A Son’s Recollections of His Father — David Lee McAtee (Part I)

Like nearly all sons, I loved and still love my Father. However, it is complicated.

David Lee McAtee was born in May 1936 in Marshall, Michigan to Carl and Eva (Bower) McAtee. Carl’s first wife had died in childbirth not long previously and had left him with a large number of children. Eva (my Grandmother) had been left at home to care for her aging father (David Ezra Bower) who had passed in January 1936. When her father died Eva was already carrying my father — David McAtee — in her womb. So, one can see it was a bit of a shotgun wedding and my Grandmother was at the wrong end of the shotgun. She had gone from being a caretaker for her aging parents to being a chief cook and bottle washer to Carl’s small tribe of children, not to mention the recipient, along with Dad, of Carl’s drunken beatings. Years later, Dad speculated that perhaps Carl was not his biological father.

Because of the above, my Grandmother and father fell into a kind of co-dependent relationship. Grandma was always protecting Dad almost till the day she died and Dad was by all indications a Mama’s boy almost till the day his mother died. I don’t fault either one of them for this even though it was never healthy. In light of the terror that Carl was in the home, it makes perfect sense. I am merely highlighting the facts.

When Dad’s Dad (Carl) died in 1952 there was a huge stink about the inheritance. The children from the previous marriage basically desired to strip clean my father from any of the tiny inheritance that Carl was leaving behind. Eventually, some townspeople raised a ruckus, and Dad was left with much of Carl’s hunting gear. Carl’s mother (my Great-grandmother — Eva Reid McAtee   — (who I vaguely remember) set that perceived wrong right by completely cutting Dad out of her will. Eva Reid McAtee (1877-1963) left a portion of her estate to everyone of her grandchildren except Dad.

While this begins to explain how it was that Dad was a hard man, of course, it doesn’t excuse it. My Father and his Mother were treated poorly by the McAtee family. As such, Dad grew up angry and his anger never really subsided for the whole of his life. Unfortunately, he carried many of the faults of his own father into his relationship with his children, particularly his oldest son.

After, Dad graduated high school it looks like he spent some time in the US military but even that is questionable. There is a photo of him in an army hospital being greeted by some known personage. There is also the fact that at some point Dad got a monthly check from the Feds for being a disabled vet and at his retirement had a full disabled American vet pension check coming monthly. However, in the past decade or so, new evidence has come to light that Dad’s service in the service was perhaps irregular. No one will now know for sure. It may be the case that Dad was given a medical discharge from being hurt in a parachute training program. I say “parachute training program” because Dad had all the insignia from that outfit.

Eventually, my folks were married in what can only be described as a “non-traditional” wedding service. There is one photo of the bride and groom with the parent(s) of each but the lack of a wedding dress is glaring. I have no idea of the circumstances surrounding my folk’s wedding. I know my Mother’s father (Carl Edward Jacobs) never cared for Dad and Dad never cared much for Carl Jacobs. If I had been Carl Jacobs I probably would not have liked Dad either but with my Mom’s family inlaws always seemed to end up as outlaws and Carl himself was not exactly Mr. Personality.

The marriage, by all accounts, started out well. Dad was working steadily and Mom was having babies — one baby in 1959, 1960, and 1961. Money was a problem as money always burned a hole in Dad’s pocket.  Somewhere around the late 60s, the small automotive cottage industry shop (Universal Deisal) where Dad was the Union President shut down. For years after that Dad never held a job that could provide for a family.

Then unemployed and still having back issues from his time jumping parachute Dad got hooked on prescription drugs. He subsequently had to spend time in a hospital in Blufton, Indiana to get clean. I still remember taking trips to Blufton to see Dad in the Hospital. Of course, I was too young at the time to really understand what was happening.

