THE LOVE YOU DON' T NEED By John MacArthur

“All you need is love.”
So said the Beatles. If they’d been singing about God’s love, the statement would have a grain of truth in it.
But what usually goes by the name love in popular culture is not authentic love at all; it’s a deadly fraud.
Far from being “all you need,” it’s something you desperately need to avoid.
The apostle Paul makes that very point in Ephesians 5:1-3. He writes, “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints.”
The simple command of verse 2 (”walk in love, as Christ loved us”) sums up the whole moral obligation of the Christian. After all, God’s love is the single, central principle that defines the Christian’s entire duty.
This kind of love is really “all you need.” Romans 13:8-10 says, “The one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments . . . are summed up in this word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.” Galatians 5:14 echoes that selfsame truth: “The whole law is fulfilled in one word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”
Jesus likewise taught that all the law and the prophets hang on two simple principles about love—the First and Second Great Commandments (Matt. 22:38-40). In other words, “love . . . is the bond of perfection” (Colossians 3:14, NKJV).
When Paul commands us to walk in love, the context reveals that in positive terms, he is talking about being kind, tenderhearted, and forgiving to one another (Ephesians 4:32). The model for such selfless love is Christ, who gave His life to save His people from their sins. “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). And “if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (1 John 4:11).
In other words, true love is always sacrificial, self-giving, merciful, compassionate, sympathetic, kind, generous, and patient. These and many other positive, benevolent qualities (cf 1 Cor. 13:4-8) are what Scripture associates with divine love.
When Love Is Bad
But notice the negative side as well, also seen in the context of Ephesians 5. The person who truly loves others as Christ loves us must refuse every kind of counterfeit love. The apostle Paul names some of these satanic forgeries. They include immorality, impurity, and covetousness. The passage continues:
Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous ( that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not associate with them. (vv. 4-7)
Immorality is perhaps our generation’s favorite substitute for love. Paul uses the Greek word porneia, which includes every kind of sexual sin. Popular culture desperately tries to blur the line between genuine love and immoral passion. But all such immorality is a total perversion of genuine love, because it seeks self-gratification rather than the good of others.
Impurity is another devilish perversion of love. Here Paul employs the Greek term akatharsia, which refers to every kind of filth and impurity. Specifically, Paul has in mind “filthiness,” “foolish talk,” and “crude joking,” which are the peculiar characteristics of evil companionship. That kind of camaraderie has nothing to do with true love, and the apostle plainly says it has no place in the Christian’s walk.
Covetousness is yet another corruption of love that stems from a narcissistic desire for self-gratification. It’s the exact opposite of the example Christ set when He “gave Himself up for us” (v. 2). In verse 5, Paul equates covetousness with idolatry. Again, this has no place in the Christian walk, and according to verse 5, the person who is guilty of it “has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.”
Such sins, Paul says, “must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints” (v. 3). Of those who practice such things, he tells us, “Do not associate with them” (v. 7).
In other words, we are not showing authentic love unless we are intolerant of all the popular perversions of love.
Most of the talk about love these days ignores this principle. “Love” has been redefined as a broad tolerance that overlooks sin and embraces good and evil alike. That’s not love; it’s apathy.
God’s love is not at all like that. Remember, the supreme manifestation of God’s love is the cross, where Christ “loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (v. 2). Thus Scripture explains the love of God in terms of sacrifice, atonement for sin, and propitiation: “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10). In other words Christ made Himself a sacrifice to turn away the wrath of an offended deity. Far from dismissing our sins with a benign tolerance, God gave His Son as an offering for sin, to satisfy His own wrath and justice in the salvation of sinners.
That is the very heart of the gospel. God manifest his love in a way that upheld His holiness, justice, and righteousness without compromise. True love “does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth” (1 Cor. 13:6).
That’s the kind of love we are called to walk in. It’s a love that is “first pure, then peaceable” (cf. James 3:17).

A Grief Observed

Right Now Counts Forever by R.C. Sproul

When we speak of the reality of grief, we are talking about pain. It is a pain that penetrates the skin of a person and plunges to the deepest recesses of the person’s being. It is a pain that grips the soul with a vise-like pincer that brings with the pain an excruciating sense of mourning. We use the term grief to describe pain that assaults the deepest level of our being. We often use the metaphor of the broken heart. The broken heart really describes a weeping soul, a soul that is cloaked in the darkest night.When we speak of grief, we speak about an emotion of which the Scriptures are profoundly aware. We speak of an emotion that was most poignantly manifested in the life and the experience of our Lord Himself. Jesus was described as a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. His acquaintanceship with grief was not merely a sympathetic or empathetic awareness of other people’s pain. Rather, His experience of grief was a pain that He felt within Himself. To be sure, His pain was the result of His perception, not of His own shortcomings, but of the great evils that plague this world. On the other hand, when we experience grief, our grief is usually wrapped up with some kind of personal loss. In my own experience, when I think of grief, there are only a few personal recollections that force their way into my mind. The first and most painful was the grief associated with the death of my father when I was seventeen years old. This was the man who, humanly speaking, was the anchor of my soul, the rock of stability in our home and in my life. When he was reduced to frailty and became incapacitated by multiple strokes, and wasted away finally to death itself, I was driven to despair. The loss of this man, who was my greatest earthly hero, left a scar on my soul that remains even to this day. I also think personally of my sense of loss when my dear friend Jim Boice was taken home to glory in 2000. It was not simply the loss of a friend, but a loss of a comrade in an ongoing battle that left me with such sorrow. The pangs of that sorrow were multiplied by my sense of loss, not only to me, but to the church of our time. Beyond those personal losses, the loss of friends, the loss of comrades, always bring to me a certain measure of grief. In my own heart, however, I know that nothing grieves me more than to see the Gospel compromised in the church. It’s not the wickedness of the pagan that breaks my heart. It’s the compromise of the Christian that grieves my soul. Finally, when I look at grief, as I experience it in my life and read of it in Scriptures, I know that with it always comes the clear and present danger of an emotion that can turn sour. Yet the emotion itself is perfectly legitimate. If we fail to deal with our grief, if our mourning goes beyond sorrow into bitterness, then we have allowed pain to abscess and become poison. We must examine the griefs we experience and take care that they never become the occasion for sin. They never did that to Jesus. We pray they won’t do it to us.

Without Excuse

Proverbs 21:7The violence of the wicked will sweep them away,because they refuse to do what is just.

As we have learned in other proverbs, the wicked bring on themselves their own destruction. They suffer the consequences of their own violence. It is easy enough to see how they create trouble for themselves, but the consequence is that they place themselves under the judgment of God who will not be mocked and will see that justice is carried out.Note here the real problem of the wicked. It is not that they do not know what is just, but that they refuse to do what is just. Compare this proverb to Romans 1:18: "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth."Before we apply this proverb to our neighbor, let us look at ourselves. Romans goes on to say that such persons are without excuse because what can be known about God is made plain through natural revelation. But we have the special revelation of Scripture, and we have within us the Holy Spirit to open our minds to the truth. Will God excuse our sin because we did not know better? Will he accept that we ever act in ignorance?Give praise to God that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, for our sin would not only be held against us, but our guilt would weigh upon even more heavily because of our lack of excuse. Every day we are living testimonies of the unfathomable mercy of God and of the inestimable power of Christ's work on the cross.Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens,your faithfulness to the clouds.Your righteousness is like the mountains of God;your judgments are like the great deep;man and beast you save, O Lord (Psalm 36:5-6).

PRAYERS FOR KENNY THOMPSON

Kenny Thompson is the one with the hand over his head. The son of Tom and Leslie Thompson who are members of Tenth Church, he is staying on the Virginia Tech campus and would appreciate prayers as he reaches out to his fellow students.

Grace Covenant PCA and Virginia Tech

A note from TE Chris Hutcheson, pastor of Grace Covenant PCA in Blacksburg, Va., on the ministry taking place as a result of the shootings at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg on April 16, 2007.We continue to receive e-mails and phone calls from all over the country of people expressing their support in prayer, and asking how they may help. We are grateful for all of this love shown to us in this hour, and trust that God will use their prayers to help us as a church reach out with the gospel. We are posting these updates and prayer requests to our website so that you can refer people there.Please pray for Faythe Rittenhouse, who works in Norris and for Haiyan Cheng, (a graduate teaching assistant who was teaching a computer science class at Norris 205 classroom during the shooting on Monday morning) recovering from the trauma of a close call. She and her family were baptized just last year at Grace Covenant. We praise God for this mercy in the midst of such sorrow. Her account may be viewed here.A photo of a prayer meeting at Grace Covenant PCA (click to read the article).Here is a story from WORLD magazine which includes information about what one of Grace Covenant's members, Haiyan Cheng, went through.

INTIMACY WITH CHRIST.......By John MacArthur

The apostle Paul perfectly expresses the most earnest desire of every true follower of Christ: “That I may know him” (Phil. 3:10).

