Newsletter 9/97

Fishers of Men

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Learning from a Meadowlark... September, 1997

When I was a young boy my entertainment was mostly out-of-doors. Much of my time was spent roaming the hills and bottomlands, the creeks and woodlands near our home in northern Mississippi. I usually preferred to be by myself, and this provided me with lots of time to reflect on the things I observed. I was taught in Sunday School, through our pastor's preaching, and by my parents that God had a lot to say through the natural world around me. I understood that God was not hiding Himself and that if I would ask Him, then He would surely "speak" to me in some way or another. So, as I roamed and observed many things I asked the Lord to speak to me and teach me about His ways. Often, what I experienced while out exploring the natural world was made even more clear the very next Sunday at church meeting!

The Bible records that Jesus taught His first disciples with illustrations from the natural world which was all around them. The Lord has not changed in this, and I often remember things He taught me many years ago as a young boy. One of these things has to do with a little bird called a "Meadowlark." These pretty black, brown, and yellow colored birds do not build their nests in trees like most other birds. They construct their little basket-like nests right on the ground in large grassy fields.

I "accidently" discovered how to find a meadowlark nest one day while exploring a field of knee-high grass. As I was walking along and thinking to myself, just me and the Lord, suddenly a meadowlark with a broken wing jumped out in front of me and began to flap and run and chatter excitedly. I was always bringing home wounded animals to doctor up, so I ran after the poor bird. After about sixty feet of chasing her, the meadowlark just up and flew off to a distant bush... she had no broken wing at all! Stopping, I pondered that a little. I retraced my steps to where the bird had first jumped up, and here came that same meadowlark back again. She landed right in front of me and did the same thing all over as if she was trying to get me to follow her away from that area! This time I didn't chase her. I began to search, and sure-enough, there was a little basket-like nest loaded with her tiny, defenseless children, ever so well hidden in the grass. As I knelt there admiring her little family, she came back again, but this time she was screaming and dive-bombing at me. This normally peaceful, docile little six-ounce David was taking on a Goliath in defense of her family! (I was actually about four hundred times larger than she was. Comparatively, the biblical Goliath would have been something like seventy-five feet tall and have weighed over 4,000 pounds when David faced him in defense of the honor of God and the nation of Israel!) I was really impressed with this little bird's self-sacrificing commitment to the protection of her family.

She couldn't hurt me, really. Her best defense had been to try to distract me and draw me away from her nest. Having failed at that, she seemed determined to drive me away by sheer force! Had I been inclined to take her family from her, there was really nothing now that she could do about that at all. I thought to learn some more, so I laid down right in front of her nest, not quite two feet away. I just remained there without moving for a long time. Initially, the mother meadowlark kept up her attacks and screaming, but after a while all this began to abate. Since I didn't move to attack her or her family, before very long she began to just accept me as part of the natural scenery! Soon, she went back to taking care of her babies, nestling down with them, peaceful and calm, as if Goliath was nowhere around. I had no harmful intentions, yet it struck me that at that moment, had I been a fox, I would have my dinner in one instant and this meadowlark's efforts to save her family would have been completely wasted.

What turns a little meadowlark into such a tiger? Obviously, it is a God-given natural reaction that is built into her, requiring her to react to imminent danger. More strangely, though, what again changes the meadowlark's behavior and makes the brave little bird ignore the danger and allow her family to become so vulnerable? The meadowlark becomes accustomed to the intruder, and thus, she soon forgets the danger. I believe that we modern Christians are too much like the meadowlark in this second way. We have become so accustomed to the enemy's presence that we have forgotten the danger. The Bible says that we are to be on guard, to be wary and alert, to resist the Devil, to expose evil, and to contend for the Faith which has been entrusted to us. Sometimes we have become so peace-loving that we refuse to accept the responsibility and the reality that we are involved in a war with Satan in this fallen world.

Straight Talk...

