By Mark Proctor
Pastor, Highland Park Baptist Church, Columbia

Focal Passage: Proverbs 24:10-12; Mark 10:46-49

The day comes for us all, the day we have to take a stand. Scrawny little Ted Newton had to take a stand against school bus bullies in the 1992 classic movie Beethoven. When enough finally became enough, Ted stepped off the bus, turned to face his rivals, and raised his little miniature fists only to see his enemies cower with fear and retreat. His bravery worked. In the midst of his self-congratulations for his prowess, he failed to see his hulking dog Beethoven who had been standing behind him all along. The bullies saw Beethoven but little Ted didn’t. And the bullies fled.

Our previous studies in Joshua reminded us over and over the command of the Lord, “be strong and courageous.” Courage and strength are commands for the faithful not for personal gain but for the glory of God. The precious texts in today’s study give us a practical application of that courage:  to “rescue those who are being taken away to death” and “… those who are stumbling to the slaughter” (Proverbs 24:11 ESV) and those who are cast away from society (Mark 10). [Read more…]

By Mark Proctor
Pastor, Highland Park Baptist Church, Columbia

Focal Passage: Joshua 24:14-28

I have a treasured book in my study containing some of history’s greatest speeches. I often read them finding myself wishing that I could compose and deliver such stirring homilies. What made those speeches great was not the composition but the passionate soul of the speaker. In Joshua 24, we hear the passion of the retiring, elderly Joshua as he delivers one of his last lectures. “Choose. Choose today. You’ll worship something, with your time, your money, your eyes, and your heart. And you have plenty of options.  But you have to choose today just like I have.” [Read more…]

 

By Mark Proctor
Pastor, Highland Park Baptist Church, Columbia

Focal Passage: Joshua 22:1-8

An experienced backpacker will tell you in chilling detail of the dangers of reaching the summit after a long ascent up a mountain. With muscles weakened by fatigue and clothes soaked with sweat, the high country winds above the tree line can bring on hypothermia quickly. The top is no place to forget the rules.

In the 22nd chapter Joshua is dealing with the same human tendency among the children of Israel. The battles have been fought and it’s time to rest. “Go to your tents,” he says, “but don’t forget the rules.”  [Read more…]

By Mark Proctor
Pastor, Highland Park Baptist Church, Columbia

Focal Passage: Luke 1:26-38

Twenty years ago, on the same week God called me from the engineering business into the ministry, my wife delivered another announcement:  we were expecting our third child. I was terrified — a career change and an unexpectedly expanding family.  At once, natural, human emotions threatened to eclipse the sovereignty of God. That balance is the struggle that makes up the fabric of every human soul. Mary, the mother of Jesus, was no exception. [Read more…]

By Mark Proctor
Pastor, Highland Park Baptist Church, Columbia

Focal Passage: Joshua 10:6-14

Remember the old western movies with their dramatic musical scores? You could watch with your eyes closed and tell when the plot was about to change. The music became louder and more intense, the action slowed, and everyone prepared for a shoot out. Justice was at hand.

The Bible contains those same pivotal moments. One such moment occurs in Joshua 9:14 where we read that the inhabitants of Gibeon, the very ones Joshua was to clear out of the land, heard Joshua was coming so they came to Joshua incognito and in fear, seeking a protective order. Joshua was wary and “… did not ask counsel from the Lord” (Joshua 9:14) but entered into a covenant with them. Cue the music. This is serious. Three days later when Israel arrived at their cities, they learned the truth:  they had been taken in by imposters, tricked into agreeing not to attack the very people God sent them to attack — all because they didn’t seek the counsel of the Lord. [Read more…]

By Mark Proctor
Pastor, Highland Park Baptist Church, Columbia

Focal Passage:  Joshua 6:12-25

Teachers, look at your students. Pastors, look at your congregants, and parents, look at your children. Those are warriors, battle-weary with hearts hurting from skirmishes in a mean, merciless world. What will we tell them?

Joshua faced the same dilemma. As God’s leader he had to tell God’s wearied children how they were to move ahead to a land God had given them. We usually go over the walls; this time we go around.  We usually shout to scare the enemy. This time, we’ll remain silent at first. And instead of the ark being only a part of our worship now it is part of our battle also. In this sixth chapter Joshua told his warriors that God has predetermined the people, the process, and the product.  Their job only was to trust and obey. [Read more…]

By Hoyt Wilson
Pastor, Flatwoods Baptist Church, Holladay

Focal Passage: Joshua 1:1-9

Before Gordon Bethune became the CEO of Continental Airlines in 1994 he said it was the worst of the worst. Of the nation’s 10 biggest air carriers, Continental was worst in on-time arrivals, worst in baggage handling, and worst in customer satisfaction. With a stock price near $3 per share, a history of bankruptcies, a string of ten different CEOs, and 10 consecutive years of losses, employees were removing the airline’s insignias from their uniforms and refusing to admit where they worked.  (From Worst to First, Gordon Bethune. 1998). To investors and future leaders the place was a badland, a wilderness of unhappy people with no leadership, until the board of directors commissioned Gordon Bethune, a savvy, solution-oriented chief. From there Continental’s story looked up.  Way up. [Read more…]

By Hoyt Wilson
Pastor, Flatwoods Baptist Church, Holladay

Focal Passage: II Peter 3:3-13; 17-18

“Arise!” Will that be the loud command of Jesus when the trumpet call of God announces His return in the clouds (I Thessalonians 4:16)? The response to that command will either be “Wow” or it will be “Woe.” For those who have rejected Him it will be “woe!” For those who have received Him it will be “wow!” In II Peter 4:3 Peter tells us “Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires.”

“Above all” means it is a priority matter for us to understand that the presence of scoffers denying Jesus’ return and persons living ungodly lives are signs that we are in the last days.  Well, we must be in the last days for scoffers are everywhere — even in the pulpits and the pews.  [Read more…]

By Hoyt Wilson
Pastor, Flatwoods Baptist Church, Holladay

Focal Passage: II Peter 2:1-3; Jude 16-25

An atheist is a person who denies the existence of deity. A practical atheist is a person who says God is, but lives as if God isn’t. A believer is a person who is committed to God in a personal relationship which determines the spiritual and moral direction of his life. In II Peter 1:19 Peter mentioned “… the prophetic message as something completely reliable …” and advised “… you will do well to pay attention to it.” A person who believes in God should also believe God and really pay attention to the revealed will and purposes of God. The Bible is 66 books that Christians believe to be the record of God’s interaction with man revealing God’s character, His will, His work, and His provisions. Paul wrote to Timothy: “Watch your life and your doctrine closely, persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.” Not everyone follows this advice.   [Read more…]

By Hoyt Wilson
Pastor, Flatwoods Baptist Church, Holladay

Focal Passage: II Peter 1:12-21

Had Simon Barjona not taken a chance on Jesus, he would have missed a purposeful life and a grand eternity. Simon did cast his life with Jesus and became Simon Peter who first became a follower, then a disciple, and finally an apostle of Jesus. During three short years of being with Him, he became firmly convinced that Jesus was “the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16 KJV). After Jesus was crucified, resurrected, and ascended to heaven, Peter preached Christ saying: “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12 KJV). He wrote II Peter anticipating his death.  He wrote his last letter to those who had “obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of Jesus Christ” (II Peter 1:1 KJV) telling them how to build on their faith seven virtues that would make them useful and fruitful to God and to men. [Read more…]