“Knowing Christ,” in the Pauline sense is not the sort of mystical relationship many people imagine. Paul wasn’t longing for some secret knowledge of Christ beyond what is revealed in Scripture. He wasn’t asking that private messages from Christ be whispered into his ear.

In fact, the knowledge of Christ Paul sought was anything but mystical. What he longed to know was the power of Christ’s resurrection, the fellowship of His sufferings, and conformity to His death.

We err greatly if we think of intimacy with Christ as some lofty level of mysterious, feelings-based communion with the Divine—as if it involved some knowledge of God that goes beyond what Scripture has revealed. That idea is the very heart of the gnostic heresy. It has nothing in common with true Christianity.

Just what do we mean, then, when we speak of intimacy with Christ? How can we pursue knowing Christ the way Paul had in mind in Philippians 3:10? Scripture suggests at least five aspects of true intimacy with Christ:

The Intimacy of Faith

Notice what prompts Paul’s comment about knowing Christ in Philippians 3:10. He had already spent several verses describing his life before Christ (4-6). He cited all the spiritual advantages he enjoyed as a Pharisaic Jew. But then he declared that he had discarded all those spiritual advantages for Christ’s sake: “What things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ” (vv. 7-8).

As a Pharisee, Paul had sought to earn God’s favor by legal obedience. But he came to realize that the law sets a standard he could never meet. And so he scrapped all his own works of righteousness as if they were filthy rags (cf. Isa. 64:6). This does not mean that he ceased doing good works, of course, but that he gave up trusting in those works for his salvation. Instead, he put all his faith in Christ—and was clothed in Christ’s perfect righteousness instead of his own imperfect works.

This is the doctrine known as justification by faith. Scripture teaches that our sins were imputed to Christ, and He paid the full penalty for them in His death. Now Christ’s own righteousness is imputed to us, and we receive the full merit of it. Without this reality we could enjoy no relationship whatsoever with a holy God.

Moreover, justification by faith—because it means we are clothed in Christ’s own righteousness—establishes the most intimate imaginable relationship between the believer and his Lord. It is an inviolable spiritual union. That’s why Paul often described believers as those who are “in Christ.”

In other words, all true intimacy with Christ has its basis in faith. In fact, no relationship with Him whatsoever is possible apart from faith (Heb. 1:1). As the apostle Peter points out, we love Him by faith, even though we have not seen Him (1 Pet. 1:8).

The Intimacy of True Worship

In Hosea 6:6 the Lord says, “I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice, and in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.”

That verse means we should not imagine that worship consists of rote acts of religious ritual—like sacrifices, burnt offerings, and other ceremonies. Instead, we need to realize that real worship is grounded in the true knowledge of God.

If we want God to delight in our worship, we must think rightly about Him. The very essence of idolatry consists in wrong thoughts about God. And conversely, true knowledge of God means knowing Him as He is revealed in Scripture.

To put it another way, sound doctrine, not liturgy and ritual, is the litmus test of whether our worship is acceptable.

Right thinking about God is therefore essential to true intimacy with Him. Anyone who would know Him intimately must know what He has revealed about Himself. And again, this does not mean we should seek some mystical knowledge about God. All we can know with any certainty about God is what is revealed in Scripture. Those who would know the true God in the true way must therefore seek to be thoroughly familiar with His Word.

The Intimacy of Prayer

Jesus himself taught us to seek intimacy with God through private prayer. Prayer is where the worshiper pours out his heart to God. And Jesus Himself stressed the importance of private prayer: “when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret” (Matt. 6:6).

He was confronting the practice of the Pharisees, who loved to pray publicly, for show. Jesus was not teaching that prayers should never be offered publicly, for there are obviously times when Scripture calls us to corporate prayer.

But the true Christian seeking intimacy with God will pray most often, and most fervently, in private. The true audience of all our prayers is God Himself. And if we understood what an incomprehensible privilege it is to be invited to come boldly before His throne of grace, we would surely spend more time there, pouring out our most intimate thoughts, fears, desires, and expressions of love to Him.

The Intimacy of Obedience

Jesus said to the disciples, “Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you” (Jn. 15:14). Thus Christ Himself made obedience to Him an absolute requirement for true spiritual intimacy.

Let no one claim intimacy with Christ whose life is marked by disobedience rather than submission to Him. Those who refuse to obey Christ as Lord cannot claim to know Him as a friend. Scripture plainly declares that He is Lord of all (Acts 10:36), and He is therefore entitled to demand our allegiance to His Lordship.

As a matter of fact, those who withhold that allegiance are His enemies, not His intimates (cf. Jas. 4:4). That’s why true intimacy with Him is utterly impossible without unconditional surrender to His divine authority.

Again, this takes the matter of intimacy with Christ out of the realm of the mystical and defines it in terms that are intensely practical.

The Intimacy of Suffering

Returning to Philippians 3:10, we note once again what kind of intimacy with Christ Paul was seeking: “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death.”

Of course, we easily understand why Paul wanted a share in the power of Christ’s resurrection. But why did the apostle desire to know the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings and be conformed to His death?

We can be certain that Paul had no perverse love of pain and suffering. Elsewhere he testified how he repeatedly besought the Lord to deliver him from a “messenger of Satan” that was like a thorn under his skin (2 Cor. 12:7).

In the midst of that experience Paul discovered that God’s grace is sufficient to see us through all our sufferings. Moreover, God’s strength is made perfect in our weakness (v. 9).

God gives a special measure of grace to those whom He calls to endure suffering. In a familiar passage in the Beatitudes, Jesus said this about suffering:

Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you (Matt. 5:10-12).

There is a special blessedness known only to those who suffer for Christ’s sake. Those who would desire true intimacy with Him must be willing to endure what He endured.

Add all those things together to get the full picture: True intimacy with Christ involves suffering, obedience, much prayer, a good knowledge of God’s Word, and a life of faith.

Notice that those are not advanced skills for second-level Christians. They are the most elementary issues of the Christian life. That underscores the truth that intimacy with Christ is not some sort of mystical secret. It is the whole point of our life in Christ. Indeed, it is the chief end for which we were created: to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

VIRGINIA TECH.......

This post was sent to me by Joe Morrison

In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
> John 16:33 >

> The massacre at Virginia Tech has millions around the globe asking the same question every human tragedy almost universally evokes: “Why?”
>
> Why. It seems there is a built in need for humans to understand the reasons why someone would coldly murder people they, the murderer, don’t even know. People also want to know why this killing wasn’t prevented in the first place.
>
> Even God, after witnessing the first murder recorded in Scripture, asked a question of the killer. In Genesis 4, The Lord asked Cain: “What have you done?”
>
> In the first verse I quoted, Jesus declared--promised--two things, the first: You WILL have trouble. From the day Adam first sinned, to the world’s first murder, and throughout all of our world’s turbulent history, this statement is proven self-evident.
>
> And this is where the world outside of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ gets hung up. Hopeless people see violence, brutality, tribulation, and trouble all around them and find themselves locked in the endless loop of W-H-Y.
>
> However, the second declaration in John 16:33 provides the answer, the freedom from endless doubt and worry: “But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
>
> Such simple yet powerful truths are contained in this tiny snippet of the Bible!
>
> In fact, I ended the Space Shuttle Columbia memorial video (http://www.interviewwithgod.com/columbia/) with this text. It is about the most comforting thing I can imagine--Jesus Christ Himself said that no matter what we are going through, even unto death itself, He has conquered every foe.
>
> "Where, O death, is your victory?
> Where, O death, is your sting?"
> 1 Corinthians 15:55 NIV
>
> The writer of Hebrews asks: “How shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation?” There is no escape from the endless W-H-Y feedback cycle outside of Jesus Christ. None. We will see an endless media barrage probing into the background of Cho Seung-hui, the apparent Virginia Tech killer. But the world will not be able to provide real answers. How do I know this to be true? Because the next time a terrible human tragedy occurs, the question will remain the same.
>
> A time such as this is time to tell hurting people to, in the words of Jesus Christ, “take heart!” God loves people, and that is why Jesus has already “suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.” (Hebrews 2:9 NIV)
>
> Jesus Christ is the only savior who has experienced every pain, heartache, trial, and temptation you, I, or anyone else will ever endure.
>
> “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”
> Hebrews 4:15-16 NIV
>
> As we pray for the families and friends of the victims, and yes, those of the killer, we should ask and hope that the Good News of the Great Sufferer AND the Great
> Conqueror, Jesus Christ, will be shared with those who are hurting, and those who are asking…why.
>

Entanglement

Since . . . you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above . . . . Colossians 3:1

In quantum physics, the term entanglement describes the way subatomic particles with a common past may interact with one another regardless of how far apart they are.

According to the website Whatis.com, “Quantum entanglement allows qubits that are separated by incredible distances to interact with each other immediately, in a communication that is not limited to the speed of light. Entanglement is a real phenomenon (Einstein called it ‘spooky action at a distance’) which has been demonstrated through experimentation. The mechanism behind it cannot, as yet, be fully explained by any theory.”

All that is very complicated. But Paul sees Christians entangled in Christ. When Christ was raised, we were raised with him. When he died, we died. Our identity is entangled in his.

