Since August 2008 we have had a weekly Bible Study in Exeter, CA and for the many, many people who have come from all over Tulare County to hear the Word of the LORD, we thank God that you have touched our lives in so many ways that would take many chronicles to charter. 

Our normal Monday evening Bible study on the 4^th January 2010 (And also the young ladies study on Wednesday 6^th January 2010) will not happen as both William and Chelsea are out of town attending the Calvary Chapel Missions Conference at the Calvary Chapel Bible College in Murrieta, CA between the dates of 4^th – 7^th January 2010. 

Should you need to reach us, give William a call on his cell phone, if no reply leave a message and we will get back to you as soon as possible. 

I pray that you have a happy and safe New Year celebration. 

God bless you one and all 

William

If someone asked you, what does it mean to be wise? What would you tell them? The reason I ask this is that what is wise to one man may very well be foolish to another!  The same can be said of the difference between mans conventional wisdom and the wisdom of God. 

The book of Proverbs is full of what it means to be wise; the wisdom it speaks of is “Godly wisdom”  and not wisdom that will always astound and amaze the fold of mankind.  Let us look at a few proverbs that advise us of this. 

The very point of the book of Proverbs is mentioned in the first few verses when it says the following: 

The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel; To know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding; To receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity; To give subtilty to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion. A wise [man] will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels: Proverbs 1:1-5 (KJV)  

So what does it mean for wisdom to cry? I believe this points to Jesus, Jesus is the ultimate wise man, here was a man who lived a human life and for the life of his mission, no sin could be found in him. In Colossians 2:3 we are told that: “In whom (Jesus) are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. ” 

When you look at the world today, you do see things sliding! Standards are lower than they used to be, morality is shifting in a direction that is far from God. This breaks the heart of the creator, when God made the Garden of Eden, he made it to be “very good” Do you see the world around you and recognize it as “very good?” 

Man is separated from God due to man’s sinful actions, we have the same choice we can make, we can chose to follow God or reject God. When we reject God it is enough to make wisdom cry! 

God bless you one and all

William 

Today we will keep it nice and simple as it is Friday, but let me start with how amazing to me that God’s word lines up so accurately with each other as often as it does! 

If you have a look at the fact that it was written by 40 different authors over a time span of about 1500 years, one 3 continents in 3 different languages, then it may blow your mind as much as it blows mine. 

Can you imagine getting 40 Christians from the same church or even the same town, who speak the same language and ask them to interpret something, I can guarantee you that, you will not always get correlating views, that is why I believe that the Bible is in-fact the Word of God.   

But to the scripture, this proverb is really also a reiteration of Exodus 20 (the ten commandments) where we have to honour our father and mother, but this goes deeper. 

The word for hear (shama) would be better as Understand, take in, act upon. Childeren (ben) we have been through previously, the instruction is (muwcar) is to chasten, to discipline, father (ab) is simply father, attend (qushab) is to incline, pay attention, to listen,know (yada) understanding (biynah ) can also mean discernment. 

So in an amplified version: 

Hear, understand, take in, act upon, ye children, ye descendents, the instruction, the chastening, the discipline of a father, and attend, incline, to listen and pay attention  to know understanding and discernment. 

In a nutshell, chances are your father has been through it before, why not learn from his experience. The older I get, the more this is the truth. 

God bless you all 

William

My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments: For length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to thee. (Proverbs 3:1-2) 

I have chosen to do two verses today, mainly as they flow so well together and I think it would have been cruel to mention the first part without the second (it may also have made less sense!) 

You see, verse one is a command, it is what you should be doing and the second part is the reward. If you will, the result of your actions. 

It kind of got me thinking recently about God. (Not unusual that in the slightest) and about sin, you see God has given us free will to make the same choices that Adam did. We can either chose to follow God or to not follow God. 

When we do not follow God we are in sin, thankfully we serve a forgiving God but not all sin is without consequences. So just because God has forgiven a sin may not mean that the after effects of that sin have been removed also! 

