WHY ‘THE CHURCH?’

August 25, 2021

CONCLUSION

           I am as confused and uncertain as any of you. What does the future look like? What kind of church will we become? What kind of people does God call us to be? These past months of mandates, arguments, frustrations, conflicting reports from trusted sources…is there even a way forward?

           I desperately want to believe that God has a future for our church. Let me share with you tonight several thoughts (I will also provide a link to this on our FACEBOOK page. PLEASE take the time to read it):

OUR MISSIONAL MOMENT

1. Our address IS our mission

           I won’t retell the story of our church’s birth. What I will do is remind us that we are not here by accident. The physical place we occupy is significant because the space we occupy is a daily, visual reminder to our community that we care.

           In September we will launch 2 new initiatives related to our address:

           a). PRAY AND GO

           Earlier this summer we offered a brief overview of the process. In order to fully launch I need some help. (SEE ATTACHED FOR MORE INFORMATION)

           b). Bless Every Home

           The Northwest Baptist Convention, our regional ministry partner, has graciously provided a church-wide subscription to this resource. If you sign up you will be sent names and addresses of neighbors (at least the name on the property deed, available via public records) via email daily. Bless Every Home even provides prayer prompts as you pray for your neighbors.

This should be available to all who are interested my mid-September.

2. The Gospel is our only resource

“Now brothers, I want to clarify for you the gospel I proclaimed to you; you received it and have taken your stand on it. You are also saved by it, if you hold to the message I proclaimed to you—unless you believed for no purpose. For I passed on to you as most important what I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,” (1 Corinthians 15:1–4, HCSB)

           What is the gospel?

a). The gospel begins with the affirmation that God’s world as He created it is good (Genesis 1).

b). The gospel reminds us that humans are born sinners by nature (see Genesis 3, Romans 1-3). People are not born ‘good’ and educated into ‘badness.’ People are born sinners and apart from the good news of Jesus Christ they are lost, destined for an eternity apart from God in hell – no matter how ‘good’ their live may be.

c). The gospel tells us that there is only one remedy for sin. The remedy is not ‘church’ nor is the remedy ‘living a good, moral life.’ Only as each individual accepts the death of Jesus in their place can one be set free from the sin that condemns. Only the death of Jesus is sufficient to erase the debt of sin with which we are born.

d). The gospel offers hope. Through death – Jesus’ death in our place – we can discover new life. There can be no new life except through the death –

“For if we have been joined with Him in the likeness of His death, we will certainly also be in the likeness of His resurrection.” (Romans 6:5, HCSB)

“But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love that He had for us, made us alive with the Messiah even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace! Together with Christ Jesus He also raised us up and seated us in the heavens, so that in the coming ages He might display the immeasurable riches of His grace through His kindness to us in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 2:4–7, HCSB)

d). The gospel sets us free to live as God intended human beings to live.

           Make no mistake. If we miss this we miss the entire purpose for which God planted us here. If we lose sight of the gospel, we become nothing more than another social group. Proclaiming the gospel – the good news that Jesus saves – is our lifeblood.

3. The gathered church is as necessary as the sent/scattered church

           I know it’s difficult to ‘attend’ church. It’s an effort. Should we mask up? Should we just stay home and offer worship virtually? Why bother with a building?

           A. The Gathered Church:

           Worship – ascribing worth to God – is first and foremost between the individual and God. Yet there is a longing in all of us – part of the nature of God which indwells even those farthest from the Kingdom of God – to be with one another. God Himself acknowledged that it is not good for man to be alone (Genesis 2:18; see also Genesis 1:26-28).

           We are to worship God alone, but we are also commanded to gather to worship. There are far too many Scriptures to list here that call us to worship. When we neglect gathering together we are telling God that His ways are unimportant, that His commands are unnecessary. It is a denial of our new life in Christ to avoid gathering with other believers regularly for worship. (You know I’m not talking about being on vacation, being home ill, and other legitimate reasons one might miss a weekly gathering).

           Instruction – Learning together from the Word of God is crucial. No, I am not suggesting we meet and ask, ‘what does this verse mean to you?’ Rather, gathering together to present God’s truth in ways that all ages can comprehend is our heritage as believers. In Acts 2, as soon as 3,000 new believers were added to the group of just over 100, they began meeting regularly to hear the apostle’s teaching – that is, their memories of all Jesus taught them.

           Fellowship – One of the pictures of ‘church’ developed in the NT is the of the church as a body (1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12, Ephesians 4; 1 Peter 4). We all know what it feels like when one part of our body is hurting. The whole hurts! Isolation, avoiding others – it may be part of the protocol for recovering from COVID, but as a long term strategy for life it fails. Being one ‘body’ in Christ encourages us to gather for multiple reasons – from celebrating life’s beginnings to sharing together the transitions from life here on earth to life with Jesus in heaven.

           Expression/Evangelism – Sharing the good news of Jesus happens most effectively one on one. It does happen in larger groups like Vacation Bible School, gospel concerts, family oriented films, or any number of ways God’s people get together. In times of crisis gathering as the people of God can be a powerful witness to the world in which we live of the unity of the Father and the Son and the Spirit (See John 17).

           B. The Scattered Church:

           When God’s people leave the building – for whatever purpose they have gathered – they are still the church! God never intended His people to live sequestered apart from the rest of the world. Jesus didn’t order His followers to huddle together in buildings waiting for His return. No, Jesus commanded His followers to make disciples – AS THEY WENT ABOUT THEIR LIVES.

           The book of Acts in the New Testament is not about a group of people who hid themselves from the world. Rather it is an account of how the Holy Spirit empowered Jesus’ followers to penetrate the Roman Empire, indeed the entire world, with the good news of Jesus!

4. This Missional Moment

           None of us knows what the future holds. Though I can’t predict the future, let me make a couple of promises:

           1. We will leverage our building in any way possible to reach the community around us with the good news of Jesus Christ.

           Pray for us – next month I will meet with the Winston-Dillard Food Bank to open discussions about how our part of our property might be available for use as a permanent home for the food bank.

           I continue to look for ways to open our building to community groups needing places to meet.

           2. We will promote and proclaim the gospel in all we say and do.

           Any event our church hosts will provide an avenue to present the gospel. It might be a gospel tract, it might be a film, it might be handing out Bibles, it could be many different ways. But the gospel is the only hope for people who are dying and going to an eternity without God in hell.

           3. We will continue to encourage believers of all ages to worship God together; we will do all we can to provide biblical teaching in ways appropriate to every age group; we will gather as often as we can to encourage one another, to pray for one another, to experience joy and/or grief together; we will endeavor to present the gospel clearly and boldly.

Psalm 91

Night Terrors

           Night terrors (vs 5) are excruciating and exhausting for the one experiencing them and the family surrounding them. Plague and pestilence create death and every family member is impacted. It is tempting to read this psalm as an assurance that nothing evil, nothing harmful nothing destructive impacts those who trust God.

           The opposite may be closer to the truth. Evil exists. Harmful things happen. Destruction occurs. These are consequences of the fall (see Genesis 3). Twice the psalmist references where he chooses to dwell or make one’s habitation (see vs 2, 9).

           The evil and darkness of the world around us is a natural result of the sin of Adam and Even compounded by generation after generation of men and women just like Adam and Eve.

These are not permanent conditions. Six times in the last section God promises that He will act – deliver, protect, answer, be with, rescue, and satisfy.

           In order to receive all that God has for us, though, we have to call out to Him. Sometimes the most effective prayer is the shortest one – ‘Help!’ All of us experience a variety of challenges. None of us are exempt from the consequences of the Fall. Every one of us is but a prayer away from God’s gracious promises.

Psalm 88

“…abandoned among the dead”

(NOTE: I am beginning my series of reflections on the Psalms again after a month’s absence. This reflection is longer than many, but I need to share this with you.)

