Thought for the Day NCTV 45 Sept 2 – Sept 6, 2024

Monday September 2, 2024

Hi this is Pastor Jim Driskell of Christ Lutheran Church with the NCTV 45 thought for the Day.

Happy Labor Day, whether you’re hearing this at the shore, camping, in the city, hope you’re having a nice three day weekend. Labor Day, to me, is the most depressing holiday of the year. It’s the downhill slide into short, dark, cold, days, and good by to the relaxed days of summer.

This is from a very recent post from John MacArthur. The Rev Dr MacArthur, who is also a college/seminary president stood up to the very radical attempts of the Los Angeles County government, attempts to shut down churches. Seems in LA County stores for alcohol, tatoos, gambling, were ok, but churches weren’t, and it wasn’t just LA County, churches were treated as some evil place that needs to be controlled. Well LA certainly isn’t unique beginning with the Roman Emperors like the sick twisted Nero, Caligula, etc who tried to shut down Christian churches, interestingly it’s always only just the Christian churches that they try to close down. Up through the times of Madame LaFarge, Hitler, Stalin, Mao to this very day with the sick humanists in the world, including the American leaders who shut down the Unite States and seemed especially concerned about shutting down Christian Churches. MacArthur stood against this and was severely persecuted and harassed by authorities. Ultimately MacArthur sued the county and the state and September 2021 was awarded a judgement of $400,000 against both for violating the churches first amendment rights. We are going to be talking about standing for Christ this week.

I’m Jim Driskell the pastor of Christ Lutheran Church 1302 E Washington St, New Castle, Pa check us on the web Christlutheran-new castle.org questions comments contact me on the website. Sunday worship is at 10:30am all are welcome, with the NCTV 45 thought for the day, God bless your day.

Tuesday September 3, 2024

Hi this is Pastor Jim Driskell of Christ Lutheran Church with the NCTV 45 thought for the Day.

There are a lot of people who count on the average American to be pretty passive, pass the problem to the next guy, not my problem, hey what can you do? I don’t know about you, I hear it constantly. I can’t say I always succeed, but I’m not the type to give up.

Well here’s my selection for my this American isn’t going to stand for it anymore. Last July Captain Adam, captain of a large container ship, was traveling past the Somalia coast, off the eastern shore of Africa. This area is notorious for pirates, yes, there really are pirates in the 21^st century, even as close as the Caribbean. Yes, there really is. On the bridge of this very large vessel, Captain Adam sees a vessel approaching, that well, don’t have to paint me no picture, he knew what these guys were about. He tried some evasive manuevering, I can tell you from experience, trying to get onboard one of those ocean going vessels. But the pirates did manage to get alongside and up to the weather deck.

Instead of just surrendering, or, they did have weapons, fighting it out, Adam chose a third way. Once you get on one of those boats and start going below deck, it starts to get a little disorienting, if you have been on one of them you know you can get a little lost. Adam took advantage of that and led the pirate crew down deep in the ship and secured the hatches behind them so the pirates were being slowly trapped. Adam finally met them led them even further where his crew was and basically dropped the net on the pirates without a single shot. The US Coast Guard had been called and arrived to take the pirates into custody. No one hurt, nothing stolen and a crew of pirates being brought back to the United States. Piracy is punishable by those who capture pirates on international waters. The Coast Guard was responsible for bringing them back to the US for trial

Wednesday September 3, 2024

Hi this is Pastor Jim Driskell of Christ Lutheran Church with the NCTV 45 thought for the Day.

