From Pastor Caleb's Study

June 6, 2024

We spent a few days at the beach right after school got out, and as I was watching the waves crash onto the shore, I remembered that the Bible mentioned waves in several places. When I clicked on the trusty concordance on my Blue Letter Bible app (if you have ever used a Strong's Concordance [named after a person, though when I first got one I thought it was named after the ability you needed to carry such a large book!], isn't is amazing to be able to carry a concordance in your pocket??), I saw that God speaks of waves in more place than I realized. If you're heading to the beach this summer (or even if you've already been), I hope these reflections will be a helpful guide for your meditation on God's word and world.

1. Waves are a picture of suffering and death.

• Psalm 42:7 - "Deep calls to deep at the sound of Your waterfalls; all Your breakers and Your waves have rolled over me."

• Psalm 88:7 - "Your wrath has rested upon me, and You have afflicted me with all Your waves."

• 2 Samuel 22:5 - "For the waves of death encompassed me; the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me."

If you've played in the waves, you likely know how easy for the waves to turn violent. You know what it's like to have a wave roll over you, even to the point where you're trying to come up for air but you're finding nothing but water, or even worse so disoriented by the wave that you think you're swimming up and you're actually swimming toward the seabed. Big waves are scary, and can kill and destroy. Suffering often feels like waves as well in the sense that we're sometimes hit over and over again in a short space of time. Yet isn't there a strange comfort in the fact that the waves of suffering are God's waves? Even our suffering is under His sovereign control, and He afflict us only for our ultimate good as His children.

2. Waves assure us that God is sovereign over all creation.

• Jeremiah 5:22 - "'Do you not fear Me?' declares the LORD. 'Do you not tremble in My presence? For I have placed the sand as a boundary for the sea, an eternal decree, so it cannot cross over it. Though the waves toss, yet they cannot prevail; though they roar, yet they cannot cross over it.'"

• Jeremiah 31:35 - "Thus says the LORD, who gives the sun for light by day and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—the LORD of hosts is his name..."

• Psalm 107:25, 29 - "For he commanded and raised the stormy wind, which lifted up the waves of the sea . . . He made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed."

• See also Job 9:8; Job 38:8-11; Psalm 65:7; Psalm 89:9; Isaiah 51:15.

God is one who has ordered the moon, gravity, winds, and the tides so that waves can only come as far as He ordains them to come. He is the one who stirs up the waves and stills the waves. When we watch the waves crash on the storm, whether in fair weather or foul, we are seeing the hand of God at work. And does not Psalm 107 point us forward to our Lord Jesus Christ, who still the waves with the sound of His voice in Matthew 8:26? Our God is sovereign over all the forces and powers of this world, even the waves. Nothing happens without His appointment and permission. There is sweet encouragement in that face.

3. Waves warn us against an immature faith.

• Ephesians 4:14 - "so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine..."

• When we are not equipped with the word of God through the servants of God, we are immature in our faith, and like seaweed on the sea we are tossed around back and forth. The Scriptures ground us, giving us solid footing to stand firm against the waves of false doctrine. Like a pier whose pilings are deeply sunk into the sand, so the mature believer is fixed in truth, and is able to rest in peace when all around his souls gives way.

There are more verses in the Bible where God uses the waves to drive home various points. I encourage you to dig around in the Scriptures this summer to see how creation teaches us about our faith!

----------

If you have a college student in your home, or know one, encourage them to go to Summer RUF. It's a great way to connect to students from other campuses and hear great teaching. Here is the schedule:

• Tuesday, June 4 @ 7pm: Austin Braasch (Ole Miss)

• Tuesday, June 11 @ 7pm: Jeff Jordan (MC)

• Tuesday, June 18 @ 7pm: Scott Miller (FPC Jackson)

• Tuesday, June 25 @ 7pm: Jermaine Van Buren (JSU)

• Tuesday, July 9 @ 7pm: Bentley Crawford (Belhaven)

• Tuesday, July 16 @ 7pm: Davis Morgan (USM)

Here is a link to the summer RUF Groupme where RUF will share details for each coming week.

----------

Next week, the PCA General Assembly will be held in Richmond, VA. Pastor Dean and I, along with Ruling Elders Ken Haynes, James Clark, and Eddie Moran, will be our representatives.

• You can see the schedule and follow along with the livestream here.

• Here are the overtures that we will be considering this year.

Please be praying for safe travel, for a unified and peaceful Assembly, and for the Lord to continue to keep the PCA faithful to the Scripture, true to the Reformed faith, and obedient to the Great Commission!

Check out the new Adult Sunday school Classes for summer!

May 30, 2024

Music to God's Ears: Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs 
Taught by Madison Taylor & team 
Location: Outback Room
*Geared toward Young Adults, but anyone is welcome!*

Music is evidence of God’s abundant goodness to us. In this class, we will explore what the Bible says about singing and how that shapes the role of music inside and outside of the church, and meditate on some of the songs we sing at POPC. And we may even sing a little...
 

• Church History — Part 1: Early Church History
  Taught by John Kwasny
  Location: Cafeteria
  
  Join us as we begin our travels through HIS-Story, the continuing story of the Church in the world,  Most of us are pretty unfamiliar with much of church history, but especially early church history. The study of church history is important to grow our faith and to learn not to repeat the sin patterns of our predecessors,  It also helps us have a bigger view of God and His Kingdom, giving Him the glory for what He has done through His people!
   

• Psalms by Authors
  Taught by Ken Haynes
  Location: Room 127
  
  The Psalms are often studied by genre, but in this class we will do a survey of Psalms by authors, with at least 7 different authors specified.  We will look at styles and content that might be unique to each author, always looking for the over-arching theme of calling upon Yahweh and looking forward to Jesus Christ the Messiah.
   

• Children's Bible Stories for Adults Part 2
  Taught by Newell Simrall
  Location: Room 238
  
  Did David kill Goliath with the stone? How did Jesus rise after 3 days if He died on Friday and rose on Sunday? These are a couple topics we discussed last summer in this class. This summer we continue to look at Children’s Bible Stories that we have known for decades and will dive deeper to learn applications for our lives as adults that we may not have learned when we learned these as children. Come learn new things about Joshua and the Battle Jericho, Jonah and the Fish (was it a whale?), Daniel in the Lions’ Den and other familiar stories from God’s Word to examine with fresh eyes.  *****Attendance to Part 1 of this class is not required *****

Don't miss the announcement below about our congregational meeting on Sunday!

An Update from your Diaconate

Financial Update: Last week's POPC Weekly Update contained financial highlights through the end of April. As that report showed, the Lord has blessed POPC richly through your tithes and offerings so far in 2024. Through the end of April, actual general fund contributions exceeded what we had budgeted to receive by $37,640. We give thanks for your faithful giving and encourage you to continue to give generously to help the deacons fulfill their duty to care for POPC's campus and to enable the various ministries of POPC to complete their plans this year and to encourage and enable them to pursue grander visions of Kingdom work going forward. 
 

1. Campus Update: As you may have noticed, our Church campus is changing and improving. Your diaconate is carrying out a campus-wide plan to keep things up as well as make improvements. HVAC maintenance and updating is always something BIG we carry out each year. Part of the campus-wide plan is a multi-year plan to replace old HVAC units around the campus. That project is on schedule and we are planning to replace six more units this summer. Additionally, the multi-purpose building just received some long awaited attention and the youth offices/classrooms have a fresh coat of paint. The education building has also seen updates on flooring this year. If you see anything you think needs a set of eyes on it, please let us know.
   
   CCS has a lot going on the northwest corner of our campus with their new buildings. They just wrapped the school year which means they will be moving and shaking on their summer projects, renovating 443 Northpark Drive, and gearing up for a larger student body this fall.
    

