​Can we reduce the divorce rate in Oklahoma? One of the best ways to impact divorce in Oklahoma is for those getting married to receive good pre-marital preparation. What is the best tool for providing good premarital preparation? Prepare-Enrich is the best tool currently available to assess couples and provide skill building in the core areas of every relationship. There are over 500,000 certified Prepare Enrich facilitators globally and over 3.5 millions couples who have taken this powerful assessment.

Would you like to become certified in this powerful tool? Attend a one-day certification workshop coming up in Oklahoma City. Cost is $195 for the certification and your spouse can attend for no additional cost. The BGCO is offering a $50 training reimbursement for pastors/staff bringing your final cost to $145 when you complete the training.

The next workshop is Thursday, April 7, 2016 from 9 am to 4 pm in OKC at the Portland Avenue Baptist Church. I'll be the trainer for this workshop. I have taught over 50 Prepare-Enrich workshops having trained over 500 pastors/staff/counselors how to use this powerful tool. I have personally taken over 100 couples through Prepare-Enrich. Learn from an experienced trainer who has used this tool in ministry for years. Get registered at www.waltermullican.com. Deadline to register for the April workshop is March 30. 

The big event is almost here! In just a little over three weeks will be the wedding of our daughter, Katy Ann to Mr. Jonathan Scott! The wedding is Saturday, August 29th at 2 pm in the auditorium at Portland Avenue with reception following in the Connection Center. You are all invited so consider this your official invitation! 

As you might imagine, preparations for the wedding have been going on for some time. The bride has been working on getting everything ready for her groom. She will be radiant and beautiful adorned in white signifying her purity. The groom will stand tall and handsome with an ear-to-ear smile as he sees his bride come down the aisle. It will be a beautiful moment. The two will be joined in marriage through a covenant of lifelong commitment. 

The relationship of the church to Christ is that of a bride and groom. Hear words Paul's words in Ephesians 5:25-27,

"Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish."

The church, which is not a building or the institution, but are those called out ones who have pledged themselves by faith and trust to Jesus Christ, should be preparing herself for the coming of her groom, Jesus Christ. The Lord provides everything needed for the church to be prepared and ready for the coming of the groom. He has footed the bill for the wedding through his death on the cross. He has given us the engagement ring of the Holy Spirit to guide us and prepare us for the groom's coming. Are you ready for the great wedding when Jesus, the groom, returns for His Church? To get ready, admit and repent of your sin, put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ alone to save you and forgive you, and confess Jesus to be your Lord and Savior.

The church is living against a cultural and moral backdrop that is blackness for its lack of truth and light. Against this backdrop a holy church will stand out as a beacon of light and hope as we draw attention to our groom, Jesus Christ, who is mighty to save! Portland Avenue, let's be that kind of church in our community!

On this 20th Anniversary of the Oklahoma City Bombing, I will out of town on a mission trip. I have attended many of the remembrance ceremonies in the past 20 years. Why did I attend them? Because April 19th is forever etched in my mind and heart. 

April 19, 1995 I was downtown early that morning for the Mayor's Prayer Breakfast at the Myriad. I left downtown around 8:30 am or so. and stopped by a local store just off N. Broadway to see if it was open early but it wasn't, so I headed back across NW 10th St. to Portland Avenue Baptist Church where I had been pastor for just a little less than three years. It was staff meeting morning so I went to my upstairs office and was working on the staff meeting agenda when the bomb went off at 9:02 am. I hurried to the window in my office which looked in the direction of downtown OKC and saw a grayish colored mushroom cloud arising from downtown. When the bomb went off, it shook our building very hard and it is located about four miles from downtown. My first thoughts was that it was a gas explosion, or a tanker truck or railroad car explosion. 

One of the staff members and I started back down 10th St toward downtown but traffic became so heavy that we just parked the car and walked the rest of the way to the Murrah Building. We arrived just about the time that the second bomb warning came in so we were turned away from the building and walked back to our and then drove back to the church. I returned downtown and went to the police chaplain command post and was assigned a task by the chaplain of going and being with the parents of children who were missing from the daycare center in the Murrah Building. I remember the sense of inadequacy I felt but the desire to be a presence of God in that desperate situation. 

