Show Notes for Grains from Gutteridge Podcast Episode #16:
Gethsemane—The Olive Press

Summary:

Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane (woodcut by Gustav Doré)

The name Gethsemane means olive press. King David had his Gethsemane, and “great David’s greater Son,” the Lord Jesus, had His. It came on a pleasant night in spring under a full moon. From Christ’s Gethsemane, by way of Calvary, the gift of the golden oil of the Spirit comes to us. But it is only if we will allow Him to take us through our own personal Gethsemanes, by the way of the Cross, that we shall be like Him, and share His power and exaltation. When He returns, He will abolish Gethsemane, says Zechariah; then there will be no more sorrow for His children.

Scripture Readings:

Isaiah 61:1-11; Matthew 26:30-46

Other Scriptures Cited:

• John 18:1-3
• 1 Corinthians 10:16
• John 6:51
• Genesis 22:7-14
• Psalm 118
• Acts 27
• 2 Samuel 15:30
• 2 Samuel 16:1-8
• 2 Samuel 17:27-29
• Zechariah 14:4-9
• Revelation 21:4-5

Links to Hymns Quoted

• Gethsemane, by Joseph Hart
• King of My Life, I Crown Thee Now, by Jennie E. Hussie

Acknowledgements

We thank Fellowship member Brian Fettes for providing the digitization of the original cassette tape through the services of Audioanalogy Musicworks of Canada.

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Introducing and Reporting:

Roy & Melania Olsen

It’s my great privilege and delight to share with you an interview I did with Rev. Roy Olsen of Apa Vie Ministries in Pestere, Caras-Severin, Romania. I spent over half a month with Roy and his godly and sweet Romanian wife, Melania, last October. Apa Vie (“Living Water” in Romanian) and the work the Olsens are doing deserve to be better known. And this gives me a chance to report back to you who prayed and gave and made that ministry trip possible and so successful. Consider this an audio “thank you!”

Concise Overview of My Ministry Time in Romania:

Roy Olsen and Jim Kerwin with some students at the Baptist Bible Institute in Timisoara (Click on the image for a larger version of the photo.)

• Led a day-long pastor’s conference  at the Ape Vie retreat center in Pestere on the subject of mentoring.
• Taught on two successive Friday mornings at the Baptist Bible Institute in Timisoara.
• Preached and taught at churches in Maciova Colonie, Carasebes, Alba Iulia, Resita, and Bocso.
• Spent numerous hours with pastors in their homes and apartments, listening to their challenges, asking them questions, answering their questions, and growing rich in our fellowship together.
• Such was the blessing of God on the teaching, preaching, and personal interaction that the “welcome mat” is out for my return this year.
• Enjoyed numerous hours with Roy and Melania Olsen, catching the vision for their Apa Vie Ministries.
• Didn’t take any time to “do the tourist thing.”  (Maybe next time?)

Find Out More About Apa Vie Ministries:

Apa Vie has temporarily lost its website in the aftermath of losing its volunteer webmaster. Roy and Melania are looking for another volunteer who can help them re-start and maintain their website. If you can minister in that way, please contact Roy at the address below.  Meantime, find out more about Apa Vie by:

• Visiting this Apa Vie page on their Stateside sending-church’s website;
• Friending Roy on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/revroy41;
• Contacting Roy via his Apa Via e-mail account.

Quick Update on Guatemala:

I don’t want to take too much away from this podcast’s focus on Romania, so I’ll just say:

• Lord willing and providing, I am returning to Guatemala in six weeks, and Denise will be joining me for ministry there in ten weeks. See this week’s newsletter for more information (and sign up here if you want to receive a copy).
• If you haven’t read my blog post Inspired by a Bookcase yet, it will provide an encouraging update on what God is doing among the pastors in Guatemala.

Feedback

Your feedback is appreciated. Leave a comment (below) or drop us an e-mail.

More Bible teaching by Jim Kerwin and others can be found on the Finest of the Wheat website.

Subscribe to the Kernels of Wheat weekly podcast:

Legal stuff:

Podcast theme music: “Steam Train” from the John Williams album Dusty Porch, under license from Magnatune.com.

Pastor Edwin’s bookcase

It’s easiest to write when inspired—by the Holy Spirit, by an event, by illumination from the Scriptures, by something. And what moved me last month was a set of photos from Guatemala (you’ll see the slideshow when you click through to read the full article), especially a very ordinary photo of a simple bookcase.

Rewind to 2008: “They have no study materials.”

Back in 2008 (was it that long ago?), I was invited to be part of a team of teachers going to Guatemala to teach pastors. My topic was hermeneutics (translation: “reading, teaching, and preaching the Scriptures in context”), and I spent a lot of time before the Lord preparing. One day as I was sitting in my small, but book-lined, study, the Holy Spirit whispered to me, “They have no study materials.” I haven’t learned nearly enough over the years, but I have learned not to respond by asking the Omniscient One, “Are You sure?” And He was right, of course. At the two different seminar locations in Guatemala that March, I asked for a show of hands from the pastors and leaders. How many had a Bible commentary? Only a scattering of hands went up. How many concordances? Few hands. Bible dictionary? Fewer hands. I brought that report back to our small fellowship, where we prayed. One member, Al Strickland, couldn’t get it out of his mind. He shared his burden with some men on a church-building missions trip about six months later, and the thousands of dollars needed for the pastors’ study books were pledged before that team returned home. The books were purchased and delivered by February 2009.

Fast-forward to 2013: A Bookcase!

During my visit last May (2012), Brother Atilio Chávez, the pastors’ pastor, alerted me to the fact that their group of churches had grown from thirty to over forty. All the new pastors, about a dozen, needed study materials, too. I wrote a blog post about that (see A Day of Tres Oportunidades), and after I returned, we made the need known a bit more widely. Folks inside and outside the fellowship contributed. The funds were sent to Guatemala about three months ago. The study books were purchased, and just this past month, they were delivered to the new pastors. You can see some of these leaders with superintendente Atilio and with their books in the album window below.

The same day the book-presentation photos arrived, another Guatemalan snapshot arrived, and it really struck me. To an outsider, the unspectacular image might not mean much. Pastor Edwin Reyes (whose church building in Betania [“Bethany”], Quetzaltenango, is one of our pastors’ conference locales) secured a bookcase for himself. I see “our” three books (the concordance, the Bible dictionary, and the one-volume commentary) along with some other reference books on the top shelf. But I also see other books—notebooks, paperbacks (some of which I surmise have come via T.J. Henken’s Iowa-based ResourcingNow ministry, channeled through Pastor Jorge Cerritos and his Iglesia Ciudad de Refugio (City of Refuge Church) outreach. And are those children’s books I see on the bottom shelf? So it seems, and I’d like to think so.

