Back in 1996, Eileen and I were driving from Raleigh, North Carolina – where I had preached for the evening service – to the mountains of East Tennessee for an extended family gathering. It was Christmas Eve, and late at night. The farther we traveled through the foothills of the Appalachians, the more we pondered – and in fact began to discuss – how perfect it would be if just a little snow would fall to complete the holiday scene. Like everybody else, I suppose, we were dreaming of a white Christmas.

So up the last mountain we drove, toward our rented chalet, until we were about two miles from our destination. Almost as if on cue, huge snowflakes began to land on the car windshield. We became a combination of shocked and delighted – that late-night, silly, giggly mood had overtaken us by that point – and within half a mile (I’m not making this up) the ground was completely white.

It was a White Christmas.

Not.

What we didn’t realize was that – timed perfectly – we were driving downwind from a small ski resort. In the coldest part of the evening, the faithful snowmaking machines were busy doing their part to fortify the main slope and a few side trails with enough snow-like substance for the next day’s skiers. From our very finite perspective, the landscape around our car was snowy white. Around the next major bend in the mountain road, there was no snow to be found.

That doesn’t even qualify as a real disappointment. It’s more like a fun Christmas moment to remember. But Christmas sometimes does bring real disappointments. Even the first Christmas included its share of difficulty.

It must have been hard for Mary to give birth to her firstborn child so far away from home and family. Nothing was familiar and the likely surroundings were dirty animals – as Jesus was laid in a feeding trough! Surely Joseph and Mary struggled with at least some disappointment. One crisis after another seemed to plague them. What was God possibly doing?

Yet through the pain of their unanswered questions, God fulfilled His promise to give the world a Savior. A series of apparent disappointments turned out to be God’s divine appointment. An unknown peasant woman would deliver the Messiah in an unknown corner of the world. A helpless baby who would grow up to bring kings and rulers and presidents to their knees. The Christmas events as recorded in Holy Scripture confound human wisdom. Kind of like our friends who used to have four theories about raising children. Now they have four children and no theories.

May your heart be stirred by The Valley of Vision.

O source of all good,
What shall I render to you for the gift of gifts,
your own dear Son?

Herein is wonder of wonders:
he came below to raise me above,
was born like me that I might become like him.

Herein is love;
when I cannot rise to him he draws near on wings of grace,
to raise me to himself.

Herein is power;
when Deity and humanity were infinitely apart,
he united them in indissoluble unity,
the uncreated and the created.

Herein is wisdom;
when I was undone, with no will to return to him,
and no intellect to devise recovery,
he came, God-incarnate, to save me to the uttermost,
as man to die my death,
to shed satisfying blood on my behalf,
to work out a perfect righteousness for me!

O God, take me in spirit to the watchful shepherds,
and enlarge my mind!

Let me hear good tidings of great joy,
and hearing, believe, rejoice, praise, adore,
my conscience bathed in an ocean of repose,
my eyes uplifted to a reconciled Father!

Place me with ox, donkey, camel, goat,
to look with them upon my Redeemer’s face,
and in him account myself delivered from sin!

Let me with Simeon clasp the newborn child to my heart,
embrace him with undying faith,
exulting that he is mine and I am his!
In him you have given me so much that heaven can give no more.

Temporary disappointment for Mary and Joseph? Perhaps. But aren’t you glad it happened just the way it did?

By the way, back to Christmas 1996, those few moments were white enough.

Nashville and Opryland were an absolute blast! Three photos from my phone accompany this post. Enjoy. For those of you who weren’t able to make the trip this year, just wait ‘til next year. Even better.

May I suggest something rather simple, friends? Delight in each other. We’ve been blessed with a wonderful fellowship of believers here. Don’t take it for granted. Thank the Lord for it every day.

May I make another small suggestion? Laugh with each other. Have fun with each other. Do some things with each other solely for the purpose of building solid relationships within the church. And have a rip-roaring good time while you’re doing it. I can’t overstate how important that is, always.

Because, if we’re not careful, we quickly evolve into thinking about “church” in categories that are organizational, corporate, and “business” in nature. We think numbers and budgets and flow charts and … well, you know what I mean.

