Ever since we started the renovations at our place in the country, it has always been a treat to go sit on the back porch and soak in the beauty of the Texas countryside. I can sit out there in the morning and listen to the birds awakening with the dawn and then enjoy the croaking of what must be ten thousand frogs and crickets in the evening. It is peaceful, quiet, and still – the way I long for my heart to be in the midst of the chaos of life. And it is in those quiet moments – when I am "still and know that He is God" – that God speaks to me and calms the storm within. That is what I want to share with you in these posts. I want to share my view from the back porch. Some of my posts will reflect a few of the things I have learned in my journey through life. Some will simply be statements of what I see in our culture and how we as Christians should respond. I teach a Bible study class each week to an extremely eclectic group of adults and some of the posts and videos I share will be taken from those lessons. I have no delusions of profundity but rather I hope to cause you to think, to laugh, to ponder anew your life as Christ would have you live it. Furthermore, I hope this will be a conversation and not just a monologue. I would love to hear your thoughts, hopes, fears and anything else you would feel comfortable sharing with me. It's wonderful to relax here on the back porch enjoying the view, so pour yourself some coffee (or the beverage of your choosing) and let's talk.
As Jesus hung on the cross as the atoning sacrifice for all mankind, he spoke 7 times. Those 7 statements form the “7 Last Words of Christ.” As the dying declaration of Jesus it is important that we know the significance of these statements. As we look at each statement we will see how Jesus spoke scripture in these last hours of His human life. We will also see how he demonstrated his teachings and completed the primary purpose of His life – the redemption of fallen sinners.
Obviously, these seven statements are not the last words Jesus spoke on this earth, nor are they the last words He will ever speak since he continues to speak to us today through His Spirit. However, the statements He made on the Cross are followed by the ultimate “Last Word” as seen in the Resurrection. When Jesus, in His last moments on the cross, said “It Is Finished,” He gave the last word on Atonement as He was the final blood sacrifice required by God. When God raised Him from the dead He put the final nail in Satan’s coffin as He proclaimed the last word concerning life and death now and always.
This Bible study was presented to the Agape Life Bible Study Class of the First Baptist Church in Brenham, Texas, on Sunday, March 24, 2024. Handouts with slide content can be requested at: fromthebackporchintexas@gmail.com . Handouts are also available at: fromthebackporch.org .
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The aphorism “Ars longa, vita brevis” literally translated is “Art long, life short.” It comes from a quote by Hypocrites and it means that our art and/or what we create and build will outlive us because life is short. In the Parable of the Shrewd Manager, Jesus deals with the same issue, but He has a solution. First, recognize the brevity of your life and it’s relationship to eternity. Second, prioritize accordingly.
The ways of the world are not the ways of God. The thoughts of humans are not the thoughts of God. It is foolish for us to think that we can shrewdly manipulate our way through this life without considering what follows that shrewdly manipulated life. It is the well-lived life that subjects itself to the Eternal God of the Universe and lives to please Him rather than satisfy our temporary desires.
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6:19-21
This Bible study was presented to the Agape Life Bible Study Class of the First Baptist Church in Brenham, Texas, on Sunday, March 17, 2024. It is part of a series in a Bible study curriculum called Connect 360, published by the GC2 Press of the Baptist General Convention of Texas. The overall title of the current set of lessons is Jesus Storyteller: Timeless Truths from His Parables. You can find printed and digital versions of this series online at: https://gc2press.org/jesus-storyteller-luke-study-guide/ .Handouts with slide content can be requested at: fromthebackporchintexas@gmail.com . Handouts are also available at: fromthebackporch.org .
Website – FromTheBackPorch.org Facebook – From the Back Porch in Texas YouTube – youtube.com/@fromthebackporch X – FromtheBackPorch@nationalfast Email – fromthebackporchintexas@gmail.com
One of the best known parables of Jesus is the Parable of the Prodigal Son. However, a more appropriate title might be the Parable of the Compassionate Father. As is the case with all of the parables of Jesus, the story is about the Kingdom of God and, in this case, specifically about God Himself. In the compassion of the father for his prodigal son we see the compassion of our Father, God.
Often we see God as an angry and vengeful disciplinarian who actually takes a certain amount of delight in punishing His wayward children when, in reality, He is a kind, loving, and compassionate father who wants to live in close relationship with His kids and loves them even when they wander away from home. That’s what God is really like. He loves His children when they wander far from home and He loves His children when they don’t wander far from home, but get confused about their relationship with Him. God is love. (1 John 4:8) No matter where we are or what we are doing, God’s love for us never changes. It never wavers and it certainly doesn’t leave us – even when we leave Him.
