The Danger of Feeling and Experiences

"The idea that Christianity is a form of feeling, a life, and not a system of doctrine, is contrary to the faith of all Christians. Christianity always has had a creed. A man who believes certain doctrines is a Christian. If his faith is mere assent, he is a speculative Christian; if it is cordial and appreciating, he is a true

Christian. But to say that a man may be a Christian.without believing the doctrines of Christianity, is a contradiction. A man may be amiable or benevolent, without any definite form of faith, but how is he to be a Christian? The idea...that a man maybe be a Christian although an atheist or pagan, destroys all distinction between truth and falsehood; between God and idols. between good and evil...It is one of he fundamental principles of the Bible, that truth is as essential to holiness as light is to vision. Hence, on the one hand, the reception of truth is made essential to salvation, and on the other, false doctrine is denounced as the source of sin and the precursor of perdition. (Charles Hodge, 1857)


Evangelicalism Divided, Iain H. Murray, The Banner of Truth Trust, 2000, p. 15

American's Growing Less Confident in the Bible

Looks like America could be growing in its lack of confidence in the Bible according to a recent Gallup Poll.

A poll measuring beliefs about the Bible, found that approximately 28 percent of Americans believe the Bible is the literal word of God. This is down from a poll conducted in the late 1970’s where approximately 40 percent of Americans believed the bible to be the literal word of God.

Disturbingly it seems one in five Americans see the Bible in secular terms, which was described in the poll as ancient “fables, legends, history, and moral precepts recorded by man.”

Barley half of Americans (47 percent) belief the bible to be the “inspired” word of God.

(From the Religious News Service, June 6th, 2014 publication)

Five Reasons Christians Think They Should Be Exempt From Suffering

SERMON            GMT14-019

SERIES:              Topical – Helping the Church Learn to Suffer

SETTING:          North Kelso Baptist Church

SERVICE:          Sunday AM

SUBTITLE:        Five Reasons Christians Think They Should be Exempt From Suffering

SCRIPTURE:     Selected Scriptures (Luke 21:19)

SUBJ:                  Don’t misunderstand suffering

SUMMARY:       I propose to you that there are reasons why many believers have a tendency to think that they are or should be exempt from suffering

SCHEME:           The aim of this message is that the members of NKBC understand that they are not exempt from pain and suffering

Why do believers have a tendency to think they should be exempt from suffering?

1A     Christians maintain an improper view of the balance of scripture

2A     Christians fixate on the tyranny of the urgent

3A     Christians misunderstand key scriptures

4A     Christians have a convoluted system of theology

5A     Christians have not reflected on the meaning of the cross

Disclaimer: Please Take Note of the Following

First - Thank you for taking your valuable time to read these sermons

Second - If you find any blessing or benefit, please leave a comment

Third - If you find a "whole" in my theology, please tell me so I can grow

Fourth - I "borrowed" the outline for this message from D. A. Carson from his book O Lord, How Long? The outline is his but the meat on the bones, the sermon is mine. However, I know that I have been influenced by Piper, Bridges, Carson, Yancy, Lewis, and others on this subject of suffering. I make no apologies for the influence that seeped into my heart from extensive reading and meditation. However, I want to give credit where credit is due. 

Even though he is unaware of it, thank you Brother Carson for this outline. I acknowledge that it is yours and not mine.

The Danger of Toleration

“What one generation tolerates, the next generation will embrace.” 

― John Wesley

Twin Falls to Kelso

Well, after a good night sleep we woke up early. We got ready, packed the car and pulled out of the motel before 4:00 AM headed for home. Normally I have enjoyed Idaho and Irene really likes the northern portion of the state. I was still apprehensive about some eager-beaver trooper pulling us over for having Washington license plates.

Fortunately nothing like that happened, praise God! We traveled a couple of hours in the dark and decided to go ahead and wait to eat and get gas in Ontario, OR. We hit Ontario around 6:00 AM and I was looking for an off ramp with food. I didn't see one and didn't realize we had blinked and past Ontario. No problem I thought, Baker City is just 71 miles ahead according to the sign. I had 1/4 tank of gas, should be enough, right?

The closer to Baker City we got the faster that needle moved. For the first time on any trip and especially this one I was getting worried. By now we are both hungry, I want a sausage biscuit and Irene wants hot water for her oatmeal and the car needs a major hit of fuel. Needless to say when I finally saw the Baker City exit I was both overjoyed and exhausted from anticipation.

We pulled in to a Chevron and told the guy to fill it up (you can't pump your own gas in OR.) We used the

friendly facilities and went back to colllect the receipt for the fuel. Well, I have a 15 gallon tank. The attendant added 13.5 gallons of gas. And that is without topping it off, the Oregon attendants do not "top off" or over fill. Wow! We had a gallon and a half of gas left. Too close for comfort, never again!

We found a Mickey D's where Irene got her hot water and I got my biscuit and coffee. We pulled out of Baker City much relieved, in more ways than one! :) Back on the interstate and pointed towards home.

The drive from Baker City to The Dalles (OR) is gorgeous. It is high desert. The sage brush was blooming along with the desert flowers. The sun was up and shinning bright. (We had a full tank of gas) It is desolate with just a few cities or towns in between. There's La Grande, Pendleton, Boardman, and then The Dalles. Yes, it is The Dalles, OR. At The Dalles we stopped for lunch and yes you guessed it fuel. At least that would be the last stop before home for both food or gas. Of course there were a few "rest stops" along the way.

The drive from The Dalles to Portland is beautiful. You find yourself winding along the way with the great Columbia River. But the drive seems intermnible. It goes on forever. All you want to do is hit Portland so you can jump on the I-205 cross the Columbia and head for home. I didn't think we would ever get to Portland. But we did!

