Tag: Ministry

Waco Reformed Church — What Makes Us Different?

What would I say if someone were to ask: “What makes Waco Reformed Church different?”

That’s a hard question, simply because it’s difficult to know where to start. But I believe the best place to start is with the verse that is foundation to our worship, John 4:23-24. Just the fact that I felt a need to start with the subject of worship, should tell you something about who we are. As we learn from John’s Gospel:

23 But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers willworship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. 24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in Spirit and Truth.”

This verse is the starting point in informing our worship. There are two key points that should stand out. The first is that the Father is seeking such to worship Him. Since He is seeking us, then our gatherings on the LORD’s Day should be focused upon Him and worshipping Him. In seeking us, He is making the first move, to bring us into fellowship with Him, to worship Him.

This is a departure from much of what many churches do. Many seek to worship God, by focusing on evangelism, or feeding the flock, or entertaining the flock, or meeting the felt needs of those people who join them in worship. Hopefully you can see the difference already. Most church focus on the flock and what the flock needs in worship, instead of turning to God, and looking to His word to drive our worship.

This misguided focus is born out of a misunderstanding of the verse above and the second point that needs to be driven home, which I hope jumped out of you in the verse I quoted. Notice the capitalization added in verse 24.

24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in Spirit and Truth.”

Most translations do not capitalize Spirit and Truth. However, I believe it should be capitalized. To not do so, is again the same mistake that many churches make in forming their understanding of worship, which it is to be focused upon the one worshipping, and not the One worshipped. When we are not specific about worshiping in spirit and truth, then this leads it open to interpretation, and much error.

We need to turn it back around, and see Spirit and Truth as being rooted in God Himself. Without the Holy Spirit and the Truth (Christ) we cannot worship at all.

Both Christ and the Holy Spirit are essential for us to worship the Father. Christ is the atoning sacrifice needed to enter into God’s presence. The Spirit is the means by which we do. The blood of Christ washes us clean. The Spirit carries into the Holy of holies, or brings us to Mt. Zion (Hebrews 12). Without Christ or the Spirit, there is no amount of genuflecting we can do to please the Father. We must have the Spirit and the Truth.

When we are off of these things, then we err in thinking worship is about us, and for us. It is not. It is always about the Triune God and worshiping Him.

The sad reality of those who miss the directional change,  is that in the end, evangelism doesn’t take place, the flock isn’t truly fed, the entertainment never satisfies and demands more and more of the spectacular, and the felt needs simply change their feelings with each passing week.

When we begin our focus upon what God desires, then we begin to see the need for all of Scripture to inform our worship. We know and understand that we are not free to do anything we please when it comes to worshipping God. Simply see Leviticus 10:1-7, the story of Nadab and Abihu offering profane fire before the YHWH. YHWY brought immediate judgment upon them for doing so.

This simple principle shows us the need to look to Scripture to inform our worship. This of course, is more than I want to say here. But I would say that this is the biggest item that makes our worship different from the average evangelical church. The focus begins and ends with the Triune God.

In changing the focus from ourselves, to God, then true evangelism will take place. The feeding of the flock will occur. The need for entertainment will righfully be replaced with the desire to honor our Father. The felt needs we think we have, will melt away with the realization that our real needs are being met because we re letting God’s Truth, His Spirit, His word, work in us, instead of trying to replace all these things with what we think should be there. It really is about trusting in God, His word and His provisions for us.

Now, I’m not saying we are the only church in town with such and understanding. There are other parts of the body of Christ who are spot on, but this point itself sets us on the right path. And this is one of the key differences that set us apart from others in the evangelical world.

Day Four: Sermonizing on Prayer

This morning (Friday)  I decided I would spend most of the day working on my sermon for Sunday. This meant that I would also be praying a lot, since the sermon is on prayer. Reading about prayer always inspires me to pray more than usual.

I noticed this truth years ago when I was reading through John Calvin’s Institutes of Christian Religion, the section on prayer. I believe it is in the beginning of Book III. Getting through that section took me longer than any other part of the book because I kept putting the book down in order to pray. It was a wonderful lesson to learn.

