Sun, 27 May 2012 16:21:28 -0800WeeblyThu, 10 May 2012 07:36:17 -0800http://www.uticabc.com/1/post/2012/05/happy-mothers-day.htmlDr. Tony Campolo is a well-known inspirational speaker. While he has traveled around the world on speaking tours, his wife, Peggy, has stayed home and dedicated herself to the raising of their two children.

On occasion, Peggy does travel with Tony. And she has been in the company of some of the most sophisticated people in the world--people with long lists of accomplishments.

　 Being in conversations with some of these people has made Peggy feel intimidated--even to the point of questioning her own self-worth. After all, she was just a stay-at-home mother and housewife. Tony told her, "Well, honey, why don't you come up with something you could say when you meet people that will let them know that you strongly value what you do and you feel that it is dramatically, urgent and crucial and important."

　 Soon after, Tony and Peggy were at a party, when a woman said to Peggy in a rather condescending tone, "Well, my dear, what do you do?" Peggy was ready with an answer:

　 "I am nurturing two Homo Sapiens into the dominant values of the Judaeo-Christian tradition in order that they might become instruments for the transformation of the social order into the kind of eschatological utopia God envisioned from the beginning of time."

　 And the other woman said, "Oh my, I'm just a lawyer."

Today we say "Happy Mother's Day" to all our moms. You may actually be a lawyer, or a doctor, or a teacher or almost anything else. But the most important job you could ever have is that of being a mother. We thank God today--and everyday--for your love and encouragement that has sustained us through some dark days. We praise God for your holy lives and unwavering faith that have provided godly examples for all of us. And we quietly reflect on your lives which have led us down narrow paths.

Many of us only have memories of our Mothers. Those of you who have a Mom still with you, be sure to go see her today. Or if she lives too far away, pick up the phone and call her. It requires so little of your time and will mean so much to her.
--Rocky Henriques, www.uticabc.com
]]>Thu, 10 May 2012 07:33:03 -0800http://www.uticabc.com/1/post/2012/05/when-the-bottom-falls-out.html  A teenage girl was walking on a sidewalk in Xi'an, the capital of China's northwest Shaanxi Province, talking on a cell phone, minding her own business--and fell through the sidewalk. She didn't stop falling until she hit the bottom eighteen feet below.

         It happened March 25, 2012. The incident was captured on a surveillance camera and replayed over and over on television. The video also recorded a passing cab driver stopping to help her.

         But since the cabby couldn’t reach her, he jumped in the hole himself to stay with her–a perfect stranger–and comfort her until firefighters arrived with a ladder. She had a few bumps and bruises, but otherwise was okay. Local media reported the road surface in the area had been eroded by underground water.

         So what do you do when the bottom falls out from under you? The slender girl wasn’t doing anything wrong, wasn't jumping up and down on the sidewalk, and didn’t do anything to deserve what happened to her. It was a normal day for her—until the bottom fell out.

Often in our own lives we may be hit with circumstances so it feels that the bottom has literally fallen out of our lives. We're doing everything just the way we're supposed to, minding our own business, trying to live a good life and be kind to others. We attend worship regularly, pray, read our Bibles, give generously, and even tell a few friends about our faith in Christ--all the things a "good" Christian is supposed to do.

But even with all that, sometimes the bottom falls out from under us anyway.

Thank God for those who run to our aid! Thank God for friends and family who jump down in the hole with us to comfort us until the situation improves, the wounds heal or some other type of help arrives.

But it also happens that sometimes we're the cab driver. Sometimes God puts someone in our path who needs some comfort and assurance, someone to pray with them and hold their hand. Will you be the one who gets involved, the one who runs to the aid of others? Perhaps you are the one who should jump down into the hole with someone else, providing comfort and strength and whatever assistance you are able.

That's the point Paul was trying to make in 2 Corinthians. God comforts us so we can provide that same comfort to others who are in need of it. As we move through our days let's keep our eyes open for those who need our help--even if they're perfect strangers. 

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God” (2 Corinthians 1:3-4, NIV).
--Rocky Henriques, www.uticabc.com

]]>Thu, 26 Apr 2012 07:34:26 -0800http://www.uticabc.com/1/post/2012/04/how-birds-got-their-wings.htmlThere is a story about how birds got their wings. It's only a legend, of course, but it does serve to show us an important truth to remember when it seems that life is falling in.

The story is that birds were first made without wings. Then God made the wings, put them in front of the wingless birds, and said to them, "Come, take up these burdens and bear them." The birds hesitated at first, but soon obeyed and picked up the wings in their beaks.

