The Preaching of the Gospel

"In order that people may be brought to faith, God mercifully sends proclaimers of this very joyful message to the people he wishes and at the time he wishes. By this ministry people are called to repentance and faith in Christ crucified. For how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without someone preaching? And how shall they preach unless they have been sent? (see Rom. 10:14-15)"  - from The Canons of Dordt, Article III

The cleverness of man is not the means by which God has chosen to save, it is by the PREACHING OF THE GOSPEL!

Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.  (1 Corinthians 1:20-12 ESV)

When it comes to the matters of spiritual life and conduct and ministry, is the Bible sufficient or do we need psychology and human wisdom?

Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God  (2 Corinthians 3:5 ESV)

And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.  (1 Corinthians 2:13 ESV)

The Bible is clear that we are reborn by the Word of God, not by man.

since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God  (1 Peter 1:23 ESV)

When you resort to schemes in order to draw people to God, that reveals that you do not trust in the power of God's Word to convert the soul (Psalm 19:7) and that you think God needs your help.

Sola Scriptura... Soli Deo Gloria...

My Memories of Grandpa Jackson (Message From His Funeral)

My Grandpa – Jimmy Dean Jackson (1932-2010)

At the young age of 39 years old, Jim Jackson became a Grandpa when I was born in September 1972… his very first Grandkid.  As a child you only know what you see in the small world around you.  For me, family was all I knew.  I was blessed with 2 sets of Grandparents and many aunts, uncles and cousins.  We were all very close, sharing most every birthday and holiday together.  My Grandpa was always there.  I have so many memories of him, it’s unbelievable.  I can still hear his voice saying my name, “Hi Travvy” or “Trav!  Get over here and give your Grandpa a hug.”  If I dared try and shake his hand, he’d say, “attt… attt… you know better than that.  You’re never too big to hug your Grandpa.”, he’d say.  He’d always greet you with a hug as soon as you walked in the door.  If he knew you were coming, you’d be getting that hug in the front yard as you walked up to the house.  He loved his family so much, he would have and “did” do anything and everything he could in their time of want and need. 

He was a Godly man.  My Grandpa loved the LORD and he served Him until his last breath.  When I was born my Grandpa Jackson was a deacon and my Grandpa Foley was the pastor of Oak Grove Baptist church in Salem, MO where my Mom and Dad attended.  Just a few years ago I attended a recognition service for my Grandpa at Oak Grove where he was given a plaque for 38 years of service as a deacon and yet still continued serving the LORD.  Though I grew up in church and hearing the Gospel, it wasn’t until 2005 before I was saved.  God drew me and opened my eyes to the sin in my life which sent me to the Cross in repentance and faith in Christ.  I too, as did my Grandpa, serve the LORD.  My Grandpa did not take recognition well for his service.  He would always point up giving glory to God, which is most certainly appropriate.  He told me a story just a few short months ago that he said he had never told anyone and didn’t want me to say anything.  I suppose it’s OK to tell it now.  This is just an example of the kind of man my Grandpa was.  There is a half-way house off of West 5th Street in Salem, MO called “Agape House”.  My Grandpa went by there one evening on the way home from work and visited with a couple of the men sitting on the front porch.  He said he noticed they didn’t have much of anything to cover their feet.  Grandpa kneeled down and unlaced his brand new leather work boots and kicked them off.  He gave them to the man who’s feet they fit.  One man put them on and said they fit.  Grandpa said, lace ‘em up and walk around.  The man was speechless.  Grandpa asked him how they felt, he replied, “they feel  great”.  Grandpa said, “they’re yours”.   My Grandpa turned and walked back to his car barefoot and drove off.  That was my Grandpa.  He didn’t want praise for what he did, he only wanted to minister to someone.  He has shared the Gospel with me time and time again… with words and by his very life.  He was just one of the means by which the LORD used to draw me to Himself.

A Workin’ Man
Where do I even begin?  My Grandpa was a farmer, a worker, a man of men.   There are few like him.