Paul says our life is now hidden with Christ in God. There’s a Greek myth about a deer that hunters and wolves could not kill because the life of the deer was hidden in the belly of a fish that swam the oceans of the world. To kill the deer would require catching the fish. Our life is hidden with Christ in God.

Finally, “when Christ, who is [our] life, appears, then [we] also will appear with him in glory.”

It’s a most blessed entanglement.

PRAYER
Lord Jesus, because you claim us as your very own, we would set our affections on the things that please you. Renew us in your image as our Creator and Savior, we pray. Amen.

LOVING GOD'S IMAGE IN OUR NEIGHBORS By Phil Johnson

When some Pharisees put Jesus to the test concerning the greatest of all God’s commandments, He answered with a quotation from Deuteronomy 6:5: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.”

“This is the first and great commandment,” He told them. “And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’” (Matthew 22:38-39).

What did He mean when He said the two commandments are alike? Well, obviously, they both deal with love. The first calls for wholehearted love toward God—a love that consumes every human faculty. The second calls for charitable love toward one’s neighbor—a humble, sacrificial, serving love. Jesus said all the law and the prophets hang on those two commandments, so the whole law is summed up in the principle of love. “Love is the fulfillment of the law” (Romans 13:10). Both commandments make that point.

But there’s another sense in which the second great commandment is just like the first. Loving one’s neighbor is simply the natural and necessary extension of true, wholehearted love for God, because your neighbor is made in the image of God.

Made in the image of God

God’s image in every person is the moral and ethical foundation for every commandment that governs how we ought to treat our fellow humans. Scripture repeatedly makes this clear. Why is murder deemed such an especially heinous sin? Because killing a fellow human being is the ultimate desecration of God’s image (Genesis 9:6).

In the New Testament, James points to the image of God in men and women as an argument for allowing even our speech to be seasoned with grace and kindness. It is utterly irrational, he says, to bless God while cursing people who are made in God’s own likeness (James 3:9-12).

That same principle is an effective argument against every kind of disrespect or unkindness one person might show to another. For example, to ignore the needs of suffering people is to treat the image of God in them with outright contempt. Proverbs 17:5 says, “He who mocks the poor reproaches his Maker.” Neglecting the needs of a person who is “hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison” is tantamount to scorning the Lord Himself. That’s exactly what Jesus said in Matthew 25:44-45: “Inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.”

Neighbor? Who’s that?

Who is our neighbor? That’s the question a lawyer asked Jesus when He affirmed the priority of the first and second commandments (Luke 10:29). In response, Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan, poignantly making the point that anyone and everyone who crosses our path is our neighbor—and truly loving them as ourselves means seeking to meet whatever needs they might have.

One of Jesus’ main points in that parable was this: we’re not to love our own brethren and fellow believers to the exclusion of strangers and unbelievers. God’s image was placed in humanity at creation, not redemption. Although the image of God was seriously marred by Adam’s fall, it was not utterly obliterated. The divine likeness is still part of fallen humanity; in fact, it is essential to the very definition of humanity. Therefore every human being, whether a derelict in the gutter or a deacon in the church, ought to be treated with dignity and compassionate love, out of respect for the image of God in him.

The image restored

The restoration of God’s image in fallen humanity is one of the ultimate goals of redemption, of course. God’s paramount purpose for every Christian involves perfect Christlikeness (Romans 8:29; 1 John 3:2). That will consummate the complete restoration and utter perfection of God’s image in all believers, because Christ himself is the supreme flesh-and-blood image of God (Colossians 1:15).

But if you’re a believer, your conformation to Christ’s likeness is gradually being accomplished even now by the process of your sanctification (2 Corinthians 3:18). In the meantime, Jesus taught that one of the best ways to be like God is to love even your enemies. Not only do they bear God’s image, but (more to Jesus’ point), loving them is the best way for us to be like God, because God Himself loves even those who hate Him.

Loving even our enemies

Of course, the prevailing rabbinical tradition in Jesus’ day claimed that “enemies” are not really “neighbors.” In effect, that nullified the second great commandment. It was like saying you don’t really have to love anyone whom you hate. All kinds of disrespect and unkindness became impervious to the law’s correction.

Jesus confronted the error head on:

You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

Your enemy is made in God’s image and therefore deserving of your respect and kindness. More important, Jesus said, if you want to be more like God—if you want the image of God to shine more visibly in your life and behavior—here’s the way to do it: love even your enemies.

Remember, “God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him” (1 John 4:16). Such love—expressed even toward our enemies—is the mark of the true Christian, because it is the most vivid expression of God’s image in His own people. “As He is, so are we in this world” (v. 17).

A TIME TO ACT LIKE MEN...... JOHN MACARTHUR

The conference this morning is being held in the chapel/gymnasium at The Master’s College. Approximately 700 men from our church have gathered to be challenged and encouraged by the theme of this year’s conference: Time to Act Like Men. It’s a joy to see the many men who have come. In a way, it feels like a scaled-down Shepherds’ Conference – with hundreds of men gathering for a common purpose: in this case, to grow in Christ specifically in the area of spiritual leadership and biblical masculinity.
The morning opened with a song, led by Bill Brandenstein, and a prayer by Bruce Blakey. Bruce introduced the first speaker this morning, John MacArthur. Pastor John is well-known to all of the men here, and Bruce thanked him for his faithfulness over his many years of ministry.
After another song, John MacArthur took the platform.
John began by giving a short endorsement for The Master’s College — discussing the college’s high athletic and academic standards; but emphasizing, more importantly, the college’s commitment to biblical authority. The college’s faculty and staff are resolved to stand firm for the truth. John also highlighted some of the ways that the college is expanding, both in terms of infrastructure and in terms of financial blessings. The Lord is helping the college do what He has called them to do.
Our attention is now turned to the biblical text.
Let’s turn to 1 Corinthians 16, so that we can lay the foundation for what it means to act like men. This starts in verse 13 of chapter 16, where Paul commands his readers to act like men, to be strong, to stand firm in the faith, etc. Just focusing on “act like men” we are really talking about courage. Biblically speaking, Men are not to be vacillating or weak, but as those who face life with courage and strength.
Paul does not give much explanation with this command. Yet this theme, to act like men, runs throughout the Old Testament.
In Deuteronomy 31:6, for example, Moses told the people of Israel to be strong and courageous. Then in verses 7–8, Moses told Joshua to similarly be strong and courageous. Those who have been involved in athletics are familiar with these kind of speeches. The Israelites under Joshua were about to embark on a major initiative in Canaan and this is the “pre-game” pep-talk. In verse 23 the command is again reiterated, to be strong and courageous. This is strength and courage that is based upon the power of God and the sovereignty of God. There is no fear to go forward in obeying the command of the Lord, because He will also enable and guarantee the results.
In 2 Samuel 10:12 we have a similar situation. David and his army have the same commitment to be courageous in the power of the Lord. David passes this charge on to Solomon (in 1 Kings 2:2-4), that Solomon would also be strong and courageous in his dependent obedience on the Lord. This same charge is echoed in 1 Chronicles 22:10–13.
In 2 Chronicles 32, Hezekiah took courage in the face of the invasion of Sennacherib, and called his soldiers to be courageous also. Why? Verse 8 explains: because “with us is the Lord our God to help us and to fight our battles.”
When Paul says, “Act like men, be strong” he is speaking from his own rich understanding of the Old Testament. So the phrase itself is loaded with theological significance.
Joshua 1 is a primary passage in understanding what it means to be courageous and strong. Verse 5 gives us the foundation and basis for our courage – it is the promise of the Lord that “I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you.” True courage comes from obedient dependence on the Lord.
These verses (vv. 2–9) comprise one of the most formidable “pep-talks” on the pages of Scripture. What is it to be manly? It is to stand firm in the principles and purposes of God, to go forward for the sake of the kingdom, knowing that God has given us the strength and promised us the victory.
When we study the Bible we begin by finding out what is there (cognition), but then it moves from knowing the information to embracing it as true (conviction). Then we move from conviction to affection, where it is not only something we know and believe, but something we love. And we love the Scripture because it is through the Scriptures that we learn about our Savior.
It is our affection for God and for His Word (in which He has revealed Himself to us) that undergirds our courage. True courage is not motivated just by knowledge or by principle. It is motivated by affection. Godly husbands would not defend their families merely out of knowledge or conviction, but out of love for their families. Godly pastors would not boldly protect their church merely out of knowledge or principle, but out of love for their sheep. As men, we must be motivated not just out of head knowledge or even moral obligation — but out of love for the Lord. That is where true courage begins, with affection for God.
It is important for people to understand that we must go from information to conviction that the information is true. But it must not stop there. It must go to affection. When we love the Lord and love His truth (in addition our love for the church, our wives, our families) it makes us courageous. True spirituality is really defined by the strength and courage that the Apostle Paul discusses in 1 Corinthians 16. It is strong. And that strength comes from loving God, and obeying His commands because of our love for Him (cf. Mark 12:30–31).
In many ways today, we are watching the emasculation of the church. We have a church without courage, without conviction, in which the Word of God is de-emphasized. What we need is men who love Christ, love the truth, and stand boldly for what they love.
In 1 Peter 1:13–16, Peter gives a similar call to his readers. Men are to be sober (with an eternal perspective), obedient and holy (not characterized by the lusts of our pre-Christian experience). This is how Christian men act.
In closing, John noted a book he had recently read entitled, A World Lit Only By Fire, about the dark ages. It was a very sad and spiritually dark time in medieval history. The catholic system was corrupt beyond comprehension. Where were the men? Where were the preachers who were standing for the truth? During that time, there was an utter absence of strength.
And as you read through that, you suddenly come to Martin Luther. Because he had so much conviction and affection for the truth, he was an utter anomaly. The catholic church didn’t know what to do with Luther, because he had so much passion for the Word of God. In fact, he had been so captured by the truth, that he refused to let go until he brought down the whole corrupt system and launched the Reformation.
Another book, Masters of the Air, highlighted the Eighth Wing of the US Air Force during World War II. They went over to Europe to fly high altitude bombers over Germany, trying to put an end to Hitler’s advances. In this engagement, some 26,000 flyers died. And they were mostly 17 to 20-year-old kids. One of the statistics was that, somewhere between 65 and 75 percent of these guys did not survive. And yet they kept coming, signing up, and going.
We don’t live in a world like that any more. We don’t live in a culture that breeds that kind of fortitude. We live in a soft culture. Just go to the mall and see what today’s 17 and 18-year-olds are like.
And this soft attitude is creeping into the church. As men, we have to stand firm in both the church and in our homes. We need to be men, informed by Scripture, who will act courageously out of their love for Christ. We need to be counter-cultural. We need to be strong and courageous.

