News. And Expectation. The Gospel.

 Isa 52:7-10

The Gospel is news.  The announcement of peace.  It has been done.  3 times in 3 lines: God has comforted, has redeemed, has laid bare His arm.  Your redemption was accomplished 2000 years ago on a Roman cross, in history as plain and clear as the newspapers print what happened yesterday.  But the next line of Isa 52 flips to the future.  All the ends of the earth WILL see God’s salvation.  It is still ahead for us to see our Savior.  The Spirit applies our redemption now, giving us the eyes of faith to see the light, to see Jesus in this bread and wine, shining with all the mercy and truth of God’s holiness and grace upon you.

Communion Exhortation

1/16/22

Epiphany - light to fix things

 John 3:19-21

When you have to fix or clean something in your home, you want to get some light on it to see what you’re doing.  When God comes to restore the human race in Christ, He shines a light on us.  In our unbelief, we scurry away back into the shadows.  It’s like refusing to go to the doctor when you know you’re sick.  You just hope it’ll go away.  But the best thing to do is submit yourself to the bright lights of the operating room.  Let them put you under; let the doc do His work while you are passed out.  Come to the light; expose your situation to the great physician so He can operate.

Call to confession

1/16/22

For young bucks, new Reformed converts, red-pill Masculinists, and anti-Woke Warriors

I’ve had several encounters recently with you, and it seems a few common exhortations to you are needed.  Here they are, with a brief qualifier.  

There are more important issues you’re missing.

Besides what’s burning you up.  Beyond what you are changing your mind on right now.

Whether it's paedo-baptism, eschatology, covid restrictions, woke Marxism, or Christian masculine responsibility, realize that there are other aspects of the faith that are MORE foundational.  Getting involved in a local church and letting it shape you is probably the best thing for you.  Don't define your faith or your identity overly much by one of the issues above.

Learn about recent forefathers in the faith. 

James Boice, RC Sproul, JI Packer, Elizabeth Eliott, to name a few.  We stand on their shoulders.  We learned precious things from them about thinking Christianly in response to our culture.  They responded SO much better than most Christians are doing today!  To be a bit cynical, living podcasters and writers you are following are building and maintaining their platforms and followers.  They are prone to be too reactive to current events, when what we often need is a better understanding of theology, worship, the Bible, parenting, etc.  Follow the trail to who they learned from and read broadly, instead of just following a few FB feeds or podcasts.  Listen to your forefathers and elders in the faith before you spout off.  Give as much of your study time to Augustine, Calvin, and Luther, as you do to James White or Doug Wilson.

Get off social media and read.

Get off your phone and open a book.

We are constantly talking to friends and contemporaries, and seldom consulting Scripture and our tradition.  Which is crazy since we have more access to the latter than ever!  It's also crazy because people around us are going more off the rails than ever!

YouTube and Facebook can be great introductions to solid contemporary teachers.  I’ve had people come to our church because of their YouTube viewing!  But to form your mind and soul, we must be people of the Book.  Read the Bible - it is God's preferred media: word on page.  Read a book for every 10 online articles you read, or every 10 podcasts you listen to.  Read an old book for every book you read.  Why listen to someone talk randomly, when you can ingest a wiser person who has culled their thoughts with others (editors) over time to publish in a book? 

Recent classics

Knowing God - JI Packer

Knowing Scripture - RC Sproul
Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
J Gresham Machen - Christianity and Liberalism

Old books
Calvin's Institutes
Augustine's Confessions and City of God
Thomas a Kempis - Imitation of Christ
John Bunyan - Pilgrim's Progress
John Owen - Mortification of Sin



This post was inspired by an interview with JI Packer by Mark Dever, about 30 years ago. Give it a listen here.

Epiphany 2022

Epiphany is Greek for "shine upon."

The star of Bethlehem shone on the magi, guiding them to Jesus.

Isaiah 60 speaks of God shining on us in our darkness.  Of camels coming from other lands bringing gold and frankincense to the Lord.  This comes true in Matthew 2's account of the wise men.