2. Other Works In Progress: The nursery playground lost a tree and we are working with many teams from POPC and CCS to cast a long term vision for that space. You will probably see some changes there over the next couple of months.
    

3. Points of Contact: Our church body has grown by God’s blessing over the past few years. This also means the diaconate has grown with it. If you see a church family or member who has needs, we can help. We welcome you to let us know. You can reach out to any member of the diaconate or pastoral staff, Madison Taylor (current chairman of the diaconate), or John Wiggins (former chairman 2023). We have men who want to serve the body with effort, love, and community.
    

4. Usher Duty: If you wish to get involved with the Sunday morning usher rotation, it is a great way to connect with the larger church body. Please let us know and we will happily get you plugged in. It’s a small investment of time that really provides an opportunity to continue our church’s gift of being hospitable and warm.
    

5. Encouragement: A short excerpt from Colossians 2:2 says, “That their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love.” I try to keep this scripture in mind as we try to look for those who need to be LOVED ON. Christ’s work in our lives should push us to love one another in action. These works (great or small) provide us encouragement and help knit us together with something greater than just the accomplishment of a task.
   
   Please let us know how we can be of service as your church officers.

In Christ,

John Wiggins, Communications Chair on behalf of the POPC Diaconate

From Pastor Caleb's Study

May 16, 2024

This past Sunday morning I mentioned that Romans 15:4 really needed its own sermon. I'm not going to write that sermon here. But I do want to break the verse down a little more for you. Here's what Paul said, right after quoting Psalm 69:9 about Jesus bearing the reproaches/insults that were aimed at God: "For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope."

• Note how similar this passage is to 1 Corinthians 10:11, "Now these things [the events of the Exodus and wilderness wanderings] happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come," and to 2 Timothy 3:16-17, "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work."

• Note the broad scope. "For whatever [Scripture] was written"/"All Scripture." Paul has just quoted a fragment of a Psalm in Romans 14. In 1 Corinthians he's speaking of the events recorded in the Pentateuch. "All" is as universal a word as Paul could use - he has in mind here the entirety of what we call the Old Testament.

• Note the contemporary audience. What was written in former times is not a dead letter. Rather, it was written ultimately for us. What happened to the Israelites of old happened to them as an example for us, and was written down for our good. And who are we? We are those "on whom the end of the ages has come." With the incarnation, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, the last days, the end times, have dawned. And all that was written before Jesus came (as well as the Scriptures written after He came!) was written for God's people in Paul's day, and for the church in every generation.

• Note the purposes of Scripture. Instruction, examples, teaching, reproof, correction, training in righteousness, equipping for every good work, endurance, encouragement, and hope. The whole Bible, including the Old Testament, teaches us the gospel of Jesus and how to live in the light of that gospel. We see the finished work and the example of our Savior in Psalm 69. We see the example of sins to avoid and duties to fulfill in the wilderness generation. We gain endurance, encouragement, and hope as we see the faithfulness and steadfast love of the triune God.

• Note the divine nature of the Bible - In Romans 15:4 Paul says that endurance and encouragement come through the Scriptures. And in Romans 15:5 he says that God is the "God of endurance and encouragement." This drives home the point that the Scriptures are the very words of God Himself, not merely the words of man.

• Note the Christ-centered nature of the Bible. Paul's citation of Psalm 69 shows how Jesus is in all the Scriptures (Luke 24:27, 44). As Paul writes in 2 Timothy 3:15, "the sacred writings . . . are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus."

As we approach the summer months, with perhaps a different schedule, let us commit anew to reading, studying, meditating on, and memorizing the word of God. May we be like newborn babies all our lives in the sense that we continually yearn for the pure milk of the word (I Peter 2:2-3), and may we continue to grow up to mature manhood and womanhood, who can eat the solid food of the word and more and more "have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil" (Hebrews 5:14). My prayer is that our preaching not only teaches you what the Bible says, but also shows you how to read the Bible for yourself. I long for each one of us to be like Ezra, who "set his heart to study the law of the LORD and to practice it, and to teach His statutes and ordinances in Israel" (Ezra 7:10).

----------

Speaking of reading and teaching the whole Bible in light of the coming of Jesus Christ, RTS and The Gospel Coalition announced this weekthat the lectures by Tim Keller and Ed Clowney on Preaching Christ in a Postmodern World are newly available online with a host of great accompanying resources. Tim Keller (1950-2023) is well-known; Ed Clowney (1917-2005) was a pastor and a professor (and for eighteen years the president) at Westminster Theological Seminary in the late 1900s. They co-taught a Doctor of Ministry class for RTS in 2002, and though it is aimed primarily at preachers, any Christian can benefit from the way they discuss seeing Jesus in the Old Testament and communicating Him and His gospel to a secular world, especially those of you who are teaching in various ways at our church!

From Pastor Caleb's Study

May 9, 2024

If you were at church last week, you noticed that we're using a new bulletin style now. Not every church uses a paper bulletin these days, but we have found it helpful for the purpose of our liturgy and to communicate important information about our church and our ministries. This new style will allow us to do some things we haven't been able to do heretofore:

• We can now include the music to songs that are not in the Trinity Hymnal. This is a help to visitors (and members!) for whom the songs are unfamiliar. Even those who cannot read music are able to see if the notes are going up or down, and can engage more fully in praising the Lord with us.

• We can include all our information/announcements every week, and no longer have to rotate between missionaries, church staff, officers, Sunday School class locations, and other occasional items we want to convey. Visitors each week will be able to gain a better knowledge of who we are.

• We can provide a page for sermon notes. From what I see as I preach, it doesn't appear that many in our congregation take notes, but perhaps this is partly a factor of not having a convenient location on which to do so? Not everyone learns by writing down what they hear, but I do encourage you to at least write down the main points of the sermon - this will help you engage more actively with what the preacher is saying.

• We can offer some comments on the elements of worship in our "Guide to the Morning Worship Service." I've done this at each of my two previous churches, and I'm glad to get to do it again at POPC. It's a great way to learn about why we worship as we do, what each element is, and details about the songs we sing, the confessions of faith we use, etc.

We hope this makes our bulletin more useful to you, and an even handier reference for you to take home and use in private worship, in family worship, and in staying more closely connected to the life and ministry of POPC!

----------

This Sunday we will be presenting new members at both morning services. God has been kind to continue to bring new families into our midst, and I hope that you will have a chance to get to know the new members as you have opportunity. (Their names and pictures will be in an upcoming email!)

I like to present new members to the congregation, not only to encourage us that God is continuing to bring fellow disciples of Jesus to minister alongside us, and so that we can connect names to faces, but also so that existing members are reminded of what they vowed when they joined POPC. Use the opportunity each occasion to be humbled for ways you have fallen short of what it means to be a member of Christ's body, to be grounded again in the grace of God in Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit that are our only hope, and to renew your vows to the Lord and to your church family.

How vital it is to know and serve one another in the church! I am so thankful that Jesus has saved us into fellowship and community with other saints, and pray that we will welcome our new members with open hearts and open calendars, and that they will be blessed by and a blessing to our congregation as they use their gifts for God's glory.

From Pastor Caleb's Study

May 2, 2024

Depending on what time you're reading this, there may still be saints praying in the Sanctuary on this National Day of Prayer. James tells us that "The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much" (James 5:16, NASB). God has ordained the ends as well as the means, and prayer is one of the means that He uses to bring to fulfillment His sovereign decree. One of the books I read as I was coming to embrace Reformed theology during college was Doug Kelly's If God Already Knows, Why Pray? It was an encouraging look at the sovereignty of God, the responsibility of believers, and the way those two things go together. Let us be diligent and fervent in prayer for the Lord's work in our country, our church, our families, and in our lives!

