“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” First Peter 2:9.

Wow! Chosen. Royal. Holy.

But, really? Us?

Though God must think we’re a sight for sore eyes, aren’t we as Christ’s Church sometimes a funny-looking bunch? I don’t mean that we can’t get all dressed up and looking dapper from time to time, but I mean that we’re always an interesting assortment of every imaginable – and even few unimaginable – personalities, temperaments, and preferences!

But you and I are the Church. Living proof that our Creator has a wonderful sense of humor. I don’t understand why God chose the Church to be His hands and feet and voice on Planet Earth, but I’m sure glad He did. Warts and all, I’m so grateful to be a part of Christ’s body. Are you?

Charles Spurgeon more than once preached on the safety of every Christian believer in our Lord Jesus Christ. I’ll never forget a quote from one of Pastor Spurgeon’s sermons, where “the prince of preachers” was describing Noah, his family, and all the animals held safely in God’s Ark (both literally and figuratively): “All, blessed be God, were safe in the ark, no ruin entered there. From the huge elephant down to the tiny mouse all were safe. The timid hare was equally secure with the courageous lion, the helpless cony as safe as the laborious ox. All are safe in Jesus.”

Isn’t that a great thought? Regardless of all of our distinctive personalities, temperaments, and preferences, we are one. One in Christ Jesus! He is the glue that holds us together. Christ is our identity, our life, and our joy. You and I are immeasurably blessed in Him.

Are you the elephant (political preferences aside), with a strong and sometimes intimidating presence? Secure. Always steady under pressure.

Are you the mouse who tends to run for hiding when things get a little frightening?

Are you the hare? Not longing for much of the spotlight, and preferring your fair share of anonymity.

Are you the lion? So sure of who you are that you’re willing to take bold risks. (Risks that would scare the stuffing out of the rest of us.)

Do you feel like the tiny creature who’s been through so many trials that you feel like there’s no strength left?

Or do you feel more like the storms of life have made you wiser, and even stronger?

Truth is, we’re all in it together. And we all need each other. Whoever you are, God has made you – and is still making you – a very special you. “All, blessed be God, were safe in the ark.” You are the apple of our Savior’s eye.

And, if I might put in my two cents, I also think you’re more than terrific.

Pastor Charles

Since Lifeway has just pulled from its shelves the books of Jen Hatmaker, I feel compelled to speak. Jen Hatmaker is a New York Times bestselling author from Austin, Texas. She’s a bright, dynamic, 42-year-old pastor’s wife and a compelling blogger. She’s a mom of five – and from what I’ve observed via a couple of HGTV episodes in which the family transformed their old farmhouse into a dream home – Brandon, Jen, and their kids are loads of fun and would make terrific neighbors.

Jen has been criticized before. She is outspoken, and she has little patience with “evangelicals” who don’t bother to love their neighbor. She pushes people out of their churchy comfort zones. I have defended Jen in several different conversations over the years. Once I remember she was seen with a wine glass in high-profile photographs. My response to her accusers, though phrased a bit more politely than this, was something along the lines of: “Who cares? I guess you wouldn’t like some pictures of Jesus, were those also available.”

But I must say, as much as it saddens me to say it, Lifeway has made the right decision. In an interview Tuesday, Jen Hatmaker told Religion News Service columnist Jonathan Merritt that she believes that LGBT relationships can be “holy.” Also in Jen’s own words, “any two adults have the right to choose who they want to love … our communities have plenty of gay couples who, just like the rest of us, need marriage support and parenting help and Christian community … Not only are these our neighbors and friends, but they are brothers and sisters in Christ. They are adopted into the same family as the rest of us.”

Jen is so close to the truth. The church has failed in ministry to many. We have, wrongly, made certain sins “super sins.” I would totally agree with Jen that “we have to do better.” Amen! But to embrace a sinful and rebellious lifestyle as “holy” not only gets the Bible wrong, but it cuts off from Christ’s gospel people who desperately need Christ’s gospel.

