Paul Frederick's Blog, page 2

Silver and Gold Have I None

Is it just me, or is it amazing how we decide some things are precious and others aren’t? Take metal for instance. Some metals we classify as precious. Gold, silver, and platinum are worth a lot of money and have been regarded as precious or valuable for centuries.

In precious metals two things are really what makes them stand apart from their non-precious counterparts, rarity and beauty. Because we like to look or wear these metals, and they are relatively hard to find, they are worth more. It’s basic supply and demand, really.

I’ve got a couple friends who are into precious metals. One even goes out and pans for gold in streams and creeks and has been pretty successful at it. I don’t know much about investing but a quick Google search will reveal a lot of information about investing in these metals. To me it makes sense to invest in something tangible, but I’m not an expert at all. In fact, when it comes to these precious metals, I can echo the words of the Apostle Peter in Acts 3:6, “Silver and gold have I none;”

When Peter said these words he and John were in Jerusalem at the Temple. At the temple gate called Beautiful, they encounter a man who was lame from his mother’s womb. Someone, the account does not say who, was helpful enough to carry the man to said gate every morning so he could beg for alms to those entering and leaving the Temple.

When Peter and John saw the lame man he expected to receive some money from them. After all, the gifts of strangers were his only means of support. Instead of money, though, Peter gives him something much better: the ability to walk!

What Peter says before the man is healed is what struck me as I read this account. He says, “Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee:” Peter is telling him, “I don’t have any money, but I have something just as precious.”

If you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour, you may not have any precious metals, but you have something more precious: eternal life. You may not be able to give away gold or silver to those in need but you can tell the world about how Jesus saved you and how He wants to save them, too.

God has not promised to make us rich or prosperous in this life. There’s nothing wrong with being rich or prosperous financially, but it’s not guaranteed to the Christian. But what we do have is the assurance from the Word of God that we will spend eternity with Him and that is far greater than a life of wealth here on earth.

“And he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God.” -Acts 3:8

How Does Your Garden Grow

We’ve all heard the old nursery rhyme, “Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow? With silver bells, and cockle shells, and pretty maids all in a row.”

This is the time of year where the question of the rhyme, if not the exact wording, is repeated over and over again. Spring is here and with it scores of amateur landscapists and gardeners are busy tilling, weeding, planting, and fertilizing their flower beds and vegetable gardens.

The gardening bug has even hit the Frederick household. I have to be honest, when I was a kid I never thought I would plant a vegetable garden when I grew up. I wasn’t particularly interested in weeding or hoeing. I did like to run the tiller but boys are drawn to motors like moths to a light so that shouldn’t be that surprising.

I did always enjoy watching the plants in the garden grow. Dad always knew the best varieties and how to space the garden just right in order to get the maximum number of plants in our little town garden. I also really enjoyed eating the fruit of our labor, even if I was more interested in the fruit than the labor. There is nothing like a fresh garden vegetable that you pick the very same day it is consumed. Even in the winter a sense of comfort comes over those who garden when they eat what was preserved the previous fall.

Despite my doubts, we have had a garden several times in my adulthood. Most haven’t been big, but I do enjoy planting and harvesting, even if weeding and picking aren’t my favorite. Some things never change though as I still really enjoy eating everything we grow!

Over the last several weeks I’ve been walking people through my garden via Facebook Live. Being in the deep south, our ground temperature and weather is much warmer than northern areas and we’ve been able to capitalize on those factors by planting our garden early. At the time of this writing our green bean plants are nearly a foot tall that were planted 4 weeks ago today. We’ve also got blooms on tomatoes and peppers and will have blooms soon on squash and cucumber plants.

I can’t help but think about the Bible when I’m out in my garden, whether I’m working or just seeing how my little plants are faring. The Scripture talks a lot about gardening you know. After all, the oldest profession in the world is actually being a gardener! Genesis 2:15 tells us, “And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.” Adam’s job, as given by God Himself, was to be a gardener in the Garden of Eden.

One passage that I’ve been relating to gardening recently is found in the New Testament book of Galatians. The Apostle Paul, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, writes to the churches of Galatia about two opposing gardens, if you will. The works of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit.

The works of the flesh are those things that we do naturally in our sin nature. They are against God and, for the most part, against our fellow man. It is the expected end of our natural, carnal man. It is a life full of self and sin.

The fruit of the Spirit, however, are just the opposite. It is the result of our following Christ and living for Him. It is the outpouring of the change the Holy Ghost makes within us. It is the earthly display of the heavenly character He produces in us.

There are a lot of sermons, articles, and books on the fruit of the Spirit. I have no doubt most of them do a much better job explaining just how the Lord does this work in us and how we are supposed to exhibit this fruit as it matures. There is one truth that I’ve been meditating on, though, as it pertains to the fruit of the Spirit that I hope will help you.

I’m not the world’s best gardener by any stretch of the imagination, but I do know a few things. As much as I resisted I did learn some lessons in our backyard garden those many years ago with my Dad and siblings.