At home, especially as I recall, after his job loss Dad was not easy to be around. He seemed to incarnate some of the habits of child-rearing he learned from his own father. I recall the terror of seeing Dad beat my mother more than once and I likewise was the recipient many times of those same beatings. Only in the year before his death did Dad try to apologize for all that. It was awkward for him to apologize to his oldest son as one can easily imagine. He mumbled something about his own father and said he now wished he could’ve avoided that. There wasn’t much I could say in response. Responding with… “It’s OK Dad,” didn’t seem appropriate and neither did making a big deal of it. The apology and conversation lasted all of 30 seconds.

Dad did like to hunt and fish and whatever pleasant memories I have of my father is in the context of hunting or fishing. He owned three hunting dogs at any one time (Beagle [Fred], Golden Retriever [Rusty], a German Short Hair [Prince], and a English Retriever [Max]). In retrospect, I now realize that we couldn’t afford those animals but I sure enjoyed them. The dogs were well trained and knew their business. I spent much time tromping through the woods with Dad and the neighbors. We brought home rabbit, squirrel, pheasant, and venison. I learned to clean it (though I’ve now forgotten) and I learned to cook it. I had no problem eating it. Squirrels were often turned into squirrel dumplings. Rabbit and pheasant went right into the frying pan.

It seemed that Dad’s rougher edges subsided in the woods and on the lake. Years later I found myself regretting that Dad could not have found some kind of employment that would have put him daily in those settings.

The hunting trips were wonderful. Listening to our low-pitched beagle and the neighbor’s high-pitched beagle tracking rabbits remains a fond memory. On one deer hunting outing, Dad and I were coming out of some really thick underbrush without having seen anything all morning. I pushed on ahead because I just wanted to get out of that mess as soon as possible. When I emerged from the unforgiving underbrush upon the old country road, there before me in the open sorghum field across the road stood a half-dozen deer with more than one buck present. Dad was still laboring to get out I turned by 12 gauge into a Tommy gun and proceeded to miss every one of the deer.

Then there was the fishing. We lived on a lakeshore growing up (Minnewauken lake). It wasn’t much of a lake in looking back but it was enough to keep us provided with all the fish we could ever hope to eat. I actually have more memories of fishing by myself but there were times when Dad and I would go together. I have no memories have Dad being angry or upset while we were hunting or fishing. Dad would often fish with two poles simultaneously. He would use a cane-pole and set it under one of his legs and then he would use a regular fishing rod and reel to cast in and out. The funnier moments came when he would get two hits simultaneously. It was funny watching him try to manage both poles with energetic fish on the line.

Those were the pleasant memories. I wish they had been more frequent. More were the times when I was warding off blows or being bellowed at or weeping for my mother’s injuries. One time I had misplaced the shoehorn from the nail it was supposed to be kept hanging on. It was a Sunday morning of all times and the rage and beating for that misplaced shoehorn will never be forgotten. Another time I forgot my ball glove at school. Rinse and repeat.  I wish I had a nickel for every time I heard him through the years bellow, “You’re no son of mine.”

Time was also spent with Dad for a few years delivering papers on a Sunday morning (Detroit Free Press). Every Sunday two out of three of us siblings had to go with Dad to deliver papers. The person sitting in the back had to stuff the papers putting the ads inside the paper. The person sitting in the front was the runner who had to deliver papers to the doorstep when it wasn’t put in the paper box. I hated this routine. First, Dad was always himself out of sorts even more than usual having to get up that early in the morning. Second, there was no pleasing the man whether one was in the front seat or the back seat. Third, who wants to get up at 2 am on a Sunday morning to deliver papers? However, this was Dad’s attempt to provide for the family. We would typically get home at about 7 am get some breakfast, fall asleep for an hour before heading to church where I consistently slept through the sermon.

At about the age of 11 or so, Mom had understandably had enough. Dad left the house for a spell. I don’t remember how long. Long enough that once he returned it was odd to see him around. His departure was a hard time for us children. Dad was unemployed, depressed, and now living with his mother and step-father. Upon his visitation rights, we would go to see Dad but his mood was so black that it was extraordinarily difficult to navigate. We were children and somehow we were seemingly being expected to pull Dad out of his depression and slough of despond. Even at that young age, I wanted to somehow help him but I didn’t know-how.

