Today we talk about ideas that have been proposed by philosophers and academicians. These ideas have given birth to unbelievable pain and misery in our world.
They have brought forth the fruit of death and destruction. Pitting groups of people against each other they have personally profited by the division they provoke.

It’s sometimes hard for us to believe that evil men actually sit around plotting how to bring down western civilization. We just want to be left alone to live our lives, raise our kids and build our businesses.
We want to worship God and glorify Him in our churches free from the coercion of people bent on our demise.

We are truly in a war- a war of ideas. As Christians we understand that our foe is not merely flesh and blood but rather spiritual forces at work in the spiritual realm.
We must resist this enemy continually and we must do so clothed in the Armor that God supplies. Put on the whole Armor of God that you may be able to stand in the evil day.

Because of grace,
Tim

The post By Their Fruit appeared first on EBCSV.

Colossians 3:11 “In Christ there is not Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all.”

God intended for His body, the church, to display the great diversity that exists among all the cultures and ethnicities of the globe. Our Lord did not come to save just one nation- no, He came to save His chosen from every nation and tongue on the planet.
Our task is to extend this message of grace and love everywhere we go.

Ethnic partiality, like any form of partiality, is a sin. Anytime God’s people begin to give credence to the cultural snobbery that looks on themselves as better than other’s it is an affront to God’s very nature. God does not look on it and bless it.
Sadly, American evangelicalism and individually, we as believers, have sometimes fallen prey to this trap of Satan.

Having said that, it is also true that certain forces at work in our country at this time are trying to sow seeds of greater division between people and exploit that division for their own ends.
These cultural Marxists are trying to nurture unrest in our churches by claiming that evangelicalism is poisoned by its “whiteness”.

They assert that this whiteness is a latent form of white supremacy and that it taints our churches and discredits our message.
They also assert that this “evil” asserts itself in a toxic masculinity that believes in the repression of women. They then tag sexual identity and economic disparities into the equation.

This charge is serious and needs to be answered. Over the next two weeks we are going to address some of the issues that the deconstruction project raises about evangelicalism and show that despite its warts and pimples evangelicalism has a long history of standing with those who are oppressed and marginalized.
American evangelicalism is under attack- cultural forces are seeking to erode its influence. We need to be armed and ready.

The churches motto is the same as that of the American special operations community: De Oppresso Liber (to free the oppressed). May it be so with us.

Because of grace,
Tim

The post Christ in All appeared first on EBCSV.

O come O Come Emmanuel
And Ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel will come to you O Israel

Black plague, Islamic invasions into Spain, marauding bands of Viking raiders hitting the northern parts of the land. Insecurity and fear.
8th century Europe was locked in what we now refer to the Dark ages. Disease, war and death were on everyone’s horizon. Economic systems kept most people in squalid conditions in cities and towns.

In the midst of all this fear, an unknown Christian sat somewhere with a candle and pen and scribbled the well- known carol: “O Come”. Written in Latin with seven stanzas and a repeated refrain; the carol takes the worshiper through the Old Testament and all the prophecies about the coming Messiah and reassures the weary: Emmanuel will come to you O Israel!

We’ve lived through some interesting days in the past few years. Undoubtedly we have some difficult times to come.
Impotent leadership in our nation has led to international insecurity. Massive Russian armies poised on the Ukrainian frontier, Chinese expansionism lurking towards Taiwan; continuing hype about COVID, anarchy and unrest in our cities and a southern border out of control.

Things are looking pretty dark. Not to mention individual tragedies or natural disasters like what happened in Kentucky.
In the midst of all the darkness is there any hope?
It is just then that we are reminded: Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel will come to you O Israel.

No matter what difficulty or darkness may sit on your horizon today, be encouraged. Light has come!
Jesus said: “I am the light of the world”. Rest in Him and look to Him for the grace to persevere and triumph.
He will come and Ransom captive Israel. Jesus has come to save His people from their sins.

Tim Moyer
Emmanuel Bible church

The post Jesus Has Come appeared first on EBCSV.

On Thursday I read an editorial against the Mississippi law that doesn’t allow doctors to kill babies after 15 weeks of pregnancy. I am sure you have heard that the Supreme Court is hearing a case brought to them on the constitutionality of this law.

This case has great potential to be the death of Roe vs. Wade in the United States and perhaps will turn the regulation of baby killing back to the states.
We need to pray that the Lord intervenes for these precious little children in this regard.

But I digress. In his editorial against the law, David Von Drehle opened with the following illustration:

“The leading cause of death for children in the US is motor vehicle accidents. A study by SWOV Institute for Road Safety Research in the Netherlands determined that virtually all car related fatalities occur at speeds above about 25 mph. In other words, the leading cause of death in children could be eliminated overnight by requiring a simple device on every automobile to cap its speed at 25 mph. of course, that’s never going to happen. I mention it only illustrate a chilly fact about coexisting in human society. Even in matters of life and death, society weighs protection of life with other competing interests.”