----------

Our youth families have already heard this news, but I want to let all of you know that Ashley Benton has announced that she will be leaving her position as Youth Ministry Coordinator at the end of the summer. Ashley started working with us right after COVID hit, and has been the steady presence through several Youth Directors, a Youth Pastor, and Interim Youth Directors. She's given her heart, time, and energy to ministering to our youth, and will be deeply missed when she steps down to focus on her calling as an artist. Fortunately, she and her husband Jackson will remain here at POPC while Jackson finishes med school, and Lord willing even beyond. Be in prayer for Ashley, the youth staff, and the youth as they enjoy this last summer together with Ashley on staff. And pray for our Youth Director Bobby Epps and the Youth Ministry Team as they search for Ashley's replacement. If you get a chance over the coming weeks to say thank you to Ashley, please do so!

----------

Have you ever had the experience of reading something in the Bible that you feel like you've never seen before, even though you've read that book of the Bible numerous times before? I just had that experience with the book of Hosea. In Hosea 13:4-6, we read this: "But I am the LORD your God from the land of Egypt; you know no God but me, and besides me there is no savior. It was I who knew you in the wilderness, in the land of drought; but when they had grazed, they became full, they were filled, and their heart was lifted up; therefore they forgot me." God is lamenting over the defection of His people, whom He had delivered from Egypt, whom He knew and cared for in the wilderness. It's verse 6 that stood out to me: "but when they had grazed, they became full, they were filled, and their heart was lifted up; therefore they forgot me."

Here we see a pattern of backsliding and leaving our first love that has repeated itself time and time again in the lives of the Lord's people: God provides for us, we become full, our heart becomes proud, and we forget the Lord. God's goodness sadly becomes the opportunity for our sinful hearts to believe that we don't need the Lord, that we can do just fine without Him. We become satisfied with the gifts and forsake the Giver. We become satisfied with the blessings He has freely and undeservedly granted, and we become prideful in our possessions. Like Israel in the wilderness, we begin to think, "My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth" (Deuteronomy 8:17), and we forget that it was the Lord who gave us all that we have, even the power to make the wealth we have. So let us always be on guard, lest affluence and comforts like we enjoy in America be an occasion for pridefully forgetting the Lord. Let us remember daily that it is the Lord who gives us our daily bread!

From Pastor Caleb's Study

April 25, 2024

As you'll see in the pictures below, the Session has recently heard the professions of faith from 30 young men and women. Having gone through our communicants' class, they were received into communing membership by the elders, and were presented to the congregation last Sunday morning. This is a glorious and joyful time in the life of these covenant children, their families, and our church family. God has been at work through the preaching and teaching of His word Lord's Day by Lord's Day; through parents' instruction, example, and prayers; and through the encouragement and witness of older saints and friends. He has revealed to these children that they are sinners in need of a Savior, that Jesus Christ is the only Savior, and that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus alone.

• It's important to recognize that these children did not join the church when they professed their faith in Jesus. Presbyterians believe that the children of professing believers are members of the church from the day of their birth - even the day of their conception - by virtue of being sent by God into a believing family (see Genesis 17:7; Acts 2:39; and I Corinthians 7:14). They thus have a right to the sacrament of baptism (the sign of initiation into the covenant community), but must profess faith in Jesus in order to come to the Lord's table (the sign of communion, continuation, and growth in the covenant community). Faith comes by hearing the word of Christ, and so parents, pastors, Sunday School teachers, school teachers, and friends prayerfully bring the gospel of Jesus to them from their earliest days, looking for the day when the dots get connected and the penny drops.
   

• Our Book of Church Order helpfully explains: "Believers’ children within the Visible Church, and especially those dedicated to God in Baptism, are non-communing members under the care of the Church. They are to be taught to love God, and to obey and serve the Lord Jesus Christ. When they are able to understand the Gospel, they should be earnestly reminded that they are members of the Church by birthright, and that it is their duty and privilege personally to accept Christ, to confess Him before men, and to seek admission to the Lord’s Supper. The time when young persons come to understand the Gospel cannot be precisely fixed. This must be left to the prudence of the Session, whose office it is to judge, after careful examination, the qualifications of those who apply for admission to sealing ordinances" (57.1-2).

These children now have the full privileges and responsibilities of their inheritance in the household of faith. In particular, they can commune with us at the Lord's table and cast their vote in congregational meetings. As we gather around the table in two Sundays, let us rejoice that God has added to our numbers those who recognize Him as Savior and Lord, and let us be praying that Christ would continue to deepen their knowledge of Himself through His Word and Spirit!

----------

I want to let you know about an opportunity for evangelistic hospitality. Our brother Eldrin Bhanat has let us know that a young Muslim lady from Pakistan is coming to our area to intern at CSpire during June and July, and needs a place to stay for the summer. Her name is Rabeea Fatima, and she has been involved in a variety of activities with Christians in Hattiesburg. This appears to be a wonderful chance to continue to sow seeds of the gospel in her heart. If you possibly have the ability and desire to host her, please contact Eldrin or Rinku for more details (their contact information, along with that of every other member, is in the MinistryOne app - if you don't have it on your phone yet, please visit this page to learn how to access it!).

From Pastor Caleb's Study

April 19, 2024

Prior to moving here, we lived in Cookeville, Tennessee, where I pastored Grace Presbyterian Church. Cookeville is in the Upper Cumberland region of the state, so there are lots of waterfalls and lots of hiking trails. We did a lot of hiking, but our children were all ten years younger back then - which means we did a lot of carrying on our shoulders or in baby backpacks. I was reminded of those days as I was doing my daily Bible reading this week in the book of Deuteronomy. Moses' last book begins and ends with the powerful image of God carrying and bearing up His people through the wilderness and all their days.

• 1:31 - "...in the wilderness, ... you have seen how the Lord your God carried you, as a man carries his son, all the way that you went until you came to this place.

• 33:27 - "The eternal God is your dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms.

How comforting to know that God carries His people all their journey through this difficult world, in spite of our sin and rebellion! If you are weary and growing faint, if you feel ready to throw in the towel, remember this truth that it is the Lord who carries you. Underneath and all around you are His everlasting arms, and He will never drop you.

----------

The first Thursday of May has been declared a National Day of Prayer since Harry Truman signed a law passed by Congress in 1952. This year, upon the wonderful suggestion of Mrs. Beth Watts, we will be opening up our Sanctuary from 9:30-1:30 for us to pray together (come and go as you are able). We will be praying for the areas of government, military, media, business, education, church, and family. For more information, contact Beth at 205.902.3641 or elmtree1980@gmail.com. The Lord is gracious to hear our prayers through Jesus Christ, and His command to the Israelites in Babylonian exile is applicable to us as aliens and exiles in America: "Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare" (Jeremiah 29:7). May the Lord make us more and more fervent and constant in prayer for our country, church, and families.

----------

Men, I'm going to be starting up another Monday lunchtime small group soon. Due to schedule conflicts, vacation, and General Assembly in Richmond, VA, "soon" will most likely be June 17. We'll be reading some "Reformed Shorts" (HT: the SEC Shorts video series) - classic Reformed/Presbyterian articles, sermons, and booklets from which I have benefited over the years. If you're interested in joining us for the discussion, email Anna Vinson, our Administrative Assistant, and she will get you several of the readings I've already picked out so that you can get started reading them over the next eight weeks.