PAYING YOUR TAXES..... By Dr John Macarthur

What follows comes from a sermon preached by John on Romans 13:6-7.

Romans 13:6-7 is the setting for our message: “For, for this cause, pay ye tribute also; for they are God’s ministers, attending continually upon this very thing. Render, therefore, to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due, custom to whom custom, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor.”
It is a basic reality of human behavior that no one likes to pay taxes. Poor people don’t like to pay taxes because they start out with so little money. When they have to pay taxes, they end up with even less. Rich people don’t like to pay taxes because the more they have, the more tax they have to pay. Most everyone is negative about taxes. The United States was originally founded as a protest against taxation. It was born out of a revolution built on taxation without representation.
We live in a society that doesn’t like to pay taxes. It does everything it can to avoid paying them, both legally and illegally. What should the Christian’s attitude be toward paying taxes, especially if we disagree with the government’s usage of our tax money? What should we do if we disagree with its policies? If I send them my money, I’m allowing the government to use it in ways I might not agree with. We might also think that the present tax structure is unfair. Perhaps you think the escalating tax percentage based on income should be reduced to a common percent for everyone, no matter how much they make. If we believe that the graduated tax program has the ultimate effect of penalizing the poor and stifling incentive in those who are more enterprising, shouldn’t we have the right not to pay?
Even with all those criticisms, the Bible is explicit. Without equivocation it tells us to pay our taxes. It doesn’t even qualify that statement. It doesn’t say to pay them if you agree with what they’re used for; it just says to pay your taxes. If we can come up with criticisms of our present tax structure, the people in the time of Paul could as well. Actually, their government was worse than ours in many ways. But that is never the issue. It wasn’t the issue in the time of the Lord, and it isn’t the issue today. The simple statement of Scripture is to pay your taxes.
We need to take a good look at what the Christian is to be responsible for in the matter of taxation. As we look at Romans 13:6-7, I want you to notice three things: the principle, the purpose, and then the particulars.
To read the rest of this message, click here.

Plans of the Diligent

Proverbs 21:5The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance,but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty.

This is a practical proverb to guide you today. It could make the difference between an action that leads to long-term blessing or long-term regret. Like a beautiful house built on poor land, many options look appealing but hide disastrous consequences. Many ideas seemed good "at the time," but proved to be foolish as time went on. Remember verse 2: "Every way of a man is right in his own eyes." All the more reason then to prayerfully study, seek counsel, and plan.

Many couples who come to me with troubled marriages are those who hastily married. Their passion at the time made marriage seem right and easy. How many people have switched jobs on impulse or moved to another town because at the moment they felt restless, only to become even more miserable?Impulse is not necessarily bad and can provide a healthy spice in our routine. There are times when "the Spirit moves" and we should act.

But when acting on impulse becomes the routine way of making decisions, then we are setting ourselves up for disaster. We will make bad decisions, and we will earn a reputation of not being trustworthy. There are persons who master diligent planning in the workplace, but let their emotions lead them in their personal lives. It is a mistake to treat family and friends as workplace projects for diligent planning; but it is a greater mistake to "wing it" in choosing a life-long mate, keeping a marriage vibrant, and raising a family.When we think about it, we reveal how important anything is to us by the careful thought we give to it. Whatever grabs our interest is what we will plan to get, keep, and nurture. What has your interest now?

