An Urgent Plea

"The aim and final end of all music should be none other than the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul." —J. S. Bach (1685-1750)

How about it Antioch, is our music bringing glory to God? Is our singing and worship through song refreshing our souls? I'll let you guys answer that. But, I know that we can and should be doing better. Hey, why not you join the choir? What is stopping you? You will never what a difference a big bellowing choir will make for our church, unless we have one. So, give up some time and come our sing. Remember Martin Luther (1483-1546) "Next to the Word of God, music deserves the highest praise." By the way Bach and Luther were both Lutheran's, so us Baptist ought to able to make that happen! So let's make it happen! Sing, please, please sing!

Warming my vocal chords up for Sunday now, Pastor Phillip

Check This Out

Here is a great resource about that answers some of the questions people have about creation, age of the earth, and about the book of Genesis. Mark Driscoll is the writer, he is very humorous and very sound in his theology. Give it a read. You can check it out here. Answers to Common Questions About Creation

Book Of The Week III

I have been immersed in the book of Genesis all week in preparing for Sunday Morning. I have been reading a ton, but most sermon prep reading is sections of commentaries that explain just one portion of Scripture. But, this week I became immersed in a little book by the name of "How To Read Genesis." I almost did not buy the book, because I thought “I know how to read the Bible,” right? But, this book is not a commentary, but a guide to get your mind in the right mindset as you read the book of Genesis.

Now, I had some disagreements with some of the points of the author Tremper Longman III, but he offers great insight. He shows interpretative errors that people are prone to make (treating Genesis though modern scientific paradigms), and thoughts to keep in your mind as you read. Most important of these is the cultural background of the book of Genesis, which includes the other pagan religious creation stories of that day from Babylon, Egypt and Mesopotamia. He says you have to keep in mind constantly the message to the original hearers the Israelites who just been freed from slavery and now are wondering 40 years in the desert. Genesis would establish their beginnings and their understanding of the foundations of the entire world. It also shows the book of Genesis pointing us to Jesus. As my OT prof would tell us in seminary “If a Jewish Rabbi could preach your sermon, you have done something wrong.” The New Testament and Jesus tell us all scripture points to Him. It also offers small sections of commentary to aid in understanding large blocks of scripture. I have found it very valuable and will turn back to it through out our study.

I hope you are excited Sunday Morning at Antioch! Pastor Phillip

Common Humanity...

I have been studying Genesis chapter 1 this week and have been looking at the common brotherhood and sisterhood of all humanity going back to Adam & Eve. The Bible also says that all people are made in the image of God. Now, the phrase "Image if God" means that all people share in some "God-Like" qualities such as having a mind, a will, an intellect, emotions, communicating with others, and maintaining meaningful relationships. Now, sin distorts and corrupts this image, but we do not lose it. So, who did God make in that image? Everyone. Who does God desires meaningful loving relationships with? Everyone. So then we have to use our God-like qualities to seek to develop relationship with all colors, creeds, and kinds of people. There is no place for racism in the life of anyone made in the image of God (all people) and certainly not for Christians who have bent there knee to Jesus as Lord and Savior. The story below is both sad for the hating klansmen and yet hopeful for the New Beginnings Missionary Baptist Church.

Black Church Sues to Close 'Redneck Shop' That Sells KKK Merchandise

Tuesday , September 02, 2008. AP

Laurens, S.C. —
A black South Carolina pastor and his church claim they own the building that houses a so-called Klan museum and store where KKK robes and T-shirts emblazoned with racial slurs are sold, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday.

The Rev. David Kennedy said the property was transferred in 1997 to his Laurens County church by a Klansman who was fighting with others inside the hate group. A clause in the deed entitles John Howard, a man who runs the store, to operate his business in the building until he dies.

Kennedy said he'd like to close the store, but at the very least should be allowed to inspect the property.

"We've been outright denied," said Kennedy, pastor of New Beginnings Baptist Church. "Right now what we're focusing on is removing this cloud of doubt and this whole lie that we are not the real owners of the Redneck Shop building."

The lawsuit seeks to establish Kennedy's church as the legal owner of the property and stop Howard and associates from claiming to hold the deed.

