I’m not saying that because a person drives a car or lives in a nice house that he has “sold out” to Satan and the world.  However, we need to be continuously guarding our hearts and mind so that our first pursuit is always Christ and not the world or anything that it has to offer.  Our cars, our homes and everything that we possess need to be seen as tools to serve God and not ends in and of themselves. After all, name one thing that you have (things, friends, family, health, etc.) that hasn’t been given to you by God.  However, true to Satan’s form, he likes to take what God has provide and corrupt it so that it becomes something bad.  As a result, we are tempted to begin thinking of these things as MY car, MY house, MY friends, MY time and MY money.  I’m pretty sure that this may qualify as a form of idolatry that jeopardizes our walk with Christ.

It is dangerous to a healthy walk with Christ to live one’s life as a routine. Simply going to church, saying prayers before meals, and holding to the right core beliefs is not enough. The Pharisees were good at that.  Christ wants so much more for you and me.  Christ didn’t die on the cross to start another religion. He died to have a relationship with us that makes us alive spiritually and brings meaning to each and every day of our lives.

Satan wants you to enjoy a good religious life.  He doesn’t mind your going to church and even praying. He doesn’t even mind when we get behind Christian action groups and push conservative political groups.  What he does mind is seeing individuals having a vibrant and loving relationship with the Savior on a day-to-day basis.  Satan hates it when a believer stands with the apostle Paul and says, “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” (Philippians 1:21)  Satan hates to see committed Christians.

It is important for each of us to consistently evaluate where our hearts are so that we are right with God. I believe that the Lord was addressing the “convenient” Christian in Revelation 3 when speaking to the church in Laodicea when He says, “So because you are lukewarm…I will spit you out of My mouth.” (v. 16).  I’m sure that none of us want to face this rebuke.  So let us enjoy the rich relationship that God intends for us in Christ and let us join Paul in a worthy quest when he said in Philippians 3:12 “I’ve got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward-to Jesus. I’m off and running, and I’m not turning back.” (The Message). Years ago, we use to be encouraged with this truth when we would sing a chorus, “I have decided to follow Jesus.  No turning back. No turning back.” May each of us experience the joy and fulfillment of living a life committed to Christ.

Pastor Doug Denee

You could make your life miserable!  Your pursuit of a serious relationship with God may be compromised if your partner does not end up pursuing God as passionately as you do.  Because romance is a powerful emotion, you will struggle greatly if your partner is resistant to the life you feel called to lead.  If you fall in love with someone who ends up frustrated with the way you express and live your faith, you will not be a happy person!

You could make their life miserable! If this dating led to marriage, your partner would experience a certain degree of tension throughout his or her life by those who deeply desire their conversion to Christ. I have known a number of heavy-hearted Christian spouses (mostly wives by the way) whose partners resist the Gospel for decades and beyond! The result is two people who are not all that fulfilled—not to mention the children of that unequal relationship.

Have a good idea how serious you want to be with God before you start dating. Your relationship with Christ is the most important thing about you.  Do not get serious with opposite sex relationships until you have seriously developed your core values and spiritual convictions.  Romance sometimes sneaks in the back door of your heart and, before you know it, what isn’t nailed down can blow away!

Ask yourself:  “Would it please the Lord if I developed a “more than friend” relationship with this person?” and “Is this a person who can inspire me to a deeper walk with Christ?” Finally, we should ask: “Am I in a place in my life to be a positive impact upon this person’s spiritual life?”

“Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flows the springs of life.”  Proverbs 4:23

