Thoughts for the new year (and the old one)

As we are about to turn the page on our calendars and bring 2009 to an end and welcome in 2010, I have been thinking about this last year. As in every year there is some good and bad. A friend of mine who nearly died due to an acute illness has been counting down for several days - looking forward to getting this year over. I know another couple who had their first grandchild - they don't want this "perfect" year to end. For me this year has had more than its share of ups and downs, but a moment and the gift of friends stand out as special ones to both Julie and me. We have some dear friends that found out that he was unexpectedly, (and unfairly, I think) losing his job. He was going to have to relocate to find another job in his field. One day he shared with Julie some verses from his devotions that day.

"I would have lost heart, unless I had believed That I would see the goodness of the LORD In the land of the living. Wait on the LORD; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the LORD!" (Psalm 27:13-14)

The part we all focused on was that we would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living - we don't have to wait until heaven for all of our blessings. We should not lose heart but expect to see the goodness of the Lord. This message from God came at a particularly disheartening time in our lives and we latched onto it.

Even on this last day of the year there remain questions and challenges but I am learning, slowly it seems, but learning in new way to trust in God for every moment of my life. He has sustained me in the past (See post for 11/18/09 for video on this subject: Backing Into the Future) and I know He will do so in the days that lie ahead.


Since these verses have become so precious to us, Julie asked our friend, Sonny, who does wood burning to make a wall plaque (pictured below) for our friends. We made a trip to PA to present it to them in their new home. What I didn't know was that Julie had Sonny make one for me (above) that she hid away for several months and presented to me on Christmas. It is now proudly on display in our family room as a continual reminder to wait upon the Lord and expect to see His goodness in the land of the living.

Happy New Year Everybody,
Jesse Waggoner



The above is the one for our PA friends


Sonny's "Signature"

Family Survival Kit

Our new Sunday Morning Bible Study series for January will be "Family Survival Kit" - The stress on all family relationships seems to be greater than ever, but God's Word has has always been the best guide for family life. Make plans to be part of this study were we will learn together God's purposes, plans and solutions for your family.

I would appreciate your prayers as I spend time in the Word in order to prepare to communicate God's truth.

After the fact, teaching audio, video and notes will be available on www.WaggonerMedia.com

The Art of Biblical Leadership

The winter session of Bible Center Church's Life University will begin Wed. Jan 6, I will be teaching a class entitled: The Art of Biblical Leadership. The study will use the life of Nehemiah as a guide. Also students can optionally take this for credit (2hrs) or for a CEU from Appalachian Bible College. If you are in the Charleston area I would encourage you to participate.

What does it mean?

Think of the last nativity scene you saw. What if you had no knowledge of the Christmas story and your assignment was to deduce the story from that picture of the circumstances of Jesus birth? Would you conclude that the baby was of some importance since he is surrounded by crowd of shepherds, farm animals and middle-eastern nobles bearing gifts? But if is He has such notoriety why a bed of hay, and why a barnyard maternity ward? I think for the uniformed it would not really make sense. The nativity set would generate more questions than answers.

It is only with the backdrop of the Bibles account does it all make sense. In its pages you learn of the Fathers love, the Sons obedience, the angels worship, Marys wonder, Josephs faith, the shepards diligence, the wisemens persistence and the worlds Savior. I am looking forward to spending the next trio of Sundays to take us all back to the manger and lets be amazed again at what we find.

Open your present

A few years back at a family Christmas get-together, the house was filled with presents and persons. I am sure you know something of this kind of gathering. It consisted of two grandparents, a couple of great grandparents, several children, a few in-laws, a bunch of grandkids, a trio of pets and some assorted family friends. When the time came the kids began the opening their presents, followed by the adults. Finally, there remained one nicely wrapped box. It had no tag or name listed. It remained unopened until we could figure out what to do with it.

Salvation is also a gift: "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 6:23). It cannot be purchased or earned through our good deeds; it only can be accepted on the basis of faith. "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God" (Ephesians 2:8). Faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ is the only way to open the gift of God.

What of the unopened gift? Finally someone was selected to open it and it was directed to the right recipient. Perhaps this Christmas there is still one gift you have not opened. God is waiting to give you the gift of salvation.