The sermon I’m working on is the second one from Matthew 6, which deals with the way hypocrites corrupt the religious practices of charity, prayer, and fasting. You can listen to the sermon on charity here. The hard part is actually honing in on the definition of what a hypocrite is, according to the Bible. I think I finally got close:

But before we jump to the two ways the hypocrites make prayer an abomination, let us think through what it means to be a hypocrite?

Some would say that a hypocrite is someone who believes one thing and does another, or does the opposite. But the definition biblically is one who is pretender, or a stage-actor. The person is performing in a role, as if they were in a Greek play. This if fine for a play, but not for things of the faith.

Hypocrisy, when it comes to the faith, is a problem. The hypocrites were pretending to be godly. It wasn’t so much that they were believing one thing, and doing another. They were not believing at all, and acting as though they did believe.

It is actually worse than one who believes in Christ, but then fails in an area of our faith. In fact, when we fail, we actually affirms the truth that we profess: we are saved by grace through faith, yet, we still stumble and fall into sin.’

This reality is not hypocrisy because we do have faith. When we fail and repent, we are restored. This is typical for the Christian. I’m not trying to belittle our failures, but to show that hypocrisy is much worse.

They hypocrites didn’t believe at all. There was no faith in them. There is no belief in God at all. They were and are performing as if they are in the faith, yet they lack faith all together.

Therefore, the audience and the praise they hope to gain, becomes their god. Their praise and attention they seek, is their god. When it comes down to it, they themselves are their god.

Hopefully you can see that hypocrisy is more than just failing to do what we believe. It is the absolute absence of belief, but pretending in belief for the praise of others, instead of the honor of our Father in heaven.

 

Day Three: Lots of Yard Work

Today (Thursday) was perfect for yard work. The temperature in the morning was in the mid 70s, and it was overcast. So the sun was prevented from beating down on me as I worked.

I went immediately to work on the front flower bed. Since I hadn’t worked on it since last year, it was a mess. The joy, was ripping out weeds that I had been fighting for while. The work: there were a lot of weeds. But that was done, after about four hours of work. Why so long? Most of the soil was in its “mud form.” It kept caking up my tools and my boots, and I had to stop and break it free for my tools to function properly.

ADDED Bonus: as I was working on the flower bed, I found a Southern Oak sapling behind the biggest bush. I pulled it up, and decided to plant it in the lower 40 just to see if I could get it to grow. I haven’t had much luck transporting trees from one part of the yard to the other. I think this is because the two times I’ve tried, I didn’t take the soil with it. Hopefully, with enough TLC, this one will take root. See the picture below.

Relief came when Heidi called me to lunch. We had a Sloppy Joe salad. Yes, delicious. It hit the spot.

Who would have ever dreamed Sloppy Joes could have been added to a salad? Heidi. And she did it.

The movie of the night: Shawshank Redemption.

The quote of the day: J.C. Ryle.

“I hold salvation by grace as strongly as any one. I would gladly offer a free and full pardon to the greatest sinner that ever lived. I would not hesitate to stand by his dying bed, and say, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ even now, and you shall be saved.” But that a man can have salvation without asking for it, I cannot see in the Bible. That a man will receive pardon of his sins, who will not so much as lift up his heart inwardly, and say, “Lord Jesus, give it to me,” this I cannot find. I can find that nobody will be saved by his prayers, but I cannot find that without prayer anybody will be saved.”

That is part of my sermon preparation on prayer. See Matthew 6.

All photos are copyright © Timothy J. Hammons, 2025. 

Day Two: Summer Vacation!

Coffee, breakfast and eventually a dash out the door is how today got started. I was hoping to take it easy since the rains came again. But alas, I remembered something I had to do.

Our church, Waco Reformed Church, has been meeting in my living room for about three months now, and we have to find a new location. Not only are we too crowded inside my living room, but Heidi and I have cats. You would know this if you follow along. When we got the cats, Pericope and Synecdoche, we had no idea we would end up with the congregation meeting in our living room. Wasn’t on our radar.

But providentially, this is how things are. What makes this more difficult is that we have two families in the church who have family members who are allergic to cats. This means finding a new place to worship is a top priority.