This third chapter of Proverbs is a great instructional part of the Bible. It takes the Christian life back down to basics and breaks it down to a fundamental level. (It could be why I like it so much!) 

So what is it saying, as we learned yesterday my son (ben) is talking also about children, descendents. Forget simply means to forget, to ignore or wither (shakach)  Law is as you would expect (towrah) the heart (leb) refers to he inner man, mind, will, heart or understanding, keep (natsar) means to guard over, to watch and commandments are again mitzvah. 

So to expand verse one 

My son, my descendents, my children, no not forget, no not ignore, no not allow my law to wither in your hearts; but guard over, watch over it in your heart, your inner man, your mind, your will and your understanding and keep my commandments 

Interestingly enough, verse two is as you would read it and cannot me expanded that much upon. 

In a nutshell God wants us to sincerely observe his commandments, his divine instructions, in this he promises life and all the blessings that come with it. And when God says he will add something to you, you can guarantee that God is not stingy with what he adds, he will abound it unto you.

I pray this was a blessing and I pray that your day goes well today 

God bless 

William

My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee; Proverbs 2:1 

Welcome to a new part of the site in which I am hoping to update on a daily basis to highlight a Proverb and what God is showing me through it, the idea is to lift up one verse dependant on the date (the second being Proverbs 2) 

For me, at first glance this proverb is about personal commitment! Make no mistake, if you are pondering the Christian life or are a Christian and thinks and not going as well as you had hoped, it is always fruitful to begin with some self-assessment! 

Lets face it, from time to time we all suck! I would list all the things I did wrong yesterday here, but I would fear that I may dominate this article with my own struggles and issues! 

Also, let us not think that this instruction is only for males, the word for son is “ben” in Hebrew which also means my children, my descendents, my people. 

When we become Christians we chose to be a member of God’s family by adoption, as the Christian praise son tells us that “we are his children, the fruit of his suffering” 

When we “receive” as it said in the text, (laqach) we take hold, we seize we fetch, we acquire, we take away. What I find interesting it is the same word used in Genesis 3:6 when it is describing the action that Eve took when she partook of the apple in the Garden of Eden. 

So in the same manner that the original sin was committed, the sin that condemns us, we have free will to make a choice to take a free gift for eternal salvation, for me that shows the simplicity of a gracious God! 

When you look at “my words” (‘emer) which can also mean utterance, speech, sayings, promises or commandments. So if you keep God’s commandments, will you be okay? Not at all, you are not saved by the Law but by faith in Christ Jesus. When you are saved, God the father will send his Holy Spirit to minister to you, that is when you have a desire to study his commandments and become more like him. Which is why you cannot do it alone, we need supernatural help! 

The last two words mean as the text says, and hide (tsaphan) my commandments (mitzvah) we are to store his word, his commandments within us. This is the hardest part, you see I can remember all manners of stuff that is no good for me (stuff like songs from 10-20 years ago) like it was yesterday but sometimes I have an issue retaining heavenly things! What I do is simply pray! 

I hope this has been both educational and edifying! 

God bless 

William

Hello one and all, I feel fortunate to be able to communicate with you on this platform so here goes! This article may not be as articulate or may not flow as well as some other articles you have read from me, but this is really what the Holy Spirit is stirring within my heart at present, so here goes! 

The title of this article may use a term that you are not familiar with a “community centre” which is a very British term for a building, in which the local council, city authority or local government own for lease back to the community for special events, parties and the like. 

Unfortunately, in both the UK and the US, many churches have become that also, the world out large really only interacts with them when they wish to hire facilities from them, this is a sign of an ineffectual church! 

Now, please do not get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with churches maximising revenues by hiring out buildings and the like, my wife hires out a building for a choir she teaches! But if that is the churches only involvement with the community, it seriously needs to re-think its outreach strategy! 

This in turn leads to an issue that we see in many “healthy” American churches, they get distracted by the “facilities obsession” the churches that have no building of their own, there is an overwhelming desire to get one, the ones that do, want to move to have a bigger facility, and the ones who have land near their existing facility, want to extend it! 

