Rest Assured

Posted on April 26, 2013 by Cape Bible Chapel

The pitter-patter of rain is singing me to sleep.  I’m here in my office, writing a blog post that was supposed to be finished by 10 am.  The day has been part hustle, part bustle, and weary-making task after task in between.

And in all the to-do, I’ve come to realized this: I need a nap.

Truly, is there anything quite like rest?  The weekend is nigh and for some of us that will mean a bit of much-needed rest.  And that is the thing of it: we need rest.  It is a gift and a necessity all in one.

This weekend we will focus on the Fourth Commandment in our ongoing “Write It on Your Heart” sermon series.  But what does the Sabbath have to do with us nowadays?  Is this a throwaway commandment that has no place post New Testament?

We’ll look into that notion and the meaning and purpose of rest.  I hope you find a quiet moment this weekend.  I hope you join us for one of our services.  And, most importantly, I hope you rest in the Lord and glorify Him even in your sleep.

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Going off into the Wild Blue Yonder

Posted on April 24, 2013 by Cape Bible Chapel

With graduation season upon us, Judith Hargett weighs in on her post-high school entrance into the wider world.

When I began my senior year of high school, I knew change was coming.  Though I don’t remember ever being told, it was understood that graduation meant the need to find some way to support myself.  College, at least at that time, was not an option.  For the most part, room and board was considered my pay for any work I did on the family farm.  This was reasonable pay considering what a good cook my mother was, but it was hard to buy a car with such wages.  No car. No skills. What to do?  In an attempt to appear like I was making a good faith effort, I sent off for information on the military.

Apparently they needed women.  A recruiter soon showed up on our doorstep.  I quickly decided I had no intention of joining the military. Graduation day arrived.  No magical options had appeared. I was soon on my way to St. Louis for my induction into the Air Force.    I left behind the fertile farmland of Southeast Missouri and marched onto the humidity infested basic training grounds of San Antonio, Texas.

One of the purposes of boot camp was to teach discipline and discourage the questioning of authority, no matter how foolish the orders seemed.  I was in shock and despair the first few weeks.  What had I done?  Was Paul talking about these people when he wrote, “Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established.  The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.” (Romans 13:1-2)

I had always submitted to authorities in my life:  parents, teachers, police and church leaders; but these drill sergeants were impossible to please!  No toothpaste was to be left in my toothbrush, no hair in my curlers, no dirty clothes in the laundry bag, absolutely no wrinkles in my bed and no pushing up the glasses that were barely hanging on the end of my nose, as a result of the excessive humidity, while marching.  Eventually, I committed an offense so awful it couldn’t be ignored.  I left a stocking in the laundry room.  Could the enemy use this to bring down our government?  I was called into the sergeant’s office.  What would be my punishment?  100 pushups? (I couldn’t even do one.) Scouring the bathroom with a toothbrush? No. That was normal duty.  I think the Holy Spirit must have intervened on my behalf as my mind had gone numb with dread. After all, according to Paul, “…the Spirit helps us in our weakness.  We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.” (Romans 8:26)   What was my punishment?  I was to write an essay on why I left my stocking in the laundry room.  Really?

That assignment was a turning point.  I have no memory of what I wrote but it made the sergeants smile.  They turned into humans.  Life became bearable again.  My time in the military helped me develop an appreciation for orderliness (we serve a God of order), acceptance that some things have to be done based on faith and obedience, and that God can take our poor choices and use them for His purposes.  “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28)  The military also led to an opportunity to get a college degree that I had thought was an impossible goal.  The Air Force did, however, make me compulsive about hangers all facing the same direction.

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The Woeful State of Our Words

Posted on April 23, 2013 by Cape Bible Chapel

I caught an interesting news cycle before leaving for work this morning.  The story was, more or less, on profanity of all things.

First, it featured the hapless news-anchor whose career had finally arrived as he was on-set for his first ever live broadcast. Naturally, he was nervous: the lights, the camera, the heat of pressure and the sweat it is prone to produce.  So before going on-the-air, he muttered a therapeutic curse word.  The only problem was that he was on-air, and now, along with going viral, he is unemployed.

That story was segued to David Ortiz–a prominent Boston Red Sox slugger–giving a “Boston Strong” speech for the throngs at Fenway following the Marathon tragedy. His own miscue wasn’t due to nerves; no, it was passion that had the all-star declare in “adult language” that Boston was his and the crowd’s city.  The FCC watched the tape of the incident and decided not to fine Ortiz or the Red Sox stating that Ortiz was speaking “from the heart.”

Well that’s just the thing of it, isn’t it?  What the FCC claimed not only boosted their public image, giving them a laid-back “every man” feel for the first time ever, but it revealed a much deeper truth: Truly all speech is from the heart.

In speaking to the high-brow religious types, Jesus said: “For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart” (Matthew 12:34).

This weekend we didn’t discuss the shortest anchorman career ever or David Ortiz’s speech, but we did spend a spell on the Third Commandment and how it reveals our hearts.

You see, God isn’t some Cosmic FCC President censoring our speech and looking for language worthy of a fine.  He is not checking our motives because, God knows, our motives reveal us, and they do so through our mouths.  We are defined by what we say, and our words declare the inner-workings of our heart: our beliefs, our dreams, our desires, our philosophy.

And when viewed this way–from the inside out–it becomes very apparent that, in our modern speech, we do not value God.  We do not see Him as supreme and authoritative and creator and all-powerful.  We speak of Him irreverently as some superstition or a subject to be mastered or in jest, but we do not honor Him in our hearts as evidenced by the tattling rattle of our tongues.

Listen to the message on http://www.capebiblechapel.org on how we misuse God’s name and how to use it correctly.  But even more importantly, subscribe to what the Holy Spirit is saying and if it is congruent with the things uttered from your mouth. When we take a listen to our words, it perhaps becomes possible to take measure of all they are and all they aren’t, and, in doing so, see all our heart is in light of what it could be in Jesus Christ.

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What’s In the Name?

Posted on April 19, 2013 by Cape Bible Chapel

For Romeo and Juliet, names made all the difference.  The smitten pair just had the wrong last names is all.  If Romeo would have been Romeo Anderson or Romeo Smith, well, a happily ever after would have ensued and Disney would have bought up the rights to the Shakespearean play and turned it to some animated adventure–in space or underwater or some such thing.  But Juliet knew names mattered and attempted to rationalize her was around this fact, and while Romeo eavesdropped on his damsel, she uttered: “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”

Well, we all know how the tragedy of the star-crossed lovers unfurled because, in the end, names truly do matter.

This weekend, we’ll jump back into the “Write It on Your Heart” Series in covering the Third Commandment which says: “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain.”

Why does it matter what we say?  It is just a name—just words—after all, right?

Well this weekend we will tackle why it matters and the honor due to the name of the Lord by honing in on His reputation, His character, and His authority.

We’ll also define how we take the Lord’s name in vain through our profanity, our frivolity, our forgery, and our hypocrisy.

Truly, this message will challenge our tongue, mind, and heart.  And hopefully, we will leave a more reverent people than we came, knowing, at least in one instance, what truly is in the Name above all names.

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Posted on April 16, 2013 by Cape Bible Chapel

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, remember all that?  Recall how God tactically went about creating things each day?  After each day, God would assess the day’s activity and nod with approval: “It is good.”

Then God made man, and remember what He said then?

“Very good.”  How great is that? Isn’t it awesome to think that God saw placid seas and majestic mountains and surreal, unpolluted sunsets and animals untold and all the rest, but in view of all these fascinating, good things, He looked at mankind and said, “While that was all good, this is very good.”  God truly is love.

But then in Genesis 2 God sees something He doesn’t much like and comments on it: “It is not good for the man to be alone.”

And hence, man and woman are linked together from that day forth.  Man needed woman, and woman was made to be a “life-saver” for man.  It is a beautiful picture.  Imagine Adam and Eve skipping around the Garden, subduing the earth and building dominion.  You can’t picture them too vividly for the perfect beauty of the scene.  We can only see it through fallen eyes, but they were there and there was much joy.

Linked they remained, even in sin.  Woman fell prey to the wiles of the serpent, and man stood passively by, waiting his turn to join in the disobedience.

And when the punishment came down from the Lord in the form of a curse, naturally it had consequences for this symbiotic earthly relationship.

For woman, pain in childbearing would follow.  She was made to multiply, yet now this mandate would be painfully undergone, as each mother on earth can attest. Furthermore, the woman was told that her “desire” would be for her husband yet he would rule over her.  This statement implies that what was meant as a peaceable, lovely relationship would somehow turn and the woman would be met with anguish and trouble rather than the unwavering joy which was intended for the relationship.

For man, dominion would be made difficult.  The earth he was supposed to subdue would no longer be a willing participant. Toil and hardship would dog the man’s steps.  And while the woman is not mentioned in the curse of the man, it is folly to think she was not affected.  As man turns repeatedly towards his toilsome work, it causes him to neglect and forget his partner, the very one given to help the woebegone soul!

And such is a picture of the modern marriage and a reason for the great divide that gender can be.  As we heard this weekend, men plod along neglecting the very gift given toward easing their existence.  Husbands neglect their wives in pursuit of promotion, identity, or some far-fetched goal they dupe themselves into thinking will make all the difference in life.

But there is hope for restoration in Christ.  While the world will remain fallen, our families can be havens, relics of a former world and a picture of the model of perfect union that is Christ and the Church.  And that isn’t to say we won’t slip up.  We’ll have arguments and make mistakes. We’ll sin.  But if a generation of men would look to Christ for strength and begin leading courageously, marriages would become more akin to their created purpose.

For bible-based instruction on how to be a courageous, godly man who honors marriage and family while striving for holiness, listen to the past weekend’s three Men’s Weekend Messages on the Chapel website (www.capebiblechapel.org).  We hope men will be blessed and challenged by God’s Word on the subject of biblical manhood.

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Men’s Weekend

Posted on April 12, 2013 by Cape Bible Chapel

Ladies and Gentlemen, it is time for our annual men’s weekend. What this means is that all three services will be unique and we invite you to attend all three services!  Ladies, even though we so rudely crossed you out to open this post, you are a big part of this!  We would like you to attend the services as well so that you can help hold the men in your life accountable.

After the Saturday Evening service, all men are welcome to stick around for a time of recreation and some delicious, free barbecue (it is always tastier when it is free, right?).  We’ll have ping pong, octaball, 9-Square in the Air, basketball and more, so whether you are an athlete supreme or you just want to see a good show, stick around for some fun and manly relationship-building.

We hope to see a full building all weekend, but even more so we hope to see families fully living the abundant life of the Gospel.  Come be filled this weekend and go and live filled in Jesus Christ.

Services are Saturday @ 5 pm, Sunday @ 9 am, and Sunday @ 10:30 am.  Recreation and meal time will be @ 6:30 pm and you can stay for as long or as short as you’d like.

 

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Wisdom from Talking Beavers

Posted on April 9, 2013 by Cape Bible Chapel

This weekend we focused on idols, and how we so love to worship them.

It is absurd, yes, to place God into some minute thing of which He holds prominence over, yet time and time again we bow before our little gods.  We do this to isolate, reduce, and control God, wanting to make him small, safe, and tame.

It makes me think of the talking beavers in CS Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.  In discussing Aslan to the children who have stumbled into Narnia, Mr. Beaver says this:

“’Safe?’ said Mr. Beaver; ‘don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.’”

Isn’t that the way it is with God?  He was never meant to be controlled by our little ideas and conceptions and theories.  He is the One to whom we must surrender our little ideas and conceptions and theories. We, our very lives, are subject to Him;  He’s the King, after all.

And the problem with idolatry is that it places in objects what only the person of God can fulfill.  Idols disappoint, dominate, deform, destroy, duplicate.  And at the end of all that tired run of harmful alliteration, idols leave you empty and searching or dead and gone.  There is no life in them; there is no fulfillment.

No man, woman, idea, activity, nothing under or over the sun, no thing beneath or on the earth, is worthy of worship.  Only God, and He alone, deserves our praise and adoration.

Let us lay our idols down, trading once and for all the counterfeit for the real thing.

You can hear the message in the media section of http://www.capebiblechapel.org and we hope you will join us as we continue to study the ten commandments.

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You Don’t Have to Come to Church This Weekend

Posted on April 5, 2013 by Cape Bible Chapel

We don’t tend to say this, but I think it is a safe comment for this week so here goes: “You don’t have to come to church this weekend. The message probably isn’t for you.”

I mean, we’re talking about idols after all.  Surely, you don’t have any of those lurking around your heart, do you?  Try as I might, I can’t think of a single-solitary thing I put before my devout love and obedience of God . . .

Okay, so maybe I need to come this week and mark my calendar for the week we cover the ninth commandment.

The fact is I have idols.  But I just don’t have them, either.  No, I love them and care for them and nurture them and horde them and hide them and protect them.  That last might be the scariest, for it causes me, on a week like this when I know church will be about idols, to run the other way from God’s teaching.  Maybe I’ll get sick or find some other way out of confronting these things keeping me from the Lord.

If I do show up–and if you do too–we will hear from God.  We’ll hear about our propensity to worship lackluster gods, deities like sports, hobbies, celebrities, fashion, work, money, family . . . and the list could go woefully on and on.  We take bad things and put them before God and we take good things–things He created and gave us–and sully them unrecognizable from their intended beauty.

We’ll hear about all that and we’ll hear why these things harm us so.  We’ll hear how they leave us empty and searching and unfulfilled.

But, most importantly, we’ll hear hope.

We do not have to bow before tyrannical false gods.  We do not need to wobble in our worship of woebegone things.

So again, “You don’t have to come to church this weekend.”

But if you do, expect God to be there.  Expect to bow before him.  Expect to repent and offer Him–and Him alone–your first fruits.

Trampling idols can be cruel, hard business. But truly is there anything better than a refreshed heart bent in worship to the Almighty God?

We hope to see you this weekend as we allow God to “Write It on Our Hearts.”

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A Global Perspective Here at Home

Posted on April 3, 2013 by Cape Bible Chapel

By: Ty Williams

What does it mean to have a global perspectvive as a Christian? In Matthew 28, we are called to make disciples of all nations. This is a difficult task, but with Christ’s guidance and help, it can and will be accomplished. However, as individual Christians, and also corporately as a Church, it is important that we find and understand our role in this mission so that we are able to impact not just our nation, but many other nations as well.

Two summers ago, I had the opportunity to go to Northern India to spend time with some pastors. While I was there, I felt The Lord had really laid it on my heart that as a Christian it was important that not only must I impact my nation, but I also must in some way impact other nations as well. In saying all of this, first and foremost, it is important that we as Christians are engaging in Christ’s mission right in front of us by sharing Christ with our family, friends, and coworkers. Many times, people can become so focused on world missions, they forget the mission field that exists within their family, friends, and even within their own city.

Yet the opposite can be true of other Christians. Many times we can become so focused on the mission right in front of us, we forget about the numerous needs of the world. According to David Platte, “More than 4.5 billion people in the world today are without Christ. If this fact were not serious enough, more than a billion of these people have never even heard the gospel.”  Platte continues, “If this is true, then the implications for our lives are huge. If more than a billion people today are headed to a Christ-less eternity without ever hearing the gospel, then we don’t have time to waste our lives on anything else.” Because of this we must have a global perspective not only individually, but also corporately as a church.

As mentioned earlier, as Christians we are able to engage in the mission right in front of us interacting with our family and friends with the purpose of seeing them come to know Christ. We can get involved with the local mission by serving food in poorer areas of the city, and also by giving some of our clothes and extra belongings that we have to those in need, with the aim of showing and sharing the Gospel. But then the question still remains, how do we impact the nations when we still live here in the United States?

First, I think to know how to do this, we have to look to the Scriptures. In Matthew 9:36-38, Jesus said, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few, therefore, pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into the harvest field.” From this verse it is clear that through prayer we are able to have one foot in the nations. We can pray that the Lord would send missionaries overseas, and we can pray that the Lord would raise up indigenous pastors, teachers, and laborers overseas who are faithful to the task they have been given.

Then in Romans 10:14-15, we find Paul saying, “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!’” From these verses, we can surmise that a primary way for people to believe in the Gospel is through hearing it, and in order to hear, people must be sent to them. And so, even though we ourselves are not the ones going overseas, we are still able to send and support those who do. In doing so, we become the ones holding the rope for those who are overseas.

Another way we are able to impact the nations is by welcoming international students and refugees who come to our country. On Southeast Missouri State’s campus alone, there are students who hail from Japan, China, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, and many more. Hundreds of International Students right here in Cape! By simply welcoming these visitors into our homes, we can make a big difference in their lives, and open up doors for the Gospel in all sorts of places and with people we may never meet.

Along with this, we are able to have one foot in the nations by supporting indigenous pastors and teachers in their respective countries. A few more ideas include sponsoring children through Compassion, Kids Alive, or another Gospel-centered agency; adopting Scripture translation projects; adopting un-reached or un-engaged people groups around the world who are in need of a Christian witness. All of these things are easy for us as Christians to do, even while we live here in America.

We have been blessed to be a blessing to others (Gen 12), and by God’s grace He has given  us many ways that we are able to do this locally, but also among the nations. Remember, this isn’t merely a task of obligation, but should be done because we have been compelled by the love of Christ. Christ has given up everything to save us, may we be willing to have open hands to the resources the Lord has gifted us with, so that we may bless all the peoples’ of the world.

Some helpful resources include:

Books: Operation World, Let the Nations Be Glad, Radical

Websites: Joshua Project, IMB (Embrace), Seed company, Pioneers, Navigators.org, Urbana.org, http://www.travelingteam.org

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Today and Every Day After

Posted on April 2, 2013 by Cape Bible Chapel

1 Corinthians 15:3-4 says, “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures . . .”

These were the words of Paul to the Church in Corinth, and these words echoed throughout our building, and many buildings like ours, on Easter Sunday. “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and He was buried, and He rose again . . .”

We know how the Easter service goes.  We can guess what songs the choir or praise band will sing.  We know the passages the Pastor will preach; we can even guess at his illustrations.

It is Easter.  It comes and it goes, and once gone, we can turn our attention to baseball and spring and planning our summer vacations.

But what we must realize is that the truth celebrated at Easter is the same truth every day of the year, now and forever.  This fundamental thing, “of first importance,” must be preached daily into our lives, by others and by our very selves. The Gospel, like Jesus on that world-shifting Sunday morn millenia ago, is very much alive, each and every day.

The importance for the believer to live in light of Easter each day flows from the fact that many lead Easter-less lives.  Much of the world still hangs on the Cross that God sent His Son for.  Many are still encased in a tomb of death even though, in Christ, the stone has been rolled away.

Common responses to the truth Paul puts forth are:

1) To be skeptical.

2) To believe, but never respond in surrender to the truth and authority of Jesus Christ.

3) To follow Christ but not allow for the power of the resurrection to be unleashed fully in daily life.

For those in Christ, the response is clear: Celebrate Easter. Preach the Gospel to yourself on your commute, at work, at dinner. Allow for the power of the Gospel to become the focus of every task, and, in doing so, live a life of bold love which constantly gives off the fragrant aroma of Christ, hence prompting those around you to be in a constant state of decision: To join you in your love for Christ or neglect the truth.

For those outside Christ, maybe today is the day your world changes.  Perhaps now is the moment your eternity becomes sealed and you walk jubilantly out of the grave and into abundant life.  What a better day to surrender! It is, after all, Easter, yesterday, today, and every day after.

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