Articles

by Danny Kirk

What kind of heart do you have?

We often describe a person’s character, strengths, and faults with an adjective attached to the word “heart”. A person is described as being: warm hearted, cold hearted, lion hearted, big hearted, or even “heartless”.

In the last couple of centuries, The poets and songwriters have used a phrase to describe the excitement
when seeing the object of one’s romantic affections: “Be still my beating heart”. In truth, our heartbeat is often noticeable during times of fear, great surprise, and hard labor. The strong and accelerated beat of the heart is the same in each case, but the cause is different. Yet, in every case, the beating heart represents a response to the events of life.

How would someone describe your heart today? The holiday season reminds me that my heart should not only be big and warm, but also thankful. I like to think that when our hearts beat with thankfulness, we will also have a heart that is warm, generous, and caring .

In Luke 17, Jesus tells the story of one man whose heart beat with thanksgiving…

Now it happened as He went to Jerusalem that He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. Then as He entered a certain village, there met Him ten men who were lepers, who stood afar off. And they lifted up their voices and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us! So when He saw them, He said to them, Go, show yourselves to the priests. And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks. And he was a Samaritan. So Jesus answered and said, Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner? And He said to him, Arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well.
~ Luke 17:11-19 NKJV

The thankful heart beats for those who are without.

The first lesson is found in the Savior’s heart for mankind. The scriptures tell us of a Savior whose divine heart beats with thanksgiving.

In that hour Jesus rejoiced in the Spirit and said, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes.
~ Luke 10:21 NKJV

And Jesus took the loaves, and when He had given thanks He distributed them to the disciples, and the disciples to those sitting down; and likewise of the fish, as much as they wanted.
~ John 6:11 NKJV

Jesus, the Son of God, was always a thankful Son. I go back to Luke 17, verse 11 and I find a Savior who will go where there is great need. Jesus is at a place where most of Jews would not be found…among the Samaritans…and lepers. The Samaritans were considered unholy people and the lepers where unclean. Yet it is a place where needs are great, where hope is needed, and where thanksgiving can abound.

We see hurting people all around us and yet we are paralyzed to help because our hearts are telling us:

• “Why bother…nobody will change”.
• “It’s too risky…you might fail or get hurt.”
• “Someone else can a better effort at helping than I can.”

The thankful heart beats with a gratefulness for what God has done for them and realizes no one is beyond the boundaries of God’s love and power.

The thankful heart beats with a faith that things can change.

I have always wondered what it was that drove 10 lepers to line up on the other side of the street and shout at Jesus to have mercy on them. Had they heard stories of other miracles? Had they spoken with a former member of their leper colony who had been made whole? Whatever it was, I then wondered if they got the response they hoped had hoped for? Jesus did not heal them, touch them, or pray over them. He simply told them to ”go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as the story unfolds, “as they went, they were cleansed.”

The men were told to go to the priest as if they had been healed. It would have to be an act of faith…first! They looked at their skin and their limbs and they still were covered with sores, and huge calluses and abnormalities. They had to have faith that things would be different as they made their way to the priests. They had to have faith that things could be different.

In Philippians 4, Paul is in prison and tells us the secret to rejoicing in difficult times:

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
~ Philippians 4:6-7 NKJV

It is with a heart of thanksgiving that we are to pray and let God know our needs. When I pray, God can do two things:

1. Change my circumstance
2. Give me His peace in my circumstance

The thankful heart beats for the Giver…not just the gift.

Ten lepers made the journey. Ten would see the transformation and power of God in their life. One would return and give thanks. What happened to the other nine?
We really don’t know. Maybe they were following the letter of the law and presenting themselves to the priest for a “certification” of their healing. Maybe they were in a hurry to see family from whom they had been exiled.

I don’t know what was happening in the minds of the nine, but for one man, his thoughts were on the Giver of the gift… not the gift itself. He had to get back to Jesus and give thanks! For this man, the healing was a “God-thing” and he had to glorify the Giver!

I believe this is always true about the beat of a thankful heart for two reasons:

1. Every gift has a Giver and our hearts, although thankful for the gift, can never lose sight of the Giver. For the Christians, James 1: 17 reminds us that, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights…”
2. It is often said, “It’s not the gift, but the thought that counts”. This is true because, no matter the value of the gift, the value of knowing that someone thought of you is much greater. Their thoughtfulness builds value into you!!

How valuable we must be for God to bestow His goodness toward us!

The thankful heart beats with thanksgiving and more is given.

