Morningview Baptist Church

The longer I live the more I become convinced that all of life is really about one thing, relationships. Some of us are more relationally oriented and some of us are more task oriented, but at the end of the day what gives it all meaning is the relationships we have with the people around us. Ultimately, as those trusting in Christ, what gives all of life meaning is our relationship with Christ. That is why the  Scriptures are so clear on the necessity of our learning to have right relationships.
The commandments given to Moses at Sinai give us guidelines for right relationships to both God and our fellow man. Jesus himself characterized these right relationships as love relationships in Matthew 22:37-40 saying, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” We spend our entire lives learning how to have right love relationships, so that we can learn how to have a true love relationship with God. Matthew 22 serves as a baseline for how what we believe should affect our relationships with other people. However, do our relationships fully reflect the truth of this verse?
We all struggle to understand love, but we far too often set ourselves up for a fall because we do not understand what love is and what it is not. We do not know what it means to love biblically. We confuse love with other experiences and emotions, and therefore have no basis to evaluate our relationships. We need a realistic and biblical understanding of love and relationships. We need an external and eternal standard by which we can evaluate our relationships. The Bible provides that standard.
There are five primary biblical love relationships that we can use to help us measure and evaluate our relationships. The first of these is found in Matthew 5:43-45, You have heard that it was said, ‘you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. Jesus himself commands us to love our enemies.
The second biblical love relationship is found in Leviticus 19:18, Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD. Jesus himself commands us to love our neighbors.
The third biblical love relationship is presented in John 13:34-35,  A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another. Jesus himself gives us this new command to love our spiritual family, our brothers and sisters in Christ.
The fourth biblical love relationship is explained by Paul in his letter to the Ephesians. In Ephesians 5:25-33 Paul commands us to love our spouses as a model of Christ’s relationship with the church,
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. . . Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife even as himself, and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband.
The final and most important biblical love relationship can be found throughout Scripture. However, it is explicitly given to us in Deuteronomy 6 and repeated by Jesus in Matthew 22. Deuteronomy 6:4-5 says, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” God himself commands us to love Him above all.
We need to see that each one of these biblical love relationships has a particular purpose, and God has placed boundaries around each one to protect us and the purpose of the relationship from corruption. There are also five resulting implications from these that we can apply in helping us evaluate our relationships. Pastor Shawn and I will be leading an MIT class this winter that will help us  better understand how to shepherd our children in biblical relationships that lead to a biblical marriage. The course will aim to accomplish this by providing scriptural principles and practical methods regarding biblical relationships, modesty, purity, dating, courtship, biblical sexuality, and biblical marriage.
I pray you will strongly consider taking this course, and we encourage both parents to attend if possible. Ultimately, helping our children have more biblical relationships will only aid them in having a true love relationship with Christ. It is never too early, or too late, to instill in your child spiritual insights and biblical truth.

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Please note, the Christmas Caroling schedule has changed.  We will meet in Armstrong Hall at 5:45 p.m.  The nursery will open at 5:45 for ages birth through three years of age.  We will leave the church at 6:00 p.m. and return for the chili supper at 7:00 p.m.   The church will furnish some chili but we are asking others to bring chili also.  If you are able to bring a pot of chili, please let us know by either calling the church at 272-2304 or emailing info@morningview.org

Caroling – 6:00 pm
Chili Supper – 7:00 pm

I’m almost ashamed to admit it, but I was there.  On Thanksgiving night, I was among the masses at Walmart having one of the most horrific experiences of my adult life.  A simple trip to take advantage of a few good deals became a hard-won spiritual lesson on the dangers of materialism.  After watching people argue over a limited number of toys, trample others for electronics, and threaten each other over cookware, it finally hit me while I was standing in the 47th place in a check-out line:  Christmas in America has devolved into a scene from a horror movie.

As soon as the tables are cleared, the warmth of Thanksgiving is traded for a swelling tide of material lust.  The wave of advertisements is like a toxic chemical spill creating rabid Continue reading

Sunday, December 4

6:30 p.m.

Christmas Eve Worship

Saturday, December 24, 2011
5:00 pm

The Morningview Christmas Celebration
Sunday, December 11, 2011 at 6:00 pm

Every December it is our distinct privilege and joy to celebrate and treasure God’s grace in Christ Jesus, given to us as a humble baby born in stable.

Though the story is old and familiar for so many of us, a fresh look at it’s cherished lines still brings a sense of wonder and awe even to those who know it best.

One of our favorite traditions at Morningview is the retelling of the sweet story through the the rich sounds and angelic melodies of the holiday season.
Apart from our regular weekend services of worship, we set aside one Sunday evening per year especially for the purpose of treasuring the child in the manger in song.

This is our “Christmas Celebration” and we would love to share it with you!

Please come and be the guest of our Orchestra and Choir as we celebrate the Savior with some of the most time honored songs of the season and then join us for a reception to follow.

“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

“I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot endure evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false; and you have perseverance and have endured for My name’s sake, and have not grown weary.  But I have this against you, that you have left your first love.” (Rev 2:2-4)  These are chilling words.  You can stand against evil.  You can be very sound in your doctrine.  You can guard the church from false teachers.  You can persevere in the face of persecution.  You can do all those things and still be guilty of not loving Christ.

On Sunday, I preached from Matthew 22:37 on what it means to love the Lord with all your heart, soul, and mind.  If you remember, I stated that love, whether Continue reading

If you have spent any time watching or reading the news lately, you have no doubt been bombarded with stories regarding the tragic situation at Penn State, where one of the former assistant football coaches has been charged with over 40 counts of sexual misconduct with children.  What makes this even more sad is that several high-ranking university officials were aware of what this man was doing, and they did not report him to the authorities or even reprimand him.

As a result of these events, institutions and churches all over the nation will need to consider again our policies for handling such misconduct.  Here at Morningview, we have already proceeded to update our policies, and everyone in leadership will be required to sign a statement saying they have Continue reading

Sunday, November 13

There are many countries in the world today where Christians are martyred for their faith. Believers in Afghanistan are facing death threats; Christians in Uzbekistan, Nigeria and many other countries all around the world face violence, imprisonment and even death.  There are other places in the world such as North Korea where acts of persecution take place, but we don’t see or hear of it. Brother Andrew of Open Doors once said, “Our heroes are not with us simply because they are in prison.”

“Tortured for Christ” is the autobiography of Richard Wurmbrand which recounts the persecution and torture he endured in Romania under the communists of the former U.S.S.R.  It is difficult to read at many points as you are brought face-to-face with the kind of torment that he and others were forced to endure while in prison.  What is even more difficult is to think that this kind of torturous treatment is still experienced today by Continue reading