We sit in darkness without God shining light on us.  "God, who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Corinthians 4:6).

In common parlance this is called a "eureka" moment.  "He had an epiphany, a revelation," we say.  Yes, but it didn't just come to him.  God sent it.  Give thanks to God today for shining light on our thoughts, for revealing truth to us.

Those Magi, hundreds of miles away, read scrolls and stars, and God led them to the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  In 2022, God will be leading you further into His truth.  (I'm sure He did this in 2021!)  

Will you hear Him and follow, as the wise men did the star?  It cost them a lot of time and energy, but it was worth it in the end.  Will you receive God's truth and change your life for it?  Or will it fall to the ground as you walk down your own path?

On the Twelfth Day of Christmas...

Here’s a brief blog series on each of the 12 days of Christmas, with Christian meanings.

 
On the twelfth day of Christmas, my True Love [God] gave to me:

Twelve drummers drumming

Twelve Tribes of Israel

 
For the completion of the Christmas season, on Twelfth Night, we celebrate the twelve tribes of Israel.  Twelve is a number of completion and perfection in the Bible.  In both Old and New Testaments the number was preserved after adjustments.  In the Old, Ephraim and Manasseh each became a tribe, from Joseph’s one, when Levi was dropped from receiving an inheritance.  In the New, Judas was replaced by Matthias, to keep 12 apostles (Acts 1:21-26).  Revelation especially describes the perfections of God’s people with the numbers of 12 and 144, which is 12 times 12 (Rev. 7 and 14). 
 
As usual, God’s enemies like to mess with His gifts.  The holy fast of Lent was tainted by the immoral revel of Mardi Gras the day before.  All Saints’ Day on November 1 was corrupted by All Hallows’ Eve (Halloween) the night before.  And so Twelfth Night became a festival signified by twisting natural things to the unnatural.  Shakespeare is the prime example of this in his play, “Twelfth Night,” where a woman dresses as a man, and a servant passes as a nobleman.
 
God’s perfect order is twisted by sin.  How is this happening in your life?
Singles delay pursuing marriage.  Men and women find themselves attracted by same-sex sexual desires.  Married people want out.  Men identify as women.

The siren song of the world likes to proclaim that God’s natural design is “boring.”  Giving it a twist would be interesting and fun!  Where are we called to stay with God’s order, and where does He give us freedom to be creative?  This takes wisdom.
 
The contrast jars me:

The 12 Israelite tribes on the 12^th day of Christmas.

And the Gentile focus of Epiphany on January 6.  

There is an order to God’s people, reflecting the 12-ness.  But don’t forget the unpredictable, untamable wildness of the Gentile inclusion among God’s people (Romans 11:13-21).  Magi from the east, after all!  

The church tends toward one or the other of these: overly particular order, or too-chaotic creativity.  Reformed types might emphasize our Israelite origins and the generational covenantal succession.  Evangelical types might stress that God brings ANYONE to Him – prostitutes, astrologers, tax collectors, etc.

Both are true, but uniting them in one body is our call.  Since Christ is our Lord, this is not impossible!

On the Eleventh Day of Christmas...

Here’s a brief blog series on each of the 12 days of Christmas, with Christian meanings.

On the eleventh day of Christmas, my True Love [God] gave to me:

Eleven pipers piping

Eleven Faithful Apostles

 
Of course, there were eleven faithful apostles because Judas betrayed Jesus.  This is a sober reminder that one can follow the Lord closely and for a long time, as Judas did, but not be a real believer.
 
We don’t often think of the original disciples as gifts to us, but they are.
 
Most importantly, they gave us the New Testament.  In it we have a few crucial keys:
 
1.  History recorded.  The birth, baptism and temptation of Jesus.  His healing, teaching of the people, arguing with the Jews.  His betrayal, arrest, crucifixion, burial, resurrection, and ascension to God’s throne.  These are events they record, as history.
 
2.  The first responses of people generally, and of His closest followers, to Jesus’ teaching and actions.  Peter’s, “No, Lord.”  Nathanael’s “can anything good come from Nazareth?”  Wondering how to feed the 5,000 with five loaves and two fish.  In the apostles’ responses to Jesus, we see our own reactions to God in how our lives unfold.
 