One thing I learned that is a profoundly simple truth is that a garden, and plants, must be cultivated. There has to be some tilling, some weeding, and some fertilizing. The ground has to be opened in order for a garden to grow properly. There has to be some amount of attention paid to the plants to ensure they develop and grow correctly so they can produce fruit to the best of their ability.

I believe that if we want to see the fruit of the Spirit grow, we have to cultivate. Our hearts have to be open. We have to till, and weed, and fertilize the fruit so they will grow and produce in our lives.

I can’t make my garden grow. I can do all the work and hope but ultimately I can’t force anything to sprout and take root. The same is true of the fruit of the Spirit. I can’t force God to make these attributes show up in my life automatically. God is not some genie I can order around at my whim, even if what I want is ultimately good. What I can do is cultivate the garden of my heart and allow God to do His work in His time.

What about you Christian? Have you cultivated the garden of your heart and asked God to increase the fruit of the Spirit? Perhaps there is some weeding that needs to take place before the fruit can grow. As we prepare and plan our earthly gardens, let us also examine ourselves so we might be ready ground for the fruit of the Spirit.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.” Galatians 5:22-23

Call Me Ishmael

With those words we begin one of the most iconic American novels, Moby Dick by Herman Melville.

The novel about an unhinged whaling captain and his irrational quest for revenge from a white whale is so iconic that, though many people have never read an unabridged version of the novel, they could nonetheless give a fairly accurate synopsis of its plot. Moby Dick has been re-imagined in scores of movies, TV shows, comic books, and any other kind of medium you could mention. It has been called “the great american novel” by more than one source and has spurred the imagination of readers toward the high seas for generations.

A couple of months ago my family and I were at one of our usual hangouts, the public library. We go there at least twice a week or more and have for several years.

On this occasion an interesting-looking book caught my eye. It was In the Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick. In his book, Philbrick masterfully tells the historical account of the sinking of the Nantucket whaleship Essex in 1820. What was a national headline at the time of its sinking was an unknown story to me and probably to many of you reading this article. If you have any interest in historical books, whaling, Nantucket, or life at sea during the first part of the 19th century, you should find a copy and read it. (Even if you don’t have any interests in these things it is a great book.)

I don’t have time to give a full description of In the Heart of the Sea, but it is the true story of a whale who attacked and sunk a whaling ship thousands of miles from the closest shore. At one point in the book Philbrick mentions that this account was partially used by Melville as inspiration for his most well-known work, Moby Dick.

I found Philbrick’s book so interesting that I decided I should read Moby Dick for myself. I found a copy at a resale shop and am about a third of the way through the novel at the time of this writing (I’m sorry to say it sat on my shelf for a while before I started it).

Looking back today, it would make sense for us if Moby Dick were a smash hit when it was first published in 1851. We would probably expect Herman Melville to be regarded as one of the great novelists of his age during his lifetime. Unfortunately for Melville, neither of these expectations could be further from the truth.

Although Melville had written some semi-popular and financially successful books before Moby Dick, the novel many consider his greatest work was a failure when it was first published. Reviewers panned the book as boring and lifeless. The book about Captain Ahab and his great white nemesis was a financial failure and pretty well ended Melville’s career as a novelist. He did write a couple more novels but in 1863 he took a position as a US Customs Inspector and refocused his creative energies as a poet, never again writing a novel. When Melville died in 1891, Moby Dick was out of print and had been for several years.

Around the centennial of his birth in 1919, Melville was “rediscovered” by critics and fans alike. Since that time Moby Dick has entered the American consciousness in the same vein as apple pie and the Stars and Stripes. It is so deeply ingrained in our culture most of us can’t remember how we first learned the book’s plot, we just seem to know it instinctively.

As I often do when reading a book, I became interested in the author of Moby Dick. It didn’t take much research to find the information I’ve given here about Melville’s decline as an author or the revival of his work nearly 30 years after his death. As I thought about Melville, a man who was unrecognized in his own lifetime but is heralded today, I considered the life and work of the followers of Jesus Christ.

The work the Christian is called to is an eternal work. The consequences of such a work are just that, eternal. They are the “…fruit that should remain…” as talked about in the Farewell Discourse of our Lord Jesus Christ in John 15. If the consequences of our work is eternal, the reward of our work is eternal as well!

Don’t get me wrong, I do believe the Lord blesses His children during our earthly lives, but the notion that He will give us “health, wealth, and prosperity” is an idea totally unfound in any of the scriptures. Just reading about the Apostles’ lives and the persecution of the early church should teach us that the prosperity gospel preached today was totally alien to these stalwart believers. The Bible teaches us that our greatest rewards will be found in the next life, not this one.

These eternal rewards are exactly what Paul was describing to his young protege Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:8. “ Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.”

I don’t know who may be reading this but perhaps it seems like sometimes your work for the Lord is in vain. No one notices, no one cares, or you don’t seem to be making a difference. But the Lord has promised He would notice. He cares. You have no idea what difference you are making. Only eternity will tell. The impact you have made for the Lord will only be known as you stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ.