The Bible is clear that all ten lepers were healed. All were recipients of God’s unmerited favor. Yet, the Samaritan, the one man who knew less about God’s grace than the others, came back to worship and praise God for his healing.

Did the nine miss out on a more important blessing? Their physical need had been met, but what about their eternal souls? Was their ingratitude a display of unbelief and a refusal to honor God?

I do know this: the heart that knows that it has been the recipient of God’s grace beats with thanksgiving toward God. Only one man worshipped and praised God for the physical change in his life and Jesus took note and He said to him, “Arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well.”

I believe that his “wellness” or “salvation” goes beyond the cleansing of his leprosy to the cleansing of his sin. The heart that beats with thanksgiving will always find more in life to express his or her thanksgiving toward God.

Jesus asked three vital questions that day that speak into our lives today…

1. Were there not ten cleansed? How many times has God provided for you? Cared for you? Protected you? Are you not one of those whom God has loved?
2. Where are the nine? Have we been faithful to give God His glory and credit? Have we acknowledge Him as the Giver? Have we praised Him for His goodness?
3. Who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner? We were once all lost, estranged from God like foreigners! But because of Jesus, we can be saved, forgiven, and reconciled to God.

Does our life reflect the glory due to God for His gift of forgiveness and new life? Does our heart beat with thanksgiving for the One who has changed our life forever?

http://www.dannyrkirk.com/

Our hearts are breaking over the tragedy that has fallen to so many people in Joplin, MO. We have a good relationship with the BMAA churches in that area. Pastor Fred Vogel, the Director of Missions for Kansas and Western Missouri has been a good friend of mine and they are strong partners in the mission work in Smithville, MO. Grace Baptist Church, where Bro. Fred serves as pastor, was damaged in the tornado, but the building was still in good enough shape to serve as a relief center to provide food, water, clothing, and medical attention to those in need. I polled our Special Missions Committee and we agreed to send Grace Baptist an offering of $3000 to use in the relief efforts. I know that a number of our pastors and church members traveled to Joplin to help people who have lost so much. Thank you for caring!
In our mid-year meeting, we voted to support church planter Brad Faulk in the State of Washington. Over the next year, our financial support will be $200 per month, when after this time, we will review further action. Below you will find my midyear report to the association:

BMA of Missouri Mission Department
2011 Mid Year Report

The Jones family continues to do a good work in Smithville, MO. A number of families have joined the effort to plant a church in this area. Despite a harsh winter in Kansas City, the attendance continued to grow with a high of 59 on one Sunday and 70 for Easter Sunday. Justin William and his family moved to Smithville in January and have proven themselves to be a great asset to this church planting effort.

We were saddened to hear about the loss of one of our churches. Due to declining numbers, the Northside Baptist Church in St. Charles, MO closed its doors and sold their property. A number of agencies within the BMA of America were beneficiaries of the selling of the property. The remaining church members stipulated that financial gifts be given to state missions, the Missouri Baptist paper, and to the Alive Youth event. We are thankful for their faithfulness through the years and for their loyalty at the end of their ministry.

I have a number of goals that I would like to see accomplish in our State work in the next 12-18 months. Allow me to list them so you can make them a matter of prayer:
1. I desire that 10 of our churches would participate in the Transformation Church survey and assessment so as to better equip them to impact their community for the glory of God.
2. I desire that 5 new efforts at church planting would begin in our state. If this is to happen, it will not be according to our old model of placing a missionary full time on the field. It can happen if a number of our healthy churches will identify an area that can be reached by allowing leaders within their church to begin a home Bible study with the intentional goal of beginning a satellite church which can lead eventually to a new church.
3. I desire that I would be able to visit with 12 churches and three district associations within the BMA of Missouri to promote the cause of mission and church health.
Please join me in prayer for these efforts. Thank you for allowing me to serve you.

Danny Kirk

Click to Download June 2011 Issue

Missions lost a good friend this week…and so did I. Early in the morning hours on October 1, I lost a dear friend due to an unexpected, but fatal heart attack. My wife, Carolyn and I were called to the hospital before midnight and were told that one of my deacons, Mark Scott, had been brought to the ER after collapsing. We waited with two of his sons, his sister and other family members as they prayed and waited the results of a cardiac catheterization procedure to stabilize his heart. The heart doctor returned too soon to tell us that despite their heroic efforts, Mark had gone on to be with his Savior. The immediate deluge of cries and tears were natural as they reflected and amplified the sense of our great loss. At only age 44, Bro. Mark leaves behind three fantastic sons: Josh, John Mark, and Jonah; along with his mother, Faye, and sister Nancy. Pray that God’s peace will stand guard over their hearts.

