Mike Kelly

Posted on by kevinjandt

MikeKelly2

Before I began blogging I would consistently send out messages to friends and family via email that I had either written or read.  When I started blogging that became my primary medium of communication, although I do occasionally send out specific messages, I primarily now reach out through Uncommon Faith.

For those of you that don’t know me personally, I’ve never spoke about my profession on this blog, although I may have referenced a business trip I’ve never shared that I don’t blog for a living (sarcasm with a grin).  I enjoy my work for the most part; it continues to be the place the Lord has placed me for now.  Someday I believe there is something different coming, something I hope is centered on building His kingdom and not my own, but for now I do my best to write my blog and share the gospel whenever I can.

I have an unusual profession.  I own an event timing business along with two business partners.  We provide timing services primarily to running events such as marathons and other distance road races.  Along with triathlons and any other events that would require participants to be timed.  We are busy and by any standard the world sets we are successful.   For the past four years I’ve timed the marathon that occurs the first weekend in March in Little Rock Arkansas.  A man named Mike Kelly died while running the race last year and I thought it was important to write something about it.  Below is the email I sent out to a group of people that had worked with me at the event and probably some others I was hoping to minister to at the time.

I thought it would be interesting to share that.

————-

Friends,

This past Sunday at the Little Rock Marathon a man died while running, he was 37 years old.  I’ve been at several events where people have died and it effects me more each and every time.

I was grieving for this man today as I thought about his death but I also have hope.  I don’t know this man, interestingly enough unbeknownst to me at the time I saw his wife finish the race.  It stuck out at me because they called out her name “Ebony” as she finished and as I read about him today I now know that was his wife.

Here is an excerpt of the statement from the church he was a member.

“It is with heavy hearts that the people of Mosaic Church of Central Arkansas acknowledge the passing of our dear brother, Mike Kelly. Together with his wife, Ebony, Mike was a vibrant member of our community of faith who joyfully lent his time and talent to advancing our collective vision of seeing diverse people walk, work and worship God together as one. Through the years we have had the privilege of seeing Mike embrace God through faith in Jesus Christ, watching him grow as one with us, and uniting he and Ebony in marriage.”

I don’t know if he was a believer in Jesus Christ but I have hope through the testimony of his friends and leaders of his church.  I prayed for him and for his family and more importantly I prayed for a lost and dying world.  I’m overcome with grief that those we love will perish in their sins.  I can only do what I can do but God is glorified in all this and I hope I can bring Him glory as He deserves through the proclamation of the Gospel.

I hope today we take some time and consider our own lives (me included and especially).  The Apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 13:5-6 Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith,  Test yourselves.  Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? Unless indeed you are disqualified, But I trust that you will know that we are not disqualified.

How should we do this?  We must see if our lives line up to God’s will as the Bible lays out its clear instructions.  That’s God’s standard for our lives and when we fall short of the mark (sin) we must repent and turn from it.  Life is short and we have one opportunity to submit to Christ’s Lordship.

Grace and Peace

Kevin

————-

Mike Kelly is no different from any of us.  The Lord just had a purpose for ending his life, and we won’t know that reason while here on earth.  Without God’s redemptive work in our lives we are only a heartbeat away from eternal separation from God (Hell).  I hope that’s a sobering thought.

The next installment of a Sure Guide to Heaven will be my focus for this coming Friday, as we explore the Necessity of Conversion.

Iniquities of the father

Posted on by kevinjandt

Exodus 20:4-6 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image-any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them.  For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

sins of fathers

The second commandment seems pretty straightforward.  Don’t worship anything other than God.  Most of us don’t carve images, place them on our fireplace mantles and bow down to them anymore.  Of course we get that some of the eastern religions still do this sort of thing and we even understand that is a clear violation of the second commandment.  Very few Christians will debate that.

But I find it very fascinating and somewhat confusing what God meant in the second half of this commandment.  What an odd thing where He tells us He’s going to visit the iniquities of the father on the children.  What in the world does this mean?  Have you ever considered this?  It’s so easy to gloss over in our desire to not really deal with it.  It’s kind of frightening really.