Finally, the folks got back together but it never was better. They decided that Dad would be the Mr. Mom while Mom would work to bring in the money from her factory job. Dad was a lot of things but Mr. Mom was never going to be one of them. One time one of my siblings complained about the meal that Dad had served and the next thing you know they were face-first in their plate. Nobody complained ever again about the meals Dad cooked.

Finally, Dad got work as a bookkeeper for a local nursing home but the damage had already been done to the marriage. The income as a bookkeeper was better but it still was inadequate and so the marriage because of all that has been said here as well as other significant reasons that will remain unmentioned went up in flames. I was a sophomore in High school.

What I am about to say next, I have seen as a minister over and over again in other families that have gone the route of divorce. For the women (wives) especially, things never get better even after the divorce. Divorce merely exchanges one set of problems that come from a failed marriage for another set of problems that are now present with the divorce.

The same is true for children of divorce. They go from navigating one set of problems to having to navigate a different set of problems. I went from the problem of the presence of a wildman of a father to the problem of being far more independent than I had any business being at that age. Then there were the whole custody fights, being told at 16 that you will have to choose which parent you will live with (what 16 year old wants to be put in the position of having to make that kind of decision?) the parents badmouthing each other seeking subtly and not so subtly to curry favor of the children by casting the other parent in a negative light, being placed in schools that your completely unfamiliar with, etc.

And Dad could’ve avoided all of that if he had just loved his wife as Christ loved the Church.

End Part I

Scary Kinism Defined & Examples Given — Part II

  • That culture is the external expression of religious belief in union with race and place.

    There are several ways to say the above.

    1.) Culture is the outward expression of a particular people’s inward belief.
    2.) Culture is a particular people’s religion externalized.
    3.) Culture is the result of pouring a particular theology over a particular people.

    The idea here is that while culture, faith, and race/ethnicity can be distinguished they can never be separated. This explanation also works to make us see that differences among peoples can not be attributed solely or even primarily to culture. Culture is the product of race/ethnicity combined with theology/religion and as the product can not be attributed as the primary distinguishing reality between different races/ethnicity so culture can not be said to be what makes peoples distinct. The primary distinguishing reality is race/ethnicity and belief.

    This is not to deny that individuals or small groups of individuals cannot be enculturated into a culture that is heterogenous of their own. There are many examples of children, for example, on the American frontier who were kidnapped by savage American Indians who were once finally rescued and who would never be able to mentally leave their forced enculturated experience.

  • That the ideal Christian social order is an extension of the family concept, considered at a larger scale. That Biblically, a nation is a large group of people of common patrilineal descent, living in a common geographical location, and having a shared religion, history, language, and civil government (a religio-ethnostate).What is given above is just the standard definition of nation as etymologically derived from the Latin word, “nation.”

    nation (n.)

    c. 1300, nacioun, “a race of people, large group of people with common ancestry and language,” from Old French nacion “birth, rank; descendants, relatives; country, homeland” (12c.) and directly from Latin nationem (nominative natio) “birth, origin; breed, stock, kind, species; race of people, tribe,” literally “that which has been born,” from natus, past participle of nasci “be born” (Old Latin gnasci), from PIE root *gene- “give birth, beget,” with derivatives referring to procreation and familial and tribal groups.

    The word is used in English in a broad sense, “a race of people an aggregation of persons of the same ethnic family and speaking the same language,” and also in the narrower sense, “a political society composed of a government and subjects or citizens and constituting a political unit; an organized community inhabiting a defined territory within which its sovereignty is exercised.”

    The reason that a nation is to be comprised of a particular race and ethnicity as the ideal social order is because such a social order has the most potential for a harmony of interests among the people occupying a social order. If a social order is polyglot and multicultural the potential for friction increases in relation to the percentages of the polyglot presence.

