Christian Writing

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man [and woman] of God may be competent, equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:14-17)

“Give thanks to the LORD, call upon His name, make known His deeds among the peoples, proclaim that His name is exalted. Sing praises to the LORD, for He has done gloriously; let this be made known in all the earth.” (Isaiah 12:4-5)

“And this gospel of the Kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” (Matthew 24:14)

The Holy Bible – God-breathed scripture – bears witness to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ (John 5:39). The Bible is a “a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” (Psalm 119:105) Through the Bible, the Word of God can dwell in us richly. (Colossians 3:16) And for those who do not yet believe, faith comes from hearing the Word of God. (Romans 10:17)

How could the people of God live without the Bible? How could we even become a Christian? Yet there have been times when God’s people had to live that way.

The Old Testament describes two times when God’s people lived without God’s Word until God gave His Word back to them. In the time of King Josiah, Hilkiah the high priest found the Book of the Law in the Temple during a time of building repairs. When the Book was read, Josiah tore his clothes in grief, inquired of the Lord, and initiated profound reforms that included restoration of the Passover feast. (2 Kings 22-23) “… [T]here was no king like him, who turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might.” (23:25)

Later, as the Jews returned from Babylonian exile and rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem, God sent Ezra the scribe to read the Book of the Law of Moses to all the people, and they both wept and rejoiced. (Nehemiah 8)

History describes centuries in Europe and Northern Africa when both Christians and not-yet-Christians were denied access to reading the Bible in their own language. The Church headquartered in Rome translated the original Hebrew and Greek into their own Latin language but prohibited other translations. So, if one of those three was not your language, you had no Bible at all.

Heros like John Wycliffe were declared heretics because of their efforts to correct this travesty. Jan Hus and several others were burned alive. As a result of their courageous faith, Americans now have 450 English translations available to us. But among the 7,000 languages in our world, there are still 1,000 people groups waiting for their first translation. You can help.

Wycliffe Bible Translators is partnering with other bible translators worldwide to make the Bible available to all people in their own language by 2033, and to have a translation project initiated in all languages by the end of 2025. We have established the Tennessee/Virginia Word-Giver Project to join them in that effort, uniting the local churches in our region to fund the Tuzweyo Twake (“Arise and Shine”) Cluster Project, which will translate New Testament books for the last nine languages in Uganda needing translation. Our efforts will impact over 785,000 people at a total cost of under $450,000.

The average cost of translation (written, digital, and oral) is $35 per verse. This project makes absolutely no demand on a church budget. Instead, it provides congregational members the opportunity to personally fund one or more verses. Each congregation will determine the number of verses they choose to make their goal, along with the language and scriptures within the project they fund thereby.

For added impact, a national Wycliffe donor will match funds collected by any congregation participating with Wycliffe for the first time, up to $50,000 per church. Those matching funds will be used to complete another project.

Can you imagine a greater gift for the God-beloved people of Uganda? Can you imagine a better way for churches of all shapes and sizes in our region to unite in a common goal for God’s glory?

So far, we have spoken with seventeen churches. Six are fully committed and nine others have reacted positively but must consult with other leadership before making a final decision. Two of the six have already completed their project and both exceeded their goal!

Talk to your pastor. Every church interested can email me or text/call me at 423-863-2058. Let’s do this! Together!

God bless you, and God bless our community.

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulder, and His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over His kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.” (Isaiah 9:6-7)

“He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, yet the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him. But to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”(John 1:10-13)

“Let the children come to Me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” (Luke 18:16b-17)

Today I bring you “good tidings of great joy”. (Luke 2:10) You do not have to approach this Christmas season cynically preoccupied with the stark contrast between the spirit of Christmas and the present spirit of our world.

You do not have to approach this Christmas with the debilitating stress of “too much to do” and “too much to buy”.

You do not have to approach this Christmas with an attitude jaded by incessant commercialism, the intrusiveness of cute but semi-pagan myths like elves and flying reindeer, or even the awareness we do not really know the day of the year when Jesus Christ was born.

You can, if you choose, approach this Christmas with a childlike heart.

Read the scriptures that begin this column. We were given a child by God so we can become children of God, but we will not truly receive the blessings of the child God gave to us until we begin to think, feel, and behave like the children of God we have become. (Say what?)

