DECEMBER 30, 2018
“But as for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the Sovereign LORD my refuge;
I will tell of all your deeds.” Psalm 73:28
Good morning and welcome to Needmore Bible Church!
We are here to gather in our Refuge and to tell of God’s deeds.
When I think about God being our refuge, I imagine being a secret agent in a foreign land and coming in to a safe house. They speak my language, they eat my kind of food, and it’s the one place where I’m protected from all harm. I don’t have to look over my shoulder. I can take a moment to rest and refresh.
As we come into our refuge, sometimes we tell stories of successes. We celebrate completed missions. Sometimes we rush to the doctor to get bandaged up. Other times we get re-equipped to head back out. But whatever we do, we know we’re safe.
As you come to worship this morning, my prayer is that you know you are safe in God, that you have confidence through your trust in Jesus. May you come in and be free to celebrate and worship. May you find healing from the hurts and pains of this world and the sacrifices that come with following Jesus’ example of taking up your cross. May you rest in safety from cares and concerns. And through it all, may you be able to praise God this morning because He is our refuge, our strength, our solid rock, and our portion forever.
Your brother,
Aaron Meredith
The Fourth Sunday in Advent DECEMBER 23, 2018
“Then the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.’…
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!’” Luke 2:10-11, 13-14
We are celebrating the actual physical appearance of the Messiah on the earth. Jesus was “the Word who became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14.) God sent Jesus to reign in the lives of every true believer. God sent His Son to be our Savior and our Lord. God expects us to submit to Jesus Christ and to be obedient to Him throughout our lives. A. W. Tozer wrote, “May God give us the courage to be obedient to His truths in this tragic, critical and dangerous hour in which we live.” So the challenge is given to each of us to determine whether or not we will respond to Jesus in self-denial and surrender.
“Are you sure that you want your personality to be taken over by One who will expect obedience to the written and living Word? Are you sure that you want your personality to be taken over by one who will not tolerate the self sins? “For instance, self-love. You can no more have the Holy Ghost and have self-love than you can have purity and impurity at the same moment in the same place…. “Self-love, self-confidence, self-righteousness, self-admiration, self-aggrandizement, and self-pity are under the interdiction of God Almighty, and He cannot send His mighty Spirit to possess the heart where these things are….
“Do you desire to have your personality taken over by One who stands in sharp opposition to the world’s easy ways?… The Spirit of God, if He takes over, will bring you into opposition to the world…. Are you sure, brother?” (Tozer, A. W., How to Be Filled with the Holy Spirit, pages 44-45.)
Another author stated it this way: “To be able to look into God’s face, and know with the knowledge of faith that there is nothing between the soul and Him, is to experience the fullest peace the soul can know!” So my prayer for all of us is to experience this “fullest peace” this Christmas.
Denying all self,
Pastor Doug
The Third Sunday in Advent DECEMBER 16, 2018
“In this the love of God was made manifest among us,
that God sent His only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him.” 1 John 4:9
Good morning and welcome to Needmore Bible Church as we come together to worship God!
At Christmas time we celebrate that God sent His Son to us to be the Savior of the world. We celebrate that God took the initiative to come to us. It’s good to pause and think about this as we gather to worship because it is easy to take it for granted. Jesus became human (and a poor human at that), and experienced hunger, thirst, pain, and rejection. He left
his home to come and bring His love to us. In that spirit I want to invite you to join us this Wednesday evening (6:30-8:00 pm) as we go to the homes of others to sing Christmas carols and spread some holiday cheer. This night has always been a tradition I look forward to. It’s fun and festive (and sometimes frozen)! And, it’s important. Some of the homes we are going to are members of our congregation, dear loved ones who are part of our Christian family, but who also are at a point in their life journey where they are not physically able to come to us. Therefore, following Jesus’ own example, we are going to them!
Come join us and help us spread the love this Wednesday! Bundle up and get ready to make a joyful noise!
Your brother,
Aaron Meredith
The Second Sunday in Advent DECEMBER 9, 2018
“In that day the Branch of the Lord shall be beautiful and glorious; and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and
appealing for those of Israel who have escaped. And it shall come to pass that he who is left in Zion and remains…
will be called holy!” Isaiah 4:2-3a
Perhaps the thought of the greatness and awesomeness of God will cause fear and consternation for you. How can any of us think very highly of ourselves compared to the glory and majesty of Almighty God? We must understand that God knows us altogether very well, and He knows our unworthy and helpless condition compared to Him. But God wants to have a personal “meeting” with each of us. This is the very reason that Jesus was born as an infant and people “beheld” Him in “the flesh!” God’s act of incarnation is simply part of His pursuit of us weak and sinful human beings.
“God takes great pleasure in having a helpless soul come to Him simply and plainly and intimately. He takes pleasure in having us come to Him. This kind of Christianity doesn’t draw big crowds. It draws only those who have their hearts set on God, who want God more than they want anything else in the world. These people want a spiritual experience that comes from knowing God Himself. They could have everything stripped away from them and still have God.
“These people are not vastly numerous in any given locality. This kind of Christianity doesn’t draw big crowds, but it is likely to draw the hungriest ones, and thirstiest ones and some of the best ones.
“And so God takes great pleasure in having helpless people come to Him, simply and plainly and intimately. He wants us to come without all that great overloading of theology. He wants us to come as simply and as plainly as a little child. And if the Holy Spirit touches you, you’ll come like that.” (Tozer, A. W., The Attributes of God, pages 30-31.)
Another author stated it this way: “To be able to look into God’s face, and know with the knowledge of faith that there is nothing between the soul and Him, is to experience the fullest peace the soul can know!” So my prayer for all of us is to experience this “fullest peace” this Christmas.
Coming as a child,
Pastor Doug
The First Sunday in Advent DECEMBER 2, 2018
Many peoples will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,
to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us His ways, so that we may walk in His paths.” Isaiah 2:3
Good morning and welcome to our congregational worship service today!
I specifically wrote “welcome to our congregational worship” because sometimes if we say “welcome to worship,” a person might have the false idea that this is the time to worship whereas the rest of the week is the time to do things that aren’t worship. Hopefully you are familiar with the true idea that the whole week should be worship and that our time together on Sunday morning is just our time of worshipping together as a congregation. The false idea is that Monday-Saturday is non-worship and Sunday is worship. The true idea is that Monday-Saturday is worship and Sunday is worshipping together. It’s the same as if Scrooge (at the end of the story) would have said, “I will honor Christmas one day a year every year (false),” instead of saying, “I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year (true).”
It’s an important distinction to keep in mind as we talk about Jesus being our WONDERFUL COUNSELOR today. A counselor is someone who gives you advice and tells you the plan to put in place. But if we don’t follow what they say and put it into practice, it doesn’t matter how wonderful their advice and plan are because our lives won’t be affected by it. Check out the verse above. It says, “Let’s go to church so God can teach us His ways, so that we may walk in His paths (live in a worshipful way Monday-Saturday).”
As an act of worship this week, what is one way you will Apply what God has taught you in Sunday School and church this morning? Check one of the boxes below and write how you will walk in God’s ways:
□ I will share what I learned with an Acquaintance (write down what truth you will share): __________________________________________________________________________________________________
□ I will change an Attitude in my heart and mind (write down how that attitude will change): __________________________________________________________________________________________________
□ I will obey an Action that God told me to do (write down which action you will live out): __________________________________________________________________________________________________
Your brother,
Aaron Meredith
SUNDAY – NOVEMBER 25, 2018
“Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever. Oh, give thanks to the God of gods!
For His mercy endures forever. Oh, give thanks to the Lord of lords! For His mercy endures forever.” Psalm 136:1-3
If you read all of Psalm 136, you will discover that the writer lists several historical events through which God demonstrated His power and mercy in acts of redemption and salvation. In verses 10 through 16, he specifically uses the Passover and exodus as an example of God’s goodness and mercy. The Passover celebration is the oldest and longest practiced religious ceremony in the world. God acted on behalf of His people, Israel, to deliver them from bondage and to take them to the “Promised Land.” He designed and instituted that Passover to remind His people of His great plan of salvation for the world. God intends to save us all from our sins, to deliver us from the judgment against our sins, and to take us to His Promised Land, which we now call heaven.
An interesting detail of the Passover meal was the manner in which His people were to eat it. “And thus you shall eat: with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. So you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord’s Passover.” (Exodus 12:11) The notion is that each person was to be prepared to “leave” in a moment’s notice, or even without a notice. Preparedness is a very important message throughout the Bible. There are coming events that may “overtake us like a thief.” We are urged to live each day in a state of readiness for God’s next big historical event of redemption and salvation!
A several decades-old gospel song had the following words in it. “Ready to leave in the twinkling of an eye. Making investments in the bank up in the sky. Happy preparations, not a reason to grieve. Are you in that number? Gettin’ ready to leave.” God has provided all that you need to become prepared and ready! Jesus Christ has been slain for the sins of the world (that includes yours and mine). He has risen from the dead and now lives to make intercession for us. He is going to return to gather God’s family and take them all home! Are you ready to go?
Dressed, shod, and eating in haste!
Pastor Doug
Thanksgiving Sunday NOVEMBER 18, 2018
“Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy…
Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness,
and for His wonderful works to the children of men!
For He satisfies the longing soul, and fills the hungry soul with goodness.” Psalm 107:1-2, 8-9.
I want to share five (5) powerful words that should grace the speech of every Christian. These words can make a very positive impact on both the hearer and the speaker. Some of us were taught these words a few decades ago by our dear friends, Will and Agnes Rogers.
I do believe in “rugged individualism” and the principle of each person bearing responsibility for doing all that’s possible for each one to do. We must learn to apply Galatians 6:4-5 to our lives. “But let each one examine his own work, and then he/she will have rejoicing in himself/herself alone, and not in another. For each one shall bear his/her own load.” In spite of this responsibility that God gives to each one of us, another truth is that we are never to consider ourselves “lone rangers.” We must also know that as believers we are connected to all other believers. The Holy Spirit in each believer produces a bond between believers that is real and indisputable. “For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another.” (Romans 12:4-5) “But God composed the body, having given greater honor to that part which lacks it, that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another.”
(I Corinthians 12:24b-25)
There are two other verses that should encourage each of us to speak the five (5) powerful words that I am going to share with you! “And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.” (I Corinthians 12:26) “Therefore, putting away lying, ‘Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor,’ for we are members of one another.” (Ephesians 4:25)
Here they are: “I thank God for you!” Those are the five words we must learn to speak more frequently to our brothers and sisters in Christ. When we speak those words we are essentially speaking to our self. We are blessing those who are members of ourselves. If they are blessed, we are blessed! Don’t forget them: “I thank God for you!”
I thank God for you all,
Pastor Doug
Veterans Day SUNDAY – NOVEMBER 11, 2018
“We will rejoice in your salvation, and in the name of our God we will set up our banners!
