The Pastor’s Point

In case you haven't heard, Christmas falls on a Sunday this year.  When I looked ahead at this year's calendar in the fall of 2021, I was so excited for this opportunity.  How appropriate it is to be able to observe the day we traditionally celebrate the birth of our Savior together as the church! Yet, as we have drawn closer to Christmas this year, it has been shocking to see Christians all over our country actually opposing the corporate assembly of the church on Christmas Sunday.  My first inclination was to think this was coming from the liberal sect of so-called Christianity - you know, the same groups that have been cancelling church for the sake of convenience for quite some time.  But, that is not the case here.  Good, Bible-believing Christians have convinced themselves it is okay to "cancel church" this year.  What are their reasons?  "We can worship Jesus from home as a family."  "We are prioritizing family time, which is also important...

The time has come around once again for American citizens to prepare to exercise their God-given liberty to vote.  If I am being honest, there certainly is nothing appealing about wading through the cesspool of candidates and issues that are being pushed on our society today.  But, as believers it is our responsibility to do so. We are called to stand for the truth that sets men free. It was Jesus Himself who told us, " Render to Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's ." (Matthew 22:21) This would include, of course, the matter of voting. Beyond the biblical mandate, there is a civic mandate for the citizens of this country to vote.  Our government was formed to function of the people, by the people and for the people. Men and women have died to secure this freedom for us. Therefore, it behooves us to exercise our right to vote, however much we may disagree with candidates or issues. As you prepare to vote this November, there are...

It is hard to believe that summer is drawing to an end and a new school year is already upon us.  The hustle and bustle of preparations are fully underway.  As you prepare to start a new school year, let me share with you some simple steps you can take to simplify your life. Schedule One aspect of new school year that tends to complicate life is adjusting to a new schedule.  During the summer months, your kids develop new habits like sleeping in, having excessive times of recreation and altogether not keeping a steady schedule. (By the way, this is what makes summer so great for kids, right?)  So, it can be a great challenge to get your kids (and yourself) back to keeping a consistent schedule for school. You will greatly simplify your life for the upcoming school year by taking some time to write out a new schedule for your family.  Take time to evaluate what is most important in your life. (For example, God should come first, family time second, etc.)  On...

If you have made the effort to be faithful to your local gathering at church for very long at all, you can relate to the struggle of doing so every Sunday. One Sunday morning, as a woman went to go wake her husband up for church, he informed her, "I'm not going." "Why not?" she asked. "I'll give you two good reasons. One, they don't like me; and two, I don't like them." His wife replied, "Well, I'll give you two good reasons why you should go to church then. One, you're fifty-four years old; and two, you're the pastor!" At some point, every single one of us have have faced this struggle with going to church.  More so than any other day of the week, Sunday always seems like the hardest day to get up and to get going.  Why is this?  Because sleeping in, relaxing, having a "mental health day," watching church online, fishing, golfing, having family time, doing chores or just about any thing else seems more appe...

The church is one of the greatest gifts that God has given to us on this side of eternity.  There is no other organization in this world that can compare with what God has orchestrated in the church.  The church is unlike any other mere organization because it is really an organism - it is the very body of Christ.  This is one reason why the Bible puts such a high priority on the assembly of the saints.  Jesus wants His body to live in union with Him and in unity with one another. When you truly get ahold of these truths, it ought to change the priority you place on the church.  Certainly, when you understand how precious and important the church is to God, your response at the very least ought to be to elevate the importance of church in your own life to an equal measure. Yet, it confound me how people continue to find reasons to belittle the significance of the church in their own life.  It is an issue of pandemic proportions in modern day Christianity! ...

The gathering together of God's people in a public assembly is one of the closest things to heaven that we can experience on this earth.  There is nothing in this world quite so sweet and precious as a band of believers gathering together to worship Jesus, study God's Word, share burdens, pray for one another, make decisions of faith and declare the gospel.  The longer I live, the more important and significant the gathering of the church becomes to me. Because of this, it truly astounds me how anyone would want to miss this special gathering of the church.  As a pastor, it absolutely confounds me to see people who claim to be struggling continue to find reasons not to come to the exact place where they could get the encouragement and help they need for what they are facing. Certainly, going to church does not make one better than anyone else, yet the public assembly of the church is something that God has commanded His people to "not forsake" for a reason. (Hebrews 1...

This morning, the first text message I received was from a dear friend who informed me that our local crisis pregnancy center (Heart To Heart) had been vandalized over the weekend.  It is certainly not the first news you want to receive as you start the week.  To be honest, this news was not at all surprising; yet, it was still so devastating to hear.  Even in our rural part of the country, there are those who are so angered about not getting their way that they would dare take it out on an organization whose sole purpose is to help women and children (and provide a safe alternative to abortion). After the Supreme Court ruling this past week which overturned the federal right to abortion and left the matter to be decided by each state in the union, the response from those all over the country have been mixed.  Many have celebrated this decision as a great victory for human rights (specifically, the right of unborn children to live).  Others have mourned this dec...