    Rudyard Kipling explains all this perfectly,

    The Stranger within my gate,
    He may be true or kind,
    But he does not talk my talk–
    I cannot feel his mind.
    I see the face and the eyes and the mouth,
    But not the soul behind.

    The men of my own stock,
    They may do ill or well,
    But they tell the lies I am wanted to,
    They are used to the lies I tell;
    And we do not need interpreters
    When we go to buy or sell.

    The Stranger within my gates,
    He may be evil or good,
    But I cannot tell what powers control–
    What reasons sway his mood;
    Nor when the Gods of his far-off land
    Shall repossess his blood.

    The men of my own stock,
    Bitter bad they may be,
    But, at least, they hear the things I hear,
    And see the things I see;
    And whatever I think of them and their likes
    They think of the likes of me.

    This was my father’s belief
    And this is also mine:
    Let the corn be all one sheaf–
    And the grapes be all one vine,
    Ere our children’s teeth are set on edge
    By bitter bread and wine.

    – Rudyard Kipling

  • That sin is a universal deformity in human nature, and that no perfect society is possible on this side of Heaven. That Christians should work to limit human error by seeking those conditions which are inherently productive of a harmony of interests, both in marriage and in society at large. That a harmony of interests naturally exists between people who are similar.

    Of course, this presupposes that peoples qua peoples are not the same. This is of course contested today but the father of Western civilization never believed in the blessings of a polyglot multicultural social order.The point about marriage above is the same as the point of social orders as a whole. Marriages are going to be successful in relation to the amount of common ground that the parties contracting marriage share. As such just as polyglot social orders are unwise so are polyglot marriages unwise.

  • That the God of the Old Testament, who forbade interracial, interreligious marriages to His covenant nation, is the same as the God of the New Testament. That marriage between parties who are not naturally congenial is unequal yoking. That unequal yoking in marriage or in society at large is destructive of Christian harmony, association, and growth.

    That God forbad interreligious marriages to His covenant nation is not controversial. That God forbad interracial marriages to His covenant nation is controversial but the weight of Scripture supports the contention. Following Calvin’s perspective on boundaries and distinctions, Rushdoony invokes the case laws forbidding mixing as support that God forbad interracial mixing:

    “These laws forbid the blurring of God-ordained distinctions. The nature and direction of sin is to blur and finally erase all the God-ordained boundaries … God’s laws are case laws. If vegetable seeds are not to be mingled, nor an ass and a horse crossbred, then in the human realm it follows that the confusion of God-ordained boundaries is even more serious.”

    (RJR, Commentary on Leviticus 19:19, p.230)

    This forbidding is seen most clearly in the book of Ezra where the women of non-Israeli origin and their children are commanded to be separated from Israel. If the problem in the book of Ezra was only religious then it is hard to see why the women or children would have been commanded to depart since doubtless many were not any more disobedient to God’s laws than their disobedient Israeli husbands.

    It can be conceded that as an exception a social order will be able to survive a polyglot marriage here or there but when polyglot marriages are pursued and pushed by the social order as equally normative, as we are seeing now in the West, it is a certainty that such a social order will eventually go into abeyance. It will also experience genocide as the original stock is eventually bred out of existence.

    Rushdoony understood this danger when he wrote,

    .‘Full equality’ means that no differences can be tolerated with respect to race, color, creed, economics, and all things else. THIS MEANS THE PLANNED DESTRUCTION OF THE VERY ELEMENTS OF SOCIETY WHO HAVE MADE OUR CIVILIZATION.”

    R. J. Rushdoony
    Roots of Reconstruction — pg. 581

    Of course, the enemies of the Christian white man understand this and are pursuing just this course in order to overthrow whatever residual influence of Biblical Christianity that remains in the West.

    As a final note, for the purposes of clarification, polyglot marriages wherein both partners are in submission to Christ and in support of Biblical Christianity should be supported as much as possible within the believing community with the hope that the children of such marriages will avoid the same polyglot marriages that their parents contracted.

Have You Been Smitten with “Mass Formation Psychosis?”

