Ride the Tide
By Larry d. Wright

The Bible talks about a number of doors, often with very different meanings. For instance, in Revelation 3:20 Jesus said, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.” This is the door of intimacy with Christ. Don’t miss that door!

The Scripture also mentions the door of opportunity. For instance, Paul said, “…and pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains.” (Colossians 4:3) The door of opportunity is mentioned a number of times in scripture, and it refers to the way that God gives wonderful openings for the gospel message to be shared. Our awesome God has limitedness ways in which He opens doors of opportunity for His children to walk through so that they fulfill their passion and accomplish His purpose. Don’t miss that door!

In the days before modern harbors, a ship had to wait for the flood tide before it could make it safely into port. The term for this situation in Latin was ob portu, that is, a ship standing off a port, waiting for the moment when it could ride the turn of the tide into the harbor.

The English word opportunity is derived from this original meaning. The captain and the crew were ready and waiting for that one moment for they knew that if they missed it, they would have to wait for another tide to come in. Shakespeare used this background of the exact meaning of opportunity into one of his most famous passages from Julius Caesar, Act 4, Scene 3:

“There is a tide in the affairs of men,Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their lifeIs bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat;
And we must take the current when it serves,Or lose our ventures.”

When a door opens in your life, ride the tide!

Concerning New Years Resolutions

Concerning New Year’s Resolutions
Larry d. Wright

Every January people make New Year’s resolutions with the most sincere intentions of keeping them. Statistics indicate that failure happens a lot more often than success. Resolutions generally rally around health issues like diet, exercise, stop smoking, etc. The problem with most New Years resolutions is that they are long on reason and short on resolve.

Allow me to take resolutions to a higher level. COMMIT YOURSELF TO FORGET YOUR FAILURES! Over 2000 years ago one the first Christian leaders, a man named Paul, gave this advice, “Forgetting what is behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on towards the goal for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:13-14) That advice from God’s Word has stood the test of time. I don’t know of any more relevant and practical advice than this; do not live your life imprisoned by your past. Commit yourself to forget your past failures. You cannot do this alone. You will need supernatural help so make the commitment, then ask for divine help.

MAKE A COMMITMENT TO GIVE UP YOUR GRUDGES. Again, Paul exhorts us, “Bear with each other and forgive each other whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you” (Colossians 3:13) If you think sticking to a diet is hard, try this one! A grudge is a deep ongoing resentment that is cultivated in the heart against someone else. A grudge is an unforgiving spirit that leads to unforgiving attitudes and unforgiving actions. Grudges are dangerous because they are destructive. They destroy marriages, break up families, ruin friendships, split and paralyze churches. One of the scandals of the modern day church is the grudges that Christians hold against one another. Before you tell God you can’t forgive, understand what you really mean when you say that is that you won’t forgive. If Christ can forgive you your sin despite it involving the pain of the cross then surely you can give up your grievance whatever the cost!

COMMIT YOURSELF TO RESTORE YOUR RELATIONSHIPS. Every time I turn on my computer a little windows pops up that asks if I want to run a check to see if my programs are all working properly. God’s Word issues a very similar invitation. It is the invitation to check whether our personal relationships are working properly. Here is how the Lord issues that challenge in Romans 12:18, “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.” COMMIT YOURSELF TO TURN YOUR BACK ON YOUR TRANSGRESSIONS. The message of the gospel is this, Christ died to set us free, the Holy Spirit has given us the power to be free, but we must choose to be His servant. “Do not let sin control the way you live, do not give in to its lustful desires … we are no longer slaves to sin.” (Romans 6:2)
Will this New Year be just a calendar changing event for you or are you willing to rise to these challenges from God’s word and make these commitments and so make it a life changing event?

Happy Birthdy America!

Happy Birthday America!
Adapted by Larry d. Wright

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA! You will be 232 years old on Friday! That’s a long time for a nation to remain free, but when you examine history, you’re just an infant among the nations. Nations like Egypt, China, Japan, Rome, or even Greece had much longer histories but they were not so free.HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA! You have a rich spiritual history that continues to influence the world today.

· My County, ‘Tis of Thee was written by a Baptist minister, Samuel Francis Smith.· The Pledge of Allegiance was written in 1892 by a Baptist minister, Francis Bellamy.· The words “In God We Trust” are traced to the efforts of Rev. W.R. Watkinson.

