March 12, 2010
This Sunday afternoon, 80 of our young people and sponsors will be heading out on two separate mission trips to extend the testimony of Crossroads and to serve others with the love of Christ.
The first mission team will include 53 teenagers and adults going on a trip to Northeastern Oklahoma and Missouri. They will be working with First Christian Church in Barnsdall, OK, helping at their building as well as helping several families from the church. This will be their primary area of service during the week. They will be doing landscaping, yard work and general clean up at several homes in the community as well as at the church. They’ll also be serving and working with a local nursing home.
Part of the trip will include visiting Voice of the Martyrs in Bartlesville, OK (www.persecution.com). Voice of the Martyrs was founded in 1967 by Richard Wurmbrand, a Romanian Lutheran/Anglican pastor, who worked with the underground church in Romania after it was taken over by the USSR in 1944. As a consequence, he was imprisoned for 14 years for preaching Christianity but was eventually freed to the west after a ransom was paid for his release. In 1966, Wurmbrand’s testimony before the Internal Security Subcommittee of the US Senate about the treatment Christians received under Communist governments aroused world-wide interest in Christian persecution, and through his influence, several missions were founded around the world to help support Christians who suffered under Communist persecution. After the fall of communism in the Soviet Union and eastern Europe, these missions expanded their focus to include those suffering religious persecution in Islamic, Hindu, and Buddhist societies. Our mission team will have the opportunity to help package Bibles and other important materials to be sent to areas of the world where Christianity is illegal.
The trip will also include a visit to Rapha House in Joplin, MO. Rapha House exists to love, rescue and heal children who have been freed from slavery and sexual exploitation. Rapha House began in 2003 to permeate cultures with love that heals and leads to restoration. Rapha House does this by providing safehomes and aftercare programs for young girls who have been rescued out of slavery and exploitative situations. All Rapha House homes are currently located in Southeast Asia, with the goal of expanding globally. Slavery still exists in every culture. Rapha House is constantly partnering with advocates in an effort to build communities that extend unconditional love, physical rescue and transformational healing. Our mission team will have the privilege to tour Rapha House and learn all about their ministry.
Our second mission team will include 27 of our college students and sponsors going to Salt Lake City, Utah, to assist and encourage one of our newest missionaries here at Crossroads, Kyle and Joy Costello. The Costellos are planting a new church in Salt Lake City right in the backyard of the worldwide headquarters of the Mormon Church.
Here’s what they will be doing:
• Monday - Tour Temple Square and the city.
• Tuesday - walk through specific neighborhoods that Kyle wants to target and pray over those neighborhoods.
• Tuesday - visit BYU, the largest religious university in the United States with over 34,000 students (98% are Mormon).
• Monday and Tuesday evening - Kyle will teach about the beliefs and tenants of Mormonism and how to dialogue.
• Wednesday – walk throughout the city and engage in conversation with people.
• Wednesday – Kyle is arranging for us to do a service project (soup kitchen, homeless shelter, etc.).
• Wednesday evening – Kyle will share his vision and passion for the new church plant.
• Thursday – skiing with Kyle and Joy.
The theme for the week is “Unveiled” based on 2 Corinthians 3:16-18: “But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” When you get into chapter 4, verse 3 says, “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.”
The idea in the theme is that those of us who are unveiled are taking the message of Christ to a city and a people who are veiled to the Gospel. And like the passage says, “whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.” Our college mission team is excited to partner with this new church plant that is bringing the message of Jesus Christ to the people of Salt Lake City. They are honored and thrilled to go on behalf of our Crossroads’ family and to be the first group from our church to see what God’s going to do there and help this new work get started.
Both mission teams will document their trips with video, which we will make available on our website upon their return, so you can see what God did through them. In the meantime, I’m asking you to pray for both of these teams as they go out representing Christ and Crossroads. Pray for their safety and their success in sharing the love of Christ and the gospel of Christ.