ACTING LIKE MEN IN THE CHURCH........By Phil Johnson

There has been an enormous amount of activity in evangelicalism in recent years to address the gender gap in the church. If we look at evangelicalism today, it seems that evangelicalism today is committed to feminine truths. If men will embrace a feminine approach to relationships and spirituality then they are welcome in the church. Everything, even the tone of the preacher, is expected to be soft—more-suited to the sewing circle than anything else. Accuracy and plain speaking has been devalued, and replaced with a love affair for things like the seeker-sensitive movement.
Where does the “seeker-sensitive” movement fit into the biblical description of what the church should be? It doesn’t. It is an effeminate approach to Christianity and the biblical depiction of the church. And it is about to get worse with the emerging church — where truth is not held with courage and conviction. What we see today, instead of reflecting biblical Christianity, is a movement toward ear-tickling, truth-softening, and effeminization.
By every statistic that you could use to measure the evangelical church today, churches are becoming more and more dominated by feminine themes: personal relationships, emotional hurts, etc. As these trends have grown over the last two to three decades, real men are becoming less likely to become part of the church. Of course, the problem is far worse in liberal churches than in evangelical churches, but that should tell us what the end result of this trend will be. The problem is also worse in Europe. And this tells us where the American church is headed.
The involvement of men in the church is decreasing (within evangelical circles). Ministries like the Promise Keepers and books like Wild at Heart and The Five Love Languages, Men’s Edition do exist, but most of these (even in addressing manhood) are either effeminate or childish (promoting boyhood fantasies, not biblical masculinity).
Evangelical publishers are some of the worse culprits in keeping this trend going. Since women buy some 75% of the evangelical books published in America, publishers are primarily interested in publishing books that appeal to women. Thus the push to feminize everything in the church is a driving force in the Christian publishing industry.
At this point, Phil shared several anecdotes from his experiences in publishing to validate his point regarding evangelical publishers. He continued by noting that the problem is getting worse. In fact, it is so bad that publishers have recognized the problem and are beginning to publish books for men like Why Men Hate the Church.
It is clear that there is a problem, and it is primarily the church’s problem.
A few clarifications:
(1) This is not a rant against women, or against feminine values (in the sense of biblical femininity). The crisis in the church is not primarily the fault of women, who have somehow moved the focus of the church away from men. Rather, the fault lies at the feet of men who have turned the church over to women. The problem is with Christian men who are not manly enough to balance the equation.
(2) The solution to all of these problems cannot come from the top down – it needs to come from laymen. It is the duty of every Christian man to be fervent in his devotion to Christ. If this were to happen, the tide would change, and the trends would reverse. Moreover, there is a serious problem in the leadership of many evangelical churches – as seen recently when the leader of the largest coalition of evangelicals in our nation was caught in an adulterous homosexual relationship. So this has to be a movement that begins at the grass roots level.
(3) The problem we are talking about is not brand new. It is an age-old problem. But what we are seeing today is especially significant, and we’ve seen it coming. This movement has been in the works since soon after the end of the Puritan age. Since then, men have been more “refined” and “sophisticated” than the Scripture itself. So, instead of taking firm stands and preaching to one another about error, they had “dialogues” about truth – such that pulpits became soft and the truth watered-down.
Charles Spurgeon exemplified the convicting, manly approach to Christian living that is in keeping with biblical masculinity. Spurgeon was thought to be too harsh even in his own day. And yet, 150 years later, we are still reading Spurgeon. He still speaks to our generation. But all of the soft, wishy-washy, relativistic preachers of Spurgeon’s day have been forgotten.
Spurgeon urged the men in his congregation to pattern themselves after the perfect Man, Jesus Christ.
Biblically, when we are talking about manliness, we are talking about character. We are not talking about bravado, or boyishness. It’s not about style at all. Going out into the woods and getting in touch with nature has nothing to do with real, biblical manliness. Real manliness is defined by Christlike character.
In Ephesians 4:11–12, we find that when Christ ascended to heaven He gave gifts to His church. And the gifts that He gave are men. This passage is not just speaking of the offices, but of the specific individuals, the men, who fill those offices. It is clear from this text that Christ gave these men to the church. That is the point of the passage.
Verse 12 is saying that God gave these gifts to the church for the equipping of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ. That is not three separate ideas (expressed in those results). Rather, it is the long progression of a single idea. The saints are equipped so that they can do the work of the ministry so that the church can be built up.
It is the saints, not the clergy, who are tasked with the edification of the church. It is not the job of the clergy to do all the work of the ministry. Their job is to equip lay-people who will then go forward and do the work of the ministry.
Notice in verse 13 the emphasis on the “perfect man.” Paul deliberately uses the word for “man” in this verse. He is talking about manhood here, in this case perfect manhood. And he describes perfect manhood in verse 14 and 15.
Verse 13 tells us what perfect manliness is.
Verse 14 tells us what perfect manliness does.
Verse 15 tells us how perfect manliness works.
Following these three points…
1. What perfect manliness is (v. 13).
Perfect manliness is summed up in Christ. The phrases in this verse are parallel and synonymous, meaning that they all reiterate the same thing in quick succession. Thus, Christ Himself is the incarnation of perfect manhood and masculinity. We as men need to be conformed to His likeness, which is what sanctification is all about.
We could spend hours, maybe weeks, unpacking Christ’s masculinity. Since we do not have time to do that, we can begin by noting that the effeminate, “meek and mild” picture of Jesus that is often portrayed by the modern church does not fit the picture presented in the four gospels. In Scripture, when Jesus speaks, He is deliberately provocative. When He speaks to those who oppose Him, He is always blunt, confrontational, and very bold. He attacks lies and insincerity without any kind of velvet gloves.
This is not to say He is not gracious. But He responds to hypocrites and deliberate sinners with clarity and zeal. He even cleansed the Temple on two separate occasions. He showed righteous indignation. The point is: no one who knew Jesus would have never confused Him for a wimp. He was not, of course, some type of ruffian. But His character was in perfect balance — both gracious and courageous.
This is what men in the church, meaning every man in the church, must be pursuing.
2. What perfect manliness does (v. 14).
In verse 14, Paul focuses in on one specific characteristic that he believes marks true manliness – being anchored in the truth. Those who are spiritually immature are tossed to and fro by every kind of doctrine. Spiritual men, on the other hand, stand firm in truth. They are doctrinally stable.
If we are going to be stable doctrinally, we need to be certain about what we believe. We have to be able to stand firm against the cunning trickery of every fad, and also against the wiles and snares of the devil. Satan may tempt us to put aside biblical and doctrinal clarity, but we must be able to make wise and careful evaluations of such things. We must be true men in the sense that counts the most—our grasp of the truth.
Many of the metaphors in Scriptures involve manly figures: warriors, athletes, farmers. These are intentionally manly figures, especially in Bible times when there were no female warriors or athletes. These picture the protection of the truth, and they illustrate the essence of true manliness.
We need to quit buying into little boyish fantasies (like thinking that masculinity is defined as a battle to fight, an adventure to go on, or a beauty to win). Instead we need to focus on true manliness: contending earnestly for the truth and exposing doctrinal error. Real men are steadfast and sure, confident in what they believe. Real men stand against popular opinion for the sake of the truth, and they do it whenever the need arises.
Real men understand the truth well and they are devoted to it. This does not happen to lazy people. It requires diligence to move out of adolescence into this type of mature manhood.
3. How perfect manliness works (v. 15).
Paul puts the stress in this verse on “speaking the truth in love.” In the pastoral epistles, Paul continually exhorts Timothy to be courageous and be a man. Timothy, apparently, had a proclivity not to be as courageous as he should be. But, even in his strong challenge to Timothy, Paul cautioned Timothy not to pick fights unnecessarily (cf. 2 Tim. 2:22ff).
We are to fight for the truth. But we are to do it, as much as possible, with humility and love. Always speak the truth in love. To be able to do this, even in the midst of contending boldly for the truth, is the pinnacle of perfect manliness. Yet, the emphasis on love is in perfect balance with the imperative “speak the truth.” There is nothing right or manly about stifling the truth (or toning it down), even though we are to speak the truth in love.
When we do this faithfully, even in a loving way, we will encounter opposition. Those whom we confront will sometimes respond with anger and hatred. But that’s okay, the world hated Jesus too.
To be bold for the truth, in the pattern of Christ Himself, that is the measure of true masculinity.

To What End?

To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me. Colossians 1:29

Do we, like Paul, know to what end we labor?

There’s an old illustration of a man climbing a ladder propped up against a high wall. The climb is steep, and the progress is slow and difficult, but the man is persistent, and he finally reaches the top of the wall, only to discover that the ladder is propped up against the wrong wall. There’s nothing on the other side!

To what end do we labor?

Paul is clearly not laboring for a retirement package that will allow him to live out his old age in a cottage on the Aegean Sea. Simply put, Paul labors to exalt Christ.
There’s a statement that is sometimes used at funerals: “Death is only a horizon. And a horizon is nothing—save the limit of our sight.”


Paul has seen over that horizon; he’s looked over the wall—and he’s seen Christ, high and lifted up, with every knee bowed and every tongue confessing that Jesus Christ is Lord (Philippians 2:10-11). Paul knows that only what’s done for Christ will last—and that all else is wasted life.
Paul labors, he says, to fill up what’s still lacking in Christ’s suffering. This means, I think, that as Christ suffered to give eternal life, so Paul suffers to bring that eternal life to fruition in others. With Paul, we labor in the power of the Spirit to enable all to exalt Christ.


PRAYER
Lord Jesus, may all that we do today, whether in word or deed, be done in your name, giving thanks to God the Father through you. In your name we pray. Amen.

Calling True Christian Men to the Line. Men what is your RESPONSIBILLITY and why is this not being done?

(Notes by Nathan Busenitz)