The following Saturday I was assigned on a detail with two other chaplains to be present in the basement of the Murrah building as recovery teams were doing their work. Shortly after we arrived at the building the recovery teams changed out so there was a period of around thirty-minutes or so that we alone in the belly of that building in which 168 people had died. It was an eerie almost surreal experience listening to the wind blow through the silent building. I couldn't help but to pray for those victims families who were still waiting for the remains of their loved ones to be returned to them. I was also overwhelmed by the courageousness of the OKC firefighters and the other rescue/recovery teams from around the country for they risked their lives daily in working to recover people's loved ones. They worked in a dangerous surrounding as parts of the building could have further collapsed and taken their lives. There are many other stories I have from those days, but what do I see 20 years later after the bombing in OKC?

We learned how to pull together and work together as a community.That has now become known as the "Oklahoma Standard" and it started that first day of the bombing. The afternoon of the bombing turned cold and rainy and many of us did not have proper rain gear including rubber boots. Trucks began to drive up, doors rolled up, and an abundance of rain gear was handed out. I still have a pair of rubber boots I received that day. If you needed a battery for your cell phone they were available. If you needed to eat, food from the finest restaurants in Oklahoma City was readily available. It was amazing! Secondly, the "faith factor" was vitally important. Someone asked, "Where was God during the bombing?" I will tell you that He continually present in so many ways for everyone involved in the bombing. Faith provided the strength and hope to make it through those days. We have learned how to work together in a better way as a faith family in OKC too. I believe we also lived out the "Joseph principle" in our city. Remember the story of Joseph, sold by his brothers into slavery into Egypt, from the first book of the Bible, Genesis. They meant it for evil. Joseph experience the highs and lows of life during his years in Egypt, but he eventually came to see that although his brothers meant this experience for evil, that God planned to bring good out of it! I believe we have seen the same thing here in OKC! What Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols meant for evil and harm for our city, has been turned into "good" for our city. 

We are not the same city we were prior to April 19, 1995. We are a stronger city now in so many ways. We are city filled with hope not despair. Sorry Tim McVeigh, but good trumped evil in this instance!

God Is Good All The Time, And All The Time God Is Good!

Luke 19:10 (NLT) “For the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost.”

 Have you ever noticed that when a business shuts down the building very quickly looks neglected and run down? That which we neglect fades very quickly. Speaking for myself, I notice that personal evangelism neglected in my life fades very quickly until you can’t even tell it was ever there. I don’t think I’m alone. I have noticed that in our church and across our city. Personal evangelism neglected soon becomes evangelism forgotten. I am guilty. How about you?

Jesus had a singular purpose in coming to this planet. Luke 19:10 states it simply and clearly. Jesus came to seek and to save those who are lost. Did Jesus have a target group he was focused on? Yes, the LOST. The lost includes anyone who has not put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. The LOST are those who do not know God or His son, Jesus Christ. Listen to Jesus’ words, “Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent” John 17:3.


What is our part? We are to SEEK the lost. We seek the lost through building bridges of friendship to their hearts so that we might share the good news of the gospel with them. What is Jesus’ part? He will SAVE them. Hear Romans 10:13, “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” We seek people through personal evangelism. We bring them to Jesus as Andrew brought Peter and Jesus is able to save their souls and give them eternal life.

If the singular purpose of Jesus Christ was evangelism does it not stand to reason that evangelism should be the singular purpose of the church? Clearly, it does. Has the Holy Spirit convicted your heart about a lack of personal evangelism? He has mine. What are we going to do about it? Don’t know about you but I am going to begin to do personal evangelism every time the Lord gives me opportunity. Will you join me? Let’s make personal evangelism a priority in 2015. Listen to the great preacher Charles Spurgeon speak. . .

• “If sinners will be damned, at least let them leap to Hell over our bodies. And if they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees, imploring them to stay. If Hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go there unwarned and unprayed for.”
  