To all the parents with students going on these trips, thank you for allowing your young people to be a part of a life-changing trip. Not only for those who will be ministered to, but also for those who are privileged to minister in the name of Christ. It will be a trip they will never forget.
To all of our Crossroads’ family, thank you for praying, thank you for giving, thank you for being a church with a “heart to serve” no matter where, no matter when, to no matter who and no matter how much it costs.
Jesus told His disciples, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the uttermost parts of the world” (Acts 1:8).
This week, two teams from Crossroads will extend His witness to Oklahoma, Missouri and Utah.
© 2010. Barry L. Cameron
Posted in Compassion, Crossroads, Dedication, Evangelism, Generosity, Ministry, Missions, Mormons, Prayer, Servanthood, The Great Commission, Youth 
No Comments »
March 5, 2010
In Acts 17:11, Luke writes about the Christians in Berea and says they “were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.”
Times sure have changed. Today, you have to look long and hard to find anyone who would dare question what others teach and preach. Handcuffed by the heresy of political correctness a large majority of ministers and church members shy away from holding anyone else accountable to the Scriptures. However, if people held Paul, an apostle, accountable to the Scriptures, as Luke records in the book of Acts (to see if what he said was true), shouldn’t we be holding all Bible teachers, preachers, authors, etc., who claim to speak for God to the same standard?
Dr. John MacArthur is one who welcomes the accountability of others in his own life and ministry and isn’t afraid to hold others to that same standard. That’s one of the reasons he has been one of my heroes for more than 35 years. Recently, in a letter, he wrote the following:
“Bernie Madoff is the former Wall Street figure who ran a Ponzi-scheme swindle for nearly twenty years, bilking an estimated $18 billion from investores. When his scam finally came to light it unleashed a shockwave of outrage around the world – it was the largest and most far-reaching investment fraud ever.
But the evil of Madoff’s embezzlement pales in comparison to an even more diabolical fraud being carried out in the name of Christ under the bright lights of television cameras on religious networks worldwide every day. Faith healers and prosperity preachers promise miracles in return for money, conning their viewers out of more than a billion dollars annually. They have operated their racket on television for more than five decades. And worst of all, they do it with the silent acceptance of most of the Christian community.
Someone needs to say this plainly: The faith healers and health-and-wealth preachers who dominate religious television are shameless frauds. Their message is not the true gospel of Jesus Christ. There is nothing spiritual or miraculous about their on-stage chicanery. It is all a devious ruse designed to take advantage of hurting and desperate people.
The prosperity preachers are not godly ministers but greedy imposters who corrupt the Word of God for money’s sake. They are not real pastors who shepherd the flock of God but mercenaries whose only design is to fleece the sheep. Their love of money is glaringly obvious in what they say as well as how they live. They claim to possess great spiritual power, but in reality they are rank materialists, imposters, and enemies of everything holy.
There is no reason anyone should be deceived by this age-old con, and there is certainly no justification for treating the hucksters as if they are authentic ministers of the gospel. Religious charlatans who peddle false promises have been around since the apostolic era, and the apostles condemned them with the harshest possible language. Paul called them ‘men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain’ (1 Timothy 6:5). Peter called them false prophets with ‘heart[s] trained in greed’ (2 Peter 2:14). He warned that ‘in their greed they will exploit you with false words’ (v. 3). He exposed them as scoundrels and dismissed them as ‘stains and blemishes’ on the church (v. 13).
Those biblical descriptions certainly fit the greed-driven cult of prosperity preachers and faith healers who unfortunately , thanks to television, have become the best-known face of Christianity worldwide. The scam they operate ought to be a bigger scandal than any Wall Street fraud. After all, those who are most susceptible to the faith-healers’ swindle are not well-to-do investors, but some of society’s most vulnerable people – including multitudes who are already destitute, disabled, elderly, sick, suffering or dying. Faith healers get lavishly rich while their victims become poorer and more desperate.
