Dwain and Amanda

Basic Training Week 5: Can We All Make Use of Scripture and What Does It Teach?

2012-02-15T12:59:00.000-08:00

As we reach this fifth week of our series Basic Training: The Basics of Christianity; which uses the 1689 London Baptist Catechism as its basis, we find ourselves asking a couple of important questions. 1. May everyone make use of the Scriptures? 2. What do the Scriptures mainly teach?

So, may everyone make use of the Scriptures? The answer is that everyone is not only permitted, but commanded and exhorted, to read, hear, and understand the Scriptures. So, not only can we make use of the Scriptures, but we are commanded to read, hear, and understand the Scriptures.

This question was essential in the past and is also essential for us now. You see, it wasn't long before this question was written that the Catholic Church did not desire for Scripture to be published in the native tongue. That is, they did not want it written in a way that people, besides the educated priests and monks could read them. It was thought that these common people could read and understand what Scripture teaches. But after the Protestant Reformation this changed. Scripture was being written in people's native languages so that they could read and understand God's Word.

The reason that this question is also essential for us now is because we need to know that it does not take a Master's or Doctorate in Theology to understand what Scripture says. If we try to understand Scripture we can. That does not mean that it is all easily understood, because it is not. There are some passages of Scripture that we must do a lot of work to understand. There are some passages of Scripture that may be beyond our grasp at this present time, that is okay. Ask someone knowledgeable, a pastor, Sunday School teacher, or another member of your church that is strong in the Word. The point is we do not have to go to someone specialized to find out what Scripture means.

Read it as you would read a book or a letter from a friend and you will keep yourself from most of the trouble that people today get into when they are trying to interpret what Scripture means. Most people jump to a verse in the Bible, don't take any time to understand what was said before it and what is said after it and think they know what the verse means.

One instance of this that is quite humorous is the phrase that is repeated over and over in the Book of Judges, "everyone did what was right in their own eyes". If you read the entire book of Judges you find that this is a judgment against the people of Israel. Instead of doing as they were supposed to do they were doing what they thought was right. Well, this passage has been used to show that people have different opinions on what is right and wrong and that we should honor their opinions, because they are simply doing "what is right in their own eyes". Is this what the author meant when he wrote this phrase? Obviously not. What was the mistake? Well, instead of reading the whole book the one phrase was read and interpreted by itself.

Another humorous instance is when Paul says "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me". Paul has stated in Philippians 4:11-12 that he has learned to live and preach the gospel as a poor man. And he then says Philippians 4:13. When taken as a whole we understand that Paul is saying that God will strengthen him to be able to endure the hardship of doing this gospel work with little to no money. But today it is used as athletes walk out on a football field trying to make a big catch, or as someone is working to buy a bigger house. If the passage is taken in with the surrounding verses the way we use it today makes no sense. This is a terrible mistake that is done over and over today. So, read Scripture and try to understand what is being said. Don't just read one verse and give it a meaning. Try to understand what the author is writing to you.

So, what are some reasons we should read, hear, and understand God's Word?

God gave us His Word. In my mind this alone is reason enough to read Scripture. God who created all things and does not need us, did not have to give us His Word. He could have left us without it. Yet, out of love, grace, and mercy He gave us Scripture in a language that we could understand. This alone makes us obligated to know what it says.

We are also constantly commanded to obey God's Word. One example of this is Psalm 119:4. My question to you is this, how are we going to obey God's Word when we don't know what it is. Therefore, reading, hearing, and understanding God's Word is very important in the life of a believer.

We are also commanded to know God's Word, to think of it constantly, and to later teach it to our children. We see this summed up in one statement for us in Deuteronomy 6:4-9.

Reading, hearing, understanding, and then applying Scripture to our lives will keep us from sin. (Psalm 119:9)

The last reason I will give in this post (there are many more that could be given), is that we are to judge all things by God's Word. We are to know Scripture well enough that we can judge whether or not those who are preaching and teaching God's Word are speaking truth or not. Why does Paul calls the Bareans "more noble-minded than those in Thessolinica" (Acts 17:11)? Because they were judging Paul's teachings by Scripture. We are not commanded to just listen to those who preach and teach God's Word, but we are to judge what they say by God's Word.

So, knowing these things how can we say anything but that we are to be about the business of reading, hearing, and understanding God's Word. Does this mean that we have done all we have to do if we simply read the Bible? No, it does not. We are to be in a church, where the truth of God's Word is proclaimed. This is why God created the position of pastor, so that their could be someone who could feed you God's Word, guide you , and direct you. This is why we say read, hear, and understand.

The next question we are dealing with is this, what do the Scriptures mainly teach?

This is an interesting question because what is it that we are going to find in Scripture? Are we going to expect to find out how to do mathematics or proper English grammar? No, so what does Scripture mainly teach?

The Scriptures mainly teach what man is to believe about God and what duty God requires of man.

God has written us His Word and in it we find many things, but mainly what we are to believe about God and our duties to God (2 Timothy 3:16-17; John 20:30-31; Acts 24:14; 1 Corinthians 10:11; Ecclesiastes 12:13). This is Scripture's main concern and main focus.

The characteristics that we are to believe about God, we find in Scripture. If there is anything we have to know about God it is found in Scripture. We find that Scripture can also equip us to live a life that is pleasing to God.

R. Dwain Minor

Does Your "Christianity" Include Suffering And Affliction?

2012-02-13T16:55:00.000-08:00

Today, the most popular preachers in America are people like Joel Osteen, Joyce Meyer, and T.D. Jakes pushing a gospel of prosperity to millions of people. It is an unbiblical lie that millions have bought into completely. With this brand of Christianity being pedaled today, it is good to read an excerpt such as this one from J.C. Ryle. The name of this sermon is Faith's Choice, it was preached in 1879. This particular excerpt was taken from gracegems.org.

"By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin." Hebrews 11:24-25

Is there any cross in your Christianity?

There is a common worldly kind of Christianity in this day, which many have--a cheap Christianity . . .
which offends nobody,
which requires no sacrifice,
which costs nothing--and is worth nothing!

But if you really are in earnest about your soul,
if your religion is something more than a mere fashionable Sunday cloak,
if you are determined to live by the Bible,
if you are resolved to be a New Testament Christian--
then you will soon find that you must carry a cross. You must endure hard things; you must suffer in behalf of your soul, as Moses did--or you cannot be saved.

The offense of the cross is not ceased!

God's true people are still a despised little flock.

True evangelical religion still brings with it reproach and scorn.

A real servant of God will still be thought an enthusiast and a fool by many.

If there is no cross--there will be no crown!

Moses left the ease and comfort of Pharaoh's court--and openly took part with the despised children of Israel. In fact, if ever a man seemed to be choosing pain, trials, poverty, distress, anxiety, perhaps even death, with his eyes open--Moses was that man!

Let us think how astonishing was this choice.

Flesh and blood naturally shrink from pain. We draw back by a kind of instinct from suffering, and avoid it if we can. If two courses of action are set before us, which both seem right--we take that which is the least disagreeable to flesh and blood.

But look here! Here is a man of like passions with ourselves, and he actually chooses affliction! Moses saw the cup of suffering that was before him if he left Pharaoh's court--and he chose it, preferred it, and took it up!

Faith told Moses that affliction and suffering are not real evils. They are . . .
the school of God, in which He trains the children of grace for glory;
the medicines, which are needful to purify our corrupt hearts;
the furnace, which must burn away our dross;
the knife, which must cut the ties which bind us to the world.

After reading this we should examine our lives. The question is does your Christianity have a cross? Is what you believe a cheap version of Christianity or is it what Scripture teaches? We instinctively like comfort, but that is not what Scripture teaches. Would you choose affliction for the cause of Christ?

R. Dwain Minor

Gollum: An Illustration of the Human Condition

2012-02-10T10:33:00.000-08:00

I don't believe there is a creature in all of movie history that scares my wife more than Gollum does. But I also don't believe that there is a creature in all of human history that sums up a human beings enslavement to sin quite like the life of Gollum in The Lord of The Rings.

Scripture teaches that human beings are creatures with a "free will", but because of the fall the human will does have some constraints. Don't get me wrong, people choose to do what they want to do, but because of the fall they have sinful desires. Because of the fall they don't desire God, they don't come to God on their own free will. Because of the fall, the desire is all wrong. People do what they want to do, the problem is that sin's influence has caused us to want the wrong things. That is why it is safe for the apostle Paul to quote writers of the Old Testament stating that there is not one righteous person on earth (Romans 3:10), no one seeks God (Romans 3:11), the things that people say are poisonous evil (Romans 3:13-14), we do very unrighteous things (Romans 3:15-17), and "there is no fear of God before their eyes" (Romans 3:18). Paul sums up the evil of mankind by saying that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).

We find this idea of the human nature being enslaved to sin taught in a few different places. Jesus states that everyone who sins is a slave to sin (John 8:34). There would be only a few people that have ever lived that would be excluded from this statement. Adam and Eve were created without this enslavement, but later sinned and fell into it. The only other exclusion would be Jesus Himself. Peter says basically the same thing in 2 Peter 2:19, and Paul states that people are either slaves to sin or slaves to Christ and righteousness (Romans 6:16).

Jonathan Edwards wrote about this in his book, Freedom of the Will.

"...a man may then be said to be morally unable to do a thing, when he is under the influence or prevalence of a contrary inclination; or has a want of inclination, under such circumstances and views. It is also evident, from, what has been before proved, that the will is always, and in every individual act, necessarily determined by the strongest motive, which, all things considered, has now the greatest strength and advantage to move the will"

The point Edwards is making is that with every decision in life, we as humans will to do that which we want to do most, or that which we have the strongest motivation to do most. This is the freedom that the will has, the freedom to do whatever it wants.

For instance, when I go to a counter to buy ice cream I have many options set before me. I will buy the one that I want most. I have the option of getting a small because I want to lose weight, and I may like any number of flavors of ice cream available to me but I will choose the one that looks most appealing to me at the time. If I choose the large cookie dough, then at that moment in time I wanted more ice cream rather than weight loss and the cookie dough was more appealing to me than the other flavors on the board.

The point is that we are constrained by what we desire most. We are not people who are running in neutral at all times. We choose that which we desire, and our enslavement to sin is due to our desire for sin. This is why Jesus states that our sinful actions come from within ourselves, not something from the outside (Matthew 15:18-19; Mark 7:21-23), and James can say that we sin when we are lured and enticed by our own evil desire (James 1:14). Our desires are all wrong, and we are enslaved to this nature that is corrupt.

This enslavement to sin is so strong that Martin Luther in his book Bondage of the Will, argued that "free will" is an empty and meaningless term.

"For when it is granted and established, that free will, having once lost its liberty, is compulsively bound to the service of sin, and cannot will anything good, I, from these words, can understand nothing else than that free will is a mere empty term, whose reality is lost. And a lost liberty, according to my grammar , is no liberty at all. And to give the name of liberty to that which has no liberty, is to give it an empty term."

Luther later writes,

"Hence, if we believe that Satan is the prince of this world, ever ensnaring and fighting against the kingdom of Christ with all his powers, and that he does not let go his captives without being forced by the divine power of the Spirit, it is manifest, that there can be no such thing as-free will!"

I believe both of these men to be correct and ultimately, by the end of the books, one realizes that both come to the same conclusion, a conclusion that comes to us from Scripture. Fallen man does not have the ability to choose God, but by the power of God.

I believe that Gollum is an excellent illustration of how this works out. Gollum is enslaved to the ring of power. He has the ability to do good, but for the most part his enslavement to the ring leads him astray. Gollum is free and he follows his desires. There are times when Gollum does good and helps Frodo and Sam, but ultimately Gollum succumbs to his desire for the ring and dies to keep it. He is ultimately destroyed by his evil desire. With great joy he clutches the ring as he falls to his death into a pit of lava. You can see that scene in the video clip below.

Was Gollum free? Yes, he was doing what he desired to do. Was Gollum at the same time enslaved? I would also answer this question with a yes. He was enslaved to his evil desire for the ring. This same freedom and enslavement coexists within human beings. We are free to do what we want, but what we want to do is wrong. And just like with the human condition, Gollum holds on to that which he loves, even to his ultimate destruction.

Praise God that He has made a way for enslaved sinners to be saved. Christ paid the full penalty of our sins on the cross and God makes enslaves sinners able to trust Christ for this perfect salvation with the new birth.

This new birth is foretold to us in Ezekiel 36:22-27. Here God completely takes credit for taking out the cold stony heart and giving to His people a living, beating heart that loves God and desires to follow God's command. God takes complete credit for causing His people to turn to Him and follow His statutes.

