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Thursday, October 30, 2014 DeWitt Era-Enterprise • dewitt-ee.com
FAITH & RELIGION WEEKLY SERMON
Sermon of the Week
The Approaching Storm
By William Wood
By Tom Smith
We live in a world that is tottering on the brink of destruction! And though destruction is most certainly on the way, there has never been a time when The Merciful God has not sent warnings first. As a general rule His warnings have come through the voice of His anointed prophets. This method was established in Exodus 20: 18-19, when God Himself spoke to the Isralites from the mountain, and the people were afraid of the voice that sounded like thunder, and made the mountain shake. They said to Moses, “You speak to us but let not God speak to us lest we die!” At the request of the people, God consented to speak through Moses from that time on. Moses was a God Ordained prophet, and God has seen fit to use prophets from that day to this. It is an amazing thing to see how far the modern church has drifted from this principle of God. It shows how the traditions of men have replaced the Word of God. To speak about a modern day prophet, as promised in the Holy Scriptures, is to instantly stir up distrust in our listeners! This is so in spite of the clear statement of the Scriptures, declaring a five-fold ministry sent to perfect God’s Bride. Five offices that God has placed in the New Testiment Church, Eph. 4: 11-12 “And He gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers.” Verse 12 “For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, or the edifying of the Body of Christ.” We realize that part of the distrust concern in prophets has come because of self-appointed prophets, seeking their own glory. We know those men are around, but they only bear record that there are true ones. A bogus twenty dollar bill could never be passed if the merchants didn’t know that the Government had printed some real twenty dollar bills. Neither could a false prophet gain an audience except the people are looking for a true one. Thank God for a few people who do not try to do away with the prophet mentioned in Eph. 4:11. Some folks will receive apostles, evangelists, pastors and teachers, but not the fifth office of prophets! To those people ask this question, do you know that in Rev. 22:19 God has said, “If any man take one word away from the words of this book, God shall take away his part out of The Book of Life.” The Word of God is here to stay, and therefore His Prophets are here to stay. If I were you I would try to change the five-fold ministry into a four-fold ministry! Our duty as Christians is to believe all the Word, and it is the duty of ministers to remind the people of the Revealed Word. My burden is to show by the Scriptures that the Lord God of the Prophets has not changed His way of sending prophets, no, not even in these New Testiment days! Two thousand years ago Jesus started the New Testament Church. He called twelve disciples and taught them His Word. He also called 70 more ministers and sent them to preach. Then 120 people obeyed Him and went to the upper room and received the Holy Ghost. Yet in spite of these called and taught ones, He saw fit to send a mighty Prophet to the church at Jerusalem after He had ascended. His name was Paul, he was both apostle and Prophet. If the so newly organized church at Jerusalem needed a Prophet to line them out on the Scripture, how much more do we need one today. Two thousand years down the road we have become full of man-made traditions. Amen (To be continued.)
A Thought By Michael P. Daniel
“Jesus said [to Joseph and Mary], ‘Why did you seek Me? Did you not know I must be about My Father’s business?’ But they did not understand the statement which He spoke to them.” Luke 2:49-50 Recall that the Holy Family had gone to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover. On this particular occasion it is believed Jesus was about 12 years old. We can only imagine the panic which surely gripped Mary and Joseph when they finally realized Jesus was not with them as they were headed back to Nazareth. When they found Him in the Temple, He was interacting with the religion teachers and “astounding” them with His questions and answers. It is the answer Jesus gave to His parents, however, that is at the heart of the story and speaks to us today in the midst of our busy-ness and subsequent spiritual thirst. We cry out to The Lord and expect Him to come running as we seek His comfort and care in the midst of our self-pity. Hardly ever do we consider what His answer would be when we finally found Him: “Did you not know I must be about My Father’s business?” It is so easy and comforting to take a few bits and pieces of the Gospel stories to justify our reasonable expectation that Jesus will come when He is summoned, but it is much more difficult to comprehend the certain reality that searching for Jesus is going to take us to places we might rather not be as Jesus goes “about My Father’s business”! Where will we find Him? Exactly where He expects to be found: in the pain and suffering of those who mourn, in the growling of young bellies in perpetual hunger, in the hearts of young parents with a cancerstricken child, in the loneliness of the shut-in. We will not often find Jesus in the comfortable and “cool” places on Sunday morning (though this is where we will find one another AND the Holy Spirit). Rather we will find Him going “about the Father’s business”, showing us where He expects us to be found, where He wants us to find Him: in the midst of pain and suffering and loneliness and hunger and doubt and fear. He wants us to find Him there because He wants us to be there with Him, with His beloved who need Him – and who