So the book donations you gave in 2009 and 2012 are having an impact.  The photo of Hermano Edwin’s bookcase and growing library probably represents a trend.  Today in over forty pastors’ homes in Guatemala, there’s a good chance that three large Bible reference books are no longer content with a linear foot of space on a table or desk or small shelf. They’re calling other hard- and soft-bound friends to join them, and they’re being used by eager pastors (many of whom have had limited educational opportunities) in their study of the Scriptures, in preparation for their preaching and teaching, and in their private devotions.  Your generosity has helped make this happen.

Yes, those libraries are growing—and so are their owners! So, yes, I’m inspired by these photos, especially by the one with Edwin’s book collection. Others may look, shrug, and say, “Right. A bookcase. Whatever.” But I see the images of these pastors and of this simple, white bookcase, and I thank God for these spiritually hungry servants of God. It makes me keep praying, “Señor, ¿de qué otras maneras podemos servirles?” (“Lord, in what other ways can we serve them?”)

Postscript

After I wrote the entry above (but before I posted it), Edwin wrote to me, saying, “La biblioteca era chatarra para otras personas, pero la vi y la pedí y me la regalaron, la limpie y la pinte, quedo como nueva…” (“The bookcase was other people’s junk, but I saw it, asked about it, [and] they gave it to me.  Some cleaning, some paint, and it’s like new….”)  These pastors and pastoras, my friends, my inspirations—I wish you could meet them!  Lord willing and providing, I’ll be returning to them in just three months, this coming May.

[If you'd like to contribute towards this spring's teaching trip to Guatemala, you can do so by a tax-deductible contribution using PayPal or by a check to Finest of the Wheat Teaching Fellowship, P.O. Box 2754, Chesapeake, VA 23327-2754. Thank you!]

We’re making two of our Amazon Kindle e-book titles available for free for the next few days.  That Treasure Trove of Truth (http://kernelsofwheat.com/treasuretrove-kindle) will be available for free through midnight Friday, 12/28, and That Uncomfortable Word – Conviction! (http://kernelsofwheat.com/conviction-kindle) will be available for free through midnight Wednesday, 12/26.  Why?  Just because it’s Christmas.  Just because we can.  Just because…

Show Notes for Grains from Gutteridge Podcast Episode #15:
The Seamless Garment of Christ

Summary:

“…now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout.”

Have you ever clearly understood how Jesus Christ is God and Man, perfectly, at the same time?

Here’s a seemingly unrelated question: Have you ever given thought to Jesus’ seamless garment, for which the soldiers gambled during the Crucifixion (John 19:23)?

Why did Jesus wear a seamless garment, and why does the Holy Spirit bring that point out in the Gospel of John?  Why is it significant that the garment is like the ephod of the high priest, “woven from the top throughout?”  Pastor Percy Gutteridge unfolds the answers to these questions and more in this message.

Scripture Reading:

John 21:1-24

Acknowledgements

We thank Fellowship member Brian Fettes for providing the digitization of the original cassette tape through the services of Audioanalogy Musicworks of Canada.

Subscribe to the Grains from Gutteridge monthly podcast:

Show Notes by Jim Kerwin for Kernels of Wheat Podcast Episode 024 – Antichrist: In the Pew Next to You?

In the pew next to you?

Review of Last Episode

• Evolution of teaching about antichrist, from the Apostle John and Polycarp up through modern dispensationalism
• A brief overview of some of the more famous people “conclusively proven” to be antichrist
• Hints and highlights from passages of 1 John so far
• A look at the page from Strong’s Concordance which shows that all five references to antichrist appear only in three verses in 1 John and one verse in 2 John — never in a prophetic passage.
• According to Greek scholars, the preposition and prefix anti- never has the meaning of against in New Testament writings; it always means in the place of, instead of.

Going Through the Relevant Details about Antichrist in 1 John & 2 John

1. Note the passage on “the world” again in 1 John 2:15-17, as this will play into the identities of the antichrists.
2. 1 John 2:18—
   1. First mention of antichrist in the Bible
   2. John says that they are here now, that is, in 90 A.D.
   3. John, in a matter-of-fact manner, says that “many antichrists have appeared”.
   4. It isn’t “the last hour” that brings the antichrist; rather it is the existence of many antichrists that proves that we are in the last hour.
   5. Antichrist doesn’t appear to be the same thing as false christs (pseudocristoi) in the Gospels:
      • See Matthew 24:23-26 and the parallel passage in Mark 13:19-23.
      • Note the distinctive about false christs: they “show great signs and wonders.” John mentions nothing about this in the verses about his antichrists.
3. Looking at clues and asking questions in 1 John 2:19—
   1. Confirming that there are many antichrists, John refers to them as “they” SIX times in this verse.
   2. “They went out from us”—Who is the “us” from which the antichrists went out? Pay attention to the context of the epistle, and John’s stated purpose for writing it:
      • “That you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.” (1 John 1:3)
   3. Whether your translation says that “they” should have “remained” or “continued” with us, the verb is meno—to abide or remain. We studied this word in /k20: Do You Have Indoor Plumbing? And what is that in which we’re expected to abide / remain / continue? The chrisma, the anointing inside—Jesus the Anointed living inside. (We studied the anointing in /k19: What We Don’t Know About “The Anointing”.)
4. In verses 20-27, John sets up a dynamic balance
   1. Between “us” and “they”
   2. Between “you” and “they”
   3. Between antichrist and the anointing within.
5. Review of the chri- root of Christ, Christian, anointing (that is, chrisma), anoint (that is, chrio), and antichristos:
   1. Chrisma – the anointing (and the Anointed One) within; only mentioned in 1 John 2:20 & 2:27; the anointing within teaches you of all things.
   2. Christos – the Anionted One
   3. A Christian is one who lives by the life and leading of Christ, the Anointed One within (in the person of the Holy Spirit).
   4. Anti as used in the Greek New Testament always means in the place of, instead of.
   5. Ultimately, then, those who are antichrists are effectively trying to live the Christian life by some means other than the life of the Christ, the Anointed One, within.  True Christians are those who abide in the inner anointing, in the inner fellowship which God imparts in the New Birth.
6. In 1 John 4:1-6 and 2 John 7, we deal with another aspect — Jesus the Christ, the Anointed One, coming “in the flesh,” something which antichrists either blatantly or experientially deny.
   1. More than just a doctrinal statement or a defense against Gnosticism or Docetism (see /k18 — An Unhappy Heresy).
   2. Has Jesus, the Anointed One, come to dwell in your flesh?  Is He making you righteous, holy, Christ-like?  Or do you offer to all and sundry your excuses for why you continue in sin and sinning, continue in your love for the world?  Is your Christian experience a real one, based on intimate fellowship with Christ within; or do you have something in the place of, instead of God’s communion with God’s chrisma within?

Feedback

Your feedback is appreciated. Leave a comment (below) or drop us an e-mail.

