A-ha!

A few years back, I got an idea… I vowed, whatever next potluck holiday gathering I’m invited to (whether family, friends, or otherwise) I was going to resurrect one of those bizarre 1950’s unflavored gelatin salad recipes and bring that as my contribution. A notorious one is the classic liver-sausage shaped like a pineapple. The recipe calls for 1 pound liver sausage, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce, 1 1/4 cup mayonnaise, 2 teaspoons unflavored gelatin, Sliced stuffed olives, and a Pineapple top.

…I didn’t do it, guys! Don’t worry. (…but consider yourself warned)

It’s hard to imagine that at some point in history, Americans used an ungodly amount of unflavored gelatin, mayo, fish, veggies, fruit, and liver sausage in one dish, but they did. To be honest, gross food aside, the 1950s is one of my favorite periods in American history… mostly because of the music and cars.

Hmmm…

All of this got me to thinking about the marriage supper of the Lamb in Revelation 19. We are talking about a feast hosted by the Savior and attended by all believers of all time. It made me wonder if we’re very good at the idea of celebrating. I looked online for a suitable artist depiction but, let me tell you, they all seem odd. Some show everyone dressed like we’re from first-century Nazareth. Really? Others depict some sort of mid-1800’s formal English dinner with fine China with brass chafing dishes. No thanks. Maybe it’ll be like a 21st century Wisconsin potluck? All I can say is, I hope not. Spoiler alert, it will be way beyond our imagination and we won’t be concerned with the look and feel, but the Host!

Huh?

“So, what are you doing for the holidays?” That’s a big question this year with all the restrictions. Isn’t it funny how many of our families seem to be tossing out all pandemic concerns for the sake of the holidays? Especially now with the highest numbers recorded since March. “What?! We can’t skip Thanksgiving or Christmas! That’s just wrong!” Unfortunately, we cannot be together like in past years, but maybe it will make us appreciate it more.

Celebrating is good for us. God instilled a practice of celebration in the Israelites. It wasn’t “parties for the sake of parties” as we see in college house-parties. God provided times for people to pause their lives and celebrate His goodness. Weddings, seasonal feasts, etc. all helped Israel remember, reflect, and realize the goodness of God. Even psychologists agree that celebrating improves a person’s wellbeing. And doing so together with others helps us feel we’re connected. But with this pandemic, how can we do this?

First of all, ask yourself, is it the worst thing for us to skip the old holiday routine? It’s just for one year, guys. We’re such creatures of routine. Second, maybe you should get to the bottom of why you do the holidays as you do. Maybe you’re sincere… or maybe you do what you do because “my family would be pissed if I didn’t”. Third, how about applying some creativity? Are you single with one or more roommates, why not make this year a special year with your housemates? Are you married or have a family, maybe it’s time you all stay at home and make it a special celebration just with those of your household …and, in the spirit of the scriptures, make it a time of reflection on the goodness of God. And I mean celebrate! Do something out of the normal… special.

Ohhhh!

As we celebrate whatever way this year, we should reflect on the coming celebration-of-all-celebrations, the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. Try and imagine what you think it will be like. Let your imagination run for a bit. I picture a 1950s backyard cookout.

Revelation 19:6-9 “Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, ‘Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. 7 Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; 8 it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure’—for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. 9 And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.”

1980’s

When I was in high school, most cars and home stereos came equipped with a cassette player. The varied level of equipment-quality presented a level of risk. An investment of $10 in the latest album from your favorite band could be reduced to garbage if you put that tape in the wrong player. Back then it was known as “eating tapes”. You didn’t want to put cassettes in players that might eat tapes. It was not uncommon to find a cassette along the road with its entrails stretched into the weeds of the ditch. Everyone knew what happened to that tape when they saw it.