“If under… conditions a narrative is distributed through the mass media which indicates an object of anxiety and provides a strategy to deal with this object of anxiety, then all the free-floating anxiety might be associated to this object and a huge willingness might be observed to participate in the strategy to deal with the object of anxiety.”

Dr. Mattias Desmet
Professor of clinical psychology at Ghent University in Belgium

Elements of Mass Formation Psychosis;

1.) An event that creates anxiety and fear;

For example;

a.) Pearl Harbor

b.) JFK assassination
c.) 9-11
d.) Deep State Virus

2.) Isolation of individuals;

Until the Deep State Virus lockdown, I don’t know this has ever successfully been accomplished on such a wide scale. There was certainly isolation of individuals in London during the German bombing. I think one might argue that the Jap civilian prison camps were the isolation of individuals.

3.) Authority figure (leader or government) offers a solution;

Examples,

a.) FDR after Pearl Harbor

b.) Bush after 9-11
c.) Fauci/Collins w/ Deep State virus

4.) Repetition of a constant, controlled message of why people should be anxious, coupled with the specific, particular message of the group narrative.

The Media does this routinely with every outbreak of war more often than not conforming to the Government’s manipulation of the “news.”

a.) WW I — Remember Wilson’s Department of Information and the 4-minute men. See book, “Manipulating the Masses,” by John Maxwell Hamilton.

b.) WW II  — See Rolad Dahl’s role in manipulating US media in WW II run-up
c.) January 6th 2021
d.) Russia, Russia, Russia
e.) Deep State virus

5.) Censorship of any information or questioning of the “approved” message.

This is happening in spades with the Deep State virus and the quaxx narrative. Listened to parts of a 5 hour round-table with Jane today on the massive censorship of magnificently accredited Doctors who worked to counter to the official narrative.

Trust the Clergy? Not Me

At the bottom of this entry, I post the link to the article from which the quotes are drawn.

“I want to exhort pastors once again to try to use your credibility with your flock to put forward the public health measures that we know can work,” Collins said. Stetzer replied that I sometimes hear from ministers who don’t feel comfortable preaching about Covid vaccines, and I advise them, in those cases, to simply promote the jab through social media.

“I just tell them, when you get vaccinated, post a picture and say, ‘So thankful I was able to get vaccinated,’ People need to see that it is the reasonable view.”

For well over a hundred years now we have known that we cannot trust civil magistrates. I think it is time to admit now that we can no longer trust our clergy. Whether through sheer malevolence or well-intentioned but misguided stupidity we must begin yesterday to take the approach of verifying before trusting what comes out of the mouth of the clergy. We must become noble Bereans who examined the scriptures to see whether or not what they were being told by Apostles was true.

The article linked below gives some of the lies that are being told by clergy;

Once again, Rick Warren (Megachurch Pastor — Saddleback) and (Biologos founder and NIH Head) Francis Collins spent their interview jointly lamenting the unlovingness of Christians who question the efficacy of masks, specifically framing it as a matter of obedience to Jesus. “Wearing a mask is the great commandment: love your neighbor as yourself,” the best-selling author of “The Purpose-Driven Life” declared, before going on to specifically argue that religious leaders have an obligation to convince religious people to accept the government’s narratives about Covid.

God’s law defines the love of neighbor. One defining quality of love to a neighbor is the 9th Word to not bear false witness. As masks have been repeatedly demonstrated to have zero effect on virus particles

https://www.rcreader.com/commentary/masks-dont-work-covid-a-review-of-science-relevant-to-covide-19-social-policy

the wearing of a mask is a false witness to our neighbor potentially filling them with unnecessary fear and so wearing a mask is not loving our neighbor as ourselves.

Furthermore, wearing a mask is also a violation of the 6th commandment which in requiring that I do no harm to my neighbor also implies that I do all the good I can to my neighbor. If I am wearing a mask that has potentially harmful respiratory effects I am not loving my neighbor by setting a negative example for them to do the same. I am hurting my neighbor and so am not showing love to God or my neighbor.