More Bible teaching by Jim Kerwin and others can be found on the Finest of the Wheat website.

Subscribe to the Kernels of Wheat weekly podcast:

Legal stuff:
Image licensed from Illustration from www.istockphoto.com. Podcast theme music: “Steam Train” from the John Williams album Dusty Porch, under license from Magnatune.com.

Show Notes for Grains from Gutteridge Podcast Episode #14: The Vine and the Branches

Summary:

“I am the Vine, you are the branches.”

Of this message, Pastor Gutteridge wrote:

God is the Husbandman, the great Vine-Dresser. He intends that His children should be fruitful with ever-increasing fruitfulness, so He purges them, that they may bring forth more fruit.

But they must abide in the Vine as living branches in the Vine; and the Vine is His own well-beloved Son. This abiding means complete obedience to the Son’s commandments, and in their loving obedience, God’s children bring forth much fruit.

Scriptures Quoted Include:

Hymns & Poems Quoted

• ‘Tis Not to Ask for Gifts Alone by Mary Olivant
• Prayer Is the Soul’s Sincere Desire by James Montgomery

We thank Fellowship member Brian Fettes for providing the digitization of the original cassette tape through the services of Audioanalogy Musicworks of Canada.

Subscribe to the Grains from Gutteridge monthly podcast:

Show Notes by Jim Kerwin for Kernels of Wheat Podcast Episode 023 – Will the Real Antichrist(s) Please Stand Up?

A Short History of Antichrist

The entry for antichrist in Strong’s Concordance. These five entries–four verses–are the only places where the word ever occurs in the entire Bible. Note the plural in 1 John 2:18. Click on the image for a larger view.

Intro: In the old TV game show, To Tell the Truth, several panelists asked questions of three mystery guests.  One guest had a unique story or occupation or claim to fame; but the other guests were decoys, whose presence and answers were meant to deceive the panelists.  The panelists were allowed to ask questions of all three guests, and in the end had to guess which one had told the truth.  After they had guessed, the moderator would say, “Will the real [mystery guest] please stand up?” and the truth would be revealed.  Seeing the truth “stand up” in 1 John is our goal, with the help of the Holy Spirit.  In this episode, we will be looking for history and the Scriptures “To Tell the Truth” about what has — and should be — taught about the subject of antichrists.  “Will the real antichrists please stand up?”

Review of 1 John 2:18-29

• Anointing
• Abiding
• Antichrist (this episode and next)

Speculation Started with the Early Church Fathers (a sampling)

The Pope or Papacy as Antichrist (another sampling)

Feedback

Your feedback is appreciated. Leave a comment (below) or drop us an e-mail.

More Bible teaching by Jim Kerwin and others can be found on the Finest of the Wheat website.

Subscribe to the Kernels of Wheat weekly podcast:

Legal stuff:

Podcast theme music: “Steam Train” from the John Williams album Dusty Porch, under license from Magnatune.com.  Graphic was created by the author.

That Uncomfortable Word — Conviction! is now available for purchase as Kindle e-book.

Some of you know that we published our first e-book, The Rejected Blessing, on the Amazon Kindle and Barnes & Noble Nook platforms in late August.  During September, especially during my lonely bachelor existence for the last 11 days, a lot of work has gone into current and near-future publications. For instance:

• The Rejected Blessing is now also available for the Kobo Reader, also for US$2.99.  (Kobo is a popular e-book platform outside the United States.)
• The first in our 99-cent Kernels of Wheat Bible Study Single series became available just yesterday: That Uncomfortable Word—Conviction!  It’s available immediately for Kindle, and will be available for Nook and Kobo by the first of the year.  (Sorry, Nook and Kobo fans, but the Kindle platform — besides “owning the market” — has so many advantages that it would amount to poor stewardship on our part not to launch exclusively with Amazon for the first few months.)
• Cover credits for our Kernels of Wheat Bible Study Single series go to friend Steve (“Mr. Photoshop”) Bryson  for the design, and my wife, Denise Kerwin, for the photograph used.  All I have to do is provide the title and author text for each month’s cover.
• Next month’s Kernels of Wheat Bible Study Single will be Percy Gutteridge’s The Gospel of the Glory.
• The paperback of the new edition of The Rejected Blessing only has to jump one more hurdle before it’s available, so it should be on sale on or before October 5th.  I’ll make the announcement here first.  By the way, friend (and graphic artist) Murry Whiteman (MWArt.net) did an eye-popping job on the book’s cover, finishing it just last evening.
• Can you say The Rejected Blessing in Spanish?  It comes out as La Bendicion Rechazada.  Guatemalan friends, Pastor Fermin Chávez, and his wife, Pastora Lilian de Chávez, tell me that the translation will be available by early next week.  ¡Gloria a Dios!  Lord willing, we plan to have paperback and e-book versions of the translation available before I return to Central America next spring.
• Ann Gutteridge has just delivered the transcript of Pastor Gutteridge’s sermon Earth’s Most Powerful Preacher, which means that message is now on track to appear on FinestOfTheWheat.org by late December or early January.
• Ann has also started work on another message, Jesus, Our Great High Priest and Intercessor (yes, I was listening, Jorge Pérez, but we can’t translate it until we transcribe it from audio), while friend Dave Armstrong has volunteered to transcribe a related message, Melchizedek.  This latter message, our September 2012 Grains from Gutteridge podcast (Grains from Gutteridge #13), has been downloaded so many times in just three weeks that we decided it needed to get into print as quickly as possible.
• The Lord has been awakening me an hour early each morning for the last three weeks and encouraging me to write during that quiet sixty minutes.  Thus, progress is finally being made on the manuscript of The John the Baptist Experience.  There’s hope it will be ready in 2013.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a house to pick up and dishes to do before my wife’s plane arrives this evening!  And come Monday, I’ll start the long process of preparing to leave for Romania…

Show Notes for Grains from Gutteridge Podcast Episode #13: Melchizedek

Summary:

Melchizedek Blessing Abram

Pastor Percy Gutteridge prepared this message at the request of a number of people who wanted to know more about this great king-priest, Melchizedek, one of the greatest types of the Lord Jesus Christ revealed in the Scriptures. The purpose of this message is to unfold more of the perfection of the Lord Jesus Christ in His Kingly and High-Priestly character as the greater Melchizedek.

Scriptures Quoted Include:

• Genesis 14:17-24—15:1
• Psalm 110
• Hebrews 5:1-10
• Hebrews 6:16-20
• Hebrews 7:1-17
• Genesis 47:7-10
• 1 Corinthians 11:3; 15:22-28
• Hebrews 7:26-28
• Psalm 72:1-15

We thank Fellowship member Brian Fettes for providing the digitization of the original cassette tape through the services of Audioanalogy Musicworks of Canada.

Subscribe to the Grains from Gutteridge monthly podcast:

What He says, we will do,
Where He sends, we will go;
Never fear, only trust and obey!