It is not something that humans do, it is something God does. Human enslavement to sin is not broken by human willing and working, but God's willing and working. Look at what is written in John 1:12-13.

"But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God"

It is God who breaks the bond of enslavement in the life of the believer. As John is describing those people who believer he makes sure to state that their birth into the kingdom was not human. It is "not of blood". It was not because of the family or circumstances they were born in. Their birth into the kingdom does not come about because of the "will of the flesh". I am not born again, because I desire to be born again. I cannot make that happen in my life, and besides that our enslavement to sin keeps us from having this desire anyway. I am not even born again because another human being wills it to happen for me. My being born again can only be credited to God. He is the one that makes the believer able to take hold of Christ as their only hope of salvation.

R. Dwain Minor

Grow to Maturity Now and Choose The Right Type of Person to Marry: 1 Peter 3:1-7

2012-02-08T14:55:00.000-08:00

We are back here in 1 Peter again looking at a text that is another text about submission. Remember, the last few messages we have looked at in 1 Peter have been about submitting to different authorities in our lives. But here we have something different added. Peter shows us how a husband and wife are to relate to one another. He here gives us an understanding of the way a mature man and woman are to behave toward one another.

This teaching can benefit adults that are married as well as singles who are years from marrying. We should seek to model our lives after the models that Peter here sets forth. We see what ladies need to strive to be and what men need to strive to be, as well as what women should look for in a mate and what men should be looking for in a mate. Ladies who are adorned with inner beauty, and men who honor their wives.

Read 1 Peter 3:1-7

Ladies are to strive to be adorned with the inner beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit (1 Peter 3:1-6). This is quite the opposite picture the world gives us as the model for women to strive to be, is it not? The model the world has for you to grow to is a woman dressed provocatively not submitting to authority. Think it through with me. What type of woman is on the cover of most of the women's magazines? It is a woman dressed provocatively that gives off a demeanor that is anything but gentle and quiet. Yet, like most everything else, we find that Scripture calls us to model our lives in a different way than the world does. Christ, through His life, death, and resurrection has redeemed us from this world and we are no longer part of this world. It makes sense that the life we are called to live does not look like the model the world would have us live.

Peter has been speaking about submission to authority, and he does the same thing here. He calls wives to submit to the authority of their husbands. He begins by telling wives to "be submissive to your own husbands". This idea is seen elsewhere in Scripture. Paul says it this way, "Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord." (Ephesians 5:22). This is also seen in creation. God made a "helper suitable for him" (Genesis 2:20-25). So, in the very creation of man and woman we find that the wife is to be his helper, or help-mate. In fact, Peter begins verse 1 by saying, "In the same way". The point is that in the same way we are to submit ourselves to "every human institution" (1 Peter 2:13), the wife is supposed to submit to her husband.

Peter adds something interesting here. Apparently there were a few women in the congregation whose husbands were not believers. It is apparent by the wording here that those women were a minority, but he then addresses that situation. So, here are women who have converted to Christianity whose husbands were not believers. They are as Peter states here, "disobedient to the word". Peter states that by their husbands observing their "chaste and respectful behavior", they may win their unbelieving husbands to Christ.

It must be stated here that believers are not to marry unbelievers. This is a situation that likely came up as these women became converts to the faith. They now were believers and their husbands had not yet converted. Men and women who are not Christians are not even to be considered as husbands or wives (2 Corinthians 6:14).

If someone were to come to me and say, "We want to get married, will you do the wedding?". My first question would be, "Are both of you Christians?" If they said yes, then I would ask a few questions to make sure they had answered me properly, but if I found out that one was a believer and one was not I would not do the wedding. I simply would not do it. Scripture teaches that this is not supposed to be done, so I will have no part in it. Now, if I am counseling a wife who already has an unbelieving husband on how she is to relate to her husband then I would bring her to this passage of Scripture. She is to live a life faithful to Christ, but also respectfully submitting to her husband in hope that one day he will see the life she is living and be open to the gospel.

Peter then moves on to say that that which a woman does to make herself look beautiful should not merely be external but internal. A woman should primarily tend to her inner beauty, not her outer beauty.

Guys don't understand this struggle as much as the ladies do. Women were created differently than men. There is something about femininity that is inherently beautiful. Down through the ages, it is not sculptures of men that have been famous it has been the sculptures of women. Artists have attempted to capture the beauty of women time and time again throughout history. Men do not get the same treatment. To quote Elaine from Seinfeld, "A woman's body is a work of art. A man's body is utilitarian. It's for getting around. It's like a Jeep."

Though the statement is very funny, there is a lot of truth to what was said. And because women were created with this inherent beauty there is a tension that comes along with it. Girls want to look pretty, they want to be beautiful. This beauty is a good thing, and it is good to look beautiful. But there is a beauty in women that is to be sought after more than external beauty. It is the inner beauty "of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in the sight of God" (1 Peter 3:4).

Peter says here that the ladies are to adorn themselves with "the hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit". Yet again we see this is in opposition to the type of woman the world is trying to convince you to be. Some of you at this very moment are probably objecting to the thought that inner beauty for a woman is summed up as gentle and quiet, but this is the beauty that Peter is stating that women should be attaining.

Gentle and quiet does not, however, mean weak. There is much strength and faith involved in this. We spoke in earlier messages about the strength of character that is required for a person to be able to submit to authorities even when we think they are wrong. Well, it is the same here. A woman who will submit to and respect her imperfect husband even when he is acting foolishly is a sign of strength of faith in this woman. It takes resilience and strength to be treated wrongly and still do the right thing. It takes a person who is trusting that God really does work all things together for the good of His children to stand firm in these circumstances (Romans 8:28). It is this type of action that is said here to be "precious in the sight of God".

Peter then moves to use the women of the Old Testament as very good examples of this. They were women who oftentimes were very beautiful, yet possessed this quality in abundance. They had this gentle and quiet spirit that Peter is here speaking of. These women "who hoped in God, used to adorn themselves, being submissive to their own husbands" . This is the way that the women of old that women today should model their lives after behaved. This is the beauty that they adorned themselves with. They are the women of old, "who hoped in God". This is not insignificant. These women whose hope was set upon God, who trusted that God would work for their good, submitted to their husbands and adorned themselves with the inner beauty that Peter is here showing us. He then uses Sarah as an example.

If anyone had a right to complain about what was going on in her married life it was Sarah. On God's command Abraham moved the family to a land they had never known. This would test the faithfulness of any wife, but Sarah respectfully submitted to her husband. Sarah was externally, apparently, a very beautiful woman. On two different occasions very powerful men wanted Sarah after seeing her, and her weak husband told her not to tell them that they were married to try to save his own skin (Genesis 12:13, Genesis 20:2). Even after her horrible treatment from her husband she still adorned herself with this inner beauty. She hoped in God and was able to submit to her husband in the good and the bad times. And this is the example that women are given to follow. They joyfully and respectfully submit to their husbands "without being frightened", which is another reference to where the hope is supposed to be. Your hope is not in perfect treatment from your husband in this life, it will not happen. He is a sinner, same as you. Your hope is in God, that He will work all things for your good.

So, ladies as you move to maturity in your life and in the faith you are to be developing this inner beauty. Dress nice, look beautiful, but let your real adorning, the adorning you spend more time worried about, be the adorning of the inner beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit.

How do you do this? Begin now by being obedient to your parents and the other authorities in your life. When you feel that you are right, trust that God will bring about the best in that situation. If you are being abused that needs to be turned into the authorities that govern those that have abused you. But for the normal situation, trust in God and have the strength to do what is right. Begin cultivating this character that God finds to be precious, a gentle and quiet spirit.

So, guys when you are ready to marry, be on the look out for the right type of woman. You are looking for a woman who is a believer that is submitting to the authorities in her life. You do not want to live under a roof with a rebellious and mean spirited woman. Listen to these words of Solomon from the Book of Proverbs.

"It is better to live in a corner of the housetop than in a house shared with a quarrelsome wife."-Proverbs 21:9

And ten verses later he says this,

"It is better to live in a desert land than with a quarrelsome and fretful woman."-Proverbs 21:19

So, be wise when it comes time to choose a girl to date and later marry. Attraction is important, but it is not the only or the most important thing. Look for a woman who submits to her parents and other authorities in her life. Make sure she exemplifies the inner beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit.

Peter gave the ladies six verses worth of attention and now only one verse for the guys, but this one verse is packed with a lot of instruction. Ladies can handle the conversation, us guys need short and simple instruction. And that is exactly what we get here in 1 Peter 3:7. Men are to live understandingly with their wives and honor them.

Peter first tells the men to live with their wives "in an understanding way". The literal rendering of this would be live together in an understanding way. So, it is safe to assume that Peter here means any knowledge that is beneficial to the marriage relationship. This would simply be being considerate of your wife's needs. If your wife needs to hear the words, "I love you", on a daily basis then you give it to her. If your wife needs more time together and less of you wasting it on video games or something of that nature then you give that to her. That is what Paul means by living in an understanding way with your wife.

Peter then states that we are to "show honor to the woman as the weaker vessel". We are here commanded to honor our wives. This would include words of affirmation in public and in private. Honoring a woman includes things such as holding her hand, opening doors for her, pulling the chair out for her, buying her flowers, protecting her in times of danger, and many other ways that we can honor our wives.

Peter calls the woman the "weaker sex". He is not specific as to what he means exactly by weaker sex, but it could be any number of things that men could be tempted to take advantage of. Men are generally physically stronger than their wives, and rather than physically overpowering her in any way he is to honor her. Women are also more emotional than men are. This is generally a good thing. Women are more capable of handling many problems that men are not good at because of this, but men have been known to take advantage of women's emotions also. Women can be more hurt by arguments and conflicts in marriage and men can at times manipulate women's emotions, but this is not what they are supposed to do. Rather than manipulating women's emotions, men are to bestow honor upon their wives.

This "weaker vessel" phrase does not in any way mean that the wife is inferior to her husband, but different. This is made evident as Peter states that women are fellow "heirs with you of the grace of life". Don't make the mistake so many have made of thinking that different means inferior. Peter makes it very clear that they are not inferior, but equal which is the teaching that is found throughout the rest of Scripture also.

Before the guys decide not to take this seriously they should be warned that God does take it seriously. Peter makes it quite evident here that God takes the treatment of His daughters very seriously. Peter gives a pretty strong warning in this passage. Men are to live their wives understandingly and honor them, so that their "prayers may not be hindered". Wayne Grudem explains the meaning of this very well when he says,

"So concerned is God that Christian husbands live in an understanding and loving way with their wives, that he 'interrupts' his relationship with them when they are not doing so."-Commentary on 1 Peter from the Tyndale New Testament Commentary Series

God is so concerned about the treatment of His daughters that He will not tolerate their being treated in any way less than honored. The warning is that God will hinder the prayers of the man who does not treat his wife as he ought. God will discipline the man who doesn't properly honor his wife and treat her in an understanding manner.

So, guys strive to be a man that will love, honor, and cherish your wife. Stop being so self-centered with your time and do something that matters with it.

Ladies, you are looking for a guy that will be understanding with you. A guy that will actually try to meet your needs. You are looking for a guy that will honor you in the way that you should be honored. You are looking for a guy that will not take advantage of you or beat you physically and a guy that will not manipulate your emotions. You are looking for a guy that will honor you and don't fall for anything less.

Attempt to be the type of man or woman (whichever is applicable) that God's Word says you should be and when the time comes find the right type of man or woman. This will save you a lot of heartache in the end.

R. Dwain Minor

It Is Not "Pro-Choice", It Is "I Am Stronger Than You So I Get to Choose"

2012-02-06T19:29:00.000-08:00

I have been pro-life for quite some time now. As long as I can remember I have been against abortion, and the reason has been simple. We should not engage in killing people, it is simply wrong. When the argument is examined in this manner I believe it is a very simple, cut and dry case. Killing a child is killing a child, whether it happens outside the womb or in the womb. When the argument is examined in this manner, the answer seems clear.

I have found myself more emotionally involved in this topic since the birth of my son, Haddon. It is only natural. You spend so much time going to check-ups and seeing the baby move in the mother's womb. You hear the baby's heartbeat very early along and then get to feel the baby kick and see these kicks move the mother's belly. I remember the first time I felt him kick. I was driving and holding hands with my wife and something hit the back of my hand. It was my son. It scared me enough that I looked at my wife and said in an astonished voice, "What was that?". She went on to inform me that it was Haddon moving in the womb. And it seems that the more events like these happened the more clearly I understood that this really was a life in the womb. I had understood this from Scripture, but now it had become more personal and I had the opportunity to think through what exactly this means

But the argument between the two sides has not normally been painted in this manner.

