RECENT MIDWEEK MESSAGES FROM PASTOR CHARLES (Recorded live in the Great Room)!  To listen or download, click the link below:

2013.03.19.MidweekDressedForSuccess.Session7.CharlesMoore

2014.03.12.MidweekDressedForSuccess.Session6.CharlesMoore

Vision Sunday was a truly great day for First Baptist Paducah!

Here’s a link to listen or download Pastor Charles’ message from John 12 (Recorded live on March 16, 2014): 2014.03.16.VisionSunday.CharlesMoore

I am 50. At this point, now one week after the plane lost radar contact, I can say that the absolute disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 is one of the most mysterious news items that I’ve followed in my half century. Today searchers are zeroing in on a remote island chain in the Indian Ocean for a missing Boeing 777. I’ve flown on the 777. It’s large, impressive, and exceptionally safe. Experts are telling us that the aircraft may have flown for hours after it vanished from radar, and that China reported a “seismic event” at the time the Malaysia Airlines flight disappeared. But no one knows with certainty.

Indian ships and planes have expanded their search to areas west of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Those islands are hundreds of miles from the intended flight path. Several media outlets have reported U.S. officials “confirming” that Malaysia 370 dispatched signals to a satellite for four hours after the aircraft dropped off the radar, raising the possibility that the jet with its 239 people aboard could have flown a great distance in that period of time. These latest pieces of data seem to have ramped up speculation that whatever happened to the plane was a deliberate act. ABC News reported that two U.S. officials verified that two of the plane’s communication systems shut down separately shortly after the plane last communicated its position. But we can’t know any of that for sure at this point, in my opinion. We have no black boxes. We have nothing concrete in terms of evidence.

239 human beings are missing. 239 souls. I can barely imagine the grief surrounding this tragic week. People are suffering as they wait for any news of any kind.

The Bible probably records no greater story of human suffering than the book of Job. It is an honest portrayal of God allowing a man to suffer. After Job has lost all of his sons and daughters, he can still utter these words of praise: “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21). And that’s just the beginning. Job is soon attacked in his own physical body to the point of near death.

When a passenger plane falls from the sky, we are rattled to the core of our sense of security. Rightly so. But when a jumbo jet simply vanishes, we’re not even sure what emotions to feel. I remember visiting Haiti soon after the devastating earthquake. On one hand it was very sad. On the other hand it was surreal. For almost its entire history: war-torn, ridden with internal strife and external domination, dependent for most of its history on a corrupt government that repeatedly squandered for its own use even the outside aid – basic food and supplies – that could have made a substantive difference for good among the precious Haitian people. In my heart and mind, these people did not need an earthquake. Why there? It was more than I could process emotionally and even spiritually.

What shall we do with this Malaysia Airlines disaster? First, let’s pray for the victims. Maybe the passengers are still alive somewhere, but there is a great need on Planet Earth for the Lord God to rescue and to save and to bring hope among many who are tragically touched by this. If the passengers have perished, their loved ones need our prayers.

And what do we trust in as we wait for even a semblance of understanding and clarity? May I suggest that we trust in the “God-ness” of God. By that I mean His unfailing character and nature for such a time as this.

God is still God. He’s the God of all power and might! In the unfolding story from God’s Word, Satan desires to afflict Job unmercifully – but he has to ask God’s permission first (1:12; 2:6). What does this teach us? That God is still sovereign, even when people suffer. When we suffer, He still reigns.

Secondly we discover that God rules over even meteorological elements of destruction. God asks a long series of rhetorical questions … “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements – surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? … Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb, when I made clouds its garment, and thick darkness its swaddling band, and prescribed limits for it and set bars and doors, and said, ‘Thus far you shall come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stayed’ … Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth? Declare if you know all this … Have you entered the storehouses of the snow, or have you seen the storehouses of the hail, which I have reserved for the time of trouble, for the day of battle and war? What is the way to the place where the light is distributed, or where the east wind is scattered upon the earth? Who has cleft a channel for the torrents of rain and a way for the thunderbolt, to bring rain on a land where no man is, on the desert in which there is no man, to satisfy the waste and desolate land, and to make the ground sprout with grass (38:4-5, 8-11, 18, 22-27)?”

Christ is Lord over torrents and tornadoes. And He is Lord over technology and terrorists.

