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Did you ever notice that your impression of God is just like your dad? Most of us look to a father figure to know what God is like. If your dad was a very strict father, chances are you view God as a strict father figure. Maybe your dad was a man who was lenient, most likely you will view God as a lenient nonrestrictive God. Sadly there are many children out there that have no father at all. They have no idea what God should be like because they didn’t have a dad to give the right example to look to. Whatever your view of God currently is, let me suggest a few thoughts.
In looking at the way humans have responded to seeing God, we see Isaiah saying these words “It’s all over; I am doomed for I am a sinful man” 6:5 NLT. Isaiah thought his life was over because he knew he was sinful and he realized in whose presence he was in. We see the Apostle John fainting as if he was dead when the Lord God appeared to him in the book of Revelation. I wonder how we would respond if we came into the presence of God?
Would we fear him? Would we even feel like we needed to bow before him? Each Sunday we come as a Christian nation and bow before God to worship the creator and King of all. Do we give him the reverence he deserves? Do we realize that he is perfect and we are not? Do we take into account that as we stand before him, he is truly there with us?
As you worship Him each and every day, including Sundays, let us always remember that our actions along with our thoughts show our worship to Him. Let us never forget that while we may not see God before us, God is truly there.

From the Barry Patch

It has come to my attention that the great state of New York will be passing a law soon that will allow everyone in that state to lie and not be penalized for it. Further, they have decided that if you lie under oath, you will not be persecuted for such an offense. Law makers have now decided that if homosexuality is lawful, they now need to make further changes in the law. Those representatives have decided not to discriminate and are now willing to make all (sin) listed in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 legal.

By now you must be shaking your head and saying this can’t be real, and you would be right! But what if it were true? What if New York legalized everything listed in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 just like they legalized homosexuality? What would the state look like? We would see legalized theft, legalized drinking and driving, legalized swindlers, Wall Street would no longer have to worry about keeping track of their brokers and the list goes on. In fact we could lie and not be responsible for what we say.

Why would New York do this? Don’t they know about the inheritance that is waiting for them? People will change lives knowing that a relative is about to leave them millions of dollars. Why is it we throw away our inheritance when we can’t see it? Any one of these sins listed in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 will stop us from our inheritance of Heaven, so why do we legalize something that allows us to lose our stake in Heaven?  Please don’t misunderstand what I am saying, I don’t hate homosexuals, I hate the sinful life that they lead! I don’t hate liars, I hate the lies they tell. I don’t hate swindlers; I hate the sinful greed they have in their hearts!  1 Corinthians 6:9–10 says this…Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

God is patient with sinners and I am glad! But he won’t wait for repentance forever. This Sunday we will be talking about homosexuality, I hope you can come to hear what God’s Word has to say about it.

Let’s love the sinner and hate the sin…enough said!

From the Barry Patch:

So how is your heart?  Is it beating regular and with the correct rhythm?  I pray that your heart is working just fine; but what about your other heart? Recently while waiting for my wife at the Post Office here in Marshall, I watched as a young lady kissed what I can only assume was her boyfriend goodbye.  While I appreciated the feelings she had for her boyfriend, what I didn’t enjoy was the clothes she didn’t have on. We live in a world of tension, on one side we have man’s terrible lust for women driving the styles that are out there. On the other side of the coin is women’s insecurity to be loved and looked at, what God calls lust. Where has modesty gone?  We look at our society and notice that wearing next to nothing is better than covering up what we have…when did this become the norm?  A recent survey showed that men actually like women to wear or cover up a little more than is currently being shown, imagine that.

Proverbs 31:30 says, “Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.” What this verse is really saying is this, men, if we chase after physical beauty, we will never catch it. Oh, we may get to hold it for a while, but a few years later we will wonder where it went.  Ladies it is saying to you that you shouldn’t worry about the beauty on the outside to catch that perfect man. There is an old saying that says “What you win them with is what you win them to.”  Have you won your man with the beauty of your skin or the beauty of your heart?

At the beginning of this article I asked how your heart is. Immodesty is more than a problem of wearing short skirts; it is a matter of the heart.  It is more than the clothes, it is an expression of arrogance, it lacks humility and it draws undue attention to oneself. It is your relationship with God!

How is your heart when it comes to God?  When putting on those clothes, ask yourself if God would approve.  My final request is this; Women, you have the power to control what a man looks at, help the men around you to see the beauty that is inside you not the outside.  Men, look for the beauty on the inside then the outside will take care of itself.