According to the lawsuit, Howard and his associates have filed several court documents since the property was given to Kennedy's church that attempt to transfer the deed between various Klan-related owners, ignoring the church's claim.

"We think the actions they did were willful," said Kennedy's attorney Rauch Wise.

Howard, who calls himself a former Ku Klux Klan grand dragon for South Carolina and North Carolina, said Tuesday he hadn't heard of the lawsuit and hang up the phone on an AP reporter.

The Redneck Shop has been the target of protests and attacks since it began operating in an old movie theater in 1996. A few days after it opened, a Columbia man crashed his van through the front windows of store and was charged with malicious damage to property. High profile black activists have staged several protests outside the Redneck Shop.

Inside the store, hooded Klan robes hang on the same rack as racist T-shirts. Pamphlets and pictures of burning crosses and of men, women and children in Klan clothing tell a partial history of the organization.

Kennedy has led protests outside the store since it opened but said he's never been able to close it because of the agreement that Howard can run the shop for life.

He hopes the building will one day be the home for his New Beginnings Missionary Baptist Church, which now meets in a doublewide trailer.

"Martin Luther King said this: 'The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice,"' Kennedy said. "It's going to be a good day to see them in court."

Let us seek to always practice Colossians 3:12-14 Therefore, God's chosen ones, holy and loved, put on heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, (13) accepting one another and forgiving one another if anyone has a complaint against another. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so also you must forgive. (14) Above all, put on love--the perfect bond of unity.

Pastor Phillip

How Do You View Life?

I have made it clear that abortion is one of the major issues of the election for me. Now, some would say I am a single-issue voter, fine, I'll wear that label. Not completely true, I love economics, I love all areas of the political spectrum, but murdering the unborn is far more important that the amount of taxes I have to pay.

So, when John McCain named Sarah Palin as his running mate it excited me. She is strongly pro-life. She is a woman who showed her principals in giving birth to a child with downs syndrome. I was amazed to learn that 90% of the babies who through amniocentesis are determined to have down syndrome are aborted. Sadly a vast majority of early screen positives are false. Since false positives typically prompt an amniocentesis to confirm the result, and the amniocentesis carries a small risk of inducing miscarriage, there is a slight risk of miscarrying a healthy fetus. So the goal of a prefect child is resulting in the deaths of thousands of God's great creations, sad. So, I commend Palin on allowing God to give her this her this blessing.

Then this weekend it came out that Palin's 17 year old daughter is pregnant. The media was sure this would be a huge scandal, but this is life. We sin and we deal with the repercussions of our actions, right. This is how Sarah Palin saw things.

She said "We have been blessed with five wonderful children who we love with all our heart and mean everything to us. Our beautiful daughter Bristol came to us with news that as parents we knew would make her grow up faster than we had ever planned. We're proud of Bristol's decision to have her baby and even prouder to become grandparents. As Bristol faces the responsibilities of adulthood, she knows she has our unconditional love and support. "Bristol and the young man she will marry are going to realize very quickly the difficulties of raising a child, which is why they will have the love and support of our entire family. We ask the media to respect our daughter and Levi's privacy as has always been the tradition of children of candidates."

This is however not how Barack Obama views a pregnancy by a teenage girl. He said concerning his daughters’

"I've got two daughters. 9 years old and 6 years old. I am going to teach them first of all about values and morals. But if they make a mistake, I don't want them punished with a baby."

Punished with a baby, he wants to save his daughters being punished with a baby by murdering and punishing his own grandchild. Wow, what a kind man. I wish Obama would read

Psalms 139:13-16 For it was You who created my inward parts; You knit me together in my mother's womb. (14) I will praise You, because I have been remarkably and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful, and I know this very well. (15) My bones were not hidden from You when I was made in secret, when I was formed in the depths of the earth. (16) Your eyes saw me when I was formless; all my days were written in Your book and planned before a single one of them began.

Imagine the pain God feels watching his creations reckless killed.All I am saying, I respect Palin and her family for living out their strong pro-life convictions. A lesser candidate or politician or person would have “saved” him or herself and his daughters from the "punishment" of a child. Sarah and her family know that Psalms 127:3 says "Children are a gift from the LORD; they are a reward from him." May God be with Sarah's daughter and the "reward" and not the "punishment" she has coming her way. My hat is off to Sarah Palin and her family and we need to let the family have their privacy and be in prayer for them.