Dr. Mike Fabarez is the founding pastor of Compass Bible Church in Aliso Viejo, California. He will be speaking on the man’s responsibility in the home.
He began by noting that this kind of conference is one of the most important conferences we can have in our society today. We need to be speaking to issues of gender, particularly the issue of gender of men in our culture, our churches, and our families. Our culture today is much like the culture in Isaiah’s day where everything was turned upside down, spiritually mixed-up. Isaiah had the task of calling people back to the Word, even though they didn’t want to hear it.
In Ephesians 5 we see a passage that defines biblical masculinity in the home. If our families would get back to the template presented here, our families and our churches would be transformed. It is time for us to get back to the template God has given us. Sin occurs when we fall short of the template, and we do not want to sin.
Beginning in verse 22, Paul lays out the template for our responsibility as men in the home. We are called to be the head of our homes. What does it mean to be the head? It means that, as men, we are the leaders of the family. The question is not if we are leaders. We are. The question is whether we are good leaders or poor leaders in our home.
Clearly, the Bible gives husband and wife equal worth, but very different roles within the home. Men are the heads of their families, meaning that they are the leaders.
In Genesis 2, we find that the roles for men and women in the home are rooted in creation (cf. vv. 7, 15, 18). God began by creating a man and giving him the responsibility to tend the garden. God knew that it was not good for the man to be alone, so He created a helper for him, a woman (cf. vv. 20–23). From the very beginning, men were called to be the leaders of their family. Yet, this is something that our churches don’t talk about often.
Women are to be helpers to their husband. Of course, there is nothing demeaning or less important about being the helper. In fact, God Himself is referred to by this same word (”helper”). So men and women are equal in worth, though they have different roles. Men are leaders, women are helpers.
Our culture is out to demean our role as men in the home and in the church. This is seen on the television, in the hallmark store, in advertising, everywhere. Men are constantly depicted as childish and cowardly. Culture is subtly attempting to push men away from their God-given role.
As men, we have a responsibility to lead. One day, we will stand before our King and we will have to give an account for how well we led our families. It has nothing to do with our intelligence-level or giftedness. It is our God-given role, and we must not abandon that responsibility.
Our role, as men, is to provide clear leadership to our families. It is one thing to recognize the responsibility, it’s another thing to actually exercise assertive leadership within the home.
How can we do this? Here are several ways:
(a) We need to lead as related to unity (Eph. 5:23, 28–31). The analogy of the head and body fits well here — as the head really wants to stay united to its body. It is our responsibility, as men, to lead in our marriages in such a way that we are united with our wives. Along these lines, divorce is not an option. And we must take the lead in emphasizing that reality (cf. Malachi 2:13–16). In marriage, we made a covenant before God, which we must not break. For that matter, marriage is not really about you being happy as a spouse. It is, instead, about your marriage being a picture of the gospel. God wants the church of Jesus Christ to demonstrate through our marriages that we’re faithful to that covenant.
(b) We need to lead as related to purity (Eph. 5:26). We are responsible to be the gatekeepers for the purity of what we allow into our homes. It is our responsibility to make sure that what comes into our homes (through music, media, and other influences) does not harm the spiritual growth of those in our families.
Along those lines, we are to be actively teaching our spouses (1 Cor. 14:35), such that we can take the content of a sermon and answer the questions that our wives have. We are to direct the interests of our family to pursue things that our righteous. We are not to abdicate our God given roles and responsibilities to our wives.
(c) We need to lead as related to ministry (cf. Acts 18 – Priscilla and Aquilla worked together in ministry as a team). When we take time off from work, it’s not just about vacations, it is about spending time together in ministry.
(d) We need to lead as related to provision. This includes taking charge of the bills and budgeting. Our wives should not have to bear the responsibility of budgeting, saving, and expenditures in our home. We need to remove the temptation from our wives to be anxious about bills and the finances. If we take this responsibility, we will find our wives blossoming under that leadership.
There is a recurring word that guards us and governs us in our leadership. The word is “love.” We are not called to be tyrants or dictators. We are, instead, to be those who are loving and kind. Colossians 3:19 is a parallel passage that gives us greater clarity on this – we are not to be embittered (meaning harsh) toward our wives. We can set the direction within the home in a kind, gracious, and gentle fashion. It is unacceptable for husbands to physically abuse their spouses (cf. Romans 13 and cross reference with the California Penal Code 273.5); never cause physical harm to your wife (cf. Prov. 23:11).
Are we to be strong, bold, and confident leaders? Yes. But not with violence and sinful anger. Here are some things hot-tempered husbands should think through in overcoming their temper.
(1) 1 John 3:15 – Men who beat up on their wives probably need a new heart. In other words, they are probably not saved. Chronic violence is evidence of an unsaved heart.
(2) Proverbs 27:17 – Men who struggle with violence need accountability; the church is a spiritual clinic.
(3) 1 Peter 3:7 – We need to remember that people are image bearers of God Himself. We need to have respect for those who are fellow-heirs of the grace of life. We need to respect the fact that they are someone created in the image of God.
(4) 1 Peter 3:7 – We need to fear God (Prov. 23:11; Psalm 12:5). Peter mentions that our prayers will be hindered if we do not live with our wives in an understanding way.
It is good to get excited about leadership. But we need to have a correct understanding of leadership – and that means that we understand true leadership as that which is loving and kind. And love covers a multitude of sins. Love begins with a decision, emotions follow. And some of us men may need to learn to love our spouses all over again.
In Ephesians 6, Paul addresses the man’s role with his children. Fathers are specifically commanded not to provoke children, but are to bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
(e) We need to lead in correcting and directing our children (Eph. 6:2). This includes loving correction (through inflicting pain and punishment). Hebrews 12 should be our guide with regard to loving correction. Dads are to be the primary disciplinarians in the home, correcting our children when they transgress God’s law. If we don’t correct our kids, they will go into the world rebellious, where they will be corrected by God. And God’s paddle (and the repercussions of sowing and reaping) is a lot bigger and more serious than dad’s. Along those lines, if we, as men, cannot manage our own households, then we are not worthy to be in leadership in the church (cf. Titus 1:6).
We should also direct (through instruction) our children. We need to give them a track to run on. We are called to help them walk a path of faithfulness. It is the ultimate test of our spirituality if we train our children to do what is right. We cannot save them (that is God’s role), but we can bring them to the place where they recognize the difference between wickedness and righteousness, and recognize their need for a savior.
We are called to fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity. As Joshua proclaimed to the Israelites, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

AGAINST COMPROMISE

It was Martin Luther who said:
“The world at the present time is sagaciously discussing how to quell the controversy and strife over doctrine and faith, and how to effect a compromise between the Church and the Papacy. Let the learned, the wise, it is said, bishops, emperor and princes, arbitrate. Each side can easily yield something, and it is better to concede some things which can be construed according to individual interpretation, than that so much persecution, bloodshed, war, and terrible, endless dissension and destruction be permitted.
“Here is lack of understanding, for understanding proves by the Word that such patchwork is not according to God’s will, but that doctrine, faith and worship must be preserved pure and unadulterated; there must be no mingling with human nonsense, human opinions or wisdom.

“The Scriptures give us this rule: ‘We must obey God rather than men’ (Acts 5:29).”
It is interesting to speculate what the church would be like today if Martin Luther had been prone to compromise. The pressure was heavy on him to tone down his teaching, soften his message, stop poking his finger in the eye of the papacy. Even many of his friends and supporters urged Luther to come to terms with Rome for the sake of harmony in the church.

Luther himself prayed earnestly that the effect of his teaching would not be divisive.
When he nailed his 95 Theses to the door, the last thing he wanted to do was split the church.
Yet sometimes division is fitting, even healthy, for the church. Especially in times like Luther’s—and like ours—when the visible church seems full of counterfeit Christians, it is right for the true people of God to declare themselves. Compromise is sometimes a worse evil than division. Second Corinthians 6:14-17 isn’t speaking only of marriage when it says,
Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols?

For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, “I will dwell in them and walk among them; And I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate,” says the Lord.

DO YOU PRAY?????????

The following is a timely reminder adapted from an essay by J.C. Ryle, on the vital importance of this oft-neglected spiritual discipline. To read the full essay, click here.

I have a question to offer you. It is contained in three words, DO YOU PRAY?
The question is one that none but you can answer. Whether you attend public worship or not, your minister knows. Whether you have family prayers in your house or not, your relations know. But whether you pray in private or not, is a matter between yourself and God.
I beseech you in all affection to attend to the subject I bring before you. Do not say that my question is too close. If your heart is right in the sight of God, there is nothing in it to make you afraid. Do not turn off my question by replying that you say your prayers. It is one thing to say your prayers and another to pray. Do not tell me that my question is unnecessary. Listen to me for a few minutes, and I will show you good reason for asking it.
I ask whether you pray, because a habit of prayer is one of the surest marks of a true Christian.
All the children of God on earth are alike in this respect. From the moment there is any life and reality about their religion, they pray. Just as the first sign of life in an infant when born into the world is the act of breathing, so the first act of men and women when they are born again is praying.
This is one of the common marks of all the elect of God, “They cry unto him day and night” (Luke 18:1). The Holy Spirit, who makes them new creatures, works in them the feeling of adoption, and makes them cry, “Abba, Father” (Rom. 8:15). The Lord Jesus, when he quickens them, gives them a voice and a tongue, and says to them, “Be dumb no more.” God has no dumb children. It is as much a part of their new nature to pray, as it is of a child to cry. They see their need of mercy and grace. They feel their emptiness and weakness. They can not do otherwise than they do. They must pray.
I have looked carefully over the lives of God’s saints in the Bible. I cannot find one of whose history much is told us, from Genesis to Revelation, who was not a man of prayer. I find it mentioned as a characteristic of the godly, that “they call on the Father” (I Peter 1:17), or “the name of the Lord Jesus Christ” (I Cor. 1:2). Recorded as a characteristic of the wicked is the fact that “they call not upon the Lord” (Ps. 14:4).
I have read the lives of many eminent Christians who have been on earth since the Bible days. Some of them, I see, were rich, and some poor. Some were learned, and some unlearned. Some were Calvinists, and some were Arminians. Some have loved to use a liturgy, and some to use none. But one thing, I see, they all had in common. They have all been men of prayer.
I study the reports of missionary societies in our own times. I see with joy that heathen men and women are receiving the gospel in various parts of the globe. There are conversions in Africa, in New Zealand, in Hindustan, in China. The people converted are naturally unlike one another in every respect. But one striking thing I observe at all the missionary stations: the converted people always pray.
I do not deny that a man may pray without heart and without sincerity. I do not for a moment pretend to say that the mere fact of a person’s praying proves is everything about his soul. As in every other part of religion, so also in this, there may be deception and hypocrisy.
But this I do say, that not praying is a clear proof that a man is not yet a true Christian. He cannot really feel his sins. He cannot love God. He cannot feel himself a debtor to Christ. He cannot long after holiness. He cannot desire heaven. He has yet to be born again. He has yet to be made a new creature. He may boast confidently of election, grace, faith, hope, and knowledge, and deceive ignorant people. But you may rest assured it is all vain talk if he does not pray.
And I say, furthermore, that of all the evidences of the real work of the Spirit, a habit of hearty private prayer is one of the most satisfactory that can be named. A man may preach from false motives. A man may write books and make fine speeches and seem diligent in good works, and yet be a Judas Iscariot. But a man seldom goes into his closet, and pours out his soul before God in secret, unless he is in earnest. The Lord himself has set his stamp on prayer as the best proof of a true conversion. When he sent Ananias to Saul in Damascus, he gave him no other evidence of his change of heart than this, “Behold, he prayeth” (Acts 9: 11).
Do you wish to find out whether you are a true Christian? Then rest assured that my question is of the very first importance — Do you pray?

