Daily devotions: Unbelievable! - Matthew 4:3

Matthew 4:3   The tempter came to him and said, "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread."

I didn’t sleep very well last night, so what’s new? As usual, I had taken too much caffeine and my mind was swirling with thoughts and ideas, issues and problems. The main one concerned an internet posting that a PCUSA pastor had written, boldly stating that Jesus did not die for the sins of humanity.

Yes, you are reading truly; he wrote that Jesus DID NOT die for our sins. In fact, he called it a theological fantasy, perpetrated by the Church to control the hearts and minds of people. I honestly could not believe what I was actually reading. How could a Christian Presbyterian pastor write this? It goes against Christian theology and the essential tenets of the Reformation itself. How can a pastor do this to himself, his congregation, denomination and faith?

An even greater question is this: how can a church, a presbytery, and a denomination allow this to stand? This is the equivalent of the devil questioning Christ’s authority in the wilderness. If Jesus did not die upon the Cross to save us from our sins, then how can we be saved? If His death, as the pastor writes, was merely a political expedient execution, then how can we be justified by our faith in Christ?

I have watched mainstream denominations radically change over the past 25 years in order to accommodate the culture, but this goes beyond anything that I have ever known. This is heresy and what really troubles me is that the PCUSA might allow this kind of false theology and heretical thinking to stand unopposed.

I am deeply shocked and feel as though we’ve all allowed this to happen because we’ve not paid attention to the slippery slope that we’ve been on. This is the outcome of the church giving culture an inch; it ends up taking a mile and the loss of faith altogether. The pastor may have his doubts and denials, his lack of faith in Christ’s sacrifice and Redemption, but that does not give him the right to trample on the Reformed beliefs of the Church, which are essential to our faith, and for him to be held unaccountable.

An important line has been crossed which will affect the faith of future generations. Either this kind of heresy is stopped in its tracks now, or our denomination will die from this theological deceit. We cannot have our cake and eat it. Or to put it another way, we cannot have Christ’s Cross and then destroy it.

Prayer:                       Lord Jesus, You are the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. You sacrificed Your life on the Cross, so that we might be washed clean of our sins and restored to God’s everlasting love. Keep us from diminishing Your atoning work with our arrogant thinking and foolish ideas. Help us to cling to Calvary and know that we are justified through our faith in You alone as the Son of God and Savior of our souls. Amen.

John Stuart is the pastor of Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. If you would like to ask a question or make a comment about today’s message, please send him an email to pastor@erinpresbyterian.org.

Daily devotions: Blind Leading the Blind - Matthew 15

Matthew 15:14            (Jesus said) “Leave them; they are blind guides. If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.”

There’s a true story about John Calvin that many in the Presbyterian Church either don’t know or they have forgotten. When he was a young preacher in Geneva trying to get the Reformation established, he was confronted by a group called the Libertines. They believed in sexual promiscuity and even had a local law that allowed a man to be both married and have one mistress at the same time. They also believed in complete sexual freedom of any sort and that they were allowed to do this because they were Christians under the grace of God.

Calvin opposed them and his life was threatened. The Libertines conspired against him and planned to rush at the Communion table when the Lord’s Supper would be next celebrated. They wanted to be at the front of the congregation and take communion, so that everyone else in the congregation and community could see that God approved of their Libertine lifestyles.

John Calvin was informed that this would take place, so he had a choice. He could allow this to happen and let the Libertines overtake the newly Reformed Church, or he could oppose them and possibly be killed.

When it came to the celebrating of Communion, the Libertines rushed forward to receive the elements first. John Calvin bravely stood between them and the elements of bread and wine. He then Calvin flung his arms around the sacramental vessels as if to protect them from sacrilege, while his voice rang through the building: "These hands you may crush, these arms you may lop off, my life you may take, my blood is yours, you may shed it; but you shall never force me to give holy things to the profaned, and dishonor the table of my God."

John Calvin saved the Reformation in Geneva at that critical moment in time by ‘fencing in’ the Lord’s Table from those who slandered the church, disdained God’s Word, and who were unrepentant of their sexual immorality. Presbyterianism grew out of his uncompromising ministry and his devotion to God’s Word.

Today, the PCUSA has changed its course from Calvin’s Reforms. The Libertines have won the battle and the unrepentant blind are leading the flock astray. The question we all need to ask ourselves today is this: what have we become?