           Deep depression and paralyzing anxiety have been part of my makeup since I can remember. For many years I had no words with which to describe my condition. I have vivid memories of lying awake for hours, paralyzed by anxiety, unable to reach the light on the nightstand next to my bed. I can remember hours in my study unable to reach for the phone. I can remember seasons when I could barely function. Oh, I went through the motions. I showed up for work. I preached and led worship. I made visits with my church family. I led in evangelistic meetings. I collaborated with other pastors in community events. I spent time with my wife and kids. All the while at times my mind and heart were racing with anxiety and/or deep and often uncontrollable despair.

           I remember hearing more than once how believers, particularly pastors, should be so spiritually attuned to God that peace would totally prevail. So, instead of sharing my experiences I hid them, and when I couldn’t hide my actions I blamed stress for my failures.

           In the past thirty years I discovered several powerful resources. First, I spoke to my physician. He and I agreed on a course of medical treatment that has been helpful. Second, I make sure to stay in touch with a group of trusted believers with whom I can be totally transparent. Third, and perhaps most helpful I rediscovered the Psalms of the Old Testament.

           The prayers and songs composed by believers centuries before the birth of Christ voiced almost every emotion I have ever experienced.

           The 88th psalm begins not with a note of discouragement, but an pronouncement of faith - “Lord, God of my salvation, I cry out before You day and night.” (Psalm 88:1, HCSB). God IS the Lord of MY salvation. Without that anchor for my soul the darkness may well have claimed my life. As I immersed myself in the psalms, the prayer book of Judaism, I began to find fellow-sufferers who often voiced my deepest hurts and hungers to God. Using the their words I learned that I am not alone.

           Some would read Psalm 88 as a prayer of failure. Blaming God (vs 6, 14-15, 16-18) and expressing abandonment may strike some as words of a failed servant. I read them and pray them not as one who has failed, but as one who knows that God alone can rescue me from the pit of despair, the overwhelming paralysis of anxiety.

Dec 19

Luke 19

You did not recognize the time when God visited you

           On Jesus’ last journey to Jerusalem He passed through Jericho with others headed to Jerusalem for Passover. Those who had been following Jesus were eagerly anticipating some sort of showdown between Jesus and the Romans. The kingdom which Jesus had been incessantly talking about was near. It was time.

           In Jericho people lined the route to see Jesus. Zacchaeus had to climb a tree in order to see “who Jesus was” (vs 3). Little did he know Jesus ‘saw’ him! The exchange between these two illustrate the nature of the kingdom, but few had the eyes to really see what it was about.

           Entering Jerusalem with the crowds gathering for Passover the eagerness for God to act intensified. Crowds began to acknowledge this Jesus (vs 38), full of anticipation for all that was about to occur.

           As Jesus drew near, however, He saw something entirely different. What He saw was a city overflowing with people eager to experience the kingdom of God, but people who were  completely missing the point. “If you knew…” (vs 42). Jesus grieved because it was clear they didn’t know.

           Entering the Temple all Jesus could see were hindrances and obstacles to the in-breaking kingdom of God. Clearing the Temple was temporary -  the real cleansing would occur in a few days. The kingdom was coming, just not in the way most people were eagerly anticipating.

           Christmas is less than a week away. What are you seeing as you look at the traffic, as you hustle and bustle through the stores? May God give us open eyes to see the truth: “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10).

Dec 18

Luke 18

They understood none of these things.

           Pray with persistence. Pray in humility. Trust like children, be willing to give all for possessing the kingdom of God. Those who had been with Jesus the longest, the fishermen hed had called by name, the tax-collector whose life Jesus had disrupted, others He had identified as ‘apostles,’ none of them understood. Having heard Jesus teach, seeing His perform miracles for nearly three years, and they still did not understand.

           It all sounds so clear in our ears doesn’t it? Or does it? We still pray with little or no persistence. We still brag about our diligence and our accomplishments for God. We still act superior to those who act like children. We hold on to our ‘things’ and miss much of what God is really doing in our world.

           If we want to understand, then we need to trust completely like a child, let go of anything that is keeping us anchored to this world, and learn to live fully exposed before God. Then maybe we can begin to understand.

Dec 15

Luke 15

“This man welcomes sinners…”

           A serious accusation is leveled against Jesus by the religious conservatives of His era. An obedient Jew, as defined by the OT and the centuries of interpretation, sought to be totally distinct from any hint of sin. Welcoming ‘sinners,’ and even more damaging to Jesus’ reputation – “He eats with them” (vs 2). To have a meal is to be in close, even intimate, fellowship.

           Jesus could have ignored this challenge. Instead He tells three stories (parables) to illustrate the deep and unending compassion of God for all creation. C. H. Spurgeon wrote of these parables

[God] has a deep sympathy with each stray heart…He grieves over each lost sheep, for he knows the misery that lies in the fact of being lost. … His compassion…[is]…the compassion of an infinite heart brimming over with an ocean of love.

A lost sheep, a lost coin, a lost son, and an unforgiving son all are ways Jesus illustrates God’s never-ending compassion for His own.

           We are never as far from God’s heart as we often think. Like the father in the parable of the two sons, God is eager to receive the repentant heart.  

C. H. Spurgeon, The Spurgeon Study Bible: Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN.: Holman Bible Publishers, 2017), 1400.

As Christmas season comes around again, people begin to think of decorated trees, tables and arches, mistletoe, manger scenes, and GIFTS! Eggnog, candy canes, cookies, luscious dinners, caroling, family visits, snow, ice skating, ski trips, tobogganing, and sledding. As an IMB SBC missionary for more than three decades out here — I pen these words on Oct. 5, 2020 in Chile, where spring has sprung — what do I think about? Well, for starters, heat, BBQ, watermelon, and firecrackers. Yes, we do put up a tree, and give gifts, but at the other end of the globe, and below the equator, it is summer. No turkeys are even available in most places where missionaries serve. What I think about more than anything is the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, the offering that Southern Baptist churches, partners, missionaries and their kids support at this time of the year, and which pays for our support and which keeps us, more than 3,600 missionaries and their children, on the field. At this time, of the year four key words come to my mind:

-GRATITUDE: How thankful we are for the billions of dollars that SBC churches and individuals have poured out over so many decades in an offering of gratitude and praise to the Baby in a manger. It is an offering of gratitude to the One who was incarnated, who grew up, set up His tent among us, led a sinless human life, and then gave His life for a lost world. He then rose again on the third day and ascended into heaven, where He intercedes at the right hand of the Father for all who believe in Him. We share Him with the lost world, and we do it because of faithful giving to the LMCO.

-LOSTNESS: I think of Kara and Bruno, Kara’s two-year-old boy. We met them on a prayer walk yesterday near our home in Chile. Kara was sitting on a bench. We approached her and found that she lives here and is married to a Chilean. She speaks English, and her father was a diplomat. She talked about how she often feels lonely, not knowing when she will see her family again. We gave her a tract, called “Steps to Peace with God,” and left. We now pray regularly for her and pray she will call us, or that we can meet again.

-OPPORTUNITY: Our Lottie Moon offerings — yours and mine — pay for missionary rent, missionary health care, medications, food, and fuel. They even pay for the tract I gave to Mrs. Kara yesterday. The offerings also pay for us to share Theological, Biblical and Pastoral training with pastors and leaders in the interior of a country. Many potential pastors have never been to the capital and cannot easily go there to study in the seminary. Many people, like Pastor Raul, studied that way. Pastor Raul is a seminary teacher and pastors three churches in Uruguay’s outback. He also serves as the Secretary of the Uruguay Baptist Convention All this happened because of gifts to the Cooperative Program and our faithful giving to LMCO.

-SACRIFICE: When God gave his son Jesus for a lost world, He gave his best. He gave his only, and He gave just what we needed. He so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son (John. 3:16). When I give my LMCO offering, I want it to be my best. I want it to be sacrificial, and I want it to be something that costs until it almost hurts. I make it my most expensive Christmas gift. I do not want to give to the risen Lord something as an afterthought. I want it to be well thought out, planned and sacrificial. Is that not the Spirit of Christmas? God gave us the best, His only and just what we needed. So why do I — an IMB SBC missionary of more than three decades — give to LMCO? Because I believe the offering is well utilized and administered, and I believe that I am privileged to do so.

Tim Kunkel Santiago Chile

OCT, 15 th 2020

Heb. 6:10

WHY ‘THE CHURCH?’