From Pastor Caleb's Study

April 12, 2024

This Sunday evening we begin a new series through selected passages from the book of Isaiah. The Old Testament prophets can be difficult to read for a variety of reasons, and Isaiah's 66 chapters can be particularly daunting. Yet the reader who perseveres will be rewarded. We will be looking at some of the noteworthy texts from this "major" prophet (so called because the impact of his ministry and writings was sizeable, as opposed to the "minor" prophets whose works and/or ministries were on a smaller scale) - texts that I want you to know so that you can return to them in your time of need. Among the passages we'll be look at are 6:1-13 (Isaiah's call to ministry), 12:1-6 (a song of salvation and strength in the Lord), and 44:6-23 (a satire on idolatry). If you've never read the book of Isaiah, this is a great time to do so. We'll be in it through the month of July, so if you read half a chapter a day, you'll read nearly the entire book by the time we finish preaching these foundational passages.

If you haven't been coming to evening worship in a while, now is a great time to start a new habit for the summer!

----------

One of the verses that many of you have memorized is Philippians 4:6 - "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God." Benjamin Morgan Palmer was a pastor in New Orleans in the 19th century, and his sermon "The Antidote of Care" is a convicting and encouraging study of this passage. In it he reminds us that prayer is the remedy that God has provided when we are tempted to fretting and worry. How does prayer dissolve our anxieties? He gives six reasons:

1. In prayer we cure brought to an habitual and practical sense of the supreme will of a personal God. By drawing near to the sovereign God who loves us, we are enabled to see that He had ordained all that we walk through for our good, and can cast all our cares upon Him in submission and patience, knowing that He cares for us.
    

2. Prayer leads to the contemplation of God in his Covenant relations to us, which will soften the lot otherwise rugged and difficult. Prayer in the name of Jesus Christ by the help of the Holy Spirit to a Father who loves us assures us of the triune God's commitment to be our God and to take us as His people. This assurance strengthens us through every difficulty.
    

3. Prayer compels us to take an inventory of our mercies, and to balance, these against our trials. Petition must be accompanied by thanksgiving, and as we see all that God has done for us, despite our sinful unbelief, our hearts are led to a contentment that comes only from God.
    

4. Prayer imparts a tone to the spirit, girding it for the hour of trial. Communing with our holy Father strengthens and equips us for the battles of faith through which we walk day by day.
    

5. Prayer has the effect of bringing us to a distinct issue with ourselves in relation to our cares. By this Palmer means that in prayer we are brought to see that all of our cares are a part of the callings God has granted to us, and so He grants us grace to stand firm in them as a part of His lot for us.
    

6. In prayer we apprehend the nearness of Heaven, which is a motive to submission and patience. As we draw near to the Lord, we are reminded that our eternity with Him free from all suffering is soon approaching, and we are encouraged to persevere through trial with the peace of God keeping our hearts and minds in Christ.

May the Lord God grant us grace not to be anxious about anything, but to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness through prayer, supplication, and thanksgiving!
 

A note on morning worship, from Margaret Sprow:

This Sunday Caleb will be preaching on Romans 13:1-7, a passage that focuses on submission to governing authorities. We'll be singing Great King of Nations, Hear Our Prayer to the St. Anne hymn tune which is familiar to us as the tune for Our God, Our Help in Ages Past. The words express submission and humility before God by whom all governments exist, confession and repentance of our national sins, and a plea for God's mercy on our land. May we make this our fervent prayer.

Great King of nations, hear our prayer, while at your feet we fall,
and humbly, with united cry, to you for mercy call.

The guilt is ours, but grace is yours, O turn us not away;
but hear us from your lofty throne, and help us when we pray.

Our fathers' sins were manifold, and ours no less we own,
yet wondrously from age to age your goodness has been shown.

When dangers, like a stormy sea, beset our country round,
to you we looked, to you we cried, and help in you was found.

With one consent we meekly bow beneath your chast'ning hand,
and pouring forth confession meet, mourn with our mourning land.

With pitying eye behold our need, as thus we lift our prayer;
correct us with your judgments, Lord, then let your mercy spare.

From Pastor Caleb's Study

April 5, 2024

This coming Lord's Day we eat and drink the Lord's Supper, the Christ-authorized picture of His cruciform love for us. Recall that this meal, also called Communion, is a sacrament of the new covenant - that is, it's a sign and a seal of God's covenant mercies and promises in His Son. As we gather around the table, the Lord nourishes and cherishes us spiritually, by reminding us of His substitutionary death on our behalf, and assuring us that if our trust is in Him, we have union and communion with Him in His death and resurrection (read Romans 6!). The Lord's Supper is a means of growth and grace in our knowledge and experience of how wide and long and high and deep is the love of our Savior.

On Sunday evening, as we continue working our way through the Westminster Larger Catechism, we will be confessing two questions pertaining to the Lord's Supper, and I thought it would be good to put them here also so that you can meditate on them before coming to the table.

Question 170. How do they that worthily communicate in the Lord's supper feed upon the body and blood of Christ therein? This question is getting at how Jesus is present in the Supper, and the nature of our feeding upon Him. The early church was sometimes accused of cannibalism, because they spoke of eating the body and blood of Jesus. But the Bible doesn't teach that the elements actually are or become the literal body and blood of Jesus (aka transubstantiation, the Roman Catholic view) or that the literal body and blood of Jesus are somehow with, in, or under the elements (aka consubstantiation, the Lutheran view). Rather, Presbyterians believe in the real spiritual presence of Jesus, a presence to our faith.

• Here is how our catechism answers the question: "As the body and blood of Christ are not corporally or carnally [i.e., in a bodily/fleshly manner] present in, with, or under the bread and wine in the Lord's supper, and yet are spiritually present to the faith of the receiver, no less truly and really than the elements themselves are to their outward senses; so they that worthily communicate in the sacrament of the Lord's supper, do therein feed upon the body and blood of Christ, not after a corporal and carnal, but in a spiritual manner; yet truly and really, while by faith they receive and apply unto themselves Christ crucified, and all the benefits of his death."

Question 171. How are they that receive the sacrament of the Lord's supper to prepare themselves before they come unto it? This questions presupposes and explains what Paul's command in I Corinthians 11 to examine ourselves means. We aren't to show up without having taken any time to think about what we're about to do, or about our sin and our Savior. I'll break it down into its phrases:

• "They that receive the sacrament of the Lord's supper are, before they come, to prepare themselves thereunto,

  • by examining themselves

    • of their being in Christ,

    • of their sins and wants [i.e., what we lack, need, have a deficit of];

    • of the truth and measure of

      • their knowledge, faith, repentance;

      • [their] love to God and the brethren,

      • [their] charity to all men, forgiving those that have done them wrong;

    • of their desires after Christ,

    • and of their new obedience;

  • and by renewing the exercise of these graces, by serious meditation, and fervent prayer."

May our Father give us grace to come to the table rightly prepared and anticipating Him to work through His spoken and visible word to grow us up in Jesus Christ by His Spirit!

From Pastor Caleb's Study

March 29, 2024

As we prepare to celebrate our Savior’s death and resurrection in earnest this weekend, I encourage you to remember two of the very best words in the Bible: “and Peter” (Mark 16:7). You know the story. When the ladies came early in the morning on the first day of the week to anoint Jesus’ body in the tomb, they found the stone rolled away already. They entered into the tomb, only to find an angel dressed in a white robe, who spoke to them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.”

And Peter! Imagine what Peter must have felt to hear his name specifically mentioned by the angel – Peter, who had bragged that he would never deny Jesus, had just denied his Lord three times days earlier. Did he think that he had sinned too badly to be forgiven? That he was a lost cause? Yet Jesus had not cast him off, or abandoned him, or given up on him. Instead, He singled Peter out – Jesus wanted Peter in particular to know that He wanted to meet with him again.