That doesn’t sound like a loving God?  What kind of a twisted being would hold innocent children responsible for what the fathers have done?

I was flying recently on a business trip and a man and his son were sitting in front of me.  The flight attendant asked where they were going.  The father proudly declared it was his sons twenty-first birthday and they were on their way to Las Vegas.  Everyone around me chirped in with an “oh” or an “ah”, “oh happy birthday”, how fun to go to Vegas.  Then she proceeded to discuss the free alcohol they would provide for his birthday on the plane.  My heart was grieved as I considered this is the standard the world deems fun and exciting and worthy of celebration; a father bonding with his son.

Now I suppose this father and son duo could be headed to Vegas to stand on a corner, to preach the gospel and hand out tracts but I didn’t gather that from the responses and the subsequent conversations that ensued.

Do you see the point I’m making about Exodus 20 verse 5.  Perhaps this man’s father took him to Vegas for his twenty-first birthday, and now this son will probably take his son and so on and so on.  If God has mercy on someone in this familial line, perhaps the gospel will be preached and souls will be saved otherwise the father’s iniquities are being visited upon the next generations.  God didn’t specifically do it to this man, He just allows them to go their own way (Romans 1:28).

This man hates God, although he may not think that he does.  Scripture tells us this very plainly, because you don’t take a son to Vegas for gambling and drinking and who knows what else without hating God.   Ephesians 6:4 And you fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.

Fathers, may God have mercy if we love Him and keep His commandments.

Kevin

A Sure Guide to Heaven – Part 2 – Mistakes about conversion

Posted on by kevinjandt

arlington-cemetery-615

This is a very sobering and humbling article to write, as I think about my own life and the lives of so many that are dear to me.  I think of those that I believe have truly been converted.  I marvel at God’s work and how He is the author of salvation.  He does the work … according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace… (Ephesians 1:5-6).

I also consider those, just like I once was that are deceived in their conversion and have a false hope.  They don’t know they have a false hope; they are comfortable in their “christianity” and you can’t convince them otherwise because they are blinded with pride.  They’ve been “good”, they’ve been moral, they’ve gone to church, they know the right people, and they have been properly set up to believe in their hope.  Yet if you were able to really dig deep and really examine the claims closely you would get a troubling picture that may actually challenge their lives, yet they won’t allow it.

It is my earnest prayer, and desire that those of us that are truly regenerated, and are new creations in Christ can lovingly call those to examine their lives by the truth of God’s Word and these powerful words penned over four centuries ago will have an impact on us today, as it has for centuries.  It will awaken those out of their slumber, it will turn off this cruise control “christianity” that so many have become accustomed to and the Lord of Glory will shine His light in a dark place and reveal their true natures.  May His name rise above all names as the “One” that is worthy.

Alleine gives us (5) mistakes about conversion that continue to condemn people to hell the same today as they have since time began.    Let’s take a look at those today as outlined in this first chapter of A Sure Guide to Heaven.

Conversion is not the taking upon us the profession of Christianity

With a twenty dollar bill in my hand I can get anyone I want to profess the name of Christ.  Just try it and see.  Approach someone and say if you say these words I will give you this twenty dollar bill.  “Jesus is Lord and Savior”.  Are they now saved and on their way to heaven?  Of course not that’s ridiculous; anyone that has any sort of knowledge of God knows this.  Don’t they?  Yet many will think because they said a prayer at one point in their life they are okay with God.

Are there not many that name the name of the Lord Jesus, that do not depart from iniquity (2 Tim ii 19), and profess they know God, but in works deny Him? (Titus I 16), And will God receive these for true converts?  What! Converts from sin, when they still live in sin?  It is a visible contradiction. Page 19

Conversion is not putting on the badge of Christ in baptism

‘If this is true, thousands may go in abreast; and we will no more teach that the righteous are scarcely saved, or that there is need of such a stir in taking the kingdom of heaven by violence, and striving to enter in (1 Peter iv 18; Mt xi 12; Lk xiii 24).  Surely, if the way be so easy as many supposed, that little more is necessary than to be baptized and to cry out, ‘Lord, have mercy’, we need not put ourselves to such seeking, and knocking, and wrestling, as the Word require in order to salvation.  Again, if this is true, we shall no more say, ‘Few there be that fine it’; we will rather say, ‘Few there be that miss it.’ Page 20

