Wednesday Worship:

Wednesday Worship:

Wednesday Worship:

Wednesday Worship:

Abortion A Modern Day Holocaust:

During the month of February the Welch family will be filling baby bottles with loose change to support our local pregnancy center. The pregnancy center exists to offer nonjudgmental pregnancy support, parenting programs, referrals for community resources, STD and sexual integrity education, and post-abortive care.

Monday, January 22, 2018 marked the 44th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade. Roe vs. Wade was the landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court on the issue of abortion. Since the decision by the Supreme Court over 50 million innocent lives have been legally murdered and the number is still growing. This month, I am using my article to raise awareness on abortion.

Below is a graphic account of different types of techniques used in an abortion. WARNING: It is graphic.

Dilation and Curettage: Occurs early before the human life is 3 month old

The cervix is dilated and the uterine wall is scraped

The baby is cut to pieces

Suction: Human life is 3-4 months old

Fluid is removed from the water bag and replaced with a concentrated salt solution

The baby is slowly burned and poisoned

Death takes about an hour

Hysterotomy: Human life is 5-6 months old

Same procedure as C-section but with a different desired outcome

Doctors are given latitude to neglect or kill a baby if it remains alive after being removed

Usually the head is crushed in the womb to make sure a dead fetus comes out

Dilation and Extraction-D&E: Human life is 6-9 months old

Cervix is dilated, and the baby is turned around and pulled out upside down & backwards until only the top of the head remains in the mother's body

The doctor holds the baby face down in his hands and punctures the back of the skull (which hurts but does not kill the baby)

He then inserts a tube and sucks the brains out (kills the baby).

I pray that this post has opened your eyes to the horror of abortion. A modern day holocaust is occurring all around us.

(Information taken from (Dr. Heimbachs; Ethics class at Southeastern Seminary)

A Better Temple:

As in several other places, 1 Chronicles 29 gives us a description of the temple that Solomon was to build. Here is a portion of it:

“So I have provided for the house of my God, so far as I was able, the gold for the things of gold, the silver for the things of silver, and the bronze for the things of bronze, the iron for the things of iron, and wood for the things of wood, besides great quantities of onyx and stones for setting, antimony, colored stones, all sorts of precious stones and marble. Moreover, in addition to all that I have provided for the holy house, I have a treasure of my own of gold and silver, and because of my devotion to the house of my God I give it to the house of my God: 3,000 talents of gold, of the gold of Ophir, and 7,000 talents of refined silver, for overlaying the walls of the house, and for all the work to be done by craftsmen, gold for the things of gold and silver for the things of silver… They gave for the service of the house of God: 5,000 talents and 10,000 darics of gold, 10,000 talents of silver, 18,000 talents of bronze and 100,000 talents of iron. And whoever had precious stones gave them to the treasury of the house of the Lord…”

The temple of God was beautiful. It was crafted with only the finest of materials, and I would venture to say it was probably the most beautiful and expensive piece of architecture in its day. I imagine the most magnificent of church buildings today are but cottages in comparison to this temple.

However, one of the best things we can do when we read passages like this that describe the splendor of the house of God is to not look to the temple Solomon built. The temple was the place where the Israelites went to meet with God. In this way, we can say that Jesus is a better temple. In the new covenant, we meet with God in Christ. In Jesus is where we are united to God. As beautiful as the temple was, it was but a shadow of the magnificence of Christ. Jesus is beautiful to the eye of the believer. He sparkles brighter than every precious metal and jewel combined. Christ is more valuable than mountains of gold. Christ dazzles not just the eyes, but also the heart of the Christian. Jesus is more beautiful. The temple points us to Christ.

When the wood is mentioned as one of the materials used in the building of the temple, I cannot help but think of the wooden cross Jesus carried and was nailed to. That is not insignificant, because it is there that Christ becomes beautiful to the saint. In His agonizing on the wooden cross, drenched in blood, the scales on our eyes fall to the ground as beauty shines forth into our hearts. To His suffering we look and see magnificence. To His pain we look and see glory. To His cross we look and see Jesus as more beautiful than diamonds and more precious than gold. So read these texts about the temple and gaze toward the beauty of Christ – a better temple.