It is not enough for me to simply say I am a child of God. To think, feel, and behave like a child of God requires that I have a childlike attitude about my new and everlasting identity. I become, like every healthy child, someone who delights in my new life, eager to learn and do all the things I was previously unable to learn and do, and trustingly dependent on the ones who watch over me and love me beyond measure: my heavenly Father God; my eldest brother, Jesus Christ, the Savior King; and the Holy Spirit of the Lord, who conceived Jesus within Mary and now lives within me. 

When I approach Christmas with a childlike heart, Christmas becomes my personal celebration of my Savior King’s birthday. I take joy in my salvation! (Psalm 51:12)  

When I approach Christmas with a childlike heart, I take joy in the fact Jesus’ birthday is so special it is even celebrated by people who are not yet Christians. I take joy in seeing the preparations for His birthday stretch through the whole month of December. I take joy in hearing over and over again that God loves the world and that His desire is peace on earth. 

I take joy in the fact so many families come together for Christmas, despite being scattered the rest of the year, and in seeing how much love can flow as they share traditions, memories, and the new things happening in their lives.

I take joy in watching the happiness that comes from the thoughtful giving and receiving of gifts. I take joy in singing and listening to beautiful songs. I take joy in the lights and greenery that brighten up an otherwise cold and barren winter. I particularly take joy in watching children laugh and play because it reminds me how much my heavenly Father wants me to laugh and play. 

When I approach Christmas with a childlike heart, the blinders come off and I no longer tune out or take for granted the things I have “become used to.” I look at the Christ child in the manger, surrounded by the poor and the rich and the angelic, and I see the billions of children in there with Him. We will follow the Christ child from those most humble surroundings into a spectacular place of eternal glory. (Philippians 2:5-11; John 14:1-3)

My dear friends, “set your minds” to approach this Christmas with a childlike heart, and you will truly have a Merry Christmas! (Colossians 3:2) 

God bless you, and God bless our community.

… [S]peaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into Him who is the head,vinto Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it isvequipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up invlove. (Ephesians 4:15-16)

Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us, from God the Father and from Jesus Christ the Father’s Son, in truth and love. (2 John 1:3)

I have engaged in pastoral “prayer & counsel” ministry for over twenty-five years. The people I meet in this capacity primarily struggle with a combination of anxiety, depression, frustration, negativity, and/or poor self-image. For most, the origin of their struggles was a childhood spent in a home where anger, fear, and distrust were the daily norm.

What is true for a homelife can also be true for a culture or nation. Our television and social media screens have, for longer than we care to admit, incessantly poured out one-sided messages that provoke anger at what “the other side” is doing, fear at what will happen if “the other side” gains power, and distrust of anyone who does not agree with the person on the screen who is speaking. Since the average American spends seven hours per day looking at a screen, these messages of anger, fear, and distrust are our daily norm.

Polls suggest 70-75% of Americans believe our nation has been on the wrong track.
While most people relate this to issues of the economy, immigration, and abortion, we must also remember how our general mood toward life impacts how we look at every issue. Life in an atmosphere of anger, fear, and distrust will hardly ever produce happiness, peace, or optimism.

As is always the case, God offers a better way – the way of Jesus – that combines truth and agape love. (John 14:6; 1 John 4:10) Our Father and Jesus send us grace, mercy, and peace in a package of truth and agape love. (2 John 1:3) Paul tells us that we grow up from childishness into knowledge of and intimacy with Jesus as we speak the truth in love. (Ephesians 4:13-16)

The Bible will not allow us to separate these life-essential ingredients of truth and love. God is love. (1 John 4:8, 16) He is also the God of truth. (Isaiah 65:16) God so loved us that He sent Jesus to save us. (John 3:16) Jesus is the truth. (14:6) Our faith in Jesus allows us to know the truth that sets us free. (John 8:30-32) Our faith works through love. (Galatians 5:6)

Jesus declares the Father and He are one. (John 10:30) Since Father God is love and Jesus is the truth, we can even argue that God’s love and God’s truth are “one”. And while that may seem a stretch, the Bible very clearly states that you cannot have one without the other.

1 Corinthians 13:2 says we can have incredible amounts of truth, but if we do not have agape love, we are nothing. Four verses later, 1 Corinthians 13:6 says agape love does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. Truth without God’s love is not God’s truth, and love without God’s truth is not God’s love.