If that is a human in the womb then that human is endowed with certain rights. Do you recognize these words?

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness"

Those words come from The Declaration of Independence. Killing a human being takes away in one swoop all of the rights that are here mentioned. Our country's founding document was published based upon this idea that all human beings are endowed with these rights.

Normally, the "Pro-Choice" camp has painted the argument as whether or not a woman should have the right to choose. This turns the argument a different direction. The argument is that a woman should have the right to choose whether or not she keeps this baby.

The question I am posing is this. Are those who claim to be "Pro-Choice" really pro-choice? Or are the strong simply imposing their will upon the weak?

I believe the answer is the latter. The "Pro-Choice" camp are for many things, but not for the freedom to make choices. They are for their own freedom to not have children. They are for their own freedom to have sex without the product of children. They are for choosing their own freedom, prosperity, and right to live a certain way, but the act of abortion takes away that baby's choices forever. Not to mention that if a baby in the womb were able to comprehend and answer the question, "Do you want to live longer?", they would obviously answer yes. So, who has the freedom of choice? Is it the strong or the weak?

Haddon is now 7 months old, and because we continued with the pregnancy he is one day going to have the freedom to make a lot of different choices. He is going to have the freedom to choose whether or not he goes to college or works at a trade right after High School. If he chooses college he will have the freedom to choose what he majors in and what job to take after college. He will have the freedom to choose whether or not he gets married and who he will marry. He will have the freedom to choose what kind of car he wants to drive and house he wants to live in. He will have the freedom to choose whether or not he puts money into retirement. He will have the freedom to choose how he raises his children if he has children. He will have the freedom to make many choices throughout his life, simply because he is alive.

So, are you really "Pro-Choice", if you take away another human beings right to ever make any choices whatsoever by terminating their life? It is safe to say that the answer is no. Abortion is the ultimate illustration of the strong getting to choose what will happen to the weak.

A woman finds out that she is pregnant and consults her mate about what has happened. They then decide to terminate the pregnancy, thus killing the child because for some reason or another they don't want the child. Notice who doesn't matter in the equation. Notice whose rights are not taken into account. It is the child's rights that are taken away. The weak one, who is at that moment completely dependent upon the mother for life.

This is why I contend that the name should not be "Pro-Choice", but "I Am Stronger Than You So I Get To Choose". The child is not even considered, he is just eliminated. Pro-Choice to the strongest, Pro-Choice for the one who has the strength to impose his will on the weak. And no-choice and death for the one who is too weak to speak up for himself.

R. Dwain Minor

Do Pizza, Games, Prizes, And Entertainment Fit With Jesus' Methods Or Message?

2012-02-03T09:11:00.000-08:00

Youth ministry has entertained to bring people in the doors for years. No one can deny it. The thought seems harmless enough: be entertaining enough that we can draw a crowd, then we will share the gospel with them. It seems that this idea has been successful enough that many churches are now adopting the method for their adults.

If the music is entertaining enough for the youth, they will come. If the games are entertaining and fun, then the youth will come. If the message is short and entertaining, then the youth will come and will listen. We also hear the same things echoed in services for adults. We need contemporary music, that is what people want to hear. If they hear it, they will come. We find churches being entertaining with things other than games. I saw a video clip of a whole church doing the hokey pokey before a message and one where a pastor pretended to be a superhero and flew down from the rafters. It is also thought to be necessary to add length to the singing and shorten the pastor's sermon in an adult setting. And churches and youth groups that practice these things are gaining people in their services, but my question is does this really fit with what Scripture calls us to be doing?

Picture this with me. The day previous to this one Jesus had miraculously fed the 5,000 with 5 barley loaves and 2 fish. This group of people, misunderstanding what Jesus' purpose at this present time was, intended to make Him King by force (John 6:1-14). Jesus' disciples then left by boat to Capernaum. Jesus here met the disciples as He was traveling on foot across the water. What a sight that would have been to see. Then, the crowd ended up going to Capernaum in search for Jesus (John 6:22-24). As the crowd rushed in to speak with Jesus they asked Him when He had traveled to Capernaum. This is a very logical question, because He did not take a boat to Capernaum. He walked on water, so they did not ever see a boat leave the shore. Jesus' response is quite interesting.

Jesus did not answer the question, but rather rebuked them for the reason they sought Jesus. The conversation that follows is very intriguing.

Jesus' response is "Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves" (John 6:26). In other words, Jesus is saying that He knows the real reason they found Him, and it was to quench their physical hunger.

At this point I must ask a question. Is this any different than students who come to our youth groups for food and a good time? Is this any different than adults who show up to our churches for food and a good time?

Notice that Jesus did not meet them with a show to make them stay. Notice that Jesus didn't do more tricks to keep the people there. Jesus didn't even offer to feed them again to meet a real physical need that they had. He said "Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, the Son of Man will give to you." (John 6:27). This was not Jesus commending these people for coming to hear Him because they had physical desires they wanted fulfilled, it was a rebuke of this action. A rebuke of what goes on in many churches and youth groups around the country every week.

What is it Jesus is saying? He is telling them that their reason for being there is wrong. They have come to get their physical needs met, and He states that they should be working "for the food that endures to eternal life".

Now, the question we must ask ourselves is this. Is it possible that all of our entertaining is really encouraging youth and adults to do the very thing that Jesus is here rebuking? When food and fun are given as the reasons for youth and adults to come to church are we actually inviting them to do the very things that Jesus is here rebuking?

I believe the answer to be yes. I think that it is encouraging the very same attitude that Jesus is rebuking in John 6. It is encouraging an attitude of fleshly gratification that Jesus here rebukes.

I do not believe that these things are done out of bad intentions. In fact, I believe these things are done with the best of intentions. Get them to come to church and get them saved, but is that really what happens? I am not so sure that it is.

The more statistics are done over the effectiveness of youth groups the more we find just how ineffective they are, for the most part. This statement is not coming from a person on the outside, this statement is coming from a youth minister. Some statistics coming out are that 88% of the students who pass through youth groups in America will leave the church permanently. The low numbers that are out there are 75% will leave the church permanently. I would argue that this is the result of our entertaining. Give them pizza to get them there, give them games to entertain them while they are there, make sure the message is entertaining so they will come back next week, and present to them a shallow message of the gospel and this is the result. At least 3 out of every 4 people you have entertained will leave just as lost as they were when you first met them.

This is exactly what voices from the past have wanted us to understand about entertaining people into the church.

Here is an extended quotation from Charles Spurgeon's Feeding Sheep or Amusing Goats:

"An evil is in the professed camp of the Lord, so gross in its impudence, that the most shortsighted can hardly fail to notice it during the past few years. It has developed at an abnormal rate, even for evil. It has worked like leaven until the whole lump ferments. The devil has seldom done a cleverer thing than hinting to the church that part of their mission is to provide entertainment for the people, with a view to winning them.

From speaking out as the Puritans did, the church has gradually toned down her testimony, then winked at and excused the frivolities of the day. Then she tolerated them in her borders. Now she has adopted them under the plea of reaching the masses.

My first contention is that providing amusement for the people is nowhere spoken of in the Scriptures as a function of the church. If it is a Christian work, why did not Christ speak of it? "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature" (Mark 16:15). That is clear enough. So it would have been if He had added, "and provide amusement for those who do not relish the gospel." No such words, however, are to be found. It did not seem to occur to Him.

Then again, "He gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some evangelists; and some pastors and teachers .., for the work of the ministry" (Eph. 4:11-12). Where do entertainers come in? The Holy Spirit is silent concerning them. Were the prophets persecuted because they amused the people or because they refused? The concert has no martyr roll.

Again, providing amusement is in direct antagonism to the teaching and life of Christ and all His apostles. What was the attitude of the church to the world? We are not sugar candy, —"Ye are the salt" (Matt. 5:13) ---something the world will spit out, not swallow. Short and sharp was the utterance, "Let the dead bury their dead" (Matt. 8:22). He was in awful earnestness.

Had Christ introduced more of the bright and pleasant elements into His mission, He would have been more popular but, because of the searching nature of His teaching, many turned away. I do not hear Him say, "Run after these people Peter and tell them we will have a different style of service tomorrow, something short and attractive with little preaching. We will have a pleasant evening for the people. Tell them they will be sure to enjoy it. Be quick Peter, we must get the people somehow." Jesus pitied sinners, sighed and wept over them, but never sought to amuse them.

In vain will the Epistles be searched to find, any trace of this gospel of amusement! Their message is, Come out, keep out, keep clean out!" Anything approaching foolishness is conspicuous by its absence. They had boundless confidence in the gospel and employed no other weapon.

After Peter and John were locked up for preaching, the church had a prayer meeting but they did not pray, "Lord grant unto Thy servants that by a wise and discriminating use of innocent recreation we may show these people how happy we are. If they ceased not from preaching Christ, they had not time for arranging entertainments. Scattered by persecution, they went everywhere preaching the gospel. They turned the world upside down (Acts 17:6)." That is the only difference! Lord, clear the church of all the rot and rubbish the devil has imposed on her, and bring us back to apostolic methods.

Lastly, the mission of amusement fails to effect the end desired. It works havoc among young converts. Let the careless and scoffers, who thank God because the church met them halfway, speak and testify. Let the heavy laden who found peace through the concert not keep silent! Let the drunkard to whom the dramatic entertainment has been God's link in the chain of the conversion, stand up! There are none to answer. The mission of amusement produces no converts. The need of the hour for today's ministry is believing scholarship joined with earnest spirituality, the one springing from the other as fruit from the root. The need is biblical doctrine, so understood and felt, that it sets men on fire."

It is not entertainment that our churches need, it is depth of understanding of biblical doctrine. Jesus and the Apostles did not entertain people into the church, they gave the pure gospel message with depth of understanding of biblical doctrine. That is the point that Spurgeon is making, and it is one that we should keep in mind as we preach and teach God's Word.

G. Campbell Morgan is said to have uttered these words,

"When amusement is necessary to get people to listen to the gospel there will be failure. This is not the method of Christ. To form an organization and provide all kinds of entertainment for young people, in order that they may come to the Bible classes, is to be foredoomed to failure"

Morgan is directly assaulting the prevailing attitude of today. This is a full frontal assault upon this entertainment oriented thinking. There is no doubt that entertainment brings in people, but the numbers we saw above should be enough to let us see that it has led to nothing but failure. Again, we see a voice from the past warning us of the danger that we have been jumping in and lies ahead.

Can anyone find a defense for running a ministry in this manner? Can this really be thought of as faithful gospel ministry? The fruit of these tactics are clearly failure and poison. Then why do we insist on building huge facilities to be houses of entertainment? Why do we insist on entertaining people into the church? I would argue, it is because we really don't care about God's honor and glory as much as we care about how many people we have and decisions we can claim have been made.

R. Dwain Minor

A Helpful Attributes of God Chart

2012-01-30T09:56:00.000-08:00

Sometimes it is very helpful to get a visual of things that we have learned. Here is a visual of the attributes of God we find in Scripture. Tim Challies created this graphic and has it on his blog, and I think it is wonderful and helpful. Here is the link to the blogpost that this graphic can be found. You can click on the image to enlarge it.

R. Dwain Minor

The Warfare of Christianity

2012-01-30T09:30:00.000-08:00

There is a great and terrible battle that believers go through during their entire lives. It is a warfare with self, it is a warfare against sin and all the world holds dear. It is not a warfare that is highly involved with politics. The Tea Party is of no avail in this warfare and a republican president gains us nothing in the warfare of Christianity.

Here is an excellent description of the Christian's warfare from J.C. Ryle that I read from Grace Gems:

"True Christianity! Let us mind that word "true." There is a vast quantity of religion current in the world which is not true, genuine Christianity. There are thousands of men and women who go to churches and chapels every Sunday and call themselves Christians. They make a "profession" of faith in Christ. Their names are in the baptismal register. They are reckoned Christians while they live. They are married with a Christian marriage service. They mean to be buried as Christians when they die.

But you never see any "fight" about their religion! Of spiritual strife and exertion and conflict and self-denial and watching and warring--they know literally nothing at all. Such Christianity may satisfy man, and those who say anything against it may be thought very hard and uncharitable; but it certainly is not the Christianity of the Bible. It is not the religion which the Lord Jesus founded, and His apostles preached. It is not the religion which produces real holiness. True Christianity is "a fight!"

