Its not about me

Most Americans today are pretty egocentric. If you think about it, a lot of money is spent on self-help books and videos. Everyone is worried about being skinnier, smarter, and richer. I fear modern Christianity is traveling the same road as our secular culture. Many of the popular preachers today preach a prosperity gospel and collect a lot of money while leading many astray. I think most earnest Christians are not fooled by these charlatans and would be the first cry foul when they ask for seeds to be sown in their own pockets. The preachers I worry about seem to have great effect on the brothers. They are so self-driven that they somehow can read themselves into every part of the Bible. They even read their audience into it as well. What bothers me is that the Bible is not about you and me; it is about Jesus Christ. If the message of Christ defeating death and the blessed assurance of eternity is not enough; we have problems. These vipers are leading people to believe they are like King David, or Joshua. The problem is not everyone is like King David; there is no promise in the Bible that we all can be kings here on earth. It is the heavenly kingdom that Christ points us to, and we should focus on, not any success or power we might obtain here on this temporary world. It is hard to be a humble servant of our Lord and Savior if we can’t get past our own greatness and purpose. Remember it is always safe to just keep pointing toward Christ, since it is he who clothes us in righteousness.

Careful Little Eyes

“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things.” Philippians 4:6

One evening I was about to sit down and watch some T.V. with my children, while scrolling through the mind scrambling number of movies on Netflix I kept running across movies that I had watched and liked in the past but thought they were inappropriate to watch in front of children. This thought hit me like a freight train. I didn’t want my kids to see the nudity and vile language in these movies for their own good but had been content to download all the blasphemy and hyper sexual content into my own mind. I recalled the above passage in Paul’s Letter to the Philippians and thought about the finite amount of time we get each day. While I was wrestling with how violent or vile our entertainment could be and not warp the kids the way I had been warped I had missed the point entirely. We should fill our time with what is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and admirable. I should be searching out things that are excellent and praiseworthy. If I would not show it to my children or listen to it with my Pastor then I probably should not be consuming it. But that’s just a guideline, in reality we should be only imbibing things that improve or inspire us. We as Christians shouldn’t have enough time to waste. We should be reaching the lost or preparing to do so.

The First Fruits Project

I find myself this time of year asking people for money a lot. Whether it is to buy a Christmas tree or pecans to support our Outreach Ministry, or passing the plate at the second Saturday breakfast to fund the Men’s Group, I find myself shilling for Jesus and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I come to you now wanting to sell you CD’s called the First Fruits Project. The First Fruits Project presents the good news of Jesus through original songs, the written word and clear preaching. It is meant to be a self-contained evangelism message that you can give to those who need Christ. It is also a tool for funding missions. All proceeds are split equally between three well established Christian missions. The Knox Area Rescue Ministries, Samaritan’s Purse, and the Bible League. For more information on the project and to listen to the music please visit http://www.joebeelermusic.com/#/first-fruits-project-2014 . I understand that we as Christians perceive that times are tight but with a little honest self-evaluation I believe that we will all come to the conclusion that The Great Commission is not as large a part of our budget as it should be. This could be a perfect opportunity to those who are not comfortable bringing up salvation verbally, This CD can do the talking for you. So please hop over to the website and support this worthy attempt to share God’s Grace with the world.