A video devotional by Pastor Geo on Ephesians 4:31-32.

A video devotional by Geo Haines on 1 Corinthians 12:14-27.

by John Young

“Out, Out damned spot I say…”

This line is from William Shakespeare’s play, “MacBeth.” It is the story of an ambitious man (MacBeth) and his wife, Lady MacBeth. They are hungry for power and have murdered and swindled their way past, around, or over anyone who stood in their way to get what they want.

This line comes from a point in the play when Lady MacBeth is sleepwalking and she’s lamenting this imaginary blood she has on her hands that she cannot get off no matter what she does.

I couldn’t help but think of this line as I read Isaiah 1:18:

“Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.

A video devotional on Romans 14:13-19 delivered on July 29, 2020 for Christ Our Savior Baptist Church by Geo Haines.

By Kyle Newcomer

I acknowledged my sin to you,
and I did not cover my iniquity;
I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,”
and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah

Psalm 32:5 (ESV)

Admitting we’ve failed has to be one of the most unnatural things we can do. We try all kinds of ways to hide our sin. We may even lie to ourselves and try to convince ourselves we’ve done nothing wrong. We are great at justifying our sin; not so great at admitting it. Maybe you’re like me and one of your strategies for dealing with problems is just to ignore them in hopes that they go away. That’s a really foolish approach for any problem, but especially sin. But again, we’ll try almost anything to avoid coming face to face with sin, won’t we? Somewhere deep down we’re convinced that the good life is one in which you never have to say you’re sorry, where your pride goes untouched. What’s your reason for trying to cover up your sin?

This morning’s devotional comes from Psalm 65:2-4

2 O you who hear prayer,
to you shall all flesh come.
3 When iniquities prevail against me,
you atone for our transgressions.
4 Blessed is the one you choose and bring near,
to dwell in your courts!
We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house,
the holiness of your temple!

I think every Christian goes through stages where we don’t feel like there is any purpose to prayer. We say things like, “I feel like my prayers are bouncing off the ceiling.” Prayer just seems pointless.

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A devotional message on 2 Samuel 8 for Christ Our Savior Baptist Church by Kyle Newcomer.

Discussion Questions

by Tim Williamson

My family and I have recently started reading through 1 Thessalonians as part of our regular devotions. This is a wonderful letter that Paul sent to the church in Thessalonica to commend them and to encourage them to continue in faith, hope, and love. Unlike other churches where he was able to spend an extended amount of time planting and teaching (e. g., Ephesus), Paul was only able to spend a few weeks with the Thessalonian believers before he was forced to flee due to the outrage of the Jewish religious leaders in the local synagogue (Acts 17:1-8). His letters to this church reflect a desire to affirm them both in their doctrine and in their practice.

by John Young

Good morning, Beloved!

My favorite book in the Bible is the book of Ephesians. It seems to be the book that always pops into my mind, with its rich theology, its succinct analogies that serve to boggle my mind with God’s eternal purposes in choosing us, and the way that Paul shows our relationships in the church and among other Christians are informed by, and built upon, these deep theological truths and divine actions.

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A devotional on Psalm 27:4 by Geo Haines for Christ Our Savior Baptist Church

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A devotional on Acts 4 by Jeff Berkhose

By John Young

Good morning, Beloved!

I hope this email finds you well and healthy. Instead of giving you some devotional thoughts on a passage of Scripture this morning, I thought I would summarize a portion of a book I commended to you last week by John Piper, entitled, Coronavirus and Christ. By clicking on the link, you can download it for free either to read a pdf, or for your kindle, or as an mp3 to listen to. It’s a very short book; I read it in my devotional time on Sunday morning.

The second part of Piper’s book is entitled, “What is God Doing Through the Coronavirus?” I think this is a very good question for us to consider as we may encounter unbelieving family members that may think this shows that God is on leave or he is not good or he is not powerful or he doesn’t exist! Or we may ourselves may be confused as we trust that God is sovereign over it but don’t understand how we relate to it. This is a valuable exercise for us because if we consider God’s ways, we can be strengthened even in these frightening, disconcerting circumstances.

I don’t believe I am ruining the book for you by doing this…it may actually convince you to read it. Consider it a brief synopsis of a part of the book that will enable you to possibly summarize 6 ways that the Lord is working through the coronavirus.

by Kyle Newcomer

A fellow pastor recommended a good COVID-19 reading strategy: find Spurgeon's sermons on Scripture texts having to do with trials and illness. Looking through some of his sermon collections, I stumbled upon this one on Job 10:2. After reading it a couple of weeks ago, It's been coming back to mind quite often. Here's the text:

"I will say to God, Do not condemn me; let me know why you contend against me." Or as the KJV has it, "Shew me wherefore thou contendest with me."