We are emerging from an election campaign where a little more than half of our nation wanted former President Trump to be President again, and a little less than half did not. Both God’s Word and our nation’s Constitution tell us to honor our election outcomes, and God urges all Christians on both “sides” to pray for all our elected governmental leaders. (1 Timothy 2:1-2; Romans 13:1-7; 1 Peter 2:13-17) I hope all of us will do so.

My greater concern, however, is whether we can do anything to change this national
atmosphere of anger, fear, and distrust. Jeremiah asked whether a leopard could change its spots. (Jeremiah 13:23) But Christians are not leopards. We are new creations in Christ, and scripture tells us repeatedly to change and live as who we really are, not as who we once were. (2 Corinthians 5:17; Ephesians 4:20-32; Colossians 3:1-17; Galatians 5:13-25; 2 Peter 1:2-11) All of these wonderful scriptures describe humble lives of truth and love: treating other people the way we wish to be treated. (Matthew 7:12) If enough of us do that, the atmosphere can change.

As a small part of this effort, my daughter Jes Williams and I launched a new podcast on November 1 called Let’s Talk: Truth in Love. It is available on YouTube, Spotify, Apple, and through a link on our ministry website (Please pardon the plug). Our goal, just like my goal with these columns, is that we can encourage a better way to live and live together.

God bless you, and God bless our community.

For I was hungry and you gave Me food, I was thirsty and you gave Me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed Me, I was naked and you clothed Me, I was sick and you visited Me …. Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers [or sisters], you did it to me. (Matthew 25:35-36a, 40)

We expect hurricanes to impact Florida, or even Georgia and South Carolina, but who could ever believe a hurricane would bring devastation to Western North Carolina and East Tennessee?

Helene has done more damage than I can describe here: lost lives; people missing and families aching to know whether they are still alive; destroyed and severely damaged homes and businesses, many without flood insurance to help them rebuild; community infrastructures that may take months to repair; some communities like Chimney Rock Village simply gone; and thousands of people faced with “starting over” and not knowing where to begin.

When you look for hope amidst this tragedy, I encourage you to see, despite the horrible discord of this election year, Democrats helping Republicans and Republicans helping Democrats. See Republicans and Democrats working side by side to aid anyone around them who is in need. See compassion at work. See Americans of varied ages and ethnicities the way they can be and often used to be.

The Parable of the Sheep and Goats is a vivid picture of the Day of Judgment painted by Jesus Himself. (Matthew 25:31-46) The King will separate the righteous from the unrighteous, one into eternal reward and the other into eternal punishment; and the standard He will use is not confession of faith, baptism, or church membership. His standard will be compassion for others.

I am not suggesting here that baptism and confession of faith are not important, but we must remember confession with your mouth is worthless without faith in your heart. (Matthew 7:21-23; Romans 10:9) Faith without works is dead. (James 2:14-26) The fundamental work of faith is unconditional, selfless agape love. (Galatians 5:6; 1 Corinthians 13:2) And compassion is a vital component of agape love. (1 John 3:17)

Compassion is love in action for someone in need. Jesus showed compassion for the sick by healing them, for the shepherd-less sheep by teaching them, for the hungry by feeding them, and for the grieving mother by raising her son back to life. (Matthew 14:14; Mark 6:34, 8:2; Luke 7:13-15) Paul explains that God comforts us in all our afflictions so that we can then comfort others in their affliction. (2 Corinthians 1:3-4) 

My desire, based on my limited wisdom, would have been for Helene to never happen. But my heart soars when I see people removing garments of hostility, jealousy, distrust, and divisiveness so they can cloth themselves in compassion, kindness, humility, and love. (Colossians 3:1-14; Galatians 5:14-25) I feel like I am living in a community of “good Samaritans”, who earnestly desire to treat others in the same way they want others to treat them. (Luke 10:33; Matthew 7:12)

I also delight in knowing some of these good Samaritans are, like some of these hurricane victims, not yet Christians. Scripture tells us those who know love, know God. (1 John 4:7-8) As these people interact with those who love them back and already know Jesus, they can come to know Jesus as well. (1 John 3:18; Matthew 5:16; John 13:35) 

