Like a Good Family...

"A good local church--and a good small group--is like the best of families.  Good families take responsibility for each other.  Good families are honest with each other.  Good families take care of each other.  Good families deal with their problems.  Good families love each other--no one is lonely.  Good families love and respect the head of the household--in our case the one we call Father and Lord."

                        John Loftness from Why Small Groups?


Pastor Todd

Give to the Winds Thy Fears

Give to the winds thy fears, 
Hope and be undismayed.
God hears thy sighs and counts thy tears,
God shall lift up thy head.


Through waves and clouds and storms,
He gently clears they way;
Wait thou His time; so shall this night
Soon end in joyous day.


What though Thou rulest not;
Yet heaven, and earth and hell
Proclaim, God sitteth on the throne,
And ruleth all things well.


Leave to His sovereign sway
To choose and to command;
So shalt thou, wondering, own that way, 
How wise, how strong this hand.


Thou seest our weakness, Lord; 
Our hearts are known to Thee;
O lift Thou up the sinking hand, 
Confirm the feeble knee!


Let us in life, in death, 
Thy steadfast truth declare, 
And publish with our latest breath
Thy love and guardian care.




Paul Gerhardt, 1656
translated by John Wesley, 1737


Pastor Todd

A Book For Your Soul, Ladies...and Men.

One Thousand Gifts is popular among many women in our faith family.  I am encouraged by Voskamp's book and am glad that ladies around here are reading such good stuff. 

I recommend it.


Amy regularly reads Voskamp's blog, aholyexperience.com, and on many nights after the boys are tucked snugly in bed, she beckons me to the computer saying, "Read this."


Tony Woodlief writes about One Thousand Gifts and says, "Ann Voskamp's writing is vibrant, her insights piercing."


In fact, while popular among the ladies, we men would be most well served by reading One Thousand Gifts!

More of us men need to live fully right where we are.

Pastor Todd

Living the Gospel

God, allow me this day to approach every person, every choice, every encounter--literally everything in a gospel-motivated, gospel-saturated, gospel-reflected way.  May I look at this day through the lens of the gospel, and may my every thought, word and action, be characterized by the gospel...

     .....by Justice (Romans 6:23)

     .....by Love (John 3:16)

     .....by Mercy (Titus 3:5)

     .....by Reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5)

Pastor Todd

Ladies! This is for you!

Well, the Ladies Night Out has been postponed because of weather.  Snow is falling, and there will be less "out-and-abouting" in Paducah over the next day or so.

Not to be dismayed, though… “POSTPONED” is the key word! 

I’ve never been to a Ladies Night Out.  I hear they are great events.  I didn’t even get to go to the one when Amy spoke. 

But not this time!

I don’t care what Brenda McElroy says, and I don’t care that this event is only for ladies.  Knowing Lucinda and Elizabeth’s stories, a team of wild horses would not be able to keep me away!  I'm a man, but I’m coming on February 1 and I’ll be standing inconspicuously in the back.  (Notice, I said “inconspicuously,” not “incognito.”  I won’t be in heels and a skirt!)

There are few things that I would say this about…but ladies, you don’t want to miss out on this.  Don’t miss out on what God has as He uses two of his choice servants—Lucinda and Elizabeth! 

Now there’s even more time to register with the more than 300 ladies who are already signed up.

It may very well be that God sent this snow and caused this event to be postponed so that YOU can now make it.  Call the church (442.2728) or email Brenda McElroy (bmcelroy@fbcpaducah.org) and sign yourself and a friend up.

You are in for a blessing!

Pastor Todd

Memorizing Scripture...the Word in our Hearts

In Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, Donald S. Whitney, Associate Professor of Biblical Spirituality at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY clearly states,

No Spiritual Discipline is more important than the intake of God’s Word.  Nothing can substitute for it.  There simply is no healthy Christian life apart from a diet of the milk and meat of Scripture.  The reasons for this are obvious.  In the Bible God tells us about Himself, and especially about Jesus Christ, the incarnation of God.  The Bible unfolds the Law of God to us and shows us how we’ve all broken it.  There we learn how Christ died as a sinless, willing Substitute for breakers of God’s Law and how we must repent and believe in Him to be right with God.  In the Bible we learn the ways and will of the Lord.  We find in Scripture how to live in a way that is pleasing to God as well as best and most fulfilling for ourselves.  None of this eternally essential information can be found anywhere else except in the Bible.  Therefore if we would know God and be Godly, we must know the Word of God—intimately.

