This is War

Here is the script from today's broadcast. I highly recommend Dr. MacArthur's book, "The Truth War." You can hear him interviewed today at 5 Pm CSt on AM 630, KSLR or at kslr.com.

Welcome to Cutting It Straight – A Ministry of Believers Fellowship. I’m pastor Bruce Blakey.

When it comes to the Bible you have to cut it straight. It is imperative that you get it right.
Yesterday we saw how the devil twisted Scripture and led Eve into sin. The devil is still twisting Scripture today and he tries as hard as he can to get his lies into the church.

I was trained for ministry at The Master’s Seminary under the leadership of Dr. John MacArthur. Dr. MacArthur has written a book entitled “The Truth War” addressing current attempts by Satan to bring his deception into the church. This book sounds a helpful warning for all believers and will be discussed with Adam McManus later today on this station.

Dr. MacArthur will also speak at Believers Fellowship next week. He’ll be with us Friday, February 8. Check our web page at believers-fellowship.org for more information.

Don't Be Deceived

Here's the script of today's broadcast.


Welcome to Cutting It Straight – A ministry of Believers Fellowship. I’m pastor Bruce Blakey.

Cutting it Straight – it is a phrase that describes how we are to handle God’s Word. It is important that we are careful to accurately understand what God meant by what He said in His Word.

This is important for many reasons but one reason is so that you won’t be misled by the devil. The devil is a master of twisting the scripture.

Think about what the devil did with Eve in the garden. He asked her, “Has God said…” By doing so he raised doubts in her mind which led to her sin.

Now think about that. Eve was sinless up to that time. She enjoyed a perfect relationship with God, yet by asking a few questions, Satan led her into sin.

You and I need to be careful to cut it straight. We’re ready to help you. Check us out at believers-fellowship.org.

Approved or Ashamed

Here is today's edition of our radio broadcast. You can hear the broadcast at 9:56 AM on KSLR, AM 630. You don't have to be in San Antonio to hear it because you can listen anywhere on the World Wide Web. Just go to kslr.com and click on to "Listen Live." Just be sure you tune in at 9:56 AM CST.

God Bless.


Welcome to Cutting It Straight – A ministry of Believers Fellowship. I am Bruce Blakey, pastor of Believers Fellowship.

Approved Workmen Are Not Ashamed. Everybody who has been in Awana is familiar with this statement. It comes from 2 Timothy 2:15. There we are told that approved workmen are those who are diligent to handle accurately the Word of truth. That means to cut it straight. It pictures a farmer plowing a straight furrow or a brick mason cutting a straight row of bricks or a woman cutting straight the pattern for a dress. In other words it means to get it right.

We must cut it straight when we come to God’s word. If we do we are approved by God and if we don’t we are ashamed. Those are our only two options.

I want to encourage you to be diligent- work hard in studying God’s Word. We stand ready to help you. Check out our web-page at believers-fellowship.org.

A New Adventure

Today I launched in to a different dimension of ministry. Our church, Believers Fellowship, decided to buy one minute of radio time to air each day on local radio station KSLR, AM 630. The minute will play right after John MacArthur and Grace To You. I went in last week and recorded the first 10 broadcasts and the first one was aired this morning. Since the name of the radio spot is Cutting It Straight, same as this blog, I thought I would try to post the script of each broadcast here. Below is what today's broadcast was about.


Welcome to Cutting It Straight – A ministry of Believers Fellowship. My name is Bruce Blakey, pastor of Believers Fellowship.

Did your first pastor have a positive and lasting influence on your life?
Mine did. I was saved in 1974 when I was a freshman in college. Shortly after I came to know the Lord some friends started taking me to Grace Community Church in Los Angeles, where John MacArthur was and still is the pastor.

I really grew under the faithful Bible teaching of Dr. MacArthur. It was from him that I learned the importance of cutting it straight. That statement comes from 2 Timothy 2:15 which talks about handling accurately the word of truth – literally cutting it straight.

John MacArthur will be speaking at Believers Fellowship on Friday, February 8. You are welcome to come hear him open God’s Word and cut it straight. Check our Webpage at believers-fellowship.org for more information.

PARENTING

Tomorrow morning I will begin teaching a class on parenting at Believers Fellowship. I do so realizing that this can be a very emotional subject. In fact the emotions of parents can run from the extreme of great joy to the other extreme of profound grief. Children are a gift from the Lord and while they are a good gift, they also are a big responsibility. And while at times, especially when you have small children, it seems like the task of parenting is slow and tedious, yet when you get to my stage in life and you look back, you realize that the time went by very quickly. The picture above is of my three grown sons and my incredibly handsome grandson. My question is, "How did I ever get old enough to be the father and grandfather of these guys?"

So, what can I offer the parents in our church that will help them to make the most of the time that they have with their children? I certainly don't claim to have any kind of expertise in this area. I definitely don't have any kind of formula that is guaranteed to raise godly children. But what I do have is the Word of God and that is what I will open up and teach from.