Finally, and regrettably, we have all seen a few people who have not chosen the path of compassion in this time of misfortune. They seek, instead, to feather their own nest with political lies or financial scams. Please remember scripture’s warning: those who do not know love, do not know God. (1 John 4:8, 20-21) These people are either goats or wolves, or both. (Matthew 7:15)

Our call to compassion in the wake of Helene will be long-term, but I am confident the love I see will persevere. (1 Corinthians 13:7-8) It will increase, rather than diminish, the compassion I witnessed in our region prior to Helene: ministries like Of One Accord, Shades of Grace, Coalition for Kids, Oasis, and Kingsport Homeless Ministry’s Grace House, just to name a few, along with local and international missions in many of our churches. And I am excited to tell you a local group of Christian leaders is working to develop a church communication network that gathers information about the ministries of compassion and missions in our region so we all can get involved where God wants us involved.

To the thousands of wonderful people participating in these acts of compassion, I say, “Jesus sees you and is pleased with you!” Whenever you get tired or discouraged, remember that what you do for them, you do for Him.

God bless you, and God bless our community.

The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!”  The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. When Jesus turned and saw them following, He said to them, “What are you looking for?” They said to Him, “Rabbi” (which translated means Teacher), “where are you staying?”  He said to them, “Come and see.” (John 1:35-39 NRS)

No biblical story better describes the present need of too much of the Church.

Andrew and John were hungry for a move of God. Their nation was birthed as a nation under God. Their history included times when they conquered their enemies and were known for their wealth and wisdom. But those days were gone.

The nation had moved further and further from God. Now the people were in bondage, and there had not been a prophet in Israel for four hundred years. 

Then came John the Baptist, the greatest preacher anyone had ever heard, with a potent two-part message.  

The first part was, “Repent!”  Turn away from your sin and back to God. Stop the greed, deceit, and sexual immorality.  If you are a nation under God, start acting godly.
It was a word desperately needed to deal with how far the culture had fallen. Ring a bell?

The second part was “The Kingdom of God is near”, a word also desperately needed to deal with how far the people’s hope had fallen.  The Lord was coming to restore God’s rule in the land. Finally, righteousness could prevail.

Strong words of both conviction and hope! Thousands came to the Jordan River to be baptized, including Andrew and John, who became two of the Baptist’s disciples.

Then another man showed up at the river – Jesus from Nazareth. He came to be baptized by John, and after Jesus left, John declared to the people who this Jesus was.

“I’m not fit to tie His shoes.  When He was baptized, heaven opened. God called Him His beloved Son. The Holy Spirit landed on Him like a dove.  This is the Messiah, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. He will baptize not with water, but with Holy Spirit and fire.” 

The next day, when John the Baptist directed the attention of Andrew and John toward Jesus, the two young men left the Baptist and became the first two people to follow Jesus. When He saw them, Jesus asked them a simple but profound question: “What are you looking for?”

This is a question all of us need to ask ourselves. What are we looking for in our lives, our relationship with God, and our communities of faith? 

Remember what Andrew and John already had with the Baptist: a great preacher who spoke of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; who preached the need to repent, be baptized and live a moral, honest life; who taught there would be a Judgment Day, but that Jesus is the Savior who can cleanse us from our sins. 

Doesn’t that sound exactly like what most people embrace in our bible-believing churches today? Yet Andrew and John left that because they wanted and needed more.  Do you want more? Isn’t it clear our nation needs more?  

Andrew and John responded to Jesus with their own question: “Where are you staying?”  This question was also profound. The Greek word for “staying” is “meno”, which means “stay”, “abide” or “remain”.  When Jesus responded, “Come and see”, He wasn’t just talking about where He slept. 

Jesus always remained in the presence and rule of His heavenly Father. He therefore “stayed” in the Kingdom of God wherever He went. He was going to show them the Kingdom moving on the earth: loving people unconditionally, healing the sick, delivering the demonized, raising the dead, stopping the storm, walking on water, and humbly revealing both the heart of the Father and who people made in the image of God can become. (1 John 2:3-6)

Andrew and John would “come and see” all of that. Then three years later, soon after the Lamb of God paid the price for our sins, they would, along with 118 other disciples, “come and see” what John the Baptist had promised in the very beginning.  In an upper room on Pentecost, they were all baptized in the Holy Spirit – immersed in the abiding presence, power, and love of God. Now it was their turn to be the Kingdom of God lovingly and powerfully moving on the earth, revealing to the world who God really is and who we all are designed to become.