Fundamentally, however, we’re family.

When the Apostle Paul wrote to the Philippians, he began his letter with verbal blessings of “grace” and “peace” – and we can tell from the very onset of his writing that he is affectionately invested in the church’s well-being in every way. They’re his family. Later in Chapter 4, as Paul prepares to wrap up that particular correspondence, he’s still speaking to the church members as family members. Consider with me Philippians 4:1-9.

Notice how Paul cares about individual members of the body, people like Euodia and Syntyche. We don’t really know who these women are, but we know that they’re at odds with each other – and that the division between them bothers Paul. These ladies have been his co-laborers – “side by side” – in the ministry of Christ’s gospel. If their contention isn’t snuffed out, it’s likely to spread within the church. That’s what can happen within families.

We can assume from the fact that Paul addresses both women that he considers both of them to be part of the problem – and both of them part of the solution. He tells them that they must come to agreement. They must purpose to come together “in the Lord.” These two are not going to get through this difficulty (or even around this difficulty) in their own strength – they’re going to need to experience authentic Biblical reconciliation. Praise God that we have the power of the living Jesus in us (in each one of us who belongs to Christ) to get through church conflict! Nothing less than resurrection power (Romans 8:11; Ephesians 1:20)! Paul calls upon others in the church to help these women reconcile.

Sometimes even genuine believers go through real rough spots with each other. Just like husbands and wives. And parents and children. But God is able! If the gospel is true – and it is – then we can get through anything with each other. Since Paul is so sure of that gospel hope, he explains to the Philippians how they can have both peace of heart and peace of mind – with God and with each other. Why? Because we are together, and because we are in Christ.And notice also that Paul seems to truly believe that every person he’s mentioning is a committed Christian – “whose names are in the book of life.” Sometimes we get so angry with people whom we perceive to have mistreated us that we conclude that they must not know Christ. That may be true, but that may also be a dead-wrong assumption. We better leave much room for grace in the lives of others – especially those from whom we may feel presently estranged.

So Paul gives us our marching orders. If we’re thinking thoughts of other church members that aren’t true thoughts, we must stop thinking those thoughts. Not honorable thoughts? Stop! Unjust? Stop! Impure? Stop! I won’t exhaust the list because I know you get the point. Stop!

I don’t mean to imply that the only time we need to worry about our thought life is when we’re at odds with each other, but I just want to make sure that we’re sufficiently bothered by thoughts of each other that are less than edifying. We should be bothered. We should stop. We should pray. We should forgive. We should seek forgiveness. We should be reconciled. “Grace and peace.”

Our church is experiencing a delightful season of peace, for which we must humbly praise our Lord and Savior. Now is the time to fortify our commitment to “grace and peace.” Now is the time to pray for each other. Now is the time to pursue unity with each other – to seek to understand and appreciate each other. And even to laugh with each other. (Never take yourself too seriously. I’m trying not to.)

That we may walk side by side.

O.K., it’s winter. I know, not technically, but in just about every other sense.

Ice. Snow. Record amounts in Western Kentucky for early December. Enough to cause some travel problems, but also enough to transform the local landscape with picture-perfect holiday style. I’ll share a couple of my photos with you here: one of our home, and the other of the FBC sanctuary building before even a lone squirrel had a chance to prance across the front lawn.

Everyone’s outdoor decorations look just a little better now. Everyone’s lighted garlands now pop with brightness against the surrounding snowy terrain. So go ahead and delight in it, friends – as snowfalls of any notable significance before Christmas are a rarity in these parts.

A winter wonderland as gorgeous and tenacious as the one we’re presently enjoying (hold on to that idea of “enjoy” as you scrape your car windshield) reminds us of a great Bible promise (Isaiah 1:18): “Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.”

The Hebrew for “scarlet” means double-dyed in a sense: we’re so sin-stained that no trifling tears can wash us clean. But God through Isaiah promises that we can become as white as snow! That’s a pretty great thought for people who’ve indulged in sin the way you and I have.

