Dad You're Important! Really Important

Build a Home 

by Jared and Jason Morgan. 

A tribute to their dad, Dwight Morgan and my friend, and to dads everywhere. 

Thanks Jason and Jared!

Grace Makes Marriage Flourish

Christian marriages survive by God's grace, and they thrive when couples learn to love each other according to it. Give grace today.

Christmas Music is the Best Music During Any Season

Resound: Joseph Clarke, Jessica Fox, and Mariah Hargrove singing the best music in the world. Enjoy!



You can learn more about the trio here.

Is Halloween for Christians?

This is a re-post.

God saves sinners by causing them to become born-again. In their new life with God, they will develop convictions about gray areas where allegedly the Bible is silent. For example, Christians, who grew up trick-or-treating, will learn biblical convictions to govern how they view Halloween. The aim of this Bible study is to highlight biblical principles for Christians to apply so that they can discern how to respond to the question of participating in Halloween. Here are some ways Christians have responded to the question, “How should a believer think about Halloween?”

• “I don’t see anything wrong with it, if you do it just to have fun.”
•  The Old Testament condemns participating in anything involving the occult, therefore, God hates it and so should Christians.
• Well, Halloween does have occult roots, but if you take those out (e.g., Jack-O-Lanterns, scary costumes, etc.) then it’s okay to participate in it.
• Numerous NT passages such as 2 Cor 6:17; Rev 21:8 apply the OT command to Christians to avoid pagan practices, so Christians should avoid it altogether.

Good Scientific Advice on How to Lose Weight

Some of you may know that I studied Kinesiology at UCLA before going to seminary. I wish I had kept up with the science of nutrition but I didn't :-( but this interview makes a lot of sense to me. Losing weight is really hard to do but it's doable if you approach eating the right way. These two scientists expose a lot of wrong thinking and eating habits (some of which I taught and practice). They also explain (sometimes in hard to understand scientific language) the best way to eat to lose weight. It's definitely worth listening too.

 

 

Also read the article that goes along with the interview "What Really Caused the Obesity Epidemic, and How Can it be Reversed?"

FYI, I'm going to try this, and I'll post back in a month or so to let you know how it well it worked for me.

Planned Parenthood's Barbaric Murder of Male Baby

This is evil!!!!!!! America will either repent of our barbarianism, or our barbarianism will lead to our destruction under the wrath of a Holy God (Rom 1:18-32). 

 

 

Read the full report on Breitbart. 

Raising Your Kids to Love Jesus and Impact Their World

2015 Legacy Parenting Workshop Notes

  

I can think of no more urgent need in our urban context than to raise up a generation of children who love God and hate evil (Ps 97:10). The world and the dark side of the hip hop culture stands against our children. (As I write this, gangs in LA have vowed to kill 100 people in 100 days just 2 miles from my house). Our children’s very own flesh wars against them. And Satan himself seeks to devour them. And what, do you ask, is God’s appointed means of grace to help your children? That answer is simple. It is you, God fearing parents. Yet the final outcome of childrearing is more complicated than what you do or fail to do for your children. The final outcome of our childrearing is the combined result of four influences.

• God—The Ultimate Influence
• Parents—The Ordained Means of Influence
• The World—The Unavoidable Influence
• The Child’s Heart—The Overlooked Influence

Below is a summary explanation of each of these influences from my 2015 Legacy workshop on parenting.

Witness Wednesday for Christ: What is the Gospel?

#WW4C God has published Good News. Do you know what it is and do you believe?

Ex-Lesbian Jackie Hill's Story

Thanks for sharing your story Jackie. May God use it to help Christians trust the power of the Gospel and that Jesus saves.

How Can Churches Respond to the Supreme Court’s Ruling to Redefine Marriage

It has been more than obvious for a long time that the proponents for same sex marriage would eventually win their quest to redefine marriage in America. However, their strategy of using liberal judges to overrule the democratic process hastened this victory with a shocking swiftness that no one anticipated. Recall that the citizens of California and of many other states voted to retain the traditional definition of marriage—one man and one woman in a life-long covenant one flesh union. Consider how recently politician after politician won elections running on the platform of defending traditional marriage (Bill Clinton’s support for DOMA, Obama's clear stance in the 2008 election, and Hilary Clinton's reaffirmation as late as 2013). All the while though, liberal justices continued to chip away at the timeless definition of marriage. And then seemingly out of nowhere on June 26^th 2015 the Supreme Court in a 5-4 liberal driven ruling redefined marriage as a union between two loving adults and made gay marriage the law of the land even in states that voted to uphold traditional marriage. The fight for America’s legal definition of marriage is over. The victory in the Supreme Court for gay marriage is decisive.

