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Three Rivers family, I know I say this almost every month, but I can’t believe it is already June. Summer officially starts on June 20 and if you’re anything like me, you’re already dreading hot months in the Upstate, especially days when we have afternoon thunderstorms and, immediately after the storms finish, we hit 100% humidity while the streets steam from the moisture being burned off the pavement. Those are the “dog days of summer” indeed. Maybe the most difficult aspect of June, though, has come somewhat recently as the homosexual community has done everything in its power to designate June as “Pride Month.” Believe it or not, so-called celebrations of homosexuality started in 1970 as a result of the Stonewall Riots that took place in June, 1969 in New York City due to a police raid of the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in the city. Since 1970, though it seems much more prevalent lately, June has been set aside by our culture as a celebration of all things related to homosexuality. Retail stores, politicians, corporations, and cities across the US do everything they can to commemorate sexual perversion and, in effect, shove it in the face of those who do not, and would never, celebrate. I heard one cultural commentator raise a fascinating fact a few weeks ago as he was discussing “Pride Month.” He noted military members who die for the US get one day of celebration (Memorial Day). Those who served in the military get one day of celebration (Veteran’s Day). Those who have served as President of the United States get one day of celebration and share it with George Washington’s birthday (President’s Day). Mothers and fathers get one day each of celebration (Mother's and Father's Day). However, he concluded sarcastically, if you are homosexual, you get an entire month of celebration. Brothers and sisters, this type of wrong-headed celebration should not surprise us. In Romans 1:22-27, Paul declares the darkness of the sinful heart, something Puritan writer Ralph Venning terms the “sinfulness of sin.” In the early part of his letter to the Romans, Paul argues sin expresses itself in foolishness and foolishness expresses itself in, as 1:27-28 say, homosexuality. So, we should not be surprised that unbelievers want to celebrate unbelief. In fact, Scripture warns us of this very thing and has since the days of Genesis 3. Let us then, as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ and as proclaimers of his message of faith, repentance, grace, and mercy, be those who do not celebrate sin in any form or fashion but actively proclaim the gospel to all around us. Only the gospel can change minds. Only the gospel can save and change hearts. May we be a people of the gospel. One other thing to note in June is to give a huge “thank you” to our Disaster Relief volunteers. The Southern Baptist Convention sets aside a number of Sundays each year (sbc.net/calendar) as special recognition days for various ministry efforts and Sunday, June 1 was set aside as Disaster Relief day. If you missed June 1 as Disaster Relief recognition Sunday, it’s never too late to thank volunteers in your church and/or pray for volunteers across the SBC. You are all aware of SBC Disaster Relief and the incredible ministry they provide when people are at likely the lowest point of their lives. You may not know SBC Disaster Relief is the third largest relief organization in the United States, sitting behind only the American Red Cross and Salvation Army. Southern Baptists assuredly have a huge presence across the United States when disasters strike. You may or may not be aware, but because of the generosity of every church in Three Rivers, our Association Disaster Relief is the largest in South Carolina and we have the only heavy equipment units (skid steer and track lift) in the state. We are also about to add the only Mobile Command/Communications unit in South Carolina which will have the ability to provide command and control functionality, while being fully self-contained and self-reliant, anywhere we can place the trailer. That unit will also be able to provide charging stations for personal electronic devices and will give us an amazing footprint for gospel proclamation. Our own Three Rivers Baptist Association Disaster Relief volunteers are, without any doubt, the best volunteers in the SBC. Without volunteers to maintain and run all of our equipment, our Disaster Relief assets would be nothing more than incredibly large and heavy paperweights. I know I speak with no objectivity because I am extremely biased (and happily so), but our volunteers are in a class of their own. Ron Darnell, our Association Disaster Relief overall leader, volunteers his time weekly to make sure our equipment is maintained, pristine, organized, and ready to go at a moment’s notice. He also serves as our unit leader for both our chainsaw unit and our heavy equipment units. Jennifer McJunkin serves as our laundry unit leader and does a phenomenal job as well. Additionally, Jimmy Batson, Chad Cooper, and Steven Ragan are all trained as unit leaders and stand ready to take the lead if called to serve. Ron and Jennifer, alongside numerous volunteers, make our Three Rivers Disaster Relief team the best in South Carolina and, I would argue, the best in the SBC. I could not be more thankful for all of our Disaster Relief volunteers and am blessed by their talents and willingness to serve people at their lowest point and share the gospel message of Christ as they do so. If you have interest in being trained for Disaster Relief work, please let us know and we will get information to you for upcoming training events. We are always happy to add additional names to our team of incredible volunteers. Again, thank you to all of our Disaster Relief leaders and volunteers. Our Association’s ability to respond to natural disasters and proclaim the gospel would not be the same without you.