3.  The meaning of Christ’s coming.  What did His death and resurrection accomplish?  “He reconciled us both [Jew and Gentile] to God in one body through the cross” (Ephesians 2:16).  “He has canceled the record of debt that stood against us” (Colossians 2:14).  Romans is the classic example of this: bringing together the whole Old Testament with the good news of Jesus Christ.  The apostles explain Jesus to us.  They are His witnesses (Acts 1:6-8).  Witnesses who not only say what happened, but what it means.  Witnesses to those who already believe and read them (the Church), but also to the whole world.
 
Remember, these apostles worked and sacrificed to offer up this witness to the world.  They worked, in composing the New Testament.  Such writing!  Arranging words, Scriptures, thoughts, events, to show forth the glory of Christ!  And their sacrifice.  Tradition records that most of these apostles died painfully for their testimony.
 
What a gift of God to His Church!  Eleven faithful apostles.

On the Tenth Day of Christmas...

Here’s a brief blog series on each of the 12 days of Christmas, with Christian meanings.
 

On the tenth day of Christmas, my True Love [God] gave to me:

Ten lords a-leaping

Ten Good Commandments
 
Recently my wife and I played a board game we got for Christmas.  The instructions were sparse and didn’t explain what the spaces on the board meant, among other things.  We made it up as we went and muddled through, but weren’t sure the game was fair or that we were getting all we could out of it.
 
This is how people live without God’s instructions.  It is a greater misery than we realize, going through life not really sure what it’s about or if we’re getting it.  Arguing about what’s fair.  God’s commands are a gift to the people He made.  Most see them as too restrictive.  We want to just do what we want.
 
Stick with the game instruction theme a minute.  Or assembling something from IKEA.  Half the world throws out the directions, sure they can figure it out themselves.  The other half reads the directions carefully.  There are pros and cons to both.
 
The direction-rejecter knows there is a greater purpose to life than rules.  That’s good.  But their over-confidence that they can figure that purpose out is their undoing.  Our knowledge of ourselves is not enough – we need our Creator’s input to figure life out.
 
The rule-follower knows they need help figuring out life.  But they can put all the focus on the rules and forget the bigger picture, as legalists do.
 
I encourage you to see God’s commandments as a good gift from a kind Father seeking your good.

Re-read them today in Exodus 20:1-17 or Deuteronomy 5:6-21.

On the Ninth Day of Christmas...

Here’s a brief blog series on each of the 12 days of Christmas, with Christian meanings.
 
On the ninth day of Christmas, my True Love [God] gave to me:

Nine ladies dancing

Nine Spirit Fruits
 
Galatians 5:22-23
“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.”

Faith bears fruit by the Spirit’s work in us.  God’s gift-giving doesn’t stop with the Incarnation of His Son as Jesus.  He gave Him as a gift that leads to many gifts: justified, sanctified, made like Jesus again, glorified.  Bearing the fruit of the Spirit is part of that.
 
I found it helpful when parenting young children through squabbles and spats, to stop them and simply ask, “Was that kind?”   “Was that gentle?”  We have a few targets we are aiming for, that sum up all the law.  This brings us clarity when we are confused or caught in sin.
 
Remember that fruit grows naturally from the tree.  It ought to grow naturally from the root of faith.  Not that you never have to work at it, or against sinful tendencies.  But if you find yourself constantly faking it, or ginning up the appearance of fruit, you may want to check the state of your heart.  There are seasons of pruning of course, but no fruit as a pattern means no faith.
 
When we see fruit, it is a pleasant delight and blessing, which God means it to be.  It is often easy to miss.  But the fruit of the Spirit remains a staple of spiritual life, not optional icing-on-the-cake.

On the Eighth Day of Christmas...

Here’s a brief blog series on each of the 12 days of Christmas, with Christian meanings.
 