May the Lord fulfill all your petitions. Now I know that the Lord saves His anointed;
He will answer him from His holy heaven with the saving strength of His right hand. Some trust in chariots,
and some in horses; but we will remember the name of the Lord our God. They have bowed down and fallen;
but we have risen and stand upright. Save, Lord! May the King answer us when we call.” Psalm 20:5-9
I remember the conversation with Mr. Lee very well. He posed a question, “What do you think that we thought about over there in the islands?” (He was referring to his time serving as a soldier during the war.) He gave his own answer, “I thought about home.” It wasn’t politics or ideologies that the men discussed with each other. They would tell stories of home. Edgar A. Guest wrote the following poem entitled “The Things That Make A Soldier Great.”
The things that make a soldier great and send him out to die,
To face the flaming cannon’s mouth nor ever question why,
Are lilacs by a little porch, the row of tulips red,
The peonies and pansies, too, the old petunia bed,
The grass plot where his children play, the roses on the wall:
‘Tis these that make a soldier great. He’s fighting for them all.
“Tis not the pomp and pride of kings that make a soldier brave;
“Tis not allegiance to the flag that over him may wave;
For soldiers never fight so well on land or on the foam,
As when behind the cause they see the little place called home.
Endanger but that humble street whereon his children run,
You make a soldier of the man who never bore a gun.
What is it through the battle smoke the valiant soldier sees?
The little garden far away, the budding apples trees,
The little patch of ground back there, the children at their play,
Perhaps a tiny mound behind the simple church of gray.
The golden thread of courage isn’t linked to castle dome,
But to the spot, where’er it be – the humble spot called home.
And now the lilacs bud again and all is lovely there,
And homesick soldiers far away know spring is in the air;
The tulips come to bloom again, the grass once more is green,
And every man can see the spot where all his joys have been.
He sees his children smile at him, he hears the bugle call,
And only death can stop him now – he’s fighting for them all.
Brothers and sisters, let us all become defenders of the sanctity of the home!
Pastor Doug
SUNDAY – NOVEMBER 4, 2018
“Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing,
that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Romans 15:13
Most of us are very aware that having a positive mental attitude (PMA) is usually good for us. It can help us and others to have at least a better feeling and possibly even help us overcome depression. We must be made aware that the results are at best shallow and fleeting. Sometimes we might not even be able to muster up the PMA we would like to have. The good news is that there is a “resurrection power” that can live on the inside. Jesus came to offer us “life, and that more abundantly.” (John 10:10) The only real power to “lift us up” and to sustain us is in Jesus Christ and the power of the Gospel.
“’You shall receive power.’ By those words our Lord raised the expectation of His disciples and taught them to look forward to the coming of a supernatural potency into their natures….It was to be nothing less than God Himself entering into them with the purpose of ultimately reproducing His own likeness within them.
“Here is the dividing line that separates Christianity from all occultism and from every kind of orient cult….They each advise, ‘Get in tune with the infinite,’ or ‘Wake the giant within you,’ or ‘Tune in to your hidden potential,’ or ‘Learn to think creatively.’
“All this may have some fleeting value as a psychological shot in the arm, but its results are not permanent because at its best it builds its hopes upon the fallen nature of man and knows no invasion from above.” (Tozer, A. W., The Pursuit of Man, page 88.)
According to the Bible, the same Power that raised Jesus from the dead will indwell, live within everyone who calls on Jesus to be saved. He will save you, and He will send the Holy Spirit to empower you to live abundantly now and forever in eternity!
O, Lord, send us Your Positive Life Power!
Pastor Doug
SUNDAY – OCTOBER 28, 2018
“And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus,
giving thanks to God the Father through Him.” Colossians 3:17
The call of Jesus Christ is to live each moment of our lives for the glory of God. One of the old saints from long ago wrote about “practicing the presence of Jesus.” The idea is that in every activity of life, we should make ourselves conscious of the Lord’s presence at that very moment. Sometimes we tend to think that it’s the “big mountain-top” experiences where and when we can know God’s awesomeness. We need to start looking in the “small hill-top” experiences and live for Jesus in each and every one of them. Josh Wilson wrote the lyrics to a song entitled “Dream Small.”
It’s a momma singing songs about the Lord; It’s a daddy spending family time…
That the world said he cannot afford. These simple moments change the world.
It’s a pastor at a tiny little church, Forty years of loving on the broken and the hurt.
These simple moments change the world.
Dream small. Don’t bother like you gotta do it all.
Just let Jesus use you where you are, One day at a time.
Live well…Loving God and others as yourself. Find little ways where only you can help,
with His great love. A tiny rock can make a giant fall. Dream small.
It’s visiting the widow down the street, or dancing on a Friday with your friend with special needs.
These simple moments change the world. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with bigger dreams.
Just don’t miss the minutes on your way, your bigger things, no
‘Cause these simple moments change the world.
Dream small. Don’t bother like you gotta do it all.
Just let Jesus use you where you are, One day at a time.
Live well…Loving God and others as yourself. Find little ways where only you can help,
with His great love. A tiny rock can make a giant fall. Dream small.
Keep loving, keep serving, keep listening, keep learning, keep praying, keep hoping,
Keep seeking, keep searching. Out of these small things and watch them grow bigger.
The God who does all things makes oceans from rivers.
Dream small. Don’t bother like you gotta do it all.
Just let Jesus use you where you are, One day at a time.
Live well…Loving God and others as yourself. Find little ways where only you can help,
with His great love. A tiny rock can make a giant fall. Yeah, five loaves and two fishes
could feed them all. So dream small. Dream small.
Let’s do the “little” things well and for God’s glory!
Pastor Doug
SUNDAY – OCTOBER 21, 2018
“I will praise You, O Lord, with my whole heart; I will tell of all Your marvelous works. I will be glad and rejoice in You;
I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High….The Lord also will be a refuge in times of trouble. And those who know
Your name will put their trust in You; for You, Lord, have not forsaken those who seek You.” Psalm 9:1-2, 9-10
The Christian life is a miraculous life. It cannot be lived or experienced only in the natural realm or by mere human effort. It is a spiritual life produced by the Spirit of God. Those who are saved and belong to the actual family of God “…were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” (John 1:13) This is why Jesus said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3) Jesus explained this by saying, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” (John 3:5-6) A person becomes a Christian through an act of God. God produces the new spiritual life within a believer by His power. The Christian life is a miracle from God!
The amazing fact is that we live as a Christian by God’s provision and not by our own strength. The apostle Paul wrote, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who lives, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20) This is an incredible reality. We who are living by faith in Jesus Christ are simply “giving back” to God, the life He puts in us by the power of His Spirit.
One of the highest activities of a Christian is worshiping God. Jesus said to a Samaritan woman who asked Him about really worshiping God, “You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:22-24)
“Worship has to be in the Spirit and by the Spirit. The notion that just anybody can worship is all wrong. The notion that we can worship without the Spirit is all wrong. The notion that we can crowd the Spirit into a corner and ignore Him, quench Him, resist Him and yet worship God acceptably is a great heresy which we need to correct.” (Tozer, A. W., Tozer on Worship and Entertainment, page 41.)
Let’s be sure that we are real! We must be saved before we can worship God in an acceptable manner. We must come
before Him in and through the power of the Holy Spirit. God will not and cannot accept any “phoney-baloney” when it comes to the serious business of worship!
Seeking true worship,
Pastor Doug
SUNDAY – OCTOBER 14, 2018
“Praise the Lord! Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever…. Remember me, O Lord,
with the favor You have toward Your people. Oh, visit me with Your salvation, that I may see the benefit of Your chosen ones, that I may rejoice in the gladness of Your nation, that I may glory with Your inheritance.” Psalm 106:1, 4-5
It becomes clear from reading and studying the New Testament that having faith and being a Christian will impact every area of our lives. If we “live in the Spirit,” we are called to “walk in the Spirit.” The “new life” we have received in Christ will become the life we actually live. Our attitudes and actions throughout daily life will be controlled by our spiritual life. Our God-encounters will affect everything else that we do in life!
“To really know Him is to love and worship Him.
“As God’s people, we are so often confused that we could be known as God’s poor, stumbling, bumbling people. That must be true of a great number of us for we always think of worship as something we do when we go to church.
“We call it God’s house. We have dedicated it to Him. So we continue with the confused idea that it must be the only place where we can worship Him.
“We come to the Lord’s house, made out of brick and wood and lined with carpeting. We are used to hearing a call to worship: ‘The Lord is in His holy temple- let us kneel before Him.’
“That is on Sunday and that is in church. Very nice!
“But Monday morning comes soon. The Christian layman goes to his office. The Christian school teacher goes to the classroom. The Christian mother is busy with duties in the home.
“On Monday, as we go about our different duties and tasks, are we aware of the Presence of God? The Lord desires still to be in His holy temple, wherever we are. He wants the continuing love and delight and worship of His children, wherever we work.
“Is it not a beautiful thing for a businessman to enter his office on Monday morning with an inner call to worship: ‘The Lord is in my office – let all the world be silent before Him.’
“If you cannot worship the Lord in the midst of your responsibilities on Monday, it is not very likely that you were worshiping on Sunday!” (Tozer, A. W., Whatever Happened to Worship? Pages 121-122.)
Each of us must learn to worship our Lord throughout all of our lives! I pray that His power will transform us into active worshipers!
Pastor Doug
SUNDAY – OCTOBER 7, 2018
“And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates
of hell shall not prevail against it.” Matthew 16:18
“But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem,
and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Acts 1:8
There is power in the church. Sometimes we might doubt the reality of this fact, but it is true nevertheless. The church is God’s work and has been purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ. (Acts 20:28) Jesus Christ Himself is the Head of the church, and the church is empowered by the presence of the Holy Spirit. The church is not merely a human or social institution; it is a miracle of God. There is power vested in the visible church, the group of blood-bought, blood-washed believers of which I am a part, and I hope you who are reading this are a part as well. We are real people who have become active participants in this grand institution that God has produced. There is power in the church!
“Brethren, we fellowship here and mingle together and worship the Lord Christ as an assembly of the saints. We confess that all of the privileges and responsibilities rest upon us that once rested upon those believers at Pentecost. The plan and promises of God for His believing children have not diminished one little bit.
“Nowhere in the Word of God is there any text or passage or line that can be twisted or tortured into teaching that the organic living church of Jesus Christ just prior to His return will not have every right and every power and every obligation that she knew in that early part of the book of Acts.” (Tozer, A. W., Tragedy in the Church, page 66.)
Many times we may have succumbed to the pressures of the world and the attacks of our arch enemy, Satan. He is trying to destroy the church and at least cause us to cower in fear and become impotent. We need to believe and know there is power in the church! We need not be defeated! We need to rise up and tell the enemy and this world that the church is ALIVE, WELL and FILLED WITH POWER!
I love the church,
Pastor Doug
SUNDAY – SEPTEMBER 30, 2018
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” John 1:1
“But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8
Welcome and thank you for joining with us as we worship God today!
As we gather to worship, consider this idea: God could have created some random guy or angel to die and save the world, but He didn’t. He took that burden on Himself. Jesus, who is God from the very beginning, was willing to pay all the sacrifice to reconcile us to be with Him.
