​Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy TENDER mercies blot our my transgressions. Psalms 51:1

This is our memory verse for the week and the word "tender" sticks out to me. Have you ever thought about that, the LORD is tender? The word tender, in regard to a substance means: soft or delicate; not hard or tough. In regard to emotions it means: easily moved to sympathy or compassion. I'm thankful that the LORD is the later of the two, he is easily moved, and yet of course when he handles us he is also soft and delicate; for his yoke is easy and his burden is light. 
Our middle child, Ethan, is tender. He is easily frightened, observant of others, and he wears his feelings on his sleeve. Here recently he did a project, and he was so excited about it, he was so earnest for his mother and I to see it. I quickly found some time to go and look at what he had done, but his mother didn't have the opportunity, and in the mean time another child came and ruined it. Oh, it broke his heart, our other children would have gotten over it quickly, but not Ethan, he was so upset that he continued to talk about it for hours and occasionally boohooed at the thought of what the other child had done. He did this because he is tender.
Why wife is tender when it comes to our children; especially when they cry, Oh, there is something in the heart of a mother that is moved, when a child cries. We've been in the grocery store and i don't notice that a child is crying on the other side of the store, but my wife will say something like, "oh, will someone do something for that poor baby." There have been times that my wife has only thought that she heard one of our children crying, and laid down everything she was doing at the time, only to find that everything was fine and they weren't crying at all. She does this because she is tender. 
The Bible wants us to know that our heavenly father is tender. It doesn't take much to move him. He is heart broke at all the killing, abortion, rape, and hatred that is going on in our world. He is heart broke over the sins that are in our lives. But I'm thankful, that he is easily moved with compassion toward all of those who call on him. I'm thankful that he is like a mother with a child, and he is moved to check on me, even when nothing is wrong. There is nothing that you are sincerely praying for right now, that God is not moved over. Whether it is a sin that needs to be conquered or a problem that needs to be solved; God is moved, He is tender.

May God bless you
Pastor Silas

Psa 109:4  For my love they are my adversaries: but I give myself unto prayer. 

David said because of the things he loved he had enemies. We know that David loved God, gospel music, his family and his friends. These are good things, but there are some that don't like God, and because we do, they will be our enemies. We know that if we love God, we at least have one enemy, and that is Satan. And just like he did to Job, Satan will assault us with anything he can to discourage us. You see he wants your love for God to wax cold, he wants you to be defeated. The Psalmist gave us the answer for when the enemy attacks, he said he gave himself to prayer. You see the good thing about problems is they drive you to pray. I recently talked to a pastor and he shared that he was facing some difficulties, things like church members who had teenagers that had ran away or attempted suicide, he said, "on the good side, it makes me give myself unto prayer."  He said because of these things he gained a closer relationship with God.               

 Have you ever met someone or had something good come as a result of a problem? I was in a hole installing a sewer onetime and a 40lbs rock fell and hit me on the leg, as a result they quickly lifted me out of the hole, and right after i got out, the whole wall caved in. I would much rather take a bruised leg over being buried alive. Likewise at the first sign of danger we need to run to the one that can lift us above our anxiety and give us the wisdom not to make greater mistakes.

May God bless you
Pastor Silas

1Pe 1:8  Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: 

When I see a picture of one of my children or my wife it makes my heart flutter. There is just a special love I have for them, knowing that they are mine, and how precious they are, makes me feel special. The above verse states the obvious, that we have not seen Jesus, but through the eyes of faith we love him.  Jesus told Thomas “because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed; blessed are those who have not seen me and believed. Jesus says about those of us who have not seen Jesus that we are blessed because we believe. If we are blessed even when we haven’t seen him, think about how blessed we will be when we do see him. Let us look as some verse that describe how amazing seeing Jesus will be.

The face of Christ is so wonderful that the bible declares: Rev 20:11  And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.
 
When Nebuchadnezzar saw Jesus in the fiery furnace his image was undeniable. Dan 3:25  He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.
 
When Balshazzar saw the hand of God it made him tremble with fear. Dan 5:5  In the same hour came forth fingers of a man's hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaister of the wall of the king's palace: and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote.
Dan 5:6  Then the king's countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another.
 
When Moses saw the glory of God it made his face shine.
 Exo 33:18  And he said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory.
Exo 34:29  And it came to pass, when Moses came down from mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony in Moses' hand, when he came down from the mount, that Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him.
 
The vision of the glorified Christ inspired Peter so much that he claimed that he would build a temple. Mat 17:2  And was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light.
Mat 17:4  Then answered Peter, and said unto Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here: if thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias.
 
 
Yes, the sight of Jesus is going to be wonderful, and there are some things that will happen when we see him.
 
1.) Our faith shall end in sight.
1Co 13:13  And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
The reason charity is the greater of the 3 is because faith and hope will end the day we see Jesus.
Won’t it be wonderful not wondering what God wants us to do in life anymore. I remember all the times trying to determining if it was Gods will to get a certain job, or to move to Minnesota and start a church. All these things were acts of faith upon the peace that God had placed within my heart.
 
2.) Corruption shall end
1Jn 3:2  Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.
When we see Jesus we will be like him, our corruptible body will be changed into an incorruptible body.
Our sinful nature will be gone as well, and there will be no more battle with sin.
 
3.) We will worship him
 
Mat 28:17  And when they saw him, they worshipped him: but some doubted.

Looking forward to see Jesus,
​Pastor Silas
 
 
 
 

Hello, today's thought is about the idea of an after life. This question is nearly an unavoidable idea within the reality of death "is there an after life." Job put it this way, "Job 14:14  If a man die, shall he live again?"