God’s ancient questions might just be for us today.

Thirdly we learn that the worst calamities – even if they’re associated with God’s judgment (and I’m in no way implying that about Malaysia 370) – most often include God’s tender mercy. Somehow. But it often takes considerable time to see the mercy and grace. Those are for later chapters of Job.

So God is God. And God is good.

For now, like Job, we know that our Redeemer lives.

“Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters … multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.” From Jeremiah 29:4-7.

Almost without exception, the context of Jeremiah 29 is undisputed. Jeremiah the prophet is writing to those who are about to be conquered by the Babylonians. They will soon face either slaughter or slavery. Jeremiah’s words are encouraging (How many graduation cards have you seen splashed with the words of Jeremiah 29:11?), but – if we’re going to be honest – only in the “big picture” sense. The short-term news is sad at best, and could be described as terrible.

Yet, perhaps somewhat surprisingly, God calls His people to be a blessing in the strange place where they’re going. “Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you …”

You and I are blessed to live in or near Paducah. As I’ve been pondering our potential arts ministry, I’ve become increasingly aware of what a special place Paducah is. It truly is. I snapped these photos Monday at dusk – it looked almost like a scene from Dickens’ London. Charming indeed.

So our context is not the same as Babylon. But it’s worth our serious consideration that this passage may apply to us in several ways nonetheless, because we are called to live near people who don’t always see the world exactly as we do. We’re not “exiles” in the same sense that Israel was going to understand exile – that’s for sure – but most of us do perceive the surrounding culture (even in the Bible Belt) as becoming more and more skeptical of the Christian worldview and way of life.

I completely understand that we’re not New York City or L.A., but I also know that the more urban center (“downtown”) of Paducah can become for some of us (who don’t live there) a bit of a foreign territory. “Those other people live down there.” It’s not as safe perhaps, and maybe not as comfortable, to involve myself with the problems of the city. Maybe we just feel awkward investing ourselves too far beyond our own neighborhood or church building.

In light of the truths of this passage, and in regard to our “city,” how might God have us live?

Consider trying these on for size:

1. Get involved in serving Paducah. Jail ministry. Emergency shelters. At-risk youth. Loving the poor and marginalized. Crisis pregnancy ministry. English as a second language. Invest spiritually in Paducah. Many young adults have concluded that evangelicals don’t really want to serve the down-and-out. Prove them wrong. (Please stay tuned for more from our emerging Reaching Team!)
2. Stay on top of Paducah. Read. (Leaders are readers.) Follow the news. Participate in politics. Promote the general welfare of our community. Serve on an association or board that impacts Paducah life for its good. (Back to Jeremiah: Notice how productive the Lord calls us to be. No time to waste.)
3. Be the church outside the church. Maybe that instrumental ensemble or worship band should choose a public park as its next venue instead of our campus. Why not? People love a musical event that’s done excellently. Open with a song designed to draw people in.
4. Wherever and however you can, make our city clean and beautiful. Those who broadly influence culture notice when we’re committed to the things that matter to them. From picking up trash, to supporting education and the arts. (We’re the smallest city in America blessed with the treasure of a professional symphony orchestra. How cool is that?)
5. Celebrate Paducah life! Attend our community festivals and volunteer to help make them happen. Next month we’ll be invaded by quilters from all over the globe. Where will we be? Hopefully not hiding out until the storm passes. (Sometimes God brings the mission field to us, and even a free bottle of water can be an icebreaker.)
6. Invite people you don’t know into your home and show them that Christians live out grace. Be a voice of grace in Paducah. Exhibit grace in your speech, demeanor, and humble spirit. Be hopeful and positive and life-giving whenever and however you can.
7. Pray for Paducah. Regularly. Fervently. From the heart.

Pastor Tim Keller says it like this: “The church has to be everywhere there are people.” I like that. Let’s be there! Today an estimated eight million people move into cities every two months. We don’t want to miss the city. The city is where the largest unreached people groups live. The city needs Christ, so the city needs us.

“In its welfare you will find your welfare.” Thus saith the Lord.

When I was in Florida earlier this week for a conference, I stumbled upon a magnolia tree that immediately transported me to my grandmother’s backyard when I was five years old. Though the tree was not in bloom (you can see the photo), I could somehow smell the tree’s blooms from my happy memories. Do our memories have noses? Please clear that up for me. In any event, I’m sure that you enjoy reliving special moments like I do. The tree that I was smelling was hundreds of miles away in Etowah, Tennessee. And that lush green lawn at Mamaw’s provided more fun than the proverbial barrel of monkeys.