August 25, 2021

CONCLUSION

           I am as confused and uncertain as any of you. What does the future look like? What kind of church will we become? What kind of people does God call us to be? These past months of mandates, arguments, frustrations, conflicting reports from trusted sources…is there even a way forward?

           I desperately want to believe that God has a future for our church. Let me share with you tonight several thoughts (I will also provide a link to this on our FACEBOOK page. PLEASE take the time to read it):

OUR MISSIONAL MOMENT

1. Our address IS our mission

           I won’t retell the story of our church’s birth. What I will do is remind us that we are not here by accident. The physical place we occupy is significant because the space we occupy is a daily, visual reminder to our community that we care.

           In September we will launch 2 new initiatives related to our address:

           a). PRAY AND GO

           Earlier this summer we offered a brief overview of the process. In order to fully launch I need some help. (SEE ATTACHED FOR MORE INFORMATION)

           b). Bless Every Home

           The Northwest Baptist Convention, our regional ministry partner, has graciously provided a church-wide subscription to this resource. If you sign up you will be sent names and addresses of neighbors (at least the name on the property deed, available via public records) via email daily. Bless Every Home even provides prayer prompts as you pray for your neighbors.

This should be available to all who are interested my mid-September.

2. The Gospel is our only resource

“Now brothers, I want to clarify for you the gospel I proclaimed to you; you received it and have taken your stand on it. You are also saved by it, if you hold to the message I proclaimed to you—unless you believed for no purpose. For I passed on to you as most important what I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,” (1 Corinthians 15:1–4, HCSB)

           What is the gospel?

a). The gospel begins with the affirmation that God’s world as He created it is good (Genesis 1).

b). The gospel reminds us that humans are born sinners by nature (see Genesis 3, Romans 1-3). People are not born ‘good’ and educated into ‘badness.’ People are born sinners and apart from the good news of Jesus Christ they are lost, destined for an eternity apart from God in hell – no matter how ‘good’ their live may be.

c). The gospel tells us that there is only one remedy for sin. The remedy is not ‘church’ nor is the remedy ‘living a good, moral life.’ Only as each individual accepts the death of Jesus in their place can one be set free from the sin that condemns. Only the death of Jesus is sufficient to erase the debt of sin with which we are born.

d). The gospel offers hope. Through death – Jesus’ death in our place – we can discover new life. There can be no new life except through the death –

“For if we have been joined with Him in the likeness of His death, we will certainly also be in the likeness of His resurrection.” (Romans 6:5, HCSB)

“But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love that He had for us, made us alive with the Messiah even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace! Together with Christ Jesus He also raised us up and seated us in the heavens, so that in the coming ages He might display the immeasurable riches of His grace through His kindness to us in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 2:4–7, HCSB)

d). The gospel sets us free to live as God intended human beings to live.

           Make no mistake. If we miss this we miss the entire purpose for which God planted us here. If we lose sight of the gospel, we become nothing more than another social group. Proclaiming the gospel – the good news that Jesus saves – is our lifeblood.

3. The gathered church is as necessary as the sent/scattered church

           I know it’s difficult to ‘attend’ church. It’s an effort. Should we mask up? Should we just stay home and offer worship virtually? Why bother with a building?

           A. The Gathered Church:

           Worship – ascribing worth to God – is first and foremost between the individual and God. Yet there is a longing in all of us – part of the nature of God which indwells even those farthest from the Kingdom of God – to be with one another. God Himself acknowledged that it is not good for man to be alone (Genesis 2:18; see also Genesis 1:26-28).

           We are to worship God alone, but we are also commanded to gather to worship. There are far too many Scriptures to list here that call us to worship. When we neglect gathering together we are telling God that His ways are unimportant, that His commands are unnecessary. It is a denial of our new life in Christ to avoid gathering with other believers regularly for worship. (You know I’m not talking about being on vacation, being home ill, and other legitimate reasons one might miss a weekly gathering).

           Instruction – Learning together from the Word of God is crucial. No, I am not suggesting we meet and ask, ‘what does this verse mean to you?’ Rather, gathering together to present God’s truth in ways that all ages can comprehend is our heritage as believers. In Acts 2, as soon as 3,000 new believers were added to the group of just over 100, they began meeting regularly to hear the apostle’s teaching – that is, their memories of all Jesus taught them.

           Fellowship – One of the pictures of ‘church’ developed in the NT is the of the church as a body (1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12, Ephesians 4; 1 Peter 4). We all know what it feels like when one part of our body is hurting. The whole hurts! Isolation, avoiding others – it may be part of the protocol for recovering from COVID, but as a long term strategy for life it fails. Being one ‘body’ in Christ encourages us to gather for multiple reasons – from celebrating life’s beginnings to sharing together the transitions from life here on earth to life with Jesus in heaven.

           Expression/Evangelism – Sharing the good news of Jesus happens most effectively one on one. It does happen in larger groups like Vacation Bible School, gospel concerts, family oriented films, or any number of ways God’s people get together. In times of crisis gathering as the people of God can be a powerful witness to the world in which we live of the unity of the Father and the Son and the Spirit (See John 17).

           B. The Scattered Church:

           When God’s people leave the building – for whatever purpose they have gathered – they are still the church! God never intended His people to live sequestered apart from the rest of the world. Jesus didn’t order His followers to huddle together in buildings waiting for His return. No, Jesus commanded His followers to make disciples – AS THEY WENT ABOUT THEIR LIVES.

           The book of Acts in the New Testament is not about a group of people who hid themselves from the world. Rather it is an account of how the Holy Spirit empowered Jesus’ followers to penetrate the Roman Empire, indeed the entire world, with the good news of Jesus!

4. This Missional Moment

           None of us knows what the future holds. Though I can’t predict the future, let me make a couple of promises:

           1. We will leverage our building in any way possible to reach the community around us with the good news of Jesus Christ.

           Pray for us – next month I will meet with the Winston-Dillard Food Bank to open discussions about how our part of our property might be available for use as a permanent home for the food bank.

           I continue to look for ways to open our building to community groups needing places to meet.

           2. We will promote and proclaim the gospel in all we say and do.

           Any event our church hosts will provide an avenue to present the gospel. It might be a gospel tract, it might be a film, it might be handing out Bibles, it could be many different ways. But the gospel is the only hope for people who are dying and going to an eternity without God in hell.

           3. We will continue to encourage believers of all ages to worship God together; we will do all we can to provide biblical teaching in ways appropriate to every age group; we will gather as often as we can to encourage one another, to pray for one another, to experience joy and/or grief together; we will endeavor to present the gospel clearly and boldly.

Psalm 91

Night Terrors

           Night terrors (vs 5) are excruciating and exhausting for the one experiencing them and the family surrounding them. Plague and pestilence create death and every family member is impacted. It is tempting to read this psalm as an assurance that nothing evil, nothing harmful nothing destructive impacts those who trust God.

           The opposite may be closer to the truth. Evil exists. Harmful things happen. Destruction occurs. These are consequences of the fall (see Genesis 3). Twice the psalmist references where he chooses to dwell or make one’s habitation (see vs 2, 9).

           The evil and darkness of the world around us is a natural result of the sin of Adam and Even compounded by generation after generation of men and women just like Adam and Eve.

These are not permanent conditions. Six times in the last section God promises that He will act – deliver, protect, answer, be with, rescue, and satisfy.

           In order to receive all that God has for us, though, we have to call out to Him. Sometimes the most effective prayer is the shortest one – ‘Help!’ All of us experience a variety of challenges. None of us are exempt from the consequences of the Fall. Every one of us is but a prayer away from God’s gracious promises.

Psalm 88

“…abandoned among the dead”

(NOTE: I am beginning my series of reflections on the Psalms again after a month’s absence. This reflection is longer than many, but I need to share this with you.)

