CHARITY'S MOTHER LENORA TEMPLE PASSED AWAY

Charity's mother Lenora passed away January 09, 2008 Wednesday Evening around 7 p.m. She is with the Lord today, and our hearts are sad, and we hurt for the loss. She was surrounded with her family, her husband, Bob, her children Charity, Debbie and Rob and his wife Ileana. Also Kindra Tumbleson and Lenora's friend Lorene Waters. A special thanks to Jackie White who was the special nurse and friend in Lenora's last hours. Special thanks for Pastor Paul Gibson coming to pray with the family. The funeral will be Saturday at Victory Baptist Church. Lenora was 76 and her birthday was Jan 4.

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We had a wonderful Christmas family gathering, all the children, grandchildren were in and we had a wonderful time together. Charity, Debbie and Rob her children; Eric and Leslie, Becky, Chad (Heather) and Kyle Whisnant, and Randy Blevins, and Robbie (Amber) Temple. All the special gifts the kids and grandkids gave Lenora were special to her. She would have a smile on her face.

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Lenora was at home this whole last month, she was not on any pain medicine until the last hours of her life. Charity and Debbie and Rob were with their dad and Lenora all day Wednesday. Lenora actually walked with the help of Bob and Rob to the couch on Tuesday. The doctors had given her a month to live, and she passed away in that month time, but she was at home with her husband of fifty-five years.

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In this experiences we saw how God's grace gives strength and grace in the time of death. We saw Lenora dying before our eyes, daily she was slowly dying, but during this whole time, she was really at peace. She never complained, even though she must have been in pain with her back. She would want Bob to get her out of bed and into the Living Room couch and she would lay there to visit wiith family and friends.

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Charity and Debbie and Rob would make sure Bob and Lenora had something good to eat each evening. The kids (the old kids I might add) have taken good care of their mother in a special way since April.

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Thanks to all of you for your prayers and concern for Lenora and Bob and the whole family during this time.

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La ya

Charles and Charity Whisnant

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WHAT PASTORS NEED TO REMEMBER
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Well, I am not a pastor these days, but still have the pastor's heart. Ray Pritchard sermon had some good comments on things pastors need to remember from Christianity Today. I will also next time, list some things pastors need to remember when you pastor your first church. "NO ONE TOLD ME THIS"

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Ecclesiastes 7:19-22: "Wisdom makes one wise man more powerful than ten rulers in a city. There is not a righteous man on earth who does what is right and never sins. Do not pay attention to every word people say, or you may hear your servant cursing you--or you know in your heart that many times you yourself have cursed others."

Seminary is wonderful but you can't learn everything there. The year I graduated from seminary, Christianity Today published a humorous column called "Things They Didn't Tell You at Your Seminary Graduation." It was subtitled "Some aphorisms for the brand-new pastor." I cut it out and saved it, and after all these years, I still have my copy, faded and worn, because the wisdom it contains seems timeless to me. Here are a few bits of advice from the column (with a few of my personal comments):

*If you don't know what you're doing, do it neatly. (Not one of my strong points)

*If you can't tell a joke, don't. (A really wise piece of advice)

*When you visit the hospital, don't sit on the bed or discuss your operation.

*Leave your German shepherd at home when you go to the Sunday School picnic.

*Take your German shepherd when you go to the local ministerial association.*Always remember to take the offering before the sermon.

*Don't be late for wedding or funerals. (They didn't mention this in seminary)

*Fifty-one Sundays of the year, preach so that the youngest child in your congregation can understand you. The fifty-second Sunday, preach so that the Ph.D, the Th.D, the Ed.D, and the M.D. are bewildered, awestruck, or filled with wonderment. (Good advice if you can do it)

*If a businessman phones you at 10:30 AM on Wednesday morning and says, "Pastor, I hope I didn't get you out of bed," don't become paranoid. Just answer, "No, you didn't. But come on over anyway after you're dressed and my wife will fix some breakfast for you." (I never used this line, but I wish I had.)

*When people comment on your sermon as they're going out the church door, don't take them very seriously. (Very true)*There are limits to participation in community life. You don't need to prove yourself by taking part in the annual rodeo.

*Love the teenagers in your congregation and they'll love you. The same is true of young adults, middle-age adults, and elderly adults.

*Most old people will love you even when you goof. Maybe more then. (Amen)

*Never surprise the chairman of your board. (Double amen)

*Remember that being a pastor is like being the lead dog in a team of Alaskan huskies. You're the only one who has a view and can see the horizon. So tell them what's like

WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO BE WISE?

What does it take to be wise? Watching Dr. Phil, reading Brittney Spears mother's book on parenting, or looking into the yellowbook.com, or is there another way?