But because the wings were too heavy, the birds soon laid them on their shoulders. To their amazement, the wings began to grow and attach themselves to their bodies. They discovered how to use their new wings, and were soon soaring through the air. What had once been a heavy burden now became an instrument that enabled the birds to soar and go where they could never go before.

We are like wingless birds. Sometimes the very things that seem like burdens and trials to us, often become the very means God uses to lift us up and build godliness in us. When life falls in, we can turn to Him and realize that He knows exactly what is happening, and that He has allowed it for a very specific purpose.

Remember the words of James: "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything" (James 1:2-4).

--Rocky Henriques, www.uticabc.com]]>Tue, 27 Mar 2012 09:45:31 -0800http://www.uticabc.com/1/post/2012/03/intersections.htmlThere are all kinds of lines in our world. Property lines. Goal lines. Power lines. State lines. There’s the bottom line, the line of fire, the scrimmage line, the skyline, the punch line. Added to those are deadlines, laugh lines, and imaginary lines, and of course, waistlines.

But there are a couple of other lines which are very, very important: the two lines which form the shape of a cross. For just a moment, think of the point where the two lines of the cross intersect. Imagine yourself walking or driving along a lonely country road, when suddenly you see you are approaching an intersection. That’s the place where you have to choose. Am I going straight ahead? Shall I go right or left? Perhaps you are standing at an intersection right now. It’s the point where Almighty God is presenting you with a choice, and you realize you must go one way or the other.

The way in which we sometimes perceive our lives could be compared to parallel lines. The thing about two parallel lines is that both ends of the lines are exactly the same distance apart. If you could extend the lines on out into infinity, those two lines would still be the same distance apart, and they would never meet. Sometimes we think that our lives are running parallel to God--that we can maintain the same distance between ourselves and God, and He’ll never intersect with our lives, never bother us.

There’s a funny thing about parallel lines, though. No matter how parallel they may appear, if they are off even just a tiny, tiny bit, somewhere out in infinity those lines will come closer and closer to each other until they intersect.

If our lives appear to us be parallel lines, it’s only an optical illusion. Somewhere out there in infinity, or eternity, is that spot where those two lines intersect. That’s the place where God intersects with our lives.

That place is the Cross of Christ. It is the place of decision. Your decision. My decision.

I asked you a moment ago to think of that point where the two lines of the cross intersect. Picture that area of the cross in your mind. Then, in your mind, visualize Jesus hanging there dying for our sins. See the portion of Jesus’ body which would be covering the intersection of the two lines of the cross. Which portion of His body is it? His knee? His head? His feet?

No, none of those. It is that part of His body containing His heart. The point at which God intersects with our lives is the very point where Jesus gave His broken heart in payment for our sins.

So underline this. Here’s the bottom line. Make a bee-line for the Cross, before the deadline comes, and you find yourself standing in line for judgment before the Throne of God. Ultimately, the measuring line God will use for judgment has nothing to do with who you are, who you know, what you’ve done or what you own.

It has everything to do with what you’ve done with Jesus.

--Rocky Henriques

]]>Tue, 27 Mar 2012 09:21:26 -0800http://www.uticabc.com/1/post/2012/03/why-go-to-church.html  Emma Major is a lay minister in Great Britain. She maintains a blog on the internet, on which she recently wrote that people frequently ask her whether it matters if they go to church every Sunday.

She wrote, "I always tell them that coming to church is a fantastic opportunity to meet with God, connect with your church family and thank God for all your blessings; but I also tell them that God does not require us to come to church at all. God loves us as we are, in our crazy busy lives and with all our responsibilities and obligations and activities.  He loves it when we find time to spend with Him but that doesn't need a church.  I know God loves that we come together as the church to worship God and support each other, but the church is a gift from God to us, not something we have to feel obligated towards.

Well, you know I had to respond! This is what I wrote:

I understand your belief that God is smiling on you--and He is. But try using this same excuse with an employer: "Well, I didn't come in to work today because I just HAD to get these other things done." Or "You know, I realize you expected me to be on time for work today but it was such a pretty day I thought I would take the family to the lake."

It comes down to priorities. There are indeed people who attend church services each and every Sunday, not because they fear God will strike them with lightning, and not because they don't have other things to do. They attend because they have made it a priority--sort of an appointment with God that they will always keep, similar to the way you would keep an appointment with your doctor. It's on the calendar, the time is set, and other things have to wait--even if it's a pretty day or there's company coming over.