At one point in our lives we have all turned on the TV and watched as one minister or another asked you, the audience, to say a prayer with them and become saved. Over the years I have become more and more interested, I marvel that I can sit in my Lazy Boy and say a prayer and do nothing else…  Yet I become a follower, a believer and a saved member of His body. I have looked up the origin of this prayer and find that it came out of some God fearing men that wanted you to start your life out with God and wanted all to be saved. While this may not sound bad, I wondered what the Bible had to say about this prayer, I even wondered if I could find this prayer in the Bible. After all, shouldn’t we all say this prayer and start our lives with God this way? After looking and looking, and though I try my hardest, I am not able to find a prayer that saves us anywhere! What I did find were Scriptures about baptism saving us in Acts 2:38, or maybe Mark 16:15-16. I even found scriptures at the end of the book of Matthew (28:16ff) where Jesus tells his disciples to baptize and then to teach them what they need to know in order to live a Christian life. So after looking for this prayer in Scripture, I come to the conclusion that it isn’t there, that this prayer is a prayer made by man and not by God.  I have to wonder how many have said this prayer and expect to go to heaven just because of this prayer. I don’t fault these men for trying to help people find God, but we stop short of the commitment line when we just say a prayer and expect everything to be OK. Check it out for yourself; find this prayer for yourself in Scripture if you don’t believe me. Then after you have looked, let’s talk about it together and see what really saves us. I look forward to your call.

Have a blessed week.

The Barry Patch

John was at the end of his rope and didn’t understand why this was happening to him! He had lived a very productive life; he was well known in the community and was loved by all at his work place. John was the one that you would go to if you had a problem; he had even been instrumental in saving several marriages from divorce. Up until this point, John’s life had been roses, but there are days when you just want to bury your head under the covers and forget about life. It was John’s turn.  On the day that John decided to dedicate his life to serving the Lord, his world fell apart. He thought that things would go great since he was going to follow God, but on that very day… his wife left him. Several months later, the phone rang and he found out that his mother and father had died in a car accident. If this wasn’t enough, after eight months of separation from his wife, he found out that his only daughter of 16 years was pregnant and did not know who the father was. As I said in the beginning, John was at the end of his rope. He held the Bible in his hand and wondered aloud why this was happening to him.  Why had God brought this life upon him, after all, he was a good man! John’s Bible fell open to Romans 8:18 and he read this statement, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” John sat there and wondered what could be so great that it would outweigh the problems he was having.

I’m sure that many people across the world are asking the same question. Why did this earthquake have to destroy my home? Why did a flood have to kill so many innocent children? Why would God allow this destruction to happen to so many that were “good people”?

This is an open invitation to those who would like to study why these things happen.

I have to be honest with you; I’m a big fan of the Disney/Pixar movies. I always look forward to the movies they make. Even though my children are now teens, I’ve found myself watching fish who can speak, flying carpets with tassels, cars who love to go fast and space men.

Although each of these films is a favorite, the one that I want to look at today is the movie “Toy Story”.

There’s one point of symbolism I like in this movie that helps us to come to grips with our relationship with God. There is an important scene where Woody shows us his relationship with his owner; you see he has his owner’s name written on his foot, emphasizing the tie he has to him. He is Andy’s toy, a treasured possession.

One reason I like this mental image is because it reminds me of what the Bible says about our relationship with God. Speaking to Christians in the first city called Philadelphia, Jesus promises to the faithful:

“The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name.” (Revelation 3:12)

I love the idea that God wants to show every faithful Christian that they belong to Him. He will write His name on us!

The apostle Peter wrote, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” (1 Peter 2:9-10).

Who do you belong to? Whose name is written on the bottom of your shoe? Who owns you?

This Sunday we are having a friends and family day, we will have a potluck dinner after services.  Please come and stay for the dinner, you are our welcome guests! Make a special trip to Marshall!