The principal fight of the Christian is with . . .
the world,
the flesh, and
the devil.
These are his never-dying foes! These are the three chief enemies against whom he must wage war. With a corrupt heart, a busy devil and an ensnaring world--he must either "fight" or be lost!

To be at peace with the world, the flesh and the devil--is to be at enmity with God and in the broad way that leads to destruction! We have no choice or option. We must either fight--or be lost!

It is a fight of universal necessity. No rank or class or age can plead exemption, or escape the battle--all alike must carry arms and go to war.
All have by nature a heart full of pride, unbelief, sloth, worldliness and sin!
All are living in a world beset with snares, traps and pitfalls for the soul.
All have near them a busy, restless, malicious devil.
All, from the queen in her palace down to the pauper in the workhouse--all must fight, if they would be saved.

We may take comfort about our souls, if we know anything of an inward fight and conflict. It is the invariable companion of genuine Christian holiness.

The saddest symptom about many so-called Christians, is the utter absence of anything like conflict and fight in their Christianity. They eat, they drink, they dress, they work, they amuse themselves, they get money, they spend money, they go through a scanty round of formal religious services once or twice every week. But of the great spiritual warfare--its watchings and strugglings, its agonies and anxieties, its battles and contests--of all this they appear to know nothing at all."

Basic Training Week 4: How Do We Know That the Bible is the Word of God?

2012-01-25T13:56:00.000-08:00

As we again take a look at the basics of Christianity we find ourselves looking at Scripture. The question we find ourselves asking really has two different answers. One of which we will cover this week. There is an answer that is historical and extra-biblical, but the one we are looking at today is how does Scripture testify to itself in such a way that we can know that it is the Word of God. Again, this question and answer is from The Second London Baptist Catechism.

So, how do we know that the Bible is the Word of God?

The Bible evidences itself to be God's Word by the heavenliness of its doctrine, the unity of its parts, and its power to convert sinners and to edify saints. But only the Spirit of God can make us willing to agree and submit to the Bible as the Word of God.

We see here a few different answers to the question.

The Bible evidences itself to be God's Word by the heavenliness of its doctrine.
The Bible evidences itself to be God's Word by the unity of its parts.
The Bible evidences itself by its power to convert sinners and to edify saints.
Only the Holy Spirit of God can make us willing to agree and submit to the Bible as the Word of God.

So, we will go through this one answer at a time.

First, the Bible evidences itself to be God's Word by the heavenliness of its doctrine. This simply means that Scripture's teachings are obviously supernatural. There is an other-worldness to the teachings of Scripture. One example of this is simply to look at the main difference in Christianity and all other religions.

The other religions in the world center around the accomplishments of man. Think about it for just a second. The other world religions focus on how man can overcome this world and achieve something, whether the end be reaching Nirvana, Paradise, or whether it is an adaptation of the real Heaven like the Mormons. Their teaching is either what man can do to get himself to God, or what man can do after the work of God.

Christianity teaches something much different. Christianity teaches that God has accomplished salvation totally and completely for us by the work of Christ. People like themselves and think highly of themselves. Mankind's pride simply would not allow him to come up with a religion where someone else accomplished everything for him and that mankind's role in his salvation was to bow in submission with faith in someone else's achievement.

We also find prophesies coming to pass that would be impossible for a human to know. We have prophesies about wars and countries, such as Alexander the Great in the book of Daniel. There are instances in history prophesied such as captivities and destruction brought to Israel, and the death of Christ on the Cross (Psalm 22, Isaiah 53). We see here in the prophesies that their is an otherness of Scripture.

We also find it taught in Scripture that the wisdom written down did not originate from the wisdom of this world. In the midst of a civilization that is still considered to be one of the most intelligent in history we find in Scripture a greater wisdom than the wisdom of this world. We specifically see this in 1 Corinthians 2:6-7 & 13-16. Paul states very clearly that his teaching is not something man made, but originated from God. We can understand this better if we think back to last week.

God so governed the writing of Scripture that we can rightly say that God is the author of Scripture. That is why we call it God's Word. The Holy Spirit moved men to write everything God intended them to write (2 Peter 1:21). The reason there seems to be an otherness to Scripture is because it originated from God not man. There is an otherness, a heavenliness to Scripture's teachings.

Second, we see that the Bible evidences itself to be God's Word by the unity of its parts. Scripture is comprised of over 66 different books, written by over 40 authors over a period of more than 1,500 years, yet it is unified in all its parts. The message of Scripture remained the same throughout all the different writings, authors, and years.

After man had fallen and God handed down the curses due to them, we find in Genesis 3:14-15 the first message of the eventual demise of Satan and evil. As we move through Scripture we slowly see God setting aside a people for Himself through which He would have a King whose lineage would never end. From this lineage the Messiah who would destroy the power of sin and death that will eventually be completely consummated when Christ returns.

That is why Peter can say in Acts 10:43 all the prophets "bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name". The writings of the Old Testament testified to what would happen in the New Testament. We find Apollo showing the Jews that Jesus was the Christ they had been waiting for (Acts 18:28), and Paul testifying that everything that came to pass was prophesied by the prophets and Moses (Acts 26:22).

So, we see that the Bible evidences itself to be God's Word by the unity of its parts.

Next, we see that the Bible evidences itself by its power to convert sinners and to edify saints. The power of Scripture can be seen in the work it does in converting someone from a non-believer to a true believer.

This really comes from something we talked about a few weeks ago. The way that God has made for our salvation can be found through the message of His Word. Paul writes to Timothy and tells Him that it is the Scriptures that are able to make a person wise for salvation (2 Timothy 3:15). The point is that the way of salvation is made known to us through the pages of Scripture and the message that we find in the pages of Scripture is the power of God unto salvation (Romans 1:16).

Not only is the power of Scripture seen in conversion but it is also seen in the building up of believers (Psalm 19:7-9; Hebrews 4:12; Romans 15:4). God has given us His Word and it is very profitable for the life and the health of the believer (2 Timothy 3:16). Why is it that preaching is at the very center of everything that is done at a healthy church? Why is it that God's Word is the guide to the healthy believer and the healthy church? The answer is Scripture is the very center of all that we believe and do and builds up the individual believer and builds up the Church.

The answer we get here adds something we have already spoken about a few weeks ago also. Only the Spirit of God can make us willing to agree and submit to the Bible as the Word of God. Though, there is great power in the Word of God, we as sinful people do not have it within ourselves to agree with God's Word and submit to it.

Because of this there is a prayer that I pray before I sit down to read from God's Word:

"God, open my eyes that I might see wonderful things from Your Word."

In doing this I am acknowledging that I myself am unable to completely understand and submit to Scripture without the power of God working. I am admitting my inability and praying something very similar to what David said in Psalm 119:8.

Though Scripture is our standard and ultimate guide, we must have the power of God to work in our lives before we are able to submit our lives to what it says.

We find that the unbeliever has been blinded and it is the Holy Spirit of God that gives us freedom to see and submit to what Scripture teaches (2 Corinthians 3:14-17). Paul goes so far as to say that it is Satan himself who has blinded the unbeliever (2 Corinthians 4:4-6), and it is God who "shines in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ".

We have seen that the Bible evidences itself to be God's Word by the heavenliness of its doctrine, the unity of its parts, and its power to convert sinners and to edify saints. But only the Spirit of God can make us willing to agree and submit to the Bible as the Word of God.

R. Dwain Minor

Do You Think Reading Your Bible Is Boring?

2012-01-23T08:34:00.000-08:00

Many times we run into people who claim to be believers that believe that Scripture is boring, or as Spurgeon says here, "horrible dry". What are we to make of that attitude toward God's Word? Well, here is some wisdom from Spurgeon on this question from his sermon entitled The Bible delivered on March 18, 1855.

Others there be who read the Bible; but when they read it, they say it is so horribly dry. That young man over there says it is a "bore;" that is the words he uses. He says, "My mother says to me, when you go up to town, read a chapter every day. Well, I thought I would please her, and I said I would. I am sure I wish I had not. I did not read a chapter yesterday, or the day before. We were so busy, I could not help it." You do not love the Bible, do you? "No, there is nothing in it which is interesting." Ah, I thought so. But a little while ago I could not see anything in it. Do you know why? Blind men cannot see, can they? But when the Spirit touches the scales of the eyes, they fall off; and when he puts eye-salves on, the Bible becomes precious. I remember a minister who went to see an old lady, and he thought he would give her some precious promises out of the word of God. Turning to one, he saw written in the margin "P.," and he asked, "What does this mean?" "That means precious, sir." Further down, he saw "T. and P.," and he asked what the letters meant. "That," she said, "means tried and proved, for I have tried and proved it." If you have tried God's word and proved it—if it is precious to your soul. then you are Christians; but those persons who despise the Bible, have "neither part nor lot in the matter." If it is dry to you, you will be dry at last in hell. If you do not esteem it as better than your necessary food, there is no hope for you; for you lack the greatest evidence of your Christianity.

The point is that the Bible is precious to the child of God. God has spoken to His people in the words of Scripture and the Bible becomes precious to those whom God has transformed.

R. Dwain Minor

The Tolerant: Blinded By Their Own Intolerance

2012-01-19T08:05:00.000-08:00

One of the humorous things that can be seen constantly today is the intolerance of those who think they are tolerant and constantly accuse Christians of being intolerant and bigoted. You can watch the news or talk shows today and watch the arrows slung at the Christian while they are blind to their own intolerance.

If the Christian viewpoint on marriage (Genesis 2:24, Matthew 19:5, Mark 10:7-8, Ephesians 5:31) being between one man and one woman is brought up, the Christian is said to be bigoted and judgmental. At this point the question is asked of the believer, "Why can't you be tolerant of other people's way of life?".

When believers attempt to protect the innocent who are still in the womb, because murder in a womb is treated the same as murder out of the womb (Exodus 21:22-25), we are said to be pushing our beliefs on other people and trying to limit their freedoms.

Because we stand firmly on Scripture in these two areas we are told that we are pushing our beliefs on everyone else and the we are intolerant, but I have a question that must be asked.

My question is, do these people apply the same standards to their own judgments? The obvious answer to this question is no. When we are told that our view of marriage is judgmental, are they not being judgmental and intolerant of the Christian view of marriage?

When we are told that a woman has a right to choose whether or not to have an abortion and that we are trying to take freedom away from her, whose freedom is really being taken away? That baby has the same right to live as the mother. So, whose freedom has really been taken away? Is the freedom to live worth more than the freedom to live promiscuously without consequences? Is the freedom to live worth more than the freedom to try to gain some sort of prosperity without children? The obvious answer to that question is no.

As we listen to the rantings and ravings of the supposedly tolerant, let us remember that their empty speech withers away as we apply their own standards to their own speech. Funny how the seemingly wise and tolerant end up looking foolish and intolerant isn't it?

R. Dwain Minor

Basic Training Week 3: What is the Word of God?

2012-01-18T12:57:00.000-08:00

As believers we are asked to stake our entire lives on God's Word, but what is it? That is the question we deal with today. Once again, this question and answer comes from the 1689 London Baptist Catechism.

What is the Word of God? The scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, being given by divine inspiration, are the Word of God, the only infallible rule of faith and practice. When the word scriptures is used here it is speaking of the writings of the Old and New Testaments. We would think of the individual books of the Bible. Of course, Old Testament is before Jesus entered the world, and the New Testament is after Jesus' birth.

Now to look at how these writings were given to us. We find in Scripture that these writings were given to us by divine inspiration. The word divine here means "proceeding from God", or "coming from God". It is inspiration that proceeds from God, but how does this inspiration come from God?

Sometimes it is easier to explain something if we first see what it is not. That is what we are going to do here. I think it will be quite helpful. So, we will first see what divine inspiration is not.

Divine inspiration is not mechanical. When the writers of Scripture sat down to write they did not go blank and just begin writing without knowing what they were doing.
Divine inspiration is not someone merely being inspired in the same way that a man is inspired to write a love song for his wife. Inspiration is much, much more than this.
Divine inspiration does not mean that God wrote Scripture and it magically appeared from the sky. The Bible did not come to us completed dropping down from Heaven.

Now that we have seen what it is not, we need to know what it is. Here is a definition that we can work through.

Inspiration is the special work of the Holy Spirit in which He superintended the human authors of Scripture in such a manner that employing their different perspectives, writing styles, personalities, and grammatical abilities ensured that what they wrote was what He wanted them to write.