In the resurrection of Jesus, we find hope for the fallen, hope for the failures, hope for the foolish and prideful and fearful – and if we’re honest, that’s each one of us. Because Jesus died, and didn’t stay dead, but rose again on the first day of the week, your faith is not worthless, you are not still in your sins (I Corinthians 15:17). Because Jesus is alive, the truth is that no matter what you have done, no matter how you’ve sinned against the Lord of glory, there is hope for you. The empty tomb proclaims your forgiveness and your freedom from guilt and shame and despair. So never forget those two little words, “and Peter.” Our risen Lord calls you by name to come to Him in faith and repentance, and find healing, restoration, and a commission to go and share His grace with the world around you.

From Pastor Caleb's Study

MARCH 22, 2024

Don't forget about the retirement celebration for Carl and Jeanie this Sunday evening! I encourage everyone to come out to evening worship at 6:00 and then to the Gym at 7:00 to honor the Kalberkamps for their long service among us. It is a rare privilege to have a pastor stay so long.

• Think about it: not only has POPC not had to form a senior pastor search committee since 1994 (thirty years and counting!), but Carl has poured himself into multiple generations of families over these years. The impact of that sort of generational ministry is ultimately known only by the Lord and those families, but we all benefit from the fruit of faithfulness.

I'm so thankful that Carl and Jeanie will still be among us even after he retires. Pray for them as they transition into a new stage of life and service to the Lord!

----------

Our officer nomination period will begin this Sunday and run through April 14. I know it feels like we just did this, since our ordination service is in late January and we do nominations in April of each year. But because we want to know who will be in the training before the Summer holidays roll around, the calendar works out this way.

• We see the pattern of God's people nominating men to serve as officers in Deuteronomy 1:13, Acts 1:23 and 6:3. Officers are not selected by existing officers, or by the senior pastor, but by the whole congregation. Nominating and electing its officers is the primary way members of a congregation exercise the power that Jesus has given to them.

• Please be praying about whom you might nominate to the office of elder or deacon. Meditate on I Timothy 3, Titus 1, and Acts 6:1-7 to see the sort of men the Lord wants to lead His church. Be looking for men who are already exhibiting the gifts of shepherding and teaching (for potential elders), or serving and administration (for potential deacons). Most importantly, you want to nominate men who are growing day by day in the fruit of the Spirit and are involved in the life, worship, and ministry of the church.

After informational meetings in late April/early May, the nominees will begin reading for the officer training classes, which run from August through November. That month, the Session will approve a slate of men to stand before you for election in January. God has been faithful to give us godly men to serve our congregation over the past 46 years, so let's be praying for the Lord to continue His mercies to us.

----------

This coming Sunday morning we have the privilege of witnessing the sacrament of baptism. Presbyterians believe that all who profess faith in Jesus Christ ought to be baptized, as well as their children. Why the latter? Because they are members of the covenant community by birth to believing parents and therefore have a right to the sign of the covenant (Romans 4:11).

• When God entered into a covenant with Abraham, He commanded Abraham to circumcise himself and his sons after him (Genesis 17:9-14). Circumcision was a picture of cleansing and being set apart as God’s special possession.

• In the New Covenant initiated by Jesus Christ, baptism has fulfilled circumcision as the covenant sign; believers are said to have been circumcised in Christ “with a circumcision made without hands…having been buried with Him in baptism” (Colossians 2:11-12). Like circumcision, baptism points to our cleansing from the guilt and the power of sin, by the shed blood of Jesus and the Holy Spirit who indwells us (Acts 2:38; Titus 3:5). It is a better sign than circumcision, though, for it is unbloody, and it is for both males and females. Just as Abraham circumcised his infant sons, so we baptize our infant children.

But just like our forefathers in the faith, we do not believe that our children are automatically guaranteed salvation or are magically born again by the external sign – not all who are baptized are given the new birth according to God’s sovereign grace; “they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel” (Rom. 9:6).

• But as members of the church, the children of believers possess privileges and responsibilities that set them apart from the children of the world (Paul calls them “holy,” i.e., set apart, in I Corinthians 7:14). Indeed, their greater privileges will result in a greater judgment if they refuse to embrace the Lord Jesus as He is offered in the gospel.

So let us be praying that the gospel realities signified by the waters of baptism would accompany the sign in due time, and let us exhort our children to embrace the Savior, who alone can save them from the judgment their sin deserves.

----------

Our Good Friday service is next Friday evening at 6:30 p.m. Join us as we meditate upon our Savior's suffering and death. Through Scripture and song our hearts will be inundated with the gospel of Christ crucified, as we anticipate the joy of resurrection!

From Pastor Caleb's Study

March 8, 2024

This week I have been in Greenville, South Carolina, attending and speaking at the Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary Spring Theology Conference. The topic of the conference this year was Modern Missions in the Reformed World, and I spoke on the life and ministry of John Leighton Wilson (1809-1885). 

• Wilson, a South Carolinian, graduated from Columbia Theological Seminary in Columbia, SC, and served as a pioneer missionary in Liberia and the Gabon from 1834-1852; as Assistant Secretary/Coordinator of the Presbyterian Church's Board of Foreign Missions (the MTW of that day) from 1853-1861; and as the Secretary/Coordinator of the Southern Presbyterian Church's Committee of Foreign Missions from 1861-1884. Leighton and his wife Jane lived a remarkable life, and his ministry gives us some important lessons for how the church today thinks about and does missions.

I'd love for all of you to get to know this father of the faith and of Presbyterian missions, so watch the video of my presentation when you have a chance (fast forward to the 5:17:06 mark of this video).

Another 19th century Presbyterian forefather, Dr. John Holt Rice (first professor of theology at Union Theological Seminary in Virginia), reminds us that the church is at its essence a missionary society:

• He exhorts elders to tell new members of their churches that "if they join the church, they join a community, the object of which is the conversion of the heathen world, and to impress on their minds a deep sense of their obligation as redeemed sinners, to co-operate in the accomplishment of the great object of Christ's mission to the world."

Do you think of our church's purpose and goal in this expansive way? If we only think of "pursuing transformation by truth and grace together for the glory of Christ" as something we do in our lives in the Jackson metro area, we are missing the point - for there are men and women, boys and girls, in every tribe, tongue, people, and nation, who need their lives transformed by the glorious gospel of Jesus.

One of the speakers at the conference was a pastor named Chad Vegas, who founded Radius International. This organization trains believers to be missionaries to unreached peoples/language groups. Chad's first talk (31:33 of this video) was a wonderful unpacking of some of the errors of modern evangelical and Reformed missions - it was challenging and convicting.

• The President of Radius International, Brooks Buser, brought the gospel to the Yembi Yembi tribe of Papau New Guinea with his wife Nina and two other couples - their story is riveting, and I encourage you to watch it with your family as soon as you're able.

----------

As we continue to grieve with Samantha Richardson and her children at the death of our brother Adam, I pray that our hearts will be filled with the hope of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Not only does this historical fact ensure our justification (Romans 4:25), and ensure that Jesus's priestly intercession for us is the intercession of a fellow human (I Timothy 2:5; Romans 8:34) - it also ensures that one day, though we die, we shall be raised bodily to endless physical life, without any suffering of any kind.

• Job's words are an early expression of this great hope: "As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will take His stand on the earth. Even after my skin is destroyed, yet from my flesh I shall see God; Whom I myself shall behold, and whom my eyes will see and not another" (Job 19:25-27). No matter what we suffer, we can rest in the truth that on the last day Jesus "will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself" (Philippians 3:21).

The video of Adam's funeral is available online if you were not able to be present, or if you would like to share it with a friend.

----------

Don't forget that at the end of this month Pastor Carl is retiring from service at POPC and will become Pastor Emeritus.

