Psalm 28 – Dear Lord, Please Throw Down on the Wicked

"Repay them for their deeds and for their evil work; repay them for what their hands have done and bring back on them what they deserve. Because they have no regard for the deeds of the Lord and what his hands have done, he will tear them down and never build them up again."
I am struck by how many Psalms ask the Lord to defeat our enemies and “repay them for their evil.” Should we ask the Lord to punish evil and reward our righteousness? There is no condemnation for the Psalmist for asking these things, so it must be OK. This is quite a contrast to those that demand that all Christians everywhere forgive any and all that perpetrate evil against them without condition. We are told to “be nice” at all times and never respond to our enemies with anything but kind words and “unconditional love.”
I read many of the responses to the Chick-Fil-A controversy by those that hate Christianity. I can say I was in no mood to “be nice.” Many vented such vitriolic hatred toward Christians as to condemn us for eating fried meat while there were starving people in the world. No one mentions that Christians have been feeding the poor and helping the downtrodden for over 2000 years; that the church has helped more lost people than any government has ever done, and that our love and assistance to others has been without condition while any help that any government gives always comes with the demand for obedience and “strings attached.” We have given enough to feed the world 10 times over, even with today’s population.
Therefore I agree with the Psalmist to “repay them for their deeds and evil work; repay them for what their hands have done (and what their mouths have spewed).” However, repay them based on Your holiness, Your righteousness, and Your grace. In other words, repay them based on the same standards with which you judge me.
There is another side to this prayer; the Psalmist also wrote “do not turn a deaf ear to me…do not drag me away with the wicked.” There is a humility to this prayer, that even though we ask the Lord to deal with our enemies and those who ridicule us we also recognize that we can be wicked ourselves and need to appeal to His mercy whenever we pray. The darkest thought of our heart is that the Lord would abandon us. I would rather feel the wrath of God than His indifference. If I need grace, then those who persecute me also need His grace. Therefore even though I pray that the Lord would protect me and even punish my enemies, I approach this prayer with deep respect for my own sin, for in punishing evil I pray that the Lord will not also punish me.
“Dear Lord, protect me, reward righteousness and punish evil, and if in punishing evil you find evil in me, forgive me and deal with me.”

Trampolining through John: The Final Jump

We have completed our study of the book of John that began October 2, 2011. We jumped around in the book rather than go chapter by chapter in order to give some variety to our study and not be so married to “series” preaching. We will begin a new 95 part series on the interpretation of visions that happen after 15 cups of Baptist coffee (tongue firmly ensconced in cheek).
First section Prologue (1:1-18): Prologue: Jesus the Eternal Word of God
2nd Section John 1:19-4:54
  1:19-28  John the Baptist’s statements to the religious leaders
  1:29-34  John the Baptist’s statements at Jesus’ Baptism
  1:35-51  Jesus calls 4 disciples of the Baptist: Andrew, Peter, Philip and Nathanael
  2:1-12 Changing Water to Wine in Cana of Galilee
  2:13-25 First Cleansing of the Temple in Jerusalem
  3:1-21 Jesus and Nicodemus
  3:22-36  John the Baptist’s last statements regarding Jesus
  4:1-24 Jesus and the Samaritans (Judea to Galilee via Samaria)
  4:25-42  Faith, Truth and Miracles
  4:43-54  Healing the Nobleman’s Son (2nd sign in Galilee, 1st sign was water into wine)
3rd section chapters 5-8 (Increase of hostility from Galilee to Jerusalem at Tabernacles)
4th section 9-12 (Ministry in Judean Wilderness away from Jerusalem)
5th section 13-17 (Upper Room Discourse and High Priestly Prayer)
6th section 18-20 (Crucifixion and Resurrection)
7th section 21 (Post-Resurrection Appearance in Galilee and close of book)

The order and dates of our study in John:
John 17 – Jesus’ Prayer for Us
     Oct 2, ’11 and Oct 9, ‘11
John 8 - The Light of Freedom
     Oct 16, 23, 30th ’11 (Jesus the Light of the World)
John 5-7 – Jesus the Bread of Life
     Nov 6, 13, 27, Dec 11, 18, Jan 15, ’12 and Jan 22, ’12 (Answering Critics; Bread of Life; Opposition grows)
John 1:1-18 - The Word Was God
     Christmas Day 2011 and Jan 8, ’12 (Communication-Animation-Illumination-Incarnation)
John 1:19-4 – Meet the Author, the Baptist and the Messiah
     Jan 29, ’12, Feb 5, 12, 19, 26, Mar 4, 11 (Pay No Attention to Miracles or Money; Jesus and Nicodemus; Jesus and the Samaritans; Healing the Nobleman’s Son Long Distance)
John 18-20 – Trials, Crucifixion, Resurrection
      April 1, 8 and 15
John 9-12 – Ministry around Bethany and the Triumphal Entry, just before His Crucifixion
     April 22, 29, May 6, 13, 20, 27
John 13-16 – The Upper Room Discourse
     June 3, 10, 17, 24, July 1, 8, 15, 22
John 21 – The Restoration of Peter on the shore of the Sea of Galilee; Epilogue of the Gospel
     July 29, Aug 5

Sunday July 29; Granddaughter Alert!