So, what we are saying here is that the Holy Spirit so directed the writing of Scripture that every word in Scripture is what was supposed to be there, yet at the same time men wrote what they felt they wanted or needed to write. Men wrote for many different purposes, but all the while God was overseeing the entire writing of Scripture in such a way that the men wrote what God wanted to be written.

Some examples of this are that Paul wrote ever angrily to the Galatians because they had been adding to salvation by faith alone. Paul was very angry as he wrote this letter, but that which he wrote God intended for him to write. Paul also wrote to instruct Timothy in the the faith and what he needed to do as a pastor, but what he wrote was what God wanted him to write. Luke investigated the life of Jesus to give a report of it to a man named Theophilus, but what he wrote was also what God wanted him to write. Many of the books of the Bible are historical accounts of events that had occurred.

The thing that we must remember is that these books were written in the exact way God wanted them to be written. No matter what reason men wrote these books, God intended for these words to be written. God, so oversaw what was written that we can legitimately say that they are God's words, and that Scripture is God's Word to mankind.

We see this in Scripture very clearly as we read 2 Peter 1:21. Peter describes the giving of the truth as men "carried along by the Holy Spirit". The imagery used here is that of wind in sails of a sailboat. The Holy Spirit worked in much the same way that wind moves a sailboat. Men were writing Scripture, but the wind that was moving them to write what they needed to write was the Holy Spirit.

Paul also states in 1 Corinthians 2:13 that it was not human wisdom that he was teaching to people, but it was wisdom taught by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit so oversaw the work of Scripture being written that Paul states in 2 Timothy 3:16-17 that Scripture is "breathed out by God". Men wrote the words of Scripture, but God so oversaw the work that it is the product of God.

The last thing we need to see now is that Scripture is the only guide of what we are to think, feel, and do that is completely and totally correct and true. That is why we said in the beginning that Scripture is the only infallible rule of faith and practice. Scripture is the only perfect standard of what we should think and feel, and the only perfect standard of how we should act. That is why Paul says in 2 Timothy 3:16-17 that Scripture is "profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work".

We never find written in Scripture that we are to follow our hearts, follow our feelings, follow our gut, follow visions, follow dreams, or anything else but God's Word. It is God's Word that is given to us as the standard by which all of our thoughts, feelings, and actions is to be governed by. And the fact that Scripture is the very product of God gives it authority. When we read the words of Scripture we are reading what God has communicated to men. This is very important for us to remember. Nothing else that we read, see, or hear on this earth carries the authority of Scripture.

Does this mean we cannot be helped by reading books that help to teach Scripture? No, that is not what this means. Can we be helped by what people of the past have written? Of course, we can. But we must always remember that they are only helpful as long as they are faithful to the writings of Scripture. They can be wrong, but Scripture cannot. It is the only perfect standard by which all things are judged. It is God's Word that is perfect, but other things can be very helpful (Psalm 19:7-8).

What is the Word of God? The scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, being given by divine inspiration, are the Word of God, the only infallible rule of faith and practice.

Are we reading, studying, and thinking on God's Word as we ought? Are we submitting our entire lives to the standards of God's truth revealed in His Word?

R. Dwain Minor

Look to Jesus, Not Yourself

2012-01-14T13:35:00.000-08:00

Many times the gospel is confused in a person's mind. The good news that God has given to us is not about what we have done, or what we can do, it is about who God is and what He has done for us in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

I was reading a sermon from Charles Spurgeon entitled Sovereignty and Salvation, and I found the most wonderful depiction of this very thought.

"First, to whom does God tell us to look for salvation? O, does it not lower the pride of man, when we hear the Lord say, "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth?" It is not, "Look to your priest, and be ye saved:" if you did, there would be another god, and beside him there would be someone else. It is not "Look to yourself;" if so, then there would be a being who might arrogate some of the praise of salvation. But it is "Look unto me." How frequently you who are coming to Christ look to yourselves. "O!" you say, "I do not repent enough." That is looking to yourself. "I do not believe enough." That is looking to yourself. "I am too unworthy." That is looking to yourself. "I cannot discover," says another, "that I have any righteousness." It is quite right to say that you have not any righteousness; but it is quite wrong to look for any. It is, "Look unto me." God will have you turn your eye off yourself and look unto Him. The hardest thing in the world is to turn a man's eye off himself; as long as he lives, he always has a predilection to turn his eyes inside and look at himself; whereas God says, "Look unto me." From the cross of Calvary, where the bleeding hands of Jesus drop mercy; from the garden of Gethsemane, where the bleeding pores of the Savior sweat pardons, the cry comes, "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth." From Calvary's summit, where Jesus cries, "It is finished," I hear a shout, "Look and be saved." but there comes a vile cry from our soul, "Nay, look to yourself!" Ah, my hearer, look to yourself, and you will be damned. That certainly will come of it. As long as you look to yourself there is no hope for you. It is not a consideration of what you are, but a consideration of what God is, and what Christ is, that can save you. It is looking from yourself to Jesus."

How glorious a thought! Yet, how often we tend to miss it as church leaders guide people through man made shortcuts rather than to look to Jesus. Rather than taking them to Calvary they are led to trust in the "prayer they prayed", how well they prayed, if they walked an aisle, or if they signed some sort of card when they came down the aisle. The call is to look to Jesus. As Spurgeon says very well here, "It is looking from yourself to Jesus".

It is not about how many ministries I work in at the Church. It is not about how many people I witness to. It is not about attending church. It is not about whether or not I prayed a prayer that a pastor led me through. It is not about being a member of a church. It is not about whether or not I live my life in a way that pleases others. It is about Jesus. Christ cries out for us to look to Him. We don't trust in ourselves anymore, it is all of grace. It is all of Christ.

R. Dwain Minor

Basic Training Week 2: How Do We Know There is a God?

2012-01-12T06:12:00.000-08:00

The third question we will be looking at from the London Baptist Confession is this: How do we know there is a God? So, how do we know that God even exists? This is a very important and legitimate question given the prominence that atheism holds in today's thinking. You will see that I have added the brackets in order that we will better understand what is stated in this answer.

So, how do we know there is a God? The light of nature in man [conscience], and the works of God, plainly declares that there is a God; but His Word and Spirit only, do effectually [in a saving manner] reveal Him unto us for our salvation. The Scriptures that teach this rather plainly are Romans 1:18-21; Romans 2:14-16; Psalm 19:1-2; 2 Timothy 3:15; 1 Corinthians 1:21-24; 1 Corinthians 2:9-10; Matthew 11:27.

Again we see two answers given in the response to this question, because there are two different types of knowledge of God. One is natural, one is supernatural and saving in nature.

The light of nature in man [conscience], and the works of God, plainly declares that there is a God.
God's Word and Spirit only, do effectually [in a saving manner] reveal Him unto us for salvation.

So, once again we will look at the two answers separately so that we can gain a better grasp of what Scripture here teaches us.

First, the light of nature [conscience], and the works of God, plainly declares that there is a God. The statement here is that all men that have ever been born have been able to see that God exists in two different ways, the first one that is given here is the conscience.

Conscience simply means with knowledge. The understanding is that when anyone sins they sin with knowledge of God and His law. That is what we see taught in Romans 1:18-21 and Romans 2:14-16. God has implanted in us all this knowledge. The knowledge of God and His law are written on our hearts. We, by nature, know right from wrong.

Why do we see in all of humanity that lying, theft, and murder are wrong? I would propose to you that we are simply seeing what Paul says here, that God's law is written on the hearts of all men. We know right from wrong. We know good from evil, yet we choose to sin and rebel against God anyway. What a devastatingly bad situation we are in. We sin against God with full knowledge that we are doing so. The consequence of this is that we are held accountable before God, we have no excuses before Him. We have sinned and rebelled with knowledge against our creator, the King of the Universe.

We also know that there is a God by seeing the works of God. I love nature and have loved to be in the outdoors quite often. And as we are out in nature we notice quickly the magnificent work of God in His creation. This is the other way that we know God exists. We know God exists by simply seeing the glorious work of creation that exists all around us. We see the vastness of creation and the great attention to minute detail that God has paid attention to throughout the world, and we see that God exists and also learn a lot of things about Him (Romans 1:20).

People today try to explain God away in both of these areas by saying that the human conscience and the Universe evolved, but Scripture and plain reason help us to see that God has shown us that He exists through our conscience and through His work in creation. God and His commands have been made plain to us, this is not good news for humanity.

We now stand guilty and without excuse before the throne of God. God's "invisible attributes, namely, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse." (Romans 1:20) We can see through God's creation that He exists and is ruling over the Universe (Psalm 19:1-2), and we also know that we have rebelled against Him. The point is we stand guilty before God without anything to excuse our guilt. We sinned against God with knowledge, and will be held accountable for this.

God has not left us in this state, He has made a way for us to be placed in a right relationship with Him and that is through His Son Jesus Christ. God sent His Son to earth who lived a perfect life, fulfilling all righteousness, and was placed on a cross dying in our place. He was our substitute. Our sins were placed upon Him. Every sin of everyone who would ever believe was placed upon Him. Every lie, every theft, every lustful thought, every murder, every adultery, every rape, and every other sin that would ever be forgive was placed upon Christ. In turn we are given His righteousness. We are credited with the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ who committed no sin and fulfilled all righteousness while He was on the earth. In response to this message we repent and believe the gospel. We acknowledge that God is correct about our sinfulness and our depravity and we turn to Christ in faith. We submit our lives to Christ and His Lordship.

That is the good news that God has brought to us, but can we know it by looking at nature and from our conscience? The answer is no. That is why we say that, God's Word and Spirit only, do effectually [in a saving manner] reveal Him unto us for salvation.

The only way we can find this message of salvation is through God's Word. In fact, this message of salvation that is written here is simply a summary of what Scripture teaches. Does a person have to read it from the pages of a Bible? No, a proclamation from someone's mouth of the teaching of Scripture is an acceptable means of getting the message of salvation from one person to another. The point is we can't look at a tree and know that Jesus Christ is "the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14:6), and our consciences do not bear witness to this either.

The way that God has made for our salvation can be found through the message of His Word. Paul writes to Timothy and tells Him that it is the Scriptures that are able to make a person wise for salvation (2 Timothy 3:15). The way of salvation is made known to us through the pages of Scriptures. The problem is we as human beings are so marred with sin that we need more than just the Scriptures to accept the message.

If we were not marred by the affects of sin we would be able to see the message of Scripture and be saved, but this is not the case. We stand condemned before God and are def, dumb, and blind. We don't have the ability to find the way on our own. We need help. The result is that though the Scriptures show us the way to a right relationship with God, we are not able to accept that message without the work of the Holy Spirit. That is why we say that God's Word and His Spirit reveal God to us for salvation.

Paul says that the message of the cross is "foolishness to those who are perishing" (1 Corinthians 1:18), that natural man does not "accept the things that come from the Spirit of God" (1 Corinthians 2:14), and that natural man cannot submit to God (Romans 8:7). We understand that no matter how much the message of salvation is presented to us from the Scriptures, we do not have within ourselves the ability to come to Christ on our own. We do not have the ability to trust in Him and Him alone for salvation. We do not have the ability to change our minds about how wicked and evil we are and turn to Christ for salvation.

Both the Word of God and His Spirit only, do savingly reveal God to us for salvation. That is what we find in 1 Corinthians 2:9-10. Our glorious salvation can only be revealed to us through God's Word and as we see here the work of the Holy Spirit.

All of mankind can see that God exists through creation, which surrounds him. Every human being has God's law written on their hearts. Yet, this is not enough. Mankind has rebelled against their natural light. Mankind has rebelled and acted as if God is not there to submit to, but putting on a blindfold and sticking your fingers in your ears does not make the situation change. God is real and has shown us that He exists through His Creation and His law written on our hearts (the conscience).

God has made a way for us to be brought back into right relationship with Him. He has given up His Son as the ransom to be paid for our sin, yet we cannot and will not submit to this way of salvation unless the Holy Spirit first works in us first. The Holy Spirit makes us able to see the truth of God's Word and able to submit to it.

So, how do we know there is a God? The light of nature in man [conscience], and the works of God, plainly declares that there is a God; but His Word and Spirit only, do effectually [in a saving manner] reveal Him unto us for our salvation.

R. Dwain Minor

Basic Training Week 1 (pt2): What is the greatest purpose of man?

2012-01-11T08:23:00.000-08:00

The second question from the London Baptist Confession we are looking at is this: what is the chief end of man? The way that we would word this question is: what is the highest and greatest purpose of man? This is a question that many adults sitting in our churches today wish that they knew, but do not. There are many people wandering through this life trying to figure out their purpose in life. We find the answer given to us in Scripture.