The Maker of the universe is willing to reason with us. He certainly doesn’t have to, but He chooses to. The word “reason” is a legal term, and it reminds us of the New Testament reality that Jesus Christ is our Advocate (First John 2:1) before God the Father. In the most important court of law in the world – the courtroom into which you and bring nothing but guilt and shame – we have absolutely impeccable legal representation. You may have thought of God as only vengeful or spiteful, but that’s not the God of the Scriptures. The Lord is willing to show us our sin, and thus to make a way for us to see our need for forgiveness. He stands beside us in our guilt, and makes a way for the sentence we deserve to be averted.

And on top of all of that, because of what Christ has done for us by dying upon the Cross in our place, the Lord God actually forgives us.

Complete forgiveness? Yes! By grace through faith. The wonder of knowing Christ. Surely He loves us.

The Bible often uses the ever-present reality of God’s good creation to show us His astonishing work in our lives. It rarely snows in that part of the world, but Mount Hermon has a snowcap that can be seen throughout much of Northern Israel. The Prophet Isaiah uses the picture of pure white snow as a depiction of God’s cleansing work in us. Similarly King David prayed (Psalm 51:7): “Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow!” David knew that he needed a thorough and deep cleaning – not just a touch-up job. His life, like ours, had left behind a trail of filthy sins.

You and I must have the sacrificial blood of the Lamb applied to our hearts. There’s no other way. Christ’s red becomes our white. Then, when the Father sees us, He sees the spotless perfection of His Son.

Charles Wesley (1707 – 1788) penned it like this:

“He left His Father’s throne above
So free, so infinite His grace –
Emptied Himself of all but love,
And bled for Adam’s helpless race:
‘Tis mercy all, immense and free,
For O my God, it found out me!

Amazing love.”

My family and I just left the movie theater, where our church was well represented: FBC’ers made up about one-third of the audience of the early evening showing of the 3-D version of Disney’s newest film. It was a real treat.

I urge you to take in Frozen this holiday season. Without a doubt it is an absolutely delightful and family-friendly flick. The music is dramatic and spectacular, the visual images colorful and captivating, and the story line compelling and timeless. You’ll be drawn into the somewhat complicated but totally endearing relationship between sisters Elsa and Anna — who are princesses, but with a different twist — via fantastic animation.

Years ago I studied Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale “The Snow Queen” when I was searching for some vivid sermon illustrations to describe the problem of sin. About midway through tonight’s movie, I realized that some of Andersen’s themes had made it into Disney’s film. You will want to talk about these themes with your children or grandchildren. Frozen is a terrific supply of meaningful conversation fodder.

Love between siblings that trumps self-interest. Fear that must be conquered. Battles that can’t be waged alone. The prison of a stone-cold heart: “No escape from the storm inside of me” is admitted by Elsa in one of her songs.

The nature of true love. In one of his more serious moments, Olaf the snowman explains that real love is “putting someone else’s needs before yours.” Sounds like Christian grace to me.

But here’s the movie’s billion-dollar line, in my opinion. It first comes from the lips of a troll, mind you, and alone is well worth the price of admission: “Only an act of love can melt a frozen heart.”

Now that’s good stuff, friends. Ezekiel the prophet recorded God’s unstoppable promise like this (36:26): “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh, and give you a heart of flesh.”

Ah, that’s right! We came into this world with rebellious hearts that were desperately wicked and icy cold. Impenetrable by gospel truth. We were frozen in a blinding blizzard of sin, even to the point of death. What we needed … was an act of love.

While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

I hope that you’re happy with your holiday plans for this week. Many of us will be traveling; many of us will be hosting family and friends who have traveled to be here. We’re blessed to live in a nation where we know the freedom to head “over the river and through the woods” if that’s what we need or want to do. And there’s much to be thankful for, whether we’re roaming or home-ing.

Ah, Thanksgiving. One of my grandmothers made the best giblet gravy you ever tasted. Though, as I confessed Sunday, I like gravy of any stripe. My other grandmother made the best cornbread stuffing you ever put in your mouth. It was so moist, somehow, that it really didn’t need the extra gravy that I – of course – always poured on top of it. All of these moments of delight transpired before I ever gave cholesterol a thought, of course.