Praying For Our Nation, Pastor Phillip

Questions About Creation

Hey, let me know if you have any questions about dinosaurs, unicorns, fossils, Genesis, Adam and Eve and I will do my best to try and answer them. Just post your question under comments and we will see what we all can learn.

Getting Ready For Genesis: Anthropic Principal

I am getting excited about Sunday. I will be be preaching Genesis 1. In preparation I have been studying some very interesting, but slightly controversial material concerning the age of the earth, the week of creation, and how God did what He did in Genesis 1. Christians hold to wide range of divergent views and we must maintain a humility and realize that we are not God, we are finite probing the infinite, we are weak and frail probing the omnipotent, we sinful probing the holy. But, I think we can learn a lot from Genesis 1 and I am excited about that.

Here are some interesting facts from science that are referred to as the Anthropic Principal. This the notion that our world is amazingly finely tuned and the exactness and precession of seems to leave out blind chance and at least calls for a cosmic mind or deity to have out it into motion.
(Warning some serious science content is below, Sunday Morning's sermon will be more fun that this I promise. These come from Dr. Norman Geisler)

1. Oxygen comprises 21 percent of the atmosphere. If it were 25 percent, fires would erupt, if 15 percent, human beings would suffocate.

2. If the gravitational force were altered by 1 part in 1040 (that’s 10 followed by forty zeroes), the sun would not exist, and the moon would crash into the earth or sheer off into space.² Even a slight increase in the force of gravity would result in all the stars being much more massive than our sun, with the effect that the sun would burn too rapidly and erratically to sustain life.

3. If the centrifugal force of planetary movements did not precisely balance the gravitational forces, nothing could be held in orbit around the sun.

4. If the universe was expanding at a rate one millionth more slowly than it is, the temperature on earth would be 10,000 degrees C.³

5. The average distance between stars in our galaxy of 100 billion stars is 30 trillion miles. If that distance was altered slightly, orbits would become erratic, and there would be extreme temperature variations on earth. (Traveling at space shuttle speed, seventeen thousand miles an hour or five miles a second, it would take 201,450 years to travel 30 trillion miles.)

6. Any of the laws of physics can be described as a function of the velocity of light (now defined to be 299,792.458 miles a second). Even a slight variation in the speed of light would alter the other constants and preclude the possibility of life on earth.⁴

7. If Jupiter was not in its current orbit, we would be bombarded with space material. Jupiter’s gravitational field acts as a cosmic vacuum cleaner, attracting asteroids and comets that would otherwise strike earth.⁵

8. If the thickness of the earth’s crust was greater, too much oxygen would be transferred to the crust to support life. If it were thinner, volcanic and tectonic activity would make life untenable.⁶

9. If the rotation of the earth took longer than 24 hours, temperature differences would be too great between night and day. If the rotation period was shorter, atmospheric wind velocities would be too great.

10. Surface temperature differences would be too great if the axial tilt of the earth were altered slightly.

11. If the atmospheric discharge (lightning) rate were greater, there would be too much fire destruction; if it were less, there would be too little nitrogen fixing in the soil.

12. If there were more seismic activity, much life would be lost. If there was less, nutrients on the ocean floors and in river runoff would not be cycled back to the continents through tectonic uplift. Even earthquakes are necessary to sustain life as we know it.

As we study this week let us remember the wisdom of Psalm 19:-1-8

1 The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the sky proclaims the work of His hands.

2 Day after day they pour out speech;
night after night they communicate knowledge.

3 There is no speech; there are no words;
their voice is not heard.

4 Their message has gone out to all the earth,
and their words to the ends of the inhabited world.
In the heavens He has pitched a tent for the sun.

5 It is like a groom coming from the bridal chamber;
it rejoices like an athlete running a course.

6 It rises from one end of the heavens
and circles to their other end;
nothing is hidden from its heat.

7 The instruction of the LORD is perfect,
reviving the soul;
the testimony of the LORD is trustworthy,
making the inexperienced wise.

