Odds and Ends

The saints at Berean Bible Ministries, San Juan Capistrano, had a memorial service in honor of our friend Keith Spoelstra's promotion to glory. Keith has been a champion for the message of grace on the west coast since the 1950's and will be missed by us all. You can listen to the service on their web site at HelpersOfYourJoy.com.

We had a very busy weekend. Last week was my week to put together a month's worth of radio: that's 20 Daily Bible Time and 4 Riches of Grace programs. I now have a studio set up at the church building so I'm no longer making the programs at home--my home studio was taken over by Cynthia in a bedroom remodeling project! This makes it a bit more of a formal process to make the program. At home, I could do it on a "when-I'm-ready" schedule (in shorts and tee shirt!); at the church building I have to at least get dressed up a bit more!

Anyway, it is a great privilege to still be doing radio. I believe in radio. We do TV and I know how tremendously effective it can be. But TV is still "owned" by the charismatic/Word of Faith crowd. Radio, on the other hand, has long been the bastion of more evangelical focused ministries. We have been on our station in Chicago, Salem Communication's WYLL (AM1160), since March 1992. It has been the base from which we have established churches across the Chicago metro area. We are also on a dozen stations in different states. Between the radio and cable television program we average over 300 phone calls per month--the great majority of which are first time callers!

You can hear our weekly and daily radio programs at ShorewoodBibleChurch.org. Check them out!

Saturday morning we had the last summer edition of our Timothy Fellowship. Alex gave an excellent study on "redeeming the time," after which a dozen men hit the streets to pass out gospel literature in our neighborhood. In the late afternoon we enjoyed a "third wedding celebration" for Jen and Bill Hatters--a delightful backyard bash. They "got married in a fever" without telling anyone, then had a ceremony in Seattle for their west coast friends and now here for friend in the Midwest. Now we all believe its true!

In between all this, Cynthia worked on CD and DVD orders, along with restocking the GSB shelves, making over 2,000 copies. Friday we took receipt of another shipment of 4,000 CDs and 2,000 DVDs along with albums, cases and shipping material. It is a lot of work, but wonderful to see the message going out!

Sunday morning I began teaching the book of Philippians. We are beginning our study in Philippians by spending three weeks in the Book of Joshua--not exactly a normal beginning, I realize. Many years ago, F. B. Myers wrote about the comparison between Joshua and Ephesians (J. Sidlow Baxter picked up on this in his excellent book, Explore the Book). The idea is that Joshua focuses on "possessing your possessions"--taking actual possession of the promised land; the same emphasis is found in Ephesians, only directed as possessing the "all spiritual blessings" bestowed upon the Body of Christ.

Paul's epistles are arranged in our Bible according to a spiritual design intended to produce the "godly edification" needed to perfect the saints. This "milk to meat"/"childhood to adulthood" progression follows the "doctrine, reproof, correction" pattern: Ephesian (doctrine), Philippians (reproof), Colossians (correction). As we recognize this relationship, we properly appreciate the Divinely intended impact of Philippians.

Unfortunately, it seems the self-absorbed nit-wittery of our age has christened Philippians as the "Handbook of Happiness" and the "Epistle of Joy." While joy and rejoicing are certainly present in this epistle, it's real focus is more readily seen in Phil. 1:9-11, 2:12, 13 and 3:14. "Working out" the appropriation of our life in Christ by abounding in "knowledge and judgment" that gives us the single mindedness to press toward that mark--in other words, to "possess our possessions" in the details of our lives. Actually, Philippians contains no less than ten specific examples demonstrating how to put "grace into shoe leather" (the path, of course, to true joy and rejoicing!). Since that is how Joshua 1:3 begins that book's focus, it is fascinating to see how Philippians also parallels Joshua in these areas. Interesting to me, anyway. You can listen to the studies on ShorewoodBibleChurch.org and decide for yourself!

Maranatha!