I think many parents would benefit by thinking of parenting in terms of discipling. After all we are to "bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4)." That's discipling. In 1Corinthians 4:14-21, Paul describes his discipleship relationship with the Corinthians in terms of a father and his children. In that passage you can see that Paul admonished, loved, set an example, taught, and corrected the Corinthians. If parents would do these things, thinking in terms of discipling their children, pointing them to the Lord, then they can be sure they are making the most of their time. This doesn't guarantee that it will be easy or "successful" but you can be sure that you are pleasing the Lord by being faithful and useful to Him.

I would encourage you to pray today for some parents you know that the Lord would encourage them as they seek to disciple the children He has entrusted to them.

Passion

I spent some time during the last week of December and the first week of January doing what many red-blooded American males do - I watched a bunch of college bowl games. Of course, each game came with extensive pre-game conjecture. As the analysts and experts talked about the upcoming game, they would often speculate about the motivation and mental mindset of the team. Remember, these young men had not played a game in a month. Some of them had lost coaches during that time (because they were either fired or changing to another school)or had a coach retire and so everyone wondered whether this would help or hurt the team. Other teams, for various reasons, had questions about how they would do. What would their mental mindset be? One thing that kept coming up was that the experts would say that the team that played with the most passion had the best chance of winning their game. Passion was seen as a crucial element.

Well, the last couple of weeks I've been doing what many red-blooded American geeks do - following the political caucuses and primaries. There is no end to the commentary and analysis of each candidate's strategy. But, again, I've been impressed by how much "passion" comes into the picture. Many think that everything turned around for Hillary in New Hampshire when she broke down a little, showed some emotion, and expressed some passion.

Now there is no doubt that some, if not much, of the football and political passion is misdirected, but there is no mistaking the importance of passion. In fact, passion is critical in our serving the Lord. Romans 12:11 says, "Not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord." Did you catch the word "fervent?" It is a word that means to be zealous, enthusiastic, on fire, yes-passionate. Our service to the Lord is to be energetic, driven by a sincere passion for the Lord. Certainly, if people can get passionate about football and politics, they can be super passionate about the Lord and fervent in their service to Him. Think about the effort that football players and politicians put in to what they do. Shouldn't we be all the more passionate about the Lord?

You may be wondering about the picture above. They are the initials "GW" (and no they don't stand for George W.) They stand for George Wishart. These initials are in the street right in front of the ruins of the old castle in St. Andrews, Scotland. George Wishart was a passionate preacher of the word of God in the 1500's. He preached the true gospel that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone. For this reason, the Catholic Church branded him a heretic and those initials mark the spot where George Wishart was burned at the stake. Literally, he was on fire for the Lord. He denied himsef, took up his cross, and followed Christ.

I pray that in our time, and in our country, the Lord would raise up many passionate believers.

Back in the Saddle Again

For the one or two people who still check my blog, I am finally back. I have been a bit busy since the last time I blogged. Let's see, Roberta and I went to Hawaii for a week to celebrate our 30th anniversary. As soon as we got back we packed up our two cars and drove from Santa Clarita to San Antonio as I made the transition from being a staff pastor at Grace Church back to being the senior pastor of Believers Fellowship. It is good to be back at the church I pastored for 10 years previously.

When we arrived in San Antonio, we moved in to the guest house of some members of the church. They own a ranch and we enjoyed the view of horses, cattle, and lots of deer. Eventually, though, we needed to go back to Santa Clarita to pack up our house. We made the decision to stop trying to sell our house and rent it. That meant we needed to get everything out. We were able to get a good renter right away but, as you can imagine, all the packing and then doing all the rental "stuff" was a bit demanding.

Now that we had rented our house in California we were ready to find a house in San Antonio. After a lot of looking, we found a really nice house at the right price in Schertz (a suburb of San Antonio). But before we could move in, we made one more trip to California to celebrate my dad's 85th birthday and go to the USC-UCLA game (Fight On!). Once we returned the moving truck arrived and all the unpacking began. That kept us busy for a number of days.

We were blessed to have Billy, Cory, and Ben with us at Christmas. That has really helped to make our new house feel like home. Ben will be with us for another week and a half, and that will help even more in the transition. Plus, we enjoy having him here with us.

Now that all of this is behind us and the transition is over, I feel ready to really dig in to the ministry here. I am looking forward to preaching, teaching, counseling, praying, discipling, and evangelizing. San Antonio is a fast growing city but one in which the voice of the gospel seems to be diminishing. I pray that our church can make a difference. I pray that the Lord will open our eyes to the spiritual needs all around us and that we would be filled with a sense of urgency.

There's an old saying here in Texas that goes, "Don't put the spur to the horse until you're firmly in the saddle." Now that I'm back in the saddle, I'm ready to ride as fast as I can.

May the Lord richly bless you in 2008.