Wow! Alarming reasoning at the least! Consider, he does not argue the life of the child or even its viability. He merely argues: “competing interests in society.” He then goes on to talk about the inconvenience that a child can be to a young single mother who want a career or how an unplanned pregnancy can sideline the hopes of the expectant mother.

Yes, in life we always take calculated risk in the way we operate our daily existence. But to equate that capacity with societies need to allow for baby killing is ludicrous. I don’t understand how he can’t see he is talking apples and oranges? In what other case do we allow members of society to actively kill another human being when their interests compete?

Maybe if someone takes too much water out of the ditch upstream of my hay field and is in competition of my interests to a good crop of hay, I would have sufficient cause to terminate his earthly existence?
I think this is rubbish!
If our society or any other goes down this path it’s not long until genocide is the end result.
In his world might make right, but in God’s world every human life matters and is worth the precious blood of Christ.

Because of grace,
Tim

The post Competing Interests in Mississippi appeared first on EBCSV.

Paul saw his whole identity as a Christian as summed up in being a serving slave of Jesus Christ.
Most of his epistles begin with a simple statement of introduction: Paul, a slave of Jesus Christ. Our Lord Himself took on the form of a servant being made in the likeness of men. He did not come to be served, but rather to serve and give His life as a ransom for sin.

The word “serve” in the Bible translates a Greek word: diakonia. From this word we get the English transliteration: Deacon.
We also see this word translated many times by the word: ministry. It is a broad term that speaks widely of service and care for others.

As we have been studying the gifts of the spirit we have seen that they fall broadly into two main categories: speaking gifts and serving gifts. Today we look at these serving gifts. Paul mentions four: serving, leading, giving, mercy.

We will see that leading, giving and mercy are really explanations of some of the main ways we serve others. We serve as leaders, we serve by giving resources to those in need, and we serve by showing mercy to those in distress.
Jesus taught us that the way leaders lead in His kingdom is not by rank and power but rather but stooping low to serve.
Jesus taught that giving to others is an important part of our stewardship and Jesus taught us by His example what it looks like to show mercy to those who are hurting and in distress.

All Christians are to be growing in the grace of serving. Serving is a nonnegotiable of Christ likeness. It is not only a gift, it is also a command to be obeyed: serve on another as I have served you.
However, there are also certain believers who have specific aptitudes by the Spirit that enriches their service to a higher degree than most. These are high callings and special endowments.
Let us look on them as such.

Because of grace,
Tim

The post Growing in Grace appeared first on EBCSV.

The only thing that triumphed on Friday in Kenosha, Wisconsin was justice.
It is tragic that two men lost their lives.
It is tragic that that a third was wounded.
It is tragic that Kyle Rittenhouse will bear the scars and wounds of memories from that fateful night for the rest of his life.
It is tragic that numerous property owners were violated and lost livelihoods’ and hard earned property. Sadly, all of it was preventable.

If evil men had stayed home and not burned and pillaged property, they would still be in the land of the living.
If evil media pundits had not stoked class envy and identity politics perhaps that night would have been peaceful instead of full of blood.
If evil political leaders had not tweeted lies and deception… but I guess it’s only an “if”. Sadly, evil thugs and bullies created a narrative in our nation that has brought us to the sad state of things we now see- division, hostility and distrust.
Where will it all end?

Thankfully, our constitution guarantees the right to assemble, to protest, to seek a redress for grievances and to freely speak our mind.
That right doesn’t extend to lawless pilfering and pillaging. To go with a mob to do evil is cowardice at its worst. Sadly, we have somehow equated protest with anarchy.
Martin Luther King would weep if he could see how a movement he once piloted on a platform of peaceful protest has become a cloak for the worst kinds of evil a society can stomach.

You must not spread a false report. Do not join the wicked to be a malicious witness. You must not follow a crowd in wrongdoing. Do not testify in a lawsuit and go along with a crowd to pervert ⌊justice⌋. Do not show favoritism to a poor person in his lawsuit.
Exodus 23:1-3

Kyle has much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. So do we.
Justice triumphed. For that let us be grateful to the Lord.
Because of grace,
Tim

The post Thugs and Bullies appeared first on EBCSV.

Romans 1:17

Indulgences
Purgatory
95 Theses

In an age driven by experience and feeling more than by truth; the Reformation seems to most people like much ado about nothing.
To many, the essence of religion is the experiential feeling of the Divine. Creeds and confessions, liturgies and Scripture all seem too binding and divisive.
The motto quickly becomes: “Nor creed but Christ.”

But is this not the slippery slope to the gates of Hell? Yes, doctrine divides and sadly some of those divides have been caused by fights over trivial minutia. When that happens, the casualties that pile up are the tragic result of the Churches obsession with petty things.
But when separations happens over core, essential truth; that division is demanded by faithfulness to Scripture.

During the Protestant reformation, the things that separated Luther from Catholicism were essential truth’s that had been obscured by years of accumulation of tradition.
These traditions had slowly superseded Scripture’s authority. When that happened, the gospel was compromised.