Why Follow Your Heart Is Really Bad Advice:

One piece of advice you can throw out is the idea that following your heart is a good one. Have you had a friend who gave you an advice and said, “follow your heart”? I am guilty of giving that advice, too. “Follow your heart” is a belief romanticized in movies, songs and novels today. These narratives in culture tell us our hearts have a map that will direct and guide us to a location of true happiness and satisfaction. If only we'll listen.

This belief sounds simple and harmless. Even liberating. But can you think of what your heart has told you to do or follow lately? How many times has its desires sounded wise or selfless?

Following your heart prioritizes your desires above all others.

My heart has desired things that I do not wish to repeat. My heart likes to think of and prioritize what is best for me. Some days, it would even think of what is bad and inconvenient for others just to gratify what might bring me happiness. My heart insists what I am feeling is always right and those who do not understand it are always wrong.

This theology sounds simple. But it is not beautiful, holy or good. The idea of “following your heart” is not found in the Bible. In contrast, Jeremiah 17:9 says that our hearts are deceitful above all things. Matthew 15:19 even says that “out of the heart come murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. Who can indeed understand and trust it?"

Our hearts lead a path of vagueness and confusion.

Our feelings, desires and emotions change. Therefore, following our hearts is an windy and treacherous path to take. One moment, your desires might tell you to go left and in a snap, they might tell you to go right. Following your heart will exhaust you because we are shifting humans with shifting appetites. Until we channel our desires towards Jesus and take the reins of our hearts wants will we know freedom from the misery this advice can bring into our lives.

Nothing is as deceitful as the human heart.

The ugly truth is that our hearts do not tell us the truth, it just tells us what we want. In fact, our hearts are not benevolent; we are compulsively selfish, self-indulgent and self-glorifying beings by our very fallen nature. Our hearts reflect this.

Our hearts were never designed to be followed. They were designed to be led by God. But how do we allow our hearts to be led by God? Some may refer to this as something outrageous supernatural, but being led by God is basically being obedient to Him.

If we allow our hearts to be led by God, we are allowing our hearts to be led by the ultimate comforter, deliverer, strengthener, provider, counselor, helper, and a savior beyond perfection.

God is also faithful to strengthen and reinforce us to be submissive to Him, His perfect will and His best plans for us which is so much better than the self-centered and worldly desires we have for ourselves.

It's much more than just trying to be a good person. See, we all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and no matter how hard we try (that is, through self-effort), we can never be good and worthy enough without Jesus (since it is all by grace through faith). Therefore, allowing our hearts to be led by God means intentionally trusting Him and submitting to Him no matter the circumstance – letting Him drive our cars purposefully instead of us maneuvering it to a series of self-inflicted and emotion-swayed humps and bumps.

Following your heart is like unknowingly covering your eyes with a veil, and still foolishly and senselessly say that you can see things accurately and completely. Therefore, do not be deceived by your heart. Do not buy the lie that you're the center of the world and your appetite is the most important. Stop focusing on yourself, what you feel and what you want.

You'll never find satisfaction there. So fix your eyes on the author of your peace, the one who knows better. The one whose heart never fails us.

One Life=A Great Impact:

There is something about the truth that causes people to tremble, look in awe, and become overwhelmed all at the same time.

If you surrender your life over to Jesus and walk with him for your fullest joy, then you might understand this. The truth of Christ means responsibility rests on your shoulders: you see strangers and loved ones trying to quench a deep, internal thirst in a world that — without Jesus — is salt water. With the realization that life is meant to glorify the Lord, you can’t help but weep at the sight of unbelief and fading lives.

The overwhelming truth is how many don’t know Jesus, how many are living eternally insignificant lives. How can we cope with a reality that bleak?