Let’s get busy about personal evangelism.

 

 

 

       Everyone was talking about the Blood Moon to take place on April 15 in the early morning hours, so I set my alarm and go up at 1:30 am to take some pics of this special event which you see above. But what does it all mean? Two best selling books have recently been written about the Blood Moon, one by a well-known pastor in San Antonio. My experience is that everyone loves the topic of prophecy and signs and wonders especially those occurring in the sky, just announce that you are teaching on Revelation and people get all excited. Is all this a portent of the end of the world and the return of Jesus?       Such lunar eclipses are not that unusual. There will be four total lunar eclipses within 18 months in 2014 and 2015. Blood moons will occur also on October 8 of this year and April 8 and September 28 of 2015. What is unusual is that these blood moons will occur in a series called a tetrad, but even that is not highly unusual as there will be a total of eight lunar tetrads which will occur in the 21st century. And is pointed out that these blood moons fall on the Jewish Passover and Feast of Tabernacles in this tetrad, but these Jewish celebrations always took place during the full moon so that the blood moon would happen during these same times is not that unusual either.
       It's easy for us to get caught up in the details and miss the main message of all this. Yes, the Bible speaks of the moon turning to blood in Joel 2:31, Acts 2:20, and Revelation 6:12 but how does that apply to us in these "last days?" First, note that even Jesus had to deal with his disciples getting caught up in prophetic fervor but missing the real message of the moment. Read what He says to His disciples in Matthew 24.

       The disciples asked, "When will these things happen and what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?" Jesus said, "See to it that no misleads you." I gather that Jesus was saying to them that there is something more substantive at stake that just the signs and wonder preceding his return at the end of the age. There is something that must be accomplished before any of this happens. What is that "something?" Jesus reminds the disciples in v. 14 "This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come." There it is! The gospel must be preached in the whole world before He returns. Let's not be so busy looking up, we miss looking around for those who need the gospel.
       Now let me speak to the passage in Acts 2:14-31 which speaks of Joel's prophecy from Joel 2:28-32. Here's the passage so you can read it.

       Peter spoke these words on the day of Pentecost about the coming of the Holy Spirit who would empower the church for witness until the Last Days are fulfilled when Jesus returns. Peter didn't say that all these things were going to be accomplished on the Day of Pentecost. The Day of Pentecost inaugurated the church and the time God has appointed for the Gospel to be shared with the whole world as mentioned from Matthew 24. Notice how Peter ends this part of his message about Joel's prophecy in verse 21, "And it shall be that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." Where does the emphasis come down again? It comes down on believers and the church sharing the Gospel so that people can call upon the name of Jesus to be saved. It always comes back to the gospel. That's why we must be gospel centered and community focused in our church. Yes, Peter, was saying that when Joel's prophecy is finally fulfilled it will be the great and mighty Day of the Lord! Yes, that day is hastening, and yes, there are road signs along the way to remind us that is is coming, but we have much work to do till that day comes in seeing that our world has the chance to hear the life changing message of the Gospel. Yes, Jesus is Coming! Maranatha, even so come Lord Jesus, but let us be found living out and sharing the Gospel when He comes in that Great Day of the Lord!

It's Valentine's Day, a day filled with sentimental cards, roses, and candy. But my Valentine's Day is wonderful because of a Chevrolet emblem that has a magnet on the back and will be placed on our refrigerator. Kathy gave it to me on our Valentine's date at Outback along with a meaningful card and some great new cologne. What's so romantic about a Chevrolet emblem? It's emblematic of how Kathy and I met almost 40 years ago in Shawnee.

We were both students at Gordon Cooper Vo-tech. She was taking studies in secretarial skills, while I was studying electronics. We went in the mornings, and so when Vo-tech let out there was a mad dash to get some lunch and then rush back to Shawnee High for afternoon classes. I had a 1963 Impala. This car had no curb appeal. It was a 4-door Brown sedan formerly owned by an OKC school teacher who sold it to my dad for $300. But it was a beast under the hood! It had the famous Chevy 327 ci V-8 with 4 barrel carb and Powerglide tranny. That car would get up and go. A real sleeper! Kathy drove a 1964 Blue Chevy Impala and each day we had a race back to the high school. That daily race turned into a romance and that romance turned into a marriage which 37 years later is still as fun as those Vo-tech days. 