… If men are evidently unsanctified, they must be renewed by a thorough and powerful change, or else they cannot escape the damnation of hell.  ‘Be not deceived; God is not mocked.’  Whether it be your baptism, or whatever else you pretend, I tell you from the living God, that if any of you be a prayerless person, or a scoffer, or a lover of evil company (Prov xiii20), in a word, if you are not a holy, strict, and self denying Christian, you cannot be saved (Heb xii 14; Mt xv 14). Page 21

Conversion does not lie in moral righteousness

Paul, while unconverted, touching the righteousness which is in the law was blameless (Phil iii 6).  The Pharisee could say, ‘I am no extortioner, adulterer, unjust’, etc. (Lk xviii 11).  You must have something more than all this to show, or else, however you may justify yourself, God will condemn you.  I do not condemn morality, but I warn you not to rest in it.  Piety includes morality, as Christianity does humanity, and as grace does reason; but we must not divide the tables. Pages 21, 22

Conversion does not consist in an external conformity to the rules of piety

It is manifest that men may have a form of godliness, without the power (2 Tim iii 5).  Men may pray long (Mt xxiii 14), and fast often (Lk xviii 12), and hear gladly (Mk vi 20), and be very forward in the service of God, though costly and expensive (Is i 11), and yet be strangers to conversion.  They must have more to plead for themselves than that they go to church, give alms, and make use of prayer, to prove themselves sound converts. Page 22

Please don’t let this one slip past you.  Consider this in your life.  Do you have a form of godliness?  Have you been converted?  Do you know when this happened?  Do you have a testimony?

Conversion is not the mere chaining up of corruption by education, human laws or the force of affliction

It is too common and easy to mistake education for grace… Page 22

In short, conversion does not consist in illumination or conviction or in a superficial change or partial reformation.  An apostate may be an enlightened man (Heb vi 4), and a Felix tremble under conviction (Acts xxiv 25), and a Herod do many things (Mk vi 20).  It is one thing to have sin alarmed only by convictions, and another to have it crucified by converting grace.

Others think that because they have given up their riotous ways, and are broken off from evil company or some particular lust, and are reduced to sobriety and civility, they are now real converts.  They forget that there is a vast difference between being sanctified and civilized.

O sinner, let the Word convince you now in time, and let go your false and self-deluding hopes, than have death open your eyes too late, and find yourself in hell before you are aware?

O wretched sinners, with whom God is scarcely in all your thoughts; that are so ignorant that you cannot pray, or so careless that you will not?  O repent and be converted, break off your sins by righteousness… O that you would heed the warnings of God!  In His name I once more admonish you.  Turn ye at my reproof.  Forsake the foolish, and live.  Be sober, righteous, and godly.  Wash your hands, ye sinners; purify your hearts, ye double-minded. Pages 21, 22 & 23

Friends are you double-minded?  Do you want to hold things of the world dear?  How much do you dwell on God in your thoughts and in your mind on a daily basis?  How much do you read His Word?  How much time do you spend in prayer?  How much time do you speak of His glory with others?

Test yourself and be challenged, if Christ dwells within you, this should not offend you.

Kevin

A Sure Guide to Heaven – Part 1 – Introduction

Posted on by kevinjandt

Friends as I begin this endeavor today I have a sweet joy of anticipation and excitement.   The more I’ve studied the words of this incredible man the more I see the beauty of God that gifts those whom He chooses to perform His good pleasures.  Joseph Alleine is a man that had a passion for winning souls.  I hope his words will profoundly affect you as they have me.  I will once again encourage you to join with me if you have not.  Here is the link  A Sure Guide to Heaven

Alleine

Biographical Introduction

As I began reading about Joseph Alleine, I’m immediately struck by God’s promises to parents that raise their children in fear and admonition of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4), that it produces fruit and righteousness (Deuteronomy 6:24-25).  Alleine had a passion for God’s Word from a very young age.  Being born and raised in a Puritan family he desired to pursue a life of ministry.