           Deep depression and paralyzing anxiety have been part of my makeup since I can remember. For many years I had no words with which to describe my condition. I have vivid memories of lying awake for hours, paralyzed by anxiety, unable to reach the light on the nightstand next to my bed. I can remember hours in my study unable to reach for the phone. I can remember seasons when I could barely function. Oh, I went through the motions. I showed up for work. I preached and led worship. I made visits with my church family. I led in evangelistic meetings. I collaborated with other pastors in community events. I spent time with my wife and kids. All the while at times my mind and heart were racing with anxiety and/or deep and often uncontrollable despair.

           I remember hearing more than once how believers, particularly pastors, should be so spiritually attuned to God that peace would totally prevail. So, instead of sharing my experiences I hid them, and when I couldn’t hide my actions I blamed stress for my failures.

           In the past thirty years I discovered several powerful resources. First, I spoke to my physician. He and I agreed on a course of medical treatment that has been helpful. Second, I make sure to stay in touch with a group of trusted believers with whom I can be totally transparent. Third, and perhaps most helpful I rediscovered the Psalms of the Old Testament.

           The prayers and songs composed by believers centuries before the birth of Christ voiced almost every emotion I have ever experienced.

           The 88th psalm begins not with a note of discouragement, but an pronouncement of faith - “Lord, God of my salvation, I cry out before You day and night.” (Psalm 88:1, HCSB). God IS the Lord of MY salvation. Without that anchor for my soul the darkness may well have claimed my life. As I immersed myself in the psalms, the prayer book of Judaism, I began to find fellow-sufferers who often voiced my deepest hurts and hungers to God. Using the their words I learned that I am not alone.

           Some would read Psalm 88 as a prayer of failure. Blaming God (vs 6, 14-15, 16-18) and expressing abandonment may strike some as words of a failed servant. I read them and pray them not as one who has failed, but as one who knows that God alone can rescue me from the pit of despair, the overwhelming paralysis of anxiety.

Dec 19

Luke 19

You did not recognize the time when God visited you

           On Jesus’ last journey to Jerusalem He passed through Jericho with others headed to Jerusalem for Passover. Those who had been following Jesus were eagerly anticipating some sort of showdown between Jesus and the Romans. The kingdom which Jesus had been incessantly talking about was near. It was time.

           In Jericho people lined the route to see Jesus. Zacchaeus had to climb a tree in order to see “who Jesus was” (vs 3). Little did he know Jesus ‘saw’ him! The exchange between these two illustrate the nature of the kingdom, but few had the eyes to really see what it was about.

           Entering Jerusalem with the crowds gathering for Passover the eagerness for God to act intensified. Crowds began to acknowledge this Jesus (vs 38), full of anticipation for all that was about to occur.

           As Jesus drew near, however, He saw something entirely different. What He saw was a city overflowing with people eager to experience the kingdom of God, but people who were  completely missing the point. “If you knew…” (vs 42). Jesus grieved because it was clear they didn’t know.

           Entering the Temple all Jesus could see were hindrances and obstacles to the in-breaking kingdom of God. Clearing the Temple was temporary -  the real cleansing would occur in a few days. The kingdom was coming, just not in the way most people were eagerly anticipating.

           Christmas is less than a week away. What are you seeing as you look at the traffic, as you hustle and bustle through the stores? May God give us open eyes to see the truth: “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10).

Dec 18

Luke 18

They understood none of these things.

           Pray with persistence. Pray in humility. Trust like children, be willing to give all for possessing the kingdom of God. Those who had been with Jesus the longest, the fishermen hed had called by name, the tax-collector whose life Jesus had disrupted, others He had identified as ‘apostles,’ none of them understood. Having heard Jesus teach, seeing His perform miracles for nearly three years, and they still did not understand.

           It all sounds so clear in our ears doesn’t it? Or does it? We still pray with little or no persistence. We still brag about our diligence and our accomplishments for God. We still act superior to those who act like children. We hold on to our ‘things’ and miss much of what God is really doing in our world.

           If we want to understand, then we need to trust completely like a child, let go of anything that is keeping us anchored to this world, and learn to live fully exposed before God. Then maybe we can begin to understand.

Dec 15

Luke 15

“This man welcomes sinners…”

           A serious accusation is leveled against Jesus by the religious conservatives of His era. An obedient Jew, as defined by the OT and the centuries of interpretation, sought to be totally distinct from any hint of sin. Welcoming ‘sinners,’ and even more damaging to Jesus’ reputation – “He eats with them” (vs 2). To have a meal is to be in close, even intimate, fellowship.

           Jesus could have ignored this challenge. Instead He tells three stories (parables) to illustrate the deep and unending compassion of God for all creation. C. H. Spurgeon wrote of these parables

[God] has a deep sympathy with each stray heart…He grieves over each lost sheep, for he knows the misery that lies in the fact of being lost. … His compassion…[is]…the compassion of an infinite heart brimming over with an ocean of love.

A lost sheep, a lost coin, a lost son, and an unforgiving son all are ways Jesus illustrates God’s never-ending compassion for His own.

           We are never as far from God’s heart as we often think. Like the father in the parable of the two sons, God is eager to receive the repentant heart.  

C. H. Spurgeon, The Spurgeon Study Bible: Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN.: Holman Bible Publishers, 2017), 1400.

As Christmas season comes around again, people begin to think of decorated trees, tables and arches, mistletoe, manger scenes, and GIFTS! Eggnog, candy canes, cookies, luscious dinners, caroling, family visits, snow, ice skating, ski trips, tobogganing, and sledding. As an IMB SBC missionary for more than three decades out here — I pen these words on Oct. 5, 2020 in Chile, where spring has sprung — what do I think about? Well, for starters, heat, BBQ, watermelon, and firecrackers. Yes, we do put up a tree, and give gifts, but at the other end of the globe, and below the equator, it is summer. No turkeys are even available in most places where missionaries serve. What I think about more than anything is the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, the offering that Southern Baptist churches, partners, missionaries and their kids support at this time of the year, and which pays for our support and which keeps us, more than 3,600 missionaries and their children, on the field. At this time, of the year four key words come to my mind:

-GRATITUDE: How thankful we are for the billions of dollars that SBC churches and individuals have poured out over so many decades in an offering of gratitude and praise to the Baby in a manger. It is an offering of gratitude to the One who was incarnated, who grew up, set up His tent among us, led a sinless human life, and then gave His life for a lost world. He then rose again on the third day and ascended into heaven, where He intercedes at the right hand of the Father for all who believe in Him. We share Him with the lost world, and we do it because of faithful giving to the LMCO.

-LOSTNESS: I think of Kara and Bruno, Kara’s two-year-old boy. We met them on a prayer walk yesterday near our home in Chile. Kara was sitting on a bench. We approached her and found that she lives here and is married to a Chilean. She speaks English, and her father was a diplomat. She talked about how she often feels lonely, not knowing when she will see her family again. We gave her a tract, called “Steps to Peace with God,” and left. We now pray regularly for her and pray she will call us, or that we can meet again.

-OPPORTUNITY: Our Lottie Moon offerings — yours and mine — pay for missionary rent, missionary health care, medications, food, and fuel. They even pay for the tract I gave to Mrs. Kara yesterday. The offerings also pay for us to share Theological, Biblical and Pastoral training with pastors and leaders in the interior of a country. Many potential pastors have never been to the capital and cannot easily go there to study in the seminary. Many people, like Pastor Raul, studied that way. Pastor Raul is a seminary teacher and pastors three churches in Uruguay’s outback. He also serves as the Secretary of the Uruguay Baptist Convention All this happened because of gifts to the Cooperative Program and our faithful giving to LMCO.

-SACRIFICE: When God gave his son Jesus for a lost world, He gave his best. He gave his only, and He gave just what we needed. He so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son (John. 3:16). When I give my LMCO offering, I want it to be my best. I want it to be sacrificial, and I want it to be something that costs until it almost hurts. I make it my most expensive Christmas gift. I do not want to give to the risen Lord something as an afterthought. I want it to be well thought out, planned and sacrificial. Is that not the Spirit of Christmas? God gave us the best, His only and just what we needed. So why do I — an IMB SBC missionary of more than three decades — give to LMCO? Because I believe the offering is well utilized and administered, and I believe that I am privileged to do so.

Tim Kunkel Santiago Chile

OCT, 15 th 2020

Heb. 6:10

WHY ‘THE CHURCH?’