But the worst part of the scandal is that it’s not really a scandal at all in the eyes of most evangelical Christians. Those who should be most earnest in defense of the truth have taken a shockingly tolerant attitude toward the prosperity preachers’ blatant misrepresentation of the gospel and their wanton exploitation of needy people.
Instead of defending the truth of Scripture against the claims of these false teachers, many believers feign humility or ignorance. Others overlook the blasphemous teaching in an attempt to garner the favor of men–‘We don’t want to judge,’ they say. But that’s neither charity nor grace–it’s a complete failure to exercise biblical discernment and righteous judgment (John 7:24).
No one who truly loves the Word of God can stomach or overlook the wicked lies of prosperity preachers. It’s the responsibility of God’s people to defend His truth against attacks, both from outside the church and from within. As witnesses for eternal truth, believers need to guard the testimony of the church boldly and expose those men and women who pervert and corrupt the gospel for their own illicit gain.
That’s my heartbeat, and I trust it’s yours, too. It pains and angers me to see false teachers make a mockery of God’s life-transforming truth. And it frustrates me that crass televangelists and prosperity preachers stain the testimony of God’s people in the minds of so many non-believers.”
I thank God for men like Dr. John MacArthur. I’m also grateful for the thousands of people God has blessed us with here at Crossroads who are in the Word on a daily basis, bring the Word every time we gather together as a church family, and who search the Word diligently to make sure what they are being taught is the Word of God.
The Bible says, “Every word of God is flawless; He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him. Do not add to His words, or He will rebuke you and prove you a liar” (Proverbs 30:5-6).
© 2010. Barry L. Cameron
Here is a fascinating article, written by Dr. MacArthur, called: UNHOLY TRINITY.
Click on this link http://www.gty.org/Blog/B091211
(Our bookstore carries a number of Dr. MacArthur’s books, commentaries and the bestselling MacArthur Study Bible. Dr. MacArthur can also be heard Monday thru Friday on KCBI radio – 90.9 here in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area.)
Posted in False Doctrine, False Prophets, Heresy, Ministers, Money, Pastors, Preachers, Televangelists, Television, The Church, The Gospel, The Truth 1 Comment »
February 26, 2010
In 2 Timothy 2:2, Paul told his young son in the faith, Timothy, “And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will be qualified to teach others.” The process of spiritual reproduction is the supreme responsibility of the local church. We’ve been charged with the task of raising up, developing, training, sending, and supporting reliable men and women for full-time leadership ministry.
Every Christian is called to serve the Lord “full time” regardless of their chosen vocation (Colossians 3:23-24) and we’re committed to raising up, developing, training, and sending the very best and brightest, the most godly lawyers, doctors, teachers, architects, real estate agents, coaches, salespeople, painters, dentists, athletes, musicians, journalists, politicians, authors, actors, painters, educators, etc., in the world. But our primary responsibility as a church is directed to those individuals who have been called to serve the Lord “full time” as their vocation. We have a God-given mandate to reproduce ourselves in others who will reproduce themselves in others.
It won’t be easy. Paul wrote to Timothy about the hardship involved in such a task and encouraged him to be like a single-minded soldier who refuses to get involved in civilian affairs and who only wants to please his commanding officer (2 Timothy 2:3b-4). He talked about the discipline and dedication it takes, like an athlete who starts early and stays after it, doing everything that needs to be done, competing according to the rules, in order to win the victor’s crown (2 Timothy 2:5). He spoke of the hardworking farmer – someone who would “labor to the point of exhaustion” – all because he hoped his efforts would result in a great harvest.
That describes the level of our commitment here at Crossroads to raise up the next generation of leaders for Christ and His Church. We are willing to do whatever it takes, pay any price and make whatever sacrifice to make sure we are doing our part to raise up the next generation of Christian leaders. Thank you for faithfully praying and giving sacrificially so we can help support and encourage those whom God calls.