Digging Deeper

Here is a preview of my next teaching series at Bible Center. For the next three Sunday Nights we are going to be going a little deeper into the Word to find some hidden treasures for our souls. As we look beyond our English translations to the original language of the Bible and see the concepts and ideas that do not translate well into our language. As we do we will find some amazing truths that has been buried there all along.

A sample of this kind of study can be found in the video one this page.

So I hope to see you Sunday night as we prepare to dig.

Jesse Waggoner

Backing into the future

Here is a clip from last Sunday's message, a reminder that our view of the future is informed by God's faithfulness in the past.

The Anitdote for Fear

I don't usually post Drive Time Videos in my blog as you can always view them at www.DriveTimeVideo.com or www.WaggonerMedia.com You can also subscribe to the podcast or e-mail list, but this one goes so well with my Sunday Morning series at Bible Center Church, I thought I would make an exception this time. (In case you are wondering, I am driving on Smith Road between South Charleston and Tornado WV.

Blessings from the Road and otherwise,
Jesse Waggoner

Living out of a suitcase

For most of the week just past I have been staying in a hotel and I have been living out of a suitcase. I am glad to being back in Charleston, in my own home, sleeping in my own bed, and today to be back with you. But there is something one can learn from living out of a suitcase. I am (for a brief time anyway) able to live quite well with only a limited amount of stuff, and even at that I usually pack more stuff than I really need. But maybe I am not the only one who is a little “over packed.”

In 1 Peter 2:11 the apostle Peter appealed for believers to live a life of purity because believers are “Pilgrims” or travelers in this world. In essence, this side of heaven, we are all “living out of a suitcase.” Our real home is with our Lord --our present location is only temporary. But during this trip we often overload ourselves with baggage we were never meant to carry. Our God really wants us to travel light by casting our burdens of worry and care on him (1 Peter 5:7). As we look at another portion of God’s Word that provides for us some amazing reasons to trust God, I hope you will leave with a little less baggage today. It is my prayer that God will cause you to trust Him more today. Will join me in praying that God will help us all do a little unpacking?

If you are not in Charleston, you will be able to listen to this message shortly on www.WaggonerMedia.com

Meerkats

This is the video I put together to introduce my current teaching series, the "good news" is there are amazing reasons to trust God. The series is available at www.WaggonerMedia.com

Crossing the border

I vividly remember the first time I was outside of the United States and was crossing the border back in. I was a teenage and with my family had crossed the bridge that connects El Paso, Texas, and Juares, Mexico. In those days a passport was not required but you had to verbally declare to the border patrol officer the nation of your citizenship. I enthusiastically stated that I was a citizen of the United States because I was proud to be, but also so I would not be stranded on foreign soil!

In a spiritual sense, we are citizens of one “country” (Phil. 3:20) but are currently residing in another (John 17:16). As we continue our Bible study series, “Amazing Reasons to Trust God’, this Sunday’s study in the Word will help us see more clearly our spiritual connection and help us overcome the fears that our “alien status” sometimes causes us. I also trust as we can focus more on our spiritual connections that we will be enthusiastic in our declaring before others that we are part of the kingdom of God, and that they too can enjoy the benefits of citizenship through faith in Christ.

If you want to get a head-start on this study read Luke 12:22-34 / If you missed any of this series, you can get caught up at www.WaggonerMedia.com

Amazing Reasons To Trust God

Here is a little "heads-up" on what I am preaching on for the next few weeks... In case you haven't noticed there are many reasons to fear, in fact it seems like just about anything can scare us. God obviously knows this, for more than 60 times in the Bible we are told not to fear. If you would like some help in this area I want to invite you to go along on a spiritual journey over the next two months.

We are going to use these "fear not" passages to uncover some amazing reasons to trust God. You will be blessed -- and perhaps you know of someone who is needing some encouragement that you can invite to join you. Make plans to be part of this encouraging study in these troubling times.

Sundays 9:00 and 10:45 p.m
You can follow this series online at www.WaggonerMedia.com

Fear or Faith?

The photo to the right was taken by my friend Dan Robinson, for those of you in Charleston you will recognize that it was taken from Fort Hill, looking North across the Kanawha river toward Charleston. It is also obvious that it was taken during a thunderstorm. (For more of Dan's weather pics go to www.AppalachianSkies.com) This picture is now being worked on by our graphic artist and will become the main graphic for my next sermon series, beginning Nov. 1.