1990’s

Fast forward to the mid-’90s and attending church at JFB in Menomonie. Back then it was called Calvary Chapel. In those days there was a designated room with racks all around the walls containing sermon tape sets to teach you through whole books of the Bible. Periodically there would be at least one or more people in the church who would check out book after book after book. That person was “eating tapes” like they were going out of style. We would eat Chuck Tapes and Courson Tapes and Damien Tapes. It was not uncommon to shoot the breeze with others who were eating their way through a book of the Bible on tape. They would discuss the things they were learning… along with the funny things the pastors would say… like:

“Immanuel Velikovsky, in his book Worlds in Upheaval, said…”
“…people say Christianity is just a crutch… I don’t need a crutch! I need an ambulance! I need the Mayo Clinic!”
“…and I took him by the lapels and said, ‘If you ever look at my daughter again, I will hunt you down to the ends of the earth and kill you with my bare hands!'”
“…WHO! IS! YESHUA!?”
“O-ho-ho-ho-ho… The Pharisees were unfair, you see… and the Sadducees were sad, you see…”

2000’s

In the age of “information at your fingertips,” we seemed to have turned aside from the ability to feed ourselves. It’s very strange. I think about the work a man like Charles Spurgeon had to put into personal bible study. I am sure he had his own little library of commentaries and resources but he also had to physically get up and stroll down to the local university or library to continue his research. Funny enough, today “there’s an app for that”. Yet with thousands of resources (more than Spurgeon had) at our disposal via computers and phones, we do less research, less study… Is anyone hungry?

Now Serving 24/7

If you make your way to the SERMONS link in the menu above, you will find a link in the drop-down menu called SERMON ARCHIVES. When you click there, you will be taken to a page that offers 2 blue buttons. One takes you to JFBelievers teaching archives and the other takes you to sermons by other teachers. In this link, you will find we have reorganized the files inside to wrangle together all of the verse-by-verse teachings in one place, sorted by the name of the teacher.

This folder requires a username and password to enter. If you want access, just send us an email: office@jfbelievers.com and we will give you access.

It’s time to eat!

By Pastor Tim Dodson

For those of you that are Covenant Members here at Believers Church, you probably know firsthand about the blessings as well as the burden of committing to a Christ-modeled-love for your brethren. It doesn’t take long to experience both the joy and the pain, both the relief and the weight of that commitment. This is the scriptural Christ-modeled-living within the dynamic of the church which scripture tells us in the “bride of Christ.” Certainly, there is a measure of safety within the church family, for therein the biblical community rules are adhered to, and the dynamics of honesty, transparency, and communion are ‘front and center’ to prevent the behaviors and interactions that are so readily found in the world…things done in back alleys and in the shadows. By practicing that honesty and openness we seek to embrace the warning and truth of Luke 12:3:  “Therefore whatever you have spoken in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have spoken in the ear in inner rooms will be proclaimed on the housetops.”

However, we understand that many people do not want their secrets to “go public” and thus will stay out of the Covenant Community and that there will be others within the community who will make a break for it when their sins are on the verge of “going public.” The history of the church as well as this church specifically is full of “runners.”  John 3:19-21 “And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants.”

In the Covenant Agreement that is signed with the church body and witnessed by God Himself is the following clause:

 “I will make an appointment with two or more church elders and my service position leader(s) prior to departure (from my Covenant Relationship). I understand that emails, texts, or phone calls are not sufficient to fulfill such. I also herein acknowledge the magnitude of this commitment…that it is a promise before this church body and God Himself so that if I should break this covenant in any unrighteous manner I would, therefore, stand in sin against God and my brothers and sisters in this church. Our hope upon departure will be that you seek another church with which you can carry out your biblical responsibilities as a believer.”

Why would such a practice be promised and required?

In the day in which we live, the absence of truth, integrity and faithfulness is starkly absent in the secular world. Lying is so rampant that it is today simply an acceptable social dynamic. But such should not be…must not be so in the church of God. We are called to “be holy, as Christ is holy.” And in the “Things that God Hates” list of Proverbs 6 we clearly find the lowly and quiet practice of lying.

When someone decides to leave the Covenant Community it invariably means they are leaving the church. Now that situation of course would elicit all sorts of questions within those who remain, the greatest of those being… “where does that leave me then in my standing with this individual?” Yes indeed, and that is why the clause was established! You see, we want to continue to have a brother/sister relationship with people whether they go to this church or not. But unless there is honest dialogue and Christ-centered accounting of our lives, how will we know the truth concerning that individual? Certainly, the Bible is full of warnings concerning attempted relationships with people who say they are Christian but are in fact not. So, as a member of the church who is remaining, how do I know where I stand with this person?