An 80,000-Fold Influence

Let’s say that a person meets an average of two to three people a day. Assuming the average life span is roughly eighty years, this means that the average person will encounter somewhere between 60,000 and 80,000 people in their life. The football stadium at the University of North Carolina, houses 62,980 people.

Imagine if you walked into this stadium at the end of your life. One by one the seats are all filled with old and strangely familiar faces, memories flooding back to you until the crowd starts to pour over onto the field. You have met each person here, though many were only for a single moment. Each person represents at least one opportunity you had to influence the trajectory of his life. Your life will impact the world through thousands of people, who will, in turn, impact millions.

What would you say to each person now if you had the chance? What would you say to your mother, your high school girlfriend, the custodian that held the door open for you at work last week?

The Weight of Love

Eighty-thousand opportunities for influence is a significant role for anyone, but only Christians can understand a narrative like this. God purposefully created every person to enjoy relationship with him (Genesis 1:26–27; 2 Corinthians 6:16–18), but every person sins and falls short (Romans 3:23). Nevertheless, we hope in that Creator who sent his Son, Jesus Christ, and paid for the sins that separated us (Romans 3:24). He died and rose again, acting not only as the pinnacle of human history, but as life-bringing change for individual lives (2 Corinthians 5:15).

Either these events are miraculous history or legendary tale — of all importance or no importance at all.

The gospel is the truth that causes us to tremble, to look with weighty awe. The weight upon any gospel-impacted heart is the weight of love. It is a love for those 80,000 people — for the countless cashiers, the homeless encountered on the street, the neighbors we met once and the neighbors that frequent our dinner tables, the siblings at our sides.

Christians of all people should be pitied if our hope for the fullness of joy and the eternal pleasures of God’s presence in a new, stainless creation held no water (1 Corinthians 15:19). But we know the truth and, therefore, our pity overflows with love for those who don’t know it yet. Jesus came to die to give every sinner a future, and he came for every saint with a past. Therefore, we weep for the unbeliever. We weep for the friends and family who could overflow a thousand stadiums that still haven’t heard the good news.

The truth is heavy, but we cannot look away. Why? Because Jesus said, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few” (Matthew 9:37). These 80,000 cannot hear without being told. Who is to tell them, then? You are, Christian (Romans 10:14–15).

To the Laborers

This task seems unbearably heavy. But our hope is found in the Lord, who loves to employ his children in the mission to bring everyone into his arms. Whether yours is a lifetime of twenty years or eighty, you are working the harvest. Christianity began in the hands of a few: the news of Jesus’s resurrection was entrusted at first to just three women (Mark 16:1).

As individual believers awaken to their joyful responsibility, the masses await. A lifetime has the potential of impacting tens of thousands of lives. Your impact on most may be no more than a tiny ripple in the ocean of their lives, but together with the faithful ripples of others, there is hope for a tidal wave that will finally bring them to God’s shores.

Paul’s ministry focused on a few, discipling them to embrace Jesus and, in turn, to disciple a handful. The Great Commission to preach the gospel to the ends of the earth has snowball-like momentum. It is time to pray and act for great numbers to come to Christ. It is time to see stadiums full of love, not a message left tragically unsaid.

This is Spirit-filled optimism born in the midst of sober realism. Though he is not with us now in body, he has promised greater things to be done by us through his Spirit than what he accomplished in his thirty-three years on earth (John 16:7; Acts 1:8).

The truth may be overwhelming. The responsibility is great. But the Lord’s friendship sustains, and the power he provides is greater than every obstacle we face in this mission.

God's Will Is That You Draw Near:

Let us draw near with a true heart.-Hebrews 10:22

The command we are given in this passage is to draw near to God. The great aim of the writer of the book of Hebrews is that we get near God, that we have fellowship with him, that we not settle for a Christian life at a distance from God.

This drawing near is not a physical act. It's not building a tower of Babel by your achievements to get to heaven. It's not necessarily going to a church building. Or walking to an altar at the front. It is an invisible act of the heart. You can do it while standing absolutely still, or while lying in a hospital bed, or on 52 as you commute to work.