This Bible study was presented to the Agape Life Bible Study Class of the First Baptist Church in Brenham, Texas, on Sunday, March 10, 2024. It is part of a series in a Bible study curriculum called Connect 360, published by the GC2 Press of the Baptist General Convention of Texas. The overall title of the current set of lessons is Jesus Storyteller: Timeless Truths from His Parables. You can find printed and digital versions of this series online at: https://gc2press.org/jesus-storyteller-luke-study-guide/ .Handouts with slide content can be requested at: fromthebackporchintexas@gmail.com . Handouts are also available at: fromthebackporch.org .
Website – FromTheBackPorch.org X – From the Back Porch @ nationalfast Facebook – From the Back Porch in Texas Email – fromthebackporchintexas@gmail.com
We all lose things. We have all searched diligently for our keys, glasses, or wallets. It is as if our life gets put on hold until we find those lost items. So it is with the woman who lost 1 of her 10 coins and the shepherd who lost 1 of his 100 sheep. Everything came to a grinding halt until they found that which was lost. And then it was party time because what was lost was now found. Yay!!
All we like sheep have gone astray. Each one of us has turned away from God to follow our own path. (Isaiah 53:6) And yet God doesn’t give up on us. He pursues us like the Hound of Heaven. He will not let us go until we realize that in our search for meaning we realize that Jesus is who we have been searching for all along. And when we repent of our sinful ways He is there to lovingly caress us with His gentle hand even as he gestures with his other hand for the party to begin.
Check the lost and found. Are you lost or are you found?
(Follow this link to read “The Hound of Heaven” by Francis Thompson – houndofheaven.com/poem)
This Bible study was presented to the Agape Life Bible Study Class of the First Baptist Church in Brenham, Texas, on Sunday, March 3, 2024. It is part of a series in a Bible study curriculum called Connect 360, published by the GC2 Press of the Baptist General Convention of Texas. The overall title of the current set of lessons is Jesus Storyteller: Timeless Truths from His Parables. You can find printed and digital versions of this series online at: https://gc2press.org/jesus-storyteller-luke-study-guide/ .Handouts with slide content can be requested at: fromthebackporchintexas@gmail.com . Handouts are also available at: fromthebackporch.org .
Website – FromTheBackPorch.org X – From the Back Porch @ nationalfast Facebook – From the Back Porch in Texas Email – fromthebackporchintexas@gmail.com
Bill Klem was a legendary baseball umpire who set the pattern for umpires to follow right up until today. He was the first to use hand gestures for calls. He was the first to use a chest protector. He was the pioneer of the slot position. He proved his value by calling more World Series games than any other umpire in history. Once, when asked by a batter if a pitch was a ball or a strike, he replied, “It ain’t nothin’ until I call it.”
Who is in control of the world? Who is in control of our country? Who is in control of your life? If the answer isn’t God, then we’re all in a world of trouble. God makes the final call on literally everything that happens in this world, in our country, and in our personal lives – it ain’t nothin’ until He calls it.
The Parable of the Barren Fig Tree illustrates God’s Sovereignty and God’s Providence. In this study we answer the question “Why am I not dead yet?” and we find that God’s wisdom rules in the answer. It also gives us reason to respond to God’s delay in “calling us home.”
This Bible study was presented to the Agape Life Bible Study Class of the First Baptist Church in Brenham, Texas, on Sunday, February 18, 2024. It is part of a series in a Bible study curriculum called Connect 360, published by the GC2 Press of the Baptist General Convention of Texas. The overall title of the current set of lessons is Jesus Storyteller: Timeless Truths from His Parables. You can find printed and digital versions of this series online at: https://gc2press.org/jesus-storyteller-luke-study-guide/ .
Handouts with slide content can be requested at: fromthebackporchintexas@gmail.com . Handouts are also available at: fromthebackporch.org .
Some of the parables which Jesus told were in response to a particular question. The Parable of the Good Samaritan is just that. A lawyer, one trained and very knowledgeable in the Torah asked Jesus a question. The question could have been a “gotcha question” or it could have been born of a sincere search for clarification on the law. Either way, Jesus answered with a straight forward response and, when pressed further by the lawyer, shared this parable.
Within the ruling ranks of the Hebrew nation, there was an insistence on following the Law as handed down to Moses and as further clarified by those who studied the Law. Their whole focus was on “getting it right.” So questions like “What is the greatest commandment?” would have been common in their discussions concerning the Law.