Though none of us wants to be stuck in dead tradition, we must be anchored in living truth. I think of the Passover. What was the point? That God’s people never forget where we’ve come from, and what God has done for us. And what God has revealed to us about Himself, including what He has shown us about what is right and what is wrong. The British novelist who penned The Travelling Grave, L.P. Hartley, once wrote: “The past may be a foreign country, but it is not so foreign that it has not been a constant resource for the church throughout the centuries.”

Speaking of Hartley’s short story, I must tell you that my pastoral concerns regarding these types of postmodern doctrinal evolutions – and I envision many more of these coming down the pike – feel ominous to me. It’s certainly not just an abandonment of our heritage that disturbs me. It’s an abandonment of God’s Word. Far surpassing our love for either “liberal” or “conservative” ought to be our love for the Scriptures.

I think of Princeton Seminary, once the global center of sound theology (I don’t think that’s an overstatement). What happened when the leading influencers at Princeton began to prize academic (cultural) acceptance over reliance upon revealed truth? The train bound for more and more “intellectual enlightenment” left the station. The forces against the “shackles of the past” – in nearly the blink of an eye – blew up the gospel underpinnings upon which Princeton had been founded. Confessional truth gave way to subjective disaster.

This has been played out countless times in denominations, churches, homes, and hearts since the first “Did God really say?” in the Garden. We ought to weep. I am no backwoods fundamentalist redneck, but I will say this: If we can no longer declare to be true what God has declared to be true, then we have lost the battle. Regardless of the depth of compassion which first moved us to open our hearts to any group of people, without God’s truth we are lost.

It is not enough to say that we believe the Bible to be the Word of God. The real question is: Will we yield to the Bible’s authority when we need it the most, even when we loathe its present and personal application?

Jen, if you read this, please come home. We love you in Christ. We will love all your friends too, but please come home.

Pastor Charles

“For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken. On God rests my salvation and my glory; my mighty rock, my refuge is God.” Those are the poignant words of Psalm 62:5-7.

I want to remind you about the very important prayer meeting which will happen tomorrow night at First Baptist Paducah. We’ll meet in the church sanctuary, and we’ll begin promptly at 6:00 p.m. We will join our spiritual forces with those of brothers and sisters in Christ from other local congregations. It will be the joy of our First Family to host this important community event. Please help me spread the word. Everyone is invited.

May God meet with us tomorrow night! May God help us. We desperately need Him to renew our hope and restore our land. We need His forgiveness and His healing. May His Spirit sweep across our church, our community, and our nation – and may He draw many out of spiritual darkness. As we come together to pray here in Paducah, we recognize that our Sovereign God is raising up many similar gatherings across this great nation. As we pray here, may believers everywhere draw close to our Lord Jesus Christ and seek His face like never before!

An ominous national election lies on our immediate horizon. You already know that. When Jimmy Carter was elected President in 1976, Newsweek called it “the year of the evangelical.” Truth is, evangelicals weren’t united then, and we aren’t united now. And, politically speaking, that’s as it should be I suppose. We’re Christians first, after all. The highest flag we fly is the flag of Christ. Our political opinions are never as important as the gospel which makes us family. The trouble is, this year, this election is causing strife within the family – harsh disagreements between and among professing believers, the likes of which I have never before observed.

There may be lots of agreement among most evangelicals surrounding Roe v. Wade and the abortion issue, but on a whole range of other substantive matters there appear to be terrible fissures just below ground level. We need grace. We need faith. We need wisdom. We need Christ! Perhaps the Lord has brought us to this place so that we may find our unity in Him. And in Him alone.

If I may be blunt for a moment, there seems to have settled over the evangelical subculture in general, as well as in many corners of our own local faith community, an overwhelming sense of despondency as November draws near. So perhaps what we most need – right now – is joy.