In a television commercial for online yellow pages, actor David Carradine plays a guru to a young seeker. (Sorry a side note: Kung Fu 1972, or Kill Bill 2004) When the student asks, "How do I find enlightenment?" the master says, "Yellowbook.com .. . Everyone is searching for something . . . After all, it is a material world, and with yellowbook.com, you just type in what and where."

The ad is insightful. Wisdom does involve the practical use of knowledge to get what we are looking for. The commercial is also right in suggesting that wisdom is more accessible than many of us might have thought.

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The culture will always be looking for material wisdom to gain more money. Fox News has a network on how to gain knowledge of how to make more money. The world wants knowledge of how to gain the upper hand on Wall Street.

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The Christians should seek knowlege on the Christian life, how to become like Christ.

Proverbs.com is a good place to start. When I was pastor of First Baptist Church in Altoona Kansas, Proverbs was the book I loved to teach the most. I have three three-ring binders of notes from that study. A lot of the material came from my friend Bill Rinehart who I had known from Wooster, Ohio. He had done a complete study of Proverbs and had a great set of notes.

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Early in my childhood, mom and dad would read daily with Don and me from the book of Proverbs. We had a dose of Proverbs for years as a youth. There is no better book that you could buy that would do what the book of Proverbs would do.

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Proverbs has thirty one chapters, reading a chapter a day would keep most Dr.'s away. We seek wisdom for living life by seeking to know God's blueprint for living. Dr. Phil might have some good advice for the secular world, and he does have a desire to help others. But Dr. Phil is not the first resource that we should turn to for handing life's situtation. Notice that those on the program already have the prob;ems. Britney Spears' mother who wrote a book on parenting could have used Proverbs. com. as the main source of instruction for mom's and dad's. But she was too much into making her child desire to have money and a life style like the culture.

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We will look into this book of Proverbs this year and see the wisdom that is taught. Stay tuned.

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Charles E. Whisnant

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MAKING 2008 A BETTER YEAR FOR CHRIST

As we mark the 300th anniversary of the birth of Jonathan Edwards, let's consider a few of the resolutions that guided Edward's ministry:

Being sensible that I am unable to do any thing without God's help, I do humbly intreat him by his grace to enable me to keep these resolutions, so far as they are agreeable to His will, for Christ's sake.

1. Resolved, That I will do whatsoever I think to be most to God's glory, and my own good, profit and pleasure, in the whole of my duration.
   
2. Resolved to do whatever I think to be my duty, and most for the good and advantage of mankind in general.
   
3. Resolved to do this, whatever difficulties I meet with, how many and how great soever.
   
4. Resolved, Never to lose one moment of time, but improve it the most profitable way I possibly can.
   
5. Resolved, Never to do any thing, which I should be afraid to do, if it were the last hour of my life.
   
6. Resolved, To be endeavoring to find out fit objects of charity and liberality.
   
7. Resolved, To maintain the strictest temperance in eating and drinking.
   
8. Resolved, Never to do any thing, which if I should see in another, I should count a just occasion to despise Him for, or to think any way the more meanly of Him.
   
9. Resolved, To study the Scriptures so steadily, constantly and frequently, as that I may find, and plainly perceive myself to grow in the knowledge of the same.
   
10. Resolved, To strive to my utmost every week to be brought higher in religion, and to a higher excercise of grace, than I was the week before.
    
11. Resolved, To ask myself at the end of every day, week, month and year, wherein I could possibly in any respect have done better.
    
12. Resolved, Frequently to renew the dedication of myself to God, which was made at my baptism, which I solemnly renewed, when I was received into the communion of the church; and which I have solemnly re-made this twelfth day of January, 1722-3.
    
13. Resolved, Never hence-forward, till I die, to act as if I were any way my own, but entirely and altogether God's.
    
14. Resolved, I will act so as I think I shall judge would have been best, and most prudent, when I come into the future world.
    
15. Resolved, Never to give over, nor in the least to slacken my fight with my corruptions, however unsuccessful I may be.
    
16. Resolved, After afflictions, to inquire, what I am the better for them, what good I have got by them, and what I might have got by them.

Jonathan Edwards was a serious man. He took his faith serious. He wanted Christ to govern his life and ministry. As a young man of 19 he was serious about personal spiritual growth, and physical temperance and matters of atttiude, and happiness of heaven. He set down a addressed ways he would live his life.

Edwards was America's greatest theologians and a most devout pastor.

Your theology will lead you to your behaviour.

http://www.apuritansmind.com/ChristianWalk/ResolutionsOfJonathanEdwards.htm

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DEFINITIONS OF INTERESTED

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1. A Christian is one who has saving faith in the biblical Lord Jesus Christ. True saving faith has hallmarks set forth in Scripture.

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2. A true Christian church is a fellowship of individual believers who have saving faith in the biblical Lord Jesus Christ. A true Christian church has certain hallmarks set forth in Scripture.

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3. By Scripture, I mean the accepted canon of Scripture from Genesis to Revelation, not including the Apocrypha, nor any other writings purported by others to be Scripture.