Often when we’re obedient to what God tells us to do, when we’re obedient to go where He tells us to go, when we’re obedient to give when He tells us to give, exciting things happen because we’re flowing in the stream of God’s purposes. A lot of you were encouraged by the blog post entitled Bye-Bye Bible! I want to share another story in that same vein, from material that is (mostly) someone else’s testimony. She doesn’t mention me by name, for which I’m glad (but you’ll be able to figure out my geeky part in the chain of obedience anyway), and I mustn’t mention her by name, because she is off to the 10/40 Window for some tent-making ministry time.

Let me bring you into her story just after she has felt a confirmation that she was to return to the 10/40…

Are you following the Holy Spirit’s promptings to obey in areas like doing, going, and giving – even when those leadings sometimes make little sense? If not, you’re probably missing out on the many blessings of obedience. You’re being left out of the adventure! This sister obeyed, not knowing what God had in mind. I dragged along a third laptop on that trip, thinking, “Boy, I don’t understand this. I’ll never turn the thing on, let alone make use of it.” (In my defense, I brought the second laptop as a backup, since I was responsible for a lot of the recording work at camp. Computer failure wasn’t an option.) But I couldn’t shake the feeling that I needed to take the third computer along with me, so I obeyed.

Bon voyage, laptop! And many blessings to my dear, younger sister in the Lord who obeys when told to go, and obeys when told to give.

Trust and obey,
For there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus
But to trust and obey!

We’ve been hard at work, laying the foundation to take our teaching assets and move them into the digital age.  Last year about this time, we improved the delivery of our audio messages by starting the Kernels of Wheat and Grains from Gutteridge podcasts.

But what about all the Bible-teaching articles over at FinestOfTheWheat.org?  Well, starting with our most popular book, The Rejected Blessing, we’re beginning to reach out to e-book readers.  TRB, as we call it around here, is now available for purchase for $2.99 for Amazon.com Kindle readers, as well as Barnes & Noble Nook readers.

As always, TRB is also available for free at FinestOfTheWheat.org.  Because of licensing stipulations, the online version lacks the photos of the book editions; but other than those, and the omission of Dr. Vinson Synan’s foreword for the book, the text, notes, and bibliography are all there to read, print off, and study.  Why would we tell you that?  Because we’re not as interested in selling books as we are in getting the message of The Rejected Blessing out to as many Christians as possible.

By the way, we expect the print version of this second edition of The Rejected Blessing to be available before the end of September.

P.S.: If there are any e-book lovers who would prefer to see TRB available in the Apple iBook store or as a Google Play book, please drop us a comment below.

P.P.S.: Many thanks to Brother Murry Whiteman of www.MWArt.net for his new, eye-popping cover for this second edition of TRB!

Show Notes by Jim Kerwin for Kernels of Wheat Podcast
Episode 022 – We Lend a Hand with LendAHand in Costa Rica, Including an Interview with Bobby Hoyle

Pastors and LendAHand team members gathered at the Monte Getsemaní retreat center in Costa Rica.  The three people at the extreme right of the group are (left to right) Kathryn Hoyle, Bobby Hoyle, and Pastor Jorge Fernández.

Late on Friday, August 3, I returned from another teaching trip, this time to Costa Rica. In this podcast, I share for about fifteen minutes on my small part in teaching a group of pastors associated with Iglesia Centro Misionero in Los Guido, San José, Costa Rica. I cover some of the highlights of the trip, but I encourage you to read these three related blog posts also:

• Tale of the Tangled Translator
• A Letter Home from Costa Rica
• Bye-bye, Bible!

What you may find even more interesting is this episode’s interview with LendAHand Mission Teams founder and leader, Rev. Bobby Hoyle. Bobby was our team leader and made the arrangements for the trip. The story of how he got involved in missions late in life, how LendAHand was formed, what it does, and how God is using it will be inspiring to many. And let’s just say that Bobby is a man who has a very… well, let’s say unconventional… definition of “retirement”!

• 

  In the interview (which starts at approximately 18:30 in the broadcast), Bobby gives a special word of thanks to Kingsway Charities, so be certain to click through and visit their website and learn about their ministry. Their primary focus is international medical missions.

• Dr. Raymond Rempt, one of my two fathers in the Lord, is the founder of FigTree.net, and the author of Never Before, Never Again: Getting Your Feet Wet in Missions.  The book, which highlights the unique opportunity God is offering for involvement in short-term missions, is available from Amazon.com, or, if you’d rather purchase a copy directly from Ray, drop him a line.

• Website: http://www.lendahandmissionteams.org/
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/lendahandmissionteams
• E-mail: Click here for e-mail.
• Phone: 757.479.5527
• Mailing address: 1585 Coolspring Way, Virginia Beach, Virginia, 23464 USA

Front (L to R): Dr. Jeraldine (“Jeri”) Posey, Glyndon (“Glen”) Logsdon, Sonia Logsdon, Kathryn Hoyle, Jimmy Hernández-Arroyo (our translator), Bobby Hoyle
Rear (L to R): Mark Fisher, Ricardo (retreat-center superintendent), Jim Kerwin, Darrell Roland

Next Episode:

Next episode, Lord willing, we’ll be back on track with our study of 1 John, chapter 2, introducing the topic of antichrist in a way you’ve probably never heard it — in context!

Feedback

Your feedback is appreciated. Leave a comment (below) or drop us an e-mail.

More teaching by Jim Kerwin and others can be found on the Finest of the Wheat website.

Subscribe to the Kernels of Wheat weekly podcast:

Legal stuff:
Podcast theme music: “Steam Train” from the John Williams album Dusty Porch, under license from Magnatune.com.  Photos were taken by the author.  Cover of Never Before, Never Again, is used by permission of Dr. Raymond D. Rempt.

Show Notes for Grains from Gutteridge Podcast
Episode #12: Jesus, Our Great High Priest and Intercessor

Summary:

Gustav Doré’s illustration of Jesus at prayer in the garden.

In this message, Pastor Percy Gutteridge will clearly explain just what intercession is, keying this study off the description of Messiah in Isaiah 52:13–52:12. Jesus is shown as the Great High Priest, ever interceding on behalf of a rebel world and a largely indifferent Church, pleading and praying, having taken upon Himself the Earth’s sins and sufferings.

The Lord Jesus is seeking for Christians who will stand with Him to hold back inevitable judgment that otherwise must fall upon the much-favored and greatly-fallen West. Are you willing to stand with Him in the gap by interceding?

Other Scripture Passages Cited:

Hymns Quoted:

• What Have I on Earth to Boast Of? or Jesus Hung on Calvary’s Mountain, by Vivian A. Dake
• The Savior of Men Came to Seek and to Save or Except I Am Moved with Compassion by Albert Orsborn

More Teaching by Percy Gutteridge:

Other free audio messages by Pastor Gutteridge are available on an audio directory on his Finest of the Wheat page, while a growing collection of his books and pamphlets, and message transcriptions, is available on a similar directory on the same page.