August 25, 2021

CONCLUSION

           I am as confused and uncertain as any of you. What does the future look like? What kind of church will we become? What kind of people does God call us to be? These past months of mandates, arguments, frustrations, conflicting reports from trusted sources…is there even a way forward?

           I desperately want to believe that God has a future for our church. Let me share with you tonight several thoughts (I will also provide a link to this on our FACEBOOK page. PLEASE take the time to read it):

OUR MISSIONAL MOMENT

1. Our address IS our mission

           I won’t retell the story of our church’s birth. What I will do is remind us that we are not here by accident. The physical place we occupy is significant because the space we occupy is a daily, visual reminder to our community that we care.

           In September we will launch 2 new initiatives related to our address:

           a). PRAY AND GO

           Earlier this summer we offered a brief overview of the process. In order to fully launch I need some help. (SEE ATTACHED FOR MORE INFORMATION)

           b). Bless Every Home

           The Northwest Baptist Convention, our regional ministry partner, has graciously provided a church-wide subscription to this resource. If you sign up you will be sent names and addresses of neighbors (at least the name on the property deed, available via public records) via email daily. Bless Every Home even provides prayer prompts as you pray for your neighbors.

This should be available to all who are interested my mid-September.

2. The Gospel is our only resource

“Now brothers, I want to clarify for you the gospel I proclaimed to you; you received it and have taken your stand on it. You are also saved by it, if you hold to the message I proclaimed to you—unless you believed for no purpose. For I passed on to you as most important what I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,” (1 Corinthians 15:1–4, HCSB)

           What is the gospel?

a). The gospel begins with the affirmation that God’s world as He created it is good (Genesis 1).

b). The gospel reminds us that humans are born sinners by nature (see Genesis 3, Romans 1-3). People are not born ‘good’ and educated into ‘badness.’ People are born sinners and apart from the good news of Jesus Christ they are lost, destined for an eternity apart from God in hell – no matter how ‘good’ their live may be.

c). The gospel tells us that there is only one remedy for sin. The remedy is not ‘church’ nor is the remedy ‘living a good, moral life.’ Only as each individual accepts the death of Jesus in their place can one be set free from the sin that condemns. Only the death of Jesus is sufficient to erase the debt of sin with which we are born.

d). The gospel offers hope. Through death – Jesus’ death in our place – we can discover new life. There can be no new life except through the death –

“For if we have been joined with Him in the likeness of His death, we will certainly also be in the likeness of His resurrection.” (Romans 6:5, HCSB)

“But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love that He had for us, made us alive with the Messiah even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace! Together with Christ Jesus He also raised us up and seated us in the heavens, so that in the coming ages He might display the immeasurable riches of His grace through His kindness to us in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 2:4–7, HCSB)

d). The gospel sets us free to live as God intended human beings to live.

           Make no mistake. If we miss this we miss the entire purpose for which God planted us here. If we lose sight of the gospel, we become nothing more than another social group. Proclaiming the gospel – the good news that Jesus saves – is our lifeblood.

3. The gathered church is as necessary as the sent/scattered church

           I know it’s difficult to ‘attend’ church. It’s an effort. Should we mask up? Should we just stay home and offer worship virtually? Why bother with a building?

           A. The Gathered Church:

           Worship – ascribing worth to God – is first and foremost between the individual and God. Yet there is a longing in all of us – part of the nature of God which indwells even those farthest from the Kingdom of God – to be with one another. God Himself acknowledged that it is not good for man to be alone (Genesis 2:18; see also Genesis 1:26-28).

           We are to worship God alone, but we are also commanded to gather to worship. There are far too many Scriptures to list here that call us to worship. When we neglect gathering together we are telling God that His ways are unimportant, that His commands are unnecessary. It is a denial of our new life in Christ to avoid gathering with other believers regularly for worship. (You know I’m not talking about being on vacation, being home ill, and other legitimate reasons one might miss a weekly gathering).

           Instruction – Learning together from the Word of God is crucial. No, I am not suggesting we meet and ask, ‘what does this verse mean to you?’ Rather, gathering together to present God’s truth in ways that all ages can comprehend is our heritage as believers. In Acts 2, as soon as 3,000 new believers were added to the group of just over 100, they began meeting regularly to hear the apostle’s teaching – that is, their memories of all Jesus taught them.

           Fellowship – One of the pictures of ‘church’ developed in the NT is the of the church as a body (1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12, Ephesians 4; 1 Peter 4). We all know what it feels like when one part of our body is hurting. The whole hurts! Isolation, avoiding others – it may be part of the protocol for recovering from COVID, but as a long term strategy for life it fails. Being one ‘body’ in Christ encourages us to gather for multiple reasons – from celebrating life’s beginnings to sharing together the transitions from life here on earth to life with Jesus in heaven.

           Expression/Evangelism – Sharing the good news of Jesus happens most effectively one on one. It does happen in larger groups like Vacation Bible School, gospel concerts, family oriented films, or any number of ways God’s people get together. In times of crisis gathering as the people of God can be a powerful witness to the world in which we live of the unity of the Father and the Son and the Spirit (See John 17).

           B. The Scattered Church:

           When God’s people leave the building – for whatever purpose they have gathered – they are still the church! God never intended His people to live sequestered apart from the rest of the world. Jesus didn’t order His followers to huddle together in buildings waiting for His return. No, Jesus commanded His followers to make disciples – AS THEY WENT ABOUT THEIR LIVES.

           The book of Acts in the New Testament is not about a group of people who hid themselves from the world. Rather it is an account of how the Holy Spirit empowered Jesus’ followers to penetrate the Roman Empire, indeed the entire world, with the good news of Jesus!

4. This Missional Moment

           None of us knows what the future holds. Though I can’t predict the future, let me make a couple of promises:

           1. We will leverage our building in any way possible to reach the community around us with the good news of Jesus Christ.

           Pray for us – next month I will meet with the Winston-Dillard Food Bank to open discussions about how our part of our property might be available for use as a permanent home for the food bank.

           I continue to look for ways to open our building to community groups needing places to meet.

           2. We will promote and proclaim the gospel in all we say and do.

           Any event our church hosts will provide an avenue to present the gospel. It might be a gospel tract, it might be a film, it might be handing out Bibles, it could be many different ways. But the gospel is the only hope for people who are dying and going to an eternity without God in hell.

           3. We will continue to encourage believers of all ages to worship God together; we will do all we can to provide biblical teaching in ways appropriate to every age group; we will gather as often as we can to encourage one another, to pray for one another, to experience joy and/or grief together; we will endeavor to present the gospel clearly and boldly.

Psalm 91

Night Terrors

           Night terrors (vs 5) are excruciating and exhausting for the one experiencing them and the family surrounding them. Plague and pestilence create death and every family member is impacted. It is tempting to read this psalm as an assurance that nothing evil, nothing harmful nothing destructive impacts those who trust God.

           The opposite may be closer to the truth. Evil exists. Harmful things happen. Destruction occurs. These are consequences of the fall (see Genesis 3). Twice the psalmist references where he chooses to dwell or make one’s habitation (see vs 2, 9).

           The evil and darkness of the world around us is a natural result of the sin of Adam and Even compounded by generation after generation of men and women just like Adam and Eve.

These are not permanent conditions. Six times in the last section God promises that He will act – deliver, protect, answer, be with, rescue, and satisfy.

           In order to receive all that God has for us, though, we have to call out to Him. Sometimes the most effective prayer is the shortest one – ‘Help!’ All of us experience a variety of challenges. None of us are exempt from the consequences of the Fall. Every one of us is but a prayer away from God’s gracious promises.

Psalm 88

“…abandoned among the dead”

(NOTE: I am beginning my series of reflections on the Psalms again after a month’s absence. This reflection is longer than many, but I need to share this with you.)