In point of fact in the wearing of a mask as well as in the taking of the vaccine, one is demonstrating a marked disregard and hatred for one’s neighbor.

Finally, on this score getting the vaccine and wearing masks could even be argued as a lack of love for God as getting the vaccine and wearing a mask reveals that one has put another God (the Usurper state) before God. This is a violation of the first commandment. Putting any god before God is not only a lack of love for God but also necessarily a lack of love for neighbor. One cannot love their neighbor if they do not love God. Wearing masks and getting the vaccine are indicators of one’s lack of love for God.

One more section of the article is a hoot and should be given treatment here;

“Let me just say a word to the priests and pastors and rabbis and other faith leaders,” he said. “This is our job, to deal with these conspiracy issues and things like that…One of the responsibilities of faith leaders is to tell people to…trust the science. They’re not going to put out a vaccine that’s going to hurt people.”

Rev. Rick Warren

As it is my job, as pastor to deal with conspiracy theories let me note that Warren is dealing in conspiracies. He has embraced the conspiracy theory that no conspiracy theories exist.

Secondly, because science is science it can’t be trusted. Science is forever changing. Any science that is routinely contested by various well-heeled scientists is not a science to be blindly trusted. Warren is asking us not to embrace science but rather to embrace statist propaganda.

Here are a few well-heeled scientists who are screaming that the current narrative called “science” is horse-hockey;

https://rumble.com/vtbzsq-highlights-38-minutes-covid-19-a-second-opinion-january-24-2022.html

Thirdly, tell the folks who were part of the Tuskegee experiment that the state would never do anything that would hurt people. These lying ministers like Warren, Stetzer, Keller, Moore, etc. like false prophets in the Old Testament are just court jesters serving as lackeys for the state.

https://illinoisfamily.org/religious/how-the-federal-government-used-evangelical-leaders-to-spread-covid-propaganda-to-churches/?fbclid=IwAR0Bf0Um4b6kz7wkw8ZX-Czda9WWB_EhJGVgqcZ4nsptPDX2VhCizPmO4NE

The Ordinary Means of Grace

Here we have gathered this morning by divine appointment in order to worship by giving glory, honor, and praise to the Triune God. We ascribe to Him all worthiness and dominion. However, in Worship, God also comes close to us in Christ and by Christ, as applied by the Holy Spirit we receive the blessings of salvation out of the eternal fountain of God’s grace.

Something very supernatural that looks very common is happening as we gather here. God is conveying His grace – His favor – week by week as we hear the Word proclaimed and the Sacraments dispensed. In brief, God is communicating His grace to us – His favor to us – by certain means.

Those means are called the “means of grace.”

Like the words “Trinity” or “Incarnation” the phrase “Means of grace,” is not found in Scripture but its usage is warranted as we look at Scripture to learn that God saves us and keeps us in His salvation by certain means.

Just as God uses means to grow our children physically via food and drink and exercise so God uses means to grow His children spiritually. Throughout history, the Church has referred to these means God uses to save us and to preserve us in salvation as the “means of grace.”

So … already we have briefly defined the idea of the “means of grace.” To expand a wee bit the “means of grace,” are those common realities that God has ordained to be the normative channels by which He saves us and preserves us in His salvation.

To say it another way;

The means of grace are God’s appointed instruments by which the Holy Spirit enables believers to receive Christ and the benefits of redemption.

So, we have briefly defined the idea of the “means of Grace,” now we consider just exactly what means God uses in order to bring us into His salvation and then to keep us in His salvation.

The Heidelberg Catechism answers this question in LD 25 – Q. 65

Question 65: Since then we are made partakers of Christ and all His benefits by faith only, whence doth this faith proceed?