Alleine’s years at Oxford were characterized by piety and diligent study.  His warm disposition found him many friends, but if their visits interrupted his studying time ‘he had no leasure to let them in, saying, “It is better that they should wonder at my rudeness than that I should lose my time; for only a few will take notice of the rudeness, but many may feel my loss of time.”’  As a chaplain he labored to evangelize country villages around Oxford and also preached ot the prisoners in the gaol every fortnight.  Such was his training for this future ministry.  Not yet twenty-one, he had already learned to be ‘infinitely and insatiably greedy for the conversion of souls and to this end he poured out his very heart in prayer and in preaching’. Page 8

In a day when most Christians spend little time in prayer and little time in study of the word, Alleine was ravenous for the study of God’s Word and the conversion of souls.

When the week began he would say, ‘Another week is now before us, let us spend this week for God’, and each morning, ‘Now let us live this one day well!’  ‘All the time of his health’, writes his wife, ‘he did rise constantly at or before four o’clock, and on the Sabbath sooner, if he did wake; he would be much troubled if he heard any smiths, or shoemakers, or such tradesmen, at work at their trades before he was in his duties with God; saying to me after, “O how this noise shames me! doth not my master deserve more than theirs?”  From four till eight he spent in prayer, holy contemplation, and signing of psalms, which he much delighted in, and did daily practice alone, as well as in his family.’  (Page 8 and 9)

A Sure Guide to Heaven has influenced many of the greatest evangelists of all of time including George Whitefield and Charles Haddon Spurgeon.

Speaking of Spurgeon; when he was a child, his mother would often read a piece of Allein’s Alarm to them as they sat round the fire on a Sunday evening, and when brought under conviction of sin it was to this old book he turned.  ‘I remember’, he writes, ‘when I used to awake in the morning, the first thing I took up was Alleine’s Alarm or Baxter’s Call to the Unconverted.  (Page 11)

Introduction – An earnest invitation to sinners to turn to God

We can grasp Alleine’s passion for winning souls in his opening call to his readers.

But from where shall I fetch my argument?  With what shall I win them?  O that I could tell!  I would write to them in tears, I would weep out every argument, I would empty my veins for ink, I would petition them on my knees.  O how thankful should I be if they would be prevailed with to repent and turn. (Page 15)

He quickly turns to the gospel for the answer to his question.

There is no entering into heaven but by the strait passage of the second birth; without holiness you shall never see God (Heb xii 14).  Therefore give yourselves unto the Lord now.  Set yourselves to seek Him now.  Set up the Lord Jesus in your hearts, and set Him up in your houses….

I am not playing the orator to make a learned speech to you, nor dressing the dish with eloquence in order to please you.  These lines are upon a weighty errand indeed – to convince, and convert, and save you.  I am not baiting my hook with rhetoric, nor fishing for your applause, but for your souls.  My work is not to please you, but to save you; nor is my business with your fancies, but with your hearts….

…if we cannot get your consent to arise and come away, you will perish for ever.  No conversion – no salvation!  I must get your good-will, or leave you miserable.  (Page 16 & 17)

In this day of ear tickling, man centered, feel good gospel Alleine quickly gets to the point.  He had no interest in whether they liked the message or not, only to plead with them and to diligently show them the truth.  Without conversion there is no salvation, a message which desperately needs to be heard today just as it needed to be heard in his day.

What is biblical conversion?

Some of you do not know what I mean by conversion, and in vain shall I attempt to persuade you to that which you do not understand.   Therefore for your sakes I will show what conversion is.

Others cherish secret hopes of mercy, though they continue as they are.  For them I must show the necessity of conversion. 

Others are likely to harden themselves with a vain conceit that they are converted already.  To them I must show the marks of the unconverted. 

Others, because they feel no harm, fear none, and so sleep as upon the mast.  To them I shall show the misery of the unconverted. 

Others still sit still, because they do not see the way of escape.  To them I shall show the means of conversion. 

And finally, for the quickening of all, I shall close with the motives to conversion.

If this is a new concept for you, I plead with you to continue in this exploration with me and let’s understand this thing called the second birth and biblical conversion, if you are saved or if you think you are saved I urge you to look critically at your own life and examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith (2 Corinthians 13:5).  Is there anything that could possibly matter more?

