Author: Heath Lambert

Are Miraculous Gifts for Today?

Written by Heath Lambert on November 28, 2022. Posted in Marked By Grace.

I’m talking about, on the podcast this week, a really, actually debated issue. And that is the one of healing miracles. The question are miraculous gifts for today? When I talk about miraculous gifts, I really am talking about the healing miracles; I’m talking about the spiritual gift of working a miracle. I’m talking about so-called miracle workers. And I’m asking, is that for today? This is a theoretical question that many people ask. It is a question that many people want to know as they’re pursuing what spiritual gift they have that would contribute to the church. They want to know if healing miracles is one of them. It’s a controversial question that people ask because there are people who have so-called healing ministries, and they go on television, and...

Christian, You Need to Come to Church on Christmas

Written by Heath Lambert on November 25, 2022. Posted in First Thoughts.

Christmas On Sunday Just so you won’t think I’m a pastor that is out of touch, I’m going to make a very candid admission. Here it is: it is a pain that Christmas falls on Sunday this year. There. I said it. Most of the time, Christmas falls on one of the other six days of the week, and that makes it easier. When it falls on Sunday, it messes up all the traditions we create the rest of the time: opening presents with kids, traveling to loved-one’s homes, Christmas breakfast, Christmas brunch, preparing Christmas dinner and Christmas lunch. It’s complicated. I get it. Even though it is complicated, here at the beginning of the Christmas season, I want to plead with my brothers and sisters to make room for church on Christmas Sunday while there’s still flexibility in your planning. Here are...

Why We Need a First Baptist Statement on Biblical Sexuality

Written by Heath Lambert on November 21, 2022. Posted in First Thoughts.

In October, the congregation of First Baptist Church adopted a statement required of each of our members. It is called The First Baptist Statement on Biblical Sexuality. Here is what it says: As a member of First Baptist Church, I believe that God creates people in his image as either male or female, and that this creation is a fixed matter of human biology, not individual choice. I believe marriage is instituted by God, not government, is between one man and one woman, and is the only context for sexual desire and expression. Genesis 1:27; 2:24; Matthew 19:5; Romans 1:26-27; 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 This statement is a very straightforward and biblical statement. Without singling out any one specific sin, it summarizes God’s design for gender, marriage, and sexuality. This positive statement...

Making Thanksgiving Personal

Written by Heath Lambert on November 21, 2022. Posted in Marked By Grace.

It is Thanksgiving week, and I don’t know how to tell you how excited I am. I love Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is not my favorite holiday. Christmas is my very favorite holiday, and I’m going to start celebrating Christmas at the end of this week. I always wait till after Thanksgiving to start celebrating Christmas. If you celebrate Christmas early. I know people start celebrating Christmas in July. If you celebrate Christmas early, that is great. But for me, I just don’t like running over Thanksgiving. I love Thanksgiving. I love our family traditions for Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is my very favorite meal of the year. I’m married to an Italian, and so there are a lot of great meals in the year. I love the Italian Christmas dinner tradition. So no slime on any other...

How Do I Deal with the Loss of a Child?

Written by Heath Lambert on November 14, 2022. Posted in Marked By Grace.

This week on the podcast, I want to speak to those of you who, I guess, must be the most hurting people in the world. I want to talk to those of you who have lost a child who have experienced the bitterness of the death of one of your children. This loss in a broken and sinful world is one of if not the most painful experiences that any human being can ever go through. Death is not part of the natural order. You understand what I mean by that. Death is imposed on God’s created order because of our sin. It is not the way God made it to be. And so death really is in God’s perfect conception of the world. It is unnatural, of course, in a fallen world where we sin and betray the Lord, and there are penalties. Of course, death is now a normally expected part of life. But that’s...

How Should Christians Think About Suicide and Hell?

Written by Heath Lambert on November 7, 2022. Posted in Marked By Grace.

I want to talk to you today about one of the hardest topics in the world for us to talk about. And that is the issue of suicide. And because of the nature of the difficulty of this topic, and because of where I want to go over the course of the podcast here in the next few minutes because where I want to end, by the time we’re done, I need to talk about this in a couple of different ways. The first thing I want to say when I talk about suicide, and when I talk about hell, I want to talk about whether the act of suicide leads to a person’s condemnation to hell. As I do that, I want to acknowledge that I know, I am talking to people who are considering suicide. I know I’m talking to people who are thinking about this. I know I’m talking to people who are broken and...

Are Ghosts Real?

Written by Heath Lambert on October 31, 2022. Posted in Marked By Grace.

It is the week of Halloween. Halloween is that time when we think about all sorts of things, we think about candy, and we think about costumes, we think about trick or treating, we think about parties, and getting together with friends. It’s also that time of the year when we think about scary stuff; sometimes, we try to do the so-called jump scare thing. We want to jump out from behind somewhere and totally freak somebody out. We think about telling ghost stories and doing other things that are just going to get in people’s heads and make them be rattled by it. What I want to talk about on the podcast this week, as we think about the week of Halloween, is not any of that stuff that is intended to be fun, is not any of that stuff that’s intended to be celebratory. But I...

Are Christians Required to Fast?

Written by Heath Lambert on October 24, 2022. Posted in Marked By Grace.

This week on the podcast, I want to talk about the issue of fasting and whether it is required as a practice for Christians. Do Christians have to fast? Must they do that? Before we can answer the question, are Christians required to fast? We need to first be sure we know what we’re talking about. An easy, simple definition of fasting is that it is the practice of intentionally abstaining from food for spiritual reasons. Of course, there are other kinds of fasting, a technology fast, you can do a phone fast, and there are all sorts of other kinds of fasting. But in the main in the Bible, fasting is intentionally abstaining from food for spiritual reasons. It’s not just abstaining from food, but it’s for spiritual reasons. You can abstain from food for health reasons; you...

How Should Christians Think About Polygamy in the Bible?

Written by Heath Lambert on October 17, 2022. Posted in Marked By Grace.

One of the things that I love to do every week on the podcast is to answer your questions and address your concerns. I just recently heard from a person who was concerned and wanted to ask about the issue of polygamy. This wasn’t a very general concern about polygamy. It was a very specific concern about polygamy. It came from a woman who is very happily married, and she said that it is a struggle for her to believe the Bible. She struggles to believe the Bible because of all of the portrayals of polygamy in the Bible. She mentioned, in particular, somebody like Abraham, who had multiple wives. There are, of course, other examples. The question is, when these immoral men when these immoral people are multiplying their wives, how is it that I can trust a religion? How is it that I can...

Who is a Child of God?

Written by Heath Lambert on October 10, 2022. Posted in Marked By Grace.

A few weeks ago, I was communicating a message from our church, and in the context of that communication, I shared a side comment to anybody in the LGBTQ+ community. The LGBTQ+ community and members of the sexual revolution have, in so many ways, declared war on Christians and any viewpoint that is traditional that might disagree with their perspective on sexuality. I was making the point that though members of the sexual revolution may have declared war on Christians, Christians, certainly not the ones at First Baptist, have not declared war on them in the context of communicating a message of care and love and out of a desire to appeal to them to turn from their sins and trust in Jesus. I said something like the fact that they were beloved and precious children of God. That message led...