Now if this is done with pure motives to do the work of the LORD, and done with a prayerful approach, then I commend these brothers for wishing to have this enhancement to their ministry, if it is being done to be boastful, or to set the church up for “sheep stealing” or to jut be able to say, “we have a sanctuary that holds xxx” then you would be as well not doing it. 

I tend to take my lead from the good and bad things the early church was doing, there is no stories of “campus extensions” of “building works ministries” or any of the distractions we have today. They kept it simple, they met in folk’s houses, the ones who had more, they gave, and then they started a real community. 

Here is what I think, the church, as in the people and not the buildings should really get back to that community idea. Now community is a real “Christian buzz word” and as much as I do not try to appear trendy, this time, I appear to be on the money! 

What we need is a koinonia mindset, now koinonia is a Greek word that is associated with the first church, they were truly a community, in many ways they were like many modern day missions churches.

The reason I talk about missions churches is that when I was serving at Calvary Chapel Glasgow, that was something that attracted the wretched sinner off the street and back into the church, that wretched sinner was me and the church was one of love, of community, of true respect and regardless of your walk with Christ, you were welcomed in, trusted immediately and made feel as if you were one of the family. 

That situation is not commonplace; you won’t see in many churches the Pastors wife cooking all day on a Saturday to ensure the church as a whole eats lunch on a Sunday! You will not always see such humility, that you will see in that pastor, you will not see the good counsel, the exhortation and the correction delivered in such a loving manner. 

The argument I hear most often when I discuss this with American believers (who quite often belong to disconnected churches) is that the “fellowship has grown too large to know everyone! That may be true, but that also means we need to try harder, seeing folks from church is not just a Sunday pursuit, most folks will be happy to know someone cares enough to give them a call or send them a card! 

Which leads me to my last point, churches really should not be disconnected, you should be able to go up to anyone in your fellowship and have a loving talk with them, we are reminded often times to “love one another” what could be more loving that live interaction! Try it, you may find a new love for that person! 

I know I have went on a bit and I pray this finds you well 

God bless

William

What most of you won’t realise (unless you are connected with my facebook) is that today is also the 4 year wedding anniversary of Chelsea and I’s “show wedding” (we got married twice, one to secure a UK visa for Chelsea and I so that family and friends could celebrate with us and take pictures and the like! Chelsea, I love you, you have the patience of a saint to deal with me on a daily basis! 

Like many US holidays (Christmas, 4^th July, Thanksgiving and Superbowl day) we get together as extended family, all of Chelsea’s brothers, their spouses, their families, my mother in law and basically all are invited, we are being blessed that Chelsea’s uncle is coming up from Orange with his wife also.   

So today, here’s to family, as I type this, my daughter is on my knee hitting random keys to help her daddy out, boy am I thankful for the help! She is the height of cuteness and all of her little ways make me love her more. 

And lastly, to the one who saw a real treasure in me when I was down scrambling around in the muck and the myre, who showed me true love, not by loving me, but re-introduced me to Christ, not by the words you said, but by who you are! My wife Chelsea, now that is something to be really thankful for! 

God bless you one and all

William

We are a Bible study that meets on Monday evenings (beginning on December 7th 2009) at Cappella Coffee House which is located at 132 N E St in downtown Exeter. We have been meeting since August 2008 in my family home, but after much prayer, we decided to change venue and night of meeting.  

This page you are reading, although entitled the “home page” will be our home page for articles, blogs and hopefully inspirational thoughts from William and Chelsea. 

The website really comes in two parts, this page and the other pages which all have an individual purpose to give you relevant information about this Bible study. 

The purpose of the website is to promote the Bible study and hopefully getting people to pray that it has a powerful impact in the community of Exeter for Jesus Christ. (And all surrounding towns, if the LORD wills!) 

I truly want to thank you for reading thus far and I pray that God richly blesses you today, please do not forget to pray for us! 

William & Chelsea Mc Cafferty