Having Jon Tello as our guest this week has been great. I’ve relived our Mexico Mission (Monterrey) in the summer of 2008. I included a couple of photos in case you’re interested. One is of Jon’s wife and partner in ministry, Erika. Maybe next time Jon comes to Paducah he can bring the whole family.

All nostalgia aside, Vision Weekend is about looking forward. Yes, we’re building on God’s longstanding legacy of faithfulness in our midst – but we’re also branching out in faith for tomorrow. It reminds me of Isaiah 43:19, where God announces and inquires: “Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?” For Israel, when those words were spoken, they had lost everything. They were exiled and homesick, and the Lord was giving them another chance.

What can we learn from our history? One lesson is certain: We can’t depend on past success. We need God’s renewed strength and His fresh provision for every chapter. We know from our study of Exodus that God’s people had seen His great victories on their behalf. But by the time of Isaiah 43, they need a new miracle and a new victory. From the first Passover, to the crossing of the Red Sea, to the conquering of the Land of Canaan, to the building of the temple, the children of Israel had seen God’s mighty and gracious hand at work in ways too numerous to mention. But now they need their God, again.

So do we.

Tonight (Friday) at 6:00 we’ll make some new happy memories at the Variety Show. You don’t need to eat dinner in advance – pizza will be served. Sunday morning we’ll celebrate “tomorrow” and delight in God’s unique call upon the life of this great church – the people called First Baptist Paducah – as best we can discern His heart and plan for us. Delicious brunch foods at 9:00 a.m. One combined worship service at 10:00. Evening worship starting at 6:00 in the Great Room, featuring a call to action by Jon, and the music of Hearts of Saints. Please don’t miss any of it!

Maybe you’re not sure about tomorrow (Saturday) morning because you can’t figure out how Christianity and the arts intersect. I urge you to join us at 9:00 anyway – I think you’ll be glad you did. We live in a community where the arts significantly impact the culture. We need to know how Christ would have us minister, serve, and witness for such a time (and place) as this.

Have I told you recently how absolutely thrilled I am to serve as your senior pastor? The blessing is all mine. You are loved. And by Sunday evening, and the conclusion of Vision Weekend, I hope that you will also have taken the time to enjoy a tree. (That will make sense by Sunday.)

Nobody likes being in debt. We try to avoid it, and for good reason. But there is one debt that the Bible says we can never fully eradicate, and that is our obligation to love. As long as we live, we must love. In Romans 13:8-10, the Bible explains how the heart of God’s law – even those moral rules that we most often refer to as “commandments” – has always been love. When God gave the commandments, He was expressing His covenant love for us.

Bona fide obedience to Jesus Christ always produces genuine love. If we live by the “perpetual law of charity” (to rob a term from the old Geneva Bible), then we will find ourselves loving as we should. And thus living as we should. Hmmm. Not always easy, but our high calling nonetheless.

Biblical love is most often a verb. Action. Doing the right thing in regard to another person. Feelings of love may or may not be present. Feelings of love often follow right behavior, but not always. We’re obligated to love anyway, because we’re followers of the Lord Jesus. We love because He first loved us (First John 4:19).

If you and I are truly honoring God’s revealed moral law, we’re not only living as we should, but we’re loving as we should. John Wesley said: “The same love which restrains us from all evil incites us to all good.”

If we’re not behaving in loving ways, we can rest assured that we’re ignoring (somehow, somewhere) God’s standards. A lack of love is a clear indicator that God is being disobeyed.

How can you know that God is producing His love in you?

When you’re loving in spite of yourself!

Cornelia Johanna Arnolda ten Boom, known by most as Corrie ten Boom, was a Dutch Christian Holocaust survivor who helped many Jews escape the Nazis during World War II. By 1942, Corrie and her family – known in their Holland community for their gracious hospitality toward all people, and especially toward the handicapped – had become very active in the Dutch Underground hiding refugees. The Jews hid in a room built into Corrie’s bedroom in the family home, a room the size of a medium wardrobe with an air vent on the outside wall. It was “the hiding place.” The ten Booms fed and cared for many out of their own small weekly war-time rations.

