Ripple Effect
Pastor Jim Kilby • July 8, 2024
"Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 4:6-7, NIV)
Dear Friends,
Through the years since we began this out reach in 1997, we've been able to impact the lives of thousands of teenagers. What's interesting to me is the contact we still have with many of them. Quite a few are now married with their own families. Just last week, a young man called and asked if we could have lunch. I know him from the earliest days of the Cellar teen center, back when it was operating in an old parsonage! Since he moved to North Carolina many years ago, we always meet up at Skyline when he's visiting his parents in Ohio. As he walked in with his wife and two children, I was please down deep in my soul. What a blessing it's been to serve this young man who is now in his early forties. I was able to lead him to the Lord when was in high school and then baptize him at what was then Far Hills Church. Later, when he met the young woman who would become his wife, he called and asked if I'd join him as he laid out the Gospel for her. Raised Jewish, her entire family watched as I baptized her in the waters off Myrtle Beach on the same day I performed their wedding ceremony. This week, they told me they had moved and wanted my help in deciphering the theology and doctrine of local churches they're now hoping to visit. I think they also wanted to watch my face as their young son prayed over our meal! I didn't cry at that moment, but now I'm tearing up just thinking about it.
That's just one of the many, many relationships we continue to have, even as we work with new people the Lord brings into our lives. As I think about it and how much i pleases me when one of them asks for advice, or help, or just to get together and talk, I think it must feel something similar for our Lord when we do the same to Him. Many thanks to YOU for the part you play is making this all possible!
Blessings in Christ,
Pastor Jim Kilby
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Of all the love affairs people have, the most pervasive and intense are our love affairs with ourselves. It starts almost with our first look in the mirror. Love at first sight, if you will. What God needs to do is help us understand that He loves us far more than we could ever love ourselves. In fact, the love we have for ourselves is actually in the way of Him loving us. If we are to ever understand God's love, we've got to forget about "self" and focus that love on Jesus! "No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God." Jesus of Nazareth (John 6:27) Pastor Jim Kilby Your donation spreads good news! www.harvestyouth.org/donate
Although I'm staunch in my support of pro-life and pro-family candidates, I must be honest that the two don't always go hand in hand. While I struggle with the fact that half of all the people in the world today are pro-abortion (although they would surely say "pro-choice") and many more seem to be fine with federally funding research that would destroy human embryos in favor of "science," I'm frankly concerned for the future of our nation. I see churches who call themselves "Christian" support platforms that Jesus would never have supported and I watch as fellow pastors and ministers clearly make judgment calls that are not theirs to make biblically. The whole situation leaves me wondering. Is our nation so distant from God that we could slip this far and few would notice? Maybe so... but God is still on the throne and nothing that happens has escaped His eye! Although these days are troubling in many ways, maybe they will somehow cause us to turn to Him again. When times come that we can no longer trust even our government, thanks be to God that we can still trust in Him! "But I trust in you, O LORD ; I say, "You are my God." Psalm 31:14 Pastor Jim Kilby Your donation spreads good news! www.harvestyouth.org/donate
Remember that Bible guy, Jonah? He got all upset and tried to run from God, winding up in the belly of a fish for a few days. I've often wondered, why didn't God just turn him around and head him in the right direction in the first place? And what about you and me? Do we not often wind up going places, or doing or saying things that God would never have approved? We might immediately feel bad, but the damage is often already done. So when people ask you why God allows so much evil in the world, remind them that God is not the author of evil--Satan is, and we frequently do his bidding. Out of pure love, God is dealing with our evil even though it cost Him His Only Son. You might also remind them that God did not make us to be robots, but rather friends! We have the ability to do amazing good and the ability to do terrible things beyond imagination without Him. Tell them to fear not though, because evil will be put to an end soon--in God's own time. But until then, evil is not God's fault. It's ours. "Woe to those who plan iniquity, to those who plot evil on their beds! At morning's light they carry it out because it is in their power to do it. They covet fields and seize them, and houses, and take them. The defraud a man of his home, a fellowman of his inheritance. Therefore, the Lord says: 'I am planning disaster against this people, from which you cannot save yourselves. You will no longer walk proudly, for it will be a time of calamity.'" Micah 2:1-4 Pastor Jim Kilby Your donation spreads good news! www.harvestyouth.org/donate
