If you are not convinced the Gospel is the power of God unto Salvation and the power by which God brings about our sanctification; I encourage you to join a church plant.

God is faithful to his word and to those whose hearts have been implanted with the Gospel,  God will bring about fruit as it is watered and cultivated.  How is that heart watered and cultivated??  Through the preaching and living out of the Gospel.

God has been gracious in giving East Point Church fruit.  Throughout the body fruit is sprouting and the buds are beginning to give way to full blossom.  It is quite encouraging to see and gives me greater confidence that man doesn’t change man, only the gospel changes man and brings forth fruit.

Lord willing, growth will continue and EPC will be a bountiful tree, producing much fruit for the Glory of our wonderful Savior!

Here is another of the messages from this year’s Stone Mountain Conference on Reformed Theology.  This is Michael Leach preaching on Hebrews 12:1-13 – The Discipline We Must Endure.

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This past Sunday, our brother Ken Jones preached for us at East Point Church.  He opened the Word of God for us from Psalm 46 on the subject of “Be Still…”  The word was a most fitting word for us as a church plant. Nothing is more seductive to a church plant than being busy. There is so much to do, so few people to do it, and seemingly so little time. Yet Ken reminded us that when we come in the sanctuary we need to learn to “be still.”  In fact, God has design us for such and desires that we “refresh, refocus, and recognize.” Great word, my brother!

This past weekend I had the pleasure of attending a family reunion.  It was a great time of fellowship with uncles, aunts and cousins I have not seen in years.  We had good laughs and shared many memories of our time growing up. 

When I get together with my family, which due to time and distance is not often, I am reminded of God’s grace in placing me in a family where Christ was central.  My grandparents loved the Lord and they sought to build a family rooted in the scriptures and focused on the gospel.  Not all their grandchildren are followers of Christ but none can say they grew up without hearing the Gospel; for Christ was central in the prayers lifted up and the songs sung at all of our family gatherings.  I thank God often for placing me in such a family; a family not with out fault and sin, but a family who loved the Lord and desired all to know that same God.

We ended the weekend with a hymn that has become the Duncanson family anthem, so to speak; for it was rare at our gatherings that this song wasn’t sung.  Singing it this weekend, and really listening to the words brought tears to my eyes as I sang it with my family for the first time with new eyes, new ears and by God’s grace a new heart!  Now I know why we sang it song so often, “Praise the Savior Ye Who Know Him”  

The Stone Mountain Conference on Reformed Theology was great!  A dear brother from Valdosta took a few pictures to tell the story.  Thanks Matt!

Yesterday on the way to church in East Point we passed by a crime scene.  In fact, the police had roped off an entire block of street with yellow crime scene tape.  You could see people coming in and out of a house with plastic gloves.  The news reports and trucks were on the scene.  From the looks of it, we thought that this must have been serious.  This morning, the newspaper revealed just how serious.

Apparently, yesterday afternoon  an 87 year old man killed himself, his wife, and his 12 year old grandson.  It was the couple’s 57th wedding anniversary.  You can read the tragic report here.

In reading the story this morning and recalling the way the scene looked as we were detoured from our route, I am reminded of the message of the gospel, which is the message of hope.  In fact, it is the only true hope of humanity.  Someone somewhere has rightly said:

Man can live about forty days without food, about three days without water, about eight minutes without air, but only for one second without hope.

Yet, we must know that Christ is our hope.  And as long as He lives, so too does our hope.  The Bible puts it this way:

Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of God our Savior and the Lord Jesus Christ, our hope (1Tim. 1:1).

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The Annual Stone Mountain Conference on Reformed Theology has once again come and gone.  It was a most encouraging time as the conference experienced growth in the number of speakers, attendees, and spirit.  Once again I had the privilege of participating in the conference.  Yet my greatest joy was seeing the enthusiasm in the faces and hearing it in the voices of so many of the attendees and sitting at the feet of some excellent Bible preachers.  Michael Leach (pastor of All Saints, and the organizer of the conference) was joined this year by Ken Jones, Robert Benson, Roger Skepple, Joseph Pipa, and yours truly.  The theme of the conference was The Supremacy of the Lord Jesus Christ:  Expositions from the Book of Hebrews.  The audio will soon be available at All Saints Redeemer Church. Until then I will try to post a few of the messages to wet your appetite for the rest.  The following is a message by Ken Jones from Hebrews 9:11-29 – Jesus:  High Priest of a New Covenant (part II).