Man's greatest purpose is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. The Scripture we find that deal with this question are 1 Corinthians 10:31; Psalm 16:11; Psalm 37:4; Psalm 73:25-26; Isaiah 43:7.

It seems that question one and question 2 are linked arm in arm. If we are going to fulfill our greatest purpose in life it is going to be in glorifying and enjoying the one who is the highest and greatest of beings: God.

As you can see there are two parts to this answer. 1. We glorify God. 2. We enjoy God forever.

What does it mean to glorify God? When we use the word glorify here we do not mean to make glorious. How can we, mere creatures, make God glorious? The answer is we can't. The reason we cannot is because God is already glorious. God, who is the first and best of beings is already glorious, we are reflecting to the world how glorious God is. It is like the job of a telescope. A telescope looks far out into the distance to see the glorious beauty of the Universe. A telescope reflects the greatness of these huge stars and planets. This is similar to how we glorify God on this earth. We reflect His greatness to the onlooking world.

We find in Scripture that all things that we do are to glorify God in this way (1 Corinthians 10:31). Notice here that Paul is showing that even the most tedious of things we do during our day are to bring honor and glory to God. Eating and drinking do not seem to be significant tasks, but we are to bring honor and glory to God through even the smallest of things that we do throughout our day.

Our purpose is to glorify God. God has created us for this purpose (Isaiah 43:7). Now we are to bring honor and glory to God in all that we do. But the second part of this answer shows us that it we enjoy God forever.

When we wrap our entire lives up in this one who is the highest and greatest of beings, we are wrapping our lives up in the one whose presence is "fullness of joy" and at whose "right hand are pleasures forever" (Psalm 16:11). It is not a joyless and dry service to God that we give. Rather, God is where we find the greatest of joy and pleasure. There is no where else in all creation that we can find the joy and the pleasure that we find in God. However, this does not mean that our greatest joy and pleasure will be found in this life. The Christian's greatest joy and pleasure is found in the life to come, when we are in the presence of the one in whose presence is "fullness of joy" and at whose "right hand are pleasures forever".

Our greatest purpose in life is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. We reflect to the world how glorious God is in even the most tedious of tasks on this earth, but this is not a great burden to us because our greatest joy and pleasure is found in God not in this world or the things of this world.

We will find purpose, fulfillment, joy, and pleasure in this life as we seek to fulfill our greatest purpose: to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

R. Dwain Minor

Basic Training Week 1 (pt1): Who is the First and Best of Beings?

2012-01-11T07:12:00.000-08:00

We are going through the Second London Baptist Catechism from 1689 to learn the basics of the faith. The language has been updated but the meaning is the same. We begin our learning by answer to this question from the catechism: Who is the first and best of beings?

The answer seems simple enough to many of us: God is the first and best of beings.

This is a teaching that permeates the entirety of Scripture, but here are some of the passages of Scripture that directly deal with this topic: Isaiah 44:6; Psalm 8:1; Psalm 96:4; Psalm 97:9; 1 Samuel 2:2.

As we look at these passages of Scripture we begin to understand something very clearly, the God of Scripture stands above and beyond all creatures. The God we read about in the pages of Scripture is worthy of worship and worthy of our praise. He alone deserves the honor of any human's worship.

This statement includes other peoples "gods".

The practical implication of this is that no one else's "gods" are worthy of worship. We find in these Scriptures that no other "god" even exists, let alone compare to the God of Scripture (Isaiah 44:6). We are kidding ourselves when we listen to the people of today say that the path or the "god" everyone chooses is the same. Christians serve the One True and Living God, all others are false and do not exist.

So, who is the first and best of beings? God is the first and best of beings.

R. Dwain Minor

A Few Resources for Understanding The Difficult Doctrine of the Trinity

2012-01-05T07:02:00.000-08:00

There are few things in all of Christianity that are as hard to understand as the doctrine of the Trinity, but it is very important. It is very important because God has revealed Himself in Scripture in this manner.

With that being said I do not believe that we will ever fully comprehend the Trinity. God is beyond our mental capacities. It only makes sense for us not to be able to fully comprehend God, but at the same time we should struggle to understand God as far as God has revealed Himself to us in Scripture.

"God has been pleased to reveal to us that He exists as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Since God feels it is important to know, we should likewise."-James White (James R. White, The Forgotten Trinity (Minneapolis, Minn.: Bethany House, 1998), pp. 14-15)

My goal here is not to give a detailed doctrine of the Trinity, but to give a list of resources that are very helpful in understanding how God has revealed Himself to us.

The first few books on the list are systematic theology books. A systematic theology book attempts to bring all of what Scripture teaches on certain areas together so that we can see what Scripture teaches on that topic as a whole. For instance, The doctrine of sin would have to cover Genesis 3, Romans 3, and other passages of Scripture.

John Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion has long been thought of as an excellent systematic theology book. He covers the Trinity and also some of the errors that people make in regards to the Doctrine of the Trinity. Sometimes it is very helpful to see the errors. It is oftentimes necessary to rule out the wrong before we can understand what is right.

There is something else very appealing about this resource. It is over 500 years old and so it can be found for free online. Here is a link to the chapter on the Trinity in Calvin's Institutes. If the language is too tough to wade through at this moment then here are some other resources. (Side Note: This book has one of the best sections on prayer that I have ever read. If you would like to read it here is the link to that chapter also.)

Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology does a very good job of covering the Trinity. Wayne Grudem is a research professor at Phoenix Seminary and before that he taught at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. In his book Grudem, like Calvin, also covers many of the errors that people make as they try to understand the Doctrine of the Trinity. Grudem also has helpful visual illustrations in his book. Personally it is very helpful for me to see these illustrations. Another thing that is very good about Grudem's book is that each doctrine has an application section in it. In this section he shows how the doctrine of the Trinity is reflected in the institution of marriage and how the doctrine of the Trinity will be reflected by all of creation one day when all things are made new.

Bruce Ware, who is professor of Christian Theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary has written a neat book called Big Truths For Young Hearts: Teaching and Learning the Greatness of God. This book is what he taught his children as they were growing up. So, the content of this book is easier to understand than the content of Calvin's Institutes and Grudem's Systematic Theology. His section on the Trinity is very good. If you are struggling with the doctrine of the Trinity I would suggest that this is a great place to start. I think that you will find yourself blessed by Ware's treatment of the Trinity.

The book I have left for last is the book that I quoted from earlier in this post. James White has written The Forgotten Trinity and has done a wonderful job in explaining a very tough doctrine. James White is the director of Alpha and Omega Ministries which is a Christian apologetics organization that is based in Phoenix, Arizona.

I believe that if you are looking to be grounded in the doctrine of the Trinity this would be the book to buy. White does a great job of giving the biblical basis for the Trinity, how it has been formulated throughout church history, and the errors that people have had when talking about the Trinity.

I hope that this list helps you to find resources to sure up your understanding of who God is and what He has revealed of Himself through His Holy Word.

R. Dwain Minor

Suffering With The Right Perspective (Romans 8:18-39)

2012-01-01T11:37:00.000-08:00

My family and I went to Haddon’s check-up last month and everything checked out well. I can happily say he is a healthy boy. As the visit was winding down my wife asked the doctor if there was anything that could be done to dull the pain of Haddon’s teething, he gave us a few recommendations and then said, “Teething is the first time in a child’s life that he finds out that he has to live in a world filled with pain.” The answer that he gave was both humorous and true. Life is filled with hurts, fears, disappointments, times of great and deep sorrow, times when you feel that you would rather die than to get up and face the world. Life is filled with these moments and these time periods. So, how are we to respond?

Scripture does not tell us that we as believers will not suffer; in fact it tells us quite the opposite. The believer will suffer in this life. What we will find today is that the believer is to suffer with perspective.

We know from history that for a long time Rome was very hostile to Christianity, so it only makes sense that Paul would deal with response to trials, tribulations, and sufferings. How were they to respond as they lost loved ones to persecution? How were they to respond as they were belittled because they were believers? How were they to respond as they seemed to be without hope in a world that hated them? Paul doesn’t say not to suffer; he says to suffer with perspective. Paul here gives us an outline for suffering with perspective.

We suffer with perspective by looking longingly toward our eternal home, by understanding that the Holy Spirit is bearing our burdens with us, by understanding that God who loves us is working all things for our good, and by understanding that we will in the end persevere. So, let us take a look at how to suffer with perspective.

First we see that we suffer with perspective by looking longingly toward our bodily resurrection (Romans 8:18-25).

Paul here states all of creation waits with eager longing for the coming of the great day when Christ comes and those who are His are revealed (Romans 8:19-22). But why would all of creation be awaiting the coming of this great day? Paul answers this question in Romans 8:20.

We tend to not understand how terrible the fall of man was. Because of Adam and Eve’s disobedience all of the descendants of the first man and woman were stained with the taint of sin. Now, no longer is the crowning jewel of God’s creation a creature free from the bondage of sin, but a creature enslaved to sin with a wicked nature that has tainted every part of his being. Paul goes into great detail about this in Romans 1:18-3:23. The crowning work of creation is no longer innocent, but guilty and condemned in the sight of its creator. But man is not the only one who was affected by the fall. Creation itself has been subjected to futility by its creator due to the incredible heinousness of the sin of mankind.

Do not think that the fall of mankind is a small thing. It is quite enormous. When Adam and Eve fell all of creation was “subjected to futility” by its Creator (Genesis 3:17-19). All of creation is coming to its eventual end, and end that it would not have to endure if sin had not entered the world. All of creation is now in the process of decay and destruction. Those mighty trees that we are surrounded by here in Russellville, Arkansas die. Rains, floods, and fires bring great destruction upon the earth. The earth is aging and there are great stresses in many places causing great earthquakes; the earth itself has been subjected to futility “in hope”.

God did not subject creation itself to destruction permanently. The futility and decay that creation was subjected to will one day end and it will all be over. God bringing this futility was an act done looking forward to the day when all will be renewed. Peter gives us the best picture of this in 2 Peter 3:10. This is the day that all of creation is longing for, that day when heaven and earth are remade into the New Heavens and Earth. On that day all will be as it should be, nothing in all of creation will be deformed or fading. On that day all of creation will be free from the bondage and taint of sin that has brought so much devastation to our present landscape.

Paul then gives us a contrast between creation now and creation on that day in Romans 8:22. What we see of creation at the present time is the pains of childbirth.

Haddon had stayed in the womb long enough so the doctor decided it was time for my wife to be induced. That day was the most pain I have ever seen my wife in, as she winced and groaned through the pains of childbirth. That is what Paul is saying of our present living conditions. We are currently living in the pains of childbirth. We are living in that painful time period before Christ comes and all things are made new. Just like a successful pregnancy there is great joy that comes after the pains of childbirth.

Paul now gets very specific and to the heart of the matter in Romans 8:23. As we suffer through these pains of childbirth, we suffer looking toward our eager hope. The day that Christ returns and our bodies are either brought up from the grave or, if we are still living at the time we meet Him in the air. It is not Heaven that we are looking longingly for; it is something much greater than Heaven. It is the New Heavens and the New Earth. Those people that we know in Heaven are still looking forward to something; they are looking forward to that day when all things are made new. They could very well be singing, “Heaven is not my home I’m just passing through.” Though there is in Heaven no suffering and no pain that which we look forward to is much greater than the glories of Heaven. It is this great event in history that is the believer’s great hope. It is that day that John tells us about at the end of the book of Revelation. Read Revelation 21:1-4.

We who have “the first fruits of the Spirit” now are eagerly longing for this day. We who have been “born again”, or regenerated, who have been given the deposit of the Holy Spirit, who are being made more and more like Christ as we travel through this world have only attained the beginning of our salvation. These are only the first fruits of that which is to come. We now have the blossom that will one day be an apple. Those things that accompany our salvation here on earth are simply the first signs of the fruit that gives us hope of the future harvest. It is that day when our adoption will be completely realized, as we are brought to God completely as adopted sons and daughters of the King. We have already been chosen out of this world to be His children, but on that day the adoption will be complete. The paperwork has already been signed, but on that day we will be home and will be there forever.

Our hope is found in our adoption, not in the things we have and the good times we live on this earth. Our hope is in that day when our salvation is completed. Our hope is in that day when God completes what He has promised. It is in this hope, Paul says that “we were saved” (Romans 8:24). This is the deliverance that we long for and eagerly await. Paul then shows that if this that we cannot see is what we hope for we will be patient and endure temporal suffering (Romans 8:25). Those who patiently long for eternal bliss can and long for the day our adoption is completed will be able to endure suffering in this life. As we wait for the completion of our salvation we patiently long for that which has been promised to us.