On the eighth day of Christmas, my True Love [God] gave to me:

Maids a-milking

Eight Beatitudes

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, For they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, For they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, For they shall be filled.
Blessed are the merciful, For they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, For they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, For they shall be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”  
(Matthew 5:3-10)
 
In Matthew’s gospel, this is the first public teaching Jesus offers.  Matthew shows forth Jesus as the King of the Kingdom of heaven.  So He defines His kingdom here.
 
1 - The humble attain the kingdom.
2 - God’s kingdom brings comfort.
3 - It is a vast inheritance.
4 – It is characterized by righteousness that satisfies
5 – Mercy abounds
6 – It means purity, and seeing God Himself
7 – It means peace, and adoption as God’s children
8 – Those persecuted for doing good attain the kingdom of God
 
And, from the first word of each, the kingdom of God brings blessing.  We tend to use this word to mean general well-being, but let these eight characteristics define blessing more specifically and biblically in your understanding.
 
See Matthew 13 and 25 for other stories from the King about what His Kingdom is like.

On the Seventh Day of Christmas...

Here’s a brief blog series on each of the 12 days of Christmas, with Christian meanings.

 
On the seventh day of Christmas, my True Love [God] gave to me:

Seven swans a-swimming

Seven Spirit Gifts
 
Romans 12:6-8:
“Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them:
1)     if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith;
2)     or ministry, let us use it in our ministering;
3)     he who teaches, in teaching;
4)     he who exhorts, in exhortation;
5)     he who gives, with liberality;
6)     he who leads, with diligence;
7)     he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.”
 
While not an exhaustive list, Paul conveys here the diversity of abilities in the body of Christ, that each need to work together for the body to function as one and be effective.
 
There may be some overlap with natural abilities here, but the context of Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12 makes clear that God intentionally by His Spirit gives us specific gifts and graces.
 
The practical point is to use them.  Do what you’re good at!

Those who have studied the biblical shepherd’s lifestyle tell me that shepherds threw rocks a lot.  Israel is a very rocky land, and sheep are easily frightened.  So an easy way to move sheep was to throw a rock to a place you want them to move away from.  They were precision rock throwers, often with a sling.  So when David stands before Goliath, he uses the gift he’s been given, instead of going with the world’s usual method (Saul’s armor).
 
What gifts has God given you?  How will you use them in 2022?

On the Sixth Day of Christmas...

Here’s a brief blog series on each of the 12 days of Christmas, with Christian meanings.
 
On the sixth day of Christmas, my True Love [God] gave to me:

Six geese a-laying

Six Creation Days
 
It’s in vogue today to see the creation week as poetry, not history.  And utterly unscientific.  How could there be light before there was a sun!  Ridiculous.  But only to the naturalistic mind that cannot accept a God with power greater than forces of nature.
 
The Bible actually tells us to rest one day every seven, because that’s what God did.  Our 7-day week comes from Genesis 1, and we ought to follow it.  “Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God.  In it you shall do no work…” (Deut. 5:13-14).
 
This isn’t to say there is NO poetry to the creation account.  There certainly is.  The first 3 days, God creates a three-story world on three canvases, or spaces: sky, sea, land.  The next 3 days He fills each of them. 
 
At the end, instead of saying “Let there be,” He says “Let Us make man in Our image.”  Humans are uniquely God-like in the world, and called to rule the world faithfully in His stead (Gen. 1:28).  This view has been under assault the last few decades with the environmentalist movement, which sees man more as a violator of nature, and just one part of it.  Who’s to say a human life is worth more than a whale or a deer?  God says it.  Here.  At the very beginning.
 
This is not a license to trash the planet.  Just the opposite – we are to care for it.  But the earth is a garden God gives for us to use wisely.  We may not abuse it.  But we may also not preserve it untouched.  We need to cultivate it, as a garden.  It’s a tool in the workshop, not mom’s best china that we may never touch.

On the Fifth Day of Christmas...

Here’s a brief blog series on each of the 12 days of Christmas, with Christian meanings.
 

On the fifth day of Christmas, my True Love [God] gave to me:

Five gold-en riiiiings!

Five Books of the Law
 

The Jews have an annual feast to celebrate God’s giving of the Law: Shavuot.  It remembers Moses coming down Sinai with the two tablets of the Ten Commandments.
 
Christians tend not to celebrate the law as they should.  We have largely lost the Psalmist’s heart cry, “Oh, how I love your law!  It is my meditation all the day” (Psalm 119:97).

 
It can be helpful to read the Ten Commandments as God’s wedding vows, as He takes Israel as His bride.  “I have done this for you; you be faithful to Me in these ways.”
1 – no other husbands/gods
2 – no pictures, either, to run after them
3 – take My name and wear it well
4 – spend time with Me
5 – honor your ancestors and authorities
6 – no physical harm
7 – obvious
Etc
 
All those obscure Levitical laws were specific things God gave us to do to show that we are set apart as His bride, and no one else’s.
 
So cherish all of the Bible in 2021, as coming from the God who loves you.

On the Fourth Day of Christmas...

Here’s a brief blog series on each of the 12 days of Christmas, with Christian meanings.
 

On the fourth day of Christmas, my True Love [God] gave to me:

Four calling birds

Four Gospel Books
 

Just as there are two creation accounts in Genesis 1-2 (the second starts at 2:4), so God gave us four accounts of Christ’s earthly ministry.
 
Matthew gives us Christ as King, fulfilling the Scriptures
Mark gives us an active, abrupt Christ, in Peter’s blunt style
Luke gives us a Christ for the whole world, from a Gentile doctor’s view
John gives us Christ as eternal Word, who is our bread, shepherd, way, truth & life
 

Fools seek contradictions among these to debunk Jesus, while the wise know that multiple portraits are needed to round out any one author’s portrayal of any life, much less the most unique life (the only God-man ever) in history.

On the Third Day of Christmas...

Here’s a brief blog series on each of the 12 days of Christmas, with Christian meanings.

 

On the third day of Christmas, my True Love [God] gave to me:

Three French hens

Faith, Hope and Love
 
“So now faith, hope and love abide, these three” – 1 Corinthians 13:13.
The capstone of Paul’s great “Love chapter” of 1 Corinthians 13, the context is really interesting.  The Corinthians put too much importance on knowledge, abilities/gifts, powerful speakers and their reputations.  Paul points out there are far more important things.  The mark of a spiritual person isn’t impressing others with speaking in tongues, how many books you’ve read, how impressively you can preach.  Sensationalism and spirituality don’t go together well.
 
Simple trust in God with your life, hoping in His work in the future (including 2021!), and love of God and neighbor, sum up the essence of the Christian life.
 

FAITH
People put stock in faith, in itself.  Faith in faith.  It’s nice to be people of faith.  But in WHAT?  “Whoever believes IN HIM [Jesus] should not perish…” (John 3:16).
 

HOPE
People right now seem to have a “fingers-crossed” attitude toward 2022.  This is not biblical hope.  “This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast” (Hebrews 6:19).  Biblical hope KNOWS God will arrange everything in His world for the good of His people (Romans 8:28), regardless of how much disruption that may bring to our lives.
 

LOVE
People tend to see love as good feelings or a close connection toward others.
“In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (1 John 4:10-11).  Love gives drastically of itself for the good of others.

On the Second Day of Christmas...

Here’s a brief blog series on each of the 12 days of Christmas, with Christian meanings
 

On the second day of Christmas, my True Love [God] gave to me:

Two turtledoves

Two testaments
 
God has revealed Himself in His Word, and we divide that into Old and New testaments.
“The New is in the Old concealed; the Old is in the New revealed.”

It has become politically correct to only refer to the Old Testament as the Hebrew Bible, out of sensitivity to Judaism, to not call their Scriptures “Old.”  But this is a mistake.  The Old Testament is Act One and Two of God’s grand play: Creation and Fall.  It does NOT stand on its own, but calls for more.  

The New Testament gives us Acts Three and Four: Redemption and Completion.  I’d encourage you to read some from each testament every day of 2021.