I committed to going by an older church this week and speaking to the pastor in the hopes that they would be able to allow us to use their building in the afternoon. Turns out, his congregation and another congregation are looking to merge. The building will be sitting empty if that happens. Details are sketchy, but we may be able to lease it. We are praying to that end.

AS for the rest of the day:

  • More projects completed.
  • Another episode of Band of Brothers watched.
  • A lot more rain and thunder, making my reading time more enjoyable.
  • Worked on my sermon for Sunday.
  • Fixed a cat toy out in the garage.

Here is my rain gauge.

Abandoned By God

This was originally published June 15, 2013 when I was going through a dark period in life. Heidi rediscovered it through her Feedly account. I’ve revised it since the first publication, and republish it now because there are always more people going through similar situations who need the encouragement.

Recently, in the deepest part of the night, while facing struggles personal, and vocationally, I came to the point of feeling truly abandoned by God. The pain of loss, broken-heartedness and hopelessness truly gripped me and as I cried out to God I truly felt He had turned His back upon me. I felt completely rejected and dejected.

I’m not trying to be melodramatic, but life was so disrupted and out of sorts that I could see no real hope on this side of glory at all and truly felt as though God had turned His face away from me and left me to myself. I know that many will immediately react to such feelings and such a position, but I’m not the first believer in history to experience such a black moment in my life.

I was reminded of this as I was leading my Sunday school through the psalms and someone wanted me to go through Psalm 13. David starts with the words:

How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever?
How long will You hide Your face from me?

What comforting words they were to me. David was showing me that he too, struggled from feelings of abandonment. I was not the first, nor am I alone. A lot of people struggle from such feelings in their Christian walk, but because of some false pollyanna view of Christianity, we are not allowed to talk about it or admit to such dark feelings. So many, when hearing of such struggles, just want to pop off a quick verse about all things working together for good, and move on to the next happy moment. It is as if we are to ignore such dark feelings and break into a chorus of Monty Python’s Always Look on the Bright Side of Life. Please note the irony here. While singing of such a happy life, they are hanging from crosses and facing death. (See the video here.)

How many have struggled with such feelings and have been afraid to admit it, thinking that by having such feelings we are sinning against God? The psalmist was not sinning against God when he uttered such words. He was merely recognizing God’s active movement in His life. He was being honest before God about what he felt and before the all-knowing and all-seeing God of the universe.

Having such feelings and being honest about them can be a blessing if we will let them be. How so? These feelings show us that something very vital is missing to in our lives. We are missing the presence of the LORD. David had to endure this absence for quite some time and finally that absence leads him to say, How long, O LORD?

I thing what struck me about this reality is that often times when we enter into sufferings, we are OK with those sufferings initially because we know through such sufferings God refines us and purifies us. However, it is the “How long…” that trips up most of us. Suffering for a week, we can endure. Doing without something for a month, we can handle. But the prolonged period of suffering, where there seems to be no end in sight, that is what dooms many of us.

We are like David asking, “How long, O Lord?”

And that is safe to ask. It shows us that the answer to our pain and suffering are only going to be found in the LORD.

But David doesn’t just ask, How long? He also asks: How long will you hide your face from me?

This question is a matter of blessing for it is a blessing for the LORD to turn His face toward us. This is why the Aaronic benediction is so important in the believer’s life:

Numbers 6:24-26 The LORD bless you and keep you; The LORD make His face shine upon you, and be gracious to you; The LORD lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace.  Amen

His face toward us is a blessing in the areas of our lives. For David, God had turned His face away and He knew the turning was the removal of blessing. For us, the blessing can be removed in our marriages, our jobs, our health, our country, etc.. There are many areas that God can choose to remove His blessing from us, so it is right for us to ask Him: How long will you hide your face from me?

Again, in asking the question, we are telling the LORD that we know all the blessings we have in every realm of life come ultimately from Him. We also recognize that those blessings have been removed for some time and that it is only through the LORD that the blessings will return.

So we petition the LORD in these dark moments, dark months, or dark years. If blessing is going to return, then it must come from the Father of lights.

