vassal of the King

WARMLY INVOLVING ALL AGE GROUPS INTO THE BODY OF CHRIST Geoffrey R. Kirkland Every pastor hears it. Every shepherd receives that phone call. Every minister faces the same question. Someone comes to the elder and says that he doesn’t feel plugged in because the church doesn’t ‘have what I need.’ Or, to phrase it slightly differently, a churchgoer may quibble: ‘I don’t feel as though I can relate all that well to others in your church. There’s not that many people my age’ (or, my season of life, etc.). Every man of God serving in leadership in Christ’s church has been there. He’s faced it. He’s dealt with it. So, how do you involve various and all age groups into the beautiful and unified body of Christ in a local assembly? A local church will have lots of groups, from twenty-somethings, to high school students, to the divorced, to the widowed/widowers, to the middle-aged singles who have never been married, to the teenagers, to the empty nesters, to the hurting ones who have been div

“Holy to the LORD” [קֹדֶשׁ לַיהוָה] The Mark of the Minister Geoffrey R. Kirkland Christ Fellowship Bible Church In Exodus 28:36, God instructs Moses that he should make a plate of pure gold and shall engrave on it, like the engravings of a seal: ‘Holy to the LORD’. And this plate of pure gold shall rest upon Aaron’s forehead (v.38). In reflecting on a similar parallel for the minister of the gospel today, he should also have a sort of engraving that sets him apart as a man wholly devoted to the LORD. In pondering this very phrase, I see a few marks that every minister of the gospel should have this engraved on him that distinguishes as singularly minded man with a God-given mission and a God-driven passion. In a word, the mark of the minister should be that he is a holy man entirely devoted to the LORD . 1. Holy in his SOUL The man who serves as the minister of the Lord must be holy in his soul. This means that this man must be soundly converted; that is, set apart in his soul. He m

JC Ryle describes the day of judgment: Believers and unbelievers, holy and unholy, converted and unconverted, are now mingled in every congregation, and often sit side by side. It passes the power of man to separate them. False profession is often so like true, and grace is often so weak and feeble, that, in many cases, the right discernment of character is an impossibility. The wheat and the chaff will continue together until the Lord returns. But there will be an awful separation at the last day. The unerring judgment of the King of kings shall at length divide the wheat from the chaff, and divide them for evermore. The righteous shall be gathered into a place of happiness and safety. The wicked shall be cast down to shame and everlasting contempt. In the great sifting day, every one shall go to his own place. -- Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Luke (p.97-98).

HOW TO ENSURE SEXUAL PURITY IN THE MINISTRY! Geoffrey R. Kirkland Christ Fellowship Bible Church This brief essay serves to ask heart-probing questions so as to gauge my heart and my love for Christ. May I rehearse these questions frequently so as to ensure sexual purity in the ministry for God’s glory and for the good of my soul. 1. Do I love Christ passionately? I will always pursue what I love most. Do I love Christ or do I love sex? Do I love temporal, immediate, sexual pleasure more than I enjoy the lasting, eternal, full pleasures of Christ? If I am loving Christ passionately, fully, diligently, daily and savoringly then I will not live a life pursuing sexual immorality in any of its forms. 2. Do I really meet with God in prayer daily? Not do I ‘say my prayers’; but, do I really meet with, commune with, fellowship with and enjoy intimacy with the Living God? Meeting with God and speaking to Him (prayer) and hearing from Him (Scripture) can safeguard us from the wily and seducti

Beginning Sunday, December 7th, Christ Fellowship Bible Church will launch a verse-by-verse expositional preaching series through the Book of Revelation. This study will help you understand the glory of Christ & His triumphant victory over the forces of evil. CFBC takes a futuristic premillennial position regarding the hermeneutic (='how to interpret') the book. Revelation 1:19 provides its own outline of the book: Revelation 1:19 – "Therefore write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after these things. Christ tells the Apostle John to write the things... 1. Which you have seen ( PAST ) — chapter 1 2. Which are ( PRESENT ) — chapters 2-3 3. Which will take place after these things ( FUTURE ) — chapters 4-22 Join us at 4:00PM every Sunday at CFBC . Or, if you can't join us, the sermons will be online at the media page.