Prayer:                        Lord Jesus, we are blinded by our own sense of cultural morality and therefore we create our own system of modern beliefs. We pick and choose from Scriptures what we want to read and hear, and then discard those things that confront and challenge our worldly ways. We are all sinners, but some of us don’t ever want to repent, so we remain unforgiven. Lord, have mercy on our souls. In Your Holy Name, we pray. Amen.

John Stuart is currently the pastor of Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. If you would like to comment or ask questions of today’s message, please send him an email to pastor@erinpresbyterian.org.

Devotions - After 25 Years - Proverbs 14:15

Proverbs 14:15 A simple man believes anything, but a prudent man gives thought to his steps. 

At the end of this week, I will have been a pastor for 25 years. I was ordained on April 30^th, 1986 and began my pastoral duties on May 1^st. I was the first graduate of my class to be ordained in Scotland and I have tried to serve God well in the congregations to which I have been called.

Throughout the last quarter of a century, I have sadly seen Presbyterianism decline in both Scotland and the United States. I have made my views known on this from both the pulpit and through the devotions that I continue to write. I have seen the caliber of pastoral ministry diminish and divinity degrees being discredited. I have watched churches die and ministers burn out. I have tried to keep the churches under my care alive and growing. I have tried to be faithful to God’s word in preaching and pastoring, even when this has become unpopular.

I feel that I have failed. I feel that the words I have written, the sermons I have preached, and the studies I have led have not changed anyone or anything. People believe anything and Presbyterians are headed down a dead end street. There’s nothing I can do to reverse this and so I feel like the weeping prophet Jeremiah, who preached the Word of God faithfully to a people who believed in anything but the Word of God.

A new dawn is beginning for the Presbyterian Church which will see its demise in this century. By the time I retire professional pastors, denominational seminaries, and parish congregations will be relegated to the ecclesiastical history books. They will be replaced by part-time preachers, online courses, and community centers. Dinosaurs like me will eventually become extinct, along with denominations. Independent, post-denominational, charismatic and missional fellowships will grow because the True Word of God will be not only preached but practiced by all of the people. It will be a time of renewal and revival, but at least three generations will be lost because the large majority of them will believe anything but the Word of God.

So, on Sunday, I’ll be commemorating 25 years of ministry, but I won’t be celebrating it. It will be low key, simple, and for me very, very sad.

Prayer:                        Lord Jesus, when did we go off track and wander so far away from the Truth? How long will we stay on this dead end path that leads to nowhere? Why are we so afraid of our cultural peers? What makes our generation so certain that we have it right and every preceding one for two thousand years has been wrong? How long, O Lord, will it be before the Church awakens from its slumber and shakes off its dust? In Your Holy Name, we lament and pray. Amen.

John Stuart is currently the pastor of Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. If you would like to comment or ask questions of today’s message, please send him an email to pastor@erinpresbyterian.org.

PCUSA Gay Ordination: Transformation, not Reformation

PCUSA Gay ordination: Transformation, not Reformation

The current on-going issue in the PCUSA concerns the biennial problem of ordaining gay people who are in active sexual relationships. As each year passes, the opposition to this is diminishing which denotes a change in culture as opposed to a change in Biblical standards. And this is where I have a problem with the PCUSA church and its Louisville leaders.

They are calling this a re-formation of the church which is false. Reformation is originally a military term that refers to soldiers in the battlefield. The order for reforming is meant to bring the scattered forces together again in the midst of the battle to a basic standard formation in order to consolidate the strength of the troops. When Luther, Calvin & Knox called for the Church to be reformed, they were asking Christians throughout Europe to get back to the basics of New Testament Christianity. They weren’t seeking to change the church; they were looking to have it return to its most basic biblical principles.

Ordaining gay people is not re-formation, it is transformation because the Church is being asked to radically change from its Biblical and New Testament beliefs. Those who call it reformation are wrong, because in order to reform the church would have to get back to its biblical basics.

Homosexuality has never been a practice that was acceptable in the original Christian church, so what we are being asked to do is to radically change who we are and what we believe is right. If we take this path to accept the ordination of practicing homosexuals then we are separating ourselves from the New Testament Church. We will have transformed into something else and into something other than New Testament Christianity. Our Western culture may demand this of our society, but our churches are meant to be separate from our culture in matters of doctrine, Biblical teaching, and Christ given truth.