My fellow Christians, we must follow Jesus, not John the Baptist. It is time to come into the baptism of Holy Spirit and, filled with God’s love, see the Kingdom move on this earth again. (Romans 5:5, 14:17; 1 Corinthians 4:20)   

God bless you, and God bless our community.

“And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20)

We call this closing passage of the Gospel of Matthew the “Great Commission” because here, the resurrected and ascending Christ gives His Church her core mission statement. The Greek word translated as “nations” is ethnos and refers to all people groups: ethnic groups and cultures as well as tribes and nations. (Revelation 5:9, 14:6) God loves all people and wants to make disciples of all people.

Disciples of Jesus are trusting, obedient pupils and followers of the One who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. (Matthew 4:19, 23:8-10; John 14:6). You make disciples through a two-step process of evangelism and discipleship.

Evangelism begins with our Lord’s declaration that we will be His Spirit-indwelled witnesses in our hometowns and throughout the world. (Acts 1:8). As Peter later explains:

“…You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a dedicated nation, God’s own purchased, special people, that you may set forth the wonderful deeds and display the virtues and perfections of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” (1 Peter 2:9 AMP)

When our life witness and words quicken the hearts of others to believe, we invite them to repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of their sins so they too can receive the Holy Spirit and be born of God. (Acts 2:38; John 1:12-13, 3:3-6) Their spiritual rebirth initiates the second step in the two-step process: discipleship, which involves teaching them to obey all that our Lord Jesus has commanded, including the foundational command of unconditional love. (1 John 4:7-12) As more disciples make more disciples, the kingdom of heaven grows from the smallest seed to the largest plant in the garden. (Matthew 13:31-32)

The early Church successfully embraced the Great Commission in Jerusalem and, thereafter, spread the Gospel throughout the Roman Empire. (Acts 2:31, 42-47, 4:4, 5:14, 6:7) So, how is the Church in America doing today?

Credible polls reveal that as recently as the early 1990’s, 90% of U.S. adults identified as Christian while only 5% were religiously unaffiliated. Today about 63% identify as Christian and 29% profess no religious affiliation. Among young adults (20-29), less than 50% profess Christianity. Over 30% of people raised Christian leave the faith by age 30.

Weekly mass attendance for Catholic Christians has dropped from 43% to 30% in the last twenty years. Southern Baptist church membership has dropped for seventeen consecutive years, and the evangelical percentage of our population has dropped from over 25% to 15%. The dramatic decline of membership and attendance in our mainline Protestant denominations is described as “plummeting”. 

While analysts often blame social media and other worldly changes for these tragic developments, I believe we must explore at least three factors within the Church to find out why everything is going backwards. 

First, nothing has impacted our Catholic siblings more than the ongoing child sexual abuse and cover-up scandal exposed to the public in the 1990’s. They relied upon their hierarchal priesthood for discipleship and justifiably feel betrayed. You must be disciples to make disciples.

Second, mainline denominations began, in the name of love, to accept homosexual practice in the 1990’s, but the real issue was the authority of scripture, not homosexuality. If you do not accept all scripture as divinely inspired authority for what the Lord declares to be right and wrong, you are deciding those issues on your own and cannot fully make disciples for Jesus. (2 Timothy 3:16-17; Matthew 5:17-19) Love without God’s truth is not God’s love. 

Third, the evangelical church began to assert themselves in the 1980’s and 90’s as a “moral majority” voting bloc and political action group, much like the black church had done during the civil rights movement in the 1960’s.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting godly government or having a voice in how our government makes laws, but when you begin to treat those who disagree with you as your adversaries, or even worse, as those “bad”, “evil”, and/or “stupid” people, you push them away and are no longer treating them as the harvest. You forget that Jesus came for the tax collectors and sinners, and now sends you to do the same. (Matthew 9:10-13) Laws are unable, on their own, to bring anyone to salvation or discipleship. (John 1:17; Romans 8:3-4) Truth without love is not God’s truth. (Ephesians 4:15)

Jesus is with us always. Fully embrace His Great Commission as a few wonderful congregations in our region are already doing, and things will turn around.  

God bless you, and God bless our community.