8 The precepts of the LORD are right,
making the heart glad;
the commandment of the LORD is radiant,
making the eyes light up.

Thinking hard and enjoying every minute, Pastor Phillip

Talk Is Cheap

For the kingdom of God is not in talk but in power.
1 Corinthians 4:20

I am pretty full of hot air, I can talk and talk, part of that comes with being a preacher, the other part from my mom, you should hear her go. I also talk very loud, don't no why, I have good hearing. But what is talk worth well, Rush Limbaugh just singed a 400 million dollar contract. That might be a little overboard. But, talk honestly it is worth very little. We get very good at church talk, "Praise the Lord," "I can't make it without God," "Power in prayer," but very few of us do these things consistently. We talk or as A.W. Tozer says "Christians don't tell lies they just go to church and sing them." Tozer says this to note how we sing, but don't the words have their impact in our life.

You see, we need more power, more action, more involvement, less complaining, less verbal patting ourselves on the back, less bickering, more action (politicians would do well to remember this). Jesus gave short parables and sermons, but He was long on action. He showed His love on a cross. How can we show our love to God, church, and others? What lies have been singing? Not living in amazing grace, not trusting and obeying, not going in the highways and hedges, not deciding to follow Jesus?

Shutting my mouth and getting to work. Pastor Phillip

Religion Clause: A First Look At Sarah Palin's Religious and Church-State Views

Curious about McCain's new VP's relegious views. Then check this article out Religion Clause: A First Look At Sarah Palin's Religious and Church-State Views

I am imprssed so far in all that I have read about her. Her selection certiantly makes things interesting.

Pastor Phillip

Book Of The Week

I read Crazy Love by Francis Chan this week. It is a good book in ithe says his goal “is written for those who want more Jesus. It is for those who are bored with what American Christianity offers. It is for those who don’t want to plateau, who would rather die before their convictions do.” He spends the first three chapters of the book examining our understanding the character and relational aspects of God. The next seven are devoted to fleshing out a relationship with God. He achieves the by causing the reader to spend time in uncomfortable realizations at how anemic the Christianity we practice is and how much Jesus calls us to.

I found the basis of this weeks sermon (Rev 3:14-22) on one of the themes he addressed in the book. He said “a lukewarm Christian is an oxymoron; there’s no such thing. To put it plainly, churchgoers who are ‘lukewarm’ are not Christians. We will not see them in heaven.” I am not completely certain of the statement, but I don't want to test it, so the solution is to give all to God.

He then calls for us to put faith into practice. He says that we order our live so that we don't need God. Sure God is nice, but we have a back up plan if our plan does not go through. He argues that “God doesn’t call us to be comfortable. He calls us to trust Him so completely that we are unafraid to put ourselves in situations where we will be in trouble if He doesn’t come through.” I know in my life, I love the secure and frankly get afraid of putting myself in those positions. How about you?

I will make one critique, he addresses our need to serve the poor around us. This is good and Jesus did identify with them, but the Biblical poor are different that the poor we find today in our society. Not to jettison our responsibility to help, but some of the equations he makes are a little weak. I do agree that helping the poor is as much about us growing in obedience in faith and lessening our love material things as it is helping the person in need.

But, Crazy Love is overall a very challenging, but easy reading book. Pastor Kyle says that Chan is an amazing preacher and that you can get his sermons for free offline. This book offers a message that Christians desperately need to hear. As another reviewer of this book said "Too many of us are living too safely and too easily. But for the brief moments we spend at church each week, we are practically indistinguishable from the unbelievers around us. This is not the way it is meant to be."

Put yourself in positions to step out in faith, Pastor Phillip

Being Used

Here is a great devotion on being used of God and being used by others. It is very much worth a read and consideration. It is here at World Magazine Blog.

What Really Matters...

I am reading a really challenging book by Francis Chan called Crazy Love (not a book about romance in an insane asylum, or an ex-girlfriend of mine). Very good so far, it reads easy and raises big questions and he has so far not offered easy or trite answers and wants the reader to wrestle things out. This is nice, as most Christian books tend to tell you what to think, feel, or how to act. It makes you feel uncomfortable sometimes as he simply shows God's word, expectations, demands, and our often lack of apparent concern for it. The only criticism is that he paints in broad strokes and could offer more information on some of the provoking topics he elucidates. But, enough of that, the book is great and you would do well to devote some serious and reflective reading of it.