• His last sermon as a Pastor on staff will be Sunday, March 17.

• A reception for Carl and Jeanie will be held the following Sunday evening, March 24, after evening worship.

Please plan to be present with us to communicate your love and gratitude to the Kalberkamps for their faithful service among us these past 30 years! 

From Pastor Caleb's Study

February 16, 2024

I love missions. What a privilege it is to be able to bring, or send, or pray for the spread of, the gospel of Jesus Christ to the nations! Some have never heard the words of life, and some have heard and never believed them to be beautiful and true. And we have those words of life in the proclamation of the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Every year our Missions Festival rolls around, I am thankful for how our missionaries and ministry partners encourage and spur me on to be more faithful in my praying, in my giving, in my own reaching the lost for Christ privately and publicly, and in having a worldwide vision for the work of God.

From my childhood and through my youth, missions has been a part of my experience as a disciple of Jesus. My parents were host families through our church for international students at LSU - we got to know believers from countries where it was difficult to be a Christian, like China and Pakistan. My church in high school and college (First Presbyterian Baton Rouge) took us on mission trips to Reynosa, Mexico, Mandeville, Jamaica, and the Yucatan Peninsula. Groups from that congregation went regularly to Russia. I thank God that everywhere I have had the privilege of serving after graduating from LSU, the people of God were already missions-minded, committed to supporting missionaries in every corner of the globe, and desirous to bring the gospel to the lost and to encourage the missionaries and the believers in the churches. I thank Him that as Pastor Carl shared with us last Sunday, missions has been in the DNA of POPC from its birth. What a privilege! What a responsibility!

Why do we engage in the work of missions?
 

• Because God has promised that in Abraham's seed all the families of the earth, all the nations, shall be blessed (Genesis 12:3; 22:18).

• Because Jesus has commissioned us to make disciples of all the nations, having gone out into the world baptizing and teaching them to obey all that He has commanded (Matthew 28:18-20).

• Because God commands all people everywhere to repent - for a day has been fixed on which He will judge the world in righteousness by His Son, the man Christ Jesus (Acts 17:30-31).

• Because apart from Christ all people everywhere are dead in sin, full of hopeless despair and the fear of death, unreconciled to God and slaves of sin, and desperately need the forgiviness, peace, hope, power, and life the gospel brings.

• Because the Spirit has revealed that in the age to come, a great multitude from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages will be declaring that salvation belongs to our God and to the Lamb (Revelation 7:9).

These motivations and more should move us to have a missionary spirit that longs to hear more of how God is working around the world, to give more generously and systematically, and to respond more faithfully to Jesus' call to serve in whatever way He might open up for us. I pray that our Missions Festival will bear much fruit in all of our lives, and I encourage you to consider prayerfully what sort of commitment you will make to missions in 2024. Obviously you can give or pray or go without filling out a commitment card or the online commitment form  - but the act of making a commitment helps you to fix it more firmly in your heart and life.

----------

Please spread the word to any visitor you know who would like more information about Christianity or our church or who knows they want to join POPC -- we will begin a New Members Class on the first Sunday in March in Room 127. The class will run through the Spring quarter (March-May). May the Lord continue to be pleased to add to our number those who are being saved, and who desire to grow in their knowledge and service of Him!

From Pastor Caleb's Study

February 9, 2024

Back in 1831, Dr. John Holt Rice, the first professor of theology at Union Theological Seminary in Virginia (one of the main Presbyterian seminaries in the South in the 19th century), submitted a resolution to the Presbyterian General Assembly that contained his words: "that it be earnestly recommended to all Church Sessions, in hereafter admitting new members to the Churches, distinctly to state to candidates for admission, that if they join the church, they join a community, the object of which is the conversion of the heathen world, and to impress on their minds a deep sense of their obligation as redeemed sinners, to cooperate in the accomplishment of the great object of Christ's mission to the world." Rice's words did not end up being approved by that particular General Assembly, but his recommendation was full of glorious truth.

The church of Jesus Christ has as one of its chief purposes to bring the gospel to the lost, both near and far, so that God's elect might be brought into the fold. And every disciple of Jesus Christ, every member of His body the church, every sinner who has been saved by grace through faith in Jesus, has an obligation to participate in this objective. I love the fact that Dr. Rice calls this goal "Christ's mission to the world." For indeed, we are merely His agents, His representatives, His ambassadors, going forth in His name and in the power of His Spirit to call the nations to repent of their idolatry and believe in the only one who can save them from the coming wrath of God.

So I hope that during our upcoming Missions Festival week, you hear that participating in the work of missions is not something merely for those who want to go overseas, or for those with lots of disposable income, or for those with lots of time. It's for each and every member of Pear Orchard Presbyterian Church. As the Father has sent His Son, so the Son has sent us into the world that we might shine the light of the gospel of Jesus in all we say and do. Jesus spoke those words in John 20:21 to His apostles, and they apply in a very specific way to those official ambassadors and agents of revelation. Yet they apply more broadly to every believer. For those same words in Jesus' high priestly prayer in John 17:18 are followed closely by Jesus' affirmation that He's not just praying for the apostles, but for those who believe in Him through their words - which includes all who come after them. If Jesus promises His presence to the end of the age in Matthew 28:20, then the call to make the disciples, the call to go into the world, is a call that does not disappear with the apostles.

We have a wonderful lineup of preachers and missionaries reporting the next two Sundays and the Wednesday between them, and I trust you will be encouraged by their stories of God's greatness and faithfulness to His promises to give a people to His Son from all the nations. Don't miss out!

----------

I also encourage you not to miss our Sunday Night Fellowship on February 25. One of Christ's workers whom we support is our own John Perritt, who serves with Reformed Youth Ministries. He spends much time thinking about youth culture, and helping youth directors think through how to minister to students in our current cultural moment. He will be sharing some of the fruit of his study in a talk entitled, "New Trauma for a New Generation: Giving Hope to Students Dealing with the Evils of Their Age." If you have (or hope to have) children or grandchildren, or if you want to learn how to pray for those with children or grandchildren, I encourage you to join us.

From Pastor Caleb's Study

February 2, 2024

Don't forget that we are having a joint worship service this Sunday morning at 10:30 a.m. in the Gym (with Sunday School beforehand at 9:30 a.m.). The reason for this schedule change is that we're going to be ordaining and installing our newly elected elders and deacons.

• Andy Rowan has already been ordained as an elder in a previous PCA church, and Steve Tackitt has already been ordained as a deacon here at POPC - so these two men will only be installed as officers of POPC. John Neiswinger will be ordained and installed as an elder here, and Garrett McMullin will be ordained and installed as a deacon here.

Our Book of Church Order helpfully defines ordination as "the authoritative admission of one duly called to an office in the Church of God, accompanied with prayer and the laying on of hands, to which it is proper to add the giving of the right hand of fellowship." We see ordinations in both the Old and New Testaments (e. g., Leviticus 8; Acts 6:6 and 13:2-3).

• It is not some magical hocus-pocus, by which grace is mysteriously passed from current officers to new officers - rather, it is an act of government by the elders jointly, formally recognizing "that a particular man has the gifts and graces requisite for that office" and authoritatively admitting him to the full functions of his office (for more on ordination, see this article by Dr. Guy Waters).

At the service I will briefly explain the warrant, the nature, the character, and the duties of the offices of ruling elder and deacon. "Character" and "duties" are common words - how should an officer conduct himself, and what is he to do as an officer. But the words "warrant" and "nature" are perhaps a little more obscure.

• We're familiar with a "warrant for someone's arrest" - a warrant is authorization, justification, sanction. As we'll see, the offices of elder and deacon are not human, man-made offices, but are divinely instituted.

