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Great Is Thy Faithfulness

On Sunday nights at Eastside Baptist Church we take a close look at a hymn of the faith and a topic related to faithful living in this ever changing culture.

You can join us live in person, video live-streaming at Google Hangouts, or archived here the following week. If you are interested in joining via the live-streaming option it will require a bit of early set up to get you called in and all technical things set up. For some, this has been a helpful because of distance to travel twice into Twin Falls on the same day, for some who are ill, others away from town. We would welcome this of you if for some reason you are unable to attend a gathering in your community. Contact me before Sunday afternoon at 5:00pm.

This week pastor John Martinez gave us some background on the hymn, Great is Thy Faithfulness.

I gave a scan of types of problems people appear to have with the Bible and offer some solutions to the Christian on how to develop a disciplined lifestyle of reading, thinking, and trusting the Bible to be true and reliable.

James Montgomery Boice puts it this way…

“If the Bible is truely from God, and if God is a God of truth (and He is), then… if tow parts seem to be in opposition or in contradiction to each other, our interpretation of one or both of these parts must be in error.”

Propitiation (tBC030)

In this podcast (tBC030) I discuss the doctrine of Propitiation.

Wrath of God: Romans 1:18 – 3:20

Propitiation is not simply a legal pardon

Pardon:  forgiveness; the release of an offense or of the obligation of the offender to suffer a penalty, or to bear the displeasure of the offended party.

For our sin against God, propitiation is needed

Propitiation:

  1. a) The act of appeasing wrath and conciliating the favor of an offended person;
  2. b) the atoning sacrifice offered to God to tranquilize his wrath and render him favorable to sinners

Propitiation – occurs when God’s righteous wrath is appeased or turned aside by the death of His Son on the cross.

Christ is the propitiation for the sins of men.

Romans 3:21-26 – But now we are seeing the righteousness of God declared quite apart from the Law (though amply testified to by both Law and Prophets) – it is a righteousness imparted to, and operating in, all who have faith in Jesus Christ. (For there is no distinction to be made anywhere: everyone has sinned, everyone falls short of the beauty of God’s plan.) Under this divine system a man who has faith is now freely acquitted in the eyes of God by his generous dealing in the redemptive act of Jesus Christ. God has appointed him as the means of propitiation, a propitiation accomplished by the shedding of his blood, to be received and made effective in ourselves by faith. God has done this to demonstrate his righteousness both by the wiping out of the sins of the past (the time when he withheld his hand), and by showing in the present time that he is a just God and that he justifies every man who has faith in Jesus Christ. (Phillips)

1 John 2:1-2 – I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.

1 John 4:10 – In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Hebrews 2:17 – Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

the Christian Funeral

In this week’s podcasts, John Martinez examines the Fanny J. Crosby hymn, Redeemed, and I give some observations about the Christian funeral.

  • What is the purpose of A Christian funeral?
  • What does the Bible have to say about funerals?
  • What kind of music should be used during a Christian funeral; solo or congregation?
  • How to be prepared for the funeral home experience.

Overall, it is just a starter topic to generate conversation at home about what you want your funeral service to look like and how to begin getting prepared.

tBC023: Redeemed

tBC024: The Christian Funeral

I Am Resolved to be A Resolution Maker

This podcast was recorded on Sunday evening December 27, 2015 at Eastside Baptist Church in Twin Falls, ID.
(tBC022)

“Resolved, never to do anything, which I should be afraid to do, if it were the last hour of my life.”

With the start of 2016 just on the threshold of reality, I thought I would take another look through Jonathan Edwards’ 70 resolutions he aimed at governing all of his life.

Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice! Let everyone see that you are considerate in all you do. Remember, the Lord is coming soon.[c]

Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you. (Philippians 4:4-9 NASB)

Here is a full list of all 70 resolutions… Enjoy.

Happy New Year!

Do you have any resolutions for 2016?

Sermon Audio Annual Report (tBC021)

SermonAudioIt is always an interesting project at the end of the year for me to do a bit of an evaluation of our online sermon archive activity. All sermons, and other recordings, are archived here.

Eastside Baptist has a total of 275 sermons available. Of the sermons available there has been a grand total of 8,559 sermon downloads (2,358 of those were via mobile devices) since 2010.

If you want weekly reminders of when a new sermon or podcast is uploaded you can visit our SermonAudio site, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the way you want the reminder sent to you via Twitter, Facebook, or Email.

 

 

The top 10 sermons actually downloaded in 2015 (mp3 format).

Top Sermons Downloaded

  1. Easter Bunny Spoiler – 43 downloads (sermon excerpt)
  2. Evil in the Sight of the Lord – 30 downloads
  3. Worship – 25 downloads
  4. The Horn of the Alter – 22 downloads
  5. Preparing the House of God – 22 downloads
  6. They Saw the Wisdom of God and A Bold Innovator of Wickedness – 19 downloads
  7. The One Who Answers by Fire – 17 downloads
  8. 1 Corinthians 12:27-13:3 – 14 downloads
  9. 1 Corinthians 15:12-19, 2015 Palm Sunday, As For Me, and Marvel at What Happened – 13 downloads
  10. Evidence of a Divided Heart – 10 downloads

The reporting of visits to our Sermon Audio sight is at best a regional accounting and is not an exact report. But the stats are of interest to see where the online visitors come from. The report  is broken down into two reports, national and international. This year we had visits to our sermon archives from 47 of the 50 states in the USA and 56 nations.

