"For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face."
(1 Cor. 13:12)  

"...for we walk by faith, not by sight."
(2 Cor. 5:7)  

"And Lord, haste the day when the faith shall be sight."
(Horatio Spafford, from the hymn It Is Well With My Soul)

In this life, we must believe in things that we have not seen. We have not seen Jesus (1 Pet. 4:8), but we believe in him and we love him. And Jesus said that we are very blessed indeed when we believe in him without seeing him (John 20:29).

But won't it truly be a wonderful thing when we will see the things that we have previously only had faith in? Won't it be wonderful to see heaven—the great city that he has told us about and we have believed in? Won't it be wonderful to see the host of those whom God promised to save and we believed that he would?  Won't it be wonderful to see God in all of his glory? The God whom we have believed in through this life in spite of the fact that our eyes have not and will not behold him?

As our hearts long for eternity, we gladly echo Mr. Spafford's prayer: "Lord, haste the day when the faith shall be sight."

- Dan Lankford, minister

"...the heart of Asa was wholly true to the Lord all his days. And he brought into the house of the Lord the sacred gifts of his father and his own sacred gifts, silver, and gold, and vessels." (1 Kings 15:14-15)

The story of those gold & silver vessels becomes a bit of a theme throughout the story of Israel and God. Through the books of Kings & Chronicles, as various monarchs give away parts of the set, we get the impression that they are giving away part of their national relationship with God. And when the vessels are finally taken away by the king of Babylon (2 Kings 24:10-13 & 25:14-15), it is because the people have so fully rejected God that their home and their nation must be wrenched from their hands.

The evident problem with all of this is that these vessels were used for worship, and to see the people giving them away shows the extremely low value that they place on that worship. It reminds us that honest, heartfelt worship should always have a place of prominence in our lives. When we love God, we worship him. And conversely, when we do not worship him, it indicates our lack of love for him. King Asa's addition to the vessels of worship speaks to his deep appreciation of God's worthiness, and it is a lesson for us. To neglect worship is to neglect God himself. We dare not treat our worship with the same negligence as Israel's kings treated the Temple vessels.

- Dan Lankford, minister

"If God is for us, who can be against us?" (Rom. 8:31b)

The sentence above is made up of two clauses, and each one of them contains an important reminder—one to drive us on to diligent faithful living; the other to assure us that living like that is worth it.

"If God is for us..." means we must be in a proper relationship with him—one in which we are for him and he is for us. If we are against him, why should we demand that he should be for us? When we live as we should, we demonstrate that we are living for him. So as long as we are trying to do that, we can know with certainty that he is for us.

"...who can be against us?" There are obviously some people who will be against us; persecution is an eternal problem for God's people. But the rhetorical question (and the rest of the context at the end of Romans) shows us very clearly that their efforts will not stand. Jesus said that the gates of Hell will not prevail against his church (Mt. 16:18), and Peter said these words: "Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you will be blessed." (1 Pet. 3:13-14)

So today, give your best effort to live for God as you should, and as you do that, find peace and assurance in his promise that he is for you and no one else can stand against you.

- Dan Lankford, minister

"I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry." (2 Timothy 4:1-5)

For Kris & myself, it is our job to talk about the things of God and how that affects our lives. And as the above quote from the apostle Paul clearly indicates, that commission is anything but inconsequential.

But while it's our job to talk about those things, it's everybody's job to live them. What we preach is supposed to be so aligned with God's will that it is like the words of God himself (1 Peter 4:10-11), and those words have eternal implications for all of our lives.

Kris and I do our best to speak about God's will accurately and clearly so that it can be easily understood by our hearers. Let's make sure that all of us are doing out best to live God's will accurately and humbly so that it be easily seen by others.

- Dan Lankford, minister

Thus says the One who is high and lifted up,
who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy:
“I dwell in the high and holy place,
and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit,
to revive the spirit of the lowly,
and to revive the heart of the contrite.
For I will not contend forever,
nor will I always be angry;
for the spirit would grow faint before me,
and the breath of life that I made.
Because of the iniquity of his unjust gain I was angry,
I struck him; I hid my face and was angry,
but he went on backsliding in the way of his own heart.
I have seen his ways, but I will heal him;
I will lead him and restore comfort to him and his mourners,
creating the fruit of the lips.
Peace, peace, to the far and to the near,” says the Lord,
“and I will heal him."

- Isaiah 57:15-19, ESV

I've really been enjoying having two ministers for the past couple of months. Kris is obviously an extremely talented preacher, he exhibits genuine concern for lost souls, and he and I are building a great friendship while we work together between Sundays. I am increasingly thankful to have him as a friend and fellow worker in the Lord.

This past week, a few people have come to each of us and said the same thing: "I think Dan is the intellectual one and Kris is the emotional one." And you know what? We're both good with that as a recognition of our strengths, and we're both thankful to work together with our respective strengths. And here's a tiny little thing to consider in that regard:

God made us whole people—emotional and intellectual creatures. Each one may find he or she has a tendency to be more intellectual or more emotional at various times, but every person made in God's image is both. That's what makes us spiritual: the combination of the mind and the heart that the Bible refers to as the soul. It's part of what makes humans unique from the rest of creation, because it's part of how we are made in God's image.

That's why I like Kris' preaching so much. Because he preaches the word of God, my heart and my mind are being challenged. And I hope the same is true when I preach—that people's minds and hearts are touched by God's words. Kris and I are enjoying working together. Obviously, each one has his strengths, but together, we are both trying to preach the whole gospel to whole people.

"I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also; I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also." (1 Cor. 14:15)

- Dan Lankford, minister

The Thanksgiving holiday is a special one for Christians. Historically, it looks back to a time when a group of believers who were making serious efforts to follow only the teachings of Scripture gave thanks to God for the help he had given them in finding a new land in which to practice Christianity as they understood it. But theologically, it looks back way further than that.