"Words of Delight . . . Words of Truth" By Michael Travers

How are we to understand and appreciate biblical poetry? So much of the Bible is composed in poetry or expressed in poetic language. In the Old Testament, we find poetry in the Pentateuchal hymns, the Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and sections of the prophets. In the New Testament, we have the nativity hymns in Luke’s gospel and the prologue to John’s gospel, the kenosis hymn in Phil 2:6-11, the Christological hymn of Col 1:15-20, and the doxologies and other poetic sections in Revelation. Add to these the poetic renderings in the Beatitudes and Christ’s “I AM’s,” along with the figurative language of many of the parables, and we begin to see that the writers of Scripture thought that poetry was an important way of communicating their message. Poetry appeals to the senses and emotions, as well as the intellect, of the readers and involves them actively in the reading process. Poetry is not a decoration added to the theological kernel in the text; rather, the form of the poem, along with its poetic devices, gives shape to the theology. Indeed, it could be argued that poetry appeals to the deepest need of every human heart—the longing for fulfillment that only Jesus Christ can satisfy. There are good reasons why the Holy Spirit inspired so much of the Bible in poetic form.
Consider an example of a Hebrew hymn, Psalm 96, which is a “royal psalm” of praise to God, or a hymn. As with most psalms of praise, this psalm is structured in three parts: verses 1-3 constitute an invitation to praise God, verses 4-9 provide the reasons why we should praise God, and verses 10-13 affirm the righteous reign of God. This structure first invites the reader to praise the Lord, then provides concrete reasons why he should do so, and concludes with the encouragement of all of creation praising God, along with an evangelistic invitation to the nations to join the chorus. There are smaller patterns of repetition in the poem which further encourage the reader to praise God. The psalm opens with a three-fold invitation to “sing to the Lord,” and balances the invitations with three commands—to “bless” God, “tell of his salvation,” and “declare his glory among all the peoples.” Invitation is buttressed by imperative. In the triple repetition of “Ascribe to the Lord” (vv. 7-8), the psalmist uses climactic parallelism to exhort the reader to praise God. “Ascribe to the Lord,” the psalmist begins. “Who?” we ask. “The families of the peoples,” we are told. “Ascribe to the Lord,” the psalmist says again. “What?” we ask. “Glory and strength.” “Ascribe to the Lord,” the psalmist says yet again. “What?” we ask again. “The glory due his name,” we are told. The intensifying effect of the psalmist’s words here builds to a crescendo of praise that is due to Yahweh alone. The reader not only learns a theology of praise in the psalm, but the repetitions help him to experience that praise for himself.
Psalm 96 contains many figures of speech, and they too are part of the psalm’s poetry and theology. While figures of speech are not limited to poetry in the Bible, biblical poems tend to use figurative language as their normal means of expression. In v. 6, the psalmist pictures God’s attributes as if they were attendants before his throne—splendor and majesty, strength and beauty—so that the reader “sees” God’s attributes in concrete form. The effect is to intensify the experience and make it immediate for the reader. In vv. 11-12, all of creation praises God. In a series of personifications, the heavens are “glad,” the earth “rejoices,” the sea “roars,” the fields “exult,” and finally the trees “sing for joy.” The concrete pictures of the natural creation praising God further encourage the readers to praise him for who he is and what he has done for them. Rather than simply learning theology in this poem, readers encounter God for themselves. The poem personalizes the theology. In fact, the theology is framed, limited, and contextualized by the poetry.
Consider a very different kind of Hebrew poem, Psalm 51—a lament psalm. In this psalm, David confesses his sin and asks God for forgiveness. We have 1 John 1:9, so why do we need a poetic version like the psalm? Again, there are good reasons for the poem. In Psalm 51 the reader encounters God personally in one of the realities of life in our fallen condition, namely our sin and sinfulness. Psalm 51 reminds us of the twin truths that only the undeserving need to repent and God is willing to forgive the repentant sinner. We need Psalm 51 because it provides a pattern of repentance and forgiveness in words that God has sanctioned. David begins the psalm with an appeal to God’s mercy and hesed love. It is in the light of God’s character, not primarily his own repentance, that David confesses his sin. In a series of tight poetic parallelisms, the psalm alternates between God and man, emphasizing the tension of God’s righteousness and our sinfulness. David is sinful, and God is just (v. 4); the balanced “beholds” of vv. 5 and 6 bring man’s sinfulness and God’s holiness into sharp juxtaposition, underscoring the fact that man cannot solve the problem for himself. The dilemma is heightened for the reader by the parallel structure of the poem. “What then? How shall we be forgiven?” we are encouraged to ask. God will forgive and cleanse us, David goes on to write, as the imagery of hyssop (v. 7) indicates. And what will be the results of forgiveness? They are joy (v. 8), the comfort of sins not only forgiven but removed from the record (v. 9), a clean heart (v. 10), a heart for the lost (v. 13), and an attitude of praise toward the Lord (v. 15). These benefits, listed in the poem in such an intense rapid-fire pattern, encourage the reader, save him from falling into an unhealthy introspection, and focus his attention healthily on the Lord. Psalm 51 walks us through the experience of repentance, confession, and forgiveness, all the while keeping the Lord and his righteousness and mercy (both of which are essential for forgiveness) before our eyes. What better words could there be for the repentant sinner?
It is easy to grant that the Psalms are poetry, but are there poetic sections in the New Testament as well? There are indeed poems and poetic sections in the New Testament. To choose one example, we could avoid some strange interpretations of the book of Revelation if we focused our reading of it on what is intended to be its focus—Jesus Christ—rather than on the events of the eschaton. John wants us to see the glorified Christ for who he is and what he has done for us, and he often shows him in poetic language. Examine for instance the first picture of Christ in the book where he is presented as a “loud voice like a trumpet” (1:10) and “one like the son of man” (v. 13). This picture of Christ is literally awe-inspiring: “clothed with a long robe” with a “golden sash,” whose hairs are “white like wool” and whose eyes are “like a flame of fire”; feet of “burnished bronze” and a voice “like the roar of many waters”; out of whose mouth is a “sharp two-edged sword” and whose face shines “like the sun shining in full strength” (vv. 13-16). In the similes and images of this picture at the beginning of the book, John presents what he wants the reader to understand as the focus of the apocalypse—the “unveiling” of the glorified Jesus Christ. Throughout the book John encourages the reader to keep his thoughts on Christ. The effect of the poetic image of Christ in chapter one is to overwhelm the reader with awe and worship, and the frequent doxologies throughout the book (e.g. 4:8, 11; 5:9-10, 12, 13; 15:3-6) provide constant reminders of where the reader’s attention is to be. Think too of the image of “the Lamb, standing as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes” (5:6) on the throne of the universe, and then reflect on the symbol of the Old Testament sacrificial lambs and the New Testament Lamb of God. It is this one—the crucified and now-risen Son of God—who rules. The poetic symbol is full of theology. Sacrifice, substitution, holiness, and royal power are all rolled into the one symbol of the Lamb on the throne. Symbols and other figures of speech intensify the language of poetry in that they communicate a great deal of theology in a few words. They serve to synthesize the theology throughout the whole canon of Scripture.
Apart from poems like these which form a significant portion of the Bible, certain significant images and symbols recur multiple times throughout the Bible. These “strong” figures of speech, as they are called, frame our understanding of the theology they teach. The symbol of the lamb, for instance, originates in the sacrificial system of the Old Testament, appears again in the suffering servant songs (e.g. Isa 53:7), is voiced by God the Father at the beginning of Jesus’ earthly ministry when he is baptized in the Jordan River (John 1:29), and finally climaxes in the presence of the Lamb on the throne of the universe in the book of Revelation. Marriage is another symbol that recurs throughout the Old and New Testaments, providing an immediately-accessible understanding to the theology of the covenant relationship that the Lord has initiated with his people. Faithful Israel is often described as a wife to Yahweh, and faithless Israel as a harlot (Hos 1:2, etc.). In a word picture, God commands Hosea to marry the harlot, Gomer, and to pursue her again even when she betrays him—what grace! In the New Testament, the church is presented as the bride of Christ, for whom he died (Eph 5:22-32), and believers will celebrate their glorification in heaven in the Marriage Supper of the Lamb (Rev 19:6-19). The marriage symbol resonates throughout the Bible, and our understanding of it in any one instance is nuanced by its other uses in the canon of Scripture. Other images, like the church compared to a building (1 Pet 2:5) and to the body of Christ with its multiple parts / people / gifts (1 Cor 12:12-31), also enrich our understanding of theology. While these symbols and others like them appear in narrative and other prose sections of the Bible, they bring an element of poetry with them wherever they appear. There is no avoiding poetry and the poetic in the Bible; our only choice is whether we will read it well or poorly. And surely we want to read biblical poetry well.
What do we learn from these few examples of poetry and the poetic in the Bible? Let me suggest five lessons or ideas from this brief study of biblical poetry. First, poetry is concrete; that is, it presents tangible objects which we can apprehend by our senses (sight, hearing, touch, taste, smell) and utilizes them to make abstract theology accessible. Christ’s “I AM’s” are a case in point—bread, living water, good shepherd—each suggesting a certain theological idea. Think also of the concrete symbolism of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper to the church. Second, poetry is intense, packing a great deal of theology into a few words. David’s statement in Psalm 23, “The Lord is my shepherd,” introduces a complex theology of God’s care for his people which is developed by the images of trees, water, rest, and a feast in the rest of the psalm. Third, poetry represents an aesthetically-pleasing and orderly use of language that reflects the same qualities in the Lord. The patterns of the two psalms we looked at earlier, both the macrocosmic structures and microcosmic repetitions, reflect a God of beauty and order. God formed us to appreciate such beauty and order—and in turn to create it in poetry and the other arts—because he created us in his own image as a Creator-God. Fourth, poetry evokes the reader’s emotions and even his imagination (understood as the image-making faculty) and brings them alongside the intellect to enhance the theology and render it significant for the reader. The well-known image from Psalm 23 of walking through the valley of the shadow of death has sustained many believers emotionally and spiritually, not simply theologically. This is not to suggest a dichotomy between theology and emotion in biblical poetry; far from it. In fact, in biblical poetry, emotion and theology complement one another. Finally, biblical poetry reifies theology, making it a part of the reader’s experience. For example, we “taste and see” that the Lord is good, not just understand it (Ps 34:8); our love for the Lord is intense, as when “a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants [our] soul for you, God” (Ps 42:1); and we trust his protection in difficulties when we “run” to the Lord as a “strong tower” (Prov 18:10). These are all immediate and obvious lessons we learn when we read biblical poetry properly. There is, however, a deeper underlying lesson to be learned from biblical poetry as well.
In its use of figures of speech like similes, metaphors, personifications, anthropomorphisms, and other such poetic devices, biblical poetry points to a deep theological truth that all of Scripture teaches. Apart from God’s self-revelation to us, we could not know him at all. From general revelation we can know that there is a creator-God (Rom 1:19-20) and that we have failed morally (Rom 2:15), but we could not know God’s love, grace, or mercy, had he not revealed himself to us in Christ, the written Word of God, and the Holy Spirit. To use Calvin’s word, God “condescends” to us so that we can apprehend him. Since this is so, it could be argued that all language about God is necessarily figurative. That is, all the language we use to describe God is ultimately figurative or metaphorical in that it can only approximate him, not express completely and exactly who he is. Even the words of Scripture in which God reveals himself to us are often figurative—husband, lamb, lion, warrior, thick darkness. The many examples of anthropomorphism by which God reveals himself to us function figuratively as well. He “hears” our prayers, he “watches” over us, he holds us in his “hand,” and we are close to his “heart.” All such language is figurative and metaphorical—in short, poetic—and it is central to our understanding of the most profound points in our theology. Is it possible to think of redemption, for instance, in purely propositional terms, or is there a lingering substratum of figurative understanding all the time? By its very nature, metaphor unites what is disparate, just as God unites us to himself in Christ Jesus. It is no wonder that Jesus Christ is presented as the Logos; it is his nature to reconcile sinners to the Father. On the level of language, figures of speech provide the parallel to the theology, for they unite what is separated. Figurative language, then, parallels the deep desire of every human heart—the longing to be reunited with God.
This brief survey of some features of biblical poetry should alert us to two final truths. The style of a biblical text is inspired, just as is its theology. Literary form is important, for the Bible is written in multiple literary genres—such as poetry, narrative, prophetic oracles, gospel, and epistle—not in one flat manner. Poetry serves to create an intense experience in the reader, appealing to the senses and intensifying an appreciation of the theology in the poem. Finally, biblical poetry informs and frames the theology it expresses. We might say there is a “poetical theology” in certain parts of the Bible. If we sever the theology from its poetic form, we risk asking the wrong questions and getting the wrong answers. Why is there so much poetry in the Bible? Because it is the way the Holy Spirit chose to frame and inform the theology in these parts of the Bible. “Words of delight…words of truth,” the writer of Ecclesiastes puts it (12:10); form and content complement one another in biblical poetry, and we must understand both if we are to understand these texts.