           Deep depression and paralyzing anxiety have been part of my makeup since I can remember. For many years I had no words with which to describe my condition. I have vivid memories of lying awake for hours, paralyzed by anxiety, unable to reach the light on the nightstand next to my bed. I can remember hours in my study unable to reach for the phone. I can remember seasons when I could barely function. Oh, I went through the motions. I showed up for work. I preached and led worship. I made visits with my church family. I led in evangelistic meetings. I collaborated with other pastors in community events. I spent time with my wife and kids. All the while at times my mind and heart were racing with anxiety and/or deep and often uncontrollable despair.

           I remember hearing more than once how believers, particularly pastors, should be so spiritually attuned to God that peace would totally prevail. So, instead of sharing my experiences I hid them, and when I couldn’t hide my actions I blamed stress for my failures.

           In the past thirty years I discovered several powerful resources. First, I spoke to my physician. He and I agreed on a course of medical treatment that has been helpful. Second, I make sure to stay in touch with a group of trusted believers with whom I can be totally transparent. Third, and perhaps most helpful I rediscovered the Psalms of the Old Testament.

           The prayers and songs composed by believers centuries before the birth of Christ voiced almost every emotion I have ever experienced.

           The 88th psalm begins not with a note of discouragement, but an pronouncement of faith - “Lord, God of my salvation, I cry out before You day and night.” (Psalm 88:1, HCSB). God IS the Lord of MY salvation. Without that anchor for my soul the darkness may well have claimed my life. As I immersed myself in the psalms, the prayer book of Judaism, I began to find fellow-sufferers who often voiced my deepest hurts and hungers to God. Using the their words I learned that I am not alone.

           Some would read Psalm 88 as a prayer of failure. Blaming God (vs 6, 14-15, 16-18) and expressing abandonment may strike some as words of a failed servant. I read them and pray them not as one who has failed, but as one who knows that God alone can rescue me from the pit of despair, the overwhelming paralysis of anxiety.

Dec 19

Luke 19

You did not recognize the time when God visited you

           On Jesus’ last journey to Jerusalem He passed through Jericho with others headed to Jerusalem for Passover. Those who had been following Jesus were eagerly anticipating some sort of showdown between Jesus and the Romans. The kingdom which Jesus had been incessantly talking about was near. It was time.

           In Jericho people lined the route to see Jesus. Zacchaeus had to climb a tree in order to see “who Jesus was” (vs 3). Little did he know Jesus ‘saw’ him! The exchange between these two illustrate the nature of the kingdom, but few had the eyes to really see what it was about.

           Entering Jerusalem with the crowds gathering for Passover the eagerness for God to act intensified. Crowds began to acknowledge this Jesus (vs 38), full of anticipation for all that was about to occur.

           As Jesus drew near, however, He saw something entirely different. What He saw was a city overflowing with people eager to experience the kingdom of God, but people who were  completely missing the point. “If you knew…” (vs 42). Jesus grieved because it was clear they didn’t know.

           Entering the Temple all Jesus could see were hindrances and obstacles to the in-breaking kingdom of God. Clearing the Temple was temporary -  the real cleansing would occur in a few days. The kingdom was coming, just not in the way most people were eagerly anticipating.

           Christmas is less than a week away. What are you seeing as you look at the traffic, as you hustle and bustle through the stores? May God give us open eyes to see the truth: “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10).

Dec 18

Luke 18

They understood none of these things.

           Pray with persistence. Pray in humility. Trust like children, be willing to give all for possessing the kingdom of God. Those who had been with Jesus the longest, the fishermen hed had called by name, the tax-collector whose life Jesus had disrupted, others He had identified as ‘apostles,’ none of them understood. Having heard Jesus teach, seeing His perform miracles for nearly three years, and they still did not understand.

           It all sounds so clear in our ears doesn’t it? Or does it? We still pray with little or no persistence. We still brag about our diligence and our accomplishments for God. We still act superior to those who act like children. We hold on to our ‘things’ and miss much of what God is really doing in our world.

           If we want to understand, then we need to trust completely like a child, let go of anything that is keeping us anchored to this world, and learn to live fully exposed before God. Then maybe we can begin to understand.

Dec 15

Luke 15

“This man welcomes sinners…”

           A serious accusation is leveled against Jesus by the religious conservatives of His era. An obedient Jew, as defined by the OT and the centuries of interpretation, sought to be totally distinct from any hint of sin. Welcoming ‘sinners,’ and even more damaging to Jesus’ reputation – “He eats with them” (vs 2). To have a meal is to be in close, even intimate, fellowship.

           Jesus could have ignored this challenge. Instead He tells three stories (parables) to illustrate the deep and unending compassion of God for all creation. C. H. Spurgeon wrote of these parables

[God] has a deep sympathy with each stray heart…He grieves over each lost sheep, for he knows the misery that lies in the fact of being lost. … His compassion…[is]…the compassion of an infinite heart brimming over with an ocean of love.

A lost sheep, a lost coin, a lost son, and an unforgiving son all are ways Jesus illustrates God’s never-ending compassion for His own.

           We are never as far from God’s heart as we often think. Like the father in the parable of the two sons, God is eager to receive the repentant heart.  

C. H. Spurgeon, The Spurgeon Study Bible: Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN.: Holman Bible Publishers, 2017), 1400.

As Christmas season comes around again, people begin to think of decorated trees, tables and arches, mistletoe, manger scenes, and GIFTS! Eggnog, candy canes, cookies, luscious dinners, caroling, family visits, snow, ice skating, ski trips, tobogganing, and sledding. As an IMB SBC missionary for more than three decades out here — I pen these words on Oct. 5, 2020 in Chile, where spring has sprung — what do I think about? Well, for starters, heat, BBQ, watermelon, and firecrackers. Yes, we do put up a tree, and give gifts, but at the other end of the globe, and below the equator, it is summer. No turkeys are even available in most places where missionaries serve. What I think about more than anything is the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, the offering that Southern Baptist churches, partners, missionaries and their kids support at this time of the year, and which pays for our support and which keeps us, more than 3,600 missionaries and their children, on the field. At this time, of the year four key words come to my mind:

-GRATITUDE: How thankful we are for the billions of dollars that SBC churches and individuals have poured out over so many decades in an offering of gratitude and praise to the Baby in a manger. It is an offering of gratitude to the One who was incarnated, who grew up, set up His tent among us, led a sinless human life, and then gave His life for a lost world. He then rose again on the third day and ascended into heaven, where He intercedes at the right hand of the Father for all who believe in Him. We share Him with the lost world, and we do it because of faithful giving to the LMCO.

-LOSTNESS: I think of Kara and Bruno, Kara’s two-year-old boy. We met them on a prayer walk yesterday near our home in Chile. Kara was sitting on a bench. We approached her and found that she lives here and is married to a Chilean. She speaks English, and her father was a diplomat. She talked about how she often feels lonely, not knowing when she will see her family again. We gave her a tract, called “Steps to Peace with God,” and left. We now pray regularly for her and pray she will call us, or that we can meet again.

-OPPORTUNITY: Our Lottie Moon offerings — yours and mine — pay for missionary rent, missionary health care, medications, food, and fuel. They even pay for the tract I gave to Mrs. Kara yesterday. The offerings also pay for us to share Theological, Biblical and Pastoral training with pastors and leaders in the interior of a country. Many potential pastors have never been to the capital and cannot easily go there to study in the seminary. Many people, like Pastor Raul, studied that way. Pastor Raul is a seminary teacher and pastors three churches in Uruguay’s outback. He also serves as the Secretary of the Uruguay Baptist Convention All this happened because of gifts to the Cooperative Program and our faithful giving to LMCO.

-SACRIFICE: When God gave his son Jesus for a lost world, He gave his best. He gave his only, and He gave just what we needed. He so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son (John. 3:16). When I give my LMCO offering, I want it to be my best. I want it to be sacrificial, and I want it to be something that costs until it almost hurts. I make it my most expensive Christmas gift. I do not want to give to the risen Lord something as an afterthought. I want it to be well thought out, planned and sacrificial. Is that not the Spirit of Christmas? God gave us the best, His only and just what we needed. So why do I — an IMB SBC missionary of more than three decades — give to LMCO? Because I believe the offering is well utilized and administered, and I believe that I am privileged to do so.

Tim Kunkel Santiago Chile

OCT, 15 th 2020

Heb. 6:10

WHY ‘THE CHURCH?’