We were married right out high school. I was 18, she was 19, and my parents had to sign for me to get married. Back in those days, premarital counseling was essentially an hour long talk with the pastor before you were married. All we needed was love, right? No, we could have used some preparation for marriage. Kathy grew up in a family where there were pretty good lines of communication and conflict was dealt with in positive ways. On the other hand, I grew up in a family where those basic skills were lacking in many ways, so I came into our marriage with a lot of avoidance. I was one of those submarine husbands when conflict came about, I would go deep and go silent. Avoidance was my way of dealing with conflict. It was a way, but not a good or positive way. 

Like every other couple who have every been married, we have had our ups and downs, and I must add way more ups than downs, but we have discovered that no perfects this thing called marriage. It is always a "work in progress." Even after 37 years we must still be learning and being reminded of what works and what doesn't. We both understood that those words in marriage vows, "till death do us part," really meant that we were now in a covenant with each other and with God. 

I may not be racing cars any more, but I can tell you that my heart still races when I look at that cute little brunette named Kathy.

Exodus 6:6-9
6 “Therefore, say to the Israelites: ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched armand with mighty acts of judgment. 7 I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians.8 And I will bring you to the land I swore with uplifted hand to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob.I will give it to you as a possession. I am the Lord.’” 9 Moses reported this to the Israelites, but they did not listen to him because of their discouragement and harsh labor.

The voice of God promising hope and encouragement can be so easily drown out in our lives by discouragement. God spoke a message of hope and redemption to Moses that he was to deliver to the Israelites to encourage them and bring them hope, but the message didn't get through because the voice of discouragement was louder in their souls than the voice of encouragement. Why? Notice, that in verse 9, the Israelites, "did not listen to him because of their discouragement and harsh labor." They didn't hear because they were emotionally and physically drained. Two things to think about. First, we have a tendency to let ourselves get drained physically and emotionally in discouragement. If possible, try to get some physical and emotional rest. I love to listen to music which always lifts my soul and dispels discouragement. Also, watch what you eat. We all have our comfort foods we like to eat when discouraged and they usually don't help matters. Second, even though the Israelites didn't listen to the words of encouragement from God through Moses, it didn't mean that God wasn't at work behind the scenes to deliver them, He was. Paul said, "If God be for us, who can be against us." The old saying, "God helps them who help themselves" is neither true or biblical, as often God helps those who can't help themselves. For that we praise His name for his grace and mercy.

Genesis 50:15- 21
15 When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “What if Joseph holds a grudge against us and pays us back for all the wrongs we did to him?” 16 So they sent word to Joseph, saying, “Your father left these instructions before he died: 17 ‘This is what you are to say to Joseph: I ask you to forgive your brothers the sins and the wrongs they committed in treating you so badly.’ Now please forgive the sins of the servants of the God of your father.” When their message came to him, Joseph wept.18 His brothers then came and threw themselves down before him. “We are your slaves,” they said. 19 But Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? 20 You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. 21 So then, don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your children.” And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them.

Sunday morning I will begin a new message series from the Letter of James called Lifestyle Life. The letter of James is immensely personal and practical in regard to how we live out our faith. James is writing to early believers who are experiencing persecution and pain from being serious followers of Jesus Christ. In the first four verses of this little letter James shows us how to find purpose in the trial of life.

Joseph also understood the lesson of finding purpose in trials. After the death of his father, Jacob, Joseph's brother felt sure that now he would exact his revenge on them for selling him into slavery in Egypt, but Joseph saw life through a different filter than his brothers. He saw his life and trials as being used by God for His glory, (v. 20) "You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good . . ." Can you see your trials and struggles in that light. Instead of thinking that God is out to get you, can you see your trials being used of God to better your life, to mature you into the image of Jesus Christ. Let's look for God's purpose in our trials.