I received this in my inbox the other day.  It’s pretty good:

The day finally arrived. Forrest Gump dies and goes to Heaven. He is at the Pearly Gates, and is met by St. Peter himself.  However, the gates are closed, and Forrest approaches the gatekeeper.  St. Peter said, ‘Well, Forrest, it is certainly good to see you.   We have heard a lot about you. I must tell you, though, that the place is filling up fast, and we have been administering an entrance examination for everyone.  The test is short, but you have to pass it before you can get into Heaven.’ Forrest responds, ‘It sure is good to be here, St. Peter, sir.   But, nobody ever told me about any entrance exam.  I sure hope that the test ain’t too hard. Life was a big enough test as it was.’ St. Peter continued, ‘Yes, I know, Forrest, but the test is only three questions.

First:
What two days of the week begin with the letter T?

Second:
How many seconds are there in a year?

Third:
What is God’s first name?

‘Forrest leaves to think the questions over. He returns the next day and sees St. Peter, who waves him up, and says, ‘Now that you have had a chance to think   the questions over, tell me your answers.

Forrest replied, ‘Well, the first one —  which two days in the week begins with the letter ‘T’?  Shucks, that one is easy.  That would be Today and Tomorrow.’The Saint’s eyes opened wide and he exclaimed,   ‘Forrest, that is not what
I was thinking, but you do have a point, and I guess I did not specify, so I will give you credit for that answer.’ ‘How about the next one?’ asked St. Peter ‘How many seconds in a year?
Now that one is harder,’ replied Forrest, but I thunk and thunk about that, and
I guess the only answer can be twelve.’ Astounded, St. Peter said, ‘Twelve? Twelve?   Forrest, how in Heaven’s name could you come up with twelve seconds in a year?’
Forrest replied, Shucks, there’s got to be twelve: January 2nd, February 2nd,
March 2nd…‘Hold it,’ interrupts St. Peter.  ’I see where you are going with this, and I see your point, though that was not quite what I had in mind.  But I will have to give you credit for that one, too.  Let us go on with the third and final question.  Can you tell me God’s first name’?‘Sure,’ Forrest replied, ‘it’s Andy.’‘Andy?’ exclaimed an exasperated and frustrated St Peter.   ‘Ok, I can understand how you came up with your answers to my first two questions, but just how in the world did you come up with the name   Andy as the first name of God?’ ‘Shucks, that was the easiest one of all,’ Forrest replied. ‘I learnt it from the song, ‘ANDY WALKS WITH ME, ANDY TALKS WITH ME, ANDY TELLS ME I AM HIS OWN.’ ‘

St.  Peter opened the Pearly Gates, and said:
‘Run Forrest, run!’

Owen list four ways, although he says there are plenty more, in which Christians fail to keep Christ’s word…

“First, they conform to the world when Christ would redeem us from its delights and promiscuous compliances.  Second, they neglect the duties that Christ has enjoined upon us to fulfill, from personal meditation on the one hand to public duties in the other.  Third, they strive and disagree among themselves, despising each other and acting indifferent to the bond of communion between saints.  Fourth, they make selfishness the end of life.  When these trails characterize people, then the word of Christ’s patience is fruitless among them, and God will not keep them from temptation.”

How do we battle against this???

“If we have an intimate acquaintance with the gospel in all its excellence, knowing the word as one of mercy, holiness, freedom, and consolation, we will value it as our chief and only treasure.  We will also make it our business to give ourselves to it in absolute obedience.  Then when there is opposition and apostasy that tests the patience of Christ to the utmost, God will preserve us from the hour of temptation.”

I never tire of reading Wilhelmus a’ Brakel.  Here he is on the blessed subject of the resurrection of the body:

“Believers have much sorrow in this life – also according to the body.  Many have weak bodies; are full of pain and subject to many sicknesses and mishaps; weep and cry sorrowfully; observe with sorrow the ungodliness of the world; must endure being mimicked by many; must hear the contemptuous, biting, and slanderous words of their opponents; and must suffer hunger, cold, nakedness, and wrong.  Moreover, their corruptible body burdens the soul and their earthly tabernacle oppresses their heart so filled with concerns.  Believers, be it known, however, that your bodies, in which you must now suffer so much, will one day be delivered from all sorrows.  The Lord will then wipe all tears from your eyes and will change this vile body so that it may be conformed to the glorious body of Christ.  Then your body will shine forth as the stars, and as the brightness of the firmament.  Your eyes will rejoice in beholding your beloved Jesus and all those glorious things which are to be seen in heaven.  Your ears will delight themselves in hearing the heavenly hallelujahs, and you will join them in singing the heavenly doxologies.  All that God has prepared to the delight of your body, the Lord will cause you to enjoy forever.  What a wondrous exchange that will be!  Therefore, in all patience suffer all that is distasteful to the body, and counteract your suffering by the expectation of glory.”

(The Christian’s Reasonable Service, Vol. 4 “The Resurrection of the Dead”)