From the Barry patch…
Not until the Pope Vitalian first introduced organs into the church in the year 670 did we have instrumental music in any church in the Christian world. Yet today we have instruments in most congregations, why is this? For 670 years the United church considered the instrument wrong and against God’s Word. Men from many faiths have said that instruments in the worship should never happen and yet it still did. Charles Spurgeon, a well-respected Baptist Preacher said this “What a degradation to supplant the intelligent song of the whole congregation by the theatrical prettiness of a quartet, bellows, and pipes! We might as well pray by machinery as praise by it.” Further, Martin Luther, the Reformation Leader said this: “The organ in the worship service is a sign of Baal.” Even John Calvin, Reformation Leader, founder of Reformed & Presbyterian denominations said this: “Musical instruments in celebrating the praises of God would be no more suitable than the burning of incense, the lighting of lamps, and the restoration of the other shadows of the law. “ Though all of these great giants have spoken out against instruments in the worship, they still exist.
In the books of Colossians (3:16) and Ephesians (5:19) we see the Lord give the command to sing in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Further, we see in the book of James,  that if you are happy, you need to sing. But nowhere in the New Testament do we see anything about using instruments in the corporate worship. Why have we stepped outside the New Testament by adding something that the first century church didn’t have, great leaders spoke out against and even condemned? This Sunday we will be exploring what our singing should be, if instruments have anything to do with worship to God and what our hearts are to look like while worshipping Him.  If your close to Marshall Michigan, please come and share with me your thoughts this Sunday.

From the Barry Patch.

It’s almost over, the gift giving, fighting the crowds and even the late nights of running everywhere to find that perfect toy. Take a deep breath and for a moment relax. Now, what happens next? Do we let the thoughts of Christmas just slip into the past? Are we content to say that we went to church this one time during the year and that fulfills my duty to God? We must be honest and ask ourselves if we focused on Christ more than we worked for that 56” High definition…3D…surround sound… flat screen that will even refill your glass when you run low of your favorite beverage. As the calendar creeps further toward spring and leaves Christmas in the past, let me suggest three things that we need to focus on.

First, we need to keep Christ in our homes. Not just between Thanksgiving and Christmas, but every day!  Isn’t it funny that without the birth, there could be no death and without the death of Christ… there could be no salvation? Second, we need to carry Christ into our workplace. Even though the thoughts of Christmas may be fading and the cheer in the office is waning. We need to make sure the cheerfulness, loving attitude that we had before Christmas stays in the office each and every day. Finally we need to keep Christmas or Jesus’ birth in our minds each and every day. Isn’t it wonderful that we don’t know when Jesus was born? This gives us the chance to celebrate his birth each and every day! Having the spirit of Christmas every day will not only change you but change the world. From my family to yours; Happy Holidays.

From the Barry Patch
Some people believe that the Bible is just words; better yet the Bible is just a wonderful history book. While I might agree one of these statements, I believe it is so much more. The Prophet Daniel, 500 years before, spoke of Christ coming at a specific time and it actually came true! Daniel was not the only one either, the Prophet Micah actually knew the birth place of Jesus and he knew this over 700 years before Christ was born. If these were the only two prophesies that came true, then we might call them a lucky guess and get on with our lives. Time and time again we see prophesies come true and this only confirms the belief that the Bible is the Word of God.
Maybe I can put it another way, what if I were to predict who would be in the Super Bowl this year, further I would tell you who the winner would be and I would give you the exact score. Would you believe me next year about who was going to win? I believe the Bible is the same way!

So here is the question, some celebrate Christmas (Christ’s birth) on December 25 when we know that he wasn’t born on that day. Some say that Baptism is not needed to be saved when we have multiple verses that say it is. If the Prophets were right 100 percent of the time, why don’t we follow the play book just the way it is written? This Sunday we will be looking at a few of the prophesies that were made about Christ. Let’s see how each Prophet does as he steps onto the field of play. Continue reading →

From the Barry patch…
Pastors, Elders and Deacons are just a few of the positions that we read about in the Scriptures and yet we skip right over the true meanings of each one. I have been approached by 18 year old Elders, 20 year old Pastors and I have seen Deacons be in charge of the local congregation and wonder has anyone read Acts, First Timothy or Titus? As a Minister of the Lord’s Church there are times when I am honored by someone calling me Pastor. Why is it assumed that because I am a Preacher that automatically makes me a Pastor? I appreciate the assumption that I am a Pastor, but I am just a servant of God. In Scripture we only see one verse in the New Testament that refers to a Pastor. In English translations, Ephesians 4:11 speaks of Pastors in the plural form not one man who controls the church. These men that are called to be Pastors or Shepherds are men who are to lead the church, men who share the leadership role. Not one man, but many men who share the role of spiritual leader in each individual congregation. So the next time you pass me on the street or maybe visit the church of Christ here in Marshall, please call me Barry. After all, I am just a servant of God like you.
This Sunday, we will be learning about the Deacons role in the church. Please visit and see if you agree.