For those of us who believe the bible we respond with an unequivocal, yes! There is good reason for this belief founded in the bible, because the bible is trustworthy. We believe it to be the inerrant, infallible, and the preserved word of God. For one that would question if there is an after life, we Christians only need to refer such inquirers to the word of God. We can say that there is an after life because the bible is true, and I know that the bible is true because it is logically consistent, empirically adequate, and experimentally relevant. In simpler words, the bible is coherent to what we see and know about life; there is nothing in the bible that is contradictory.

For example, one retort is that people do not believe in an after life because there is no tangible evidence of an after life, and one must go off of faith to accept and that there is one. This posses no problem for the Christian, for that is logically consistent with the bible. The bible doesn't seek to prove the existence of an after life by tangible evidence, the bible says we receive it by faith, with good evidence (although not tangible) that it is true. 

However, those who wrote the bible did see tangible evidence that there is an after life when they saw Lazarus rise from the grave, Moses and Elijah on the mount of transfiguration and the risen savior after he got up from the grave. And we have just as much historical reliability in their word as we do in any other historical fact.

Here is a quote from C.S. Lewis about how our desire for an afterlife is good proof that there in fact is one. “Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists. A baby feels hunger: well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim: well, there is such a thing as water. Men feel sexual desire: well, there is such a thing as sex. If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing. If that is so, I must take care, on the one hand, never to despise, or be unthankful for, these earthly blessings, and on the other, never to mistake them for the something else of which they are only a kind of copy, or echo, or mirage. I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find until after death; I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside; I must make it the main object of life to press on to that other country and to help others do the same.”So there you have it, what we feel is actually in relation with the bible. We fill that there should be an after life and the bible states that there is one. It should be noted that this bible fact is not a means to and ends, but an ends itself. What I mean by that is, the doctrine of the bible that there is an after life isn't there just comfort the human emotion regarding death. Some have even stated that political leaders came up with heaven and hell to control people. However, you look at those who wrote the bible and you will find that they didn't have power or prestige for writing it but quite the contrary. Therefore, emotion itself cannot falsify the probable reality that there is in an after life, as the bible says there is.

The real question in all of this is. Do you know where you will go when you die? You have to un-educate yourself to believe that there isn't and after life, because it is a natural phenomenon to feel that there is. Its like an article I saw about the Breatharian diet. It is a diet, that proposes that you don't have to eat food and you can live off of the energy of the universe. For you to try that diet you have to un-educate yourself that food is a basic necessity of life. So if i am not a fool to un-educate myself that food is not necessary for life than I also shouldn't be a fool if I do not un-educate myself in the primary belief of an after life.


Looking forward to going to heaven,
Pastor Silas
  

The above title may seem cliché, it is an idea so rudiment to any marriage relationship that it can almost be taken for granted by mere commonality. To any normal husband that is asked the question, “do you love your wife” the simple answer is yes, as it should be. If you aim at nothing you will hit it every time, therefore the goal is always that we love our wives. But what does that look like? Well, in Ephesians 5:25 we get the answer as to what the act of loving our wives is supposed to look like. It says, “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it…” This is the cast that we as husbands are to model when it comes to loving our wives. We are to love them as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. Now, to illustrate what that looks like I would like to look at the seven sayings of Christ on the cross, and examine how he gave himself for the church: we will simply summarize what they mean, and how the husband is to apply them in the marriage.
 1.) Luke 23:34  "Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots." Here Christ states that although he was being crucified by these men he still forgave them. Now, these men would only find true forgiveness from God if they sought it with a repentant heart, and the same is the case for any spouse. The innocent spouse may desire to forgive the guilty one but it will only work, if the spouse that did the wrong seeks forgiveness. However, as husbands if our wife has done something wrong to us we must seek to forgive them. If Christ can be crucified ,and still forgive, then nothing in a marriage relationship is unforgivable.
2.) Luke 23:43  "And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise." There is no greater promise that a spouse can give their partner than to say that they will meet them again in heaven. As a husband it is our job to evangelize to our spouse, and know that they too will meet us in heaven.
3.) John 19:26-27  "When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son! Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home."
Here Jesus put the responsibility of caring for his mother on John his disciple. Simply put, the man is to take care of the basic needs of the family. He should be a bread winner, a protector, and a friend to all in his household.
4.) Matthew 27:46  "And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"The simple reason God had forsaken Christ is because he was taking on the sin of the world.After Christ  had led captivity captive through his resurrection, he was reunited with the father sitting on his right hand. Christ gave himself for our sin. The greatest example of love from a husband is for him to give himself for his wife. This includes his time, his intellect, his money, and everything else about himself.
5.) John 19:28  "After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst." These last three saying make what is known as the tripod for any relationship that will stand. They are passion, commitment, and communication. Here Christ says that he desired something to drink. Men, we are to be passionate toward our wives. We are to desire there time, their personality, and their intimacy. Are you passionately perusing your wife?
6.) John 19:30  "When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost." Christ having finished his work of redemption claimed that it was finished and he gave up the ghost. For both spouses after your wedding day, pursuits of any other relationship are finished. It’s interesting that Christ was in control of giving up his life and he chose to do so. Likewise, once spouses have exchanged their wedding vows they too have chosen to die to any other relationship and have taken a lifelong commitment of marriage to their spouse.
7.) Luke 23:46  "And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said,Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost." When Christ gave his Spirit into his Fathers hands it was a sign of complete trust and union. No marriage will work if a spouse is holding back something from the other. There must be a clear line of communication at all times within the relationship. If there is something being held back the relationship will experience disunion.