The Germans arrested the entire ten Boom family on February 28, 1944. They were first sent to the Scheveningen Prison where Corrie’s father died ten days after his capture. Later Corrie and her sister Betsie were imprisoned at the horrific Ravensbrück Concentration Camp in Germany, where Betsie later died. Betsie told Corrie shortly before her death: “There is no pit so deep that God’s love is not deeper still.”

Corrie was released on Christmas Day 1944. She later learned that her release had been a clerical error. All the women prisoners her age in the camp were killed the week following Corrie’s release. Corrie reflected: “God does not have problems. Only plans.”

In her book Tramp for the Lord (1974), Corrie told the story of how, after she had been teaching in Germany in 1947, she was approached by a man who had been listening to her speak. As the man made his way in Corrie’s direction, she recognized him immediately. He was a former camp guard at Ravensbrück. One of the cruelest among them in fact.

At least in her mind and heart, Corrie froze. She was reluctant even to touch this man. But God called her to something even higher. She was to love him.

In sheer desperation, Corrie prayed with eyes wide open.

Somehow, as only the Holy Spirit can accomplish just when you and I need Him most, Corrie’s heart was warmed. She could not love on her own, but she recognized in that instant that Christ could love through her.

Corrie ten Boom recorded the memory of their reunion like this: “For a long moment we grasped each other’s hands, the former guard and the former prisoner. I had never known God’s love so intensely as I did then.”

Love had become a verb.

For God so loved the world that He gave.

Message recorded live on February 16, 2014.  To listen or download, click here: 2014.02.16PM.GoingTheDistance.Session5.CharlesMoore

In 2008 I was privileged to trace at least a few of Paul’s footsteps when I got to tour the veritable outdoor museum that is Ephesus, in modern Turkey. In the 10^th century B.C., Ephesus was colonized. In the 7^th century B.C., Ephesus was attacked by the Cimmerians, but got back on its feet soon afterwards. The 6^th century B.C. brought prosperity. Later Ephesus came under the rule of the Lydians, and then under the Persians. In 334 B.C., Alexander the Great captured Ephesus. Ephesus later came under the sovereignty of Rome, and Emperor Augustus declared Ephesus a metropolis. (You can see the inscription in my photograph.) Two thousand years after the man’s reign, I was still struck by the sheer and far-reaching power wielded by the founder of the Roman Empire.

What does it mean to approach a monarch who possesses absolute power? Among other things, it means that you better come by invitation, and that you better enter by permission.

John Newton, who penned Amazing Grace, wrote another hymn that wonderfully describes our approach to God in prayer: “Thou art coming to a King, large petitions with thee bring; for His grace and power are such, none can ever ask too much!”

The writer to the Hebrews said it like this (4:16): “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

Why in the world can you and I draw near to the King of the Universe? Because His throne is a throne of grace. May that truth never stop blowing our minds. A throne of grace. Christ’s grace.

How often we pridefully and erroneously imagine God as one who is out to rain on our parade? To clobber us for no good reason. Or to give us what we deserve. And yet in Jesus Christ we have personal access to a Heavenly Father who beckons us to come to Him simply because He loves us with an everlasting love. He wants nothing less than the very best for us, always.

After church Sunday night I enjoyed the sweetest fellowship with Wayne and Sue McElroy, who were eager to tell me what they had concluded about prayer (as I had mentioned God’s various answers to our prayers in my sermon). Here is what they said: “God’s answers to our prayers are one of three: ‘Yes.’ ‘Wait.’ And ‘I have a better idea.’”

Isn’t that fantastic!?! When you look at prayer that way, God is always saying “yes” to us – but He sometimes simply redirects us to a better “yes” than the one we thought we wanted!

Charles Spurgeon preached in 1871: “We do not come, as it were, in prayer, only to God’s almonry where he dispenses his favours to the poor, nor do we come to the back-door of the house of mercy to receive the broken scraps, though that were more than we deserve; to eat the crumbs that fall from the Master’s table is more than we could claim; but, when we pray, we are standing in the palace, on the glittering floor of the great King’s own reception room, and thus we are placed upon a vantage ground. In prayer we stand where angels bow with veiled faces; there, even there, the cherubim and seraphim adore, before that selfsame throne to which our prayers ascend. And shall we come there with stunted requests, and narrow and contracted faith? Nay, it becomes not a King to be giving away pence and groats, he distributes pieces of broad gold; he scatters not as poor men must, scraps of bread and broken meat, but he makes a feast of fat things, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined.”