Our continuing look at 1 John brings us this month to a single verse: 1 John 4:16. John writes, “And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him.” So much has been written on this verse that it is difficult to know even where to begin. Notice the first thing John notes, specifically, are two aspects of God’s love that his children recognize: the knowledge of God’s love and the belief of God’s love. The knowledge of God’s love is really an amazing thing, isnt’ it? I remember the first time I heard, and understood, the message of the gospel as a young child. It was a powerful moment for me. Knowing that God loved me enough to put his own son to death on the cross on my behalf was more than moving. It was an eternal moment. But knowledge of God’s love doesn’t get you anywhere. Only belief in God’s love gets you into the Kingdom. Maybe some of you are like me. I heard about God’s love many, many times growing up: from my parents, my grandparents, my Sunday school teachers, my pastor, etc. I had knowledge, but I didn’t have belief. Once I placed faith in Christ, my knowledge of God’s love became personal. I knew and believed. But John goes on, and this is where the amount of ink spilled on this verse really hits home. He continues, “God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him.” When Scripture says God is love it doesn't mean he is primarily love and secondarily holy, merciful, wrathful, or gracious. In the same way when Scripture says God is holy, holy, holy, it does not mean he is primarily holy and secondarily love, etc. The attributes of God are all equal in God. He is 100% loving, 100% holy, 100% wrathful, 100% gracious, 100% merciful, etc. Thankfully, book after book after book has been written on God’s love. One of the best ones ever written is by D.A. Carson entitled The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God. In that book, Carson argues that God’s love may be the most difficult doctrine to understand in light of human sin. But friends, after belief we truly see how amazing God’s love really is and we are left speechless, indeed, in awe of God’s love for us and shown to us. To finish 1 John 4:16 (remaining in God’s love and God remaining in us), we can look to Philippians 1:6 for further explanation: “I am sure of this, that he who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” As Paul says, praise the Lord that God starts, holds, and completes our salvation, not us. May each of us work diligently to share the awe-inspiring, eternally significant love of God with all around us.
As we have been doing, please continue praying for each other (1 Thess 5:17) and for the other churches in our Association. I want to encourage you strongly to pray for each other, other pastors, and sister congregations in our area as we work together to encourage pastors and equip churches to engage lostness for the sake of fulfilling our part of the Great Commission. Lift each of these pastors and congregations to the Father, asking for His providential care for them and for His mercy and grace to work mightily through them.
ONeal, Greer, Joe Seay
Paris Mountain, Greenville, John Ferguson
Pebble Creek, Taylors, BJ Simpson
Pelham First, Greer, Patrick Clark
People’s, Greer, Mark Fowler (interim)
Pleasant Grove, Greer, Todd Johnson
Pleasant Hill, Greer, Rick Schubert
Randall House, Greer, Paul Dean
Reedy River, Greenville, Josh Slatten
Reidville First, Reidville, Ricci Allen My prayer for you for June is the same as always. May the Lord grant each of us opportunities to share the message of Christ with unbelievers and disciple believers in the message of Christ. As an association of churches, we partner together for the sake of encouraging and equipping each other in order to engage lostness for the sake of fulfilling our part of the Great Commission (Matt 28:18-20).
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