This is not intended to reflect on you or your beliefs. The people I know who attend church regularly do so because they love the fellowship, teaching and study, the prayer and music, the growth opportunities, the strength and encouragement, and because they dearly love God and His people. They eagerly look forward to being at God's House on the Lord's Day for worship, and sincerely grieve when they cannot be there.

I heard of an old man who was almost completely deaf, but who showed up for worship every Sunday. He could not hear a single word of what was said. Someone asked him why he even bothered, since he couldn't hear anything. His reply was "I want everyone to know which side I'm on."

So it comes down to this: I attend church services regularly because I need to. Yes, it may be a crutch, but we're all limping. And I want there to be no mistake whatsoever which side I'm on. I want those who watch my life and witness to know that I am a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, and that I am a soldier reporting for duty.

--Rocky Henriques, www.uticabc.com ]]>Tue, 27 Mar 2012 09:16:13 -0800http://www.uticabc.com/1/post/2012/03/he-sometimes-says-no.html  "Wait for the Lord, and He will deliver you." (Proverbs 20:22b)

Have you ever had God say "No" to one of  your most fervent prayers?

Ultimately, we must acknowledge that God has a purpose in allowing His children to suffer, even if we do not or cannot know what that purpose is. Elisabeth Elliot once wrote, "Let us never forget tht some of God's greatest mercies are His refusals. He says no in order that He may, in some way we cannot imagine, say yes. All His ways are merciful. His meaning is always love."

One unknown poet expressed it this way:
Humbly I asked of God to give me joy,
To crown my life with blossoms of delight:
I begged for happiness without alloy,
Discovering that my pathway should be bright.
Prayerfully I sought out these blessings to attain
And now I thank Him that He gave me pain,
For with my pain and sorrow came to me
A dower of tenderness in act and thought,
And with the suffering came a sympathy
And insight that success had never brought
Father, I had been foolish and unblest
If Thou hadst granted me my blind request.

Take a good look at those lines again. Then fall on your knees and thank God that sometimes He says "No."

--Rocky Henriques, www.uticabc.com

]]>Thu, 01 Mar 2012 10:49:57 -0800http://www.uticabc.com/1/post/2012/03/shout-gate-christians.html  There are many people alive in our day whose experience with God is mostly, if not entirely, second-hand. All they know about God is what someone else has told them. They are living off the spiritual experience of others, never really knowing for themselves the joy and peace of living with Christ. They allow others to spoon-feed them when it comes to spiritual things.

In some rodeo circuits there are those known as "shout-gate cowboys." They are nothing more than spectators who sit on the gate and offer an unceasing barrage of advice and criticism to those who participate in the rodeo. What makes this rather amusing is that these shout-gate cowboys wear the jeans, the boots and the hats, perhaps chew the tobacco and speak the language of the rodeo--but many of them have never even ridden a horse. Their entire knowledge of the rodeo is second-hand in the sense that it is something they have watched, but in which they have never participated.

Shout-gate Christians will never be in a position to see the wonder of holy ground. They are unaware of the awesomeness and majesty of Holy God, because their experience of Him is only second-hand. They may wear the costume, speak the language and even fool a lot of people with their apparent spirituality. But they've never "ridden a horse"--they've never experienced the power of the Risen Christ for themselves. They don't know what it means to walk with Christ in a victorious life, with full assurance of their salvation and peace with God.

So let me ask you: is it time for you to get off the fence and start walking and talking with Jesus?

--Rocky Henriques, www.uticabc.com ]]>Thu, 16 Feb 2012 08:48:05 -0800http://www.uticabc.com/1/post/2012/02/let-it-begin-in-me.html  One recent Wednesday night I asked those present. "When is the Revival beginning?" The answer was "Sunday!" Then I corrected myself and said, "I should have said, 'When are the Revival services beginning?' " Then I explained that simply having a Revival scheduled on the calendar does not mean that a revival will actually take place. I've seen churches just go through the motions: we met at the church building every night for a specified number of nights, listened to wonderful music from a choir and a guest music evangelist, then heard an inspired sermon from a guest preacher. It was all good and we left feeling wonderful.

But revival--a real spiritual awakening--did not occur. How do I know? Because when the services ended, everything went back to exactly the way it was before. The burdens we had for our own sin disappeared. Our zeal for the lost faded. Our commitments to serve and love the Lord and Him only vanished. So while we had great "services" the actual Revival was no where to be found.

