grief and hurts through her children.  The second saddest verse is the next verse when Reuben is born (her first born) and she says, "Now, my husband will love me."  We will deal with the fallacies women experience to be loved.

But the real issue in this story is not Leah, but Jacob.  We will bring the New Testament into our day of living out love in a marriage when Ephesians 5:25 instructs "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for it..."

Jacob did not love Leah.  That is the real issue in this story.

Join us tomorrow for worship at Rainsville First Baptist Church at 10:15.  

The Importance of Corporate Worship

COVID presented us with our lives forever changed in one way or another.  There is no more true than when it comes to the church.  For the first time in our lifetime, church doors were closed and worship services were canceled for weeks.  I can still hear Joey Hall saying the first Sunday back "I didn't realize how important coming to worship regularly was and how much I missed it."

This brings me to this question, Is corporate worship all that important?  All of our life is worship to God as Paul said in Roamns 12: 2 "...present your bodies a living sacrifice, which is your spiritual worship." So is worship with the gathered family of God important? necessary?

In Genesis 4: 26 after Cain's offering was rejected and Abel's offering accepted, it says "At that time people began to call upon the name of the Lord."  We don't know the regulation of that in a corporate way, but there was certainly a group of people together "calling on the name of the Lord."

From Exodus 20 where God gives special instructions to gather on the seventh day of the week under the old covenant to moving to the first day of the week under the new covenant (John 20:19; Acts 20:7; I Corinthians 16:2; Revelation1:10) to commemorate the resurrection of Jesus Christ; God's people have gathered regularly, systematically, to worship.

In this context, we hear the Word of God read and preached, we pray as one, we sing, and we celebrate the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper together.  

There is no substitute for a pattern of corporate worship. No wonder Hebrews 10:25 challenges us not to "neglect to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near."

This Lord's Day (February 4, 2024) at Rainsville First Baptist Church

There is a book written about nine years ago that I have not read, I do not know the content of, and I do not recommend it.  But I like the title:  "The Five Times I Met Myself."  Now if you have read the book and you want to blast me for even mentioning it here on a pastor's blog, then just hold off.  I want to "use" the book and not "recommend" the book.

I want to use the title because it is exactly what Jacob in Genesis 29-30 is about to do.  As we come to worship tomorrow, we will discover Jacob gets to his uncle's house after traveling some 550 miles from the life-changing encounter he had with Jesus (Genesis 28: 10-22).  When he goes to find a bride, he does so on the first day.  He met Rachel who was beautiful in appearance (29:17) and it was "love at first sight."  But there was one problem that never crossed his mind for seven years...she was the younger sister to Leah and Laban was not going to break custom permitting the younger to get married before the older.  So, after seven years of working for Rachel, on his wedding night he is "tricked" into getting Leah.  

How will Jacob respond?  Because this is Jacob "meeting himself" in Laban for Jacob is a trickster, deceiver, and stealing the blessing of the older for the younger.  How will he respond?

Tomorrow, the Lord willing, we will take this to the New Testament and give some answers about what happens when a person becomes a believer, is converted, encounters Jesus - and becomes a new man but still has times to deal with his old self?