I had the opportunity to spend some time in Jerusalem and I learned a lot about the nation of Israel. In many ways it helps the Bible come alive for me as I read of places I've actually seen and attitudes of the heart I've experienced for myself. One of the things that surprised me was the incredible ability of the Israeli army to defend that small piece of land they have. It seems remarkable that such a small nation could have such military ability and could have remained viable for a few thousand years even though they have enemy nations and terrorists on literally every border. How could they be so hated by much of the world and still survive? That fact alone testifies to God's ability to bring His people through good times and bad, and still to protect and provide for them. Today's Christians could learn a lot from the testimony of Israel and God's faithfulness to them, even though they disregard His Son as the Messiah (the Savior). Friends, this is great stuff to remember whenever you feel like you have enemies all around you! "But now many nations are gathered against you. They say, 'Let her be defiled, let our eyes gloat over Zion!" But they do not know the thoughts of the Lord; they do not understand his plan, he who gathers them like sheaves to the threshing floor." Micah 4:11-12 Pastor Jim Kilby Your donation spreads good news! www.harvestyouth.org/donate
Have you seen any of the newspaper and magazine headlines that claim that Christians must be "dumb" or just "idiots" because we actually believe in crazy things like the virgin birth of Jesus, a literal interpretation of the Bible, that Adam and Eve were REAL people, etc? Well if you haven't, I must admit you're not paying attention, but either way I'm proud to be called an idiot if that's what pleases them. All their worldly intelligence and "proof" that God is a myth will be piled on their heads before they know it. May God have mercy and show them the wonders of His Truth as well. "For it is written: 'I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.' Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe." 1 Corinthians 1:19-21 Pastor Jim Kilby Your donation spreads good news! www.harvestyouth.org/donate
Today's pop culture will often try to persuade us that God loves and accepts everyone. The notion that God will eventually accept all people regardless of their deeds, their beliefs or their faith in Him is ridiculous even on its surface. Who of us would believe that God would embrace Adolph Hitler or Sadaam Hussein? But what we forget is that we are all wicked inside and capable of equally terrible evil. Without Christ as a redeemer we are also all facing the same consequence--total separation from God forever. And even this is not God's fault. Those who face these consequences do so because of their own rejection of God, not because of His rejection of them. "They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness." 2 Thessalonians 2:10b-12 Pastor Jim Kilby Your donation spreads good news! www.harvestyouth.org/donate
I'm often shocked when I learn of congregations who profess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and who also profess their belief in the values, morals, ethics and practices of the pro-choice (pro-death) movement. The arguments fly in every direction, from "Jesus never spoke against abortion" to "The Bible doesn't specifically condemn it" to "It's MY body" or "It's MY choice!" I believe there are two sins that are so pervasive in the Christian world today that there is simply no way our Lord can do anything but remove His hand of protection from those who practice them. The first is the love of "idols," which we give names like, "car, job, jewelry, DVD collection, vacation, or computer" and the other is our disregard for the millions of children who are being willfully slain on the alter of those idols. Christians who commit these acts themselves, vote for those who would expand their use, and applaud others who do them are wrong--dead wrong! Purposefully shedding innocent blood is always murder in God's eyes--the Bible speaks of it quite often. Generations of children are being murdered. True followers simply cannot be silent any more. "They shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was desecrated by their blood." Psalm 106:38 Pastor Jim Kilby Your donation spreads good news! www.harvestyouth.org/donate
Have you ever run into someone who claims to love the Lord, but who seems to hate everyone else? The truth is they don't love the Lord either, because loving Him requires us to do what He says--and He says to love others! And He didn't mean for us to love those who had the same income level as us, or the same skin tone either. There are a lot of facets to Christianity, but none so basic as to obey the truth by loving one another deeply. Jesus said it was that love that people would see in us and know we were His followers. So if you don't have love for others, you don't have a love for Jesus. As you begin to grow in Him, you'll see it oozing out of you everywhere! "Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart. For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God." 1 Peter 1:23 Pastor Jim Kilby Your donation spreads good news! www.harvestyouth.org/donate
An old friend showed up at our house one day with her three year old son. My two year old son was standing right behind me as our friend entered and introduced her little boy. "This is Zachary" she said... to which my son replied, "I'm Me!" As we chuckled amongst ourselves, I thought how neat it is that God gives each of us unique personalities, and not two of us (including twins) have ever been exactly the same. It's as if God is echoing my little boy, "You, are YOU!... because that's the way I made you!" Often new Christians become confused about the whole process of growing somehow thinking that they've got to act like everyone else in the church. Nothing could be further from the truth! God wants us to be Holy, but our personalities are His gift to us and can be used just like they are--only with His mission in mind! "But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy." 1 Peter 1:15-16 Pastor Jim Kilby Your donation spreads good news! www.harvestyouth.org/donate