Kevin

2013

Posted on by kevinjandt

Happy New Year!  Thank you for reading Uncommon Faith this past year.  God has taught me much through the writing of these blog posts and I’m hopeful you have enjoyed what I’ve had to say.  I’m grateful for this small platform to have an opportunity to share what God is doing in my life and what I hope He will do in the lives of others through the thoughts He has given me.

With that being said, I wanted to share something I desire to accomplish for the upcoming year.  Every day I wake up with new topics that I wish to discuss.  They always seem so rich and real in my life and I don’t have enough time to write about them all.  I’m grateful that God refocuses my mind to the things I believe He wants me to discuss.  Sometimes those are topical; sometimes they are a brief series or occasionally just random musings.

sure guide

Next week I’m going to begin a series on the book called A Sure Guide to Heaven by Joseph Alleine.  Consistent readers of this blog will notice I speak of Alleine and this book often.  My church family will know I speak of Alleine and this book often.  Why?  Because I believe it’s one of the most significant writings next to the Bible that exists today.  If you are ever going to read any Puritan writings I would recommend this along with John Bunyon’s The Pilgrim’s Progress.

Quoting from A Sure Guide to Heaven:

Countless editions of this book have been issued since it first saw the light in 1671.  Dr. Calamy wrote concerning it in 1702: ‘Multitudes will have cause for ever to be thankful for it.  No book in the English tongues (the Bible only excepted) can equal it for the number that hath been dispersed; there have been twenty thousand sold under the title of the “Call”, or “Alarm”, and fifty thousand of the same under the title of the “Sure Guide to Heaven”, thirty thousand of which were sold at one impression.’

Practically I want to write about this little book because many people will never pick it up despite urgings to do so, also I’ve personally seen two people come to saving faith this past year in response to Alleine’s writing.   I don’t say his writing saved them, but God used his words along with His Word to show these two their sin and the need for a remedy through Jesus Christ.  There are countless professions of just this same thing happening all over the world through this powerful book.

My desire is to post once a week about A Sure Guide to Heaven and then a more traditional post my other day.  For those newer to my blog, I typically post on Tuesday and Friday.  I can’t stress enough how beneficial this book can be to those in the church that are truly redeemed and those that are falsely converted.  Because of sin’s deceitfulness how can you test your faith?  What are the signs of true conversion and false conversion?  Alleine explores all these topics in such a wonderfully, powerful way.   The writing is a little difficult to read but is certainly worth the effort.

In an age of uncertainty when institutions regarded as “churches” preach a man focused theology there needs to be a call to look at the doctrines of regeneration and “true” biblical conversion.  These “churches” are in a wretched state and nothing short of God’s grace can save them and those that attend.  Without an understanding of the difficulty of salvation more will be lead to hell on that wide road that leads to destruction (Matthew 7:13).  This flies in the face of the “easy to believe” methods of today.  I may be speaking to you today if your testimony includes any of the following.

“I accepted Christ…”

“I prayed the sinner’s prayer…”

“I walked the aisle and prayed at an altar call…”

“I made a decision and asked Jesus into my heart…”

Friends these are NOT biblical conversions, nowhere is this modeled in scripture.

I encourage you to read along with me as we explore what it really means to be “saved”.  You can find A Sure Guide to Heaven available online for free if you follow this link

A Sure Guide to Heaven

I would encourage you to print it out as I believe you will want to take lots of notes.  It is also available from many online book retailers for about $7.00 per copy.  You might want to have several copies on hand to give out to friends and those professing Christ.

As Paul calls us to examine ourselves (2 Corinthians 13:5)  and this is a wonderful place to start.  Nothing of value comes easy and I believe if you invest some time into something that is this important God will bless your efforts.

Perverse sinner, will you begin where you should end?  Is not the word before you?  What saith it? ‘Repent and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out.’  ‘If you mortify the deeds of the body you shall live.’  ‘Believe and be saved’ (Acts 3:19: Romans 8:13; Acts 16:31).  What can be plainer?  Page 30 A Sure Guide to Heaven

Kevin