Some 33 million Americans are predicted to skip the turkey and trimmings in lieu of expanded shopping opportunities. The frenzy that historically has marked the busiest shopping day of the year – “Black Friday” – will start some 12 to 24 hours earlier this year. So it’s not hard to imagine how real “thanksgiving” might be lost if we’re not careful. Don’t let that happen. Thanksgiving is too wonderful to miss.

Our American Thanksgiving celebration goes back to the Pilgrims, who were Puritans, and who paid an almost indescribable price to gain their religious freedom. Serious setbacks plagued their journey from the start. Leaving Southampton aboard two ships, they were forced back when one began to leak. A second attempt was also thwarted by a leak.

William Bradford recorded their perilous journey. Prosperous winds gave way to widespread seasickness. But God’s providence prevailed. Through violent crosswinds and storms, by which the Mayflower and its passengers were thoroughly battered more than once, one of the vessel’s main beams cracked and threatened to rip apart the ship in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Just in the nick of time, and before the beam completely buckled, God’s people discovered a giant iron screw that they had brought from Holland. They were able to raise the beam and survive what had appeared to be their last earthly test.

The Pilgrims set ground at Plymouth Rock (more than 600 miles off course, mind you) on December 11, 1620. Eileen has two sisters in Plymouth, so today’s photo is one I snapped on one of our family voyages in that part of the world.

That first winter for our Pilgrim forebears was nearly completely devastating. By the beginning of the next autumn, they had lost 46 of the original 102 who sailed on the Mayflower. But the harvest of 1621 was a bountiful one, and the colonists decided to celebrate with a feast including 91 Indians who had helped the Pilgrims survive their first year. Three days of Thanksgiving followed. That spirit of humble gratitude and praise carried the Pilgrims through what would continue to be a very difficult life on our Eastern Seacoast.

The Pilgrims were together. In Christ, they were one body. One shaken but unshaken body of thankful believers in Christ. Shaken but unshaken.

The spirit of Thanksgiving that characterized the Pilgrims, in my opinion, evidenced both their shaken-ness and their unshaken-ness. They were shaken as evidenced by their severe reduction in size. But they were unshaken as evidenced by their otherwise inexplicable increase in spiritual strength.

And the Pilgrims appear to have been unashamed to express collectively their gratitude to Almighty God. How are you and I doing in that regard (Hebrews 10:25)?

Undoubtedly the perilous storms faced by that tiny band of faithful followers of Christ, by God’s perfect design, enabled the Pilgrims to draw near to each other in humble worship and mutual dependence. Speaking of Thanksgiving recipes, those really are vital ingredients for a healthy church family: humble worship and mutual dependence.

The Pilgrims were shaken, but unshaken. If that describes you as your 2013 winds down, perhaps Thanksgiving makes absolutely perfect sense.

It’s high time for the church to get back to basics.

Our Presbyterian friends – not from one of the more conservative branches – decided to exclude “In Christ Alone” from their new hymnal. Here’s what went down. The hymnal committee asked the song’s authors if they could take out a very offensive line: ‘Til on the cross as Jesus died, the wrath of God was satisfied. Here’s what the committee proposed: ‘Til on the cross as Jesus died, the love of God was magnified. We’ll give them ten points for rhyming, but beyond that their proposition was a bust. It represents a very disturbing trend. (Thankfully, the songwriters didn’t budge.) And don’t be too smug, all you fellow Baptists out there. We tend to jump on the same trains – just a little later than the mainline folks.

The committee chair explained that the “view that the cross is primarily about God’s need to assuage God’s anger” would communicate the wrong message about Christ’s death. It might scare people. It might be perceived as old-fashioned or even gross. Maybe the chair should read Romans 3:21-26. We would all agree with the claim that God’s love was magnified on Christ’s cross, but any attempt to separate God’s love from God’s justice strikes offensively at the heart of the gospel itself.