My Grandpa loved to farm.  I was blessed the early years of my life to spend time on their farm.  There were few things that us Grandkids looked more forward to than going to the farm to see Grandma and Grandpa.  He would let us drive the tractor, we’d ride with him on it across the pasture, we’d get to ride in the truck with him when he’d go out to feed, and we got to help him bail hay.  There are so many memories; it’s hard to get them all out.  He used to have this cow one time when I was probably 8 or 9 years old.  This cow had horns that curved downward.  I thought it was the oddest looking cow.  Well, my Grandpa would help me up on that cow and let me ride on her back as he walked her around.  I thought that was the greatest thing in the world!  He knew how to handle her, she was so gentle.  One thing that I’ll bet you don’t know about my Grandpa, unless you are one of his kids or Grandkids, is that my Grandpa Jackson was actually half Cowboy and half Indian.  I later grew to realize that he may very well have been the only one in the world with this rare set of characteristics!  He surely was a Grandpa like no other.

My Grandpa was a worker.  Not only was he a farmer, but my Grandpa was an iron worker.  There were times he would get up early in the morning, feed the cattle, drive all the way to St. Louis, put in a full day of iron work, drive home, tend to the farm, go to bed and do it all over again.  Grandpa Jackson worked hard right up until the end of his life.  He took pride in his work whether it was running an 800 acre farm with hundreds of head of cattle or it was shining the floors at the college.  He took pride in his work because he knew he belonged to Christ and everything in his life was a reflection of that devotion.

One of the most talked about memories of all of us Grandkids was the “blood and sweat jelly”!  There were several blackberry bushes on Grandma and Grandpa’s farm and all of us Grandkids would get out there with Grandma and Grandpa and our parents, a 5 gallon bucket in each hand, and start picking blackberries!  We would pick bucket after bucket of these things in the dead heat of the summer.  Bleeding from the stickers in the bushes and stinging when the sweat would wash over the cuts… but oh our sights were on what was to come.   Grandma’s homemade blackberry jelly!  It’s not hard to tell why Grandpa called this special jelly, “blood and sweat jelly”.  We all enjoyed the fruit of our labor.  That, as well as Grandma’s touch, made each and every jar something to cherish for years to come.

Our Last Talk 
I just talked to him a few days ago right before he was to get surgery done on his heel.  I called to tell him the good news, that I had been elected as one of the deacons at my church.  I was just telling him at Easter that I had been nominated and this was the call to let him know I had been voted in by the congregation.  He was so proud of me.  He was so encouraging.  When I asked him how he was feeling, he said, “oh, I’m feelin’ alright I guess Trav.”  He said he was getting ready to go in and have a bone spur removed from his heel here in a couple of days.  He was telling me that he was going to have to be on crutches for a couple of weeks and he wasn’t going to be able to work.  He said, “well, if they have another graduation up at the school, I’ll have to tell them they’ll have to find someone else to get things ready, I just can’t do it Trav.”  He always called me Trav or Travvy.  He went on to say, “all my life I have been scared to death of ending up an old man just sitting in a rocking chair on my front porch, staring off in to space.  I never wanted to be like that.”  I said, “Grandpa, you have never and will never be like that.  A man like that is a man who has lost his purpose in life, just sitting around waiting for his number to be pulled.  You are not that man.  You need to just do what the doctor tells you and just rest for once in your life.”  I went on to ask him about his banjo.  I remember as a kid he had gotten himself a banjo, but I never remembered him playing.  I was recently given a banjo by my Father-in-Law and I’m just learning to play, so I thought I would ask him about it.  He said that he was taking lessons for a little while, then he ended up smashing his fingers building a sandbox for the kids.  (That would be me and my cousins – I never knew this)  He said after that he missed some lessons, fell out of practice and figured he’d just sell it.  He said he still loves to listen to the banjo though and was telling me about a channel that he watches all the time that is nothing but banjo playing.  I told him that I’m going to learn how to play that thing really good and come down and play for him.  He said he knows I’ll learn it well and will look forward to it.  That day will never happen, but I promise I am going to learn to play that banjo like no one else in honor of my promise to my Grandpa Jackson.

There are volumes and volumes of experiences, memories, words of encouragement and lessons grounded in Godly wisdom that are missing from this glimpse back on Grandpa’s life.   I could never fully and truly capture the essence of the man I called “Grandpa Jackson”.