Because of this ambiguity, we applied 1 John 3:10 to our Covenant Agreement:   “So now we can tell who are children of God and who are children of the devil. Anyone who does not live righteously and does not love other believers does not belong to God.” Because we know that lying is a sin…a “not-living-righteously”…and loving other believers naturally requires truth and faithfulness, we simply promise to be accountable to our actions and to not act “in the dark.”  If someone refuses to come in and fulfill the promise of accountability and truth, we can easily then see that they are not living righteously…and not loving their brothers. For to not do so is simply lying, and I cannot lie to a brother and honestly BE his brother! Furthermore, the “icing” in this is the purposeful and continual stance on that matter. Meaning they did not just “make a momentary mistake” but are rather holding onto that sin indefinitely. Thus remaining in the practice of sin they prove that they are not of God at all. Therefore “not of God” …then easily “not a brother,” but rather a false confession and a deceitful individual. And not someone I can continue to have a relationship with according to scripture. 

It used to be quite hard to ascertain where we were stood with such individuals and often their deceit caused even greater pain and anguish later. This was a problem until we presented the opportunity for these individuals to prove their righteousness as well as the opportunity for them to effectively “hang themselves.” This we deserve and are righteous in asking. Both the Bible and the Covenant agreement provides for such! No passive judgment call then has to be made on our part, but rather we simply adhere to the manifest that they present.

While such situations are always uncomfortable and often even painful. This is what we are called to when it comes to the care of and the participation in our church community. We are the “bride of Christ.”  We must always remember that God expects the church to be kept pure. The apostle Paul said, “That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing: but that it should be holy and without blemish.” (Eph. 5:27)

Back in March…

…COVID-19 became a new term in our vocabulary globally… and personally, my daily devotions had me deep in Daniel and Revelation. Adding to the unsettling concern inside, my social media news-feed followed all the major news networks exposing my eyes to compounding news reports on the current circumstances. It was a rough patch to say the least. I began to feel insecure about what was happening in the world and my devotions only seemed to amplify the awful feeling ramping up. As Becky and I were talking one evening about all this, I came to a clarity that I needed to disconnect some of my news intake and bump the record player in my devotions and go someplace fresh for at least part of my reading. I pressed the eject button on Revelation and turned my New Testament reading to Matthew.

Red Letters

A lot of the Bibles I own are what are known as “red-letter” bibles. On one of these troubling days I was listening to the radio and a David Crowder song came on called “Red Letters”. I’ve heard this song a hundred times but, like many of the songs on this station, I paid little attention to the words or the meanings of the songs… until this day. This song got me thinking about the red letters in the scriptures. They are words that were actually spoken by Jesus. It seemed to really hit me just how significant that is. Jesus opened his mouth, moved his lips, air passed his vocal cords to form the very words written in red letters in the bible.

Now, theology and bible literacy both confirm God spoke through the writers of the bible and His voice is behind the written text of scripture to a level unparalleled anywhere else in the world. But the red letters made me think about all the times people in biblical history heard the very voice of God. Moses always comes to mind for me first… glowing face. Then I think about Peter when he suggested the construction of three tabernacles; one for Moses, one for Elijah, and one for Jesus… I remember what it was like when I first heard God speak… “Who was with you when you were dying?” Most of those who found themselves before the unmistakable Voice, fell immediately to their knees.

Consider the red letters. As I jumped in my devotions to Matthew, I found the red letters extremely significant. Jesus is speaking… the Voice is presenting truth, comfort, peace…

Matthew 6:25-34

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. 34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”

The quelling of anxiety comes with instruction on how to not be troubled. Spoiler alert, it’s not in your power to obtain… it’s “added unto you” by the One we seek.

-=Pastor Tom

“Where does your security lie? Is God your refuge, your hiding place, your stronghold, your shepherd, your counselor, your friend, your redeemer, your saviour, your guide? If He is, you don’t need to search any further for security.” – Elisabeth Elliot