Acts 6: 10 But they could not stand up against his wisdom or the Spirit by whom he spoke.

Some people believe that we are living in a post-Christian world where Christ’s ways and words are losing their effectiveness in society and throughout the globe. In places like Britain and all over Europe, secularism is increasing and churches are emptying. People believe more in themselves and get what they want out of life, rather than taking guidance from God or experiencing Christ’s grace.

One thing that I have noticed is that when people become more secular they also become more selfish. The law of the jungle and survival of the fittest take the place of God’s laws and faith in Christ. Greed overrides need; vanity replaces charity; and the love of money overtakes love of God.

Some churches cave in and surrender to secularism and become community centers with small chapels. Some Christians give up on God and follow the maddening crowd. Others become spiritually paralyzed and don’t know what to believe in or do.

Those churches and Christians who remain are the ones who seek God’s wisdom and look to the Holy Spirit to inspire and lead them. They do not stand still nor do they stop growing faithfully and spiritually. They know that Christ’s words are everlasting and no matter how hard the secularists try to kill off Christ, they will not succeed. Christ’s mission and ministries have faced this all before, and once again the Church will reform, revive and be resurrected. The world, society, and the devil may attempt to inflict wounds upon the Church, but they cannot prevail against God’s wisdom, Christ’s ways, or the works of the Holy Spirit.

Prayer:                        Lord Jesus, the world may try to ignore You, but it cannot eradicate Your Presence. Society may seek to diminish Your disciples, but it cannot halt Your mission. The devil may even try to cause havoc throughout the Church, but Your ministry will always prevail. Thank You for Your power and we give glory to Your Everlasting Name. 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.

Acts 11:26b     So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.

Barnabas is one of my favorite people in the Bible. He always seemed to do the right thing at the right time. When his Christian community needed money to survive, he sold his property and helped to sustain them. When no one else would trust Saul, Barnabas befriended him and taught with him. Barnabas was a great encourager, so it’s no surprise to me that he happened to be teaching in the very place where followers of Jesus were called Christians for the first time. Barnabas was and still is a great example of what it means to be a Christian.

Encouragement is something that we call can use each day, but it’s also a gift that we in the church could do better at sharing. As a pastor, I have seen people come and go to church as they please and I wish for their sake they could be more regular worshippers. I guess they are just waiting for the right word of invitation and encouragement, acceptance and love.

Perhaps today our mission is to be a Barnabas amongst our families and friends. An encouraging word goes a long way, even amongst Christians.

Prayer:                        Lord Jesus, help us to reach out to those who find it difficult to be in church on Sunday mornings. Enable us to encourage and embrace them, and not treat them as outsiders or backsliders. Let us see and accept them as God’s children and Your followers. Remind us also that we are far from being perfect ourselves. In Your Holy Name, we sincerely 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.

Proverbs 3:1-2                   My son, do not forget my teaching, but keep my commands in your heart, for they will prolong your life many years and bring you prosperity.

A lot of my time lately has been taken up with our church’s Capital Campaign. Every day I am dealing with a new item on what I call the Campaign Trail. It’s a fascinating process, but it also can get very burdensome at times.

The purpose of the Campaign is to prolong the life of the church. We are renewing ourselves for the missions and ministries that are yet to come. Our church has constantly grown because we try to apply God’s teaching to our community. Every week, people come to church to hear more about God’s Word, to seek guidance for their lives, and to be challenged by Christ in ways that will make our world a better place.

We grow because God gives us this blessing. We increase because Christ inspires us. We add to our numbers because the Holy Spirit activates our faith.

When the Campaign is over, the true work will begin. I look forward to what lies ahead for our church because we will have more opportunities to glorify God, praise Jesus Christ, and be led by the Holy Spirit.

Prayer:                 Lord Jesus, we thank You for the privilege and blessing of serving You. You take imperfect and unholy people and shape them into a church. You work in our midst and inspire us through Your wonderful words and glorious ways. Thank You for such gracious blessings. In Your Holy Name, we praise and 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.

Luke 16:31 “He said to him, ‘If they do       not listen to Moses and the Prophets,         they will not be convinced even if                 someone rises from the dead.’”

Over the years, I’ve been fascinated with the story of the Turin Shroud. It’s the famous medieval cloth that purportedly is meant to be the cloth that Christ’s Body was wrapped up in when He was placed in the tomb. The image found on the cloth is centuries old and it looks like the outline of a crucified man, especially after photographs of the Shroud were looked at in their negative prints.

I’ve never been convinced that this is the true shroud. To me, it’s a discarded canvas that Da Vinci, Michelangelo, or their artistic associates worked on and never finished. The local church in Turin capitalized on their community’s fascination with venerated objects. I guess if the shroud had been recently discovered in someone’s attic, it would end up being sold on Ebay, along with slices of toast that have Christ’s face on them.

Some people need tangible proof of Christ’s Resurrection before they will begin to believe that it actually happened. They want factual evidence, not faith. They want someone to prove that it occurred before they will place all of their lives, hearts, and souls into Christ’s keeping.

But that’s always been the important issue with God: are we willing to trust Him simply on His Word? Are we willing to trust the truth of the Gospels without question, or will we wait until the end of Time to discover it, when all will be revealed? To coin an old Southern preacher: if we wait, it will be too late.

Prayer:            Lord Jesus, faith is a hard burden to carry, especially when we try to pin it down and rationalize it. God has set us this test in order to see if we really trust Him. If we fail, we let go of any eternal hope. If we have faith, we win everlasting life. Keep us from complicating this simple challenge. In Your Holy Name, we pray. Amen.

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

Stained Glass desigin of a church on a hill

Ephesians 5:32 This is a profound mystery-but I am talking about Christ and the church.

It seems so old fashioned now, but I can remember a time when the title “Mother Church” was constantly used. It referred to the place where we were spiritually nurtured, either as a child or as a new Christian. In my lifetime, there are two places that I would call my “Mother Church.”

The first was a mission hall situated at the heart of one of Glasgow’s toughest and most deprived areas. As I picture it now, I can still see the barbed wire at the top of its steel fence and some of the graffiti that was constantly spray painted on the outside walls. Inside the hall were a couple of classrooms and a sanctuary that could seat about sixty people. The pews were stained with a dark lacquer which would stick to your clothes on a wet day. As churches go, it was as run down as the surrounding area, but it was in that hall that I first really came to hear and know about Jesus as a child.

My second nurturing church couldn’t have been anymore different. It was a huge Gothic church in the center of town. It was about three hundred years old and could seat at least a thousand people. Sadly, when I went there, the congregation numbered about sixty on Sunday mornings.

The sanctuary was magnificent and the stained glass windows were absolutely beautiful. Each time I went there, I was mesmerized. The church organ was one of the finest musical instruments in the city and the organist was a professor of music from Glasgow University.

The Ramshorn Church, as it was called, was surrounded by a cemetery that went back to the seventeenth century. It also had a downstairs Fellowship Hall with a crypt beside it where famous Cotton Merchants and Tobacco Lords were buried. And it was there in that fellowship hall, one Wednesday night in June 1977, that I gave my heart to Jesus. I was reborn and my spirit was nurtured in that church for over five years.

Perhaps today, we might all take time to think about our ‘Mother Churches,’ and give thanks to God for their importance in our lives. Some people think that churches are outdated, old fashioned, and archaic, but Christ has used them successfully as His vehicle for bringing people closer to God for almost two thousand years. The Church is the Bride of Christ, so do we honestly believe that He is going to abandon her after all these centuries? So long as Time remains, so will Christ’s Bride.

Prayer:                        Lord Jesus, thank You for the churches that have nurtured our spirits and brought us closer to You. Thank You for the congregations that have mothered us and shown us the way to God’s Kingdom. Continue to bless our present churches and help them to nurture young people and new Christians. In Your Holy 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.

We’re in the middle of a recession, a war, and an economic crisis…

…and still the Obamas think that taxpayers are their travel agents…:(