Answer: From the Holy Ghost, who works faith1 in our hearts by the preaching of the gospel, and confirms it by the use of the sacraments.2

The Westminster Confession puts it this way,

Q. 154. What are the outward means whereby Christ communicates to us the benefits of his mediation?

A. The outward and ordinary means whereby Christ communicates to his church the benefits of his mediation, are all his ordinances; especially the Word, sacraments, and prayer; all which are made effectual to the elect for their salvation

So God normatively uses means in order to save and keep His people in His salvation.

This is not so strange to us when we pause to think about this. We don’t normatively talk about the means of this or that in our lives but the reality of means is everywhere in our lives.

In order to have gardens, the means required is the planting of seeds and the maintenance work of gardening

In order to preach the means required is commonly some kind of ordination process

In order to have children, a man and his wife have need of the means of intimacy

And in order to be saved, grow in that salvation, and be kept in God’s salvation we are learning that God uses means … these are called the means of grace.

And just as gardens won’t grow without means, and men won’t preach without means, and families won’t be had without means so God’s favor in salvation won’t be normatively had apart from the means of grace.

Well, let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves but lodge that last statement in your memory banks because we will be returning to it.

Let us appeal to the Scriptural support that the Catechism’s appeal to for this idea of means of Grace relating to God’s salvation.

The Reformers spoke of the Word as being the primary means of Grace and we see that taught throughout Scripture. The reason the Reformers offered the Word as the primary means of Grace is that Baptism and the Eucharist find their meaning as dependent upon the Word informing
God’s grace as we get that in our other senses.

Dutch theologian Gerharrdus Vos put it this way speaking of the primacy of the Word over the sacraments,

If necessary, we can think of Word as a means of grace without sacrament, but it is impossible to think of sacrament as a means of grace without Word. The sacraments depend on Scripture, and the truth of Scripture speaks in and through them.

So, we see the Word proclaimed as the primary means of grace

Matthew 28:19-20. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

Here we see the appointment by Christ as to the responsibility to collect the elect into the Church and the means He appoints to do so are the Word (hence the reference to teaching) and Baptism. Here it is the Word and Baptism as means of grace.

In Acts we see that church now as it has begun to be collected;

Acts 2:42, 46-47. And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers..

We note here the church continued steadfastly in the apostle’s doctrine (Word) and in the breaking of bread which we understand to be a reference to the Eucharist.

That the Word is the primary means among God’s means of grace is seen clearly in Romans 10.

14 How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? 15 And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written:

How beautiful are the feet of those who [b]preach the gospel of peace, Who bring glad tidings of good things!” 16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our report?” 17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Note here the emphasis on the Word as a means of grace as it comes forth as Preached. The Reformers took this idea very seriously. It was not just the Word as a means of grace but the Word as preached.

Westminster Shorter Catechism

Q. 89. How is the Word made effectual to salvation?

A. The Spirit of God maketh the reading, but especially the preaching, of the Word, an effectual means of convincing and converting sinners, and of building them up in holiness and comfort, through faith, unto salvation.185

But that Baptism and the Lord’s Table are also instruments by which God’s conveys His grace is seen in Scripture,

First, we remember how often Baptism is placed cheek by jowl with salvation. Peter, answering the question, “What must we do to be saved,” replies,

Acts 2:38 Then Peter said to them, Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins;

Note the tightest of connections between the remission of sins and Baptism. However this is not the only time that tight connection is made, Hear the language Paul uses to recount his salvation as he quotes Ananias speaking to him,

Acts 22:16 And now why are you waiting? Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord.’

Baptism is clearly a means of grace. Baptism is an instrument that God has ordained to the end of gifting us with salvation just as the Eucharist is an instrument that God has ordained for our being preserved in His salvation.

One more text relating to Baptism as a means of grace,

Titus 3:But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

Here we notice that Baptism is not man’s work but it is God’s work. If Baptism was our work then Paul couldn’t write here “not by works of righteousness which we have done.” No, Paul is communicating that Baptism is God’s Work. Baptism is God’s means of Grace … it is God’s “washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit.”