“Take heed of imagining that God’s thoughts are as thy thoughts, and his ways as thy ways. Do not bring before God stinted petitions and narrow desires, and say, ‘Lord, do according to these,’ but, remember, as high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are his ways above your ways, and his thoughts above your thoughts, and ask, therefore, after a God-like sort, ask for great things, for you are before the throne of grace, for then he would do for us exceeding abundantly above what we ask or even think.”

“The right spirit in which to approach the throne of grace, is that of unstaggering confidence. Who shall doubt the King?”

Don’t let anything in the world stop you from coming. Coming today.

In case you’ve missed the last few weeks, click below to listen or download Pastor Charles’ Sunday evening series on Philippians.

2014.02.09PM.GoingtheDistance.Session4.CharlesMoore

2014.01.26PM.GoingtheDistance.Session3.CharlesMoore

2014.01.19PM.GoingTheDistance.Session2.CharlesMoore

I’ve flown back and forth across this great land of ours many times. During the winter months, at least on a trek from Chicago westward, it’s not at all unusual to look down and see nothing but white for the better part of three or four hours. Even the Rocky Mountains can get blurred by enough freshly fallen powder. The ground below simply looks white. A veritable frozen tundra, or so it appears – but without the up-close-and-personal perspective with which we’ve been able to observe winter around here this week.

Some of you parents have told me that a full week of snow days is about as much “up-close-and-personal” as you can take, but that’s another topic for another day.

When Eileen visited Alaska, she was struck by the huge chunks of ice calving off the edges of the glaciers and crashing into the deep blue (and even deep green) sea. This amazing phenomenon she had never witnessed before. The captivating beauty of those massive fields of ice that are powerful enough to carve channels through a range of mountains almost defies description.

The English statesman and scientist Francis Bacon (1561-1626) said that God has given us two books to study. One is the Scriptures, and the other is the natural realm. He believed that, for us to really know God, we need both books. Bacon’s contention was that – without natural revelation – we miss much of God’s beauty, majesty, and greatness.

Are you taking the time to notice how God is at work in the details of the ice, and are you praising Him for it?

I regret that this photograph doesn’t really capture the size of the biggest icicle that I could find in Paducah. (I should have stood under it, but then who would have taken the picture?) Its length (from the awning of a restaurant on Lone Oak Road) was between five and six feet. If you look carefully, you can see a glazed power line in the background just for a little perspective.

I tried numerous attempts to photograph some of the ice-covered trees with just the right amount of light to capture the “glowing” that I’m sure you’ve observed the last couple of days. The problem is: once the sun does its thing and lights up those branches, a sure melt is not far behind. And evening photography with street lights just doesn’t quite mimic the sun.

In 1881 John Muir, American naturalist and Christian believer, spent several months exploring what is now called Glacier Bay in Alaska. Muir remarked after hiking one particular glacier that he had rejoiced “in the possession of so blessed a day, and feeling … we have been in one of God’s own temples and had seen him and heard him working and preaching like a man.”

Like John Muir advised his missionary friend: “Keep close to Nature’s heart … It will help you in your efforts to bring these men something better than gold. Don’t lose your freedom and your love of the Earth as God made it.”

Beloved, we’re observing more than ice. It’s more than frozen water. More than a brittle, transparent, crystalline solid. We’re observing the work of God’s hands! Delight in it. Delight in Him.

David wrote, “I will praise the name of God with a song; I will magnify him with thanksgiving”(Psalm 69:30). How we choose to view God’s glory in winter may just make a difference in the life of someone else. That’s our job: to make God look just as great as He is, as often as we can, wherever we can, and however we can.

We’re not slick salesmen tricking people into buying something they don’t need. We’re ambassadors for Christ, and the best thing that we can ever do for another wanderer is to point them to the reality that Jesus is Lord. When they begin to grasp something of Christ’s majesty and glory even in the fallout from “freezing rain,” then we will have helped them find the road (albeit sometimes snow-covered) to their greatest joy.

Let them see you marveling at the unique and undeniable frozen beauty that only an extra-cold winter can reveal.

Courtesy Liz Langham