– He became human. He was helpless as a baby and relied on His own creation to keep Him alive. He experienced hunger and thirst. – He looked un-extraordinary. His appearance was unnoticeable and had no beauty or majesty. – He was rejected. He came to His own people, but they did not receive Him. – He served. He could have come in royal majesty, but He was born into a poor family who would experience the shame of having a child “out of wedlock.” He touched and honored those who were rejected by society. He washed the feet of those who were following Him.
– He died one of the most painful deaths possible.
Today we worship a God who could have saved us any number of different ways (i.e. creating a different scapegoat, being born into a royal family, dying more “humanely,” or at least given a handsome appearance), and yet at every turn of events, we find Him choosing the lowest option to pay the price so that we could be with Him.
As we come to worship Him today, may we take the gaze off of ourselves and put it on Him who was willing to look after our interests instead of His own.
Your brother,
Aaron Meredith
SUNDAY – SEPTEMBER 23, 2018
“For you shall go out with joy, and be led out with peace; the mountains and the hills shall break forth into singing
before you, and the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress tree,
and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree; and it shall be to the Lord for a name,
for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.” Isaiah 55:12-13
These verses are found immediately following God’s declaration that His “thoughts are not our thoughts, nor are our ways His ways.” (55:8-9) The wisest man that ever lived also declared that man (i.e. human beings, the entire race of mankind) has “a way” in their mind that “seems right,” but their way leads to “death.” (See Proverbs 14:12; 16:25.) The point of the Isaiah passage is that following God’s “thoughts and ways” leads to life-giving fruit. Isaiah states that just like rain and snow are designed to “give seed to the sower and bread to the eater,” God’s Word is designed to show us the path of fruitful living. (55:10-11) God will bless any and every one who walks in His ways! The result will be beautiful trees rather than thorns and briars.
“The Christian who has dedicated his life to God and has shouldered his cross needs not be surprised at the conflict in which he at once finds himself engaged. Such conflict is logical; it results from the nature of God and man and of Christianity.
“He will, for instance, discover that the ways of God and the ways of men are not equal. He will find that the skills he learned in Adam’s world are of very little use to him in the spiritual realm. His tried and proven methods for getting things done will fail him when he attempts to apply them to the work of the Spirit. The new Adam will not surrender to the old Adam nor gear His new creation to the methods of the world.” (Tozer, A. W., Of God and Men, page 67)
We must stop doing “our own thing” in “our own way” and expect God to bless our efforts. The blessings are found in doing “God’s thing” in “God’s way!”
His follower,
Pastor Doug
Marriage Sunday SEPTEMBER 16, 2018
“And He answered and said to them, ‘Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning
“made the male and female,” and said, “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother
and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh”?
So then, they are no longer two but one flesh.
Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.’” Matthew 19:4-6
In Paul’s epistle to the Ephesian church, he gave believers a specific instruction to be “filled with the Spirit.” (5:18) To be filled with the Spirit is to be controlled by the Spirit and is therefore crucial to living the Christian life successfully. Unlike the indwelling of the Spirit, filling is a repeated experience. This is underscored by the use of the present tense (“be filled”) as well as by biblical examples of Christians who were filled more than once (Acts 2:4; 4:31). Some have even translated the verse “keep on being filled with the Spirit.” Being filled with the Spirit is not an option for us, it is a necessity!
In the letter to the Ephesians, Paul indicated that the “filling” would enable us to “submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.” (5:21, NLT) The next instruction he gives teaches us where specifically this “submission” is to take place. It is that every single believer is obligated to live in submission to every other believer, but rather there are three sets of relationships where this submission is to be demonstrated. In 5:22-33, the first relationship that is explained is the husband/wife relationship. In the next verses from 6:1-4, the relationship that we learn about is the parent/child relationship. The third one is found in 6:5-9 where the master/servant (employer/employee) relationship is explained. These are the three relationships that will consume most of our time and attention in our lives. In some way, we might understand these as the “places where we actually live” day by day.
We must understand that the fullness of the Spirit is given to us that we might live as God wants us to live in the most important relationships of our lives. The very first and most primary one is MARRIAGE. We must be “filled” and keep on “being filled” by the Holy Spirit so we can live in a meaningful, satisfying, and God-honoring MARRIAGE. If we boast in church or try to impress others in church that we are filled with the Spirit, we better be living that Spirit-controlled and Spirit-empowered life in our MARRIAGE! Our spouses should be the first to declare to others whether or not we are filled with the Spirit!
O Lord, fill us with Your Holy Spirit!
Pastor Doug
SUNDAY – SEPTEMBER 9, 2018
“Praise the Lord! Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever…
Remember me, O Lord, with the favor You have toward Your people.
Oh, visit me with Your salvation, that I may see the benefit of Your chosen ones,
that I may rejoice in the gladness of Your nation, that I may glory
with Your inheritance.” Psalm 106:1, 4-5
There can be no doubt in the mind of a Bible reader that worship should be at the center of the lives of Gods’ people. Job records that worship was happening in the eternal heavens as God laid down the foundations for this world. As God called Israel and formed the people into His nation, He gave detailed instructions for the Tabernacle and the worship that was to happen there. Then the Tabernacle was placed in the very center of the nation as it moved and “camped” in various places on their way to the Promised Land. In The Revelation of Jesus Christ, the Apostle John describes great heavenly scenes of worship in which God’s people will participate eternally. Worship must be our ultimate aim throughout our existence. It is extremely important that we worship “in spirit and in truth!”
“My brother or sister, if we are believing children of God in whom the Holy Spirit nurtures continual joy, delight and wonder, we will not need a storm on the mountain to show us how glorious our Lord really is.
“It is a delusion to think that because we suddenly feel expansive and poetic in the presence of the storm or stars or space that we are spiritual. I need only remind you that drunkards or tyrants or criminals can have those “sublime” feelings, too. Let us not imagine that they constitute worship.
“I can offer no worship wholly pleasing to God if I know that I am harboring elements in my life that are displeasing to Him. I cannot truly and joyfully worship God on Sunday and not worship Him on Monday. I cannot worship God with a glad song on Sunday and then knowingly displease Him in my business dealings on Monday and Tuesday.” (Tozer, A. W., Whatever Happened to Worship?, pages 124-125.)
Mr. Tozer also wrote in the January 8th devotional for Renewed Day by Day, Volume I: “I have come to believe that no worship is wholly pleasing to God until there is nothing in us displeasing to God.”
The blood of Jesus is our only hope of standing in His Presence and lifting holy hands unto His name!
A worshiper with you,
Pastor Doug
Labor Day Sunday SEPTEMBER 2, 2018
“Behold, bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord, who by night stand in the house of the Lord! Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, and bless the Lord. The Lord who made heaven and earth bless you from Zion!” Psalm 134:1-3
We want people to “want” the God whom we serve. We believe our Savior is the “best deal” in the world, and we have difficulty understanding why they don’t respond to Him in a positive way. We pray and then try our best to convince them how wonderful it is to be saved and to walk with Jesus. We should do these things, but we must be careful that we don’t “try too hard.” Too often, the result has been that we present a “watered-down” or “modified” version of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. In our fervor to attract them to Jesus, we go too far.
“Christ calls men to carry a cross; we call them to have fun in His name. He calls them to forsake the world; we assure them that if they but accept Jesus the world is their oyster. He calls them to suffer; we call them to enjoy all the bourgeois comforts modern civilization affords. He calls them to self-abnegation and death. We call them to spread themselves like green bay trees or perchance even to become stars in a pitiful fifth-rate religious zodiac. He calls them to holiness; we call them to a cheap and tawdry happiness that would have been rejected with scorn by the least of the Stoic philosophers.
“In a world like this, with conditions being what they are, what should a serious-minded Christian do? The answer is easy to give but hard to follow. First, accept the truth concerning yourself….Seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Seek through Jesus Christ a right relationship to your fellow man. Set about reverently to amend your doings. Magnify God, mortify the flesh, simplify your life.” (Tozer, A. W., The Warfare of the Spirit, pages 79-80.)
We want to be true to our Lord Jesus Christ. He said, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16:24-26.) Jesus has the authority and right to demand of every person whatever He desires! Our responsibility is to listen and obey. “Trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.”
Jesus remains the “best deal” ever!
Pastor Doug
RALLY SUNDAY – AUGUST 26, 2018
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” Deuteronomy 6:4-9
It should be understood by all of us that there are certain basic, elementary facts or truths that we need to learn in order to live and advance in this world. Most of us would know exactly what is meant by the person who says, “You got to learn your ABC’s.” We know that there are foundations that must be established in order to build on them. If we want to build higher, it is especially necessary to have a strong base. We can only go as “high” as our foundation is sure and secure!
Every field of endeavor has its “ABC’s” that must be learned before a person can become proficient and an expert in that domain. When a person wants to become a “researcher” and “developer” in an area of life, he or she must start with the “ABC’s.” There are also foundational truths for living! There are many disciplines like psychology, sociology, and philosophy that attempt to present answers about “how to live” in a successful manner. Often the answers that these disciplines offer are not helpful and can actually cause people to “fail” at life. The reason is that they have not started with life’s true “ABC’s.” They have not built their research and development on a sure and solid foundation.
The Bible is the only Book that contains the “ABC’s” that God has established as the foundations for living correctly and properly. There are hundreds of expressions in the Bible about the foundations that we must build our lives on. Here is one from Psalm 119:89-93: “Forever, O Lord, Your word is settled in heaven. Your faithfulness endures to all generations; You established the earth and it abides. They continue this day according to Your ordinances, for all are Your servants. Unless Your law had been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction. I will never forget Your precepts, for by them You have given me life.” This is why we teach and preach the Bible at Needmore Bible Church. We want to help you and your family to learn God’s “ABC’s” for living now and in heaven.
Always building on God’s “ABC’s,”
Pastor Doug
SUNDAY – AUGUST 19, 2018
“You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy;
at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” Psalm 16:11
Last Sunday morning during worship, Danelle Gunnell shared a teaching from Watchman Nee about the necessity of “full surrender” to Jesus. The notion is that we cannot pick and choose which part of Christ’s work we want and which part we don’t want. If we want Jesus to help us with our anger, we must also allow Him to help us with our lust. Jesus wants to do His complete work in our lives until all of our being is under His lordship. Surrender implies our whole being, not just some parts of our being!
In his classic work, The Pursuit of God, A. W. Tozer wrote the following prayer found on pages 30 and 44.
“Father, I want to know Thee, but my cowardly heart fears to give up its toys. I cannot part with them without inward bleeding, and I do not try to hide from Thee the terror of the parting. I come trembling, but I do come. Please root from my heart all those things which I have cherished so long and which have become a very part of my living self, so that Thou mayest enter and dwell there without rival. Then shalt Thou make the place of Thy feet glorious. Then shall my heart have no need of the sun to shine in it, for Thyself wilt be the light of it, and there shall be no night there.
