Go Your Way

old man on the beach
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Memorial Baptist Church, Beckley, WV,

By Mark Harris, MD, MPH, MBA, MDiv, ThM, PhD, DBA

Wildwood Cemetery Resurrection Service

Brass Prelude – Trombone and Horn in F, Christ the Lord is Risen Today.

Congregational singing – Up from the Grave He Arose

Read Daniel 12:8-13

The Story

An old man sat on a rock by a river and said to himself, “The superpower is dead.”

“More than 70 years ago, the mightiest nation in the land destroyed my tiny country. Then they moved me hundreds of miles away from my homeland,” the old man remembered.

Now, that superpower was destroyed, hacked to pieces by an enemy younger and more vicious than itself. The old man had seen great and terrifying things in his years.

He knew that his death was near, so he asked God, the One he had served so faithfully for so many years, what would happen in the future.

“Go your way,” came the divine reply. “You are not to know what will happen after you.”

“Many will suffer, but I will purify and refine them through their suffering”, says the Lord.

“The wicked will not cease their wickedness, and they will not understand what I am doing. Worship as you know it will end, and terrible times will come,” the Lord concluded.

But the Old Man knew that he would not live to see it. God repeated His command.

“Go your way to your end. Then you will sleep with your fathers and rise again into eternal life. You will receive what God has allotted for you…forever.”

The Application in Our Lives

The Lord calls us to do the same thing.  Our world seems more unstable than the old man’s world. But we know what the old man did not. Jesus Christ rose from the dead. He has secured our future, both in this life and the next.

We can ask God about anything, but we should not always expect an answer. What we need to know is Christ. God commands us to follow Him and go your way.

We serve Him, we love Him, we worship Him, and we enjoy Him.

God says to us…Go your way, and you will rise again in Christ and receive the portion allotted to you in eternity.

Go your way.

Prayer

 

Up From the Grave He Arose                  Robert Lowry, 1874 [Key: F]

Verse 1
Low in the grave He lay,
Jesus my Savior,
Waiting the coming day,
Jesus my Lord!

Chorus
Up from the grave He arose,
With a mighty triumph o’er His foes,
He arose a Victor from the dark domain,
And He lives forever,
With His saints to reign.
He arose! He arose!
Hallelujah! Christ arose!

Verse 2
Vainly they watch His bed,
Jesus my Savior;
Vainly they seal the dead,
Jesus my Lord!

Chorus
Up from the grave He arose,
With a mighty triumph o’er His foes,
He arose a Victor from the dark domain,
And He lives forever,
With His saints to reign.
He arose! He arose!
Hallelujah! Christ arose!

Verse 3
Death cannot keep its Prey,
Jesus my Savior;
He tore the bars away,
Jesus my Lord!

Chorus
Up from the grave He arose,
With a mighty triumph o’er His foes,
He arose a Victor from the dark domain,
And He lives forever,
With His saints to reign.
He arose! He arose!
Hallelujah! Christ arose!

 

 

Defending Taiwan

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The world in 2025 is a bigger geopolitical mess than it was in 1914. Taiwan, Ukraine, and Israel are developed states at the epicenter of life-or-death struggles.[1] After a recent visit to Taiwan, this article describes a way, and quite probably the only way, for Taiwan to survive as an independent nation if China invades.

By Mark D. Harris, MD, MPH, MBA, MDiv, ThM, PhD, DBA

Chiang Kai Shek (1887-1975) fled mainland China and moved his nationalists, the Kuomintang (KMT), to Taiwan after their defeat by the communists under Mao Tse Dung (1893-1976) in 1949. Since that year, the Communists ruling mainland China have declared that Taiwan is a renegade province and they will take it back by any means possible, including war.[2]  Every modern Chinese ruler, including the current autocrat Xi Jin Ping, has reaffirmed this intention.[3]

A pre-invasion scenario

Chinese paramilitary “fishing boats”, coast guard ships, and naval vessels encircle Taiwan under the guise of military exercises, law enforcement, or humanitarian actions. These boats partially disrupt Taiwanese imports and exports. Then they leave, having learned valuable lessons and helped lull Taiwanese defenders and politicians into a sleepy acquiescence, like a frog in warming water. Chinese aircraft from bases such as Longtian (in Fujian) harass Taiwanese responding forces. Cyber attackers, space forces, special forces, and others engage. Much of this is happening today. By not firing the first shot, the Chinese undercut nations that may oppose them. If no one physically challenged the blockade, Taiwan would slowly be strangled to death.