"Florence Chadwick was the first woman to swim the English Channel in both directions. On the Fourth of July in 1951, she attempted to swim from Catalina Island to the California coast. The challenge was not so much the distance, but the bone-chilling waters of the Pacific. To complicate matters, a dense fog lay over the entire area, making it impossible for her to see land. After about 15 hours in the water, and within a half mile of her goal, Chadwick gave up. Later she told a reporter, “Look, I’m not excusing myself, but if I could have seen land I might have made it.” Not long afterward she attempted the feat again. Once more a misty veil obscured the coastline and she couldn’t see the shore. But this time she made it because she kept reminding herself that land was there. With that confidence she bravely swam on and achieved her goal. In fact, she broke the men’s record by two hours!" (From Our Daily Bread)

We who are believers know there is land that we will reach. We can patiently endure to the end through the despair that we feel could overtake us. We can do this because though we do not presently see the New Heavens and New Earth we know for certain that this is our final destination.

What trouble can we run into in this life that is greater than our completed adoption and our rest in our eternal home? The pain of this life and the pain of this world that we are to endure cause us to long and cling to our great unseen hope all the more. We patiently endure the sufferings of this world as we await our adoption as Sons and daughters of the King.

This is an immense help in our time of trouble all it itself, but Paul moves on to other great promises for us to cling to in times of trouble and despair.

The second point is that we suffer with perspective by understanding that the Holy Spirit is bearing our burdens with us (Romans 8:26-27). Paul begins this by saying “likewise”, so in the same manner that longing for our eternal destination helps us to endure suffering, understanding the work of the Holy Spirit in our suffering will help us to endure suffering.

After Jesus had sweat drops of blood, was beaten, scourged, had the crown of thorns placed upon His head and beaten some more, He did not have the physical strength to carry His own cross to His death by Himself. In His great pain and agony He needed help to make it through. He needed Simon of Cyrene to bear this burden with Him in order to carry His cross to Golgotha. This is the picture we get of the Holy Spirit in our time of weakness.

The word help means “to lay hold along with or to take hold with another”. In our time of great weakness and devastation we are not alone. God, the Holy Spirit is bearing the burden with us. We as believes are not carrying the whole burden alone. Just as Simon of Cyrene helped Christ carry His cross, the Holy Spirit is helping us carry our burden. God Himself, the third person of the Trinity is helping you through your hard times. One theologian stated it beautifully when he said,

“For as experience shows, that except we are supported by God’s hands, we are soon overwhelmed by innumerable evils, Paul reminds us, that though we are in every respect weak, and various infirmities threaten our fall, there is yet sufficient protection in God’s Spirit to preserve us from falling, and to keep us from being overwhelmed by any mass of evils.”-John Calvin's Commentary on Romans

How many times have we heard the testimonies stating that had it not been for God, that a believer would not have made it through? This is the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. As one of God’s children moves through struggles and hardships, they are not alone. The Holy Spirit is bearing our burdens with us.

But the work of the Holy Spirit does not stop at bearing our burdens with us. When we are weak and we find ourselves so devastated and disappointed that we do not know how to pray, he is praying on our behalf to the Father (Romans 8:27). The Holy Spirit not only helps us and ensures that we will not completely fall in devastation, but He lifts us up in prayer. As you are struggling with pain that you feel you cannot even comprehend, the Holy Spirit is praying on your behalf to the Father. As you find yourself in such deep despair that you don’t know how to pray or what to say to God, the Holy Spirit is praying on your behalf to the Father. As you find yourself so disappointed in what the Lord has allowed you to go through in this life that you feel you cannot even pray to Him at this moment, the Holy Spirit is praying on your behalf to the Father in “groanings too deep for words”. In ways that we cannot understand God the Spirit is interceding on our behalf to God the Father according to the will of God (Romans 8:27).

So, in a much greater way than Simon of Cyrene helped Christ with His cross to Golgotha, the Holy Spirit is bearing our burdens with us and also praying for us on our behalf. Though you feel alone and isolated in your time of need, God the Holy Spirit is there giving you more help than you can ever imagine. We can suffer with perspective as we focus on the completion of our adoption and the work of the Holy Spirit during our time of need.

Third we see that we suffer with perspective by understanding that God who loves us is working all things for our good (Romans 8:28-30).

Paul here states another great hope that the believer has in the midst of suffering and is that God is working all things for the good of His children. If this is the case then we must ask ourselves a very important question. Does God rule the Universe in such a way that all things really can work together for our good? So, we will quickly look at several passages of Scripture that tell us how God governs His Universe.

God does whatever He wants to do (Psalm 135:6). We don't serve a god who is powerless to do what he wants to do. The God of Scripture does whatever He pleases.
All things that take place are part of God's plan (Ephesians 1:11).
Both what we consider to be good and bad are God's plan (Deuteronomy 32:39; Ecclesiastes 7:13-14; Isaiah 45:5-7; Lamentations 3:37-38).
God controls nature (Psalm 147:15-18).
God is in control of the seemingly small and chance occurrences that take place (Proverbs 16:33)
God plans and uses man's decisions to carry out His perfect plan. God uses Assyria to carry out His plan to punish His people (Isaiah 10:5-15). Jesus' death for the punishment of our sins is also an example of this. People killed the Son of God out of the evil of their own hearts, but carried out what God had planned and purposed (Acts 2:23; Acts 4:27-28).
Even the decisions of the most powerful men on earth carry out God's plans and purposes (Proverbs 21:1)

So, the answer Scripture gives us is a resounding yes. God is in control of whatever comes to pass and has promised He will cause all things to work together for the good of believers. It doesn’t matter what situation you are talking about, it is part of God’s plan. From the birth of a child to the devastation of atomic weapons blowing up entire countries, it is all part of God’s plan. And the promise that we receive from our all-powerful God is that He is moving all of history for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. In other words, God is moving all of creation for our ultimate good.

Paul then moves to give us great assurance of God’s great love for us (Romans 8:29-30). God has loved His people from all eternity and will bring them through to the end. No trouble in this life can ever truly overtake us. God who initiated our salvation will bring us through to the end. And here we see what many theologians have termed “the golden chain of redemption”.

Paul begins this by saying, “For those whom He foreknew”. The word simply means “to know beforehand”. But what does this mean? The key to understanding what is meant by God’s foreknowing in this passage is to look at who is the subject and what is the object of the foreknowing.

The subject or the one doing the foreknowing is God. The verb is “foreknew”, so God knows something beforehand. But what is the object of His foreknowing. The object of His foreknowing is people, not an event, but the people who are “called according to His purpose” that we see in Romans 8:28. But we still really have no idea what this means. All we have so far is basically, “Those people who God called according to His purpose, God foreknew.” If we dig a little deeper we begin to understand this better.

God’s act of foreknowing is personal. When God is said to know someone in Scripture it is speaking of God having a special relationship (love) for that person. There is no exception in the New Testament to this rule. We see in Romans 11:2 God foreknows “His people”, where Paul says “God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew” and we find in 1 Peter 1:20 that God foreknew Jesus. All three instances of God’s foreknowing people found in the New Testament is talking about the special relationship that God has had with His people for all eternity. We see the same thing in the Old Testament. When God knows a person, it is not speaking of knowing that they exist, but of His special relationship with them. Two examples of this are Jeremiah 1:5 and Exodus 33:17. God tells Jeremiah, “before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations”-Jeremiah 1:5 And we also see it in Exodus 33:17, “The Lord said to Moses, “I will also do this thing of which you have spoken; for you have found favor in My sight and I have known you by name”. So, it seems clear that when God knows a person it is not simply a knowledge that a person will exist or one thing they will do later in life, but an intimate knowing of that person. God’s foreknowing an individual is simply God’s love of that person before they were even created. It is the idea that is expressed in Jeremiah 31:3 of God's love being everlasting.

Those people that God has loved from all eternity, God has predestined, that is determined beforehand that they would be “conformed to the image of His Son”. No one will enter Heaven who is not first conformed to the image of His Son. As we live on this earth we are becoming more and more like Christ, but when our redemption is complete we will totally be like Him. All who God has loved from all eternity become like Christ when their salvation is completed. Those people that God “predestined He also called”. The word for called simply means to call or invite, so those whom God has loved from all eternity are also predestined to be conformed to the image of Christ are also called. These same people God has called He has also justified. Being justified before God is being made right in His sight. The word means to “render righteous”. We are made righteous by the work of Christ. He paid the penalty we owed with His death on the cross. He lived the life we should have lived earning righteousness on our behalf and we are credited with His righteousness. This is the transaction that is made for our salvation. And Paul ends by saying that those whom God justified, “He also glorified”. Glorified is speaking of our status in the New Heavens and the New Earth. We are glorified when we are given our glorified bodies and we live with God in the New Heavens and New Earth.

Here is what Paul is saying. If you are a believer God loves you more than you can ever imagine. This God who loves you has loved you with an everlasting love since long before you were born. God set His love on you therefore He decided for certain that You would one day be like Christ, He called you to salvation, applied the salvation earned by Christ to you, and will bring you across the finish line in your glorified body to the New Heavens and the new earth. What we notice here first and foremost is that God loved us and saved us. We have no claim to our own salvation whatsoever. He did it all. God loved you and from beginning to end has accomplished and applied your salvation for you.

This God who has loved you with an everlasting love so tremendous you can hardly wrap your head around the thought of it controls all things and is moving the entire Universe for your good. No matter what trouble you have in your life, never let this slip from your mind. If you are a Christian God has loved you with an everlasting love that will never end. He will be with you until the end. And though we do not understand His ways or His allowing us to be in the situation we are in, He is in control. There is not one rogue atom in the entirety of creation and they are all moving for your ultimate good.

“On one occasion when Martin was extremely depressed and indifferent to encouragement, Katherine donned mourning attire. Her husband asked her, “Katherine, why are you dressed in mourning black?” “Someone has died.” She replied. “Died?” said Luther, “I have not heard of anyone dying, whoever can have died?” Her response was, “It seems that God must have died!” (Carolyn Mahaney, Feminine Appeal: Seven Virtues of a Godly Wife and Mother, rev. ed. (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 2004), pp. 142-143.)

Katherine Luther was clever. She confronted her husband about his depression. He was acting as if God, who loved Him, controlled all things, and promised to work all things for his good was dead. But God is not dead, God is alive. Our perspective needs to be that God is alive and as we suffer through trials in this life we understand that it has happened to us for our good. If we understand God’s love for us, His control of the Universe, and His promise to move all things for our good we are given a radically new perspective on suffering.

We focus on the life to come, understand that the Holy Spirit is bearing our burdens with us, and understand that God who loves us is moving all of history for our good and lastly, we suffer with perspective by understanding that we will persevere (Romans 8:31-39).

“What then shall we say to these things?”, how do we respond to such a message? What is our response focusing on the glories of our eternal home, knowing that the Holy Spirit bears our burdens with us, knowing that God who loves us moves all of creation for our good as we suffer? Our response is the same as Paul’s: “If God is for us, who can be against us?” Who or what on this earth can actually destroy us if God is for us? The obvious answer is nothing in all of creation. There is no sickness, no illness, no death in our families, no circumstance, no enemy, no trial, and no tribulation that is greater than God who is for us. If God is for us who can be against us?

Yet again Paul shows us just how great God’s love is for us and just how much God is for us.

God did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for our salvation (Romans 8:32), what makes us think that He would not “give us all things”? Who now can raise a judgment against us? Is there anyone or anything in all of creation that can bring a charge against God’s chosen people (Romans 8:33)? No, there is no one or nothing. Why? God went to the greatest lengths possible to secure our salvation perfectly and ultimately.

God created all things, and in the beginning His creation was perfect and good. This includes the crowning work of His creation: human beings. The first human beings, Adam and Eve, rebelled against God in the Garden of Eden bringing calamity upon all of the earth, created a separation between mankind and God, and stained all of their posterity with the taint of sin. God is perfect and He does not tolerate sin and evil. Yet, we as people, stained with sin, do not have the ability not to sin. All of us stand condemned before a Holy and Righteous God. All of us have broken God’s law. All of us have rebelled against God and all of us deserve eternal death, eternal Hell. But God made a way that He could save us in a righteous and holy manner. That is through Jesus Christ. God made a way for us to be justified (Romans 8:32). The way was that God the Son interceded for us through His death on the cross (Romans 8:34).