· Rev. John Witherspoon, a Presbyterian minister was a signer of the Declaration of Independence.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA! You’re entire history has spanned only 4 generations but your impact on the world is a testimony for the freedom of every person and an appeal for human rights! When Thomas Jefferson died, Abraham Lincoln was a young man of 17. When Lincoln was assassinated, Woodrow Wilson was a boy of 8. By the time the nation mourned the death of President Wilson, Ronald Reagan was a boy of 12.Even though you have a short history, God has richly blessed you. You are the richest nation in the world. Your natural resources are still the greatest of all nations but your wealth is not your lands and resources. It is your people.HAPPY

BIRTHDAY AMERICA! I pray that you have learned valuable lessons from your past successes and mistakes. American patriots shed their blood so you can walk into the future a much wiser nation.

· You began by breaking free from British shackles.· You survived a brutal civil war that nearly cost you your national soul.· You fought and won against two foreign enemies on soil not your own because you believed that fascism was evil. · You stood against Communist aggression in Korea and Viet Nam.· You have drawn a line in the sand against militant Islamic fascism that will stop short of nothing less than world domination.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA! You are a great nation with a great history. When you were very young, the famous French political philosopher, Alexis deToucqueville visited your shores to learn the secret which enabled a handful of people to defeat the mighty British Empire. He traveled across your vast land from shore to shore, looking for greatness in your harbors and rivers, your fertile fields and boundless forests. He studied your schools, your military, your Congress, your Constitution—but still he could not find the secret. It was not until he went into your churches and heard your pulpits “aflame with righteousness” that he found the answer. When he returned to Europe, he wrote this caveat: “America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.”

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA! Your greatness is a result of God’s goodness and your generosity in sharing His blessings. You have given untold millions in aid to the impoverished countries of the world. You have sent missionaries to the ends of the earth to feed hungry bodies and starving souls. When tragedy or disaster strikes, you are the first to arrive with help.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA! The noble lady of liberty in New York harbor, a gift from the French, stands proudly with her flame lifted high for all to see. She inspires even those of us who were born within your borders as she symbolizes freedom and democracy. The line from the poem “The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus inscribed on a plaque at the base of the statue advertises your invitation to anyone who longs to be free: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…”

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA! Your flag waves proudly in the free air—a symbol of all that makes you great. She may grace the sky at a ball game, political rally, concert or worship service or when she drapes the coffin of a patriot she instills pride and pleasure in the hearts of a grateful nation.

Enjoy your birthday AMERICA! I pray that you will be blessed by the Author of freedom and the Giver of redemption. And I pray that you will live to celebrate many more birthdays in the future. HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA!

Praying In the Spirit

Praying In the Spirit
By Larry d. Wright

Prayer is both a natural and unnatural process. It is natural for a child to cry to their Father but there are times when even a child does not know what to say. Words fail to rise to the surface of our lips and even when they do, they seem inadequate.

In "Letters to Malcolm" (p.70), C.S Lewis reflects this dilemma as he quotes some anonymous lines:

“I seek in myself the things I hoped to say,
But, lo! My wells are dry.

Then, seeing me empty, you forsake
The listener’s role and through
My dumb lips breathe and into utterance wake
The thoughts I never knew.”

There are times when a prayer in our heart finds great difficulty arriving at our lips. Oh, the pain of dry wells! Good News! You do not need to articulate your needs and desires for God to know them since He knows the status and desires of your heart at every moment. Prayers that are not uttered do not go unnoticed from Him. David declared, “All my longings lie open before you, O Lord; my sighing is not hidden from you.” (Psalm 38:9)

However, God is so interested that you articulate your prayers that He will help you in your weakness. Paul declared, “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.” (Romans 8:26-27)

Good News! The Holy Spirit, who is God, will help you pray! However, He will not do this without complete cooperation from you. He will not overpower your flesh but work through you when you align your life with Him. Praying in the Spirit happens when your surrender is so complete that He can think His thoughts through you, express His desires through you and He can speak words through you.

Thomas R. Kelly in "A Testament of Devotion" describes this process with great eloquence:” There comes a time when prayer pours forth in volumes and originality such as we cannot create. It rolls through us like a mighty tide. Our prayers are mingled with a vaster word, a Word that at one time was made flesh. We pray, and yet it is not we who pray, but a Greater who prays in us…All we can say is, Prayer is taking place, and I am given to be in the orbit.” (p.45)

Prayer that takes you to another orbit because it is birthed and borne by the Spirit, that, friend, is Praying in the Spirit!