Herman Melville gets his honor today, over 200 years after his birth. There are streets, squares, and even societies named after him. In 1984 the United States Postal Service issued a stamp in his honor. There is even an extinct species of whale named after him! The author who died in relative obscurity lives in the minds of book lovers everywhere.

There may never be any streets dedicated in your honor. Two hundred years after your birth your name will likely be forgotten here on earth. But if you are faithful to the Lord, and to the work He has called you to, you’ll receive a much greater reward than all of these. You’ll get to cast your crowns at the Saviour’s feet and hear Him say, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.” Matthew 25:21

You Are Not Alone

Authors note: I wrote this article several months ago while studying the life of Elijah. As you’ll read, I primarily wrote it for the person, pastor, or church, who was dealing with the ever-present issue of those who have discarded what they once believed, or those who disregard Bible-believing Christians as ignorant or deceived. 

Today reminding the reader of the principle of being comforted by God’s presence is even more needed than when I originally wrote the article. Many people throughout the country are isolated at home because of the COVID-19 Pandemic and the majority of churches cannot meet together in one physical location. I have no doubt that many people feel utterly alone  and are looking for a ray of hope. I’m sure you know it intellectually, but maybe reading about God’s promises to never leave you will help you through these difficult days. 

With that in mind, please enjoy and be encouraged by this article. 

 

One of my favorite people to read about in the Bible is the Old Testament prophet Elijah. I like to think I relate to Elijah so much because of his bold delivery, his faith in God, or the many great things he saw the Lord do in his life. In reality, though, I probably relate with Elijah because the Bible shows us so much about his humanity and flaws.

In 1 Kings 19 we see what is probably the darkest chapter of Elijah’s life. He had, through the Lord’s power, defeated the prophets of the false god Baal. Israel’s faith in the One True God has been restored. Ahab and Jezebel, the wicked and idolatrous King and Queen, were on their laurels reeling from a sound defeat.

After all of this (and more I haven’t mentioned), Elijah is by himself in the wilderness. He is in the midst of what some might call a mental breakdown and was certainly in the grip of deep depression. Even though he has seen God do amazing things in the past few years, Elijah was as low as anyone could be.

After a period of solitude the Lord comes to Elijah to comfort him and prepare him for what is to come. In the course of Elijah’s conversation with God we see a big problem he had. Through all the prophesying and calling out the Prophets of Baal, Elijah thought he was alone in serving God and living for Him.

At the end of the conversation God does two things for Elijah. First, God tells him about Elisha, a young man who will be his sidekick and successor. Next, God tells Elijah that there were not one or two others who were serving God; there were 7,000 in Israel who had not bowed down to Baal. While Elijah had seemed like he was alone, in reality there was a great number of people throughout the kingdom who were just as faithful to God as he was.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve definitely been through the same battle that Elijah is facing. I’ve never seen God do the type of miracles that Elijah experienced, but I’ve been in a low place wondering if there is anyone out there who believed like I do.

According to the Hartford Institute for Religious Research, 94% of churches in the United States have an average attendance of less than 500. If I had to guess I would say that an even higher percentage of Independent Baptist churches have an attendance of less than 500. With that in mind there is no wonder that sometimes we feel alone.

We look around at our church and there may not be a big crowd there. As we drive through town we see churches that do not resemble ours in doctrine or practice. Even among Independent Baptist churches we see some moving further toward ecumenicalism and new evangelical methods and philosophies.

And if all of that weren’t enough, it would appear that the majority (or at least the vocal minority) of people in our country disagree with us regarding morality and decency. They don’t hold the same values and are very adamantly opposed to our values.

In the face of all of these things it is easy to feel alone. Like everyone else has gone down a different path and we are trudging on by ourselves. Sometimes we even may wonder if it is worth fighting for old principles that others have abandoned.

Just like Elijah, though, we are wrong. We aren’t the only Bible-believing church left. Not every group has sold out to cultural pressure. All voters haven’t been turned away to ungodly principles. There are plenty of people, churches, and pastors, who are staying true to the Lord and to biblical principles, even if they don’t cross every t and dot every i like we do.

When going through an exceptionally difficult stretch it may be beneficial to find others who also are committed to keeping with the same principles you uphold. That’s what God did for Elijah, He introduced him to Elisha, a friend and co-laborer he could count on.

What is most beneficial, though, is remembering that the Lord is with us always. One of the last things the Lord Jesus Christ told the Apostles was “…lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” Matthew 28:20b. The writer of Hebrews quotes some of the last words of Moses as he gives a promise from the Lord to Joshua and the Children of Israel “…I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” Hebrews 13:5b.

Even if every other person forsakes us, if every other church or pastor turns their back on the word of God, if voters affirm ungodly leaders and policies, God will never leave us. He will never fail us. He is still true. His Word is still valid.

Whatever difficult battle you find yourself in, remember that God is with you. He has promised to always be with those of us who know Christ as Saviour. You are not alone.

“Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him.” 1 Kings 19:18