We enjoyed having Tim, Christa and Neva Chandler (son and granddaughter of the pester) this past Sunday. They are from  Virginia Beach, VA where Tim is attending Regent University. I may have taken a few pictures of Neva; all I know my memory chip is now full

Sunday July 22 Preview

Brandon Mayes' backyard sunset

Freedom Baptist will join with Heartsong Church on Sunday August 26 for a worship service in which Greg will sing and preach. We thank the gracious people of Heartsong for this wonderful invite; more info will follow
Our beloved Bertie Mahan will be going home from the hospital soon; we will want to get some food to them during her recuperation
We were happy to see Johnie and Jackie Jackson back to worship this past Sunday; Jackie has been recuperating and it was good to see them both
The church's College group and Greg and Ruth have been meeting on Tuesday nights for book reading and discussion.  We have read "The Hobbit," "Blue Like Jazz," "Have a Little Faith," watched DVD's by Lee Strobel ("The Case for Creation") and have studied Nehemiah and Esther. We will study the book of Ruth and then take a break until the end of summer.
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Sunday School Lesson: Dueling Denominations, continuing in our study on Baptists, lesson #12, final wrap-up on Landmark Baptists and continuing with other Baptist groups and the Fundamentalist-Modernist Controversies
Worship Sermon - The Upper Room Discourse, John 13-16, finishing up with 16:22-33, "I Have Overcome the World"
We have learned 2 new congregational songs that are old time gospel/bluegrass songs, Down to the River and Green Pastures. This Sunday we will be learning "Come Angel Band." We all have heard these songs down through the years but they are new as congregational songs for us.

Preparing for This Sunday July 15



Our latest addition devouring the church bulletin

So profound it was tasty

Studies from the Gospel of John
John 16: Preparing for Christ’s Departure
The Rest of the Story will be Told by the Spirit
16:12 “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear.
The disciples were at information overload spiritually, so the Lord told them He would not offer any more information at this time
“You cannot bear them now” meant they were in such sorrow and anguish they couldn’t deal with any more news about the Lord’s leaving; they had misunderstood the plan of God on Christ’s dying, resurrection, ascension and the coming of the Holy Spirit, a misunderstanding that led to emotional sorrow but could have resulting in emotional joy if they had but understood the plan of God. Their sorrow was unnecessary but Jesus understood they couldn’t handle anymore.
They were a little hardened against the Lord at this point because He was not going to do what they had expected Him to do, rise up, defeat the Romans and start the kingdom immediately; their false expectations led to an obtuse inability to understand, as it also does us.
But the Spirit of truth would arrive and get through to them about the Father’s plan through the cross and resurrection. Therefore the Spirit would guide them into the truth and show them only the Father’s plan.
The Spirit would not promote His own plan but only speak on the Father’s initiative and show them only the Father’s plan, a plan Jesus revealed to them but they were not able to understand.
“He will show you things to come” was the same as “He will guide you into all truth;” to this point they had understood only a part of God’s plan, so they needed all of the truth and would receive it with the coming of the Holy Spirit.
The Spirit would only speak the words of the Father, but to do this also meant He would glorify Christ, for the Father’s plan was shown to the world through Christ His Son, and the Son was the Word of the Father.
All that belonged to the Father was also the Son’s. Whatever the Spirit would reveal would be directed by the Father and be in agreement with what the Son had taught and shown
He would take the teachings of Christ (“take of mine”) and make it known to them (“to show it unto you”)
All 3 persons of the Godhead were in agreement and completely consistent, so the work of the Spirit was the continuation of the work of Jesus Christ who came to do the will of the Father.
We have the privilege of continuing the work of Christ through the empowering Holy Spirit who indwells us. We are an integral part of this plan.

"From the ashes a fire shall be woken, a light from the shadows shall spring; renewed shall be blade that was broken, the crownless again shall be king.” (J. R. R. Tolkien, from Fellowship of the Ring)

Our church members and friends know that myself and church member Ralph Cox live on the west side of the Springs. We are south of the evacuation area and not part of Manitou Springs. Our only problem is smoke when the wind turns around to the west, but we're doing fine. The heat is higher than normal and with the wind direction is driving the fire behavior. The best one I heard so far is "Satan called....he wants his weather back!"

Photo of fire taken by Greg last Saturday
From Garden of the Gods

Be in prayer for us as always for all the struggles and pressures of life; one of the greatest tests of our spirituality is how we handle situations that are beyond our control. Remember to leave things in the hands of God. Pester Greg

Freedom Baptist Church
312 Auburn Drive
Special Event

 Sunday June 10, 2012 @ 4:15pm

 Performance by the Official Colorado Springs

Show Choir

 The Songspinners

(including church members Nancy Jenkins and Greg Chandler)
For an evening of song, dance & general silliness! And it’s free!
Dinner following