The storm clouds are gathering. Such is the best way to describe what happened a couple of weeks ago when Houston mayor, Annise Parker, the first openly gay mayor of a major American city, basically declared war on some local pastors. She had her city attorney serve subpoenas on several pastors after they opposed an anti-discrimination law she’d proposed in May. What was the proposed ordinance? Known as the Bathroom Bill, it allowed transgender persons to file a complaint and bring charges if they are denied access to a bathroom. Simply put, it would let them choose which bathroom they used, i.e., the men’s or the women’s. So, five concerned Houston-area pastors led an effort to oppose the measure and collected over 50,000 signatures—three times the number required— to force a voter referendum on the issue. But, the city’s attorney disallowed the signature, citing “irregularities,” which prompted four other people to file a lawsuit challenging his decision. That’s when the mayor resorted to gestapo-type tactics. She instructed the city attorney, David Feldman, to issue subpoenas ordering the five pastors to turn over sermons, speeches and papers related to the hotly-contested gender rights ordinance. The reason? To show that the pastors were using their pulpits for political reasons. Even though the Texas attorney general sent a strongly-worded letter to the city attorney calling for a withdrawal of the subpoenas, as of this writing they were still active. So, it will be interesting to see what transpires in all of this in the coming days. Regardless, the fact that Mayor Parker and the city attorney would even resort to such heavy-handed tactics sends a dangerous signal to us all. In reality, their demanding copies of the pastors’ sermons or articles is a violation of the First Amendment’s protection of free expression. And, if their efforts are upheld in court, we’d all better batten down the hatches for the approaching storm on religious freedom.
need us. The religion of our Christian faith hinges on this perpetual search; finding The Lord in what we would consider the most unlikely places – AND – understanding there is a reason why He wants to be found among the “least”, the “last”, and the “lost” … because this is where He needs US to be found, “going about the Father’s business”. Blessings, Michael
Part of what’s grievous in all of this is that the five pastors subpoenaed weren’t even part of the lawsuit against the city. They simply led in the gathering of signatures to call for a voter referendum against the Bathroom ordinance. Thus, the city’s subpoenas are blatant, political thuggery at its worst and a clear violation of religious liberty. The real agenda here, it would seem, is Ms. Parker’s hatred of those who consider homosexuality a sin. And, in reality, she’s wanting to silence any pastors from preaching that from their pulpits. This sounds like Hitler’s tactics prior to World War II as he came against outspoken pastors like Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Martin Niemoller. When they warned their parishioners of his real agenda, they were imprisoned. Bonhoeffer would later be executed on April 9, 1945. Sadly, many of the Lutheran churches embraced Hitler’s efforts to “unite the German churches and regain the glory of the Fatherland.” They replaced their large altar Bibles with copies of his book, Mein Kampf, and even hung swastikas with embroidered crosses in the center in their sanctuaries. So, yes, dear Reader, there is a clear-and-present danger in what’s happening down in Houston. What’s at stake is religious liberty. Little by little, whether through warnings here, an intimidating letter there or subpoenas, our freedoms are under attack. And, the message is the same: be quiet or suffer the consequences. Here’s praying pastors all across our land will not give in to such pressure. Instead, like Bonhoeffer, Niemoller and the countless thousands of other Christian patriots in the past, may we stand firm and united. Otherwise, the time will come when we wish we had. God bless you. (NOTE: If you’d like to contact Bro. Tom or receive his daily e-mail devotional, entitled “Morning Manna,” you can write him at P.O. Box 10614, Fort Smith, AR 72917 or e-mail him at pressingon@hotmail.com).
Join Us For
October 31st Unity Baptist Church 6:00-8:00 p.m. Free food, candy and games!
Unity Baptist Church Community Clothes Closet - Free clothing for those in need -
The Lutheran Churches of South Arkansas County Invite You To Worship:
St. Luke Lutheran St. Paul Lutheran Church Church 903 E. 2nd St.-DeWitt Corner of 2nd & RoseGillett 548-2554 946-2312 Sunday School 9:45 a.m. Sunday Worship Sunday Worship 9:00 a.m. 10:45 a.m.
Where Jesus Christ Is Always Present In Word and Sacrament Pastor Chad Philipp
823 W 4th St. 2nd & 4th Tuesday & Thursday each month from 9:30 - 11:30 a.m. New and gently used clothing, coats, shoes and day to day necessities. *All donations must be clean and in good condition (no rips, stains or broken zippers).