Bro. Mark is one of those guys who had a sweet, compassionate, and helpful spirit. There was nothing that he would not do for you…you only had to ask and he would say, “Let’s do it!” The thing I will remember most about him was his love for mission work in Haiti and Honduras. Due to Mark’s exuberance and leadership, myself and many of our church members at Lindsay Lane Baptist made our first mission trip to Honduras two years ago. He was our experienced leader on this whole mission trip. He led in the fund raising, in laying out the itinerary, in the food preparation, etc. He did everything but pack our own personal bags, but like a good leader, he told us what to pack. I believe that Bro. Mark was the catalyst that turned a dream of visiting a foreign mission field into a reality for many of us. Without his ministry in our lives, it would still only be a dream. Thank you, Bro. Mark!

The picture on this page is one of Bro. Mark taking a cool drink of water as we dug a trench to lay a water line in the hot 95 degree Honduran heat. I chose this picture because it reflects what Mark was to me. He was a deacon who faithfully supported me, but more importantly, he was that friend who was always a “cool drink of refreshing water” when I needed it. The Bible tells us in Proverbs17:17: “A friend loves at all times, And a brother is born for adversity”. That verses just begins to describe my friend, Mark. No matter the need, he was always there, a true friend…and like a brother, you could count on him in hard times!

After learning of his father’s death, Mark’s oldest son, Josh, lamented that he still had so much to learn from his father. Josh, you are not alone…we all had much to learn from your father and our dear brother. Our loss is so great. Yet, we will wait a while and one day in Eternity, we will sit down with Mark and pick up where we left off. Thank God for forever friends!

-Pastor Danny Kirk

This morning we had our weekly MVP (Men Value Prayer) breakfast at church.
There is much talk today in our nation about illegal aliens, border patrols, and immigration enforcement. Soon, many people in the United States of America may have to prove, when asked, that they are a legal citizen or visitor in the “kingdom” of the United States.
What about the Kingdom of God? During the course of our Bible study, we discussed the issue of being a member of God’s Kingdom and a legitimate disciple of Christ. What’s the proof…how do you know for sure? Certainly a list of things that demonstrate genuine proof of citizenship could be many. We talked about one such “proof”.

Our Bible reading for today was John 13:33-35:

“Little children, I shall be with you a little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come,’ so now I say to you.
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:33-35 (NKJV)

When Jesus spoke these words, He knew that within the near hours and weeks, He will have given His life for our sins, risen, and ascended back to His Father. It is a critical time of instruction for His disciples and so this “new commandment” carries a lot of weight and is packed with meaning. The Kingdom of God does not have physical borders to fence-in and identify the children of God. There are not any visas or green cards to prove that we belong to Him. The Bible says, “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

For many people, they might list as proof of Kingdom citizenship some of the following: church membership, baptism, charitable giving, church attendance, interest in the Bible, an attempt to live a good upstanding moral life, etc. All of these things are worthy markers of a true citizen of God’s Kingdom, yet there is one thing that trumps them all according to Christ. Do you HAVE LOVE FOR ONE ANOTHER? Can others see this love and know that you belong to a different world?
Today, I want to challenge you. Without a doubt, each one of us will face a situation where the “unlovable” people of this world will tempt us to act or respond in a worldly, ungodly fashion. When this happens, show them your citizenship. Don’t insist on your “rights”…but love them like Christ loves them. Why? Because you are a citizen of God’s Kingdom…represent Jesus well!

This year we have had two major projects underway: the church planting effort in Smithville, MO and the church revitalization project at Stony Point Baptist.
Let me begin with the church revitalization project. Our support ends this month toward the salary support for Stony Point Baptist Church because the church feels it has real self support status with their pastor, Claude Evans. I received a letter from the church and it reads as following:

April 28, 2010
Dear Brethren,
Stony Point Missionary Baptist Church wishes to thank the Churches of the BMA of Missouri for the financial support for the past year.
We believe that the time has come for us to assume the full financial responsibility of pastoral support. Your help has enabled us to reach this point much sooner than we could have on our own.
It is our prayer and hope that this program will be the instrument which will allow other churches in the BMA of Missouri to reach full time support for pastors.
We ask that you remember us in prayer as we work in the Master’s vineyard.
In His Service,
Pastor Claude Evans

We rejoice with Pastor Evans and the good people of Stony Point Baptist for God’s blessing upon their ministry here in Mineral Springs.