“Lord, how excellent are Thy ways, and how devious and dark are the ways of man. Show us how to die, that we may rise again to newness of life. Rend the veil of our self-life from the top down as Thou didst rend the veil of the Temple. We would draw near in full assurance of faith. We would dwell with Thee in daily experience here on this earth so that we may be accustomed to the glory when we enter Thy heaven to dwell with Thee there.”
I wrote a prayer on the page where and when I first read Mr. Tozer’s prayer. I wrote, “Prepare me for heaven! Don’t do just the work of forgiveness and salvation, but sanctify me so that I love what Thou lovest! Amen.”
Each of us can pray our prayer of surrender with our own words, but it is essential that we each surrender everything wholly to God!
Pastor Doug
SUNDAY – AUGUST 12, 2018
“I will praise You for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well.
My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.” Psalm 139:14-16
An incredible truth is that God has interest in each of us individually. He “saw” you and me before anyone else did. He knew us long before anyone knew we existed. He loved us and began to work in our lives before we took our first breath. The Bible tells us that He knows us “by name.” His knowledge and interest in us even causes Him to “number the hairs on our head.” God loves each of us with His perfect, complete love, and Christ died for each of us individually and personally. If no other person comes to the Cross of Christ and receives the salvation Christ purchased there, you can come. Christ would have gone to the Cross just for you! This is an incredibly important truth!
“The man that will have God’s best becomes at once the object of the personal attention of the Holy Spirit. Such a man will not be required to wait for the rest of the church to come alive. He will not be penalized for the failures of his fellow Christians, nor be asked to forego the blessing till his sleepy brethren catch up.
“God deals with the individual heart as exclusively as if only one existed. “If this should seem to be an unduly individualistic approach to revival, let it be remembered that religion is personal before it can be social….
“The plain Christian of today must experience personal revival before he can hope to bring renewed spiritual life to his church.” (Tozer, A. W., The Size of the Soul, page 15.)
When you and I truly hunger for the fullness of God in our lives, no other person can “hold us back.” God will not allow the coldness and indifference of those around you to prevent Him from blessing you! We cannot blame others for what we might lack in our spiritual lives!
I am His,
Pastor Doug
SUNDAY – AUGUST 5, 2018
“Behold, bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord, who by night stand in the house of the Lord! Lift up your hands in the
sanctuary, and bless the Lord. The Lord who made heaven and earth bless you from Zion!” Psalm 134:1-3
What is the “sign” that we are filled with the Spirit and walking the way that God intends us to walk? It might seem like you have heard the answer hundreds of times throughout your church experience, yet it remains the same truth for us. The Bible teaches emphatically that it is love that sets us apart as children of God. Jesus said, “By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:35) The Apostle John wrote, “We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death.” (I John 3:14) In the same epistle, John wrote, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” (I John 4:7-8)
It ought to be certain in our hearts that God loves us. He loves us perfectly and has proven it by sending His Son to lay down His life for each of us. “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” (I John 4:11) The conclusion is: “If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he can see, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.” (I John 4:20-21)
“The thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians may tell us what Christ is like, but let us not forget that it also tells us what we must be like to avoid spiritual tragedy. Let us not turn our back on this critically important teaching.
“Without love, the kind described by Paul, my whole Christian life is a barren fig tree. It’s a neat trick to apply Paul’s words to Christ only; but it isn’t honest, and it is dangerous. “It is the Holy Spirit who sheds abroad the love of God in our hearts (Romans 5:5) and love is declared to be a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22). But if our daily lives reveal that the fruit is not there we dare not assume that it is just because ‘the Bible says so.’
“The absence of love as described in First Corinthians 13 is proof of the absence of the Spirit, or at least that He is inoperative within us. That’s the only honest conclusion. We can’t afford to be less than candid about the whole thing.” (Tozer, A. W., The Price of Neglect, page 129.)
Let’s be real and seek a “baptism” of God’s love!
Pastor Doug
SUNDAY – JULY 29, 2018
“For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, saying, ‘Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you.’ …Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it with an oath, that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast…” Hebrews 6:13, 14, 17-20.
The Bible record declares consistently that God is good and He is faithful. Yet it is certain that many of us have had experiences that caused us to question the record. None of us enjoy the difficult and painful experiences of life in this world. It is certain that we will have some, and God does not always “remove” those experiences at the time we want Him to. But God is FAITHFUL! God is GOOD! Our task is to remain believing and trusting with confidence that God will eventually accomplish what He has promised us. He will not forsake us at any moment during the trying events of our lives.
“We are in the midst of the storm of life. The believing saints of God are on board the ship. Someone looks to the horizon and warns, ‘We are directly in the path of the typhoon! We are as good as dead. We will surely be dashed to pieces on the rocks!’
“But calmly someone else advises, ‘Look down, look down! We have an anchor!’ We look, but the depth is too great. We cannot see the anchor. But the anchor is there. It grips the immovable rock and holds fast. Thus the ship outrides the storm.
“The Holy Spirit has assured us that we have an Anchor, steadfast and sure, that keeps the soul….The Spirit is saying to us, ‘Keep on believing. Pursue holiness. Show diligence and hold full assurance of faith to the very end. Follow those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.” (Tozer, A. W., Jesus, Our Man in Glory, pages 89 and 90.)
We will have hard times, but we have a God who will be with us and will strengthen us in the very middle of the storm. We can trust Him!
Anchored on the Rock,
Pastor Doug
SUNDAY—JULY 22, 2018
“Epaphras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings. He is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured.” Colossians 4:12
Good morning and welcome to our Sunday worship service! As you wait for the service to start, would you join with me in prayer for others? Together as the temple of God, we will be a house of prayer! Pick 1-3 people to pray for and use these prayers from the Bible as a guide.
Colossians 1:9-12
We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, 10 so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, 11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, 12 and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light.
Ephesians 3:15-21
For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
Numbers 6:24-26
The Lord bless you and keep you; 25 the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; 26 the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.
Aaron Meredith
SUNDAY – JULY 15, 2018
“Even those I will bring to My holy mountain and make them joyful in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be acceptable on My altar; for My house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples.”
Isaiah 56:7
Good morning! Today we join together as building blocks of God’s holy temple to worship Him!
You are probably familiar with the verse above. It’s one of the verses that Jesus quoted when He ransacked the temple. The temple had gotten bogged down with the “business” of the temple and had forgotten it’s number 1
priority: to be a place of prayer where all people can connect with God.
Today as we gather together I am reminded that we who are trusting in Jesus are God’s temple! Through His blood He cleansed us so that we ourselves could become a holy and proper house for God Himself. Through His saving work on the cross, He tore down the veil to the bricks-and-mortar Holy of holies so that God’s Spirit could explode into us as a world-wide-web Holy of holies. Ephesians 2:19-22 says that we who have become God’s people are “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the chief cornerstone. In Him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord.” We are the building blocks that are being united together to make the temple of the Lord.
So, according to the Transitive Property (which I learned in Mrs. Dickerhoff’s Geometry class), if ALL BELIEVERS = GOD’S TEMPLE, and GOD’S TEMPLE is A HOUSE OF PRAYER, then ALL BELIEVERS are A HOUSE OF PRAYER.
Let’s make that true in our lives this morning and this week!
Your brother,
Aaron Meredith
SUNDAY – JULY 8, 2018
“Don’t just pretend that you love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong.
Stand on the side of the good. Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other.
Never be lazy in your work, but serve the Lord enthusiastically. Be glad for all God is planning for you.
Be patient in trouble, and always be prayerful.” Romans 12:9-12, NLT
Two essential character traits of God are love and goodness. Because He is good and He loves us perfectly, we can trust that when we walk in and experience His will, we will be blessed. God will neither purposefully withhold good things from us nor curse us with pain and suffering needlessly. Why then do we often seem to live below the blessings of God? The answer is sin and Satan. They are “against” us just as certainly as God is for us. The safest way to live and walk is in total surrender to God’s ways and plans for us. Mr. Tozer has warned us about “compromise” in Jesus, Our Man in Glory, page 68.
“The way to spiritual power and favor with God is to be willing to put away the weak compromises and the tempting evils to which we are prone to cling. There is no Christian victory or blessing if we refuse to turn away from the things that God hates.
“Even if your wife loves it, turn away from it. Even if your husband loves it, turn away from it. Even if it is accepted in the whole social class and system of which you are a part, turn away from it. Even if it is something that has come to be accepted by our whole generation, turn away from it if it is evil and wrong and an offense to our holy and righteous Savior….
“Every Christian holds the key to his or her own spiritual attainment. If he or she will not pay the price of being joyfully led by the Holy Spirit of God, if he or she refuses to hate sin and evil and wrong, our churches might as well be turned into lodges and clubs.”
Tozer also wrote in God Tells the Man Who Cares: “We need revival! We need revival of consecration to death, a revival of happy abandonment to the will of God that will laugh at sacrifice and count it a privilege to bear the cross through the heat and burden of the day. We are too much influenced by the world and too little controlled by the Spirit.” (Pages 159 and 160.)
Oh, Lord, lead us to the life of full blessing!
Pastor Doug
SUNDAY – JULY 1, 2018
“Let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands before you whole. This is the ‘stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.’ Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:10-12)
There must be no doubt in our minds about the centrality of Jesus Christ in our preaching and faith. After all, it is “all about Jesus.” Paul wrote to the Colossians about this truth and concluded, “And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.” (Colossians 1:18) There is only one, unique Son of God who came into this world to save sinners. His name is Jesus, the Christ, the Son of the living God. “In our world are dozens of different kinds of Christianities. Certainly many of them do not seem to be busy and joyful in proclaiming the unique glories of Jesus Christ as the eternal Son of God. Some brands of Christianity will tell you very quickly that they are just trying to do a little bit of good on behalf of neglected causes. Others will affirm that we can do more good by joining in the ‘contemporary dialogue’ than by continuing to proclaim the ‘old, old story of the cross.’ “But we stand with the early Christian apostles. We believe that every Christian proclamation should be to the glory and the praise of the One whom God raised up after He had loosed the pains of death….Peter considered it important to affirm that the risen Christ is now exalted at the right hand of God. He said that fact was the reason for the coming of the Holy Spirit. “In Jesus’ death for our sins, God is offering far more than escape from a much-deserved hell. God is promising us an amazing future, an eternal future….I often wonder if we are making it plain enough to our generation that there will be no other revelation from God except as He speaks it through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Tozer, A. W., Jesus, Our Man in Glory, pages 4, 5 and 18.)
Our goal at Needmore Bible Church is to give Jesus Christ central billing. Jesus gets the headlines, and all the lines, in this ministry. Jesus must be our focus if we have any hope of going to heaven!
Jesus is my Lord and Savior!