Currently, we have more students in Bible College and Seminary than at any other time in our 40-year history. Kevin Pace (junior) is at Dallas Baptist University, Taylor Akin (freshman) is at Ozark Christian College, Mike Nolan (freshman) is at Ozark Christian College, Rafael Herrera (freshman) is at Johnson Bible College, Kelli Mrazek (senior) is at Dallas Baptist University, Elizabeth Hardin (sophomore) is at Ozark Christian College, Mike King (senior) is at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Devin Benschop (freshman) is at Ozark Christian College, Roger Smithee (sophomore) is at Ozark Christian College, Brooke Akin (freshman) is at Ozark Christian College, James Tenorio (senior) is at Ozark Christian College, and more of our young people are planning to go this coming fall!
Colleges and universities regularly provide academic and athletic scholarships for students. Likewise, every year, Crossroads provides scholarship assistance for young men and women in our church family who want to go to Bible College or Seminary to train to become a minister or missionary in full-time leadership ministry for the Lord.
In Matthew 9, Jesus told His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.” That’s something we’re desperately trying to change here at Crossroads. We take very seriously our God-given mandate to raise up, develop, train, support, and send workers out into the fields. For 40 years we’ve challenged our best and brightest to prayerfully consider the highest calling in life – serving the Lord in full-time leadership ministry – and we plan to keep on doing it until Jesus returns.
In Matthew 9:38, Jesus told His disciples, “Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. Let’s pray that prayer and make that request and be willing to send our own children and give our own resources to support them.
When people ask, “Where will the next generation of leaders come from?“ One word ought to do it:
CROSSROADS!!
© 2010. Barry L. Cameron
Posted in Crossroads, Education, Leadership, Ministers, Ministry, Missionaries, Pastors, The Ministry, Training No Comments »
February 19, 2010
Every morning, before my feet hit the floor, I have my “quiet time.” What that means is this: the first Person I speak to is God. The first words I see every morning, come from His Word.
One day this week, part of my reading came from Psalms, and what I read was very eye-opening. In fact, you might call the entire 49th Psalm, A WAKE UP CALL TO THE WEALTHY. I’ll let you read it and then I’ll share some observations from my “quiet time.”
Psalm 49:1-20
“Hear this, all you peoples; listen, all who live in this world, both low and high, rich and poor alike: My mouth will speak words of wisdom; the utterance from my heart will give understanding. I will turn my ear to a proverb; with the harp I will expound my riddle: Why should I fear when evil days come, when wicked deceivers surround me – those who trust in their wealth and boast of their great riches? No man can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for him – the ransom for a life is costly, no payment is ever enough – that he should live on forever and not see decay. For all can see that wise men die; the foolish and the senseless alike perish and leave their wealth to others. Their tombs will remain their houses forever, their dwellings for endless generations, though they had named lands after themselves. But man, despite his riches, does not endure; he is like the beasts that perish. This is the fate of those who trust in themselves, and of their followers, who approve their sayings. Selah (That means: “There, what do you think of that?”)
Like sheep they are destined for the grave, and death will feed on them. The upright will rule over them in the morning; their forms will decay in the grave, far from their princely mansions. But God will redeem my life from the grave; he will surely take me to himself. Selah (“There, what do you think of that?”)
Do not be overawed when a man grows rich, when the splendor of his house increases; for he will take nothing with him when he dies, his splendor will not descend with him. Though while he lived he counted himself blessed—and men praise you when you prosper – he will join the generation of his fathers, who will never see the light of life. A man who has riches without understanding is like the beasts that perish.”
1. Wealth is a silly thing to put your trust in. Why? Because (a) It can’t buy your salvation or the salvation of another. No one has or ever will have enough money to pay for that. (b) Money might buy you plastic surgery or allow you to get replacement organs that keep you going longer than others, but no matter how much money you have – you’ll never be able to purchase immortality.
2. Everyone dies. The wise, the foolish and the senseless all die. Oh, and one more thing, they all “leave their wealth to others.” The super rich might leave their name on a building when they die – but they will leave it all behind. If enough time passes, even those things that had their name on it will decay, rot, fall apart and either fall down or be torn down.