Bible intake…Reading the Bible…Knowing God.  You just can’t know God apart from his Word.

We live our lives according to God’s Word (http://www.fbcpaducah.org/resources-audio-video.html. January 3 message “Our Greatest Resource”).

Like the Psalmist, we long to be a people who not only know God by taking in the Word of God, but who store up God’s Word in our hearts that we might not sin against Him. (Psalm 119:11)

Scripture memory…Just the thought can seem daunting and overwhelming.  However, the difficulty of the discipline should not deter us from goal.

Many of you are memorizing Scripture through Bible Studies in which you are involved.  Our children are hiding the Word of God in their hearts through AWANA on Wednesday nights and Upward Basketball on Saturdays.

If you’re not already regularly memorizing God’s Word, I encourage you to join together with others in our faith family and start this exciting and most profitable discipline.  The Fighter Verse Scripture Memory Program is an excellent way to memorize a verse/passage a week.  If you are interested, check things out at http://www.hopeingod.org/resources/scripture-memory/fighter-verses.  You may want to order your own set of verses.  There is also an App for the iPhone that you can purchase—for those of you who are technologically hip.  Whatever works for you!

Each week, the new Scripture Memory verse for the week will be posted on our church’s website.  (English Standard Version)  You’ll also find it on the screens at MIDWEEK, our church website (http://www.fbcpaducah.org/) and on the church Prayer List.  Join in, let’s memorize God’s Word together and let’s become more like Christ together.

Pastor Todd

Remembering Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

As we look to Monday and celebrate the life and work of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, Cherie Hardie's words are most helpful.  Cherie Hardie is the President of The Trinity Forum.  For more information about the Trinity Forum, check out http://www.ttf.org/.

On Monday, our nation will observe a federal holiday in honor of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., whose birthday falls on January 15. It is, in many respects, a remarkable holiday – the most recently established, possibly the most controversial at the time of its creation, and the only federal holiday to honor an individual who did not serve in an official government capacity – honoring a remarkable man, and the lasting impact of his short life on the life, direction, and character of our nation. 

Among his most important writings was his "Letter from a Birmingham Jail." History holds that King composed his famous letter on scraps of newsprint and a legal pad offered by a sympathetic jailhouse janitor, following his arrest on Good Friday in 1963. Jailed for his role in the Birmingham campaign, a series of non-violent protests that sought to call attention to – and defy – the city's segregation and discrimination laws, King crafted an extraordinary letter explaining the purpose of the campaign – "to create a situation so crisis-packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation" – and the moral, civic, and spiritual rationale for doing so. 

King addressed his letter to the eight white clergy who had released a "Call to Unity," which acknowledged that racial injustice existed, but criticized King's work as "unwise," and urged "forebearance" and "restraint" while a "constructive and realistic approach to racial problems" was sought.

For King, the time of forebearance had passed. From his jail cell, he answered the clergymen's letter with courteous, measured language, but intense conviction, and asserted that "the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Councilor or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate... who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice."

Negative peace was precisely what King and the Birmingham campaign sought to unsettle. Order predicated on injustice and oppression could not, he argued, rightfully be called peace.

Ultimately, what he aimed at was shalom – a true peace which is realized not by the absence of conflict but the presence of harmony, love and justice. In his delightful book on the dark topic of sin, Not the Way It's Supposed to Be, theologian Cornelius Plantinga defined shalom as "the webbing together of God, humans, and all creation in justice, fulfillment, and delight... Shalom, in other words, is the way things ought to be."

King recognized that shalom could require the active disruption of complacency, even the destruction of the uneasy order that rested upon established injustices. Placing a false peace above true justice is only one of many instances when mistaken theology enabled political oppression. Discerning and seeking shalom requires both humility and courage – and may, at times, work against the settled order, or undermine one's own comfort or interests.

If "all truth is God's truth" much of King's rightful legacy rests in his articulation and demonstration of the civic reality of shalom – and a vision for what it looked like when "peace in his time" was predicated upon the presence of racial injustice, accepted bigotry, and oppression. On this upcoming 25th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the Trinity Forum honors Dr. King, and the efforts of all leaders, whether in the political, ecclesiastical, commercial, or private spheres, who long and labor for shalom.

Pastor Todd

Going Out...Coming In...

Our young men are going into the professional fields because they don't 'feel called' to the mission field.  We don't need a call; we need a kick in the pants.  We must begin thinking in terms of 'going out,' and stop our weeping because 'they won't come in.'"


            Jim Eliott, missionary martyr, 1927-1956






Pastor Todd

A Lesson from Owen Honors: Never Secret

If you have ever wondered whether your sins will find you out, just ask recently-relieved Navy captain Owen Honors who now finds himself a landlubber after the surfacing of “inappropriate” videos from his service several years ago on board the USS Enterprise.

In an apparent attempt to relieve tension, boost morale, and provide entertainment, Honors produced videos for his crew which featured lewd scenes, sexually suggestive material, foul language, and “anti-gay slurs.”  Intended for deep sea viewing only among the USS Enterprise, a Norfolk, VA newspaper got their hands on the videos and went public with them.  What started out as fun and games only among the crew has now resulted in the reprimand and removal of a commanding officer.

As clips from Honors’ video went viral on television stations across America, Adm. John Harvey Jr., commander of the U.S. Fleet Forces Command stepped forward and said, “While Capt. Honors’ performance as commanding officer of USS Enterprise has been without incident, his profound lack of good judgment and professionalism while previously serving as executive officer on Enterprise calls into question his character and completely undermines his credibility to continue to serve effectively in command.

The USS Enterprise will soon head out under the command of Capt. Dee Mewbourne while Honors stays behind for a paper-pushing administrative desk job.

We live in a less and less private world.  With camera phones, Texting, Twittering, the internet and more, what happens in private can become public in a matter of only seconds.  The situation is quite different, but just look to the once homeless and currently famous Ted Williams whose golden radio voice is now wafting through the nation’s airwaves.

Wrong is wrong—whether it be private or public. “Anti-gay slurs” are always inappropriate—regardless of one’s opinion concerning the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.  Honors’ actions are not dishonorable simply because they surfaced for the world to see.  Harvey’s assessment of Honors’ “extremely poor judgment” would stand correct had the videos never even been seen by the world. 

But the videos were seen by the world.

Lessons on leadership and integrity abound here.  One could talk for days about the standards of leadership and the lines that must never be crossed—much less approached by leaders.

Christians can learn a valuable lesson from these most unfortunate affairs.  While we think that our actions might never be seen by others, they probably will.  More than that, our actions certainly will be seen by God.  On earth, we are accountable to others and answer to our superiors.  There are earthly consequences for earthly actions. 

However, we realize that there is more to life than the things of this earth.  In fact, there is coming a day when “every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,” (Philippians 2:10-11) and we will “give an account of every idle word that has slipped through our lips. (Matthew 12:36)

Until that time, let us realize that our actions are never secret.  With God, nothing ever stays in the closet.

Pastor Todd

MIDWEEK begins this Wednesday!

In our highly technical and materialistic society, we can often get lulled into thinking that God is some abstract, dozing deity that sits aloft and aloof from his creation.  How easy it is to go through life thinking things like, “God, are you out there somewhere?”

The good news is that God is God.  In fact he is near, and he is calling!  

God is God!  “Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations” (Deuteronomy 7:9).

We are God’s people, and he is our God.  He is the one, true, and living God.  There is no other. 

God is near!  He is not distant, and he has not forgotten you.  So many experience a difficult time in life and find themselves frustrated with God—as if he has let them down or abandoned them.  If God feels far away to us, it may very well be that we are the one who have moved!  Many folks have had bad experiences with folks at church, and in turn have run away from church.  In the process, they’ve run away from God as well.

How great to know that if we draw near to God, he will draw near to us. (James 4:8)  Maybe you recently made the decision to walk after God more diligently.  These initial days of 2011 are great days to draw near.  Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.

God is calling! The call of God is not just something that came to the prophets of old.  The calling of God is not something that he extends only to super-spiritual folks.  The calling of God is not just for ministers and missionaries.  God calls us all.  The question is—Are we listening?  The greater question is—“Are we doing what God is calling us to do?

Be a part of MIDWEEK on Wednesday nights at FBC.  Food, fellowship, and worship.  Come and eat together with other families at 5:00.  Stay around the tables for our MIDWEEK worship at 6:00.  Kids will head to AWANAs at 5:45 and the students will gather in the student area for awaken.

MIDWEEK is a great time for the entire family.  Come and be with others who are striving to follow God. 

Call the church, and make your reservation for a great dinner!

Bring your family Wednesday night!

Bring a friend with you!

Answer God’s Call in 2011!

I look forward to seeing you there!

Pastor Todd