In essence we have to ask ourselves this important question: are we Christ’s church in the world, or are we the Western World’s Church?

New Year Devotions: Christ's Chosen One

Ephesians 4:19           Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more. 

The trouble with Paul is that he knows humanity so well and bluntly speaks the truth. He could have written today’s verse a couple of seconds ago because it’s highly relevant to the issues that the Church and our society are currently facing. We seem to have lost our sensitivity to God and instead we indulge in our sensuality. Instead of being fully devoted to Him, we are desirous of fulfilling our own pleasure.

Let’s be honest with ourselves: we are all contaminated by the brazenness of our culture. We view things we should never see. We act out scenarios we should never do. We tolerate sexual idolatry and excuse it as artistic, sophisticated, and modern. In short, we fall far short of what God expects and end up expecting Him to accept our sinful lifestyles and embrace our selfish whims.

The older I get, the odder the world seems. Traditional values are treated disrespectfully and the Word of God is woefully described as being outdated, hypocritical, and irrelevant. Even so called church people, who hardly ever open or read their Bibles, seem to believe that their own opinions, ideas, and tolerances trump God’s advice, guidance, and truth. Paul is berated as being hostile, homophobic, and hypocritical by Christians who could not walk two paces in his shoes. They honestly and arrogantly believe that they know better than Christ’s Chosen Apostle simply because they live in the here and now as opposed to living in the way back then.

I shudder to think about God’s wrath which will come as a complete shock to this present generation of ungodly people. They will not know what hit them and will never understand why they are so completely wrong. Unless they make time to repent, they will never be released from the cultural weeds that are choking their spiritual sensitivity and replacing it with ungodly sensuality.

Prayer:                        Lord Jesus, how dare we diminish the writings of Paul; after all, he was Your Chosen Apostle. Forgive our Biblical ignorance and spiritual arrogance. Reclaim our souls and restore our minds to Your ways, Your works, and Your words. In Your Holy Name, we fervently pray. Amen.

John Stuart is the pastor of Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. If you would like to comment on today’s message, please send him an email to pastor@erinpresbyterian.org.

Today’s image is one of John’s latest winter drawings. It’s called “Edinburgh Blizzard” and depicts the world-famous castle and Princes Street during the 2010 snowstorm. If you would like to view a larger version, please go to the following link: http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5049/5282150038_e7aeb19b56_b.jpg

Daily Devotions: Jabbing Jesus - Acts 9

Acts 9:5           "Who are you, LORD?" Saul asked. "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting," he replied.

I read an article today about a couple who decided to have an atheist wedding. They didn’t want God mentioned in the ceremony and no clergy person to conduct it. All they wanted was an event where they could publicly pledge their love for one another and be legally married.

How sad! I wonder if in years to come they will regret making that choice. And when old age, infirmity, and serious illness come their way, what will happen to their love? Will it just be gone forever?

The number of atheists is rising, but from what I’ve read it’s more of an anti-religious movement because people have been let down by the Church. Sometimes I think that more people would become followers of Jesus if Christians didn’t get in the way.

Next week, our denomination has its biennial General Assembly. I used to be very interested in the proceedings and policies, but lately I’m tired of all the decisions and divisions, ordination wars and theological fist-fights that take place every time the GA meets. I feel that Jesus is being persecuted by His own people and if the usual Presbyterian shenanigans go on, then no wonder atheism is increasing. If our politics, polities, and procedures are all that the world sees of Christianity, then we really do get in the way of Jesus.

Prayer:                        Lord Jesus, forgive us for being poor witnesses of the Gospel and half-hearted servants of Your Kingdom. Keep us from getting in Your Way by insisting on getting our own ways. Re-teach us the path of Truth and fill us with Your Holy Life. In Your Sacred Name, we pray. Amen.

John Stuart is the pastor of Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. If you would like to comment on today’s message, please send him an email to pastor@erinpresbyterian.org.

Today’s image is one of John’s humorous snowman drawings. It’s called “Frosty the Vol Fan.” If you want to view a larger version of the drawing, please click on the following link: http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4096/4737362030_3014b24530_b.jpg