Don't get me wrong. Having revival services can certainly spark that great movement of God among us so that we make recommitments to the Lord, see people saved, marriages restored, and  relationships healed. We pray for those kinds of things to happen this week.

Billy Graham once said, "When revival comes, I expect to see two things: first, a new sense of the holiness of God on the part of the Christians; and second, a new sense of the sinfulness of sin on the part of Christians."

So how do we have a revival? R. A. Torrey prescribed this: "First, let a few Christians (there need not be many) get thoroughly right with God themselves. Second, let them bind themselves together in a prayer group to pray for revival until God opens the heavens and comes down. Third, let them put themselves at the disposal of God for Him to use as He sees fit in winning others to Christ. That is all. I have given this prescription around the world, and in no instance has it ever failed and it cannot fail."

It begins with me. And you. Evangelist Gypsy Smith was once asked how to start a revival. His answer: "Go home, lock yourself in your room. Kneel down in the middle of the floor. Draw a chalk mark all around yourself and ask God to start the revival inside the chalk mark. When He answers your prayer, the revival will be on."

We anticipate some anointed, inspired and inspiring music and preaching this week! But Bro. Joe and Bro. Slater didn't bring revival with them in their suitcases. If revival actually comes to Utica Baptist Church this week, it will be because you and I have repented of sin and sought the Face of God. "Lord, send a revival--and let it begin in me!"
--Rocky Henriques, www.uticabc.com
]]>Thu, 16 Feb 2012 08:46:27 -0800http://www.uticabc.com/1/post/2012/02/solitude.html  Josh Billings called it "a good place to visit, but a poor place to stay." Jean de La Bruyere stated that it was a "great misfortune…to be incapable of solitude." Carl Sandburg figured that we have not cultivated the habit of solitude because we are afraid of being alone:

"Shakespeare, Leonardo da Vinci, Benjamin Franklin, and Lincoln never saw a movie, heard a radio, or looked at a TV. They had 'loneliness' and knew what to do with it. They were not afraid of being lonely because they knew that was when the creative mood in them would mark."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer sensed a certain value of solitude when he wrote, "It is as though in solitude the soul develops senses which we hardly know in everyday life."

It is important to understand that there is a vast difference between being lonely and being alone. It is also important to distinguish between being alone with God in solitude, and merely being alone.

The man or woman of God thrives on the times when he or she can be alone with God, just being still and quiet before Him.

Robert H. Benson once wrote, "It is in silence that God is known, and through mysteries that He declares Himself."

Our idea of solitude today is a few stolen moments while we are driving from one place to another, or five minutes with our feet propped up before the next thing on our schedule. But the Bible does not read, "Run frantically around, and know that I am God." Read it for yourself; it still says, "Be still and know that I am God" (Psalm 46:10).

But it does not happen automatically. Especially in our day, when there are so many distractions and responsibilities and expectations, we must deliberately carve out time to spend with Him.

--Rocky Henriques, www.uticabc.com

]]>Thu, 16 Feb 2012 08:45:08 -0800http://www.uticabc.com/1/post/2012/02/choose-one-chair.html  "But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 3:13)

Although the sun bombards the earth every hour with billions of kilowatts of energy, we can protect ourselves from most of its effects with a hat and sunscreen. On the other hand a laser can take just a few watts of energy, focus them in a coherent stream of light and drill a hole through a diamond.

The difference is focus. Tenor superstar Luciano Pavarotti learned the importance of focus from his father. The young Luciano became a pupil of a professional tenor in his hometown of Modena, Italy. At the same time, he enrolled in a teachers' college.

When he graduated, Luciano asked his father, "Shall I be a teacher or a singer?"

His father replied, "Luciano, if you try to sit on two chairs, you will fall between them. For life, you must choose one chair."

The same thought was expressed in a quote by an unknown author: "A man with two watches is never quite sure what time it is."

The now-famous Luciano Pavarotti wrote years later: "I think whether it's laying bricks, writing a book--whatever we choose--we should give ourselves to it. Commitment, that's the key. Choose one chair."

The same is true throughout all of life. Take living for Christ, for example. We cannot serve Christ and walk in the paths of the world. We cannot please both Christ and our own desires. It inevitably happens that when we try to do that, our hearts are drawn away from Him, because He will not share His Lordship with anything--or anyone.

So to paraphrase the elder Pavarotti, "Choose one passion." Will it be Christ, or something else?
--Rocky Henriques, www.uticabc.com
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