Homeland Security

Homeland Security
By Larry d. Wright

Just a few years ago our land was attach by terrorist. Until then the term homeland security had no meaning whatsoever. But all that changed on September 11, 2001. The devastation that we saw when two jet airliners brought down the twin towers in New York City and another plane crashed into the Pentagon killing thousands of people brought the concept of homeland security to the forefront.
Not only is our homeland under the threat of a vicious enemy also our homes are under attack as well. The most powerful resource we have to protect our homeland and our homes is PRAYER! We need men and women to meet the challenge with prayer.
What makes an ordinary obscure person a powerful weapon in the hands of God? Prayer!
Prayer is coming into the presence of God; it is entering the throne room of the KING of kings and LORD of lords; it is communicating with the creator of the world; it is bringing our questions to the one who has the answers; it is connecting our lives with the ALL knowing, ALL present and ALL powerful KING of kings. Prayer is coming near to God.

Charles Spurgeon said, "Prayers are the believer’s weapons of war. When the battle is too hard for us, we call in our great ally, who, as it were lies in ambush until faith gives the signal by crying out, ARISE oh LORD!"

Prayer can do anything that God can do because prayer involves God in the problems of man. Prayer literally unleashes the power of God. It is the slender nerve attached to the muscles of an omnipotent God.

Elijah was a man, a man passionate in prayer. He prayed the word of God into natural reality because he prayed with faith. Elijah impacted a nation through prayer because God honors this kind of praying.

Other Men Who Prayed Specifically
Job prayed for the purity of his kids. (Job 1:1-5) He prayed, “Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.”
Abraham prayed for the future spouse of his kids. In Genesis chapter 24 we see Abraham, who at the time was a very old man, praying for God to provided a godly wife for his son. A beautiful love story resulted.

Jacob prayed for God to Bless the Future of his children. Genesis 48 records the story of an aging Jacob gathering his son Joseph and His two grandsons Ephraim and Manasseh so he could pray and bless them. “May God, the God before whom my grandfather Abraham and my father, Isaac, walked, the God who has been my shepherd all my life, and the angel who has kept me from harm – may he bless these boys. May they preserve my name and the names of my grandfather Abraham and my father Isaac. And may they become a mighty nation.” (15-16)

David prayed that his son’s desire would be to obey God. David prayed for His son Solomon the following prayer: “Give my son Solomon the wholehearted desire to obey all your commands, decrees and principles, and to build this Temple, for which I have made all these preparations.”(1 Chronicles 29:19)We need to pray that our children will have a strong and consuming desire to obey ALL the commands of God.

We have become way too comfortable and assume too much! May we regain the desire for availing, fervent prayer! May we follow the instructions of Jesus and pray, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Earnest prayer moves God out of heaven and into earth! Biblical prayer secures our homeland.

Pseudo Spirituality

Pseudo Spirituality
By Larry d. Wright

In an issue of Newsweek magazine several studies claimed that America is a spiritual nation. One example cited in the survey claims that 64% of Americans say that they pray every day. Sociologist Alan Wolfe of Boston College suggests that the current spiritual searching is really about the empowerment of the self: “Rather than being about a god who commands you, it’s about finding a religion that empowers you.”

Albert Mohler weighs in on the point by saying, “The impression left by the total package is of a nation that increasingly embraces soft and self-centered forms of spirituality even as it rejects more demanding forms of belief…they see spirituality as a means of self-development…they want to get in touch with the universe and with their inner selves, but are not particularly concerned to know what the Creator would demand of them.” (www.crosswalk.com)
A Christianity Today poll found that half of all Americans believe in extrasensory perception. One of every four professing Christians believes in clairvoyance, and almost half in psychic healing. 25% believe the movement of the stars governs the affairs of men and women.

Browse any bookstore and you will find titles such as “New Age Spirituality”; “Do It Yourself Religion”; “The Higher Path”; “Self-Esteem and Enlightenment.” What might initially have appeared as simply a new trend has become a more dominant cultural shift that some call ‘postmodern spirituality.’ This new spirituality is reflected in countless popular books and through the philosophies of those who tend to draw upon an eastern worldview and esoteric mysticism. Spirituality without Jesus sells; but is it real? Is God simply a higher dimension reached by an inner journey to the soul? Is it true that “the more you love yourself, the greater your connection with God, the Spirit, Divine Source, or whatever you call God?” Can there be true spirituality without Jesus?