Here are the top 10 states and the total number of downloaded sermons in 2015.

  1.  Idaho (209)
  2. Texas (154)
  3. California (146)
  4. South Dakota (94)
  5. Colorado (88)
  6. Utah and Washington (67)
  7. Illinois (66)
  8. Arizona (65)
  9. Florida (64)
  10. New Jersey (58)

Top 10 nations (other than the United States) and the total number of downloaded sermons in 2015.

  1. South Africa (53)
  2. United Kingdom (52)
  3. Canada (44)
  4. Germany (37)
  5. Australia (35)
  6. Fiji and Spain (19)
  7. Philippines (12)
  8. Singapore (11)
  9. France and India (8)
  10. Brazil and China (7)

Other nations of personal interest where someone(s)
downloaded sermons are Italy, Singapore, Afghanistan, Russian Federation, Israel, Qatar, Sri Lanka, Korea Republic, Venezuela,

O Come All Ye Faithful

Today’s podcast is in three parts.
Part 1 is a short look at the Christmas carol, O Come All Ye Faithful

Part 2 is a personal expression of my personal statement concerning my calling

 

Part 3 is an interview with the pastor’s wife, Renee Thompson – The audio on the interview is not very good but the conversation is a value to the church body and all pastors wives.

 

Comfort and Joy

This weekend (Saturday, December 19) my column will be posted in the Twin Falls – Times News, Sunday (December 20) is my 29th wedding anniversary and on Christmas Eve (December 24) I’ll gather with my church family and family for special occasions. It really is a most wonderful time of the year.

 


An early look at Saturday’s column:

Tidings of Comfort and Joy!

Like our own national anthem (there are actually four verses) there are other verses to our beloved Christmas carols.

Most of us would be able to remember the familiar tunes to “Joy to the World”, “Away in a Manger”, “Silent Night”. We would be able to even work our way through that first verse of these seasonal treasures.

But, like our national anthem, if your life depended upon reciting any of the other verses we would not be able to save ourselves.

Play a short Christmas carol game with me right now just for the fun of it. Name the Christmas carol these verses belong to.

  • God of God, Light of Light eternal,
    lo, he abhors not the virgin’s womb;
    Son of the Father, Begotten, not created. 1
  • The shepherds at those tidings
    rejoiced much in mind,
    and left their flocks a-feeding
    in tempest, storm, and wind,
    and went to Bethlehem straightway,
    the blessed babe to find. 2
  • For Christ is born of Mary,
    and gathered all above,
    while mortals sleep, the angels keep
    their watch of wondering love.
    O morning stars, together
    proclaim the holy birth,
    and praises sing to God the King,
    and peace to all on earth.3

On this coming Lord’s Day, and for the past several weeks the church house has been singing these songs that speak of the coming of the Christ, the Messiah.  This coming (advent) was the fulfillment of ancient prophesy of Old Testament prophets of Yahweh.

The birth of the Messiah both indicts and excites. Consider this with me.

There is no need for the promise of a Messiah unless there is a need for freedom. If there is a need for freedom then there is a foregone conclusion that there is enslavement. If there is enslavement then there is a hope that freedom will come.

But how, when, by what means, who will bring this freedom?

The authors of many carols seem to want to take us on an historic journey to that little town of Bethlehem and see this promised Messiah. As if someone who wants to take you by the hand to hastily guide you to a place where they just found a treasure they want to share with you.

This is the kind of comfort and joy any enslaved prisoner wants to here. “Today, your freedom has come!” The redeemer has come! The one who will make all things right, the one who not only can pardon us from our debt of sin, but will then settle the debt with the one we’ve offended.

This need for a Messiah, Jesus the Christ, is of great comfort as the truth is shown we are unable to save ourselves. If we could, there is no need for a Messiah. All of humanity, enslaved to sin, long to hear the tidings of comfort and joy.

This, this is Christ the Lord! There are no greater tidings to reach the ears of men than this.

This first coming of the Christ is of great comfort and joy. Believe, trust this! This first coming (advent) of Christ was to seek and to save, His second coming (advent) will be to judge. If the first is true, the second must be true as well, and it is!

Merry Christmas!


1  O Come All Ye Faithful
2 God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
3 O Little Town of Bethlehem  

Christian Men’s Breakfast

Join me on Saturday, November 14, 2015 at 8:00 am, at Lighthouse Church in Twin Falls

A Breakfast Conference just for Men!
A Call to Action!

7:30am Registration and check-in with coffee, juice and food!
Saturday November 14th from 8-11:30am.

Christian Men in the Magic Valley need to grow closer to God through prayer and fellowship in order to better lead our families and support their communities. This is an opportunity for Fathers, Sons, Grandfathers from our Magic Valley churches to check their ego at the door and be among men in Prayer, Praise and Worship!

Speakers will include:

  • Pastor Jason Houser, Seeds Family Ministry
  • Pastor Greg Fadness, Lighthouse Twin Falls
  • Pastor Jackie Roberts from Calvary Chapel Buhl
  • Pastor Paul Thompson from Eastside Baptist Church in Twin Falls
  • Pastor Mike Yost from Rupert’s The Springs Calvary Chapel
  • Pastor Jim Evans from Heritage Alliance Church in Twin Falls.

The cost is only a $5 donation, and the location is 960 Eastland Dr. in Twin Falls (Lighthouse).
For more info contact the Lighthouse church office @ 737-4667 or Mark @ 208-948-9956.
Christian-Mens-Breakfast-Nov14

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