How does David petition? Consider and hear me, O LORD my God; enlighten my eyes. He is asking for understanding. He is asking that God would help him understand why the blessing has been removed and why it has been so long since he had it.

The is the turning point for the psalmist. It is after that in which he proclaims: But I have trusted in Your mercy; my heart rejoices in Your salvation, I will sing to the LORD because He has dealt bountifully with me.

Not that his situation has changed, or that blessing has been restored. But David, like us, realizes that God has and is blessing us even in the moments when we feel abandoned. By understanding God’s providential hand, we know that ultimately He will never leave us nor forsake us, even though we may feel like He has. Because we feel like He has, tells us of His bountiful blessing on us.

 

 

Work vs. Worship

There are times when I will be talking to believers about worship, and they will say something along the lines of, “well, I worship every day. All of life is worship. I’m worshipping now as I do my job.”

I know that they want to believe this, because it sanctifies their job. There is nothing wrong with the desire to see our callings as ordained by God. The work we do is a calling from God. When we take up a job, we are to do it for the glory of the LORD, taking dominion of the task before us, so that when it is done in faith, He is glorified. In doing our jobs, we are being obedient to the LORD. All Christians should have this view towards their jobs.

The problem is that even though we are told to do all things for the glory of the LORD, we are not to assume that we are worshipping God in our daily callings. Work and worship are quite different. In fact, when we worship God, we are to cease from work. The two do not overlap. In both the Old and New Testament, we see the different words used for “work” and “worship,” showing that the two words are not the same. One can work, or worship, one cannot do both since the spheres are different callings from God.

We get this in our instructions of when we are to worship found in the Ten Commandments.

Deuteronomy 5:12-15

12 ‘Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. 13 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 14 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your ox, nor your donkey, nor any of your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. 15 And remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.

This is one of the foundational principles for worship, showing us that we are to cease from work on the Sabbath, or as we do under the New Covenant, the LORD’s Day. But more importantly, we see the worship and work are not the same. One might say: “well, the commandment doesn’t say to worship.” The rest of Deuteronomy details worship. But here in the commandment, we are given the principle of 1 day in 7. We work on 6 days, and 1 day we worship. Work is to cease on the LORD’s Day.

But to be more clear, we need to look at the Hebrew word for work. It is: mᵊlā’ḵâ. It means to labor. It points to our occupation, and we are commanded to work for six days. Strong’s put it this way:

מְלָאכָה mᵉlâʼkâh, mel-aw-kaw’; from the same as H4397; properly, deputyship, i.e. ministry; generally, employment (never servile) or work (abstractly or concretely); also property (as the result of labor):—business, cattle, industrious, occupation, ( -pied), officer, thing (made), use, (manner of) work((-man), -manship).

What about worship? What are we to do for worship? Fundamentally, when we worship, we are to make sacrifices to the LORD. Work is about producing. Worship is about sacrifice. We see this when Abraham took Isaac up on the mountain to sacrifice him, as YHWH had instructed Abraham to do.

Genesis 22:5

And Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; the lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you.”

The worship that Abraham is to do, is sacrifice. He thinks he will sacrifice his son, knowing that if he does, the LORD will raise him up again. But he ends up sacrificing a ram that the LORD provided. This is a key to our worship. It is about sacrifice. We go to worship for sacrifice. But the LORD provides the sacrifice. We just offer ourselves, and He cuts us up with His word, then works in us, and then feeds us, all through the ultimate sacrifice that Christ made on the cross.

Back to the word for worship in Hebrew. It is: šāḥâ. It has the idea of bowing down, prostrating oneself, humbling oneself before a superior. Strong’s puts it this way:

שָׁחָה shâchâh, shaw-khaw’; a primitive root; to depress, i.e. prostrate (especially reflexive, in homage to royalty or God):—bow (self) down, crouch, fall down (flat), humbly beseech, do (make) obeisance, do reverence, make to stoop, worship.

Hopefully you can see the two concepts are different. We work unto the glory of the LORD during the week, but it is not worship. We gather with the people of God on the LORD’s day, but it is not work. The two have different goals and function.

What about the New Testament?

The best passage for this is one of God’s stated purposes in sending Christ.