August 25, 2021

CONCLUSION

           I am as confused and uncertain as any of you. What does the future look like? What kind of church will we become? What kind of people does God call us to be? These past months of mandates, arguments, frustrations, conflicting reports from trusted sources…is there even a way forward?

           I desperately want to believe that God has a future for our church. Let me share with you tonight several thoughts (I will also provide a link to this on our FACEBOOK page. PLEASE take the time to read it):

OUR MISSIONAL MOMENT

1. Our address IS our mission

           I won’t retell the story of our church’s birth. What I will do is remind us that we are not here by accident. The physical place we occupy is significant because the space we occupy is a daily, visual reminder to our community that we care.

           In September we will launch 2 new initiatives related to our address:

           a). PRAY AND GO

           Earlier this summer we offered a brief overview of the process. In order to fully launch I need some help. (SEE ATTACHED FOR MORE INFORMATION)

           b). Bless Every Home

           The Northwest Baptist Convention, our regional ministry partner, has graciously provided a church-wide subscription to this resource. If you sign up you will be sent names and addresses of neighbors (at least the name on the property deed, available via public records) via email daily. Bless Every Home even provides prayer prompts as you pray for your neighbors.

This should be available to all who are interested my mid-September.

2. The Gospel is our only resource

“Now brothers, I want to clarify for you the gospel I proclaimed to you; you received it and have taken your stand on it. You are also saved by it, if you hold to the message I proclaimed to you—unless you believed for no purpose. For I passed on to you as most important what I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,” (1 Corinthians 15:1–4, HCSB)

           What is the gospel?

a). The gospel begins with the affirmation that God’s world as He created it is good (Genesis 1).

b). The gospel reminds us that humans are born sinners by nature (see Genesis 3, Romans 1-3). People are not born ‘good’ and educated into ‘badness.’ People are born sinners and apart from the good news of Jesus Christ they are lost, destined for an eternity apart from God in hell – no matter how ‘good’ their live may be.

c). The gospel tells us that there is only one remedy for sin. The remedy is not ‘church’ nor is the remedy ‘living a good, moral life.’ Only as each individual accepts the death of Jesus in their place can one be set free from the sin that condemns. Only the death of Jesus is sufficient to erase the debt of sin with which we are born.

d). The gospel offers hope. Through death – Jesus’ death in our place – we can discover new life. There can be no new life except through the death –

“For if we have been joined with Him in the likeness of His death, we will certainly also be in the likeness of His resurrection.” (Romans 6:5, HCSB)

“But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love that He had for us, made us alive with the Messiah even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace! Together with Christ Jesus He also raised us up and seated us in the heavens, so that in the coming ages He might display the immeasurable riches of His grace through His kindness to us in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 2:4–7, HCSB)

d). The gospel sets us free to live as God intended human beings to live.

           Make no mistake. If we miss this we miss the entire purpose for which God planted us here. If we lose sight of the gospel, we become nothing more than another social group. Proclaiming the gospel – the good news that Jesus saves – is our lifeblood.

3. The gathered church is as necessary as the sent/scattered church

           I know it’s difficult to ‘attend’ church. It’s an effort. Should we mask up? Should we just stay home and offer worship virtually? Why bother with a building?

           A. The Gathered Church:

           Worship – ascribing worth to God – is first and foremost between the individual and God. Yet there is a longing in all of us – part of the nature of God which indwells even those farthest from the Kingdom of God – to be with one another. God Himself acknowledged that it is not good for man to be alone (Genesis 2:18; see also Genesis 1:26-28).

           We are to worship God alone, but we are also commanded to gather to worship. There are far too many Scriptures to list here that call us to worship. When we neglect gathering together we are telling God that His ways are unimportant, that His commands are unnecessary. It is a denial of our new life in Christ to avoid gathering with other believers regularly for worship. (You know I’m not talking about being on vacation, being home ill, and other legitimate reasons one might miss a weekly gathering).

           Instruction – Learning together from the Word of God is crucial. No, I am not suggesting we meet and ask, ‘what does this verse mean to you?’ Rather, gathering together to present God’s truth in ways that all ages can comprehend is our heritage as believers. In Acts 2, as soon as 3,000 new believers were added to the group of just over 100, they began meeting regularly to hear the apostle’s teaching – that is, their memories of all Jesus taught them.

           Fellowship – One of the pictures of ‘church’ developed in the NT is the of the church as a body (1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12, Ephesians 4; 1 Peter 4). We all know what it feels like when one part of our body is hurting. The whole hurts! Isolation, avoiding others – it may be part of the protocol for recovering from COVID, but as a long term strategy for life it fails. Being one ‘body’ in Christ encourages us to gather for multiple reasons – from celebrating life’s beginnings to sharing together the transitions from life here on earth to life with Jesus in heaven.

           Expression/Evangelism – Sharing the good news of Jesus happens most effectively one on one. It does happen in larger groups like Vacation Bible School, gospel concerts, family oriented films, or any number of ways God’s people get together. In times of crisis gathering as the people of God can be a powerful witness to the world in which we live of the unity of the Father and the Son and the Spirit (See John 17).

           B. The Scattered Church:

           When God’s people leave the building – for whatever purpose they have gathered – they are still the church! God never intended His people to live sequestered apart from the rest of the world. Jesus didn’t order His followers to huddle together in buildings waiting for His return. No, Jesus commanded His followers to make disciples – AS THEY WENT ABOUT THEIR LIVES.

           The book of Acts in the New Testament is not about a group of people who hid themselves from the world. Rather it is an account of how the Holy Spirit empowered Jesus’ followers to penetrate the Roman Empire, indeed the entire world, with the good news of Jesus!

4. This Missional Moment

           None of us knows what the future holds. Though I can’t predict the future, let me make a couple of promises:

           1. We will leverage our building in any way possible to reach the community around us with the good news of Jesus Christ.

           Pray for us – next month I will meet with the Winston-Dillard Food Bank to open discussions about how our part of our property might be available for use as a permanent home for the food bank.

           I continue to look for ways to open our building to community groups needing places to meet.

           2. We will promote and proclaim the gospel in all we say and do.

           Any event our church hosts will provide an avenue to present the gospel. It might be a gospel tract, it might be a film, it might be handing out Bibles, it could be many different ways. But the gospel is the only hope for people who are dying and going to an eternity without God in hell.

           3. We will continue to encourage believers of all ages to worship God together; we will do all we can to provide biblical teaching in ways appropriate to every age group; we will gather as often as we can to encourage one another, to pray for one another, to experience joy and/or grief together; we will endeavor to present the gospel clearly and boldly.

Psalm 91

Night Terrors

           Night terrors (vs 5) are excruciating and exhausting for the one experiencing them and the family surrounding them. Plague and pestilence create death and every family member is impacted. It is tempting to read this psalm as an assurance that nothing evil, nothing harmful nothing destructive impacts those who trust God.

           The opposite may be closer to the truth. Evil exists. Harmful things happen. Destruction occurs. These are consequences of the fall (see Genesis 3). Twice the psalmist references where he chooses to dwell or make one’s habitation (see vs 2, 9).

           The evil and darkness of the world around us is a natural result of the sin of Adam and Even compounded by generation after generation of men and women just like Adam and Eve.

These are not permanent conditions. Six times in the last section God promises that He will act – deliver, protect, answer, be with, rescue, and satisfy.

           In order to receive all that God has for us, though, we have to call out to Him. Sometimes the most effective prayer is the shortest one – ‘Help!’ All of us experience a variety of challenges. None of us are exempt from the consequences of the Fall. Every one of us is but a prayer away from God’s gracious promises.

Psalm 88

“…abandoned among the dead”

(NOTE: I am beginning my series of reflections on the Psalms again after a month’s absence. This reflection is longer than many, but I need to share this with you.)

           Deep depression and paralyzing anxiety have been part of my makeup since I can remember. For many years I had no words with which to describe my condition. I have vivid memories of lying awake for hours, paralyzed by anxiety, unable to reach the light on the nightstand next to my bed. I can remember hours in my study unable to reach for the phone. I can remember seasons when I could barely function. Oh, I went through the motions. I showed up for work. I preached and led worship. I made visits with my church family. I led in evangelistic meetings. I collaborated with other pastors in community events. I spent time with my wife and kids. All the while at times my mind and heart were racing with anxiety and/or deep and often uncontrollable despair.

           I remember hearing more than once how believers, particularly pastors, should be so spiritually attuned to God that peace would totally prevail. So, instead of sharing my experiences I hid them, and when I couldn’t hide my actions I blamed stress for my failures.

           In the past thirty years I discovered several powerful resources. First, I spoke to my physician. He and I agreed on a course of medical treatment that has been helpful. Second, I make sure to stay in touch with a group of trusted believers with whom I can be totally transparent. Third, and perhaps most helpful I rediscovered the Psalms of the Old Testament.

           The prayers and songs composed by believers centuries before the birth of Christ voiced almost every emotion I have ever experienced.

           The 88th psalm begins not with a note of discouragement, but an pronouncement of faith - “Lord, God of my salvation, I cry out before You day and night.” (Psalm 88:1, HCSB). God IS the Lord of MY salvation. Without that anchor for my soul the darkness may well have claimed my life. As I immersed myself in the psalms, the prayer book of Judaism, I began to find fellow-sufferers who often voiced my deepest hurts and hungers to God. Using the their words I learned that I am not alone.

           Some would read Psalm 88 as a prayer of failure. Blaming God (vs 6, 14-15, 16-18) and expressing abandonment may strike some as words of a failed servant. I read them and pray them not as one who has failed, but as one who knows that God alone can rescue me from the pit of despair, the overwhelming paralysis of anxiety.

Dec 19

Luke 19

You did not recognize the time when God visited you

           On Jesus’ last journey to Jerusalem He passed through Jericho with others headed to Jerusalem for Passover. Those who had been following Jesus were eagerly anticipating some sort of showdown between Jesus and the Romans. The kingdom which Jesus had been incessantly talking about was near. It was time.

           In Jericho people lined the route to see Jesus. Zacchaeus had to climb a tree in order to see “who Jesus was” (vs 3). Little did he know Jesus ‘saw’ him! The exchange between these two illustrate the nature of the kingdom, but few had the eyes to really see what it was about.

           Entering Jerusalem with the crowds gathering for Passover the eagerness for God to act intensified. Crowds began to acknowledge this Jesus (vs 38), full of anticipation for all that was about to occur.

           As Jesus drew near, however, He saw something entirely different. What He saw was a city overflowing with people eager to experience the kingdom of God, but people who were  completely missing the point. “If you knew…” (vs 42). Jesus grieved because it was clear they didn’t know.

           Entering the Temple all Jesus could see were hindrances and obstacles to the in-breaking kingdom of God. Clearing the Temple was temporary -  the real cleansing would occur in a few days. The kingdom was coming, just not in the way most people were eagerly anticipating.

           Christmas is less than a week away. What are you seeing as you look at the traffic, as you hustle and bustle through the stores? May God give us open eyes to see the truth: “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10).

Dec 18

Luke 18

They understood none of these things.

           Pray with persistence. Pray in humility. Trust like children, be willing to give all for possessing the kingdom of God. Those who had been with Jesus the longest, the fishermen hed had called by name, the tax-collector whose life Jesus had disrupted, others He had identified as ‘apostles,’ none of them understood. Having heard Jesus teach, seeing His perform miracles for nearly three years, and they still did not understand.

           It all sounds so clear in our ears doesn’t it? Or does it? We still pray with little or no persistence. We still brag about our diligence and our accomplishments for God. We still act superior to those who act like children. We hold on to our ‘things’ and miss much of what God is really doing in our world.

           If we want to understand, then we need to trust completely like a child, let go of anything that is keeping us anchored to this world, and learn to live fully exposed before God. Then maybe we can begin to understand.

Dec 15

Luke 15

“This man welcomes sinners…”

           A serious accusation is leveled against Jesus by the religious conservatives of His era. An obedient Jew, as defined by the OT and the centuries of interpretation, sought to be totally distinct from any hint of sin. Welcoming ‘sinners,’ and even more damaging to Jesus’ reputation – “He eats with them” (vs 2). To have a meal is to be in close, even intimate, fellowship.

           Jesus could have ignored this challenge. Instead He tells three stories (parables) to illustrate the deep and unending compassion of God for all creation. C. H. Spurgeon wrote of these parables

[God] has a deep sympathy with each stray heart…He grieves over each lost sheep, for he knows the misery that lies in the fact of being lost. … His compassion…[is]…the compassion of an infinite heart brimming over with an ocean of love.

A lost sheep, a lost coin, a lost son, and an unforgiving son all are ways Jesus illustrates God’s never-ending compassion for His own.

           We are never as far from God’s heart as we often think. Like the father in the parable of the two sons, God is eager to receive the repentant heart.  

C. H. Spurgeon, The Spurgeon Study Bible: Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN.: Holman Bible Publishers, 2017), 1400.

As Christmas season comes around again, people begin to think of decorated trees, tables and arches, mistletoe, manger scenes, and GIFTS! Eggnog, candy canes, cookies, luscious dinners, caroling, family visits, snow, ice skating, ski trips, tobogganing, and sledding. As an IMB SBC missionary for more than three decades out here — I pen these words on Oct. 5, 2020 in Chile, where spring has sprung — what do I think about? Well, for starters, heat, BBQ, watermelon, and firecrackers. Yes, we do put up a tree, and give gifts, but at the other end of the globe, and below the equator, it is summer. No turkeys are even available in most places where missionaries serve. What I think about more than anything is the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, the offering that Southern Baptist churches, partners, missionaries and their kids support at this time of the year, and which pays for our support and which keeps us, more than 3,600 missionaries and their children, on the field. At this time, of the year four key words come to my mind:

-GRATITUDE: How thankful we are for the billions of dollars that SBC churches and individuals have poured out over so many decades in an offering of gratitude and praise to the Baby in a manger. It is an offering of gratitude to the One who was incarnated, who grew up, set up His tent among us, led a sinless human life, and then gave His life for a lost world. He then rose again on the third day and ascended into heaven, where He intercedes at the right hand of the Father for all who believe in Him. We share Him with the lost world, and we do it because of faithful giving to the LMCO.

-LOSTNESS: I think of Kara and Bruno, Kara’s two-year-old boy. We met them on a prayer walk yesterday near our home in Chile. Kara was sitting on a bench. We approached her and found that she lives here and is married to a Chilean. She speaks English, and her father was a diplomat. She talked about how she often feels lonely, not knowing when she will see her family again. We gave her a tract, called “Steps to Peace with God,” and left. We now pray regularly for her and pray she will call us, or that we can meet again.

-OPPORTUNITY: Our Lottie Moon offerings — yours and mine — pay for missionary rent, missionary health care, medications, food, and fuel. They even pay for the tract I gave to Mrs. Kara yesterday. The offerings also pay for us to share Theological, Biblical and Pastoral training with pastors and leaders in the interior of a country. Many potential pastors have never been to the capital and cannot easily go there to study in the seminary. Many people, like Pastor Raul, studied that way. Pastor Raul is a seminary teacher and pastors three churches in Uruguay’s outback. He also serves as the Secretary of the Uruguay Baptist Convention All this happened because of gifts to the Cooperative Program and our faithful giving to LMCO.

-SACRIFICE: When God gave his son Jesus for a lost world, He gave his best. He gave his only, and He gave just what we needed. He so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son (John. 3:16). When I give my LMCO offering, I want it to be my best. I want it to be sacrificial, and I want it to be something that costs until it almost hurts. I make it my most expensive Christmas gift. I do not want to give to the risen Lord something as an afterthought. I want it to be well thought out, planned and sacrificial. Is that not the Spirit of Christmas? God gave us the best, His only and just what we needed. So why do I — an IMB SBC missionary of more than three decades — give to LMCO? Because I believe the offering is well utilized and administered, and I believe that I am privileged to do so.

Tim Kunkel Santiago Chile

OCT, 15 th 2020

Heb. 6:10