I chose it because the lightening can be viewed one of two ways. Is it a source of fear that one should run for cover and tremble in its presence or does it stand for a power that is beyond us and that power is one that can uphold us in scary times? Right now it seems to me that the mood of most of us is that there is some fear among us, some frustration or worry that things on many levels are not quite right. To respond correctly we must not look at the storms but the one who controls them!

There are more than 60 times in the Bible where God instructs us not to fear and some of these will be the passages from which we learn together that there are some amazing reasons to trust in God, no matter how ferocious the onslaught. I would appreciate your prayers as I study and seek to find ways to communicate these truths. The results can be heard live at Bible Center or after the fact on www.WaggonerMedia.com - whatever the means of delivery - I pray they will cause you to trust more and tremble less.

Bible Teaching Online

Six complete Bible Teaching series are now available online, these include sermon outlines, mp3 audio, and mp4 video.

I trust these will be a blessing and do feel free to share these with others. If you would like to obtain Powerpoints for any of these series feel free to contact me via the website. Note: Powerpoints are widescreen 19:1 format.

www.WaggonerMedia.com

Blessings,
Jess

In the Master's Hands

I used this video to introduce the final message (#8)in the "Extreme Makeover: Soul Edition" series. It is a fitting summary of what God is doing in the life a believer. You can access the entire series at www.WaggonerMedia.com (notes, mp3 audio, mp4 video). Enjoy...

Bible Teaching Series Online

In case you have not browsed over to my homepage at www.WaggonerMedia.com I want to let you know what you can find there. You can find the latest Drive Time Video, as well as the last 15 episodes in a handy player. You can find complete Bible teaching series with Mp3 Audio, notes in pdf and Mp4 video. Please feel free to distribute or use any of this material, notification and credit is always appreciated. There are also links to my personal photo galleries, an archive of writing projects and more.

You can also find a brief bio, and info about my current ministry assignment as the Senior Associate Pastor at Bible Center Church, West Virginia's only megachurch.

So get here to click on over..... www.WaggonerMedia.com

Driverless Car

I used this video clip to illustrate a point in my message on Sunday. Just as it may not be a good idea to have a driverless car (at least not yet) it also a good idea to make sure we have the right "driver" steering our lives. Eph. 5:18 tells us that we are to allow the Holy Spirit to fill us - literally to control us. We need to allow Him to take the wheel. The great news is He is already available as He indwells all believers. He also is able as He has all the divine attributes of God, and He is willing to change us from the inside out. He is both the architect and the builder of the new you.

If you want to hear more you can listen to the complete message all of the others in the "Extreme Makeover: Soul Edition" series on WaggonerMedia.com. Comments always welcome.

Celebrity or Hero?

I won't share his name, not only because he would be embarrassed but because you wouldn't know it. I recently ran into an old friend. It was great to see a warm smile of friendship on his worn face. I wanted to tell you a little about him but was wondering if you would listen. If I name dropped a celebrity name you may have taken notice. But why would we? For some reason the star of some meaningless TV show, or the voice on a recording or long-gone victories on the athletic field grabs our attention. We take note, we stop and look and listen. We tend to overlook real character while being captivated by the emptiness of make believe fame. Instead, we see a well-known face that was once a person we all thought we "knew." We don't think much of the addictions, the failed relationships and the layers of self-centeredness, we only see the face that once beamed from so many autographed 8x10 glossies.

No, my friend is no celebrity, he has simply kept his marriage vows for 40 years, took his kids to Sunday School, went to work and paid his bills and above all loved his God. He is not a household name but he is a hero. Not for what he did that was noticed, but what he did wanting no notice.

I prefer heroes to celebrities.

Video used to introduce the fourth message in the Extreme Makeover: Soul Edition series. More to come - follow it on www.WaggonerMedia.com

Drive Time Video

I recently completed an update for the website of Drive Time Video (http://www.DriveTimeVideo.com).

These twice a week video messages began in July of 2008 and has now grown to a monthly audience of more than 1800. Thanks so much for your feedback, encouragement and sharing these. If you have missed previous ones we keep the last 15 episodes online. You can also subscribe by RSS or sign-up for an e-mail list that will alert you to when a new episode is released.

Also, beginning today you can keep up to date with Drive Time Video via Twitter, just go to http://www.Twitter.com/DriveTimeVideo