The North Lake mission project in Smithville, MO continues to be blessed of God. Jamie and Rebekah Jones are doing a great job in reaching out to their community and disciplining the families that God has given them. Our mission advisory committee along with members of the Meramec Association advisory committee made a trip to Smithville this past month. We were impressed with the progress that is being made and were made to realize that this is truly a field ripe unto harvest. Let’s continue to pray for the Jones family as God works through them.

Our finances continue to hold steady. Our average monthly offering since October has been $3173 while our average expenses have been $3913 per month…a $740 deficit. We are appreciative of the special mission offering this year and ask that your church would consider increasing their offering to state missions.

Pastor Evans and the good folks at Stony Point Baptist did a wonderful job hosting the mission symposium and the midyear meeting. During this meeting, the association voted to help out two of our missionaries. A $1000 love offering was given to Missionary Sam Hussier to assist him with personal family/medical expenses. We also approved a $2000 offering to Bro. David Dickson for his work fund. The Mission Symposium offering for State Missions has reached nearly $2600. Thank you for your love and care for missionaries who serve both us in Missouri and for those who serve elsewhere. May God be glorified.

I am looking forward to our annual Mission Symposium at Stony Point Baptist at Potosi on Friday evening, May 14. Pastor Claude Evans and Stoney Point has put together a great program with Bro. Sam Husser, Tony Crocker, and Jamie Jones as some of the evening speakers. On Saturday morning during our semi-annual meeting, we will hear from Missionary David Dickson. I really want to encourage you to attend this meeting. Some have asked me if we need a mission symposium. In recent years we have only had about 30-35 people in attendance at the symposium and it does make you wonder if there is a strong interest. Please consider making a special effort to attend the symposium and the semi-annual meeting for we are spending extra funds in providing traveling expenses for our speakers.

Within the next few weeks, the special missions committee will be visiting with Pastor Claude Evans to evaluate the progress of Stony Point Baptist as they attempt to reach full time pastor support. We will also be traveling to Smithville, MO to visit with church planters, Jamie and Rebekah Jones. You can read his article elsewhere here in the paper and you will find that God is at work in Smithville.

In the first week of May I will be involved in church planting training in Little Rock, AR. I will be teaching some of the DCPI church planting essentials to potential church planters and state mission directors from the BMAA. Pray for a good time of learning and planning to expand our mission endeavors.

I read the sad story the other day of a 26 year old flight attendant who was fired from her job for posing for Playboy Magazine. What was interesting was the reason for doing something that would cost her job. She stated that she had a lung disease that would require surgery and that the outcome was not good. She decided to pose for the magazine so the world would remember her.
The world is filled with people who desperately wish to be remembered. Many are inclined to build monuments to themselves in one way or another. This is why the account of Babel, found in Genesis chapter 11, is so important for us. It exposes the underlying cause for building monuments.
And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.” Genesis 11:4
What lessons are in this story for us today?
1) Man’s plans will never thwart God’s purposes.
God had commanded mankind to “fill the earth”. Man preferred to cloister rather than to comply with God’s command to spread out. In spite of man’s greatest efforts, God’s purposes prevailed.
2) Unity is not the highest good, but purity and obedience to the Word of God.
At first glance, we may commend the people for wanting to be of one voice and to be together in one place. Unity is a great virtue. Psa 133:1 states, “ BEHOLD, HOW good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity”
This is a good thing, but the Bible also says: in Amo 3:3, “Can two walk together, unless they are agreed?” Ecumenism is the watch word of religion today, but it is a unity at the cost of truth. Some regard unity as a goal worthy of any sacrifice. God does not.
3) The Word of God, and not the works of our hands, is the only thing worthy of our faith.
The men of Babel began to look at work as the cure rather than the curse. They believed that the work of their hands could assure them of some kind of immortality beyond the grave. Here, I suspect, is the driving force behind many workaholic. He cannot ever rest because he (or she) is never certain that a large enough monument has been built. Human endeavor is never satisfying, never fulfilling. Only work which is done for the Lord and in His strength brings lasting satisfaction.
The work of missions and church planting is labor that can bring satisfaction to our hearts for we know it is the great burden of our Lord. When we give of ourselves to the cause of sharing the gospel with the world, we are content with making our Savior famous and the Kingdom of God larger.