Articles
Grounded in the Word. Ready for the Mission. Christian Military Fellowship provides Scripture-centered Bible studies that invite people to know Christ, grow as disciples, and lead with integrity in every season of military life.
SGM Daniel Cartwright, USA (Ret)
Dan has been with CMF since 1982. He has served as a Local Leader, Regional Representative, and Chairman of the Board of Directors. Dan served 28 years with the United States Army Special Forces. He and his wife, Dee, live near Fort Carson, Colorado.
The Heart of the Gospel
The Apostle Paul had some harsh words to the church in Galatia for those who would turn away from the Gospel of grace and return to trusting in human works for salvation:
But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. (Galatians 1:8-9 ESV)
Paul clearly defined the message of the gospel to the church in Corinth with these words:
Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, (1 Corinthians 15:1-4 ESV)
Long before Paul was converted and began to preach the gospel and establish churches, John the Baptist laid the groundwork for the coming of Christ:
In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 3:1-2 ESV)
Jesus began his earthly ministry with these words:
From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 4:17 ESV)
Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” (Mark 1:14-15 ESV)
When Jesus appeared to His disciples after the resurrection, he commissioned them with these words:
Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.” (Luke 24:45-47 ESV)
Well, so what?
Here's “what”:
Who am I, who are we, who name the Name of Christ, to change the message, or omit what Scripture tells us is the core and heart of the gospel message?
How dare we presume that a “changed life” is the Gospel?
How dare we presume that making Jesus “attractive,” as the one who merely solves all of life's little problems, is spreading the gospel that saves a person from Hell?
How dare we presume that love, love, love, without including the issue of sin and repentance, IS even love at all?
Who am I if I presume any of the above? Who am I if I don't hold as paramount, and address as of “first importance,” that Jesus died for our SIN, and if I don't speak of the need to REPENT from SIN?
I'll tell you who I am — I am a spiritual coward, a disgrace to evangelism, and a traitor to the One who saved me!
And at the end of the day, I am still a sinner — a sinner saved by the amazing grace of a sovereign God!
Pastor Bob Bingham
In 1962 Bob and his wife Dorothy were appointed as missionaries with the Overseas Christian Servicemen's Centers (now Cadence International), and served with them for 21 years, 17 of those years serving at three different military bases in the Philippines. Hospitality and discipleship training became the focus of those years with hundreds of lives being touched for eternity.
A change of ministry came in September of 1982 when he joined Scope Ministries (a biblical counseling ministry headquartered in Oklahoma City). This led to Bob's present ministry, CUPbearers, a discipleship ministry centered on the Lord Jesus Christ located in Englewood, Colorado.
For more than 25 years Bob has pastored the Rocky Mountain Evangelical Free Church in Black Hawk, Colorado, in tandem with his discipling ministry.
Bob has ministered in the Philippines (1962-1979, 1995, 1998) and a number of other countries in Asia and Europe with OCSC (1962-82), Panama (1996) and in Trinidad (1998). His additional ministry opportunities have been to Singapore, Thailand, and Hong Kong (2001), and Nepal (2001), China (2006).
Bob also served as Chairman on the CMF Board of Directors for many years.
Jesus is Your Hope, Refuge and Peace Today
Many Americans today are very troubled about the current circumstances they are facing now and in the foreseeable future. The Christian knows intellectually that the answer is in Jesus Christ or God, but questions; “What will that look like?” “How do I know that he will see me through?”
When Jesus saved you, He also promised to always be with you, “I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). This promise has not changed. It is as true as the day that He said it.
JESUS IS YOUR HOPE
There are two kinds of hope. There is a hope that the future will turn out fine. One hopes that what they did or said was acceptable.
Biblical hope is the confident expectation of what God has promised; its strength is in his faithfulness. “… God, desiring even more to demonstrate to the heirs of the promise the fact that his purpose is unchangeable, confirmed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to hold firmly to the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and reliable” (Hebrews 6:17 – 19). “… And hope does not disappoint” (Romans 5:5).
The Apostle Paul later reiterates the source of our hope, “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope” (Romans 15:4).
JESUS IS YOUR REFUGE
Over the years people have sought ways to protect themselves from disaster. Bomb shelters were built in the 50s for protection from the atomic bomb attack. Other stocked up on freeze-dried food for when normal food supplies are unavailable.
Currently, the rich are establishing a safe haven to stash their wealth. Others are buying cyber money for when the US dollars devaluated.
There is a year or more weight to buy generators to power electricity, for when the electric power grids break down and no local electrical power is available. Solar power is only reliable as long as the batteries last and must be replaced.
All these attempts to find refuge in the list above, plus a myriad of others, provide extremely limited protection from disaster. However, God himself is the better way of protection. The psalmist said, “The Lord helps them and rescues them; He rescues them from the wicked and saves them, because they take refuge in Him” (Psalms 37:4). “How great is your goodness which you have stored up for those who fear you, which you have performed for those who take refuge in you, before the sons of mankind” (Psalms 31:19)!
Jesus is there for you exclamation “He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you may take refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and a wall” (Psalms 91:4).
JESUS IS YOUR PEACE
Jesus promises, “Peace I leave you, My peace I give you; not as the world gives, do I give you. Do not let your hearts be troubled, nor fearful” (John 14:27). This piece is available to all who belong to him by faith without exception.