When God created the first humans in his image and placed them in the Garden of Eden, God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food." (Gen. 2:29) So why did Adam and Eve eat the one kind of fruit that God had forbidden when they had every other kind of fruit available to them? The simple answer: ingratitude.

While it is certainly true that the underlying cause of every willful sin is pride (when we think our own way is a better choice than God's way), a case can be made that another underlying cause of every sin is ingratitude—a dissatisfaction with the rightful & wonderful blessings God has given us. Ingratitude leads to discontentment, discontentment leads to entitlement, and entitlement leads to arrogance, which gets us right back to the problem of pride that causes us to sin.

What do we do about this? We remember that Paul's encouragement to the Thessalonians is more than a cheap platitude—it is a divine command with the potential to increase our faithfulness and bring us eternal joy. "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."  (1 Thess. 5:16-18)

In the aftermath of last week’s shooting in Thousand Oaks, California, one news agency played a soundbite of a victim’s mother who said, “I don’t want prayers. I don’t want thoughts. I want gun control and I hope to God nobody else sends me any more prayers.”

In the aftermath of a natural disaster from a few years ago, one Christian tweeted: “When things like this happen, don’t pray. DO something.” Perhaps even more disheartening was the number of enthusiastic responses he received from other Christians.

Biblically-minded Christians are right to be saddened when we hear these things. We see the inconsistency in directing our hope to God and also refusing prayer. We see the inconsistency in another Christian’s thinking that prayer and action are contrasts when prayer is a most important first action in response to a major event. It hurts us to hear anyone—whether believer or not—belittle something so sacred and so wonderful as a prayer to the God of Heaven.

Because we know that it is more than a magic incantation to distance us from suffering. And we see that, even in moments of deep pain and deep outrage, rejecting prayer is not just a rejection of people who pray; it is a rejection of God to whom we pray. My hope for all of us is that we live and speak in such a way that the world becomes aware of how powerful prayer really is because they see how powerful God really is.

Far from being a simplistic distraction from one’s own pain or a heartless dismissal of someone else’s, prayer is how we approach God in our pain. It is a place to build and enjoy a relationship with God Almighty. It is—and it must always be—faithful Christians’ first response to wickedness and suffering in this world.

- Dan Lankford, minister

For Christian parents, one of the happiest days of the whole parenting experience must surely be when our children decide to commit their lives to Christ. Several years ago, before I had kids of my own, I was with a close Christian friend when his son was baptized. I said to him, "This must be a good day for a dad." And without missing a beat, he said, "This is the best day for a dad."

Here's something to think about in that situation: as a parent, what do you say to your kids after that momentous, eternity-shaping event? What should our first conversation with them be like?

I don't feel like I have a very complete answer to that question, but I've got a couple of ideas as I think ahead to what I will say to my own kids. It will probably involve a long and serious conversation early on. (More likely, it will involve several serious conversations when we sit in our house, and when we walk by the way, and when we lie down, and when we rise.) So as I'm thinking about that now, here are some of the things I will want them to hear from me:

• First, I want them to know that I am overjoyed at the choice they've made! I am thrilled that they have believed in Jesus enough to do something with that faith.
• Second, I want them to start thinking about the power & importance of prayer right away. It's hard to think of anything as powerful for fighting temptation, for overcoming doubt, and for truly enjoying the gift of salvation.
• Third, I want to warn them about the serious and unrelenting nature of temptation. It doesn't go away after you're baptized; in fact, your temptations will almost certainly get stronger. And you don't get to take them less seriously after you're baptized. It can become easy to downplay sin by thinking, "Now, if I sin, all I have to do is pray for forgiveness," but it's not okay to presume upon God's grace like that (Rom. 6:1).
• Fourth, I want to ask them some questions about their friends. Will those friendships help you walk with Christ? What will you be doing to light the way to Jesus for them?
• And finally (for now, anyway), I want to hear that my kids have some actionable plans for spending time with God. A commitment to Bible reading, a prayer time and journaling habit, a devotional study they're having with their Christian friends, or a tangible way to do some good works for others... something to ensure that their faith will be active.

There's probably plenty more that would be good to include in those first days of shepherding our children toward God when they become Christians. But I hope that even this helps us as parents to start thinking ahead and planning to help our kids as much as possible when they make their own choice to walk thru life & eternity with Jesus Christ.

- Dan Lankford, minster

Several months ago, I listened to a leadership podcast that asked an insightful question for any organization that is doing things well: "If all that we have going today was somehow lost tomorrow, would we know how to build it back up to this point? Would we know what it is that makes this work?"

That's a great question for a church. Because it happens all the time. A new church is planted, and at first, they focus on worshiping God, teaching the gospel, and loving people. And as they do that, they grow and begin to do more things with their building, their classes, and their special events. And all of those can be truly great things. But the important thing for us to remember is that those things are great specifically because they are an effort to worship God, teach the gospel, and love people.

I think this is a good reminder for us as we are taking some big steps. We're getting ready to hire another preacher and to appoint some new elders. We have been so blessed by God, and there is so much positive momentum in our congregation right now. It's a very special group to be with, and I'm thankful. Let's make sure that we continually remember what makes this group great. "If all that we have going today was somehow lost tomorrow, would we know how to build it back up to this point? Would we know what it is that makes this work?" Yeah, we know. The strength of any thriving church is in people who love God, teach the Gospel, and love others. Let's never take our focus off of that.

"I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth."  (1 Cor. 3:6-7)

- Dan Lankford, minister

*here is the podcast I was listening to, although I can't remember the episode*