What Now?
My Grandpa Jackson was a man of God.  Unwavering, he stood firm in his faith.  I’m not talking about a man who was wishy washy in his style of life and I’m not talking about a man who was morally perfect either.  I’m talking about a man who knew he was a sinner, who knew he deserved hell, but knew that by the grace of a sovereign and loving God, through faith in the shed blood of Jesus Christ alone that he was cleansed of his crimes against God and stood justified before the God of heaven and earth!  He lived a life of faith in Christ.   Over the course of my life I watched this man of God, most of the time through the eyes of a lost man… not a Christian, and I saw a man who honestly believed what he said he believed and his life was a testimony to that.  After God saved me, I had some of the greatest conversations about the Bible with my Grandpa.  For instance, the past couple of years or so we talked at great length about the Judgment House that Oak Grove Baptist Church held around Halloween time and how the Gospel was being preached to hundreds and hundreds of people.  He and Grandma were so excited, as was I.  He was a man that would stand fierce for what he believed and that came out in his service as deacon just as much as it did anywhere else in his life.  If he knew something was brewing in the church that was unbiblical or contradicted Scripture in any way he was there to make sure it was stopped.  He was not a man pleaser, he sought to please the God loved and served.  He was a servant of the LORD.  He has ministered to the lives of so many outside of our family over the course of his 77 years, I can’t even begin to imagine.  He was a missionary in his own hometown.

Missionary, Nate Saint wrote this, “People who do not know the LORD ask why in the world we waste our lives as missionaries?  They forget, they too are expending their lives… and when the bubble has burst, they will have nothing of eternal significance to show for the years they have wasted.”

Everybody’s bubble is going to burst.  Everyone of us, at the end of our lives… pshhhh… it’s all gone.  Then what?  What do we spend our lives for?  What do we pour ourselves out for?  What do we give ourselves to?

Come to a man who is lying on his death-bed, or a prisoner that is to die tomorrow and try talking to him about wealth, or accomplishments and recognition, or temptations to lust, drunkenness or excess; and he will think you have lost your mind.  Oh how serious we are when we’re staring death in the face, to turn from our former ways and desperately ask, “what must I do to be saved?”  To a man in this position every verse of Scripture has life and power.  Thoughts are directed wholly on, “what is to happen when I pass into eternity very shortly?  Time is now precious and if you ask this man if his last hours would be better spent getting drunk, gambling, going shopping or any other needless recreation or would it be better spent in prayer and reading God’s Word?  This man is more inclined at this point in time to choose the latter; prayer and the reading of God’s Word.  Why?  Because he has an expectation of the speedy approach of the soul into the presence of the eternal God and entering into an unchangeable, endless life of joy… or torment.  This has so much of an impact to wake this man up to reality so that if ever he will be serious about his right standing before God, it will be now.  It is for this reason it is a great mercy of God, that this life, which is so short, should be as uncertain as it is, and that frequent dangers and sicknesses call to us to look at ourselves and be ready for our change into eternity, this is why the sick or anyone facing death take these matters more seriously.  Those in your youth and health to consider your frailty and the shortness and uncertainty of your lives and always live as those that wait for the coming of Christ.

The Bible says in Hebrews 9:27-28, “And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.”  My Grandfather’s appointed day has come and as he stands before God to be judged, he will stand “in Christ” a righteous man and hear the words I know he longed to hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.” (Matt 25:23).  Grandpa has been poured out as a drink offering, and the time of his departure has come.  He has fought the good fight, he has finished the race, he has kept the faith and there is laid up for him the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to him on that Day, and not only to him but also to all who have loved the appearing of Christ.  (2 Tim 4:6-9) 

One of Grandpa’s favorite verses was Hebrews 11:1 which says, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”  He’d quote that verse, look at me, point to the Bible and say, “Trav, people sometimes ask me questions about the Bible… why such and such this and such and such that.  I don’t know everything there is to know about the Bible, but what I don’t understand I take it by faith!  I don’t have to understand it all, but I believe by faith that this is the Word of God.”  I would just smile and say, “Amen Grandpa, amen.”

While I will miss those talks with my Grandpa, I have the blessed hope of seeing him again one day in heaven.  Grandpa isn’t just “in a better place”, as he was not just my Grandpa; he was my brother in Christ.  Today he is at the feet of the One Who died for him, the risen Christ, worshiping, rejoicing and shouting praises with all the brothers and sisters in Christ who have gone before him. 

 A Grandpa of Grandpas… called home, by the King of Kings and LORD of LORDs.

To God alone be the glory,

Travis Foley
“He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.”  (Psalm 147:3 ESV)

“I love you Grandpa.”

A Tribute to Grandpa Jackson

I wanted to put together something to honor the memory of my Grandpa Jackson whom I loved and miss deeply. He was promoted to Glory on May 11, 2010.