And the table is God’s means of grace in order to nourish and nurture us in His salvation… in order to preserve us and keep us. This is why we speak of eating the bread of forgiveness and drinking the wine of eternal life. The bread and wine are to us as we eat and drink in faith what spinach was to Popeye. They are the food and elixir of grace.

Luke 22:17-20

17 Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, “Take this and divide it among yourselves; 18 for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” 19 And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” 20 Likewise He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you.

As we said though earlier though the sacraments are dependent upon the Word. The sacraments are God’s drama but a drama is only as good as the Word that informs it. We should also say about the sacraments that they are God’s means of grace to us in our other senses. With the Word, we receive the means of grace via our hearing organ. However, with the sacraments, we receive God’s means of grace in our organ of tactile, our organ of smell, our organ of taste. With Word & Sacrament, the believer is saturated in their senses with the means of God’s grace. God considers our weakness and so plummets our whole being with His favor leading to our growth in His grace.

Oh, the wonders of God’s condescension to us in Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit. How tender He is towards us. How carefully He nurtures and nourishes His people. How generously He provides all things needed for our salvation.

Amazing grace indeed!

So, we see that the power of the Church is in the administration of Word & Sacrament.

Now, if we pause and gather ourselves we can make a derivative observation from these truths.

1.) God’s Word on the means of grace teaches us the necessity of your and my Church attendance.

How do I get at that? By the simple observation that there is nowhere else that you can get Word & Sacrament except in the Church. The Church is to Word & Sacrament what a specialty shop is to whatever good that specialty shop is carrying. If you want shoes you go to a cobbler. If you want your car fixed you go to a mechanic. If you want bread you go to a bakery. If you want health you go to a Dr. office… and if you want eternal life as found in the means of grace of Word & Sacrament there is nowhere else you can go except to the Church. The Church is God’s ordained agent to teach, drench, and feed His people unto eternal life.

Here in this seemingly very ordinary place, God is meeting with His people to convey to them the supernatural means of grace. What looks to be very common is suffused with the supernatural by God’s appointment. The gathering of the saints is not an option any more than water is an option to a man dying of thirst…. and that twice on the Lord’s Day.

If this is true, and it is, then all of us should value the Church and church attendance much much higher than we typically do. Why would any Christian want to excuse themselves from the one and only place where they can find the means of Grace? Why would we want to excuse ourselves from the one place God has promised to meet us in order to feed and nurture us? To excuse ourselves then from attending the word preached and the sacrament dispensed is to contradict our insistence that there is no higher priority in our lives than the Christian faith.

I know many who are hearing my voice don’t have true churches to attend because of the continued apostasy of the modern Reformed Church. Believe me, I weep with you over the current Babylonian captivity of the Church. My soul is raked and bruised over what passes for the Church today.

Having said that if you are one of those people allow me to encourage you, if at all possible, given all other necessary considerations, to move your family to be in a place where you can attend a true Church and so receive God’s means of Grace. I know of a Church in Charlotte that would love for you to find a home here.

2.) All of this we have said explains why you want a trained and holy man (not a woman) in your pulpit for it is he who the burden of the Lord is laid upon to faithfully and accurately deliver the Word and dispense the Sacraments. In God’s economy, the visible church in any era will only rise as high as the men in the pulpit.

What a fearful thing to be a minister and to bear this awful responsibility and because it is a fearful thing you, in the years that lie before many of you, long after I am gone, have need to look for ministers who are so overwhelmed by the fear of God that they labor assiduously to bring you the Word faithfully, passionately, and with Spirit-driven unction and conviction.

Parents and Grandparents, you ought to be praying already for your children and grandchildren to be blessed to be able to attend Churches and hear ministers that take deeply seriously their place in relation to God’s means of grace of Word & Sacrament.

In conclusion, we are reminded again that the means of grace proclaim Christ in His saving role as our mediatorial King & Priest. Word & Sacrament scream Christ’s finished work and His ongoing Kingdom reign over the cosmos.

Oh for the grace for all of us realize how much we need grace and then to pursue it where it is in open display and so can be found.