John 4:24

But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.

A lot of evangelicals miss the mark on this verse, because they don’t give it the value that it should have. They are so often focused on John 3:16 (thereby missing the fulness of the John 3), that they come to the conclusion that we are to focus merely on missions. But the Father’s purpose in missions is worship. Worship takes priority. The Father sends the Son, so that there will be true worship. (For more on this, you can listen to the sermon on this subject here).

Hopefully here we can lay this to rest, because the Greek word used for worship is: proskyneō. It means to prostrate oneself before another. As Strong’s puts it:

προσκυνέω proskynéō, pros-koo-neh’-o; from G4314 and a probable derivative of G2965 (meaning to kiss, like a dog licking his master’s hand); to fawn or crouch to, i.e. (literally or figuratively) prostrate oneself in homage (do reverence to, adore):—worship.

This is not the picture of work at all. In fact, let’s look at “work” in Greek as well. The Greek word for work is: ergon. Strong’s explains it this way:

ἔργον érgon, er’-gon; from a primary (but obsolete) ἔργω érgō (to work); toil (as an effort or occupation); by implication, an act:—deed, doing, labour, work.

We are to ergon during the week, and proskyneo on the LORD’s day. To say we worship during the week is to confuse the meaning of the two words.

Conclusion

To work is labor. It is a calling, and we should treat it as such. But work is not worship. These are two different functions for the Christian. We work during the week, and worship on the First Day of the week. Yes, we should see our work as a calling from God. But let us not mix up the two.

If you would like to learn more about Covenantal Worship, then go here for a series of sermons on the topic.

The Hope of a Slow Growing Burr Oak

When we moved into our home, almost 2 years ago, it became obvious that the previous owners had one love in life: watching NFL football. We gathered this because there were televisions mounted to the walls in the living room, every bedroom, and there were three in the den. They were kind enough to leave us all the wall mounts, which we quickly put on the curb for disposal. I don’t think they ever imagined we wouldn’t follow their lead, and mount 15 televisions throughout the house. We have one.

But the real problem with people like that is that they don’t care for the yard, or the house itself. People like the previous owners should be renters, not owners. Just look at the pictures of the back yard when we moved in back in August of 2022.

Sparse.

But they did try to add some curb appeal out front. In fact, the yard out front under the big oak, was actually in good shape. It was filled with St. Augustine grass. The rest of the yard was mostly weeds, and three, newly planted trees. One of which was this Burr Oak.

As you can see, this burr oak isn’t very big. Maybe a foot tall, and it has been about that size since we moved in back two years ago. There were times where the weeds and grass in the front yard almost obscured its existence all together. I had to put those yellow warning flags around it, so that my boys wouldn’t mow over it when they were helping me in the yard.

It’s a small tree.

This morning, while cutting the grass, I had to stop, get the hand shears, and cut the St. Augustine away from the trunk. I got my shovel out and worked to get the roots of the grass out, then added some mulch around the base. I love this tree.

Some might say: why not plant a Bradford Pear, it will grow 25 feet in 5 years? Because it will be dead in 15 years.

Not a burr oak. The burr oak is a tree that can last as long as 400 years. It only grows about a foot every year, so it is a slow growing tree.

I need to remind myself of this. I’m not caring for this tree, for my benefit, but for some future homeowner. I seriously doubt I will ever sit in the shadow of this tree, unless I pass out from the Texas heat, an just so happen to fall next to it.

But there is a deeper spiritual truth illustrated by this tree that is helpful to me in my ministry. The way this tree grows, is often times the way the LORD chooses to grow the church. The roots of this tree are going deep, and the branches are slowing going upwards. This is exactly what ministers should want in the growth of their churches. They should desire that the roots of the gospel are going deep in the parishioners, while they slowly produce sprititul fruit of their own.

This burr oak may not produce any acorns for some time, but it will. It may not provide any shade in the near future, but when does, it will be magnificent. This oak may not even be noticed for years, but when it is noticed, it will point back to God and His glory.

All these truths help us to see the greater reality of building Christ’s Kingdom and the church. Elders and pastors have to ask ourselves: what are we trying to grow?