• The "nature" of something is its inherent, essential features - what is the thing? An elder is an official shepherd, an overseer, a steward, a teacher. A deacon is an official servant, who tangibly shows the mercy of Christ to those in need.

Jesus has given both offices to the church to reflect His two-fold ministry of word and deed. Both are necessary for the well-being of the people of God. Both are to exemplify the humble and holy nature of our Savior. And both are weighty responsibilities that are not to be taken up lightly. So be in prayer for these men, and for their wives and children!

----------

We're finishing up our mini-series on stewardship this Sunday, appropriately focusing upon our stewardship of the spiritual gifts that God has given each one of His children. The next two Sundays are our Missions Festival, and then we will jump back into the book of Romans one last time, working out way through Romans 12-16. I'm looking forward to getting to the practical application of all the rich doctrine that Paul has set forth for us in the first eleven chapters!

• Be in prayer for me that I would preach sound doctrine diligently, plainly, faithfully, wisely, zealously, and sincerely - and that you would "attend upon it with diligence, preparation, and prayer; examine what you hear by the Scriptures; receive the truth with faith, love, meekness, and readiness of mind, as the Word of God; meditate, and confer of it; hide it in their hearts, and bring forth the fruit of it in your lives" (Westminster Larger Catechism 159-160).

----------

Because of the ordination/installation service on Sunday morning, we're moving the Lord's Supper to the evening service. The Lord’s Supper is often called “Communion,” because as we eat the bread and drink the cup, we commune with our Savior spiritually, by faith (see I Cor. 10:16-17). We are strengthened as we feed upon Him and recall all the spiritual blessings we have in Him (Eph. 1:3ff.). We also commune with one another, for our union with Jesus unites us with all believers in Jesus Christ. So “let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near” (Heb 10:24-25). May our tasting and seeing that God is good and kind and merciful enable us to be good and kind and merciful to one another!

----------

Men, don't forget to join us down at FPC this evening for the Mid-South Men's Rally! Bring your children and either come at 5:15 for dinner, or 6:00ish to get a seat for the first session. Dr. Sandy Wilson (formerly Senior Pastor of 2nd Pres in Memphis and currently the President of The Gospel Coalition) will be our speaker, so you won't want to miss it.

From Pastor Caleb's Study

January 26, 2024

This Sunday's congregational meeting is a significant moment in the life of our church, and I encourage you to read over the material that we've mailed out the last several weeks (if you've thrown away or misplaced your letters, you can read them here and here!). I know we've been sending you a lot of information recently, with the congregational meeting and Missions Festival happening in quick succession, but we want to make sure you're informed of all that is happening.

• We'll meet at 10:00 in the Sanctuary to elect new officers, vote on three motions, and receive a budget presentation from Bill Alvis (our Treasurer) and Tom Young (our World Missions Committee chairman).
   

• The officer candidates approved by the Session as eligible for election are John Neiswinger and Andy Rowan (for Elder) and Garrett McMullen and Steve Tackitt (for Deacon). For each man, you will be able to vote YES or NO or abstain from voting. Our Book of Church Order states, "a majority of all the votes cast (excluding blanks and abstentions) shall be required to elect."
   

• We will vote on the two recommendations regarding Pastor Carl's retirement:
  
  1. To accept the resignation of Carl Kalberkamp as Associate Pastor of Pear Orchard Presbyterian Church with great sorrow and with great joy for his thirty years of ministry among us, and to concur with his request that the Presbytery of the Mississippi Valley dissolve the pastoral relation between him and the church.
  
  2. To elect Carl Kalberkamp as Pastor Emeritus of Pear Orchard Presbyterian Church, effective April 1, 2024, pending his being designated as honorably retired by the Presbytery of the Mississippi Valley in February.
   

• We will vote on the recommendation regarding 419 Northpark Drive: To approve the purchase of 419 Northpark Drive for a staff office building.
   

• More information about these motions and the 2024 budgets can be found in the links above.

Next Sunday (February 4), we will have a joint worship service in the Gym at 10:30 a.m., so that we might all be present for the ordination and installation of our new officers. The Lord has been faithful and merciful to give us elders and deacons to shepherd and serve His flock. He has also been kind to give every believer in Jesus gifts to use for His glory and the good of the body, and the sermon next Sunday on the stewardship of those gifts will be the last in our stewardship series. Make every effort to be with us the next two Lord's Days!

----------

As you'll see below, on February 11-18, we will hold our annual Missions Festival. Our preachers will be our own Pastor Carl Kalberkamp on the morning of February 11, Pastor Jeff Jordan (RUF Campus Minister at Mississippi College) on the evening of February 11, Pastor Esaie Etienne (a missionary in Haiti and the Dominican Republic) on Wednesday evening, and Dr. Michael Allen (Systematic Theology professor at RTS-Orlando) on both morning and evening of February 18. And of course, we'll have various missionaries with us in worship services and in Sunday School classes on February 18. Other activities are planned, so please review the brochure you'll be receiving in the mail or visit our website. Please be praying for the Lord to continue stirring our hearts to labor to fulfill His great commission from Matthew 28, so that all the nations might follow Him and be glad in Him!

----------

I recently came across the first issue of Notes From the Orchard, an online journal of sorts that we published at POPC from 2016-2018. (You can see all the issues here.) In that first issue I wrote about John Newton's wonderful reflections on the benefits of affliction -- a topic that is always relevant, but particularly it seems during this season in which so many have been walking through cancer treatments, deaths of family members, and other losses, griefs, and heartaches. I encourage you to read that article (as well as John Kwasny's article on marriage!). Our Lord promises never to leave us or forsake us, and to cause all our suffering to work together for good - as we sing together in the hymn How Firm a Foundation, "When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie, My grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply; the flame shall not hurt thee; I only design Thy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine." May the Lord comfort and strengthen you as you meditate upon His word in the midst of the fiery trials He has ordained for your growth in grace!
 

From Pastor Caleb's Study

January 19, 2023

It's not often we Mississippians get to see white falling from the sky or covering our roads and yards. "Ski Mississippi" shirts show winter athletes in a downhill tuck over the tops of cotton fields, not down mountains. I didn't see snow in Baton Rouge until sixth grade, and my youngest (Ezra) has often lamented our moving away from Cookeville, TN, when he was one year old, preventing him from living where it snowed fairly regularly. So in spite of the frigid cold and ominous threats of frozen pipes (as well as empty break and milk shelves at Kroger and southern drivers who aren't used to driving on icy roads), I always love when we get winter storms. So this week, as unsettling and abnormal as it's been, has been enjoyable to me as well.

The Bible is not silent about snow. While I haven't studied deeply the winter precipitation levels in ancient Israel, it's clear that the Biblical authors knew about and had seen snow. And they use it to drive home all sorts of spiritual realities.

• Snow shows the sovereign power of God:

  • "God thunders with His voice wondrously, doing great things which we cannot comprehend. For to the snow He says, ‘Fall on the earth,’ and to the downpour and the rain, ‘Be strong'" (Job 37:5-6).

  • "He sends forth His command to the earth; His word runs very swiftly. He gives snow like wool; He scatters the frost like ashes. He casts forth His ice as fragments; who can stand before His cold? He sends forth His word and melts them; He causes His wind to blow and the waters to flow" (Psalm 147:15-18).

• Snow shows the royal majesty and purity of God:

  • “I kept looking until thrones were set up, and the Ancient of Days took His seat; His vesture was like white snow and the hair of His head like pure wool. His throne was ablaze with flames, its wheels were a burning fire" (Daniel 7:9).

  • ". . . and in the middle of the lampstands I saw one like a son of man . . . His head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire" (Revelation 1:13-14).