As we think about humbling ourselves in prayer tomorrow evening, David the psalmist adds one more essential thought (62:8) which ought to be over-the-top encouragement for us: “Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us!”

Amen. So let it be. Here. Everywhere. Now. Forever.

Pastor Charles

Every other Wednesday morning I head out to The Lakes of Paducah and share a Bible study with some of the residents there. It’s a great group of people who seem eager each week to open their Bibles and their hearts. This week I was getting ready to teach the second chapter of the Book of Esther, which begins with these words: “After these things …”

At our last gathering, we had looked at the extravagant party thrown by King Ahasuerus (Xerxes) in the third year of his reign. It was a long support-raiser for his planned invasion of Greece. That was the event where Queen Vashti had refused to present herself, as the king had commanded, before his drunken guests. I’m sure you know the story. Chapter Two opens four years later.

During that four-year period, things had not gone as the king had planned. Ahasuerus had failed in his military expansion, and the collective power of the Greek states had pushed back the Persian army in dramatic fashion. The king had been shamed before the watching world. He is now depressed, and estranged from his queen. When he really needs her most, as his best friend, it can’t happen. Ever. That’s because the grotesque pride which led the king to depose Vashti in the first place now means that he is forever prohibited – that’s the way Persian decrees worked – from having her as his wife.

And that’s the historical backdrop for the national search for a replacement queen which ensues. If you’ve read the entire account, you know that Esther the Jew will be chosen. It’s a nationwide “top model” competition, but what neither the king nor his personal attendants understand is that the God of the Universe is ordering every detail (Ephesians 1:11).

If you’re as wacked as I by our national scene, take heart, my friend. God is still God. Though we can’t know all the details, we can know who holds tomorrow. Liars will come and go. Kings will rise and fall. Nations will soar in prominence, and then topple. Leaders will ascend to positions of power, only to be brought low. And, one day, every knee will bow before the Lordship of our King Jesus.

After these things. There will be another day. A new day. Sometimes God saves a nation through an all-out, head-on, this-can’t-be-happening crisis. Behind every cloud of utter confusion is a glorious opportunity to trust the only One who can be trusted to see us through. He is great. He is good. And we are His “for such a time as this” (Esther 4:14).

Pastor Charles

Inspired it seems by none other than Aristotle, Rachel Melikian wrote in her Op-Ed in the L.A. Times last year: “The Armenian sparrow sings songs of our tales to the world. Our stories had gone with our martyrs, but we cherish the memories of dear truth … We must be ready to become heroes of our nation, for truth will mark the end of the enemy’s lies.”

Though I don’t know entirely or precisely where she’s coming from theologically, politically, or philosophically, I can certainly resonate with at least some of Ms. Melikian’s sentiment. In nearly every category, much has been robbed from Armenia over many centuries. That being validated, it is still a land of promise. I can say that because the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is alive and well here. I have seen it with my own eyes.

I thought I’d send you a few more photos before I fly out early tomorrow. There’s one of me teaching with my translator in Ararat, and a few others with some of my team members. I’ll also throw in a couple from Lake Sevan, and a few from the capital city of Yerevan.

Please pray me home. It’s almost a 24-hour trip, and I’m tired even before I depart. But it’s a “good tired” if you know what I mean.

Thanks for sharing the journey with me. Much love.

Pastor Charles

It’s Ararat Conference Day 3. Good morning!

Thanks for all your prayers, and for blessing people here through your generous giving. In our hermeneutics course, we’ve moved from observation to interpretation to application. We’re emphasizing the importance of sticking with a text of Scripture, and making the most of the text. This morning, specifically, we examined “the Lord’s prayer” as a pattern for prayer.

You would not believe the eagerness and passion with which these students have approached their assignments. We’ve done small-group Bible observation, and then asked some of the students to share their new interpretive skills with the large group. For example, we asked them to resolve what Paul says about Abraham’s salvation and ours (Romans 4) with what James says on the same subject (James 2:14-26). Is there a conflict in God’s Word between faith and works? That was the students’ task, and they completed it with excellence.

