C. S. Lewis writes with great insight in the Chronicles of Narnia when he quips that “Aslan is no tame lion.”   A tame animal has had danger trained out.  A tame animal becomes a servant, a domestic, to man.   But God is not our servant, we are His.   Our God is a controversialist.   He is a God who confronts.  He confronts us as a loving Father or else He will confront us as an offended judge.   If you want a tame God or a God that will not confront you, then you are not looking for the God of the Bible.  The prophet Micah’s name means, “who is like the Lord.”  And this is the theme of his prophecy.   Micah reveals a God who confronts, who convicts and who comforts with the gospel.  Join Pastor Wheeler as he examines Micah’s prophecy of a Controversial God.

Get the 09-30-2012 Bulletin and listen to A Controversial God, Micah 2:1-13. 

Last year’s drought was so severe that many gardeners swore they would not plant again this year.  Yet, in the spring the ground was cleared, the soil prepared and the seeds sown.  Every gardener knows that to farm is to plant in hope — to do what is our part and to leave the increase to God.  Despite decades of spiritual drought, Micah continued to clear the ground, prepare the soil and sow the seed of God’s Word.  Micah planted in hope and the Lord granted a revival.   How can we keep planting when the spiritual landscape seems utterly drought-stricken?   Join Pastor Wheeler as he continues to examine how the prophet Micah answered the call of God to plant in hope.

Get the 09-23-2012, Bulletin and listen to Planting in Hope, Micah 1:1-16. 

When God repeats Himself, we should give more attention to His Word, not less.  Unfortunately, the more we hear something in Scripture, the more we are tempted to tune it out.   This is especially a danger for us as we study the Minor Prophets.   If we are not careful and prayerful, the last few minor prophecies given before the exile may begin to sound like Charlie Brown’s teacher to us.   There is something remarkably different about the preaching of Micah, however.   While his message and his method was like that of all the other prophets, the Lord was pleased to use his ministry to bring revival.   The ministry of Micah encourages us to plow in hope, not to cast about for a new message or a new method.  Yet the book of Micah is not about the prophet but about the one who sent Him.  Listen as Pastor Wheeler begins the exposition of Micah, whose name means “who is like our God.”

Get the 09-16-2012 Bulletin and listen to Plowing in Hope: Micah 1:1-16. 

Few words are more poignant than those of Jesus as he tells the Jews of His day, that He is leaving their house desolate.  An uninhabited house falls into ruin, but what about a church in which the glory of God has departed and is replaced by the opinions of men?   Nahum was not written to Nineveh, but as a graphic warning to the Old Testament Church and us that when the church patterns itself after the world, it will come to utter ruin.   Listen as Pastor Wheeler concludes the exposition of Nahum.

Get the 09-09-2012, Bulletin and listen to Ichabod, Nahum 3:1-19.

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Augustine once spoke of the world as composed of “two cities[that] have been formed by two loves: the earthly by the love of self, even to the contempt of God; the heavenly by the love of God, even to the contempt of self.”  Nineveh typified the City of Man and it was utterly destroyed in God’s judgement.  John Bunyan picked up this same idea in Pilgrims’ Progress as he warns men to flee the City of Destruction for the Celestial City.  Listen as Pastor Wheeler examines the God’s Word from the minor prophet Nahum warning us to flee from the City of Man to the City of God.

Get the 09-02-2012 Bulletin and listen to City of Man, or City of God? Nahum 3.

While we think it a blessing to be pain-free, if we were utterly insensitive to pain we would be in grave danger.  Pain is a warning that something is wrong and that a remedy is needed.   Apathy is, quite literally, to be without feeling.   As dangerous as it is to be without feeling to physical pain, it is eternally deadly to be without feeling toward God.  Listen as Pastor Wheeler examines some of the warning signs of spiritual apathy from Nahum 2.

Get the 08-26-2012 Bulletin and listen to Apathy Unmasked, Nahum 2:1-13.

Think for a moment about what brings you comfort?  Did you include the wrath of God on your list?  In “God’s Strange Comfort,” Pastor Wheeler continues examining the great paradox in the minor prophet, Nahum between the wrath of God and comfort to His people. 

Get the 08-19-2012 Bulletin and listen God’s Strange Comfort, Nahum 1:1-15.

The Puritans referred to God’s mercy as His familiar work and His wrath as his “strange work.”  Listen as Pastor Wheeler begins preaching through Nahum to examine the relationship between God’s wrath and His mercy.

Get the 08-12-2012 Bulletin and listen to God’s Strange Work, Nahum 1:1-15.

How do you manage conflict? Persuasion, Compulsion, Negotiation, or Avoidance?  Consider God’s tenderness as He leads us to repentence through His kindness.  Like all Christians Jonah has cultivated an insurgency in his heart against the Lordship of Christ.  Rather than destroy Jonah, God addresses Jonah through His Word and through Providences.  How willing are you to have God say, “brace yourself” and answer me?  Yet it is through this confrontation that God leads us to accept His Lordship and mercy.  Listen as Pastor Wheeler continues to examine Jonah 4:1-11.

Get the 08-05-2012 Bulletin and listen to Brace Yourself, Jonah 4:1-11.

Are you a sulky Christian?  Are you fretting because God has been gracious to the wicked?  Jonah was a sulky Christian.  He even viewed God’s grace as a “great evil” and he “burned” with anger because of what God had done.  Jonah was sulky because he wanted Christ as savior but not as Lord.  Rejecting the Lordship of Christ will make you a sulky Christian.  Embracing the Lordship of Christ, however, unveils a wideness in God’s mercy.  Listen as Pastor Wheeler examines some traits of those who reject the Lordship of Christ and become sulky Christians.

Get the 07-29-2012 Bulletin and listen to Wideness in God’s Mercy, Jonah 4:1-11.