Over the years, people have known me as a gentle, peace-loving, non-confrontational individual. I have had lots of positive things to report about the Lord's work, and folks have enjoyed knowing about and being a part of a "positive" mission work here in South Louisiana. Thus, there are some who have been surprised at my "tone" for the past two and a half years. Some denominational leaders have accused me of being ungrateful, rude, and "recalcitrant" (Dr. Larry Lewis' word). The fact is that I am a pastor [shepherd] under the authority and direction of Jesus Christ, the Great Shepherd. The brothers and sisters in Christ of this church are those whom God has entrusted me with (Acts 20:27-28), and I must give an account to God for each one of them (Hebrews 13:17). Most of the believers here have come to Christ since I came to Bayou DuLarge, and they are very much my family in Christ.

Like the meadowlark years ago, for a long time I have distracted and deflected danger from my family of believers here, while they have grown and matured in the Lord. In God's timing, a terminal threat to the life and ministry of this church came to us, a threat to the very Gospel of Christ. It was not something that we sought after. It was not a threat that I could have avoided, nor that I should have deflected. It was time for the brethren here to stand up and be counted for as soldiers of Christ (2Timothy 2:3,4). It was not time for me to nestle down with my family and pretend that the danger was not here. It was a time to stand and defend the Faith, to contend against an overt betrayal of the Gospel of Christ. This defense continues to this day from this tiny embattled group of believers, this local New Testament church.

Because of their public stand against the ECT's heresy, the brethren of this church have been threatened, attacked, cut off, slandered, stolen from, forsaken, and betrayed by individual "leaders" outside of this local congregation. I don't think it is difficult to comprehend that their pastor would be compelled to try to defend them, to stand in the gap and contend for what is right. The biblical picture of a pastor is that of a shepherd who protects the flock. A shepherd's obligation is to place himself between the flock and the danger. A true shepherd will not run away and leave the flock at risk. Like the great shepherd, the undershepherd is to lay down his life for God's sheep. In Titus 1:9-16 is recorded the instructions of God for a pastor to "refute those who oppose sound doctrine" and to "sharply rebuke" those who are teaching contrary to the Word of God. Certainly, the Holy Spirit instructs all of us in Jude 1:3 to "contend for the Faith" and in Ephesians 5:11 to expose and "reprove the fruitless deeds of darkness."

The Bible does not teach that any Christian has the option to just run away from his/her obligation to contend for the Gospel of Christ. So far as our "leaders," these folks are just as human and fallible as all the rest of us are. They are subject to being wrong at times, and when they are, then they are accountable to God and to His people to repent just like anyone else. Not to do so is prideful and arrogant. I do not believe in destroying fellowship, rather, I believe in biblically correcting and improving it. There are some things that need to be corrected among the Lord's people. There is a biblical method of moving toward this correction and healing in the body of Christ; repentance is still God's answer. Those who refuse the biblical method, refuse to obey God. It is they who destroy fellowship. Wouldn't it be great, wouldn't it be honoring to God for there to come a time of repentance and healing among the Lord's people? Wouldn't it be great for us to then all be focused on reaching people for Christ TOGETHER in the biblical unity that honors God? I believe that this is possible!

Personally, I would love to get back to just fishing for men and for fish. I would love to have my peaceful bayou life back again. I have plenty to do right here, without all this contention over wrongs in high places of leadership. I am still a reclusive person by nature, and I would rather spend my time secluded here on this little bayou. BUT, we do not choose our path, for if we do, it will surely be the wrong one! The Lord has thrust all of us onto the front lines of contending for the Gospel and of opposition to some very wrong things that are in the Lord's Church at large. I, as a follower of Christ, and we as a church dare not ignore our calling into the difficult work of God. We are unworthy, not equal to the task. We are less than we ought to be. (Among all of God's people, who is not imperfect? There is but one who is perfect in every way!) But the danger is real and the Scriptures mandate that we refute those who oppose sound doctrine. There are wrongs that will harm many others if not confronted. We dare not become so accustomed to the danger that we give up the fight for what is right before God. "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God." JESUS said that!

(Aside)... Interestingly, David had little support in his confrontation of Goliath. Even the king would not go out to do battle. David's brothers thought he was just a foolish kid, prideful and arrogant! But David knew God's leadership in what he was doing. He had already faced some "giants" before while defending his father's flocks. Obviously, God spoke to David through those experiences out in the natural world, and David then took the truth he had learned and carried it over into other areas of God's will for his life. David knew that he was not really alone as he faced Goliath, for God was with him. Apparently, his brothers only woke up to that fact later on!