We thank Fellowship member Brian Fettes for providing the digitization of the original cassette tape through the services of Audioanalogy Musicworks of Canada.

Subscribe to the Grains from Gutteridge monthly podcast:

Listen, Obey, and Blessings Follow

Wednesday, 1  August 2012

Naomi (left), Pastora Cristina (center), Pastor Oscar (right)

If you read yesterday’s entry, right down through the postscript, then you’ll know I mentioned a Bible the Lord had impressed me to give to someone. That act of obedience is now accomplished, and the full story can be told. (And I didn’t know the full story until after I obeyed and gave it away!)

My family feels a certain amount of frustration with me before Christmas and my birthday, because they don’t know what to give me, and I can never think of anything to put on a “wish list.” I pretty much have everything I need, and there’s not a lot I want. I have prayed over the years that Hebrews 13:5 would be true in me, and the Lord seems to have answered that prayer. (In that verse, did you ever notice at the end the satisfying why behind the exhortations at the beginning? Yes, I’m going to make you look it up!)

So, anyway, indecision or lack of desire on my part produces mild frustration for my family. “Dad, what do you want?” “I don’t know. Nothing, really.” Four or five Christmases ago, I actually knew what I wanted, asked for it, and got it – a bilingual Bible. My English translation of choice is the New American Standard Bible (NASB), in my opinion the rendition closest to the original Greek and Hebrew. The Lockman Foundation, publishers of the NASB, also has its own Spanish translation – La Biblia de las Americas (LBLA), the The Bible of the Americas. And they have a very nice Bible with both of those translations displayed in double-column fashion. There was general rejoicing in the family – Dad finally knew what he wanted! Since Christmas 2007, I have used this Bible most every day for personal reading, and I have preached from in when in Central America. I’ve even read aloud through the entire Nuevo Testamento once using it.

Fast forward – not to this evening, but to lunch last Thursday, the first day of our teaching conference for pastors. My teaching session on reading/studying/preaching the Bible in context was off to a good start. The Holy Spirit specially quickened what I was teaching to one pastora named Cristina Chaves-Vargas. She and her husband, Oscar Morales-Toval, lead the Centro Misionero church-plant in Alajuela, a suburb of San José, Costa Rica. Both come from Adventist backgrounds, and since they left that denomination years ago, they have been avid Bible students, “searching the Scriptures daily, whether these things are so.”

I found a kindred spirit in Hermana Cristina. As an old friend, Tim Dickson, once observed, there aren’t many true Ephesians 4 teachers in the wild. They are rare. I believe that Cristina is one of them. She accosted me after the morning session was ended, and we chatted together as we walked down the hill from the open-air meeting hall to the open-air dining hall for lunch. Despite her limited English and my limited Spanish, we were actually making good headway in our conversation. Nevertheless, we convinced our group translator, Jimmy Hernández-Arroyo, to join us and facilitate our interchange.

As I sat there, listening to Cristina pour out her heart about all that the Lord had been teaching her over the years, the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said, “You are to give her your Bible.” He could only have meant one, because the only Bible I brought with me was my NASB/LBLA bilingual Bible. As fond as I am of that Bible, especially because of the sentimental meaning it has as a gift from my wife and daughters, I found no resistance in my heart. Denise and I have been taught by the Lord over the years that He owns what we have, and we hold it in trust for Him. If Jesus says to give such-and-such to so-and-so, we do it. But I did silently asked the Lord if it was okay to keep the Bible until the end of this trip, because I knew I would need it for the conference teaching sessions and for my preaching assignments in various churches. I had liberty to keep the Bible for another week. And I didn’t even hint to Cristina that anything was afoot.

Fast-forward again – Last night our team visited Cristina’s and Oscar’s church. They meet in a home that doesn’t have one room large enough to hold even half their congregation. The folks who sit in the kitchen can’t see the projected song lyrics, because they’re at right angles to the screen. Most of the folks sitting in the “dining room” can. And some of the folks who sit outside the front door can see, but certainly not the ones sitting on the steps coming up to the door, nor the ones sitting outside at the front of the residence. (If you haven’t gathered already, they need a building! They keep on growing. I felt a bit guilty that we had taken up seven of their chairs last night!)

Our team arrived thirty minutes early. I pulled Cristina aside, and with her fourteen-year-old daughter, Naomi, acting as translator, I explained that I was giving the Bible to her with my blessing because the Lord had told me to do so. It was still in its original box. (I always keep the original boxes to protect my Bibles when I’m traveling. Don’t laugh! I have sealskin-covered King James Bible that’s over thirty years old. I used it constantly for years for preaching and study, but protected the cover and binding; it still looks nearly brand new.) Cristina was obviously touched…

…but not as touched as she was at the end of the meeting. Fast-forward again, through the worship, through Brother Bobby Hoyle’s timely message to the church, and into the birthday party at the end. (Tonight was the church’s second anniversary. From a core of five, they have grown to the point where they no longer have room for those who come – and they’re just getting started!) Cristina brought a friend over to translate. She told me, “The very first morning when you were teaching, and when we sat at lunch, I saw your bilingual Bible, and I asked the Lord for one. I knew we could not buy it, for money is very tight because of our many medical bills.” (Cristina was injured in a motorcycle accident and now has two herniated discs in her back. But that’s another story.) “So all I could do was to pray and ask Jesus for one. I want to learn English better.”

Now I knew the rest of her story, so I told her my side – when we were sitting together at lunch that first day, the Lord had already directed me to answer the prayer I didn’t know she had prayed. I was ignorant of her desire for such a Bible. And Cristina didn’t know that the Lord directed me to answer her prayer within minutes of the time she prayed it. It made the gift more special to both of us.

So, “Bye-bye, Bible. You were one of my favorites.  I’m sure you’re now in the hands of a diligent Bible student and gifted teacher who will make even better use of you than I did.”  I like to think that Bible represents a lasting connection of friendship made with one of the Costa Rican saints. And, believe it or not, my family will probably be happy that I gave it away, because now they won’t have to be frustrated figuring out what to give me this coming Christmas!

Related Blog Posts: Tale of the Tangled Translator and A Letter Home from Costa Rica.

¡Feliz cumpleaños a mí!

Tuesday, 31 July 2012

Dear Deni,

Map of Costa Rica (courtesy of Google.com)

Had another good day today, but it would have been better if I could have Skyped you again. Oh, well, I can’t have everything. No sense being greedy, as I’ve had quite a bit on this my 44th spiritual birthday.