This is the center of the gospel-that God has done astonishing and costly things to draw us near to himself. He has sent his Son to suffer and to die so that through him we might draw near. Everything that He has one in the great plan of redemption is so that we might draw near. And that nearness is for our joy and for His glory.

He does not need us. If we stay away He is not impoverished. He does not need us in order to be happy in the fellowship of the Trinity. But He magnifies His mercy by giving us free access through His Son, in spite of our sin, to the one Reality that can satisfy our souls completely and forever; namely, himself. "In your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore" (Psalm 16:11).

This is God's will for you, even as you read this. This is why Christ died: that you would draw near to God.

Tough Question: How Do I Not Lust?:

If you are a guy and have been involved in some sort of accountability group no doubt the subject of "lust" has come up. In my conversations with other men we talk about this often.

Usually the conversation focuses on 3 things:

1. What is lust?

2. How do I not lust?

3. What do I do when I lust?

All three of these questions could make for their own blog, but for the sake of brevity I rather just focus on the second: How do I not lust? Or, more specifically, How do I look and NOT lust?

But before I do I would like to clarify what lust is and isn't:

Lust IS NOT looking.

Lust is letting your mind wander to sexual thoughts AFTER looking.

You see, lust is not this thing that just happens. It's not spontaneous. It's not random.

Lust grows. It's in many ways organic. And it has its own lifecycle.

So when you or I look at an attractive person, we aren't lusting... but it's at that moment when the lifecycle can start to unfold.

So, with that being said, here are 3 things you can do to make sure your looks don't turn into lust (and no, I'm not going the whole "bounce your eyes" route either):

1) Count your "looks."

When I talk with guys about lust I have a saying:

Look once, you're human; look twice, you're a man; look three times, you just disrespected your wife.

Now before you get all legalistic, realize that we don't really boil lust down to the exact number of times you "look." But the point here is simple; if you keep glancing and looking, chances are you aren't doing it because you admire that individual for their personality. Most likely you're continuing the looks because you get some sort of pleasure from what you see.

Simply put, this is a discipline and it takes practice. But if you are conscious of how many times you eye up someone, you'll also be more aware of the when the lust monster starts knocking at your door.

2) Follow up your look with an action.

Okay, so to be clear, not ANY action will do. There are, of course, some actions that would be really inappropriate or maybe even land you in jail.

What I'm talking about is more of a spiritual thing. When you see that "hot" lady jogging by in her form-fitting shorts and top, don't just look and let your thoughts get taken over by something unhealthy. Be more intentional. This is what the Bible means when it says to take your thoughts captive.

Maybe pray for her (and not because she's some sort of "Jezebel" wearing tight clothes--she probably isn't). Or think about how that woman is someone's daughter or wife and deserves respect, not objectification. Or just recognize that a moment of decision has arrived and you are deciding NOT to lust but rather to think about something else.

Remember, lust has to grow. You can kill that growth with some solid intentionality.

3) Give glory to God.

What? Wait a minute? Give glory to God for the "hot" jogger I just saw?

Yes. Exactly.

The Bible tells us to glorify God in all things and give him glory for all things. This means...

You glorify God for what happened in church on Sunday.You glorify God for the promotion you just got.You glorify God for the beautiful sunset you just witnessed.

And yes, you can glorify God for creating the beautiful jogger who just ran by.

Don't be a legalistic tool and think it's impossible to see an attractive person and appreciate their beauty without being some sort of perv. You can.

Remember ... looking is not lusting. Lust doesn't just happen; it's cultivated.

Next time you see someone who hits a "10" on your hotness scale, take a minute and say, "Thank you God for creating that person." Then, move along and continue with your day.

I hear so many Christians bemoan about lust and how visual distractions are all around them.

It's true; you will always see beautiful people. Sometimes wearing clothes that leave less to the imagination. But remember:

Lusting isn't inevitable. Lust is a choice.