Pastor Doug
SUNDAY – JUNE 24, 2018
“Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He has redeemed….Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men! For He satisfies the longing soul, and fills the hungry soul with goodness.” Psalm 107:1-2a, 8-9
Are you enjoying what Jesus has done for you and provided for you through His death on the Cross and His resurrection. Jesus literally “went through hell” in order to provide heaven for you, and He expects that when you receive the benefits of His salvific work, you will enjoy it. The Apostle Paul asked, “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” (Romans 8:32.) In Jesus Is Victor on pages 49 and 50, A. W. Tozer wrote: “God holds no mental reservations about any of us when we become His children by faith. When He forgives us, He trusts us as though we had never sinned. When Satan comes around to taunt me about my past sins, I remind him that everything that had been charged against me came from him, and now everything I have – forgiveness and peace and freedom – I have freely received from my Lord Jesus Christ!
“He has said to us, ‘Whatever your need, just come to the throne of grace. Anything you need, you may have!’ Why not believe and exercise the dominion He has given you?”
In another of his works, Rut, Rot or Revival, on page 19, Mr. Tozer wrote, “We are compared with what we could be, not just what we should be…Anything we ought to be we can be. Anything that God has declared that we should be we can be.”
The sad reality often seems to be that many believers live below the potential of what God’s grace makes available to us. Too many times, Christians behave as if their souls are in the doldrums. Remember that Paul wrote, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” (I Thessalonians 5:16-18.)
Let’s walk with our King and be a blessing!
Pastor Doug
Father’s Day JUNE 17, 2018
“Or what man is there among you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?
Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent?
If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!” Matthew 7:9-11.
“Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!” I John 3:1a
The Bible establishes truth to guide us in understanding how to live. One of the “biggies” in establishing truth is the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments. The first four commandments guide us to worship the One and only True God there is. (See Isaiah 43:10-11; 44:6; 45:5-6.) This is the most basic and most important relationship that all people must enter and live in. Without a vital relationship with the Heavenly Father, a person is lost forever.
The Bible also establishes “guidelines” how we are to live with other human beings. We are not alone on this earth and God has given us priorities for our human relationships. The fifth through the tenth commandments teach us how to live with other people. The fifth and seventh commandments reveal the sanctity of the home, composed of family and marriage. It is interesting to note that the sixth commandment reveals the sanctity of life itself with the words, “Thou shalt not murder.” But it is just as important to realize that human life is “sandwiched” between commandments about parent-child and husband-wife commands! God’s design is that human life is propagated through marriage, family and the home. From God’s perspective, life as He created it to be exists properly only when family and home are held in high esteem.
Our civilization is under threat of extinction. The forces that are attacking the very life that God created in the beginning are working to disrupt and destroy the family! Our enemies are champions for abortion and homosexual relations, the two greatest, open threats to God’s design for marriage and families.
God is calling believers to stand up for the truth He has established in His Word! You and I, especially believing men, must become champions for biblical marriage and family!
Championing God’s truth,
Pastor Doug
SUNDAY – JUNE 10, 2018
“Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! It is like the precious oil upon the head,
running down on the beard, the beard of Aaron, running down on the edge of his garments. It is like the dew of Hermon,
descending upon the mountains of Zion; for there the Lord commanded the blessing- life evermore.” Psalm 133:1-3
Have you ever thought about what church could be like? Most of us have been in church enough to come back again and again with the same expectation. Some social interaction, some music with singing, a sermon by a preacher, maybe a testimony or baptism or infant dedication will be the activities. But have you ever thought about what church would be like if the manifestation of God’s Presence showed up? Psalm 133 gives the possibility that as believers gather, someone just like the high priest, Aaron, could be anointed to “enter” the Presence in the Holy of Holies. In the book of Hebrews, we are encouraged, “Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus… let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith.” (Hebrews 10:19, 22a) Church will become the most transformative place on this earth when the congregation really enters the Presence and beholds the Shekinah, the glory of God!
Even though we might believe theologically that God is omnipresent, everywhere at once, we must know and believe that there is a Presence of God that is special in church. Church must become identified as the place where God’s people “enter into the Holiest” and actually encounter the living God.
What will happen then? David wrote in Psalm 16, “In Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” (v.11) When God’s people move into the real Presence, all our lives will be changed for the better. We will be saved, delivered, set free, made whole and healed by His Presence. We will be encouraged, strengthened, and equipped to live holy lives in this world. Our witness will be set ablaze. Sinners will be converted, and the name of our Lord will be glorified!
I want church like that! Do you, too!? It will happen when we come prepared and believing that God is going to “show up.” Oh, let our congregation become a house of refuge and healing!
Serving the Lord’s church,
Pastor Doug
GRADUATION SUNDAY – JUNE 3, 2018
“Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” Hebrews 10:25
It’s great to have you here to join together in worship and mutual encouragement!
Today we are honoring our graduates, and since graduating often involves college, Nick and Heather Smartt (who are missionaries our church supports and are involved in college campus ministry) are here as guest speakers. We are having a lunch after the service to give a chance for you to catch up with Nick and Heather and to celebrate our graduates. We hope you can stick around!
To help us as we prepare to focus on worshipping God in our service, I would like to share with you my #1 tip that I give to those graduating high school: Find a solid Christian group and get involved with them. In my experience, whether or not you follow that advice will make or break you spiritually.
The verse above is the basis for the name of our HX25 small group ministry at NBC: Hebrews (H) 10 (X) : 25. It reminds us of the importance of gathering together and encouraging each other. We need each other. God is a God of relationships: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in perfect unity. Since we are created in God’s image, we are people who need relationships. We need each other.
Elsewhere in the Bible, the Church (all Christians) is referred to as the Body of Christ. Imagine a finger severed from the body. How long would it remain a living finger? In the same way, we need to be connected to the corporate Body of Christ to remain spiritually alive.
So, graduates, as you are about to move on to the next stage in your life, which often means moving away, let me encourage you that your #1 priority should be to find a group of solid Christians and get connected. Find a Christian group on campus (like Disciples Makers, who Nick and Heather work with) AND find a local Bible-believing church. Avoid the temptation on Sunday mornings of going to Bedside Baptist Church or Pillow Presbyterian (sleeping in), and instead go get connected to a church with believers of all ages. Ask them if you can get plugged into a ministry. Encourage them and let them encourage you.
Congratulations, graduates!
Aaron Meredith
Memorial Day Weekend
SUNDAY- MAY 27, 2018
“’If it had not been the Lord who was on our side,’ let Israel now say- ‘If it had not been the Lord who was on our side,
when men rose up against us, then they would have swallowed us alive, when their wrath was kindled against us…’
Blessed be the Lord, who has not given us as prey to their teeth.
Our soul has escaped as a bird from the snare of the fowlers; the snare is broken, and we have escaped.
Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” Psalm 124:1-3, 6-8
It has been said to us at many different times and in many different venues, but the message has been the same. Do you recognize what “others” have done for you, and are you grateful? Then live in a manner that honors the sacrifices they have made for the possibility of your present condition. You can’t “pay them back,” but you can honor their sacrifices on your behalf. Lincoln said it at Gettysburg, “It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.” Edgar A. Guest said it in his poem entitled Memorial Day. The finest tribute we can pay Unto our hero dead to-day Is not of speech or roses red, But living, throbbing hearts instead That shall renew the pledge they sealed With death upon the battlefield: That freedom’s flag shall bear no stain And free men wear no tyrant’s chain.
And Saving Private Ryan immortalized the idea in the scene of Captain Miller’s death with Private Ryan crouched over him. With his last breath, Captain Miller barely whispers to Ryan, “Earn this.” From the movie it is clear that those two words sounded in Ryan’s mind throughout the rest of his lifetime. He looked at his aging wife and begged her, “Tell me I’ve been a good man.” He knew the only way to “earn this” and pay Captain Miller back was to live a life of integrity and responsibility.
The New Testament writers addressed believers who have been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ about the same idea. Christ has paid the full price for our redemption, but that does not mean we are free to just do as we please. Apostle Peter wrote, “For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men- as free, yet not using your liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God.” (I Peter 2:15) Apostle Paul wrote in Galatians, “For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use your liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.” (Galatians 5:13)
We have been highly favored and blessed by our God. We cannot “pay Him back” for all He has done for us, but we can live to honor Him! We should! We must!
A grateful Christian citizen,
Pastor Doug
SUNDAY – MAY 20, 2018
“Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who trusts in Him! Oh, fear the Lord, you His saints!
There is no want to those who fear Him. The young lions lack and suffer hunger; but those who seek the Lord
shall not lack any good thing.” Psalm 34:8-10
“Then the churches throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and were edified. And walking
in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, they were multiplied.” Acts 9:31
I have often stated that the Christian life is miraculous and mysterious. It is not meant to be understood by this world or to be explained by the expert minds of this world. The Christian life is a work of God that places it in a category beyond natural, into the realm of the supernatural. It is not only inexplicable by human logic and in the scientific world, but it appears at times contradictory to our natural understanding. Once a person is saved and his/her eyes have been opened to God’s truth, the Christian life becomes a delight.
Mr. A. W. Tozer wrote on pages 164 and 165 in I Call It Heresy, “The true Christian fears God with a trembling reverence and yet he is not afraid of God at all. He draws nigh to God with full assurance of faith and victory and yet at the same time is trembling with holy awe and fear.
“To fear and yet draw near- this is the attitude of faith and love and yet the holy contradiction classifies him as a fanatic, too!
“Today, as in all the centuries, true Christians are an enigma to the world, a thorn in the flesh of Adam, a puzzle to angels, the delight of God and a habitation of the Holy Spirit.
“Our fellowship ought to take in all of the true children of God, regardless of who and where and what, if they are washed in the blood, born of the Spirit, walking with God the Father, begotten unto a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ and rejoicing in the salvation to be revealed!”
Our goal is not to eliminate the mystery. We are not going to try to be more acceptable and amenable to the world. We are going to pursue holiness and seek to live in godliness and righteousness. If we become known as fanatics to the world, so be it! Hallelujah!
More like the Master is my daily prayer!
Pastor Doug
Mother’s Day May 13, 2018
“Blessed is every one who fears the Lord, who walks in His ways. When you eat the labor of your hands, you shall be happy, and it shall be well with you. Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine in the very heart of your house, your children like olive plants all around your table. Behold, thus shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord.” (Psalm 128:1-4.)
Marriage and the home were the very first “institutions” that God created. In the first chapter of Genesis, God’s instructions to the first couple are recorded. Those instructions include being “fruitful” and “multiplying.” God obviously had His mind on the home and family. He also declared that the male and female were to have dominion and subdue the natural world from which they would receive the sustenance for their home. God established the home and family as the “building blocks” for all society. It seems that the success of any society can only be as strong as the “building blocks” are. In other words, strong homes and families make for a stable culture, society or nation.
As much as God loves marriage and the family, the devil hates it. It should be very clear to all of us that our enemy has been working against the biblical model for the family. You and I must stand firm on our conviction that our homes are the most important responsibility that God has given us. Our goal as parents is to raise a new generation of people who will love our God and live to serve Him. I know Jesus’ question was “What will it profit a man if he gains the world, but loses his soul?” Perhaps we can ask a similar question about our homes. “What will it profit a man (and woman) if he (she) gains the whole world, but loses his (her) family/children?”