The Greatness of Christ

By him all things were created; things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible. . . . Colossians 1:16

It’s staggering that the one who was brutally murdered only about 30 years before Paul wrote this letter—that is, Jesus—is now described as “the image of the invisible God” by whom all things were created. What in the world happened?

The resurrection happened. People say that the events of September 11, 2001, changed the way we look at the world—and no doubt they did and will for years to come. But the events of Easter changed forever the way we look not only at Jesus and the world but also at life and death, God and eternity.


We now know that Jesus is very great, that by him all things were created. It’s too much to imagine. Someone has said that if you equated the distance from the earth to the sun, 93 million miles, to the thickness of one sheet of paper, then the distance to the next nearest star would be a stack of paper 70 feet high, and the width of our galaxy, the Milky Way, would be a stack 310 miles high. Our Lord Jesus created all this and so much more.
John’s gospel puts it famously: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . . . Through him all things were made” (John 1:1-3). Then follows this shattering claim: “[This] Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (1:14)!
It is impossible to think too highly of Christ.

PRAYER
Lord Jesus, you are so much more than any of us can imagine. Glory and honor, praise and adoration, now and forevermore be yours! We pray in your matchless name. Amen.

Lamp of the Wicked

Proverbs 21:4Haughty eyes and a proud heart,the lamp of the wicked, are sin.

Scripture makes clear God's displeasure of pride which is the root sin of the wicked. They will not humble themselves before God. This is played out in various ways, most notably through the violence committed against others.The proverb reveals how pride mars their perspective on reality. Pride is the lamp by which the wicked see what is outside themselves. What do they see?

They see people to despise who don't measure up to their distorted standards. Conversely, the see others to admire who in reality model arrogance and wickedness. A notable author whose works are rife with licenscious sex visited a city noted for its licensciousness. Whereas most people would see the obvious vulgarity, broken lives, and despicable behavior, he saw it as the ideal city.
Compare this proverb to verse 2: "Every way of a man is right in his own eyes..." The proud wicked believe they are acting in accord to what is right in their own eyes which see by the lamp of haughtiness and pride.All the more then humble yourself before the Lord. The Christian, too, is guilty of pride when he views his neighbor with haughty eyes, like the Pharisee looked upon the publican. We are easily proud that we see what our unbelieving neighbors do not. We act with great surprise that they do not see what we do. Why can't they understand the gospel?

Why can't they know what is right from wrong? The answer is that they are no different from us. Without the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts providing the lamp of God's truth, we would not "get it" either. And even with the Spirit within us, we still see to much with distortion out of our own pride. Indeed, we have less excuse than our unbelieving neighbor for our pride.

True Repentance, in Four Parts By Dr Phil Ryken

Charles Spurgeon's sermon "Christ's First and Last Subject" is on repentance, which Christ preached both at the beginning (see Matthew 4:17) and at the end (see Luke 24:47) of his earthly ministry.Spurgeon's taxonomy of true and saving repentance is a good one -- something preachers can use and believers can emulate.

"True repentance," he says, "consists of illumination, humiliation, detestation, and transformation."

Velvet Theology By Dr Phil Ryken

In Velvet Elvis, Rob Bell writes:"And when Jesus died on the cross he died for everybody. Everybody.Everywhere.Every tribe, every nation, every tongue, every people group.Jesus said that when he was lifted up, he would draw all people to himself.All people. Everywhere.Everybody's sins on the cross with Jesus . . . forgiveness is true for everybody.And this reality extends beyond this life.Heaven is full of forgiven people.Hell is forgiven people. Heaven is full of forgiven people God loves, whom Jesus died for.Hell is full of forgiven people God loves, who Jesus died for.The difference is how we choose to live, which story we choose to live in, which version of reality we trust.Ours or God's."

I wonder, though, if all the people in hell are forgiven, why are they damned? Bell is promoting the love of God at the expense of his justice, giving us a God of unjust love rather than a God of crucified love and holy justice. This is velvet theology indeed: soft and cushy, and at the same time garish in its caricature of the character of God.

Hope

We always thank God . . . [for] the faith and love that spring from . . . hope . . . . Colossians 1:3-5

It’s not the experience of hope but the object of hope that is stored up for us in heaven—and that gives rise to faith and love, says the apostle Paul. In Colossians 1:27, Paul talks about “the hope of glory,” meaning the final unveiling of our salvation, when “righteousness and peace kiss each other” (Psalm 85:10). Author and professor Debra Rienstra calls this “an existence so saturated with joy that all the terrible things of this world will seem like nothing in comparison.” John’s letter says of this hope that we shall be like Christ.
This grand hope does not mean we ignore this present life. Instead, this hope encourages love. In a sermon on this text, author John Piper says, “Only one thing satisfies the heart whose treasure is in heaven: doing the works of heaven. And heaven is a world of love.”
Piper adds, “It’s not the cords of heaven that bind the hands of love. It is the love of money and leisure and comfort that do that, and the power to sever those cords is Christian hope.”
To live in the utter certainty of the hope of glory frees us from greed and bitterness, from despair and laziness, from impatience and envy. Being captivated by this future that Paul says we’ve heard about in the gospel empowers us to live in faith and love and to become examples of God’s new creation.

PRAYER
Lord Jesus, you have gone to prepare a place for us. Prepare us now for that place. In the wonderful hope of glory, empower us to live in faith and love each day. Amen