“Calm down, Pastor Charles,” you may be thinking. Here’s why I can’t. I just left our FBC Preschool Thanksgiving Feast. (I hope you’re blessed by these photos of Harper Orr, Caleb Phillips and their classmates.) The sounds of all those children singing were the sweetest sounds I’ve heard today, and – as I looked into their faces – I realized that you and I have a most holy obligation to keep gospel truth alive for their generation. It’s that simple. We must not lose the power and wonder of the cross.

Our Christian and Biblical heritage includes a lively commitment to what the Protestant Reformers called “Solus Christus” – Christ alone! Here’s what I think they meant by that: A. Jesus Christ is the promised Messiah. (Jesus is the Christ!) B. Jesus Christ is the centerpiece of human history. All salvation – before and after Calvary – was accomplished only through the meritorious work of our Lord Jesus on the cross. C. Jesus Christ is both Savior and Lord! Christ is the object of our faith. And that is why our faith matters at all – it is rooted in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

The cross must be beautiful to us, because Jesus made it clear (John 14:6): “I am THE way, and the TRUTH, and THE life!”

What will happen if we cave on the cross? What will we serve up for these children who are looking to us for the truth of Christ alone?

1. We will affirm for them what the wider culture already affirms: There really are no absolutes. There really is no truth to be found.
2. We will help them exchange the only real joy that can ever be found for a pursuit of immediate gratification that can never be satisfied.
3. We will give them free reign to make up their own belief system, and to live according to the impulse of the moment.
4. We will spur them on to think more of personal satisfaction than genuine faithfulness.
5. We will tell them that their lives are accidents, and that there really is no God who rules and reigns.

In a nutshell, we will rob our children of their only hope.

Unless that sounds like a good plan to you, I urge you to join me in keeping “Christ Alone” very much alive in and through the preaching and ministries of this great congregation. I’m thankful for you as a partner to that end.

Sunday afternoon was a bit unnerving for many of us. My cell phone sounded from the lunch table its version of a siren, and warned via text message: “Tornado Warning. Take shelter now.” Unquote.

I know that our God is “a refuge and a shelter from the storm” (Isaiah 4:6), but I was tempted toward a bit of anxiety just like most of you. As it turned out, there was reason for concern. Some in our area lost loved ones and homes in a tornadic outbreak that pummeled the Midwest and Upper South, disrupting lives and routines and even pro football from Soldier Field to points well south of here.

In May of this year, wind, humidity, and rainfall mixed precisely to create the massive killer tornado that struck Moore, Oklahoma. The incredible amount of energy released over that small city dwarfed the power of an atomic bomb. The National Weather Service gave the Moore tornado the top-of-the-scale rating of EF-5 for wind speed and breadth and severity of damage. Wind speeds were estimated at between 200 and 210 miles per hour. Several meteorologists used real time measurements to calculate the energy released during the storm’s near one-hour life span. Their estimates ranged from eight times to more than 600 times the power of the bomb that leveled Hiroshima, Japan – with more experts weighing in on the higher end.

It can happen. When conditions are right, there is clear and present danger.

Some 700 years before Christ’s birth, the prophet Isaiah described weather extremes much like what we just witnessed Sunday to make a striking point: God’s people can, and will, know the Lord’s abiding presence even in the midst of the most humanly uncontrollable circumstances that Planet Earth can hurl in our direction.

The Canadian-American theologian Harry Ironside (1876-1951) commented on this verse: “Like Israel in the wilderness so long ago, will the restored nation be under the Lord’s gracious care when He has cleansed them from their iniquities and turned their hearts back to Himself.” Centuries before, the English pastor John Gill (1697-1771) had worded it like this: “Christ is a refuge for sensible sinners to flee unto for safety, from avenging justice, and the wrath of God; so He is a place of security, and has His chambers of safety for saints, from all dangers, and from every enemy.”

In Psalm 61:3, the psalmist David cries out to God as his “refuge” and his “strong tower against the enemy.” The noun and verb forms of “refuge” in that verse occur multiple times in the Psalms, and connote ideas of protection and stronghold. “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” (Psalm 46:1). There the noun means “shelter” or “place of protection.”