The 5 core convictions that came out of the Reformation were convictions based on what we call the “sola’s” or “alone’s”. Sola Scriptura (Scripture alone), Sola Christus (Christ alone),Sola Gratia (Grace alone), Sola fide (Faith alone), Sola Dei Gloria (To God alone be the glory).
These sola’s must still serve as the foundation from which all our conviction grow.
Today we think on these things.

Because of grace,
Tim

The post By Faith appeared first on EBCSV.

“As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace.”
I Peter 4:10

We don’t often use the word steward in our everyday conversation. A steward in the ancient world was a man who had delegated authority to act on behalf of a greater authority.
Cities had stewards as did large landowner’s. Today, ranches have managers and wealthy owners of estates have caretakers.

The position of a steward entailed great benefit and blessing. The caretaker may not have been wealthy himself and yet he had the benefit of all the resources of his master.
As such, to be a steward was to find oneself in a place of great opportunity.

Being a steward also entailed great responsibility. Managing the affairs and resources of someone else was also a tremendous burden for which one would give an accounting.
To abuse those under him or to squander the resources of the master would bring the master’s wrath down upon his head. The owner may be absent and the steward may forget that all these things are not his own but that they belong to another.
When the master returned, there would be a day of reckoning.

In this verse in Peter we are reminded that we are stewards of God’s varied grace. He entrusts gifts to us.
These gifts bless us and others. They are to be utilized for His glory- not just our gain.
When he returns, we will give account. Are you wisely and faithfully fulfilling your stewardship?

Because of grace,
Tim

The post Good Stewards appeared first on EBCSV.

Nero fiddled while Rome burned

Pete Buttigieg took paternity leave

And not just for a week- since mid-August

And worse- not with his wife, rather with

Another man

As ridiculous as it sounds, while we are experiencing unprecedented bottlenecks in our supply chain, ports that don’t have enough dock workers and inadequate numbers of truck driver’s; the woke leadership of our country continues to lead the way into the abyss by adding abomination to abomination.

I guess it proves the point on who is and isn’t essential! O, I forgot to remind us all- Pete ain’t the secretary of health or some such thing- he’s in charge of transportation.

Every woman who gives birth to a child obviously needs a period of time to recuperate her health. Interestingly, the Old Testament law prescribed 40 days.
The physical demand of childbirth added to the immediate taxing demand of caring for the newborn leaves me in awe of every woman whom God calls to motherhood.

In addition, the adoption of a newborn is taxing on a home and marriage and takes many adjustments.
Women you deserve our praise and admiration.

But when we tell a huge societal lie and put Pete and his partner on par with a man and woman as the Lord intended; we are in sad shape.
Neither marriage nor parenthood are the domain of two women or two men.
To say that they are is to set our culture on a path to doom. God won’t be mocked

I am shocked how the last 10 years has brought us further down this road than I could ever imagine. I checked an unrated film out of the Library this week to watch in the evening with Amie.
30 minutes into the program two men were suddenly introduced clearly in love. Needless to say we won’t be finishing the show. Tragically, it has been so normalized that it didn’t even get a PG.

If we are to guard ourselves from being pressed into the world’s mold, we better prepare ourselves for some rigorous tests ahead.

Because of grace,
Tim

The post Rome is Burning appeared first on EBCSV.

Be transformed by the renewing of the mind
Romans 12:2

The Triune God is about the business of transforming us world lings to be conformed to the image of His Son (Romans 8:29). This transformation is arduous and at times painful.
God is a like a skilled physician who is operating on our lives, patiently bringing healing and wholeness to our broken condition.
He is not frazzled and He is not fazed by our protestations. Rather, He simply skillfully pokes and probes at our soul as He accomplishes His work.Eugene Peterson wrote about this process in an experience he had in life:

“A number of years ago I had a knee injury that I self-diagnosed. I knew that all it needed was some whirlpool treatments. ..The only place in our community where there was a whirlpool was at the physical therapists. I called to make an appointment. He refused; I had to have a doctor’s prescription. I called an orthopedic physician, went in for an examination (this was getting more expensive and complicated than I had planned), and found that he would not give me the prescription for the whirlpool. He said it wasn’t the proper treatment for my injury.

I protested: it certainly can’t do any harm and it might do some good. His refusal was adamantine. He was a professional. His primary commitment was to some invisible abstraction called health, healing. He was not committed to satisfying my requests. His integrity, in fact, forbade him to satisfy my requests if they encroached on his primary commitment. I have since learned that by a little shopping around I could have found a doctor who would have given me the prescription I wanted.”

O how this rings true. God’s primary commitment is to our wholeness not our happiness. He doesn’t just satisfy our requests to suite our fancy. His integrity demands He address what is wrong not just what we want.
A little shopping can get you an idol that pacifies your whim’s but leaves you in worse shape than before.
Trust yourself to the great physician- you are not the first patient He’s had.

Because of grace,
Tim

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