You can stop lust by killing it at the root.

So next time you see someone who's looking good, remember these three steps:

1. Count the looks.

2. Be intentional with your thoughts

3. Say "Thank you Jesus!"

If you do these 3 things and go about your day, you will halt lust in its tracks. Because the "battle of lust" begins where it dies ... in your mind.

Tough Question: What Do I Do When My Kid Is Sexting?:

Today, teens have easy access to cell phones, the Internet and other mobile devices, and it’s estimated that teens send or receive an average of 3,000 text messages each month.  While this new technology allows tweens and teens to keep in regular contact with their peers and family members, the instant (and often unmonitored) ability to connect, communicate and share with peers has also fueled some pretty risky behaviors.

One such risky behavior is sexting, a behavior that is unfortunately common among teens today.  Sexting occurs when cellphone users exchange provocative, nude, or semi-nude sexual images of themselves, often by using their computer or cellphone’s built in camera.  The behavior has become very normalized in our culture, and may celebrities and adult groups even encourage sexting as a way to keep relationships steamy.

Unfortunately, what’s perceived as “cool” for celebrities and adults can seem pretty cool to teens and tweens today.  And as our teens and tweens grow up in this highly sexualized culture, they are experiencing intense pressure to perform and live up the their sexually expressive celebrity role models.  As a result, studies indicate that about one in five teens has been involved in some form of sexting (although, in my experience, I would say it’s more like three in five).

So what is a parent to do if you discover that your child is caught up in the mix?

First: Remember not to overreact.  What you say and how you first say it will impact the rest of your communications with your son or daughter.  Take a quick walk around the block, react/vent to your spouse first and take a moment to gather your thoughts and breath before confronting your son or daughter.

Second: Evaluate yourself.  Have you talked with your son or daughter about sexting?  Did you tell your kids about the possible legal risks associated with sexting, and were you using parental controls on your son/daughter’s cellphone?  Have you been monitoring their online activity and have you known with whom they were communicating with?  If the answer to these questions is “no”, then you haven’t done a good job of preparing them, and it’s no wonder that they ended up engaging in some risky behavior.  So remember, that if you haven’t set clear rules and had a straightforward discussion about sexting with your child, then at least some of the blame falls on you.

Third:  Evaluate the extent of the situation.  How many pictures are involved/are they just of your child, or are there tons of pictures of other kids.  This gets a bit tricky, because what your child is in possession of is essentially self- or child-created child pornography.  If there are only a few sexts exchanged between your son/daughter and their significant other, then this is probably something for you and your spouse to deal with alone (and possibly include the father/mother of the other kid in question).  If there appears to be a malice or criminal intent involved, then it may be appropriate to get the school counselor, a psychologists and possibly local law enforcement involved.  With cases that involve mass distribution of child-created child pornography, then extortion, cyberbullying or harassment may be involved.

Fourth:  Talk to your son or daughter.  Give them the opportunity to explain themselves.  Help them to understand the legal consequences that could be involved with sending and distributing sext messages.  Going forward, your child should never send, forward, create or accept a sext message; whenever they do so, they could be charged with creating or distributing child pornography.  Even if they didn’t take the sext, if they are merely in possession of the sext, they could be charged with possession of child pornography.  Talk also with your son or daughter about the emotional repercussions involved with sending/exchanging sext messages.  Once an image is sent, it can be very difficult to gain control of that image.  Any recipient can, and likely will, forward that message/photo onto someone else (I’ve heard of images that have been forwarded all across the country!).  Set clear ground rules for cell phone use and clear consequences going forward.

Fifth:  Consider investing in parental controls on all Internet-enabled devices and consider disabling the feature that allows your son or daughter to send and receive photo-texts.  This is the easiest way to make sure that your son/daughter doesn’t make an impulsive, unwise decision that they regret for the rest of their life.

Author: Cris Logan
Published on xxxchurch.com September 17, 2015