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Seminars on Roman Catholicism...

We are excited to share the enclosed brochure with you. These seminars in two locations here in Louisiana are exceptional opportunities for all of us. The seminars and training sessions on Roman Catholicism will be taught by Dr. Bill Gordon of the North American Mission Board (formerly HMB). He will be using materials written by Daniel R. Sanchez, formerly one of our SBC missionaries in Central America and now a professor at Southwestern Seminary. I think you will find the material and its presentation informative, even eye-opening! "The Interfaith Witness department works with and assists churches, associations, and state conventions in understanding other faiths and in witnessing effectively to people in non-Christian world religions and cults." (Information from SBC-NAMB)

As we have often said, if more people understood the official doctrines of Roman Catholicism and were exposed to the ECT document, then it would be obvious why we are in the position we find ourselves in right now. I urge you to make every effort to attend one of these seminars. Why not encourage your pastor to attend as well? I believe it will be well worth the effort. Your church should have received this brochure last week.

You might notice that these seminars are being promoted through the LBC Evangelism Department. We are grateful that there is this response to the need to educate our people concerning how to witness to individuals in the largest single unreached group of people in this state... our precious Roman Catholic relatives and friends. The workbook is entitled "Sharing our Faith with Roman Catholic Friends." That I am aware of, we have never had such an opportunity here in our state to inform us in such a convenient way. Please make the effort to attend. Even if you live in an area where there are few Catholics, still, you should be informed of the "why and how" of mission work which you support that reaches out to these folks. Why not go to the seminar closest to you and then bring a report back to your church?

Church News, Good News...

We had a "packed house" (literally) last Sunday and baptized three folks in the swimming pool next door. Two of those baptized are husband and wife and the other one is the young lady (mother of three) who helps Cindy with her housework. We all had a great time rejoicing together.

Two of our oldest members are Addie (90) and Enda (89) LaCoste. They responded to the Gospel and were baptized in the bayou by a Baptist missionary preacher in the early 1930's. Aunt Edna died early Saturday morning. I was privileged to be there with her and Uncle Addie, surrounded by several of their children and grandchildren, as she peacefully passed from this world into the presence of her Lord Jesus. I have never witnessed a more peaceful and precious moment. The funeral was held on Monday and according to some at the funeral home, it was the largest attendance at any funeral they had ever had there. I was again privileged to speak to hundreds of our people about the Lord Jesus and was able to point to the example that Aunt Edna had set for so many years as she followed Christ.

Family News...

Cindy has been doing exceptionally well. She is such a blessing to everyone. Joseph is doing well, too, and helps me all he can. Joshua is working offshore this week. We enjoyed Jeremy being home for the month of August. He is back in Central America serving with Global Outreach. Uncle Addie cooked an oyster spaghetti yesterday, and I went down to eat at his house. He is doing really well. Even though he misses Aunt Edna, he knows she is better off now with the Lord. He wondered if I was going to be too old to preach his funeral by the time he dies. He's only ninety you know! Said he hasn't got a pain in his body. Wow! I went shrimping one day early this week, and I've still got lots of pains in my body.

Our fall garden is looking good so far. We've got (growing) peas, peanuts, corn, okra, tomatoes, beans, sweet potatoes, eggplant, peppers, squash, cucumbers, watermelons, and cantaloupes. We'll start planting winter stuff as soon as it cools down a bit. I saved all the trash fish (about 250 pounds) we caught shrimping the other night and put them in the garden for fertilizer. P-U! Organic is better, but it is also stinkier. Joseph said that he hoped it didn't work too good, so maybe we wouldn't have to do it again! Goat stuff smells sweet compared to rotten fish.

Alligator season started Saturday. The price is down as low as $18/foot this year, but we really have a good crop of big gators. There are literally thousands of these critters all around us here. That's one reason why we don't have many stray dogs. Folks who don't keep their dogs in a pen either lose them to the road or the bayou. Either way, gators don't have to work to eat around here. We haven't lost any goats yet, but a friend loses a calf or two just about every year.

If you have any questions or comments please E-Mail Jerry Moser.