In Psalm 127, we are told “Unless the Lord builds the house (family), they labor in vain who build it.” (v. 1a.) It is imperative that every parent rededicate himself (herself) to assuming the responsibility to lead his (her) family spiritually. Our nation, our culture, and our world needs a spiritual revival in families. As goes the home, so goes the world!
Let’s cry out to our Heavenly Father for His blessings in establishing and stabilizing our homes!
Pastor Doug
SUNDAY – MAY 6, 2018
“For the Lord is the great God, and the great King above all gods. In His hand are the deep places of the earth;
the heights of the hills are His also. The sea is His, for He made it; and His hands formed the dry land.
Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.” Psalm 95:3-6
The Christian life is a miraculous and mysterious life. All of our experience in the life of faith comes from and “returns” to God. The Apostle Paul called it “this mystery” “…which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Colossians 1:27) Another place Paul wrote “…that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.” (Philippians 1:6) God initiates the work of faith within us, and He continues to “work” that life of faith in us until the end. In a sense, the Christian life is merely giving back to God what He has been giving to us. Some authors use the illustration of a mirror. They state that our Christian life is a “reflection” of God’s grace that shines on and in us. This seems true especially of worship. We can only worship because He has placed His Spirit within us, and He worships through us as we come before God. It is almost as if God is worshiping Himself through us. It is my opinion that this is the “highest form” or the “deepest level” of worship there can be.
In his work Whatever Happened to Worship, Mr. A. W. Tozer wrote the following on pages 44 and 45.
“Men and women continue to try to persuade themselves that there are many forms and ways that seem right in worship. But God in His revelation has told us that He is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. God takes the matter of worship out of the hands of men and puts it in the hands of the Holy Spirit.
“It is impossible for any of us to worship God without the impartation of the Holy Spirit. It is the operation of the Spirit of God within us that enables us to worship God acceptably through that Person we call Jesus Christ, who is Himself God. So worship originates with God and comes back to us and is reflected from us, as a mirror. God accepts no other kind of worship.”
Let’s come today to offer true worship to our God. Let us yield all of ourselves to the Holy Spirit and pray that He will lead us in that true worship!
Seeking to be a true worshiper,
Pastor Doug
SUNDAY- APRIL 29, 2018
“For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus
and put no confidence in the flesh.” Philippians 3:3
“But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as
rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.” Philippians 3:7-8
Good morning! As we gather together to worship our God, may we each think about this question, “How much is Jesus worth to me?” There are two parables that I’ve always balked at. One is about a man who finds treasure in a field, sells all that he has, and buys the field. The other is about a merchant of fine pearls who finds a pearl of great value, sells all he has, and buys it. They are both in Matthew 13. I balk at them because as a husband and father, they seem so irresponsible. How are these people going to feed their families? What if their donkey breaks down, and they have to take it to the mechanic, and they no longer have any emergency savings because they were playing pirate and finding treasure? These people are not making wise decisions at all UNLESS… well, unless the treasure really is worth a lot, much more than what he already had. Then the decision was a no-brainer. And unless the merchant really knows his pearls and is so confident that he can sell that pearl at another location for a ton more than what he just bought it for. In that case he is making the deal of a lifetime. Have you realized the worth of having Jesus in your life? Have you realized the greatness of having the hope of our citizenship in heaven, of the value of being completely free from sin and shame, or the supreme awesomeness of having the God of the universe living inside of you? Are those treasures worth giving up everything you have? Let us live lives that reflect the confidence and contentment we have because we have access to the greatest Treasure in all the earth!
Your brother,
Aaron Meredith
SUNDAY – APRIL 22, 2018
“O God the Lord, the strength of my salvation, You have covered my head in the day of battle. Do not grant, O Lord, the desires of the wicked; do not further his wicked scheme, lest they be exalted. Let not the slanderer be established in the earth; let evil hunt the violent man to over throw him. I know that the Lord will maintain the cause of the afflicted, and justice for the poor. Surely the righteous shall give thanks to Your name; the upright shall dwell in Your presence.”
Psalm 140:7, 8, 11-13.
Here are two quick ideas. The first is based on Matthew 16:18, “…on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” The church is supposed to be on the offensive against the enemy. The church is to be attacking places where Satan has bound people in his prison of sin and slavery. The church is called to set them free, and we can because the promise is that hell does not have strong enough “gates” to keep us out! We can defeat the enemy!
The second idea is that the world needs us, the church. Without the witness and power of the church, there is no hope for those who live in bondage. It is the church that God has appointed to be “salt and light” in a lost and dying world. We are commanded by our Lord to “let our light shine before men.” Without our light, the world would be in total darkness. The world needs us!
“Many Christians spend a lot of time and energy in making excuses, because they have never broken through into a real offensive for God by the unlimited power of the Holy Spirit!
“I contend that the church has a right to rejoice and that this is not a time in the world’s history for Christian believers to settle for a defensive holding action!” (Tozer, I Call it Heresy, page 30.)
“We Christians must stop apologizing for our moral position and start making our voices heard, exposing sin as the enemy of the human race and setting forth righteousness and true holiness as the only worthy pursuits for moral beings.
“I have no doubt that historians will conclude that we of the twentieth century had intelligence enough to create a great civilization but not the moral wisdom to preserve it.” (Tozer, The Tozer Pulpit, Vol. I, page 113.)
I pray that we will be strengthened and emboldened by the power of the Holy Spirit! Rise up, church of the Lord Jesus Christ! Let us go forth into battle and claim the victory in Jesus’ holy name!
Pastor Doug
SUNDAY – APRIL 15, 2018
“Princes persecute me without a cause, but my heart stands in awe of Your word.
I rejoice at Your word as one who finds great treasure. I hate and abhor lying, but I love Your law.
Seven times a day I praise You, because of Your righteous judgments.
Great peace have those who love Your law, and nothing causes them to stumble.” Psalm 119:161-165
When our congregation was choosing a name for our church, someone said, “Well, we believe the Bible, so Bible ought to be in it.” As a result, Bible became “our middle name.” Our statement of faith declares that we believe the Bible is God’s Holy Word, and our church verse is II Timothy 3:16. We endeavor to work alongside other ministries and mission organizations that also believe the Bible. One such mission is Heralds of Hope. Their motto is “All the Word to All the World,” and their statement of faith includes the following Article 2: “We believe that the Bible is the Self-revelation of God
to mankind for this age; that it is fully inspired by the Holy Spirit; that it is inerrant in its original records, authoritative in its decrees, universal and timeless in its message, and the standard by which all shall be judged.” In our official documents, we give high value and importance to the Bible, but what about our individual and personal lives?
Voice of the Martyrs recently shared the story of an Indian woman named Poonam. “When Poonam left Hinduism in 2012 and placed her faith in Christ, her Bible immediately became her most prized possession. The young Indian wife and mother of three secretly read God’s Word in her home each day, growing in her understanding of God’s love for her. But she feared her husband would find out about her new faith, and he soon did.
“After overhearing her praying a Christian prayer one day, he found her Bible and angrily tore it to pieces. ‘From today on you stop reading the Bible, and as long as you live in this house you better not pray!’ he threatened.
“When Poonam refused to stop praying to Jesus, her husband beat her and eventually kicked her out of the house, refusing to let her see their young sons and daughter. Following Jesus cost her everything.”
After some time when she was living with relatives, her prayers were answered when VOM found her. VOM gave her a new Bible, and she burst into tears. Over more time God answered her prayers, and she was restored to her husband and children. He has not yet accepted Christ personally, but he attends church with Poonam and permits her to live as a Christian.
“Poonam reads and studies God’s Word using her new Bible, but she refuses to give up the tattered, torn Bible that her husband tried to destroy. It is, after all, how she first learned about Jesus.
“’My Bible is everything to me,’ Poonam said. ‘It is the living Word of God. Without it, I can’t live.’”
May we all grow in our love and devotion for the Bible, God’s Holy Word!
Pastor Doug
SUNDAY – APRIL 8, 2018
“I will praise You with my whole heart; before the gods I will sing praises to You. I will worship toward Your holy temple, and praise Your name or Your lovingkindness and Your truth; for You have magnified Your word above all Your name.” Psalm 138:1, 2
There are many wonderful truths spoken in this building, not just by the “preacher” but also by many of God’s people who gather here for fellowship, study, prayer and worship. During the Good Friday service, one of our brothers said, “I love the name of this church, Needmore Bible. We do need more Bible.” He went on to explain that believers need a daily input of God’s Word no matter how often they have already heard or read the Bible. Certainly this is a very important truth for Christians. The Bible is critical to a successful life of faith. One of our goals in ministry is to inspire Christians to “think biblically” and to walk in the precepts that are revealed in the Bible. Many of us “love the name” because it reminds us that the Bible must become a focus for our faith-life.
Many of our folks use Facebook as a means of social interaction. Frequently there are inspirational messages posted by members of our fellowship. Just this week, one of our sisters printed the following scripture. “Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, like the days of the heavens above the earth.” (Deuteronomy 11:18-21.) It should be obvious to us that God wants us to make His Word the focus, the center piece of our lives. He knows that the truth revealed in His Word is the best way to live, and He expects our choices and behavior to be guided by His Word.
Just after this passage of scripture, it is written, “Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse: the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you today; and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way which I command you today, to go after other gods which you have not known.” (Deuteronomy 11:26-28.) Twice in the same book, the wisest man on earth wrote, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.” (Proverbs 14:12; 16:25.) God has made it abundantly clear that His way leads to righteousness and life! He has also warned that any way contrary to His will lead to death!
God’s Word must become a “lamp to our feet and a light to our path!”
A Bible-believer,
Pastor Doug
Easter Sunday – April 1, 2018
“Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen. ‘I am the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End,’ says the Lord, ‘who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.’ Revelation 1:7, 8
We have declared that the life of a Christian is a miraculous work of God. The Bible records many miracles that Jesus performed while on the earth and supports the principle that Christianity without miracles is not true, biblical Christianity. All of the miracles point to and are contingent on the “greatest” miracle of all. Jesus had declared that if His body were “destroyed,” He would raise it up from that destruction. Jesus predicted His own bodily resurrection. Indeed, His resurrection is the pinnacle of the gospel narratives and indicates that because He was raised from the dead, we should believe that everything else is possible for God and us. In essence, the resurrection is the fountainhead for the miraculous life of the Christian.
“God offers life, but not an improved old life. The life He offers is life out of death. It stands always on the far side of the cross… “What does it mean to the individual, the condemned man who would find life in Christ Jesus? How can this theology be translated into life? “Simply, he must repent and believe. He must forsake his sins and then go forsake himself. Let him cover nothing, defend nothing, excuse nothing. Let him not seek to make terms with God, but let him bow his head before the stroke of God’s stern displeasure and acknowledge himself worthy to die. “Having done this, let him gaze with simple trust upon the risen Savior, and from Him will come life and rebirth and cleansing and power.