We had an outstanding time of ministry this evening. Pastor Virgilio Zamora-Fernández, his wife Kattia, their two small kids, and several people from their church, along with Luis Diego Segura-Alvarado (the young English teacher who was “supposed” to be my translator on Sunday), picked me up and off we went Sarchí, 90 minutes away. In addition to the fact that the pickup time had been moved from 15:00 to 17:15, we were 20 minutes late in leaving because they were waiting for me at the front desk. The clerks claim to have called me in my room. They may have called somebody, but it wasn’t my room, since I was sitting four feet from the from the room phone. The second call (my first) sent me running down the stairs. So we got the 18:00 meeting started at 18:15, but, hey, it’s Latin America, where nobody sweats 15 minutes.

The meeting went wonderfully well, so don’t think I’m selling it short when I tell you that the ride out and the ride back were even better than the meeting itself. Virgilio is hungry to learn (like all the pastors down here), and he pounded me with questions the whole way out and nearly all the way back, along with telling me much more about the ministry journey that he and Kattia have been on the last ten years.

Now, having said that, I preached twice tonight — once to the children, with a children’s sermon (little Samuel, complete with blankie) and once to the adults. Of the 60 people attending this evening, exactly a dozen were children, and they were all down front with me, spellbound at something brand new in their experience. (I mean, it doesn’t get much stranger than a bearded Gringo who can’t speak Spanish trying to pull a baby blanket over himself so that he can “go to sleep.”) The unexpected, but happy, upshot of the children’s sermon is that Virgilio has decided they need to start a Sunday School soon. (Truth be told, I think many of the adults enjoyed the “children’s sermon” as much as the kids did.) Meanwhile, this is the second country in two months where a “children’s sermon” has switched on some light bulbs in the area of children’s ministry. (More on that below.)

The Lord had indicated a few days ago that I was to preach on prayer this evening, but it wasn’t until this afternoon that He showed me I would be in Luke 11 and 18, and that the subject would be importunity in prayer. I did not know the reason for the subject and passages the Lord picked until the ride outbound. This little church is bursting at the seams. (The meeting tonight was SRO, and even then others were standing outside on the covered walkway near the door.) They’re meeting at a couples’ home, in a not-nearly-up-to-building-code add-on room that is no bigger than the Stricklands’ great room. They have been praying for a building, specifically for an edifice down the road that used to be a church ten years ago (now a residence), with a now-unused Sunday School building just behind. They’re also praying for the empty lot next to that building. (These pastors down here are continually growing in their thinking and always thinking about their growing.) The current facility has places in the wooden floor that flex enough to uneasily remind one of the fate of Dathan and Abiram; and the floor of the whole room would instantly fail the marble test — everything flows toward the back of the room, even as the room perches over a hill that rolls down toward the back of the property. I felt like I was the Leaning Tower of Pisa most of the night.

But back to the message: Not only was Samuel’s call acted out for the children, but the whole “Friend, lend me three loaves” story was acted out as well, complete with a loudly snoring friend (see? all my nightly practice sessions really help!), angry, shouting neighbors (especially the Gonzálezes and Gómezes), crying babies (in my story expansion only, not in the meeting room), rotten eggs and basura getting thrown (ditto, thank goodness), and so forth. I should have brought out the village constable, too. (Maybe next time, if there is a next time for this message.) I’m sure they never heard a message quite like it — and I know I never preached one quite like it! Not only that, but for some reason, it’s more fun to act out in Spanish than in English. There’s something about the cadences of the LBLA translation that helped with that, though I can’t put my finger on exactly why. Then we did a shorter rendition of the widow and the unjust judge in Luke 18. I think somewhere deep down, I am un jamón.

All this was tied into something practical — importuning and annoying God “shamelessly” for their new building. That brought it all home. I hope Father has some Excedrin Migraine handy; I think He’s going to need it if He decides to play “the unjust judge” or the friend who won’t lend the bread with this congregación! I offer as “Exhibit A” that in his message recap, Pastor Virgilio had already upped the ante on the “knocking” analogy by using a sledgehammer illustration!

BTW, who does Pastor Jorge think I am, his personal personnel trainer?!  Guess who did his first-ever translation tonight? Yep, you guessed right — Luis Diego! I didn’t know that until the ride back. That’s my second “trainee” in two days! L.D. did wonderfully well, only missing the beat once (for about three seconds) during the 45 minutes or so that I spoke, and never missing during the children’s sermon. Captain Kirk may have found a second (actually fourth or fifth) career as “The Negotiator,” but apparently I now have a side job as “The Initiator” (of translators). “Luis” (or “Diego” — he answers to either) was a bit awed, sobered, and blessed after the following exchange, which started out by him saying to me…

“You preached well tonight.”

“No, we preached well tonight. When you translate, you share equally in the responsibility and blessing of the ministry of the Word. You, too, are the preacher, the minister, the teacher.”

“This is an answer to prayer for me. I have been wanting God to use me in ministry in this way. I wasted twelve years of my life when I turned my back on Jesus. I can’t get those years back, but I want to serve Him now in any way I can.”

He’s a bit farther along than Arnoldo, but they equal each other in fervency. (Come to think of it, Luis has the quirk of always translating the phrase “the word of God” as “Gospel,” going either way translationally. Now that I remember, he was doing this Sunday morning, too, when he translated for Pastor Jorge. FYI, that doesn’t count as his “first” translator time, because he was going from Spanish to English, not the other way around.)

Afterwards, we were invited to dinner at the host and hostess’s home, just the other side of the wall. Their names are Gregorio and Evalina, if I got them correctly. I knew our team back in San José had said that they would wait on going to dinner until I got back. It was a good thing Bobby had shared one of the Costa-Rica-team phones with me (a wise precaution, since I’m always the “sputnik” launched away from the main team body), so that I could call him and say, “Don’t wait for me; I’ve got another invite.” The dinner provided another half hour (at least! I lost track…) of fellowship with Virgilio, Kattia, and six other church members. Luis Diego was still working hard, even through dinner, but it was the lighter fare of banter, ribbing, “how I met my husband,” punning, and the like.

On the way back, we stopped in the nearby town of Grecia (Greece) at a panadería (bakery), still open after 21:00 and doing a brisk business. (Right. Like we needed dessert after that meal!) I was given two small queques (cakes, at least down here), small pastries with which to celebrate my 44th spiritual birthday. ¡Feliz cumpleaños a mi!