• Snow shows us the grace of God in the forgiveness of our sins.

  • "'Come now, and let us reason together,' says the LORD, 'Though your sins are as scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they will be like wool'" (Isaiah 1:18).

  • "Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow" (Psalm 51:7).

Jesus models for us in His teaching how we ought to use nature to meditate upon God and the grace of the gospel. So keep these verses handy, and the next time the Lord sends snow or ice, think of them again, and rejoice in your God of power, holiness, and mercy to sinners like yourself.

----------

Speaking of pictures of cleansing from sin, we celebrate the sacrament of initiation into the covenant community this Lord's Day: baptism. Baptism is a outward sign of an internal reality. By the washing of water, the cleansing blood of Jesus and the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit are depicted for us. Of course, the sign itself is not the reality, does not in and of itself accomplish the reality, and does not always accompany the reality. It's possible to have the internal reality without having the external sign, and it's possible to have the external sign without having the internal reality - either at the moment of administration, or ever.

• The Westminster Confession of Faith puts it succinctly and in a helpfully balanced manner, "Although it be a great sin to contemn [i.e., "heap contempt upon"] or neglect this ordinance, yet grace and salvation are not so inseparably annexed unto it, as that no person can be regenerated, or saved, without it; or, that all that are baptized are undoubtedly regenerated" (WCF chapter 28).

As you witness the covenant sign and seal of baptism this coming Sunday, meditate upon how God the Father has cleansed you by grace through the blood of His Son and washing of His Spirit. We are all filthy sinners in desperate need of salvation; as the preacher in Moby Dick puts it, "Heaven have mercy on us all - Presbyterians and Pagans alike - for we are all somehow dreadfully cracked about the head, and sadly need mending." Yet there is cleansing for the worst of sinners in the gospel of Jesus Christ. "O precious is the flow, that makes me white as snow! No other fount I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus!"

From Pastor Caleb's Study

January 12, 2024

If you've already received your letter in the mail about the congregational meeting on January 28, I hope you've had a chance to read it. Here it is in digital form if it's more convenient for you to read it online. There are some big things about to happen, and potentially about to happen depending on your vote, so I encourage you to be present during the Sunday School hour in two weeks.

As you'll see below, the Lord was faithful to provide generously through you His people for our ministry in 2023. I thank Him for your sacrificial giving to His work, and for our deacons and elders who work hard every year on the budget - and especially have done so this past budget cycle. Please be praying for the elders as we meet next week to finalize the 2024 budget.

-----------

This Sunday we begin a four part topical sermon series on stewardship. When you hear that word, you probably think of money and financial resources. But God has entrusted much more to us than merely wealth. He has also given us time, relationships, and gifts - all of which we are called to use for His glory and the good of those around us. "It is required of stewards that they be found faithful" (I Corinthians 4:2). So for the next four weeks we will be thinking about what faithfulness looks like in each of these four areas. After that we'll have our Missions Festival (which I incorrectly wrote last week was February 4-11; it's actually February 11-18!), and then we will jump back into the book of Romans and finish it out to the end!

We confessed Westminster Larger Catechism #155 last Sunday night, and I was struck once more about how important and efficacious preaching is by the Spirit's power: "The  Spirit  of  God  makes  the  reading, but especially the preaching of the word, an effectual means

• of enlightening, convincing, and humbling sinners;

• of driving  them  out  of  themselves,  and  drawing  them  unto Christ;

• of conforming them to his image, and subduing them to  his  will; 

• of  strengthening  them  against  temptations  and corruptions;

• of building them up in grace,

• and establishing their  hearts  in  holiness  and  comfort  through  faith  unto salvation."

Please be praying for God to bear this fruit in our lives through the preaching of His word!

----------

Today is my 48th birthday, and it's also the memorial service for Mike Neiswinger. Elizabeth and I are driving to Dadeville, AL, this afternoon for my aunt's funeral service tomorrow, returning tomorrow evening. It is a sobering and good thing to be reminded of death as you remember your birth, for each birthday is one year closer to one's deathday. "It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, because that [i.e., death] is the end of every man, and the living takes it to heart" (Ecclesiastes 7:2). Wisdom consists in large part in numbering your days (Psalm 90:12), realizing that life is short (Psalm 39:4-5), that none of us are guaranteed another year (or day) of life, that one day we will die and stand before the judgment seat of Christ (Hebrews 9:27; II Corinthians 5:10). We have the strong comfort that "in God's book were all written, the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them" (Psalm 139:16). So we can live and serve with confident faith in His providence, celebrating His faithfulness year by year, knowing that we are here until He desires to take us home. As until He takes us home, we hear His encouragement to us: "There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment?" (Ecclesiastes 2:2-25).

Be praying for the Neiswinger family, and for all the families in our congregation who have lost loved ones recently. Let us bear one another's burdens, weep with those who weep, and comfort one another with the comfort we have received from God.

From Pastor Caleb's Study

January 5, 2024

I pray that the Lord richly blessed your Christmas and New Year's holidays - whether that looked like a restful time around a fireplace in the comfort of your own home or a less-than-restful time traveling to see family, I pray the peace of God and the joy of the Lord has been your strength day by day the past weeks. For many, the holidays can be painful reminders of the (better) way things used to be, or of the loneliness brought about by death, divorce, or other relational fracture. Even when moments of discouragement and despair roll over us like a wave, when God feels far away, we can say to our souls with the sons of Korah in Psalm 42, "Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God." The Lord is with us, even/especially at our lowest moments, for He has promised never to leave us nor abandon us (Joshua 1:5; Hebrews 13:5).

That promise of the presence of the Lord is much needed by our brothers and sisters who have lost loved ones recently. Please keep praying for the comfort of the Joey Smith family (in the death of his father) and Cindy Neiswinger and her family (in the death of her husband Mike), as well as Peggy Buras (in the death of her brother) and Marie Johnson and Joshua Richardson (in the death of Marie's sister). The turning over of the calendar is already a reminder of the brevity of our lives - "As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years, or if due to strength, eighty years, yet their pride is but labor and sorrow; for soon it is gone and we fly away" (Psalm 90:10) - and the death of a loved one drives home that reality all the more. How we need to keep the hope of the resurrection fresh on our heart!

Our final sermon in the life of Elisha this Lord's day will keep both death and resurrection before us, so please be praying that the Lord would use His word to meet us where we are (or one day will be) and bring us the life-giving hope of the gospel. For the rest of January and the first week of February, leading up to our annual Missions Festival February 4-11, we are going to think about the theme of stewardship: of our time, our relationships, our financial resources, and our gifts. That last sermon will coincide with a joint service in the gym for the ordination and installation of our new officers, so that together we might celebrate the Lord's gifts to us both individually and corporately. I look forward to meditating with you upon what it means to be wise and faithful recipients and conduits of the abundant provisions the Lord has graciously chosen to provide to us!

Speaking of new officers, we've announced in the bulletin the past two Sundays that our annual congregational meeting is set for January 28 during the Sunday School hour. Please make every effort to be present. Not only will we be electing new ruling elders and deacons and presenting the 2024 church budgets, but we will have two other important recommendations from the Session to consider. Be on the lookout for more information about these in the mail next week.

----------

If anyone is interested in attending, I'm leading a community book discussion at the RTS Bookstore (4268 I-55 North) on Friday, January 26, from 5:30-6:30. The book is Impeccable, by William Swan Plumer, a short volume (less than 100 pages) that considers the question of whether Jesus was able to sin or not. Spoiler alert: Plumer's answer is that Jesus was not only sinless, but He was not able to sin. Come and hear more about how that is possible and why it matters. You can pick up a copy of the book at the RTS Bookstore, or just show up if you'd like to listen in on the discussion.