“Do not be bound together with unbelievers…”  II Corinthians 6:14

Pastor John Wallace Miller

     1.   Letting love be completely real (without hypocrisy)

     2.   Abhorring what is evil

     3.   Clinging to what is good

     4.   Being devoted to one another in brotherly love

     5.   Preferring that others be honored

     6.   Serving the Lord with fervency and diligence

     7.   Rejoicing in hope

     8.   Being patient in troubles

     9.   Being devoted constantly to prayer

   10.   Contributing to the needs of the saints

   11.   Practicing hospitality

   12.   Blessing persecutors and not cursing them

   13.   Being joyful with those who are rejoicing and being sorrowful with those in sorrow

   14.   Living in harmony with each other

   15.   Not being haughty, but fitting right in with the “lowly” in human terms

   16.   Not being wise in your own estimation

   17.   Never repaying evil for evil

   18.   Respecting what is true, good and right

   19.   Being at peace with everyone, so far as it depends on you

   20.   Never taking revenge but leaving that to whatever God may decide

   21.   Providing for needy enemies

   22.   Not being overwhelmed by evil but overwhelming evil with good – Romans 12:9-21

“This is the most adequate Biblical description of what the details of a spiritually transformed social dimension look like. We should pause to contemplate it. Just think for a moment what it would be like to be a part of a group of disciples in which this list was the conscious, shared intention, and where it was actually lived out, even if with some imperfection. You can see, I think, how it would totally transform the marriage relation and the home and family. Its effect on the community would be incalculable, as it in fact has been wherever realized throughout the history of Christ’s people on earth.”  Renovation of the Heart – Dallas Willard

If we truly want God’s kingdom to rule in our hearts—if we really want people to see Christ in us—we will, in the power of the Holy Spirit, allow these 22 qualities to be displayed in our lives.

John Wallace Miller

High School:  Pooley’s House, June 19th:   3:00-6:00 pm

The “it” that I am referring to is faith. If you have it, keep it, believe in it, rest on it, rely upon it, hope in it – you will be assured of heaven when you die. These are the statements of people all over the world. Faith in God as we know Him or think Him to be, even faith in faith itself is thought to be enough to give many people a happy afterlife as long as they are sincere.

I have observed that many have an uncanny ability to invent or create or make up a philosophy about God and what it takes to achieve heaven and then rest completely in that belief! It is as if they have put total confidence in their reasoning, which they see as perfectly valid and, therefore, can now live and die in peace.

I have officiated at more than 80 funerals. (A number of those who passed away had little or no religious affiliation.)  I have heard the last words or nearly the last words of scores of individuals over the course of my life. I have discussed and debated the issue of afterlife with many over the years. What I continue to discover is that way too many people are way too content with believing the imaginations of their own minds. Consider this: Your faith in something is only as valid as the object of your faith. If you place your faith in blackjack cards totaling 16, perhaps you will beat the dealer; perhaps not. If you place your faith in lucky stars, a rabbit’s foot, or fortune cookies, well…good luck! If one places his or her faith in parents’ prayers, religious rituals, a clergy’s blessings, or good deeds outweighing the bad – then these are the objects on which one hangs his or her eternal destiny. Too many people imagine a God who agrees with their faith construct without sufficient evidence for its validity! This is literally playing with fire!

Here is what I think is happening in the human mind: As creatures created in the image of God, we all have a conscience. This conscience possesses a “moral oughtness,” that is, a sense that we ought to be behaving a certain way. When we fall short of what we believe to be right, we experience guilt. Most people also have a sense that there is more to life than what we experience in this body and that we will have to give an account to God after we die. So, in order to live at peace with ourselves, we develop philosophies, beliefs, or standards to measure our relationship with God. It is evident that millions of individuals somehow rationalize a “way to be saved” to convince themselves that they will go to heaven when they die. 

Now, to be honest, we all place our faith in what we believe to be true. My study of the Bible has convinced me that faith in the person of Jesus Christ is the only way to be assured of having a right relationship with the One who made me—and the confidence of eternal life in heaven after I take my last breath. In what or whom are you placing your faith? Be as sure as you can be that the object of your faith is powerful enough to truly give you peace with God! Consider this: “Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”  Romans 5:1

John Wallace Miller

The conversation arose over how a godly young adult could find a potential spouse.   Unfortunately, far too many of our young people buy into the notion that love begins with a physical or emotional attraction and develops from there. Often, before a Christian single adult knows the spiritual maturity of another person, there is already an emotional attachment that is neither biblical nor healthy.