“The cross that ended the earthly life of Jesus now puts an end to the sinner; and the power that raised Christ from the dead now raises him to a new life along with Christ.” (Tozer, The Old Cross and the New, page 4.)
While predicting His own resurrection, Jesus made a promise to His disciples, “Because I live, you shall live also!” (John 14:19.) Today we are celebrating not only an historical event, but we are celebrating the ongoing results of that event. We live new lives today because Jesus was raised from the dead! Hallelujah!
You ask me how I know He lives; He lives within my heart!
Pastor Doug
PALM SUNDAY – March 25, 2018
“The next day a great multitude that had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Him, and cried out: ‘Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! The King of Israel!’ Then Jesus, when He had found a young donkey, sat on it; as it is written: ‘Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your King is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt.’” John 12:12-15
Palm Sunday is the day that we commemorate The King appearing in the city of Jerusalem just as Zechariah had prophesized. Of course, there was a great deal of fanfare, and “all the city was moved.” But did the “city” actually embrace the rule of The King? Probably most of us recognize that the answer is no. Even though The King was present, the people did not yield to His rule and reign. The same question must be asked in our day as well. Have we submitted to the kingship of The King?
“At this hour in world history the state of religion is such that the Church is in grave danger of losing this priceless treasure [wisdom]. Her gold is being turned into copper and her diamonds to glass…. “Even among those who make a great noise about believing the Bible, that Bible has virtually no practical influence left. Fiction, films, fun, frolic, religious entertainment, Hollywood ideals, big business techniques and cheap, worldly philosophies now overrun the sanctuary. The grieved Holy Spirit broods over the chaos, but no light breaks forth. ‘Revivals’ come without rousing the hostility of organized sin and pass without raising the moral level of the community or purifying the lives of professing Christians. Why?
“Could it be that too many of God’s true children…are sinning against God by guilty silence? When those whose eyes are opened by the touch of Christ become vocal and active, God may begin to fight again on the side of truth.” (Tozer, A. W., God Tells the Man Who Cares, pages 179-180.)
Let each of us open our hearts in willful obedience to our King, the Lord Jesus Christ. We ought to praise and worship Him because of who He is, yet it is far better to obey than to give Him sacrifices!
Waiting on The King!
Pastor Doug
SUNDAY – MARCH 18, 2018
“Give to the Lord, O families of the peoples, give to the Lord glory and strength. Give to the Lord the glory due His name; bring an offering, and come before Him. Oh, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness!” I Chronicles 16:28-29
It’s that time of the year when Spring and Easter are just ahead of us. There is always much excitement about “going to church” during this season. It seems the whole world directs its attention to the Church’s celebration of Jesus Christ’s resurrection. There are usually more people in church during this season than the rest of the year, and that is quite alright. It appears as if God is doing the stirring of people’s hearts and He is drawing their attention to what He has accomplished through His Son’s death and resurrection. As God’s people gather, we expect the Holy Spirit to be present with us, and when He is with us He will lead us to worship!
“We are brought to God and to faith and to salvation that we might worship and adore Him. We do not come to God that we might be automatic Christians, cookie-cutter Christians, Christians stamped out with a die.
“God has provided His salvation that we might be, individually and personally, vibrant children of God, loving God with all our hearts and worshiping Him in the beauty of holiness.
“This does not mean, and I am not saying, that we must all worship alike. The Holy Spirit does not operate by anyone’s preconceived idea or formula, but this I know: when the Holy Spirit of God comes among us with His anointing, we will become a worshiping people.” (Tozer, A. W., Whatever Happened to Worship, page 14.)
Certainly it is our desire during this special season to experience encounters with the manifest Presence of the living God. We expect that people will experience real worship, even if they have never genuinely worshiped before, this year they will enter something new in their “church-going.” Let’s open our hearts to the Holy Spirit and allow Him to anoint us for true worship. May the name of our great Lord be glorified by a fully worshiping congregation of God’s people.
A worshiping believer,
Pastor Doug
SUNDAY – MARCH 11, 2018
“…and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.” Ephesians 1: 19-23
Communion, The Lord’s Supper is a common practice of Christian believers throughout history and around the entire world. It is a celebration of what Jesus has done for us on the Cross as well as recognition that everyone connected to the Cross is also connected to each other. The true Church is universal in nature and “she” is what Christ shed His blood to purchase. She has become His Bride, and He has no greater delight than seeing the Church be filled with His glory on earth. All believers “eat the same bread” and “drink the same cup.”
“Church members may by necessity be scattered over the surface of the earth and separated…but in every true member of the Church is the homing instinct and the longing of the sheep for the fold and the Shepherd.
“Give a few real Christians half a chance and they will get together and organize and plan regular meetings for prayer and worship….They will hear the Scriptures expounded, break bread together in one form or another according to their light, and try as far as possible to spread the saving gospel to the lost world.
“Such groups are cells in the Body of Christ, and each one is a true Church, a real part of the greater Church. It is in and through these cells that the Spirit does His work on earth. Whoever scorns the local church scorns the Body of Christ.”
Mr. Tozer wrote the preceding paragraphs in God Tells the Man Who Cares. I frequently and continually pray that we each will discover a great love for the Church and will find great blessing and joy in participating in the life of Needmore Bible Church.
A member of His Church,
Pastor Doug
SUNDAY – MARCH 4, 2018
“Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!
It is like the precious oil upon the head, running down on the beard, the beard of Aaron, running down
on the edge of his garments. It is like the dew of Hermon, descending upon the mountains of Zion;
for there the Lord commanded the blessing- life evermore.” Psalm 133:1-3
It is wonderful to have so many people accept responsibility here at Needmore Bible Church and then have them faithfully serve God and all of us through dedicated and excellent work. While it is true that we need each of those who make a contribution to the work (and the examples are far too numerous to list at this time), it is more important to know that the ultimate work, the “real” and eternal work is done by God and not by man. The church must be understood as more than a “human” or “social” institution. There is a supernatural dynamic at work in the church, or else it is not a “true” church at all. A. B. Simpson wrote on page 29 of In Step With the Spirit: “The Church was never intended to be a natural and intellectual organization, but a supernatural instrumentality wholly dependent upon the power of God.”
The Church is divine in its origin and also in its efficacy. She will make the greatest impact when consecrated believers are filled with the Holy Spirit and they are determined to work together to be “…a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.” (Ephesians 2:21, 22) “The Church is found wherever the Holy Spirit has drawn together a few persons who trust Christ for their salvation, worship God in spirit and have no dealings with the world and the flesh.” (Tozer, p. 25, God Tells the Man Who Cares)
It is our utmost desire to be a part of His Church here at NBC. We want to be “real” and “true” in our efforts of serving the Lord Jesus Christ and the world that He has placed us in. The two needed elements are born-again, Spirit-filled Christians and the power of His Presence in our midst. Without either one of these we cannot be more than a mere earthly organization. We cry out in full surrender, “Lord Jesus, take us completely and make us wholly Thine. Anoint us with Your Spirit and use us for Thy glory!”
A member of His Church,
Pastor Doug
SUNDAY – FEBRUARY 25, 2018
“Then Moses said, ‘I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn.’
So when the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said,
‘Moses, Moses!’ and he said, ‘Here I am.’ Then He said, ‘Do not draw near this place.
Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.’” Exodus 3:3-5
When people encounter the living God and He speaks to them, the place becomes “holy ground.” It is the presence of God and His word that sanctifies the place. The entire Bible record from beginning to its conclusion proclaims that God “speaks” to people. He is not a silent Sovereign. God communicates with people because of His great love for them. He does not want to be hidden and unknown, so He speaks. The world certainly does not understand a “speaking” God, and they might even call it “mental illness,” but we absolutely affirm that our God “speaks” with us! God speaks through the Bible, by His Spirit, and through our conscience. In Faith Beyond Reason on pages 82 and 83, Mr. A. W. Tozer wrote about God speaking through our conscience.
“It can be fatal to silence the inner voice, the voice of human conscience. Some silence it, for instance, when that voice speaks in outraged protest at the human habit of lying. It may plead eloquently against the habit of dishonesty, or take a person to task for jealousy or for some other sin. It is always perilous to resist conscience, to ignore the inner voice. Let the Lord talk to your inner spirit, to your innermost being. Within you is a conscience that cannot lean on anybody, that cannot share the blame with anybody – a conscience that singles you out, isolates you and says, ‘You are the man!’ ‘You are the woman!’ It is the voice that makes you want to lower your head and tiptoe away while no one is watching.
“I am grateful for the human conscience. If there was no conscience and no voice of God in the world, we would all become beasts in very short order… If that voice is speaking to you – that inner preacher who does not preach to a crowd but only to the lone individual soul – respond!”
Our God is speaking! We must be willing to listen to hear what He is saying to each of us. When we hear His “voice” we must be willing to do as He tells us!
Listening,
Pastor Doug
SUNDAY – FEBRUARY 18, 2018
“If You, O LORD, kept a record of our sins…who could stand? But with You there is forgiveness…
My soul waits for the Lord more than the watchmen wait for the morning…
Put your hope in the LORD, for with the LORD is unfailing love, and with Him is full redemption.” Psalm 130:3-7
The God we serve is a super-natural God. That means that He is “above” or “superior” to nature. He has created nature, rules over it, and even works through the very nature He created. Yet, we must always remember that our God is the Sovereign Supreme over the entire universe. And you and I must be open and aware of the supernatural works that God will do in our lives. We must expect the miraculous because the “real” Christian life is given to us in supernatural ways. All of our experience from being born-again to worshiping God falls into the realm of supernatural and miraculous!
Mr. Tozer reminded us about this truth when he wrote about our new birth. “In our day, we send reason ahead on its short little legs, and faith never follows. Nobody marvels, because the whole business can be explained. I have always claimed that a believing Christian is a miracle, and at the precise moment that you can fully explain him, you have a Christian no longer!
“I have read the efforts of William James to psychologize the wonders of God’s workings in the human life and experience. But the genuine child of God is someone who cannot be explained by human reasoning.
“In this relationship with Jesus Christ through the new birth, something takes place by the ministry of the Spirit of God which psychology cannot explain. This is why I must contend that faith is the highest kind of reason after all, for faith goes straight into the presence of God.” (Faith Beyond Reason, p. 40)
We were also reminded on Thursday in Seek God for the City that worship must take us beyond our own logical rationale. “We know what it is to be impressed by our own religious performance. We can say all the correct words, yet leave our hearts far behind. Our worship routines are so well-rehearsed that they have become predictable and safe. We are among those who have approached You without heart or humility. Please break through our pride. Gather our wayward hearts. Surprise us with Your supremacy. Stun us with how dangerous You are. Ravish us with the brilliance of Your beauty so that the cloud of clever religious pride evaporates in the radiance of Your glory.” (P. 8)
Our God is an awesome God! Let’s approach Him as if He is awesome!