When the Bible speaks of a “refuge,” it is often within the context of some very real danger – there is something about the world that is a concrete threat to us. There is danger everywhere, and brokenness everywhere we look. Especially in the mirror. The idea of “refuge” calls us to consider the reality of sin. Sin in general, and particular sin in us. And the damage caused by sin, in others and in us. Damage that marks every corner of this fallen world, and every corner of my own heart.

In that sense, the fury of a tornado can be a monumental blessing. It reminds us that all is not well here. This isn’t forever home. We’re still aliens and strangers in this place, longing for our Promised Land where destructive winds will never blow.

The path of the Moore tornado was 1.3 miles wide and 17 miles long. That level of intensity and ferocity may be rare, but it’s not unknown. Sometimes the power that God has built into weather systems leaves us humbled before His majesty and glory. In The Battle Hymn of the Republic, we sing these words: “He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword.” This is a reference to the Book of Revelation, where lightning is mentioned twice (11:9; 16:18), each time accompanying God’s holy wrath and judgment. We would be foolish and sinfully presumptuous to connect specific destructive meteorological events today (or any other tragedy, for that matter) with God’s judgment. But we would be wise in the aftermath of any storm to praise the God who is sovereign over the wind (Matthew 18:27). And to bow before Him in awe and wonder.

Let’s pray for our friends and neighbors who suffered loss because of Sunday’s tornadoes. Let’s reach out to them with love and food and supplies and hope. (Pastor Russ sent you an Email regarding FBCP’s efforts in this regard. You can bring supplies to our church.)

Everywhere we look, the dangers are real. But Christ Jesus is our hope of eternal refuge! Hallelujah!

Today’s blog entry may be a little longer than most. I’ll try to express some concerns as succinctly as I can, but these matters are not easily presented with few words.

I have followed with intrigue (to put the best possible spin on it) the saga of former Patriots running back Craig James, who lost his job commentating on college football for FOX Sports. Mr. James was released from his position – after one week on the job, and only one broadcast – because of previous comments that he had made in affirmation of traditional and Biblical marriage. Apparently James, a former ESPN and CBS broadcaster, responded in April 2012 to a question asked about “same-sex marriage.” His honest answer just got him fired.

Now I am well aware of the fact that there’s always “more to the story.” I get that. But in my research I read a direct quote from a FOX Sports Southwest spokesman (as told to a Dallas Morning News reporter) that sends a cold chill down my spine: “We just asked ourselves how Craig’s statements would play in our human resources department. He couldn’t say those things here.”

What have we come to in the marketplace of ideas? “Evangelicals Need Not Apply”?

If you know me at all, you know that I am not prone to behaving (or preaching) like an alarmist. But I am deeply alarmed about a distinct chill in the air in America these days when it comes to religious liberty. Evangelical Christians, and particularly Baptists, have always concerned ourselves with matters of religious freedom – for every citizen – and I hope that we are not now asleep at the switch. Because it appears, at least in my estimation, that what began in the U.S. as a movement for tolerance has morphed into a very intolerant campaign.

Can you even imagine a national network firing someone for expressing support for same-sex marriage? This double standard ought to alarm us, because it may indicate an erosion of First Amendment protections at least in practice. I’m making a point about “practice” here because I understand that, though FOX Sports is not “the state,” they presumably manage their human resources per their interpretation of the law of the land. And any de facto religious discrimination has a direct bearing on any Christian seeking a job in America. Russell Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, said it like this: “If the state is able to assert its lordship over the conscience, the state has become a god.”

Legally, where do those of us living in jurisdictions not permitting same-sex marriage find ourselves?

On June 26, the U.S. Supreme Court issued two historic rulings. The first decision rendered part of the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional, thus resulting in our federal government’s newly-imposed obligation to recognize same-sex marriages in states where they’re legal. The second decision was more procedural in nature, in that the Court simply ruled that the proponents of California’s same-sex marriage ban lacked standing in regard to their appeal of a lower court ruling overturning the ban. How those Supreme Court decisions will affect other states (and when) remains a bit of a mystery, but in my opinion both of the rulings represent incremental steps toward the Court’s likely eventual declaration that same-sex marriage is a national right.

