This seems to have become a weekend activity… At any rate, I trust this finds each of you well.


The speed at which this year is progressing is remarkable. It occurred to me this week that we have but a scant three months until the Christmas season is upon us.
With that said, I would hardly be a music minister of note were I not thinking ahead to Easter. Since, however, I am apparently not among that populace, I have begun to think of Christmas!


Last year at about this time, I heard a song by David Phelps, "Love Goes On", which inspired a script by the same name. It was a four-act musical story of two brothers, one of whom was a successful secular musician, and the other a missionary upon whom tragedy had befallen.
"Love Goes On" was well received by our congregation and visitors, and although there were no measurable decisions, my prayers for successful sowing of the seed of the Word were, indeed answered.


This year, I have had a similar inspiration from the new Casting Crowns album, Lifesong. (By the way, if you want to check out this album, or any other I mention, for yourself, you can simply use the first link on the left side of this page) The song is titled "While You Were Sleeping". Mark Hall had originally intended to remake "O Little Town of Bethlehem", but realized as he studied the song the tragedy that most of the residents of Bethlehem had slept through the advent of their Messiah!
He wrote the song with that thought in mind, which then expands on Jerusalem’s similar response to the death of their King, and closes with a challenge to America to not make the same mistake with Yeshua’s return. It is a striking song, and I hope to do justice to the challenge with a script.
Thus far, I have written only the plot and scene summaries, and fear that my ideas may overreach our ministry’s resources. I cherish your prayers for wisdom and clarity of thought as I undertake this project.


It is a timely message, is it not? My heart breaks, as I look at our society and the American church in particular. We have so "majored on the minors"; we have painstakingly hammered out our congregational credos and doctrinal statements, carefully spelling out exclusions and boundaries. Self-righteously pleased with the holiness of our ministers and laity, we go through the motions of "church as usual", only dimly wondering why attendance is diminishing?

While more "churches" spring into existence, more and more lost are dying around us. It brings to mind a story that Ravi Zacharias relates in his book Deliver Us From Evil about a village that is bought in its entirety by a wealthy man. There is but one lone dissenter, who makes a point of interrupting every visitor that the wealthy man brings in to shout, "Don’t let him tell you that he owns ALL of this village – he doesn’t own MY house!"

Ravi makes the poignant application to the American church; while the enemy of our souls claims more and more of our cities, we vainly stand at the door of our churches and shout hallelujahs and praises to our personally distant G-d that the devil hasn’t claimed OUR property.


Or has he? Is it not tragically ironic that while we have excluded blatantly unregenerate individuals from our assemblies (the very ones that we are commanded to "compel to come IN"), we have haphazardly allowed in all manner of ungodly and heretical teachers and unscriptural "doctrines"?

From the mournful allowance of cessationism (the Holy Spirit worked differently for the apostles, although that completely insults and violates the nature of YHWH) to the drivel of prosperity-based teaching, the American church is inundated with spiritual pabulum and outright poison. Oh, there is no shortage of anything -- but the souls that are so precious to our Father.

As goes the church, so goes the nation, beloved. Lest we cluck our tongues at the reprobate nature of our society, let us first turn a critical eye within our own walls. Let us first cleanse the temple, then invite the Spirit in to revive our callused spirits; then and only then can we expect to be the "Bride without spot or wrinkle" for whom our Beloved Bridegroom will return.

That is one comfort that we can draw from the response to Katrina. I don’t know this for a fact, but I can surmise that among the Body of Christ working together to minister to the destitute and homeless victims of the Gulf region, there is an undeclared cease-fire to the bickering that is normally so prevalent throughout American church congregations nowadays. I imagine that not a single comment has been harbored about whether the other assemblies helping use drums, or hold Sunday night services, or allow women to speak, or if everyone dresses a certain way.

Are these issues relevant? Perhaps in the right setting, but they are usually hindrances to the REAL purpose of the Body…the Gospel. Let us focus on the important matters, and the other issues will pale in their significance.

Has your humble writer succumbed to the spirit of ecumenicalism? Not to the point of embracing heresy, but time is short, and I think it far past time that Christians work together, as long as they share common missions under the precious blood of our common LORD Yeshua HaMashiyach. Let us ever guard against the doctrines of devils (of which Peter spoke), but then let us not quibble over the preferences that divide us (as Paul commended us).


I hadn’t originally set out to write on this particular topic, but my mind has lately been upon the admonition of Christ in Luke 17:32 to "remember Lot’s wife" .
How strange for Him to challenge us to remember a woman whose name we don’t even know! His point, then, must have been to draw our attention to her attitude. She simply could not let go of that old life, even as it turned to ashes before her stone cold eyes.

I see an application to a church full of members who crave and can stomach only spiritual milk, and who want only a church setting that lends itself to comfort. No room for repentance, no sense for sanctification, no defense of dedication. No mention of the blood, no talk of the sacrifice of the cross, no time for doctrine.

To quote the apostle Paul, "brethren, these things ought not to be." How dare we presume to supposedly come to Christ merely for "fire insurance", yet willfully neglect the task of dying to ourselves, taking up our cross, and following Him??
Have we not become the Pharisees, against whom Christ railed (Matthew 23) for their religion of routine, yet ignoring the weightier matters of judgment, mercy and faith?
Is it any wonder that the American church cannot reach the lost while we either exclude them from our religious club until they become outwardly righteous like us, OR so become like them that they see no need to come to Christ because they see no difference between them and us?


Brethren, let us forsake the things which are behind and reach forth unto those things which are before, pressing for the prize of the high calling of G-d which is in Christ Jesus. May His Spirit strengthen us to lay aside those weights and sins which so easily beset us and run with patience the race that is set before us.
Looking where? To Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who was tempted in every point as we are, yet was without sin. He is now on the right hand of His Father’s throne, but soon to return to rule and reign with His saints from the throne of David in His holy city of Jerusalem.

Even so, come quickly Lord Jesus; may You still find faith upon the earth, as Your children still strive to seek and to save the ones in the uttermost parts of the earth who are out of the fold, away from the ninety and nine.


Have a blessed weekend, loved ones.