I mentioned the ride back (above), but didn’t mention topics discussed in the questions Virgilio was asking. (I am glad for the bilingual Bible, as it makes finding passages — in English — much easier, before reading them — en español.) The entire round-trip commute covered subjects ranging from predestination to “How long is a ‘generación’ in prophecy?” (And he had no clue about his namesake, the Roman poet Virgil, the author of the eternal classic The Aeneid, the story which follows the remnant who escaped from the sacking of Troy [the latter story told in Homer's Iliad] and their wandering until they founded the city of Rome.) But the topic of children’s sermons got top billing on the way back. The Lord kept giving me ideas from Scripture, like various “Bible kids” (e.g., tell the story of the loaves and fishes from the point of view [POV] of the boy who shared his lunch with Jesus), and even (where did this idea come from?!) telling stories from the POV of the animal involved (e.g., the donkey Jesus rode into Bethlehem, the dove released from Noah’s ark, the camel who brought Rebekah to Jacob, etc.). And my rendition of the song “Only a Boy Named David” (complete with pantomime) set even more wheels turning. Also, I had an opportunity to explain why were staying at this hotel. The long ride back was way too short…

…but this e-mail is not, and it’s now after 01:00 hours local (03:00 your time), so I need to sign off.

All my love,

Me

P.S.: I mentioned my bilingual NASB/LBLA real-leather Bible above. I know you and the girls gave it to me several years ago for Christmas. I have used it quite a bit, though it’s no worse for the wear. I bring this up because I believe the Lord wants me to give it to Pastora Cristina tomorrow evening. I didn’t want you to think that I was giving up a treasured keepsake because it means nothing; quite the opposite — while I’ll gladly give it away because the Lord says to, it’s not without a twinge of sacrifice and pain, both because of the sentimental value and its utility. But 2 Samuel 24:24. Just wanted you to know why it’s not coming home; but it will be going to a another good home.

Related Blog Post: Tale of the Tangled Translator

Breathe on Me, Breath of God!

King David, as depicted in stained glass

Even though I’m writing this as I sit here in Costa Rica, I wanted to point out that over at our FinestOfTheWheat.org site, there’s a “new” poem/hymn this month.  (We make it a habit to present a new hymn on the first of each month in our Powerful Poetry section over there.)

Drawing from John 20:22 and Ezekiel 37:5-6, lyricist Edwin Hatch offers up a poignant prayer for the infilling of the Holy Spirit.  See the full text on its own page at Breathe on Me, Breath of God.

Since yesterday was my 44th spiritual birthday, I feel duty-bound to offer a “bonus” poem, namely, Charles Wesley’s wonderful Hymn to Be Sung on the Anniversary of One’s Conversion.  It’s a long title, but a wonderful poem — and it contains a hymn you already know, if you keep reading…

From My 2012 Costa Rica Journal

Flag of Costa Rica

Dateline: Sunday, 29 July 2012, Los Guido, San José

Have you ever been so caught up in what God gave you to do that you almost missed what He was doing? Especially when what He was doing was right under your nose? I came close to falling into that trap on this fine Sunday morning. Aviso (Notice/Warning): My story may look like it’s developing into a finger-pointing criticism, but bear with me to the end and see (like I did) what God was really up to.

Ostensibly, my assignment was to preach at Iglesia Centro Misionero (Central Missionary Church), a congregation of several hundred on the edge of the very poor, violent, and crime-ridden Los Guido section of San José, Costa Rica. Many church members come from Los Guido backgrounds – gang members, drug dealers, pimps, and prostitutes (just the kind of people with whom Jesus was accused of “slumming” during His earthly ministry). The testimonies of God’s work in their lives are spell-binding.

I was certain (still am!) that the Lord had made the focus of this morning’s message very clear to me. He even impressed the passage on my heart several evenings ago. (I scribbled it on a pad of paper, in the dark so as not to disturb my roommate.) And I had been told that as my translator, I would have a young man who teaches English for a living. That young man’s name is Luis Diego, and he skillfully translated for Darrell and Mark and me in the privacy of the pastor’s office before the meeting began. I was muy contento (very satisfied) with the young man’s abilities. A skilled translator makes bridging the language barrier so much easier…

…but get teamed up with an untested translator of lesser skill, and you wind up with your own personal re-enactment of the Tower of Babel in real time before a live audience. (Trust me on this one. As of today, I write from sober experience.) At the very last minute, Pastor Jorge Fernández-Vargas pulled a switch and assigned as my translator one of my new Costa Rican friends, a pastor named Arnoldo. From numerous interactions with Arnoldo during last week’s pastors’ conference, this switch surprised me, because, while Arnoldo’s English seemed to be “good enough to get by” (certainly better than my Spanish!), it wasn’t even close to the antiphonal synergy required by the situation. (Admittedly, I’ve been spoiled by my favorite Spanish translators – Pastora Lilian de Chávez and Dr. Gladys de Chávez in Guatemala, and Jimmy Fernández-Arroyo here in Costa Rica.)

The message-translation delivery started out a bit bumpily and slowly deteriorated from there. Sometimes I would have to repeat a thing two or three times, simplifying, refining, paring down to the bare essential, sometimes scrubbing a phrase altogether and just moving on. Nothing excels the old cliché for describing the situation: “The message was lost in the translation.” Arnoldo was getting tangled mentally. Every mistake, every hesitation, every request for clarification reduced his confidence and increased his error rate and nervousness.

And then I realized – “The embodiment of my message is standing right next to me. His name is Arnoldo. This fellow isn’t nearly as fluent as he would love to be, has never translated before an audience (certainly not before an audience of several hundred listeners like this morning!), and HE HAS STAGE FRIGHT BIG TIME. In his mind, any hope he has of saving face was lost thirty minutes ago. He’s thrashing around like a drowning man going down for the third time.”

Now, I had been ministering from Acts 9 and Acts 22 about Ananias (Ananías) hearing God’s voice, and had covered (at least, I hope we did!) that hearing God’s voice accurately, and acting on His leading, is a matter of growth, experiencing success and failure (like falling while learning to walk). As we grow in Christ and learn by succeeding and failing, we get better at hearing. But we don’t grow much without taking action and stepping out in faith.

As an aside, I was told later that Arnoldo was asked at the very last minute by Pastor Jorge to translate for me. Despite Arnoldo’s pleas for mercy, Pastor had been insistent (you’ll learn why in Part 2), so Arnoldo submitted and stepped out in faith, though feeling completely inadequate for the task.

I put my arm around Arnoldo, faced the congregation, and said, “My friend Arnoldo here is an illustration of learning to hear God’s voice.”

[Translation.]

“You see how hard he is working and how difficult it is for him today.”

[Arnoldo translated without hesitation; this, at least, he clearly understood and felt with all his heart! Applause, the first during the sermon.]

I explained that translation was difficult and had many ups and downs. It was a learning process.

[Translation. More applause.]

“Arnoldo is showing us what it means to succeed and fail in hearing and interpreting God’s voice. Though it’s hard at first, He keeps on trying.”

[Translation. Louder applause.]

“In time, Arnoldo will be a very good translator, and it’s all because he took this first step today.”

[Translation. Loud, sustained applause.]

“If you’re willing to take a chance that you have heard God’s voice, refuse to be discouraged when you miss His leading. Take another chance, obey what you hear; you will grow in the same way that Arnoldo is growing today.”

[Translation.]