Today’s early afternoon lunch will be a special treat which you helped provide. I’ll try to send some photos later.

I have great hope for the body of Christ in this part of God’s world! Even as many believers are driven out of many parts of the Middle East, there is still a bright gospel light shining in the darkness. Some of the Syrians whom I’ve met here are ready to go back to their homeland as evangelists as soon as the political winds change direction just enough to make that possible. Wow!

Paul the Apostle expressed our timeless hope like this (Ephesians 3:20-21): “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”

Pastor Charles

Warning to Parents: Some contents are PG-13.

I thought you might enjoy some more pics from Armenia. Armenia formally became a Christian nation in 301 A.D., and the uniqueness of the Armenian language (with its 38 letters and sounds, some of which I absolutely cannot pronounce correctly, despite repeated attempts) allowed copies of the Scriptures to fall into the hands of the Armenian people very early in church history.

One of the most fascinating dimensions of ministry here is the awareness of Islam at every border. Armenia is surrounded by Muslim nations, and has struggled to survive numerous foreign invasions over the centuries. I titled this blog post the Armenian equivalent of: “Lord, have mercy on us!” I stole the line from a book on the Armenian genocide which began in 1915.

You’ll see in one of my conference photos that I am standing in the dining room. That breakfast table was a gathering of Syrians. These particular refugees are descendants of Armenians (grandchildren to be precise) who were dragged by the Turks into the desert to die during the genocide. Some of those grandparents survived being thrown into wells and having sand poured down their throats, while most if not all of their family members perished. Horrors in those days included women being raped and impaled on stakes, and other crimes against children too grotesque for me to include here. This is the spirit driving ISIS today. Make no mistake about it.

But the true Church is alive and well in the Middle East! The Christ-followers whom I’ve been privileged to meet here are passionate about our Lord Jesus, and hungry to know how to interpret and apply the Scriptures. One young woman just explained to me how she does her Greek word studies so that she can be a better teacher. Despite limited resources among the people, the Holy Spirit is deploying His unlimited resources to accomplish amazing things for Christ’s kingdom. (We must never forget that Jesus was a refugee.)

To quote the great theologian Julie Farmer: “Wowie! Wow! Wow!” By the way, Julie, I taught the Armenians to say, “Wow!” They love the word, and have adopted it, albeit unofficially.

Pastor Charles

It’s Monday, and we begin Conference #2 today. Thanks for all of your heartfelt prayers, including those offered on my behalf from friends at Grace Baptist Church in Muldova Noua, Romania. I’ll send an update on today’s sessions later.

The conference in Vanadzor went exceedingly well, with several hundred in attendance. I’ll include a picture of some of the folks gathering outside before we got started, as well as a couple of the teaching shots. When I get my hands on one of the inside photos of the participants, I’ll send it. (There isn’t one on my cell phone because I was teaching.)

I’ll also send a photo of our entire team, including the young man who is driving all of these rough roads for us, enjoying an Armenian kebab dinner. Armenians are very hospitable. Meals are an event, and people share with their guests the very best they have to offer.

I also thought I’d share with you a little history. My first introduction to Armenia came through Steve and Rozik Kashian. Dr. Kashian, an internist on Chicago’s North Shore, first came to Armenia in 1992 to help out after a devastating earthquake which took thousands of lives and left many more homeless. Steve and Rozik’s repeated visits to Armenia eventually gave birth to the Armenian Relief Mission, a medical clinic serving anyone and everyone whom they can serve here.

You’ll see the medical staff in one photo, and I asked one of the doctors to hold up a list of all of the people who will benefit from the medicines which we brought with us. ARM takes care of all of the hemophiliacs in Armenia, for example, because no other clinic here can get their hands on Factor VIII.

