Charles Smith

Follower of Jesus Christ - Husband of a Beautiful Wife - Patriarch of an Incredible Family - Communicator of Biblical Truth ✝️

[Charles Smith @BroCharles62]

WEDNESDAY'S WORD...

"So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." (Romans 10:17)

I recently had an interesting conversation with a man that I would identify as a casual friend. He currently lives in Alabama, but was a Starkville resident during the formative years of his early life. He is morally upright, politically conservative, outwardly friendly, and a long time church member with a Baptist foundation of faith. When he discovered that I would be preaching for a friend in an upcoming Sunday worship service, he asked me what my message would be about. I quoted to him 2 Corinthians 13:5 and told him that the title of my message was "Evidence of the New Birth" and how the New Testament stresses the undeniable transformation of life that occurs for those who have been born again. And how did this man respond? He plainly stated, "What is the new birth? I've heard a little about that, but not much." Well, I told him of the encounter that Jesus had with Nicodemus in John chapter three, and then did the best I could in our particular setting of conversation to explain to him how and why a person MUST be born again. I now pray that the truth my friend heard will be God's catalyst to bring him to genuine repentance and biblical faith.

Because of this encounter, I yield my pen in this devotional thought to James Montgomery Boice (1938-2000), a Reformed Christian theologian, Bible teacher, author, and speaker known for his writing on the authority of Scripture and the defense of Biblical inerrancy. He served as the Senior Minister of Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia for thirty-two years. Please read his words prayerfully and carefully...

Why is today's church so weak? Why are we able to claim so many conversions and place these individuals onto our church membership roles, but we have less and less impact on our culture? Why are today's Christians indistinguishable from the world? Is it not that many are calling people Christians who are actually unregenerate? Is it not that many are settling for a "form of godliness but denying its power" (2 Timothy 3:5)?

Did I say weakness? I am afraid that it is much more than weakness. It is a tragic and eternal error. It is this idea (where did it ever come from?) that someone can be a Christian without being a devoted follower of the Lord Jesus. It reduces the gospel to the mere fact of Christ's having died for sinners, requiring that they simply acknowledge this by the barest intellectual assent, and then assuring them of their eternal security when they may have never experienced the new birth. This view bends faith beyond recognition and promises a false peace to thousands who have given verbal assent to this reductionist Christianity, but are not truly in God's family.

How did this happen? No doubt the motives of those who have fallen into this profound error have been good. They want to preserve in its purity the gospel of justification by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. They know that adding works to faith is a false gospel, and they rightly want to avoid that heresy. But preserving the gospel is precisely what they have not done. They have warped and in some cases utterly destroyed it.

These scholars, pastors, and Bible teachers need to learn these important lessons:

1. There is no hope of an eternal justification without a personal regeneration. It was Jesus who clearly said, "You must be born again" (John 3:7).

2. That faith without works is a dead faith, and no one will ever be saved by a dead faith. The Bible says, "Faith without works (deeds) is dead (worthless, invalid, useless)" (James 2:20).

3. The mark of true justification is a perseverance in righteousness, to the very end of life. Jesus told His disciples, "All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved" (Matthew 10:22).

4. Faith in a Jesus who is Savior, but not Lord, is faith in a Jesus of one's own imagination. The Jesus who saves is the Lord, there is no other, and it was He who said, "Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say?" (Luke 6:46).

5. That if one wants to know and serve Christ, "he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow [Him]" (Luke 9:23).

6. And finally, that "without holiness no one will see the Lord" (Hebrews 12:14).

Well, that is a major problem within the life of the church, and Dr. Boice wrote those words in 1988. I shudder to think what he might say today when he looks at the compromising, truth denying, doctrinally liberal and culturally woke congregations dotting our landscape in America today. I have been sounding the alarm throughout my ministry that our churches are overrun with lost members who display no consistent, biblical evidence of knowing Jesus! So many follow whatever simple instructions they are given in order to secure a little fire insurance policy that they hope will keep them out of Hell. Beloved, it doesn't work that way, AND ETERNITY IS TOO LONG FOR YOU TO BE WRONG!

"Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?" (2 Corinthians 13:5)

[Charles Smith @BroCharles62]

I'm thankful for the opportunity to preach God's word tomorrow morning at the Maben Community Church in nearby Maben, MS at 11. Join us if possible, and please pray for me as I present biblical truth on "The Evidence of the New Birth."