Pastor Doug
SUNDAY – FEBRUARY 11, 2018
“Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy… Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men! For He satisfies the longing soul, and fills the hungry soul with goodness.” Psalm 107:1-2; 8-9 “Give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness!” Psalm 29:2
When we gather on Sunday morning at 10:00, it is for the purpose of worshiping our God. We label the time as a “worship service.” It is a thousands-of-years-old tradition that is recorded in the Bible. There have certainly been different rituals and practices over those years, but the fact that God’s people have worshiped God in corporate settings is a very well established fact. You and I are gathered here today to join the millions of people around the world and down through history to worship. It is possible that in spite of the clear call to worship, there are many, many folks who never really worship in the “worship service.”
Mr. A. W. Tozer gave much effort to call the church to genuine worship. He knew that our God is certainly worthy of genuine worship and when Christians gather their attentions must be focused on God rather than on our individual concerns. He was often criticized for his stern and serious approach to worship. “One man wrote an article as an expose of me. He said that I claimed that religious entertainment was wrong, and he said, ‘Don’t you know that every time you sing a hymn, it’s entertainment?’ Every time you sing a hymn? I don’t know how that fellow ever finds the way home at night. He ought to have a seeing-eye dog and a man with a white cane to take him home! “When you raise your eyes to God and sing, ‘Break thou the bread of life, dear Lord, to me,’ is that entertainment – or is it worship? Isn’t there a difference between worship and entertainment? The church that can’t worship must be entertained. And men who can’t lead a church to worship must provide the entertainment. That is why we have the great evangelical heresy here today – the heresy of religious entertainment.” (Success and the Christian, pp. 6-7) “I hope that we will remove from our hearts every ugly thing and every unbeautiful thing and every dead thing and every unholy thing that might prevent us from worshiping the Lord Jesus Christ in the beauty of holiness. Now I am quite sure that this kind of thing is not popular. The world does not want to hear it, and the half-saved churches of the evangelical fold do not want to hear it either.” (“The Chief End of Man,” Sermon #10, Toronto, 1962)
We must not care what man thinks of all this. We must care what God thinks of our attempts to worship Him!
I want to be a “true worshiper!”
Pastor Doug
SUNDAY – FEBRUARY 4, 2018
“Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out! ‘For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become His counselor? Or who has given to Him and it shall be repaid to him?’ For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.” Romans 11:33-36
Oh, how much we need to be in prayer that God will minister to all of us through His Spirit when we gather for fellowship and worship. If the Spirit of the Lord is not present and at work in our gatherings, then we are just having a “social” event. We certainly all want God to be at work when we come together as followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. We want God to be at work convincing all who come and share with us that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. And when He is with us, He will work!
On pages 25 and 26 of Echoes From Eden, Mr. Tozer Wrote some very important truth about the working of the Holy Spirit. “The Holy Spirit, whom Jesus also called the Spirit of Truth, has not come into this world to fool around. He will be found wherever the Lord’s people meet, and in confirming the Word and the Person of Jesus Christ, He will demand moral action! “It is for that reason that when a man goes to a gospel meeting he never knows when the last shred of excuse will be stripped from his naked, trembling conscience forever. Men may joke and play – even about sacred and spiritual matters – but the Spirit of God is in dead earnest! “God is still speaking in this lost world, and one of His voices is the presence of the Holy Spirit, convicting a lost human race of such weighty matters as sin, righteousness and judgment. While the Holy Spirit continues His ministries, we know that this lost world is not yet a forsaken world.”
This is our highest desire and our hope that God will not “leave us like orphans.” He will come to us and dwell in our midst. Let’s gather with expectation that many people will be convinced that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.
Come, Holy Spirit, and fill this place!
Pastor Doug
SUNDAY – JANUARY 28, 2018
“Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out! ‘For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become His counselor? Or who has given to Him and it shall be repaid to him?’ For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.” Romans 11:33-36
An expression that has often been used by new adherents to Christianity or by new church attendees is “I’ve found religion.” That is a possibility for human beings. A person can “find religion.” A person can encounter religious life and can then observe and study and learn about it to the point of deciding whether or not to join in. The reason a person can “find religion” is because religion is created by other human beings. It is planned and organized practices that are done in response to awareness that there is a God. Even though a person can “find religion,” it must be clearly stated that a person cannot “find God.” The truth is that God must find man!
In the passage above it is stated that God’s judgments and ways are beyond the ability of the human mind to “discover” them. They are unsearchable, meaning that the human intellect cannot find them by going in search of God’s essence, His thoughts or ways. Isaiah reported this truth with the following words: “’For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,’ says the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.’” (55:8-9). This hyperbolic expression indicates that God and His mind, His thought processes are beyond the sphere of human reasoning. A human being cannot comprehend, cannot find God using his or her natural cerebrations. As the Apostle Paul wrote, “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” (I Corinthians 2:9). There is good news though for those who wish to “find God” and to “know” Him. Paul wrote after his statement that human eyes, ears, and imaginations cannot understand God in all His ways, “But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit!” (I Corinthians 2:10). Mankind cannot find God, and God knows that, so He has chosen to reveal, to make known His truth to those who will receive it through the enlightenment of His Spirit. A. W. Tozer wrote, “The uncomprehending mind is unaffected by truth. The intellect of the hearer may grasp saving knowledge while yet the heart makes no moral response to it.” Only the Holy Spirit can give “sight” to human eyes and minds in order to know God and His truth. We are praying and believing that God is going to give revelation and spiritual sight to folks now in darkness.
I saw the Light, no more in darkness, no more in night!
Pastor Doug
SUNDAY – JANUARY 21, 2018
“I said, ‘O my God, do not take me away in the midst of my days; Your years are throughout all generations. Of old You laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands. They will perish, but You will endure; yes, they will all grow old like a garment; like a cloak You will change them, and they will be changed. But You are the same, and Your years will have no end. The children of Your servants will continue, and their descendants will be established before You.’” Psalm 102:24-28
The longer a person lives, the tendency is to become more and more comfortable with the familiar old “paths,” but yet everything seems to keep changing. Like rolling down a hill, things seem to change more and more frequently the closer to the bottom we get. The rapidity of change and change’s far-reaching effect can cause people to become fearful and frantic. One might easily think that there is no real hope for the future and those folks who will attempt to live in it. In spite of this common experience for mankind, there remains a truth that some “things” will not change! There are sure and solid foundations that we can build our lives on that will remain immoveable. In Jesus, Author of our Faith on pages 142 and 143, Mr. Aiden Wilson Tozer has written the following.
“The Scriptures are open and plain. Jesus Christ is our Savior and Lord. He is our High Priest, alive and ministering for us today. His person, His power and His grace are the same, without change, yesterday, today and forever! “He is the same Lord because He is the same God. He is the same, never having changed in substance, in power, in wisdom, in love, in mercy. In His divine person, Jesus Christ has never known correction or change. He feels now as He has always felt about everyone and everything. “Jesus will not yield to those who charge that He is an absentee, that He is far away and unavailable. Our faith tells us that Jesus Christ is close at hand, that He is a living force in our lives today. He is the Holy Spirit of God fulfilling His promises moment by moment. “We…must stand together in our faith. Our Lord is as powerful now, as real now, as near to us now, as loving now as He ever was when He walked among the men and women on the shores of Galilee.”
This is the foundation of truth that we must build our lives on. Apart from God there is nothing else to stand on but the “quicksand” of this world!
I’m standing on The Rock!
Pastor Doug
SUNDAY – JANUARY 14, 2018
“Oh, sing to the Lord a new song! Sing to the Lord, all the earth. Sing to the Lord, bless His name; proclaim the good news of His salvation from day to day. Declare His glory among the nations, His wonders among all peoples. For the Lord is great and greatly to be praised; He is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are idols, but the Lord made the heavens. Honor and majesty are before Him; strength and beauty are in His sanctuary.” Psalm 96:1-6
Have you ever thought about how much of the stuff you have in your life you could live without? Do a mental exercise and just begin to imagine certain “items” taken from your life. Imagine living without each particular item. Have you ever reached a place where you thought that you just couldn’t live without “that!”? Well, what is “it” that is essential for you to live? What is the most basic foundation that if you have it, you could live? Is it possible that “God” is really all that you need? In Tozer Speaks to Students on pages 164 and 166, he wrote about the “sufficiency” of God.
“The error that everything new is good and everything old is bad takes place in the realm of practice and worship and religious activity generally. This is a view…that can lead, of course, to great rebellion against the truth…. “We will never be where we ought to be until we go back to those old paths and learn to find God. Then we will cease to be bored with God… We will center our affections upon God and Christ… and become specialists and experts in the realm of the spiritual life. “It is amazing how little outside stimulus we need if we have that inward stimulus. It is amazing how much God will meet our needs. It will not be God and something else. It will be God everything. “And then, wisely, we will gear into our time…and in a moment we will become…alert to the needs of the world around us… At the same time, our great anchor will be God above… God will be enough.”
We serve the one and only true and living God. He has made us for Himself, and we will never be complete until we are complete in Him. He is more than able to save every one of us to the uttermost!
Satisfied in Jesus!
Pastor Doug
SUNDAY – JANUARY 7, 2018
“Behold, God is great, and we do not know Him; nor can the number of His years be discovered. For He draws up drops of water, which distill as rain from the mist, which the clouds drop down and pour abundantly on man…Indeed, can anyone understand the spreading of clouds, the thunder from His canopy?…At this also my heart trembles, and leaps from its place. Hear attentively the thunder of His voice, and the rumbling that comes from His mouth. He sends it forth under the whole heaven, His lightning to the ends of the earth. After it a voice roars; He thunders with His majestic voice, and He does not restrain them when His voice is heard. God thunders marvelously with His voice; He does great things which we cannot comprehend. For He says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth’; likewise to the gentle rain and the heavy rain of His strength… From the chamber of the south comes the whirlwind, and cold from the scattering winds of the north. By the breath of God ice is given, and broad waters are frozen… And they swirl about, being turned by His guidance, that they may do whatever He commands them on the face of the whole earth. He causes it to come, whether for correction, or for His land, or for mercy.” (Verses from Job 36:26-37:13.)
Do you remember who the God we serve is? Do you remember that He is the sovereign Creator who controls His creation and directs it according to His will? Do you remember that He is supernatural, not contained or constrained by nature? He is above it and is free to “break in upon it” anytime He chooses. Those times that He does we label miraculous! We serve the one and only supernatural God who performs the miraculous for His own glory and the benefit of His children. Hallelujah!
The prophet Isaiah describes our God very well in His prophecy as recorded in the 40th chapter. The entire section sounds very similar to the description recorded in Job. Here are some verses to read. “Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, measured heaven with a span and calculated the dust of the earth in a measure?…Behold, the nations are as a drop in a bucket, and are counted as the small dust on the scales;…All nations before Him are as nothing, and they are counted by Him less than nothing and worthless. To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare Him?…Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is He who sits above the circle of the earth…”
But here comes the good news for those who love and trust the true and living God! “Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary, His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, but those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” (Isaiah 40:28-31)
Remember our faith is in the supernatural Creator, God! Let’s live by this faith!
Pastor Doug