Dawson Trotman's Simple Approach to Making Disciples

The Road to Christian Maturity

Presented at the CMTA Conference 2015

How do you grow in spiritual maturity and help others to grow? It’s like rolling a wheel. Dawson Trotman helped thousands and thousands of believers to grow by teaching them the following principles.

1.   The Hub of the Christian life is Christ.  Gal 2:20; Phil 1:21

2.   The 4 spokes of the Christian life are:

Bible Learning: Memorize Joshua 1:8

Learning the Scripture is to the Christian what eating is to a newborn babe.

1^st        Commit yourself to learning the Word, Acts 2:40-42; Heb 5:11-14

2^nd       Live a life that illustrates the Word, 1 Tim 4:12b

3^rd        Teach others what God has taught you, Deut 5:1

Prayer

1^st        Learn to rely upon God in everything by praying, Phil 4:6

2^nd       Learn to commune with God by praying always, 1 Thess 5:17

3^rd        Learn to pray with others, Acts 4:31; 12:12

Fellowship

1^st        Commit yourself to being with God’s people for corporate worship, Heb 10:24-25

2^nd       Commit to being an active part of the Lighthouse groups, Acts 2:42

3^rd        Invite people to your home. Call people. Hang out with CFBC members, Acts 2:46

Witnessing

1^st        Look at people the way God does as hell bound sinners, Romans 9:1-3

2^nd       Be confident that the Gospel saves, Rom 1:16

3^rd        Learn how to share the Gospel, Matt 4:19

4^th        Become a faithful witness of the Gospel, Acts 1:8

3.     The Tire that enables the wheel to roll is Spirit-filled obedience, Gal 5:16; 2 Cor 3:18.

The path to spiritual maturity is filled with steep hills to climb and deep valleys to pass through. However, you will continue to progress towards spiritual maturity if you keep all of these foundational elements in your life. Your life will keep rolling like a wheel toward greater and greater Christ-likeness. And if you faithfully encourage others to apply these same spiritual disciplines then their lives too will keep growing in Christ-likeness. 

Biblical Advice for Sisters Trying to Help Mr. Right

This post is dedicated to my 4 daughters and to the sisters of Community of Faith Bible Church.

Now to my single sisters let me offer a few points of biblical advice. And FYI, this series is personal for me. I have four beautiful daughters and a church full of my sisters whom I want to get married. As a father and a pastor, I carry a heavy burden, wondering if my brothers will do the right thing and marry them. And I wonder sometimes if my sisters will wisely help them. Also, to me this is a deep burden because I am convinced that how the urban church responds to the crisis of “marriagelessness” will as clearly as any single issue determine its future health. I’m not panicking though, because Jesus said He would build His church, and I am one black preacher who believes God brings revivals when His people heed His Word. So here is my fatherly advice to sisters waiting for Mr. Right.

1^st Trust the Lord, all good gifts come from Him, including husbands

God is omnipotent, which means He can do anything, so trust Him. God is omniscient, which means He knows how to do everything, so trust Him. And God is also omni-beneficent, which means that no child of God has to twist His arm - as if we could - for God to bless His own. The quintessence of being a Christian is being unimaginably, wonderfully, undeservedly blessed by God. We’re blessed, sisters. Let me then ask you what God asked Abraham when he wavered in his faith, “Is there anything too difficult for the Lord?” Learn to trust Him in this way—that He is always being good to you and that He delights in blessing you. Make your daily meditation the following promises:

Psa. 84:11      For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD gives grace and glory; No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.

Rom. 8:32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?

So if no one is showing special interest in you, resist the temptation of your flesh and Satan to pull you down with the lie “no one cares for you.” God does and does so infinitely. Rather tell yourself:

Psa. 73:25      Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth.

Psa. 73:26      My flesh and my heart may fail, (can I add your dreams of a mate) but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

Psa. 73:28      But as for me, the nearness of God is my good; I have made the Lord GOD my refuge.

2^nd Listen to Your Fathers. They really do know best.

Men really do know men better. It’s more than a cliché that good girls end up with bad guys. Your fathers (or spiritual fathers, if you don’t have one) or will be an invaluable source of wisdom in helping you discern if he really is Mr. Right Totally Wrong.

I remember a time when all the ladies in our church (including the church mothers) picked a guy for one of the single ladies in the church. When I caught wind of it, I was stunned. That dude was a snake. I had just been moving towards church disciplining him, but he left the church. Sisters, this happens a lot. All the spiritual fathers in the church can tell who the bad dudes are. There is good biblical reason why pastors officiating weddings ask the father, “who gives this woman to be married to this man?” to which the father answers, “I do.” 1 Cor 7:36-38 lays the duty of giving a young woman in marriage on the bride’s father.

People are best known by their relationship to their communities. CFBC is a Bible-centered community of faith striving to please God and live for His glory. We have men and women within our community who are thriving in it, who are submissive to it, and therefore growing in it. But we also have men and women in our community who are indifferent to it and who are rebellious to it. A casual outside observer of our community couldn’t know who was who. But the fathers of the various communities should, and they should be sought out by singles to get confirmation. For example, one of the favorite sons of our sister church married one of the favorite daughters of our church. As pastors, we had talked to each other to make sure our favorite son and daughter were getting a good woman and a good man from our communities. We had confirmed that they were, and they listened to us and are now building a strong godly marriage as missionaries in Haiti.

3^rd Shorten Your List to the essentials. Thinking Realistically is Better than Romantically

Notice, I didn’t say compromise your convictions, but I am appealing that you replace preferences on your list with biblical requirements. Does he love the Lord? Will he love and lead you? I’m struggling to add anything else to the list as absolutely essential. And I intentionally didn’t say anything about looks, because the Bible says in 1 Sam. 16:7 when the Lord sent Samuel to find a king for His people, “Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature . . . for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” Brothers, before you say “Amen,” the same advice applies to you.

Looking for the wrong things, and worse, making them a priority, will obscure your vision from seeing Mr. Right and lead you right into the arms of Mr. Wrong. Without the right perspective, you might let Mr. Right ride right past you because he doesn’t come riding in on a white horse and doesn’t look like Prince charming.

Listen to how unromantic my proposal was to my wife, who previously was attending UCLA Medical School and had dated another Bruin who was heading to law school. I said something like, “The Lord has called me to the hard part of the city. I will not pursue making a lot of money. I may never be able to buy you a new car and much less a house”—pause—then on bended knee I asked her, “Will you marry me?” Now I did say a few romantic things like “I want to be your best friend” and “I love you.” She said, “Yes” and at the time, my salary was 20 something K a year. She even willingly submitted to my request to become a homemaker to take on the busy role of being a pastor’s wife. She wisely didn’t expect me to be where I am today. She was willing to start with humble means and help me get to where I am (and we are) today.

In terms of available men, these are lean times, sisters. Satan’s schemes have been all too effective against our brothers. But a wise sister will learn to be content with a shorter list and learn through a godly courtship how to be a godly helper. Both contentment and being a good helper have to be learned, and the Bible, not the world, is the only source for that. Which leads to my next point:

4^th Be Ready to be a Helper, not Leader

A well-known preacher once said, “Anything with two heads is a monster.” Sisters, getting married means becoming a helper. With that being the case, it’s important to start learning how to do that while single. Life is directional. If you are carving out an unalterable path of exclusive leadership, then how will you be a perfect fit for Mr. Right since God calls the man to be the head of marriage (Eph 5:23)?

Marriage has to be important enough for you to be willing to alter your priorities if the opportunity for marriage presents itself. That means you need to be willing to put off or say no to a career, traveling with the girls, or even more education.

Here’s a test you can take now to see if you are spiritually growing in the right direction.

How helpful, supportive, respectful and submissive are you to your father (figure) and pastors now? I can think of no clearer indicator that you are ready for marriage than the status of your relationship to the male authorities in your life now.

More important than putting yourself out there so you’ll be noticed, is putting on the humility of Christ so that He will honor you. Singleness has purposes—the main one is to learn how to live with a single devotion to Christ (1 Cor 7:32, 35). God will use your godly character and not worldliness to attract your Mr. Right.

One more point, if a brother seems to be showing an interest in you, you have every right to know if he’s just being a brother or if he thinks the Lord might be leading him to pursue a more serious relationship with you. If he says he wants to lead you in a relationship to see if the Lord is moving you towards marriage, and if your father (figure) affirms his character, the community confirms his relationship to the Lord, then find a “Naomi” to help you learn how to help him lead your relationship. It’s not only okay if you help him, you should. Your Boaz will need you to be his helping Ruth. You just have to make sure through godly counsel and accountability you are doing so wisely and in a godly way. Now having said that, make him lead. Don’t show him all your cards and spell out all of your feelings. Affirm his leadership but make sure he is the one who is out front and not you. And finally, don’t confuse every act of brotherly service as a sign of romantic interest. He may have sat near you at church on Sunday because he saw an open seat. Remember the brothers should be interacting with you as platonic brothers, 1 Tim 5:2.

5^th Seek First His Kingdom and Righteousness: Not a Husband

Make Christ the pursuit of your life and not getting a man. If a brother does show interest in you, never feel so pressed to have him that you let go of God to get him. Honestly keep evaluating your relationship with the question, “Is God giving me to him and is He confirming that by showing that this relationship is a good thing?” An obvious way to discern if God is giving you to your supposed Boaz, is to deal with integrity with the yellow or red lights God shows you. If God shows you a yellow light, then slow down (don’t speed up!) and work through the problem. Learning to work through your yellow lights (problems) is a key to having a future God-glorifying marriage. If when you slow down, you still can’t work through your problems in a healthy way, then that yellow light turns into a red light. And red lights mean stop! Psalm 23 is real. It promises that with the Lord as our Shepherd He leads us to greener pastures and calmer waters. He doesn’t lead us to run through red lights into disastrous crashes.

What is an example of a red light? Here’s one: He has more arms than an octopus and can’t control himself and honor your purity. That’s a big red light, sisters. The Word of God states, “This is the will of God, your sanctification, that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality,” 1 Thess 4:3. How can you possibly believe that your relationship is in the will of God and you are fornicating, which by definition means that you are out of the will of God?

You have influence to help. If he is stuck and can’t get past courtship, then pull out of the relationship and don’t go back until he is ready. Don’t ignore yellow lights or red lights. If you are open and transparent with your relationship to godly, wise counsel, God will make His will clear. Don’t compromise and settle for less; instead seek God first and know that He will add everything to your life that’s good and right. Singleness with the Lord is better than any relationship with a professing unsaved religious so-called brother.

As I close, let me give a quick word of thanks to my mid-week fellowship group who helped me think through this final post.

Now may God, who is omnipotent, omniscient, and omni-benevolent ignite a passion for Christ-glorifying marriages within His church and motivate urban men to take the lead in pursing the hands in marriage of godly women who know how to help Mr. Right know that he is Mr. Right.

Thank you for reading.

Pastor Bobby Scott

This Might Change Your Prayer Life

 I had the privilege of preaching to the men's group of Calvary Bible Church's (in Burbank, CA) on corporate prayer this morning. And before I preached, they showed this message by David Platt and it struck me! He explained why we don't pray as we ought. Listen to it. It might change your prayer life. 

What Jesus Says about Divorce (Sermon)

An 1800 Year Old Quote about Modesty

 John Chrysostom, c. 347 – 407 said, 

“You carry your snare everywhere and spread your nets in all places. You allege that you never invited others to sin. You did not, indeed, by your words, but you have done so by your dress and your deportment. … When you have made another sin in his heart, how can you be innocent? Tell me, whom does this world condemn? Whom do judges punish? Those who drink poison or those who prepare it and administer the fatal potion? You have prepared the abominable cup, you have given the death dealing drink, and you are more criminal than are those who poison the body; you murder not the body but the soul. And it is not to enemies you do this, nor are you urged on by any imaginary necessity, nor provoked by injury, but you do so out of foolish vanity and pride.” 

John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Gospel of Matthew, J. H. Parker, 1843, p. 257

Sunday's Sermon Thyatira: The Tolerant Church Revelation 2:18-29

While the world extols tolerance as the queen of all virtues and pressures the church to be tolerant, in His letter (with 7 sections) to the church in Thyatira, Jesus commands us not tolerate Jezebels, immorality, and false teaching.

1^st  The Address to Thyatira: A small pagan city that worshipped Apollos. Rev. 2:18a

2^nd The Character of the Speaker: Jesus is the Son of God who sees all and will judge all, Rev. 2:18b

3^rd The Commendations for their love, fidelity, service, perseverance, and progress, Rev. 2:19

4^th The Condemnations for their tolerance of Jezebel, her false teaching, immorality and refusal to repent, Rev. 2:20-21

5^th The Judgments against Jezebel (death), her followers (disease), the faithful remnant (to hold fast)     Rev. 2:22-25

6^th The Promises to the Overcomer: to reign with Christ and to have Him; He is the Bright and Morning Star, Rev. 2:26-28

7^th The Concluding Command to Hear and Heed the Letter, Rev. 2:29

God is just and will judge those who practice immorality and who tolerate sin, yet He is merciful and will forgive all who repent. His grace is effectual to enable His church to obey.