It has been for me personally such a tremendous blessing to see lives transformed by ARM’s gracious ministry as the hands and feet of Christ for such a time as this. I’m including a picture of a cute little boy whose father told me that ARM saved his life, literally. The boy’s dad, after he was impacted by receiving the treatment which he needed, placed his trust in Jesus Christ! The man is now leading his family to know and serve our Lord.

Similarly, the pastor of a Kurdish church came to Saturday’s conference and expressed his thanks to ARM for his own medical care. I could go on and on, but suffice it to say that we’re talking situation after situation of absolutely desperate need. ARM is a huge bright spot in this country.

By later today I’ll have a handle on how many nations will be included among the attendees of this second conference, but we already know that Syria, Iran, Iraq, and Turkey will be in that number. Please join me in praying that the Holy Spirit will light a blazing fire of desire to rightly divide God’s Word (Second Timothy 2:15), and that churches will be strengthened in faith (Acts 16:5; Romans 4:20; Colossians 2:7). That’s what hermeneutics is all about, so this is another exciting day on Christ’s mission field!

Pastor Charles

“Good morning!” I’ll offer you some lavash (Persian bread) with butter and peach jam made from the fruit right off the property here. It’s Friday. Enjoy a few photos. In this region of Armenia, you can see lots of the areni grapes, from which the region produces most of its wine, as well as classic architecture dating back to the New Testament era.

The retreat center where I’m staying was once owned by the Communist government, and frequently visited by party heads including Leonid Brezhnev. Hosts would throw lavish celebrations, and bring in artists to draw caricatures and musicians to provide entertainment for the guests. Yes, everyone was supposed to be “equal” under the Communist regime, but some people were a little more equal than others.

Have any idea what mountain you’re seeing here in this view from my bedroom window? It’s Mount Ararat (see Genesis 8:4). The dormant volcano boasting two peaks is part of the Armenian Highlands, and it’s the principal national symbol of Armenia. The snow-capped peak which you see rises to almost 17,000 feet.

If you were under the impression that Mount Ararat is in Turkey, you are correct. We are that close to the border with Turkey, and the mountain appears close enough to touch. I praise God that a center once used for Soviet purposes is now being utilized for kingdom purposes. Talk about redemption!

Our first conference begins in the morning. Our goal will be to cover the basic principles of hermeneutics during the daytime sessions, and then at night to use devotions from the Scriptures to drive home and make real what we’ve taught. If it works well, we’ll use the same model for the second conference.

Sunday morning I’ll preach in the city of Vanadzor. I send you my love in Christ.

Pastor Charles

My heart was full as I left Paducah, after such a great RISE praise service with you. Sunday really was “a day of triumph and joy” for First Baptist Paducah.

I had an all-day layover in Paris, so I made the most of it. I took the airport train all the way out to Versailles, with stops to see the medieval Notre Dame, the d’Orsay (I only had time for the French impressionists), and the Eiffel Tower. I’m sure I walked at least five miles, but the weather was spectacular and made the trek delightful. I met some fascinating people today, including a six-year-old Bangladeshi boy who speaks five languages.

Paris is a charming and exhilarating city, but it feels very post-Christian. Religious relics line every “rue,” but the cultists seem more visible than the evangelicals, at least in the tourist zones. I greeted a couple of Jehovah’s Witnesses who were telling people on the street “what the Bible really says,” but I did not have the opportunity for any more conversation with them. Strong Islamic influence is also palpable here.

I did, however, try to convince Louis XIV to become a Protestant. But he seemed rather cold and lifeless about the whole thing. Enjoy that pic and the others.

I’ve been thinking about how blessed we are. The Christ who has the authority and power to rule every nation with a rod of iron (Revelation 19:15) is full of love toward us. Can you believe that? Our mission in every nation, while there is still time, is to make Christ known.

So I’m off to Yerevan! I’ll meet up with two of my team members on my next flight.

And I’ll talk to you from Armenia.

Pastor Charles