I asked if this person had ever thought of using E-Harmony.com in considering a spouse.  Of course, that question was met with both surprise and skepticism.  After all, this didn’t seem very spiritual.  I’m not sure, myself, how serious I was.  However, my point was and is that the selection of a potential mate needs to be based first and foremost by our values and not our hormones.  E-Harmony uses scores of screening questions to try and put people together who have common interests and values.  By having a screening process, we take out the emotional aspects until we have settled the crucial foundation for a relationship—a person’s commitment to Christ. 

In the Old Testament, God had His own version of E-Harmony when He told the Hebrews that they were not to marry foreign women. It was a divine screening process. His desire was to have a people who could jointly worship and serve Him. He also desired to have the children raised to know Him and His word.  I don’t think that this desire has changed.

A second truth for us to consider is that love isn’t something that happens to us.  Love is a choice that we make just as God made the choice to love us even though we were sinners.  If we base “love” on how we feel about a person, that love would be as up and down as our emotions.  If we base “love” on the physical attraction we have for a person, then we’ll end up like Samson in the Old Testament who sacrificed his walk with God for a beautiful woman who was bent on destroying him.  In finding a suitable spouse, a Christian must first use a value-based approach. 

The notion of “falling in love” with someone is certainly not biblical. It is culturally a western notion that lacks the concept of making the decision to commit to someone. As believers, we must first determine whether the people we want to consider for a life-long relationship share our values.  It is from this small group that each of us finds God’s choice for our life’s partner.  Is there any guarantee that if we hold out for God’s choice we will find a spouse?  No.  But, I will guarantee you that life’s experience has taught me that to be single is far better than to be married to the wrong person. 

I’ve heard it said that if one marries a person who is attractive on the outside but is ugly on the inside, that person becomes uglier every day you are together. However, if you marry someone who is beautiful (i.e., godly) on the inside, no matter how he or she looks on the outside, that person becomes more beautiful each and every day that you are together.  Like God, we need to look on the heart and not on the outside.

Pastor Doug Dennee

“The fundamental basis of this nation’s laws was given to Moses on the Mount. The fundamental basis of our Bill of Rights comes from the teachings we get from Exodus and Saint Matthew, from Isaiah and Saint Paul. I don’t think we emphasize that enough these days. If we don’t have a proper fundamental moral background, we will finally end up with a totalitarian government which does not believe in rights for anybody except the State!” -Harry S. Truman

Attack on the Sanctity of Life!

Let’s be honest. Forces are at work to try to convince us that the national moral and ethical issues of our country are only political squabbles steeped in partisanship and, therefore, should not be debated in the public square. A few years back, a group of Christian leaders in our community met with then-United States Representative from Arizona, Jim Kolbe. I urged him to vote against partial birth abortion because the procedure destroys a human being created in the image of God. He responded to me in the presence of all those present: “I can see you have an ultra-conservative political and religious bias and I cannot consider that in my decision making.” He then voted for the death of viable unborn humans! We were not taken seriously because we believed in moral absolutes and the biblical view that human life is sacred. So goes the “debate” around our country! The destruction of innocent, human life is a serious moral issue!

In Defense of Marriage!

Less than two years ago, local TV cameras entered NWBC to interview me about the Marriage Amendment being voted on by our State. The interviewer asked: “Why is traditional marriage so important and what’s wrong with gay couples raising children?” A generation ago, the answer to that question would have been so obvious – no one would have thought to ask it! Am I saying that it is not possible for gay couples to raise children in a loving environment? Not at all. I am saying that God’s standard of child-rearing includes a male father figure and a female mother figure who are committed to each other in the holy bond of marriage. That is God’s design for developing a healthy society.

The Pentagon Rejects the Prayers of Franklin Graham!

Franklin Graham was asked and then disinvited to a National Day of Prayer service at the Pentagon May 6 because he is an outspoken critic of Muslim’s traditional views of women. Traditional Muslim Sharia law and the long history of the treatment of women by Muslim men is well known throughout the world. Under Muslim Sharia law, a wife can be abused, mutilated, and in some cases murdered without impunity and it has been so for a thousand years.¹ YES, there are many Muslim men who treat their wives with respect, and recently Sharia law is being “revised” in modern cultures to accommodate the existing laws of that given society, but the history of the abuse of women is well documented. 