Man, there was this quote from some guy named Tim Kizziar who said

“Our greatest fear as individuals and as a church should not be of failure, but of succeeding at the things in life that don’t really matter.”

This means we find success, but our success does not matter. No one cares, it makes no real impact on anything. We look good and we enjoy it, it provides focus for life, but we racing towards a wrong goal (read about Ray Wrong-Way Riegles). Parents want to be best friends with kids, but offer no leadership or discipline. Churches want to grow and water-down the message and lower expectations. People want to make a good living, but work so hard they fail to enjoy the fruit of their labor. You can just going on here.

I asked myself what was I successful at in my life that did not matter to eternity. I though about Antioch Baptist Church, where I pastor, we by most accounts are a fairly successful church, but is our success and is goal that of God? These are big questions? I can't answer them all right now, but I want each of us to pray and think about in our own live and in the life of our church: what are our goals, do we have them, where are they taking us, and do they truly matter.

Asking Everyone To Pray For The Direction and The Goals Of Antioch Baptist Church, Pastor Phillip

Quit Reading My Blog!

Hey, as election season continues to heat up, I will become a little more political in some of my posts. But, this will only be about one issue: Abortion. I can't fathom how our country allows children to be killed in the name of a woman's right or a right to privacy. So, I encourage you to check out this out Pro-Life Blogs. It is from a Catholic religious perspective, while I have some differences with my Catholic brothers, I applaud them for thier staunch support of life. This site keeps up with both candidates positions and news about abortion in our country. So keep up, election 2008 matters.

Pastor Phillip

Cason Beach Pictures

I just got this new wireless broadband card and it rocks! So here is a link to some pictures you can check out. Here is Cason this summer enjoying the beach!

African-American Genocide: Who Abortion Kills The Most...

One of my favorite magazines is World Magazine. It covers all areas of news from a clear cut Christian perspective. I am going to recommend you read two well written articles from World Magazine concerning abortion.( Black Genocide and Abotion By Race) I was appalled when presidential candidate Barack Obama was asked by Rick Warren when life begin last week. Obama replied that "that is above my pay grade." Barack is one of the most pro-choice and anti-life senators in the US Senate (Read The Article to see how cold blooded he is). He even went so far as to refuse to protect babies who survived late-term abortions because he did not want to concede as he explained in a cold-blooded speech on the Illinois Senate floor -- that these babies, fully outside their mothers' wombs, with their hearts beating and lungs heaving, were in fact "persons.""Persons," of course, are guaranteed equal protection of the law under the 14th Amendment. I find this odd, that he and many African-Americans are so staunchly democratic and support the anti-life agenda of that party. So, look at these numbers on who abortion truly affect the most!

• If someone wiped out the entire African-American population in Oakland, Atlanta, and Washington, D.C., the number still wouldn't equal the number of black babies lost to abortion in one year: 683,294.
  
• According to the Allan Guttmacher Institute, African-American women are nearly five times more likely than non-Hispanic white women to have an abortion.
  
• According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, almost one in every two African-American pregnancies ends in abortion.
• Black women account for 6 percent of the population, but 56 percent of abortions.
  
• Blacks and Hispanics together account for 88 percent of abortions
• American history books frequently mention the lynching of African-Americans; one count from 1882 to the 1960s records 3,445 blacks dying that way.
  
• Other facts, though, go generally unrecorded: Since 1973 the number of aborted African-American babies totals 12 million, and every day in the United States some 1,500 die through abortion.
• The abortion industry began with a focus on African-Americans in 1939 with Margaret Sanger’s involvement with the Negro Project. Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, supported the project’s mission of promoting sterilization and birth control among African-Americans because she believed that “the procreation of this group should be stopped.”
• Sanger believed in to embrace eugenics, the pseudo-science that seeks to improve races through the control of hereditary factors by eliminating bad genes from reproductive populations. Sanger wanted to help the African-American community by ridding society of “increasing numbers of defectives, delinquents, and dependents.

Praying For Our Nation & An End To Wholesale Slaughter Of Children, Pastor Phillip