From the enthusiastic applause, it was clear the audience “got it.” At that point, Arnoldo’s morning was going way better than it had for the past hour.

I gathered the shards of “my” message, as best I could, into a humbly woven basket faintly resembling a conclusion. (Which is, of course, another way of saying that by then “the message” was a basket case, and maybe the Gringo preacher, too.) But it was clear to me by that point that ARNOLDO had been the real message. His incarnate communiqué was about faith and personal growth. It was a message to people who have had hard lives, people who feel they are of no value, people who expect to fail, people who have a hard time “looking up.” Yes, they have experienced amazing transformations as they have surrendered their lives to Jesus Christ. But a lifetime of marginalized existence leaves a lingering question in their hearts: “Can the Holy Spirit really lead and use me or anyone from Los Guido?” (“Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” – John 1:46) It’s harder to break out of a slum mindset and a lifetime of “programming” than most people realize. Now, they’ll remember Arnoldo – who lives within walking distance of the church and whom they see every Sunday morning – long after they forget everything I tried to say today. And when they see him, some of them will think, “Maybe I can hear God and He can use me, too.”

Today was the first time I ever preached this particular message which the Lord assigned me. Maybe the Lord will ask me to use it again in the future. Or maybe I’ll write it up sometime as an article on FinestOfTheWheat.org. But, hey, you know what? I heard the voice of God “loud and clear” in His sermon this morning….

Show Notes by Jim Kerwin for Kernels of Wheat Podcast
Episode 021 — Does God Hate Socks?

No, God doesn’t hate socks,
but He has been blessing our socks off lately!

Because it’s been so long since our last podcast in our continuing study through 1 John, I thought it would be appropriate to give our listeners a rundown (all-too-brief and incomplete) of my missions trip to Guatemala and my ministry trip to Iowa.  I’ve been busy — flying 3,800 miles round trip to Guatemala, driving 4,000 miles (Florida and Iowa) — and this week’s trip to Costa Rica (another 4,300 miles) hasn’t even begun (although all the teaching materials are ready and delivered).

The last few months have become a kaleidoscope of memories:

• working hard at improving my limited Spanish
• teaching a small group of precious believers in a home lit by two bare bulbs hanging from the ceiling
• preaching at a church anniversary, and later the same day sharing the Gospel and seeing a rescued woman take her final step to public declaration of faith in Jesus when the invitation was given
• working in harness with my translators, Dr. Gladys de Chávez, Jorge Torres, and Pastor Lilian de Chávez (many thanks to them for their labor of love)
• Sharing precious times of fellowship around family meal tables (which also serve as homework centers and the household Internet nexus)
• Talking about the things of God with dedicated leaders like Atilio Chávez, Jorge Pérez, Fermin Chávez, and Jorge Cerritos (the latter of Iglesia Ciudad de Refugio [City of Refuge Church])
• Teaching forty active, hungry, eager pastors and an equal number of wives and up-and-coming church leaders
• Discovering that since my last visit the forty pastors have been committed to reading through the Bible yearly, cover to cover
• Seeing the impact of our Woman in the Kingdom of God series (perhaps our next podcast theme after we finish 1 John)
• The fun of introducing and modeling the concept of a “children’s sermon” during the normal Sunday-morning worship service
• Enjoying the gracious hospitality of two families and three churches
• Two long days of driving to Iowa, savoring the time to be quiet with the Lord, unwind, and reflect, and to prepare my heart for the coming week
• The ease with which the Lord helped me to focus “Isaiah Reid’s” nightly homilies on the subject of heart purity, and the favor the Lord gave those messages with the audience (the videos of which should be posted over the next few months)
• The late nights of fellowship, mostly outdoors in unbelievably perfect Iowa weather, with some of the loveliest saints this side of  heaven — Evangelist Hal Daigre, Cyril and Jan McKay and their family, Kevin and Esther Brown, Dr. Philip Speas, Rev. & Mrs. Don Thurman

I could go on at length, but I’m pinched for time.  In three days I board a plane for Costa Rica, another missions trip for teaching pastors.  After that — more ministry in northern Virginia, a trip to Romania in October (nearly 10,000 more miles, teaching more pastors!), and suddenly there’s the possibility of a December trip to India (another 18,000 miles, many more pastors!) on the horizon.  Thanks for praying, caring, giving, and listening!

Related Blogs:

• Guatemala Diary, Day #1 — Arrival Day
• Guatemala Diary, Day #2 — Mother’s Day Comes Early
• Guatemala Diary, Day #3 — A Day of Three Oportunidades
• Guatemala Diary, Days #4 & 5 — What a Weekend!

Next Episode:

Depending on events in Costa Rica, I may come back with an interview or two.  I’d love for you to hear the hearts of these servants of God!

Feedback

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More teaching by Jim Kerwin and others can be found on the Finest of the Wheat website.

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Show Notes for Grains from Gutteridge Podcast
Episode #11: The Ministries of John and Jesus

Gustav Doré’s rendering of the Baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist.
(Click on the image for a larger view.)

Summary:

Consider the days mentioned in John 1 & 2. “The third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee” (John 2:1); but what about the other two days? Trace back each following day to the first mentioned, John 1:19, and you find that the third day is actually the fifth. But how and why?

For that matter, how did the miracle at the wedding reveal Christ’s glory? How is Nathanael a key figure in the revelation?  All this and more are made clear in this interesting and original approach to the beginning of John’s Gospel.

[Note: There is some faint back-chatter in the audio, which was inherited from the archival master cassette.  Apparently, the original recording was made to a re-used tape which had not been completely erased.  Nevertheless, we're thankful to be able to offer this message despite this audio imperfection.]

Other Scripture Passages Cited:

Poems & Choruses Quoted:

• Indifference or When Jesus Came to Golgotha by Geoffrey Studdert-Kennedy
• I’ve Got the New Wine in My Soul– Editor’s note: Unable to find the lyrics of this chorus online, let alone a clear attribution, I’m going to go out on a limb and state from memory:
  • The song was performed by (and probably written by) Roy Turner and the Cameron Family
  • The lyrics are as follows:

• The last time I heard this played, it was a from an Cameron Family LP record at the home of John, Bettie, and Gail Tyler (now Yundt).  This song, and many other revival choruses, have been reissued on Roy Turner and the Camerons (CD 1).  (The reason I can write the lyrics from memory is that this and many other songs from that album are still “singing me” after forty years.)

More Teaching by Percy Gutteridge:

Other free audio messages by Pastor Gutteridge are available on an audio directory on his Finest of the Wheat page, while a growing collection of his books and pamphlets, and message transcriptions, is available on a similar directory on the same page.

We thank Fellowship member Brian Fettes for providing the digitization of the original cassette tape through the services of Audioanalogy Musicworks of Canada.

Subscribe to the Grains from Gutteridge monthly podcast: