The Solid Rock Church

I bring you good news of  great joy that will be for all  the people.  Luke 2:10 Christmas 2016 Dear Fellow Parishioners, members and friends of The Solid Rock Church, When you read in the Bible about the work of the early Church, about the coming of Jesus Christ into this world, and the foundational meaning of all of His life’s purpose, you will see that the topic of salvation, or being “saved” is a constant in the Biblical narrative, although expressed in different ways. That stated purpose is something we tend not to see out in the world. How often do we watch a show on TV at this time of year and we hear someone pontificate that Christmas is all about the family, and getting together, and having a wonderful time together, etc.? There is nothing wrong with those things – they are quite wonderful. But is that what Christmas is all about? The secular culture seems unable, or unwilling, to embrace a Biblical meaning to the birth of Christ. Read through the book of Acts and whe

John 18: 37 records Jesus as saying, “For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world — to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” Luke 19:10 records jesus saying of Himself, “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” We can see in these two verses, and in numerous other places too, that Jesus’ life, ministry and teaching was a witness to the truth. And in that witness, He proclaimed that we – all people – were lost and needed to be saved. When we look at all that Jesus taught, it’s fairly easy to see that His view & understanding of reality was significantly different than what was the understanding of the people of His day. The same could be said today – of us. Consider the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), in particular the portion where He says, “You have heard that it was said… but I say to you…” (5:21, 27, etc.) He was telling them that their understanding of certain areas of life (and some

This might make you mad, or glad, but regardless I pray it makes you a more Biblical Christian. Of if you are not a Christian maybe it will help you understand more of the differences between these two things. (If you are not a Christian, please read my blog “The Greatest Question”  here .) Last post I wrote about the continuing “passion” that a professing Christian ought to have, and that is to seek to please God in every area of one’s life. To be sure, let me say again, this is seeking to please God is not to earn your salvation. Salvation is a gift from God we can receive, but can never earn. Seeking to please God is the primary way to express our love for God for His gracious gift and for all that He does for us. I hit on two very big “hot button” issues that face the whole world really. So where might we go next with that same desire… to please God in all aspects of life? I was directed to another blog recently that I want to, in turn, direct you to. I guess you could say

I know I wrote in my last blog that the next blog would be about “communion.” However I feel I need to write about something else before I address that topic. Now that you have committed your life to God in the receiving of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior to save you from your sin, it is only natural that we want to express our gratitude to God for doing for us what we needed the most, but could never accomplish ourselves. A life of thanksgiving is the appropriate response for such an “out of this world” gift as eternal life. Thinking of the racing analogy again for a moment, and with the 2016 Olympics in Rio recently concluding, that should give us many examples of how we “pace” ourselves for the marathon called “Life,” it behooves us to know further what we should actually be doing during the “meat” of the race. Need a refresher? See the post Et vous pret, Partez and the following blog post Settle In .  Since we are racing, we do want to give it as much as we can, but not s

Occasionally I hear someone say they have never heard of the Anglican church, or denomination. I usually answer that they likely have, but they didn’t realize it. The Anglican Church, or it’s also called the Anglican Communion, in one sense has been around since the 1500s. It is a product of God through the Protestant Reformation of the 1500s. In the United States it has been primarily, but not exclusively, known as The Episcopal Church. The term Anglican (not an-gel-i-can, as in angels, but ang-li-can as in Anglo of Anglo Saxon) points us to the Church of England. Let me state quickly though that the Anglican Communion traces its beginning all the way back to the days of the Apostles. It would not be wrong to say that because we accept the Old Testament we could be said to trace our beginnings right along with the Jewish people back to the days of Genesis. So we don’t need to understand the Anglican Communion as having begun in the 1500s. It may have been identified as the Anglican

In the last post I mentioned about baptism – that if you have not been baptized that you should inquire about that with the pastor of the local parish church you begin attending. Baptism is a very important part of faith in God. Baptism is practiced by every Christian group or denomination – at least I have never heard of one that doesn’t practice baptism. That in and of itself speaks of its importance. The Bible speaks of two kinds of “baptism.” The first kind is water baptism, and the second is Spirit baptism, or baptism in or by Holy Spirit. The type I am addressing now is water baptism. Baptism is important because the Bible points to it as being important. Jesus Himself told His disciples to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,  baptizing  them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…” (Mt. 28:19, emphasis added) The Apostle Peter in his first sermon on the day of Pentecost (50 days after the Resurrection of Jesus) in response to the crowd’

Last post I began to write about the Christian life being more like a marathon than a sprint. You began your “race” by telling at least one friend that you have committed your life to Jesus Christ – you received Him as Lord and Savior – and you are now seeking to follow Him in all of life’s parts. Now we can settle in to the longer “body” of the race. Again the Apostle Paul writes that we need to be transformed and that happens by the renewing of our mind. (Romans 12:1-2) The renewal of the mind leads to new actions too. Read Bible If you have started reading the Bible, and you are getting a good bit out of it with what you are reading, then continue on with what you have been reading. But if you aren’t sure where to begin, may I suggest you begin with reading the Gospel of John. The first four books of the New Testament are the four Gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. They are named after their authors. John was written to folks that did not have a Jewish background and up

I heard these words after I learned to row competitively in college many moons ago. They sound like “et vu (with the long “u” sound, but no vowel sound as in “view”) pray… partay.” They continue to have significance in my life, though I rarely hear them, and more rarely use them. They are French (I understand, because I have never taken any French lessons whatsoever!) and I was told they mean, “Are you ready?… Leave!” These are the words used to start a rowing race. Well, now that you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you are “out of the starting blocks” as the saying goes, and you have begun the race. Yes, what you have done can be compared to a race. The Apostle Paul, one of the major writers of the New Testament compared his life, and thereby the Christian life, to a race. But as has been said many times by many people, it’s not a sprint, but a marathon. My daughter runs marathons and she tells me the marathoner will often begin a race a bit differently than

So you have prayed the prayer at the end of the last blog post titled “Chocolate or Vanilla, Warm or Cold Climate”. Now what? By way of reminder, this is the prayer you prayed, or you prayed one very much like it: Dear Lord Jesus, thank You for loving me and coming for me. Thank You for your gift of love to me that You offered when You died on the cross. I can’t thank You enough for that, and I believe You did that for ME. I now receive Your gift – the gift of Your presence in my life, in my body, soul and spirit, and I ask You to forgive me of my sin. Cleanse me from all that separates me from God the Father. I ask You to give me Your Holy Spirit and take my life and turn it into something that honors You and glorifies You as well as fulfills my greatest need. I thank You for all You have done for me. And now Jesus, teach me Your way to live life. I thank You again Jesus, and I pray this in Your Name. Amen. Let’s take a look at what you did by praying that (or similar) prayer.

So… what do you prefer? Chocolate or vanilla? The warmer or the cooler climates? Did you answer the question re the level of importance knowing what happens after we die? Is it along the lines of personal preference, or is it along the lines of what is often called the “first order questions of life”? Enough of the luring. There are definite answers to these questions, and they do belong to the category of “first order questions of life.” To know truth about life after death, if there is any and if so what is it like, we must have evidence that is not dependent on our experience; the evidence is not based on subjective experiences or feelings or best guesses. The evidence must be  objective . That is, it must be evidence that points to and “reveals” truth that is true for all people regardless of virtually all life circumstances. I say “virtually all” because there do exist in some of the more extreme cases circumstances that would change the outcome if absolute strictness to re

Dear Sisters and Brothers in the Lord; I recently wrote the beginning blog of a series of messages for the church’s web site that I pray will help those who read it, and have not yet embraced the Gospel message of Salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, to do precisely that; to repent and live in faith and fellowship with God our Savior in the power and presence of Holy Spirit, and in fellowship with His Body here on earth – the Church. The blog is titled, “The Greatest Question?” Jesus came and gave us the answer to the greatest question, and isn’t that like our God to bless us not just in every way, but most assuredly to give us our greatest need? All we have to do is receive it and live in faith and thanksgiving to Him for His greatest gift. To that end, the Church over the many centuries has been led to offer formal times of worship, following in the long line of practices of God’s people since He brought them out of bondage in Egypt many, many centuries ago, to

If you have not read the previous blog post (The Greatest Question?), it will help if you go do so now. But if you really don’t want to, I ended with the the question of how do we know what we know, and how do we know that what we know is in fact true, real, something to put our trust in? Will we stake our life on the truth or validity of what we claim to know? Again, some may say that level of knowing or confidence in some areas of life is unknowable. And that may be very true for some areas of life. But is it true in the question of “What happens after I die?” Or more specifically, “What happens TO ME after I die?” That is the dilemma we all face: What will happen to ME when I’m dead? This can be viewed as a question of philosophy, or of religion. But again, we must ask how do those who write, speak, teach on these things know what they put forth is in fact true? Some make a best guess and leave it at that. Some make observations about people and things around them, and come to

What would you say is, or could be, the greatest question one could ask that would apply across the spectrum of humanity regardless of time, culture, or personal circumstances? As we consider the plethora of cultures and human conditions that have existed down through the ages, does one particular question come to mind that very possibly could be on all, or most of, their minds too? While many questions could possibly fit that criteria, I believe it is still possible that one in particular floats to the top of the heap of questions. That question is, “What happens after I die?” Do you have an answer to that question? If you do, how do you know it is true? How do you know you are not coming up with an answer that merely makes you feel better, but has no basis in fact? Some have called that “the great epistemological question.” How do I know what I know? How do I know that what I know is true, or right, or correct? Some answer that question by saying there is no way of knowing – t