What concerns me most about those rulings, however, is not their legal precedent. What most grieves me is Justice Kennedy’s depiction of opponents of same-sex marriage as people who wish to demean, disparage, and harm other American citizens. In my circles of friends, neighbors, and colleagues, I know many people who support traditional marriage and who oppose same-sex marriage, but I don’t personally know a single person – in any of those circles – who wants any of their “opponents” wounded or demeaned. So this is a sad state of affairs in my book, as our nation becomes more and more divided by what I believe is a false characterization of those who wish to see our culture’s remaining Biblical values preserved. To hold a traditional view of marriage, as you well know, is widely perceived as hatred.

Furthermore, my friends who want to preserve some semblance of Scriptural truth regarding God’s institution of marriage want to do so, in large measure, as a protection for the whole of our society. They are particularly concerned for those who are the most defenseless among us, namely our children. It appears to me that most traditional marriage advocates are motivated by compassion, not hate.

We could learn something from the Apostle Paul regarding how to conduct ourselves in the public square, as Paul somehow managed to defend his religious freedom while at the same time preaching the gospel before Agrippa and Festus (Acts 26:24-32). And maybe it’s time for the true church to repent. We need to repent that we have not upheld Biblical standards for traditional marriage within the church, while expecting unbelievers outside the church to live by Biblical criteria.

If today’s moral, cultural, and political climate does not change, those opposed to same-sex marriage are likely to experience a great ramp-up of the chilling effect to which I referred earlier, as bona fide threats of negative media publicity and pressure to conform their personal beliefs to the prevailing view mount. Those merely hoping to uphold traditional practices within their own homes and churches may face litigation, along with other financial duress. In the words of Michael Peabody, Los Angeles attorney: “In a free society, there is always risk associated with anchoring personal morality to the whims of the majority or the state and not to the rock of Scripture and faith.” We may soon learn just how committed to truth we really are.

Would you join me, dear First Baptist Family, in championing “tolerance” in the most noble sense of that word? In showing respect and civility toward those with whom we may disagree. Loving all people. Working to serve a hurting world with grace and truth. And praying for our beloved nation to recapture a vision of America where – like all Americans – those who revere God’s Word are allowed to stand upon the Rock of Christ without losing our freedom of conscience, and our freedom to speak.

Gifted, Session 12: “So What’s My Gift?”

(Recorded live in the Great Room on November 13, 2013).

Click here to listen or download: 2013.11.13.GiftedMidweekSeries.Session12.CharlesMoore

“Come before winter.” Paul issued that special and specific request to the young preacher Timothy (Second Timothy 4:21). As he neared the end of his life, the apostle longed for the grace-giving companionship that only two Christian believers can share.

This morning after school drop-off I heard on the radio that snow is in our forecast. Yes, snow. By the time that you read this, the frozen precipitation may or may not have transpired, but the trend is clear. As the days shorten, and the sun hangs lower in the sky, and the temperatures trickle downward, winter is on its way.

I suppose that my embrace of a rather obvious reality may be causing me to notice more carefully the brilliance of autumn. Within the last few days I’ve been more than once left almost breathless by a few of the local vistas. In turning just about any corner around here, one is likely to catch at least a brief glimpse of the colorful canvass that has been magnificently spread before us by the Artist of the universe.

Here’s a scene that I just captured within a stone’s throw of the church, as the afternoon sun seemed to illuminate every leaf with LED intensity. The experts say we’re chronologically “post-peak”, but I’d say that’s a matter of opinion. My photo strongly suggests otherwise.

In the greatest sermon ever preached, our Lord Jesus instructed us to seek the kingdom of God today (Matthew 6:25-34). To seek Christ’s kingdom first. Our tendency is to worry about everything we think we’ll need tomorrow. But God is the only one who sees tomorrow, and He’s already there. Tomorrow is held tightly in the very best of hands. Christ has promised never to leave us or forsake us. He’ll take care of us tomorrow just as He’s taking care of us today.

So stop worrying about food or clothes or snow … or tomorrow. Rejoice in Christ today! Gorgeous evidences of His abundant grace are all around you.

Just look up, and come before winter.