Pastor Spurgeon offers five reasons that the Lord might contend with the believer. I think you'll find them challenging yet encouraging, but before he gets there, he says this in his introduction:

"You will all perceive at once that there must be love even in this apparently angry word. This contention must, after all, have something to do with contentment, and that this battle must be, after all, but a disguised mercy, but another shape of an embrace from the God of love. Carry this consoling reflection in your thoughts while I am preaching to you. And if any of you are saying today, “Show me wherefore you contend with me,” the very fact of God contending with you at all, the fact that He has not consumed you, that He has not smitten you to the lowest hell, may thus, at the very outset, afford consolation and hope."

Here are brief snippets of his five reasons:

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An Easter devotional for Christ Our Savior Baptist Church for April 12, 2020 by Kyle Newcomer.

by Tim Williamson

Now at the feast he used to release for them one prisoner for whom they asked. And among the rebels in prison, who had committed murder in the insurrection, there was a man called Barabbas. And the crowd came up and began to ask Pilate to do as he usually did for them. And he answered them, saying, “Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?” For he perceived that it was out of envy that the chief priests had delivered him up. But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have him release for them Barabbas instead. And Pilate again said to them, “Then what shall I do with the man you call the King of the Jews?” And they cried out again, “Crucify him.” And Pilate said to them, “Why? What evil has he done?” But they shouted all the more, “Crucify him.” So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. Mark 15:6 – 15 (ESV)

This portion of the narrative of Good Friday is familiar to most of us. Jesus, an innocent man, is condemned by Pilot to be crucified due to the incessant protests of the crowds outside his palace. These crowds had been gathered and whipped up by the Jewish religious leaders in Jerusalem who believed Jesus to both be guilty of blasphemy (that is, claiming to be God) and saw him as a threat to their positions of power and their attempts to justify themselves before God through their outward obedience to the law. Pilot was a fairly shrewd man and had correctly, “perceived that it was out of envy that the chief priests had delivered [Jesus] up.”

by John Young

Good morning, Beloved! Yesterday we began thinking about the beginning of Peter’s letter to the Gentile Christians dispersed throughout all the provinces of Asia Minor at the time. They were undergoing persecution and difficulty and lacked encouragement because they were unable to fully realize the work the Lord was doing in their midst. But what we considered yesterday was merely the beginning of the letter! We hadn’t even gotten past the greeting!

Today, I’d like us to think for a few minutes on verses 3-12. Peter offers encouragement found in the Believer’s beginning, middle, and end.

by John Young

I was blessed by a phone call from Pastor Geo yesterday and we talked about how we are struggling in the midst of the lack of contact and the cares of this world and he mentioned in passing how we are dispersed throughout the area and my mind immediately turned to this passage:

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,

To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, 2 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood:

May grace and peace be multiplied to you.

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, 11 inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories.12 It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.

Obviously, the thing that drew me here was the thought that Peter is writing to the elect exiles of the Dispersion. I’d like to briefly consider those three words today and then we’ll consider the remainder of the passage tomorrow. Let’s take these words in reverse:

by Geo Haines

by Kyle Newcomer

A century ago a pastor in Washington, D.C. named Francis Grimké shared his reflections on the Spanish Flu epidemic that had swept through the country and closed down public gatherings, including churches. You can read his reflections here, or you can listen to a reading of the sermon in this podcast episode. At one point in the sermon Pastor Grimké quoted these words from Psalm 91:1-7

1 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.

2 I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”

3 For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence.

4 He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge;

his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.

5 You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day,

6 nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday.

7 A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand,

but it will not come near you.

by John Young

by Jeff Berkhouse

This audio message was posted in our Sermons feed.

https://christoursavior.church/sermons-1/2020/3/30/psalm-60-devotional

by Tim Williamson

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

As we face the effects of a pandemic (and the social and economic consequences that it brings), it is certainly easy to become discouraged. The normal rhythms of life have been upended in both small and big ways. Activities many of us take for granted, like going to school or work, shopping for groceries, or gathering together as God’s people have either become significantly more complicated or prohibited altogether. The effects of these disruptions range from minor annoyances to serious threats to our health and safety. In a very real sense, there is a substantial degree of suffering that we are enduring on a global scale.