Biblical peace is relational. It is not dependent upon good or evil circumstances. Biblical peace is dependent upon the Lord Jesus Christ and His love, care and protection for his people.
Many capable Christians do not experience Jesus piece since they depend upon themselves rather than depending upon Jesus to be their daily source of life and purpose. They want Jesus to help them accomplish their agendas: spiritual, personal, and secular, rather than cooperate with Him in His direction and purpose for their lives.
The writer of Hebrews identifies one’s preoccupation with themselves, “Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have” (Hebrews 13:5). However, if you entrust yourself to Jesus control, “He himself has said, ‘I will never desert you, nor I will never abandon you’” (Hebrews 13:5).
As you entrust yourself to Jesus who will never desert you nor abandon you, you will always experience His peace. If you choose not to entrust yourself to Him you will experience all kinds of fears and anxieties.
Jesus comforts you with this promise, “These things I have spoken to you so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation but take courage; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).
The Apostle Paul, who experience all kinds of adversities and conflicts concludes, “And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7).
JESUS IS YOUR HOPE, REFUGE AND PEACE TODAY AND FOREVER!
“Now may the God of peace who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, that is, Jesus our Lord, equip you in every good thing to do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen” (Hebrews 13:20 – 21).
Robert W. Flynn
Bob has been with the Christian Military Fellowship since 1981. He has served as a Local Leader, Coordinator of Ministries, Chief Operating Officer, President/CEO, and Chairman of the Board of Directors. After a short retirement he returned as Chief Information Officer. His ministry area has been one-on-one mentoring and discipleship. He now also leads the the Remote Access Discipleship Program creating opportunities for our members to engage in Bible study where ever they happen to be standing.
Bob enlisted in the United States Navy in 1968 and served on active duty until 1991 when he joined the CMF Staff. He and his wife, Nancy, live near Buckley Space Force Base, Aurora, Colorado.
Absolute Surrender
December is here and soon the yuletide will be upon us. With it comes the day we set aside to celebrate the birth of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. My mind has trouble grasping the full significance of this event. For on this day, in a time long since past, the Son of God set aside His Glory to become a man so that He could save us from our sin. He gave to us an eternal example of His life given completely to the will of the Father. The ultimate weapon used to win the ultimate war thus became absolute surrender.
Here then before us is the example of the Nativity—God lying in a stable midst the stench of the animals and the odor of our sin through the centuries. The first question that comes to your mind is, “what does that have to do with the title of this article?” I thought that it might be fitting as we celebrate Jesus’ first day on earth that we remember our first day with Him. Do you remember the day you met Jesus Christ? Do you remember the warmth of His sweet salvation as His Spirit swept over your soul like a mighty river. Do you remember with a sense of disappointment how that warmth faded with time? Often you have wondered why it was that your relationship, instead of deepening, has become lame and produces no fruit in your life. The answer, though not complicated, is far reaching. You wandered from the Highway of Holiness! You wandered from Him.
It appears as though it may now be the midnight hour in this age of grace, and all the while the church races headlong toward apostasy. The newspapers are replete with the witness of holding to a form of godliness yet denying the power thereof. For the believer still lives in a reality where temptations abound and Satan is active in the deception of the whole world and all its inhabitants. Within us resides a sinful nature that all too frequently resurrects itself.
So despite salvation we can find ourselves impotent toward sin’s power and our victory absent without leave. There is no repair shop that can fix this old man. There is no transformation operation that can remake him anew. He can only be put to death.
Beloved, you are God’s treasure! You are destined for that which is far greater than a temporary sojourn in happiness. Jesus has prepared for us a dwelling place that is Himself where we are to “abide.” We must see our abiding as an intimate connectedness like that of the branch to the tree. Have you ever seen a branch wander away from the trunk? If we “come to him” to “abide” we must also “take the yoke” lest we stray and make the ditch alongside the “highway of holiness” our home. Jesus cannot be Lord if we think we have the right to have our own way in the thousand things of life. If we say we are our own masters, the captains of our fate, then there can be NO blessedness NOR peace. Jesus said: “A good person produces good deeds from a good heart, and an evil person produces evil deeds from an evil heart.
Whatever is in your heart determines what you say. So why do you call me ‘Lord,’ when you won’t obey me?” “If you love me, obey my commandments. And I will ask the Father and he will give you another Counselor, who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit, who leads you into all truth.” (Luke 6:45-46, John 14:15-17 NLT) Jesus’ example was to forsake everything for the Father. The disciples’ example was to forsake everything to follow Christ. The Apostle Paul’s example was not only to “count all things to be loss” but he also “suffered the loss of all things.” (Phil 3:8 NASB) Warriors, this is absolute surrender. Paul declares, “For God is working in you giving you the desire to obey him and the power to do what pleases him. (Phil 2:13 NLT) Since the Holy Spirit lives in us and is the provision to keep “my commandments” perhaps we ought to say, “Jesus, I forsake all to follow you.” This is NOT a passive thing (the ditch on the left of the highway) NOR is it an act of arrogance (the ditch on the other side). It is in the balance between Grace and Truth wherein we are delivered from sin’s penalty and power. We can then live in the hope of the day when we shall see Jesus and also be delivered from sin’s presence.
“The happiness which God designs for His higher creatures is the happiness of being freely, voluntarily united to Him and to each other in an ecstasy of love and delight compared with which the most rapturous love between a man and a woman on this earth is mere milk and water.” C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity