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Provider Farms, LLC

Let me introduce you to a friend of mine. I first met Todd at the Fatherhood Academy we hosted at Eastside Baptist Church this past fall. Todd and his family run a family business in the Mtn Home area. They have several customers now in the Twin Falls area and are delivering some of their fresh farm products to the region. On Monday’s they will be set up in the parking lot of Eastside Baptist Church’s meetinghouse (204 Eastland Drive North) from 2-2:30PM.

You should visit their website and see what they have to offer. Here is a link to the products they currently deliver to the Twin Falls area

 

Provider Farms, LLC

The Importance of Doctrine

The overwhelming evidence and ongoing discussion of the trending decline of attenders in evangelical churches continues to be a major discussion point in denominations who have built a financial economic dependence on numbers. I find the statistical reporting of the trends both insightful and confusing. As helpful as the data is in noticing a trend, it is, at the same time, disturbing to watch a publishing house behave more like a freelance salesman, telling anyone what they want to hear about a product that fixes everything that is wrong.

Before I’m completely misunderstood, let me say that obviously not everything a publishing house promotes fits this description and not everyone who works tirelessly for a publishing house is out to get money from the market. I imagine most really want to see transforming results come from their attempt to help the local church. I really believe this. I don’t blame the publishing house. I hold the local church to the fire, as it is, in this matter. She is the one responsible.

One of the most interesting observations I make of my ministry archives is that I can tell you places, events, preachers and publishing houses who spend a lot of energy and money to talk about the need to change. It gets communicated like this; “If we don’t do something different now, we are going to miss a generation completely with the gospel.” These are compelling words to a minister. They are words of desperation. They are used to motivate. But why is this coming from a person with a product to sale?

The day may be desperate; but why is it desperate? Is the bottom line slipping into the danger zone? Has the shelf life of the previous product come to the end of it’s life cycle ? Should the church treat her duty like that of a ski shop that puts last years model up for steep discount to make room for this years model? Should the church behave like a grocer who rotates the product according to the expiration date of the milk? I don’t fault either industry from doing what they do, I’m especially thankful that the USDA regulates milk shelf-life. These are good practices for a consumer based business.

Over four years ago I began to ask myself and my church to examine ourselves in light of Scripture. Ultimately, the questions were all boiled down to issues of sufficiency.

Is Scripture sufficient? Is it sufficient to instruct us in all matters of church life? When Scripture speaks to matters or church life are we diligent to do that? When Scripture appears silent on a matter do we have permission to yield to cultural norms and trending seasons of life?

I’ve spent a lot of time thinking on these matters. I’m thankful for the Lord’s patience with me and the long-suffering of the Lord’s people at Eastside Baptist as we attempt to let Holy Spirit teach us this all sufficient word of God, the Holy Bible. Then present it to this current generation as an all sufficient word for the next generation. We are committed to teaching biblical doctrine now, so that any generation to follow will know that this is important. Important enough to go against the trends of our day who are behaving as we once did, desperate to keep hold of a ‘market share’ in order to maintain our economic standard.

Perhaps if  evangelical churches behave more like a dutiful mother instead of fun babysitters, there would be fewer people leaving.

There is a tempting lure to be declared by others as creative and greatly concerned for the youth in our day. Are we told in Scripture to be creative and think outside the box in relationship to the things of God? Is it unloving to put biblical doctrine in front of the Lord’s people, young and old? Or should we try to turn the trend around with the philosophies of men rather than being dutiful and obedient to our Lord. As for me and my church we will strive with enduring resolve to trust that the Lord knows how to build His church.

Plea to the Christian publishing house, please stop treating this church like a market share.

the Doctrine of the Fall of Man

When is the last time you considered the doctrine (teaching) of the fall of man? Here is the audio recording of last night’s doctrinal study on the Doctrine of the Fall of Man. Below is also the print version of the 1925 New Hampshire Confession and the 1689 London Baptist Confession on the doctrine.

Introduction

Part 1: Gene Lawley

Part 2: Paul Thompson

1925 New Hampshire  Confession (Baptist Faith and Message)

III. The Fall of Man

Man was created by the special act of God, as recorded in Genesis. “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them” (Gen. 1:27). “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Gen. 2:7).

He was created in a state of holiness under the law of his Maker, but, through the temptation of Satan, he transgressed the command of God and fell from his original holiness and righteousness; whereby his posterity inherit a nature corrupt and in bondage to sin, are under condemnation, and as soon as they are capable of moral action, become actual transgressors.

Gen. 1:27; Gen. 2:7; John 1:23; Gen. 3:4-7; Gen. 3:22-24; Rom. 5:12,14,19, 21; Rom. 7:23-25; Rom. 11:18,22,32-33; Col. 1:21.

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1689 London Baptist Confession

The Fall of Man, Sin and Punishment

  1. Although God created man upright and perfect, and gave him a righteous law, which secured life for him while he kept it, and although God warned him that he would die if he broke it, yet man did not live long in this honour.- Satan using the subtlety of the serpent to subdue Eve, seduced Adam by her, and he, without any compulsion, wilfully transgressed the law of their creation and the command given to them by eating the forbidden fruit.- And this act God, according to His wise and holy counsel, was pleased to permit, having purposed to order it to His own glory.
  2. Our first parents, by this sin, fell from their original righteousness and communion with God, and we in them. For from this, death came upon all: all becoming dead in sin and wholly defiled in all the faculties and parts of soul and body.
  3. They being the root, and by God’s appointment, standing in the room and stead of all mankind, the guilt of this sin was imputed, and their corrupted nature conveyed, to all their posterity descending from them by ordinary generation. Their descendants are therefore conceived in sin, and are by nature the children of wrath, the servants of sin, and the subjects of death and all other miseries, spiritual, temporal, and eternal, unless the Lord Jesus sets them free.
  4. All actual transgressions proceed from this original corruption, by which we are utterly indisposed, disabled, and made opposite to all good, and wholly inclined to all evil.
  5. During this life the corruption of nature remains in those who are regenerated, and although it is pardoned and mortified through Christ, yet this corrupt nature and all its motions are truly and properly sinful.

Made for the purpose

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