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Why Did Jesus Choose So Many Fishermen to be His Disciples?

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Jesus chose twelve disciples for His earthly ministry. Of all the things that He could have done and all the people He could have taught, Jesus spent the lion’s share of His life discipling these men. After His resurrection, Jesus entrusted them to carry His message to the world. At least four of His disciples were fishermen. Did their profession, which God gave them, have anything to do with their selection?

By Mark D. Harris, MD, MPH, MBA, MDiv, ThM, PhD, DBA

Whether from church, work, or other sources, we at the MDHI get many questions on a variety of topics. Earlier this month, a reader wrote about a question about Jesus’ disciples that he and his brother had discussed, “why were 1/3 of the disciples fishermen by trade?” Given the fact that most people in Israel engaged in agriculture at the time, the query is valid. While we cannot know for sure, as the Bible does not directly tell us, we can derive a reasonable answer. First, we require a summary of Israelite society in the first century.

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Preparing the Preacher

a man talking on a microphone while holding a bible
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The nature of man is to be part of a group rather than just an individual. As such, human nature is to communicate. Tomes have been written on proclaiming Christ through our sermons, but less on proclaiming Christ through our person. This article describes how to prepare the preacher to preach most powerfully.

By Mark D. Harris, MD, MPH, MBA, MDiv, ThM, PhD, DBA

Any man who has stood behind a pulpit in front of a group of God’s people has felt the yearning to be a perfect preacher. In our weaker moments, that yearning may be caused by the preacher’s desire for the listeners’ acclaim. In our stronger moments, that yearning may be caused by the preacher’s passion for his Lord, and a desperation to lead others to share that passion. But God does not honor His followers when they do not honor Him, so to be a powerful preacher, one must be a powerful Christian.

The thoughts of other preachers over the centuries can be useful in our spiritual preparation to preach today. My thanks to Colin S. Smith for compiling many of these quotations for the Basics Conference in May 2003.

Philips Brooks (Lectures in Preaching, p 5), said “Preaching is the bringing of truth through personality”

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The Red Heifer and the End Times

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Many people point to the sacrifice of the red heifer, detailed in Numbers 19, as a key sign of the end times, the rebuilding of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem, and the return of Christ. But the Temple Mount, the site of the Temple is currently occupied by the Al Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, considered the third most holy place in Islam. There is no room for both.

By Mark D. Harris, MD, MPH, MBA, MDiv, ThM, PhD, DBA

Many Christians are concerned about or fascinated by the end times, which in the Bible is the time when Jesus Christ comes back to earth to perform the last judgment and usher in His final kingdom. For Muslims and Jews, the end times also involve the final judgment (the Day of the Lord) and the restoration of all things. Traditions about sacrificing cattle to usher in prosperity now and the end times to come exist in many cultures. In ancient Chinese religion, the emperor sacrificed a bull in an annual ceremony in the Temple of Heaven to give man the blessing of Shang Di, the creator god.[1]

This article will look at the red heifer ceremony from the perspective of the Christian Bible. In the Old Testament, Isaiah 2:12, Joel 2:31, Amos 5:18-20, Zephaniah 1:8, and Daniel 12:12 mention the Day of the Lord. In the New Testament, Matthew 24:29-31, Acts 2:20, 2 Corinthians 1:14, and 2 Peter 3:8-10 expand on the earlier revelation.

Continue reading “The Red Heifer and the End Times” →