[Charles Smith @BroCharles62]

WEDNESDAY'S WORD...

"Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" John 1:46

A simple question from the lips of Nathanael when lovingly confronted by Philip concerning Jesus Christ, helps us to understand the plight of Nazareth. This small town was considered unimportant by the populace of the Holy Land at that time. It was both an insignificant and irrelevant place that was off the beaten path and filled with working class families supporting and working in the agricultural fields and pastures that surrounded its rural location. Nathanael was not personally belittling the town of Nazareth, he was only verbally expressing what nearly everyone else believed about this uninspiring place. If this Jesus was going to be someone of great importance with an extensive influence, Nathanael and others would expect him to come from a city widely known for its religious, financial, civic, or cultural power; not Nazareth. Hence the question: "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?"

Many of you know that my background is rooted in the fertile fields of the Mississippi Delta. My hometown of Duncan had a population of around 600 citizens during my formative years there. It has been surprising to learn over the years that many people who also called the Delta area their home were unable to even identify where Duncan was located. To say that this wonderful little town is considered unimportant to many people would be an understatement. When talking about my hometown and its citizens past and present, Nathanael's question could be slightly changed to this: "Can anything good come out of Duncan?"

Earlier this month, I had the privilege to gather with other preachers from the Golden Triangle area for a Pastor's Conference at a local church near Starkville. I have attended countless meetings like this one, yet this particular assembly was amazingly different. At this point you might be wondering, "What was so different about it?" Well, at this meeting were three men who all had roots in the Mississippi Delta, and all three are products of the big town of Duncan! Adam Contreras and Tim Beckett joined me for a time of worship and fellowship, and it was an incredible joy to be with these men. Our lives after Duncan took very different pathways, yet our amazing God lovingly watched over us, transformed us, and called us to communicate His word to those that He would put under our umbrella of ministry. Adam is serving a church in the small town of Maben. Tim is serving a church on the outskirts of Columbus in the New Hope community. And I continue to go to those places that are open to me so that I might exalt Christ as an itinerant preacher. The photo accompanying this devotional are of the three of us behind the pulpit of the host church. Praise the Lord for His faithfulness!

Friend, never downplay your family heritage or your hometown area as something that God cannot overcome. The Bible says, "For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence." AMEN! You don't have to have the name Graham, or Rogers, or Stanley to be used mightily by God. A Contreras, or Beckett, or Smith, God can use. And you don't have to be from Atlanta, or Dallas, or Nashville to be mightily used by God. A Duncan, or a Nazareth, will do just fine. HALLELUJAH!!

[Charles Smith @BroCharles62]

"But God demonstrated His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8

[Charles Smith @BroCharles62]

Today, even the idea of church renewal is antiquated. The buzz word currently in vogue is revitalization. Many books and discussions revolve around our need to experience church revitalization. Where do we find that word in scripture? WE NEED REVIVAL!

[Leonard Ravenhill @ravenhillquotes]

Modern men don’t talk about Revival anymore. They talk about 'renewal.' Revival smells of kerosene lamps, and the sawdust trail, and repentance, and brokenness, and tears & anguish — and they don’t like it! So they talk about 'renewal.' That’s about as substantial as candy floss.

[Charles Smith @BroCharles62]

WEDNESDAY'S WORD...

"Those who followed were afraid." Mark 10:32

Those of us involved in a pastoral or preaching ministry probably remember fondly the life and influence of the late evangelist from Alabama, Junior Hill. I recall hearing him preach numerous times at large Bible conferences in Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, and Mississippi. I was able to visit with him in his home before my family and I launched out in our season of evangelistic ministry back in 1997, and he remained a friend to me until the day he died. He would often mail me short notes of encouragement, as well as send email responses to my Wednesday's Word devotionals. He was a great and humble man of God.

I vividly remember hearing him speak about discouragement one time in a sermon. He said: "A few years ago I preached at a state conference a message entitled 'Dealing with Discouragement' to a pastor's gathering. I'll never forget after the sermon how an older pastor came to me and said, 'Bro. Junior, that was a fine message. But I just wanted to tell you that after all these years of ministry, I have never had a discouraged bone in my body.' Well, I replied, I'm glad that you told me that you've never had a discouraged bone in your body, because you've got a lying tongue in your mouth!"