I say “No!” New Age Spirituality, or as I call it Pseudo Spirituality, sells so well because people are hungry for meaning and spiritual significance. God has placed an eternal longing in the heart of His creation that can only be satisfied by Him. Still man-made religion is popular because it does not humble sinners or place any demands of holiness upon them.

Many today recognize a whole new level of popularization of Pseudo Spirituality through the influence of Oprah Winfrey. “Oprah Winfrey has risen to a new level of guru. She’s no longer just a successful talk-show host worth $1.4 billion, according to Forbes’ most recent estimate. Over the past year Winfrey has emerged as a spiritual leader for the new millennium.” "She’s a really hip and materialistic Mother Teresa," says Kathryn Lofton, a professor at Reed College in Portland, who has written two papers analyzing the religious aspects of Winfrey. "Oprah has emerged as a symbolic figurehead of spirituality." (USA Today, article by John Jalsevac March 7, 2008)

In her words Oprah said, “The new spirituality is that you are your own best authority as you work to know and love yourself, you discover how to live a more spiritual life. While Christianity is a valid way to achieve high states of spirituality, it must not be considered a unique way, or a correct way."

In considering the cultural trend towards being freed from the old paths in pursuit of new spirituality, we do well to recall George Orwell’s words:
“For two hundred years we had sawed and sawed and sawed at the branch we were sitting on. And in the end, much more suddenly than anyone had foreseen, our efforts were rewarded, and down we came. But unfortunately there had been a little mistake: the thing at the bottom was not a bed of roses after all; it was a cesspool full of barbed wire. . . It appears that amputation of the soul isn’t just a simple surgical job, like having your appendix out. The wound has a tendency to go septic.” (George Orwell , Notes on the Way)

The Mission Bridge

The Mission Bridge
By Larry d. Wright

Are you ready for a real surprise? The words mission, missions, missionary or my favorite word missional are not found in the Bible. The Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance goes from missed to mist and the word mission is conspicuously absent. I find that fact surprising but it doesn’t trouble me.
I believe there is a clear reason why the word missions is not found in the Bible. The Bible is not a book about systematic theology but a journal of the theology of missions in action. The Bible is the record of God in action accomplishing salvation for all mankind. Actually, the Bible ascribes only one intention to God: to redeem and restore mankind. We capture that intention with the word missions.

If you want to know what beats in the heart of God, it is missions. I love what one person said, “God had only one Son, and He made Him a missionary.” Jesus Himself said, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:45) The last command from His lips expressed the desire of His heart. The first two letters of gospel spell “Go!”
If you want to know the hope of mankind, it is missions. Without the gospel, man is helpless and hopeless.
The story is told of an agnostic professor who visited the Fiji Islands. The professor remarked to an elderly chief, “You are a great leader, but it is a pity you have been victimized by those Christian missionaries. No one believes the Bible anymore. People are tired of the story of Christ dying on cross for the sins of mankind. We know better now. I am sorry you were manipulated to accept their story.”

The old chief’s eyes flashed with passion as he answered, “See that great rock over there? On it we smashed the heads of our victims. Notice the furnace next to it? In that oven we used to roast the bodies of our victims. If it wasn’t for the love of those missionaries and the message they brought that changed us from cannibals to Christians, you would our next supper.”
If you want to know the health of the church, it is missions. The orders of our Commander-n-Chief make our mission clear: "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.” There is an important premise we should never forget: Christ alone can save the world, but Christ cannot save the world alone. He has chosen to use us.

First Baptist Church has no reason to exist apart from the Great Commission of Jesus Christ. His command gave birth to our existence. It defines our reason to exist and clarifies our mission. Simply, the mission of the church is missions.
When God loved, He loved the world. When the Father gave His Son, He gave His Son for the world. When the Son died, He died for the world. God’s vision is the world. Our mission is to build a bridge from Florence, Alabama to reach the world.
There is a bridge across Panther Creek in Western Kentucky built by the United States government. It was a source of pride and a symbol of recovery. Today the bridge looks as new as the day in which it was built because it bares only the weight of itself. There is no road leading to it or from it.
I suggest that a bridge that does not carry traffic is not a bridge. It is a structure with no appropriate name. And a church that is not missional is group of people but not a church.

Coca-Cola has a motto that is posted in the company headquarters that explains their incredible success. It reads: THINK GLOBALLY, BUT ACT LOCALLY. Long before Coca-Cola was a dream, Jesus said, “Begin in Florence and don’t stop until you have reached the end of the earth.” That is the Mission Bridge.