3. If all you’ve got is “all you’ve got” (and that doesn’t include the Lord), when you die it won’t matter much. “Like the beasts that perish.”
4. If wealth is what you trusted in and hung on to for your whole life, when your life is over you’ll be separated from that.
5. Those who know the Lord don’t have to worry about death or the grave. God will “redeem” every one who knows Him and has lived for Him and He will take every one of them to be with him forever. (Selah. “There, what do you think of that?”)
6. Don’t allow yourself to envy those who seem to have it all right now or to fall into the trap of believing that money, wealth and possessions will satisfy you or sustain you over the long haul.
7. Wealth is a silly thing to put your trust in. Why? Because “A man who has riches without understanding is like the beasts that perish.”
Better to know and love God, and live for Him all the days of your life, regardless of what you have or don’t have here on earth. Because, once eternity begins you’ll have everything you ever needed or wanted.
. . . and that’s all that really matters.
Jeremiah 9:23-24 says, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,’ declares the Lord.”
© 2010. Barry L. Cameron
Posted in Death, God, Life, Money, Reality, Riches, Warnings, Wealth No Comments »
February 11, 2010
Just a few days ago, in Ft. Myers Beach, Florida, our family gathered together to celebrate my dad’s 80th birthday. What a wonderful experience . . . for all of us. My three brothers and sister, other extended family members, several friends and people who attend my parent’s church in Florida came to be a part of the event. It was the first time in over 20 years our entire family had been together in the same place at the same time – which was way too long overdue. Getting together again proved that.
On Thursday night prior to my dad’s celebration, my three brothers and I got together with our wives. My oldest brother’s wife died a couple of years ago. We went to Ruth’s Chris Steak House and shared an evening I will never forget. Thankfully, we’d gotten a private room. I’m sure had we been sitting out with the rest of the people in the restaurant, we’d have been asked to leave or escorted out because we were laughing too much.
Those two days and nights in January are still fresh in my memory and have been the source of a ton of reflection for me. If you’d indulge me, here are just a few of my observations:
• 80 years doesn’t seem possible. Nor does it seem old to me anymore.
• Sure, our family (and our family members) has had our differences, disagreements, discouragements, and disappointments (just like every other family on the planet) over the years. But that’s MY family!
• Over the years, there have been times when family members weren’t speaking to each other for one reason or another, and although I’m not ashamed of any member of my family (I’m proud of all of them) I am ashamed of the fact we wasted precious time we’ll never get back. Thankfully, everyone is talking now – like never before. Some days I can’t keep up with all the emails and phone calls. And I am enjoying every bit of it!
• No, my parents weren’t perfect. Neither are (were) yours. Neither am I. Nor my brothers or my sister. We’re all flawed. We all have our uniquenesses and idiosyncrasies. But that’s what makes us us.
• People who expect others to be perfect never are themselves. Never – with a capital “N.” Jesus was right when he said, “take the plank out of your own eye, first” (Matthew 7:3-5).
• Forgiveness is never a given. But to be honest, I can’t think of a valid reason why anyone wouldn’t freely give forgiveness to their own family. Whether they ask you for it or not – you and I ought to extend it. And not just to family – to everyone. Jesus said, “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that” (Luke 6:32-33).
• The dinner on Thursday night with my brothers and the party on Friday night with my dad were both too short.
• Life is, too!
• Don’t let a funeral be the call that brings you back together with your family. Die to your pride, resentment, hurt, (whatever it is you’re hanging on to), while there is still time and call your kids, your parents, your brothers, sisters, whomever and reconcile whatever needs to be reconciled before you wreck your life with regrets you’ll never be able to make right once your loved ones are gone.
The greatest family value of all is recognize the value of your own family. Our family did that, again, in January on a beach in Florida and it was a memory I’ll take with me to Heaven!
We’re already planning our next memory–making adventure. How about you and your family?
© 2010. Barry L. Cameron
Posted in Camerons, Celebration, Children, Christianity, Family, Family Values, Forgiveness, Parents No Comments »