Those of us in any kind of service to the body of Christ know what it's like to face discouragement. In my recent reading of Oswald Chambers' classic, daily devotional (My Utmost for His Highest) I read this very helpful and encouraging message...

"The Discipline of Dismay"

When I first began walking with Jesus, I was sure I knew all about him. It was a delight to give everything up for his sake, to fling myself out on a risky path of love. Now, I’m not so sure. Jesus is striding ahead of me, and he looks strange: “They were on their way up to Jerusalem, with Jesus leading the way, and the disciples were astonished, while those who followed were afraid” (Mark 10:32).

There is a side to Jesus that chills the heart and makes the spiritual life gasp for breath. This strange being, with his face set like flint and his striding determination, no longer appears as counselor and comrade. He has a point of view I know nothing about. At first, I was confident that I understood him, but now there is a distance between us; I can no longer be so familiar with my Lord. He is out ahead, and he never turns around.

Jesus Christ had to fathom every sin and every sorrow that could possibly afflict the human race: this is what makes him seem so strange. When we see him in this aspect, we don’t know him. He is a leader striding before us, and with dismay we realize that we don’t know how to follow him. We have no idea where he’s going, and the destination has become strangely far off. A sense of darkness surrounds us.

The discipline of dismay is a necessary part of discipleship. The danger is that we will try to escape the darkness by kindling a fire of our own. God says we must not: “Let the one who walks in the dark, who has no light, trust in the name of the Lord” (Isaiah 50:10). When the darkness of dismay comes, endure until it is over. Out of it will come a following of Jesus which is an unspeakable joy.

"A sense of darkness surrounds us." wrote Oswald Chambers. Have you ever been there? Perhaps you are in that place right now. Is that you? If it is, believe me, dear one, you are not alone. Many times in my journey I have been in mental, emotional, and spiritual darkness. Negative circumstances are a result of my own personal stupidity and foolishness. Or perhaps through no fault of my own, waves of menacing clouds bringing darkness and gloom begin trying, testing and overwhelming me. Where is Jesus in the midst of all this? Right where He's always been: Enthroned on high; as well as living, abiding, sustaining, and loving those of us who have been redeemed. When the darkness is surrounding us is never the time to give up, nor to give in. Trust Him, beloved, for Jesus never fails. Amen!

"Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." Romans 15:13

[Charles Smith @BroCharles62]

@gosavolssports This is a great group of young men. I'm blessed to be with them on the road and in the dugout!

[Christ Above Us @ChristAboveUs]

And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.

Ephesians 5:11 KJV

[Charles Smith @BroCharles62]

"And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet." (Matthew 24:6)

“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me." (John 14:1)

"Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." (John 14:27)

The word "troubled" describes a state of being worried, anxious, or distressed, often due to mental, emotional, or situational challenges. Family discord, community conflict, work or school problems, national unrest, and global situations can all cause us to have what some might call trouble. When we tend to fret deeply over those circumstances that we cannot modify, whether they are under our roof, down the street, or on the other side of the world, trouble inevitably will pay us a visit.

Yet in the scriptures above, Jesus has a word about trouble. He did not deny the existence of trouble, as in fact the scriptures tell us that at certain times even He was troubled. So what did He say? He said that when our hearts are gripped by trouble, we should look away from the cause and towards the cure. And what is the cure? He is! Yes, hallelujah, Jesus is the cure!

No matter what might be going on in your personal situation, or in our global situation, Jesus can give to each of us a peace that passes all understanding. The Bible says: "Now may the Lord of peace Himself give you peace always in every way. The Lord be with you all." (2 Thessalonians 3:16) Amen!

[Charles Smith @BroCharles62]

My place of ministry looks different today as I serve the EMCC baseball team on the road to Gadsden AL. #ScoobaTech #GoLions #RideWithKnightCoach 😎

[Charles Smith @BroCharles62]

Yes, LORD! Hallelujah... 🙌🏻✝️🙌🏻

https://t.co/cVUNft5h8B

[Charles Smith @BroCharles62]

"He who testifies to these things says, 'Surely I am coming quickly.' Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus! The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen." Revelation 22:20-21

#OperationEpicFury #OperationLionsRoar

[Statesmen Baseball @DeltaStateBSB]

Game 1 belongs to Delta State 😤

#wherechampionsplay

[Charles Smith @BroCharles62]

@DeltaStateBSB