Sure, we can use the ways of the world, with flashy concert-like worship services, lots of entertainment, smoke machines and loud praise teams to build the church. In fact, that is more often than not, the approach many take. But to do so, has consequences and those consequences are not good.

Paul put it like this in 1 Corinthians 3.

For no one is able to lay another foundation than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if anyone builds upon the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, grass, straw, 13 the work of each one will become evident. For the day will reveal it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the work of each one, of what sort it is. 14 If anyone’s work that he has built upon it remains, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, but so as through fire.

The question is: what are you going to build the church with? Gold, silver, precious stones, which Leithard see as true believers in the church, or wood, grass, and straw, which are more like tares. Who are we going to appeal to?

This has always been my fight as a pastor. Yes, we can put on shows, adopting the ways of the world, and draw large crowds, but Jesus told Peter, “Feed my sheep.” In doing that, we must realize that we don’t have the freedom to use the wisdom of the world. For us to be faithful, and truly feed His sheep, we must use the means HE has given us: the preaching of the word of God, prayer, and the sacraments. These are the things that work in the lives of believers. These are the tools He has given us to work in the body of Christ.

In doing so, it’s going to take a long time. This is why the burr oak gives me hope. It reminds me, that what I’m doing as a pastor, is slow work. We might not produce a great deal of noticeable fruit for a while. We might not provide a lot of shade in the near future. But we are not working just for the near future. We plow in hope, grow burr oaks in hope, not for our benefit. We may never see the fruit of our labor. For the tree we have planted is not a Bradford Pear, here today with lots of entertainment and smoke machines, but gone tomorrow. We a planting for the future.

That takes time.

I’m grateful the former owners planted the burr oak. I shall water it, fertilize it, keep the St. Augustine off of it, and let God cause the growth.

Here is our backyard as of a few a moments ago. I believe we are to take dominion of all that we have been given. Hopefully you can see the difference.

All photos are copyright © Timothy J. Hammons, 2024.

Scotch, Cigars, and Good Fellowship

There is just something about a good Scotch, along with a good cigar, and great fellowship. This is one of the things I love about Reformed Christians. We have the freedom to enjoy good drinks along with good cigars.

For years, I knew this was true about many in Reformed circles, but it is only in the last two years, since becoming pastor of Waco Reformed Church, that I have found true fellowship with those who enjoy doing just that.

I started writing this post because I wanted to share with Gabriel Rench, of CrossPolitic fame, the fact that I picked up another bottle of Talisker Single Malt Scotch Whisky. He made a post showing a bottle and a cigar, and I thought I would return the favor since I bought my second bottle for our fellowship lunch on Sunday.

The men the church love to sit in my garage (for lack of a better place) and smoke cigars, sip beer or Scotch, and talk theology, politics, and a host of other things. It is great fellowship.

But then this post morphed into one about Scotch, and so here it is.

I’m not an expert on Scotch but I was inspired by a Youtube video on the Top 5 Peated Scotches. At SLB’s suggestion, I bought a bottle of Talisker Single Malt Scotch Whisky, and was rewarded for my trust. Most people don’t particularly care for peated Scotch, but I have grown to love it.

My tastes for peated Scotches began about 2 years ago when a friend shared some Laphroaig (pronounced LaFroy). I didn’t like it at all. But it was such a strong taste, it made an indelible impression on the memory of my taste buds. The taste was sharp and smoky. It lasted. It had depth to it.

So I tried Peated Scotch again with a bottle of Ardbeg. That was probably not the way to go, since Ardbeg is much stronger that Laphroaig (pronounced LaFroy). Yet, it too, left an impression on my memory, especially as I worked my way through the bottle. I wasn’t going to throw it out, after all. It was still Scotch.

By the time I finished that bottle, I was officially a peated Scotch drinker. This led to the video. The man’s wife in the video calls the peated Scotches the “stinky Scotch.” And it does have a strong smell to it. So what is Peat?

“Peat is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation or organic matter. It is unique to natural areas called peatlands, bogs, mires, moors, or muskegs…. Some Scotch whisky distilleries, such as those on Islay, use peat fires to dry malted barley. The drying process takes about 30 hours. This gives the whiskies a distinctive smoky flavour, often called “peatiness” (Wikipedia).

Peat basically gives us two kinds of Scotch, normal Scotch and Peated Scotch. One is easier to drink than the other, yet it is worth learning to drink both (always in moderation.)

SLB lists these 5 as their top peated Scotches, in the following order:

  • Talisker — “Ruggedly Maritime, sweet smoke, Peat, Pepper” according to the label.
  • Port Charlotte (made by the second distillery featured in the documentary Scotch: A Golden Dream. Yes, it is worth watching).
  • Laphroaig: Lore. This is their premium Laphroaig. I haven’t tried it yet. I just get the normal 10-year-old.
  • Lagavulin. Never heard of it, nor seen it in the shops I visit.
  • Ardbeg: Uigendail. Again, their premium. From what SLB says, it has a premium price on it, so I don’t think I will get a bottle.

I snapped a quick photo of the video so I could remember SLB’s suggestions.

 

Here is the one that is out of my price range.

Now, I would like to list my top 5 Scotches.

  • Glenlevit 18. Nothing more smooth. I rarely drink this one, usually settling for the 12-year-old.
  • Highland Park 12.
  • Glenmorangie 12 year Malt Qunta Ruben (Port Cask Finish).
  • Talisker 10 years.
  • Glenmorangie 10 year Sherry Cask Finish.

As for cigars, that is a whole other topic. I will say that it was through my Dad that I learned to enjoy a good cigar. At a very low point in my life, he and I would enjoy a good cigar at the end of the day. We would sit on his porch, looking out over the green pastures of his ranch, and talk about life. I got to know more about my Dad in those days than at any other point in my life. I think it was because we were not only father and son, but man to man.

And that is a lot of what our fellowships are like (without the view of the ranch). We talk, man to man, brother to brother, about those things that are important to us. And the best part about it is that the following Proverb is true:

As iron sharpens[c] iron,
    so one man sharpens another. Proverbs 27:17

All photos are copyright © Timothy J. Hammons, 2024.

 

 

 

Feast of Weeks and Communion Bread

Communion — A Meditation

One of the changes that we made since establishing Waco Reformed Church was to move from unleavened bread, to leavened bread in communion. We did this partly because of the parable of the leaven found in Matthew 13:33 Another parable He spoke to them: “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till it was all leavened.”

This is a kingdom parable, showing that the kingdom will continue to grow until it is all leavened.

We chose to use leavened bread because not only does communion point back to Christ’s death, and helps us proclaim His death until He comes, but it also points to His coming, showing that He will not come until the kingdom has fully grown and covered the earth.

But this is not the only reason we use leavened bread. It also points to the Feast of Weeks found in the Old Testament.

Leviticus 23:15-22, the Feast of Weeks.

In Leviticus 23, we have the Passover, followed by the feast of firstfruits, and that is followed by the Feast of Weeks, which begin on the Day of Pentecost, 50 days after the feast of the firstfruits began. Given that this is the day the Spirit was poured out on the people, it has become a special day for Christianity.

The point here is that it was during the feast of weeks that the church celebrated their first communion after the LORD’s ascension. They did not have unleavened bread, but leavened bread as was prescribed in Leviticus 23:17.

You shall bring from your dwellings two wave loaves of two-tenths of an ephah. They shall be of fine flour; they shall be baked with leaven. They are the firstfruits to the Lord.

So while the LORD’s supper was instituted during the Passover, it is not strictly tied to the Passover. We often think of communion as a replacement for the Passover, therefore, it must have a one-to-one correlation. But this not quite correct. Communion replaces all the feast days, and represents all the feast days. It is the fulfillment of all that the feast days represent.

The disciples, on the day of Pentecost, had no problem observing the LORD’s supper using leavened bread, for it was all the bread that was available.

Unleavened bread was not available to them, because you had to remove the leaven from your homes for 7 day prior to the feast.

They used leavened bread, which we are told in Leviticus: They are the firstfruits to the LORD.

Let us join in together at Christ’s table, and enjoy the firstfruits to the LORD.