My point is that Franklin Graham just told the truth! He loves Muslims and lovingly ministers to their poverty and disaster-stricken needs in many countries through Samaritan’s Purse.

An extremely odd fact is that, prior to 9/11, Sharia law and Muslim treatment of women was patently condemned in Europe and the United States. Now such protests are rare and politicians are strangely silent on these atrocities. Not so the courageous Franklin Graham, and I applaud him for standing up for Muslim women, even though leaders in the highest offices of our country refuse to support him.  I am confident 99.99% of our troops AND top brass would welcome Mr. Graham’s prayers…and agree with his position!

We live during an unprecedented time of moral collapse. Our tax dollars are about to pay for abortions for any reason, without consent of parents in many states, and an unborn child can be legally murdered by a doctor just prior to his or her normal delivery in some states (partial-birth abortion). This is the mass murder of the innocent unborn and cannot escape the judgment of God!

Yes, I am angry! And my anger is being channeled to engage our local community positively. The church of Jesus Christ must invest in the lives of those who are wounded and broken because of moral bankruptcy. The rejection of Judeo/Christian ethics and morals causes the breakdown in the family resulting in a host of destructive behaviors that plague our city. Our own fellowship can step up our efforts to transform culture right where we live. With the love and compassion of Jesus Christ, you and I can penetrate the darkness and bring light and hope to the city we love!

John Wallace Miller

¹The Sharia code mandates the complete authority of men over women, including the control of their movement, education, marital options, clothing, bodies, place of residence and all other aspects of their existence. Further, it calls for the beating, punishment, and murder of women who don’t comply with Sharia requirements. womenagainstshariah.blogspot.com (There is easy access to the real teaching of Sharia law in any library as well as the Internet.)

The fact is that God, Himself, is a plurality. So, by His very nature He is not only spiritual but relational, a well.  From the time He created man, we find God walking with and talking to Adam in the Garden of Eden. Being made in God’s image means that we, too, are spiritual beings with the capability of relating to God and each another.  Actually, that statement is not quite right.  We are spiritual beings designed to be in relationship with God and one another. 

Now most people, even “real men”, have no problem with the concept of being in relationship with God. They may not say it, but you can almost hear them think, “Yep, just you and me, God.  That’s all I need in this world!”  Sounds pretty manly.  The problem is that it is not at all biblical. 

God created us all (that includes both men and women) to be in relationship (i.e., fellowship) with one another.  This is the way we address the most basic needs that God has placed in us – to love and be loved.  It is also the way that we use the spiritual gifts that God has sovereignly assigned to us.  The gifts are given to us to be used to edify the Body of Christ within the context of the Christian community and cannot be done in isolation.  

In the series that Pastor John is preaching, he will be addressing the role of fellowship in the life of the believer.  We need to understand that for every believer God has made fellowship a part of His plan for maturity.  It is in the context of relationship that we develop and practice our faith. Apart from Christian fellowship, God’s word teaches that we cannot become all that Christ wants us to become in this life. 

Knowing this, the elders of NWBC have established our Small Group Ministry so that there might be a context where each believer can grow and mature in his or her faith.  Of course, there are other groups in the church that provide fellowship opportunities, but the small group was specifically designed to do three things:

1.  Help people feel that they belong to the body
2. Help people become what God wants them to become by growing in the knowledge and practice of the Word
3. Provide opportunity for everyone to bring someone else to experience the love and saving grace of our Savior. 

Everyone needs the love and care that can be found in the fellowship of a small group.  In trying to meet this need our leadership feels that the small group provides the best environment for experiencing love while learning God’s word.    The “catch,” however, is that you have to join a small group to realize its benefits.  Right now we have openings in some of our groups and we need more people to lead groups if we are going to accomplish God’s purpose for us at NWBC.  Call me.  Write me.  E-mail me.  Send a carrier pigeon.  I just want to hear from you.  Especially if you are open to leading a group, contact me.  You will receive both training and support if you would like to give this a try.  I encourage you to enrich your life by being involved in a small group.

Pastor Doug Dennee