We finally saw the wonderful beautiful sign that said Portland. We exited off of I-84 onto I-205 N and headed for home. We caught some rain. Naturally! This is the Pacific Northwest. We drove the final hour home and pulled in our driveway, Sunday afternoon around 4:00 PM. It was good to see the "Ye Ole" Tartan House Apartments.

We unloaded the few things that were in the trailer - Irene's tools that she had brought to "doll up" Sharon's house, my powerchair, and some snacks/drinks. I took the trailer back to UHaul and dropped it off to avoid further charges.

We hit the shower. I hit my recliner and we relaxed the rest of the evening thankful we weren't in a moving car. It was a great trip! WE had a blast. We would do it again and we both thought it was worth it!

Thank you for letting me share the trip with you!

Rawlins, WY to Twin Falls, ID

First of all, I am sorry this is late today. I was finishing Sunday's message yesterday and ran out of time. One of the things that I have learned from John Piper is that Pastor's must teach their people how to suffer. Many believers think that having become a Christian that they should be exempt from suffering. Most of us despise suffering, run from suffering, or at best hope/pray it never reaches our door.

Every preaching plan must include a purposeful plan to teach the church how to suffer for their own good and the glory of God. I have included this "topic" in my 5 year preaching plan. We have taken a small break from our study of 1 John recently. I have developed a couple of introductory messages on the subject of pain and suffering in the life of true believers.

Last Sunday we explored the idea from the standpoint of "Can You Trust God? We know that God can be trusted and we know that we are able and permitted to trust God. The question is can YOU trust Him? This coming Lord's day we will be looking at Five Reasons Believers Think They Should Be Exempt From Suffering.

Second, the leg from Rawlins to Twin Falls. I have to say this leg was uneventful. There is nothing to report. Thanks be to God the car ran great, we had no problems. It was fun to talk and laugh about various things including the trip and the visit.
Irene fell in love with north eastern Utah. She loved the mountains and the rock formations. She took a number of pics on her cell phone. I was shocked at how clear they looked on a cell phone, through a car window, and from a moving car at that. (Click on the pics to enlarge them)


We left Utah and entered Idaho. Once again I was a bit apprehensive about driving through that state. But we arrived at Twin Falls around 2:00 PM and had to wait until 2:45 for the room to be readied. We were an hour early. We had gotten an early start. We grabbed a subway sandwich for lunch and waited.

The room was gorgeous and very comfortable. We had a great afternoon of relaxing. Irene used the weight room. We went to bed early and got up early. We hit the road on the last leg for home about 4:00 AM.

Kelso, here we come!

York, NE to Rawlins, WY

Somebody get me out of this car, please! What a long, monotonous drive across Nebraska. It is just as desolate and long going west as it was going east. It is all cattle country. Having grown up in cattle country I have nothing against it. As a matter of fact I really love it. But 6 or so hours at one stretch makes the drive very long.

There was one event however that broke up the monotony. About 15 miles east of North Platte, Nebraska my check engine light came on. At first I was rattled. Here I was in the middle of no-wheres ville with an engine problem. Up until this point the car had run like a champ. Of course I thought it had a drinking problem. The car couldn't seem to pass many gas stations without needing a hit. But that is what I get for pulling a trailer.

I realized that on my Magellan, I had a column for AAA approved repair shops. I pressed the icon and Bud's Auto Repair came up and was only about 12 miles ahead. I programmed it into the trip and "Kate" led me to the repair shop.

At first the manager didn't want to take us. Here it was late Friday afternoon on a long weekend. He was slammed as  it was. He took pity and agreed to read the code in order to determine the problem. The code said it was an Oxygen sensor. I pleaded with him to fix it. He was nice. He didn't pull any mechanics off their jobs, he came off the desk, got the part, and changed it himself. An hour later we were back on the road.

The rest of the way home we had no problems with the car, other than dealing with its drinking problem. I can't be to hard on it. Under normal driving conditions on the highway I get around 30-33 MPG. Pulling the trailer we dropped to a low of 22 MPG (climbing the great divide to 8800 feet) and an average of 26-28 MPG. I like 33 better than 26. Don't you?

One thing I can comment on,we in the Pacific Northwest, are getting ripped off by the gas companies. The further east we went the cheaper gas got. I filled up here in Kelso at 3.97 the day before we left. I filled up in Streator, IL for 3.23. And I don't use cheap gas. When we got home gas was 3.99.

Well, we finally crossed into Wyoming. Once again I really love that state. It is so beautiful. The desert smells so good. There is nothing like the smell of sage brush in the desert. I would have like to have stopped in Cheyenne but it was way to early. We drove uneventfully into Rawlins.

We checked into the 1st Choice Inn. This motel was a little rough on the outside. Wasn't quite like its pictures online. Inside it was OK. It was clean but older and a little worn. But the bed was comfortable and the room was large. However, it had a side walk that ran all the way around the building. There was no ramp or path for a wheel chair to gain access to the sidewalk. I had to run my power chair up onto the sidewalk. The doors had a large threshold that I had to get the chair over. It was not wheel-chair friendly.

We checked in, unpacked a couple of things. While Irene was in the shower I ordered a pizza from
Domino's. They delivered about 25 minutes later and we had dinner for the night without even going out. First time I have ever ordered a pizza to a motel room.







We went to bed very early. Which meant we got up at 3:00 AM. So we showered, dressed, packed the car and loaded up. I plugged in the next address into the Magellan, turned the swoop light on and we pulled out of the driveway at 3:45 AM. Next stop - Twin Falls, Idaho!