Back to the Rev Dr John MacArther who is the pastor of Grace Community Church, a mega-church in California, and a very prominent Bible teacher, who has been teaching on the Bible on nationwide radio and television for forty years. Needless to say someone like that who is prominent, also sets themself up as a target of bullies and unfortunately state and local governments have become very imposing in general and on the church in particular. While Grace Community Church was making every good faith effort to contend with the covid outbreak, nothing they were going to do was ever going to be enough for the people in the local government with an agenda, and an antagonism toward the Christian Church. The Christian Church has weathered many much more difficult epidemics of various diseases, e.g. the Black plague. The church was the place where people could go for help, to get comfort and encouragement to face the epidemic. Dr Martin Luther dealt with many epidemics during his time as a Christian priest. He was not about avoiding ministering to those who were in need. For the record, I followed Dr Luther’s example in my own ministry during covid. Some people got sick, none as a result of church attendance, and I did not miss one Sunday of worship. Dr Luther wrote “I shall ask God to mercifully protect us, I will fumigate the air, … If God should wish to take me, he will surely find me, and I have done what is expected of me…I shall not avoid a place or person but go freely as stated above.” What time is the church needed more than in a time of crisis. It is the duty of the Christian pastor to go and serve where he is needed. Rev Dr Martin Luther did and was of service to many as was the Rev Dr John MacArthur and in my own humble way, the Rev James Driskell. Our call is trust and faith in Christ and to serve His people even in the most difficult circumstances and I am proud to serve in the example these men and many other men set.

Thursday September 5, 2024

Hi this is Pastor Jim Driskell of Christ Lutheran Church with the NCTV 45 thought for the Day.

Dr MacArthur’s article is about how the church, the leaders of the church have to stand against what Paul describes, “…the cosmic powers over this present darkness.” Call me dramatic but anyone who is deliberately trying to undermine the Christian church by targeting it to close its doors, they are the spiritual forces of evil as Paul refers to in Ephesians 6: 10-20. Yes there are a great many people in local government who are well meaning and not about to abuse their authority. The local officials where that church was located were not about to abuse their authority. They were right, the other powers were wrong. Paul writes to the Ephesians: we are called to be overseers of the church “…God’s steward, not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not pugnaicious, not fond of sordid gain … holding fast to the faithful word which is in accordance to the teaching so that they will be able to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict, as he wrote to Titus.

MacArthur writes: “Pastors have the God-given obligation to cultivate discernment among their congregations. And that discernment is needed to give their people an understanding of the truth necessary to protect them from the ubiquitous error that incessantly assaults them.” Pastors and churches are not a wax-nose that people try to fit to their liking to make them happy. The disciples all suffered a great deal to be faithful to Jesus and people down through history to this very day continue to suffer as Christians. Why? Our promise isn’t in this world, Jesus said the world will hate you because it hates me. It’s in the eternal world of the resurrection where we will live in the body and in a way God intended us to live since creation. We have to be strong and persevere through what the world throws at us.

Friday September 6, 2024

Hi this is Pastor Jim Driskell of Christ Lutheran Church with the NCTV 45 thought for the Day.

We have been talking about the Rev Dr John MacArthur the pastor of Grace Community Church and how he stood against the local authorities who tried to stop Grace Community from holding worship during covid. The people at Grace Community were not negligent and did everything they could reasonably be expected to do to prevent passing the disease. Very few people at Grace even caught covid and no way to know where those people caught it. There certainly wasn’t a big outbreak from those who attended worship. And when more than in a crisis should the church be open and ministering to people? Most of us remember right after 9/11 during the week churches were open and impromptu worship and prayer was being held. Why wouldn’t the same happen for covid? MacArthur writes: “The Lord’s preachers and teachers are to be polemicists against unsound doctrine that goes under the guise of biblical truth.” A polemicist is one who stands by their position makes forthright well-founded gains. Paul was writing to Titus in Crete and Paul’s words, there were many rebellious men who were trying to undermine the church. MacArthur writes and quoting Paul: “They were not to be ignored, much less tolerated, but were to “be silenced because they [were] upsetting whole families, teaching things they should not teach, for the sake of sordid gain.” We have this idea in America that we cannot assert whatever we want and demand to know what we want. That is not the Church of Jesus Christ. We have to have the confidence of people to trust their pastors like they do their lawyers, doctors etc. Part of that is realizing that a genuine Christian pastor is not going to step away from the church to defend her against external or internal attacks. I took an oath in the military, many times to protect and defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic. It is even more so in terms of defending the church of Jesus Christ.

Pastor Jim Driskell

If you want to change the world, pick up your pen and write. – Dr Martin Luther

Thought for the Day NCTV 45 Sept 2 – Sept 6, 2024

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