However, Jesus uses the Law itself to take this lawyer beyond the Law of the Torah and into the world of Kingdom Law – the true Law He wanted to usher in. Jesus tells us in Matthew 5:17 that He didn’t come into the world to abolish the Law, but that through Him it might be fulfilled. The Law was given to show us our sin, but Christ came to fulfill the law and its requirements so that we could be free to live as He commands us. (Galatians 3:18-27)
The lawyer’s final response to Jesus was that the true neighbor was the one who didn’t stand idly by as the man died. Jesus’ final word to the lawyer now comes to us – “Go and do likewise.”
This Bible study was presented to the Agape Life Bible Study Class of the First Baptist Church in Brenham, Texas, on Sunday, January 28, 2024. It is part of a series in a Bible study curriculum called Connect 360, published by the GC2 Press of the Baptist General Convention of Texas. The overall title of the current set of lessons is Jesus Storyteller: Timeless Truths from His Parables. You can find printed and digital versions of this series online at: https://gc2press.org/jesus-storyteller-luke-study-guide/ .
Handouts with slide content can be requested at: fromthebackporchintexas@gmail.com . Handouts are also available at: fromthebackporch.org .
When you want to get a point across to a group of farmers and/or gardeners you need to be conversant in the various aspects of planting, growing, and harvesting. You might be able talk with them and even persuade them that what you’re saying is true without such knowledge, but if you can drive the point home within the context of what they know – in other words, speak their language – you can be successful in communicating with them in a way that goes far beyond just talk.
In Jesus’ day, everyone knew about planting, growing, and harvesting. So he tells them the Parable of the Sower. The point of the story is that the Kingdom of God will be open to some, but will be hidden from others. It’s not that God deliberately hides something from them, but that they won’t see what is staring them in the face. He offers them the truth of the gospel, but their hearts are hardened, their hearts are shallow, their hearts are crowded with the influences of the world.
As we look at this parable it is my hope that we would see the need to cultivate the soil of our friends’ and neighbors’ hearts so that they will be receptive to the Word of God when it is cast into their lives.
This Bible study was presented to the Agape Life Bible Study Class of the First Baptist Church in Brenham, Texas, on Sunday, January 21, 2024. It is part of a series in a Bible study curriculum called Connect 360, published by the GC2 Press of the Baptist General Convention of Texas. The overall title of the current set of lessons is Jesus Storyteller: Timeless Truths from His Parables. You can find printed and digital versions of this series online at: https://gc2press.org/jesus-storyteller-luke-study-guide/ .
Handouts with slide content can be requested at: fromthebackporchintexas@gmail.com . Handouts are also available at: fromthebackporch.org .
Be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger. (James 1:19) Excellent advice, but difficult at times to put into practice. And quite often we are quick to anger because we have been slow to listen and quick to speak. When we do so we think we doing the right thing – correcting a wrong, bringing justice. Unfortunately, such anger, birthed of our human desires, cannot accomplish what God desires.
Our focus must always be on God and our actions must reflect His presence in our daily lives. There is a difference between Biblical awareness and Biblical action. We can know what God wants us to do, but not do it. James says, “Just Do It.” Actually, he says, “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” (James 1:22) That’s right – just do it.
The word “religion” carries with it many connotations – some good, some bad, and some in between. In James 1:26-27 we see an indication of what “good religion” is. It is not an all-inclusive checklist of how to be a “good” Christian, but it is rather one of several New Testament check-up lists which give us an indication of how we are honoring God with our lives. James gives us 3 items in particular that we need to examine in our own lives: 1. Control your tongue; 2. Care for those with no voice or personal power; & 3. Live pure lives unstained by the world.
3 Easy Steps – Ha!! The fact is that this is only the beginning of the check-up list(s) that God gives us in His Word. We are not saved by doing the things God asks us to do, but we want to do them because we’re saved. And God doesn’t want us to be saved and then never grow so He is constantly challenging us with ways to glorify His name. We continually find ourselves being doers or the Word and not hearers only.
This Bible study was presented to the Agape Life Bible Study Class of the First Baptist Church in Brenham, Texas, on Sunday, September 3, 2023. It is part of a series in a Bible study curriculum called Connect 360, published by the GC2 Press of the Baptist General Convention of Texas. The overall title of the current set of lessons is The Making of Authentic Faith. You can find printed and digital versions of this series online at:
From The Back Porch 