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HETERODOX

• Heterodoxy includes "any opinions or doctrines at variance with an official or orthodox position".[1] As an adjective, heterodox is used to describe a subject as "characterized by departure from accepted beliefs or standards" (status quo). The noun heterodoxy is synonymous with unorthodoxy, while the adjective heterodox is synonymous with dissident.
  
• The term heterodox is occasionally used by some Christians to refer to themselves when they are in disagreement with orthodox understandings, but voice this disagreement while still maintaining the overall value of the tradition. The heterodox Christian therefore remains in the tradition and attempts to stimulate constructive dialog around issues with which they disagree.
  
• Contrary to or differing from some acknowledged standard, especially in church doctrine or dogma; unorthodox. Holding unorthodox opinions or doctrines.

A movement where any concession to orthodoxy is surprising relief to our ears.

• That statement ought to be framed in neon lights. It is precisely what we need to watch in ourselves as we encounter the theology and yes, dialogue, of this movement.

• Think dialectic process and you'll see what I mean. Thesis, antithesis, synthesis. Then we begin all over again.

"dialogue with some of the more thoughtful old-line fundamentalists would probably be a thousand times more fruitful for mainstream evangelicals than playing footsie with postmodern fads."

A new year where we focus on the race before us, not yestersday victory or loses.

charles

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SHOULDA, COULDA, OR WOULDA

Either your past is serving as a springboard to a better tomorrow, or it is the proverbial albatross keeping you from moving forward today."

Les Parrott III,

The year before our eyes

J.C. Philpot

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As your days—so shall your strength be." Deuteronomy 33:25

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The year before our eyes may hold in its bosom,events which may deeply concern and affect us.We do not know what is to come. What personal trials, what family trials, what providential trials may await us—we do not know. Every year hitherto has brought its trials in its train; and how can we expect the coming year to be exempt?

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Sickness may attack our bodies, death enter our families, difficulties beset our circumstances, trials and temptations exercise our minds, snares entangle our feet, and many dark and gloomy clouds, make our path one of heaviness and sorrow. If, indeed, we are His, whatever our trials may be—His grace will be sufficient for us.

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He who has delivered—can and will deliver.And He who has brought us thus far on the road, who has so borne with our crooked manners in the wilderness and never yet forsaken us—though we have so often forsaken Him—will still lead us along; will still guide and guard us, and be our God, our Father and our Friend—not only to the end of the next year, if spared to see it, but the end of our life.

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Blessed with His presence—we need fear no evil; favored with His smile—we need dread no foe; upheld by His power—we need shrink from no trial; strengthened by His grace—we need panic at no suffering.

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Knowing what we are and have been when left to ourselves—the slips that we have made, the snares that we have been entangled in, the shame and sorrow that we have procured to ourselves—well may we dread to go forth in the coming year alone.

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Well may we say, "If Your Presence does not go with us—do not send us up from here!" Exodus 33:15

HAVING A BLESSED NEW YEAR WITH CHRIST IN BEGINNING

Like other figures who seem, in retrospect, to have been precociously representative of their times, Kerouac was not simply responding to the Zeitgeist, but to the peculiarly twisted facts of his own upbringing.-- Jack Kerouac: The Beat Goes On

J.C. Philpot had his idea of the Zeitgeist of the day, but that view came from an understanding of the Word of God.

Today John MacArthur, Jr. has and understanding of the Zeitgeist. (next post)

The year before our eyes

J.C. Philpot

"As your days—so shall your strength be." Deuteronomy 33:25

The year before our eyes may hold in its bosom,events which may deeply concern and affect us.We do not know what is to come. What personal trials, what family trials, what providential trials may await us—we do not know. Every year hitherto has brought its trials in its train; and how can we expect the coming year to be exempt?

Sickness may attack our bodies, death enter our families, difficulties beset our circumstances, trials and temptations exercise our minds, snares entangle our feet, and many dark and gloomy clouds, make our path one of heaviness and sorrow. If, indeed, we are His, whatever our trials may be—His grace will be sufficient for us.He who has delivered—can and will deliver.And He who has brought us thus far on the road, who has so borne with our crooked manners in the wilderness and never yet forsaken us—though we have so often forsaken Him—will still lead us along; will still guide and guard us, and be our God, our Father and our Friend—not only to the end of the next year, if spared to see it, but the end of our life.Blessed with His presence—we need fear no evil; favored with His smile—we need dread no foe; upheld by His power—we need shrink from no trial; strengthened by His grace—we need panic at no suffering.Knowing what we are and have been when left to ourselves—the slips that we have made, the snares that we have been entangled in, the shame and sorrow that we have procured to ourselves—well may we dread to go forth in the coming year alone.

Well may we say, "If Your Presence does not go with us—do not send us up from here!" Exodus 33:15