Year after year priests presented the offerings for the removal of sin and guilt for the Israelites. The temple was filled with different furniture that the Lord had commanded to be in the temple. There were altars for animal offerings and altars for incense. There were beautiful furnishings throughout the temple, but one thing that is purposefully missing from the tabernacle is a chair.

You see the Old Testament priest’s jobs were never done. The sacrifices that they offered, which was a foreshadowing of the ultimate sacrifice of Christ, were never finished. Year after year, month after month, day after day there were more sacrifices to be offered. They were never finished and never completed, so there was not a chair for them to sit down in. There was always more sin to be atoned for, more sacrifices to be given. Their work was never done, but when Christ offered His perfect sacrifice for our sin and our guilt once for all time on the cross the job was finished. For the first time in history a pries sat down because he had finished his work. It was perfect and complete. All of the believer’s sins past, present, and future were atoned for with the once for all sacrifice of Christ.

Who is their left to condemn? Who is their left to bring a charge against us? Christ died perfectly paying the punishment for all our sin, was raised conquering the power of sin and death and is presently seated at the right hand of God with His work for our salvation being completed. He is now seated at the right hand of God interceding for us in prayer, just as the Holy Spirit is doing.

What a glorious thought. Is there anything in all of creation that can “separate us from the love of Christ? “Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?” No, there is nothing at all that can separate us from the love of Christ. Is there anything left for us to do, to earn the favor of God? No, Christ has accomplished it all. Is there anything we can do to bring God’s hatred upon us? No, Christ has accomplished salvation for us, and it is complete. Do we need to sit and wonder if we have done enough for our salvation? No, because we haven’t done anything for our salvation, Christ has done it all. Jesus paid it all.

Nothing can separate us from God because Christ’s work is complete. Though we face trials and tribulations of many kinds, though we feel as Paul has here written “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered”, though we make mistake after mistake and feel that we are unworthy of the great love of Christ that has been given to us we will never be separated from the love of Christ. The believer cannot do anything or have anything done to them that would take them away from the beautiful promises that we have been given about God’s care for us in our time of trials and tribulations.

Because of God’s work in giving us our eternal hope, bearing our burdens with us, loving us and moving all of creation for our ultimate good, and the glorious work of salvation we not only endure the greatest of pains and hardships on this earth, but we are made “more than conquerors through Him who loves us.” A better rendering of this phrase would be that we “overwhelmingly conquer” these trials and these tribulations. It is not simply a mere making it until the end that is being spoken of here, but a domination of the great troubles that we endure in this life. And because of this, no matter what the struggle, the believer will overcome. They will never be separated from the love of Christ (Romans 8:38-39).

So, how do we suffer? We suffer with perspective. We suffer with perspective by looking longingly toward our eternal home, by understanding that the Holy Spirit is bearing our burdens with us, by understanding that God who loves us is working all things for our good, and by understanding that we will in the end persevere.

As persecution continued against Christianity throughout the Roman Empire many Christians were tortured and killed for their faith. They had to watch family members be martyred and many died a martyr’s death themselves. This went on for many years. Notice in this account of martyrs one generation after death of the apostles the perspective they had that made them able to endure. It is the perspective we have been talking about.

“But indeed all the other martyrdoms that God willed to take place (we must be careful to ascribe all things to His governance) were blessed and noble. No one could fail to admire their high-hearted endurance, and the love they showed for their Master. Some of them were so cut to pieces by the scourges that their very vitals were plainly exposed to view, down to the inmost veins and arteries; and yet they still bore up, until even the bystanders were moved to tears of pity for them. Others displayed such heroism that not a cry or a groan escaped any of them; which seemed a clear proof to us all that in that hour of anguish those martyr-heroes of Christ were not present in the body at all—or better still, that the Lord was standing at their side and holding them in talk. So it was that, with all their thoughts absorbed in the grace of Christ, they made light of the cruelties of this world, and at the cost of a single hour purchased for themselves life everlasting. For them, the fires of their barbarous tormentors had a grateful coolness, for they held ever before their eyes their escape from the quenchless flames of eternity, and looking up they beheld with inward vision the good things in store for those who persevere. Things which no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mortal heart has dreamed of were revealed by the Lord to these men.” (Andrew Louth, Early Christian Writings: the Apostolic Fathers (New York, N.Y., U.S.A.: Penguin Classics, 1987), pg. 136

R. Dwain Minor

Arrows Sent for Ages to Come for the Glory of God: Raising Children (Psalm 127)

2011-12-16T21:12:00.000-08:00

In the early 1970's Neil Young wrote a song called "The Needle and the Damage Done". He wrote this song because in the 60's and 70's he witnessed tremendous musicians, some of which he played with, losing their lives to heroine. So, he wrote the song, "The Needle and the Damage Done". It seemed to him that the damage was all around him when he wrote,

"I've seen the needle and the damage done. A little part of it in everyone, but every junkies like the setting sun."

I believe that if pastor's were to write a song about a problem causing massive destruction in their congregations they would write a song about the damage done by ungodly parenting.

God has a much different plan for parenting, and we will see this in Psalm 127. Here we will find that successful parenting is dependent upon the grace of God. Successful parenting is dependent upon the grace of God. Parenting itself is a blessing. We will look at the goal and result of godly parenting. Successful parenting is a blessing that produces a glorious legacy.

Read Psalm 127

We Can Be Successful In Parenting: By The Grace of God (Psalm 127:1-2)

Our success in parenting as well as all other facets of life is ultimately due to the grace of God. We are to labor with all our might to build the home. This passage supposes that the worker will do all they can do. Even though all the credit should be given to God and it is God who blesses the labor, we are to be laboring to build the home. So, instead of not laboring we labor with all our might, trusting in God instead of ourselves.

All success in this life, and specifically the work of building the family is a gift from the Lord. We are given three examples here. He begins with the building of the home, which is the subject of this Psalm. If we are going to be successful in building the home it is due to the grace and the mercy of God. The second example given is the guarding of a city. If there is a guard looking out of the tower watching for enemies to come and an army guarding a city they will only be successful against the onslaught of their enemy only by the grace of God. Ultimately God is the one who gives the success in the guarding of a city, or has planned its collapse (Amos 3:6-7). The third example given here is that of earning a living. If one is to earn a living for their family they will only be successful by the grace of God. God is ultimately the one who gives all success for the labor that is done. There is something that should be seen in all of these examples that Solomon sets forth. They all consist of the human laboring. We labor with all our might, but we do so knowing that it is ultimately God who brings the success. We build our home with all our might, but it is God who will bring the success or the failure. It is ultimately God who blesses our labors.

We can work day and night and worry ourselves to death, but it is God who gives the increase. It is God who blesses all of our labor and it is God who we are entrusting our family to. And it is in Him that we can find our rest, "for He gives His beloved sleep." It is in our trust in the sovereign God of the Universe that our worries and fears about our family can be calmed. For though we work long and hard, the results are ultimately in His hands.

We are to be faithful in carrying out the task of raising our children in the fear and admonition of the Lord. And any success we have, from supplying the needs of our family to the salvation of family members is a gift from the Lord.

We strive with all our might, using all resources that are at our disposal to raise our family as Scripture directs. But we also understand that it is only by the power and grace of God that our labors will be blessed. When we understand that our children are sinners separated from God and there is nothing we can do about it, we begin to understand that God really does have to bless our labors from beginning to end. Part of this He has already accomplished.

God existed before time began complete in Himself and not needing anyone or anything. he was and still is and always will be perfect in all of His characteristics. He is love, but He is also just and righteous. He passionately hates sin and will punish it.

Man was created in God's own image. Man was good at creation, but man has fallen and fallen hard. We see that man is now evil and corrupt. Because of Adam's sin all humans are born dead, unable to come to Christ, and unable to follow Christ. We are not sinners because we sin, we are sinners because we are born sinners unable to live a life of integrity. We sin because we are sinners unable to follow God's law due to the fall and our corruption.

The good news is that God did not leave us in such a state. God sent His Son to earth. He lived a perfect life, and was placed on the cross dying in our place. He was our substitute. Our sins were placed upon Him. Every sin of everyone that would ever believe was placed upon Him. Every lie, every theft, every lustful thought, every murder, every adultery, every rape, and every other sin that would ever be forgiven was placed upon Christ. In turn we are given His righteousness. We are credited with the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ who committed no sin and fulfilled all righteousness while He was on the earth. In response to this message we repent and believe the gospel. We acknowledge that God is correct about our depravity and we turn to Him in faith. We submit our lives to Christ and His Lordship.

This is what God has already accomplished for the salvation of those who will believe, yet this is not the only work that God has to do for our salvation.

We and our children are born spiritually blind and dead in our sins (Jeremiah 17:9, John 8:34, Romans 3:10-12, 1 Corinthians 2:14, Ephesians 2:1-3). When we understand this we begin to understand that it is only by the power and grace of God that they are brought to spiritual life (John 1:12-13, Acts 13:48, Ephesians 1:5, Ephesians 1:11, 2 Thessalonians 2:13-14, John 6:44, John 6:65, John 10:25-26, 1 Peter 1:3, James 1:18). So, we would understand that our children's salvation, from beginning to end, is the work of the Lord. But we do play a part.

We are faithful to the task. God has blessed us to give us a role in God's work. We are given the great privilege of teaching our children God's Word. God has chosen that humans would be given the task of spreading the good news of the gospel. And we have been given, as parents, the task of spreading this good news to our children. We are faithful to the task and rely upon God to bless the labor.
This attitude should move us to dependence upon the Lord and a pleading with Him in prayer for our family. My wife understands this very well. My wife and I pray for our son Haddon daily, if not more. But I am privileged to be able to hear the prayers of my wife for our son, whom we have been praying for since we found out my wife was pregnant. Every night as she is putting him to bed she prays that God will give us another day with him and that one day God would give him spiritual life and that Haddon would become a believer (Ezekiel 36:22-27).

This is the attitude we are to have in raising our children. We work with all of our might for the spiritual well being of our children, but we know that ultimately the results are left to God.

So, we have seen that the success of parenting comes only from the Lord, now we will see that it is a blessing.

The Blessing of Parenting: The Gift of Children (Psalm 127:3)

Solomon shows here that a gift and a blessing that God gives His people are children. But this demands a drastic change of mindset for the believer in today's day and age. We are told to put off having children, to accomplish everything we want to accomplish in life before even thinking about having them.

My wife and I found ourselves thinking in this way for a few years. We actually ran into this verse (Psalm 127:3), and found that we didn't have the right attitude about children. Anytime we would talk about children we would say later, because I wanted to finish my master's at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary before having kids. We thought a child was an inconvenience, but God brought us out of this attitude.

I am not saying that there are not hard times in parenting. Some parents have gone through tremendously hard times, but children are a blessing and not a curse. I remember our first night with Haddon. We stood over the crib wondering what to do at 2:00am as he cried and cried and cried and cried and cried. My wife called the nurse's station and they told us to turn the radio on and he fell right to sleep for a few hours. There are other hardships that come with being a new parent, and Haddon's doctor later told us these words.

"Taking care of your child before he reaches two months of age is like running bare foot through a desert full of cacti while you are blindfolded."

But even with the hard times considered children are a blessing. Here is what we need to understand. If God says that children are a blessing and we don't think so, then there is a problem with out thinking and not God's thinking. It is not the time period we live in or the circumstances we live in it is us and we need to repent. Later we will see the type of child that continues to be a blessing their entire lives.

We have seen that parenting is only successful by the grace and mercy of God and that it is a blessing that comes from the Lord, but what is the goal of parenting?

I have heard it said that "if you aim for nothing you will hit it every time", so why do we approach parenting in this way. Why do we consider it success to simply get them out of the house alive? If you want to retire, you set goals to make it happen. If you want to pay off your house you set goals to make it happen. if you want to get a higher paying job you set goals to make it happen. Then why do we approach parenting aiming for nothing?

The Goal of Parenting: Send Them Out Mature in Christ (Psalm 127:4)

The visual that we are given is of a warrior sending out an arrow to hit its target. We have all seen this visual in movies. A warrior is aiming his bow and arrow at a target. His intention is to hit a specific target. This is the view we are to have of raising our children. The goal is not to keep them, but to raise them to maturity in the faith and send them out flying straight and true to the target we have aimed them at, which is Christ and His exaltation.

This is by no means an easy task. It requires long and hard labor that most today are unwilling to give. This is evidenced by the children that are presently being raised in our churches. Instead of raising the children themselves they hand the responsibility of raising their children off to the church and wonder why their children are weak in the faith.

Here is a pretty typical situation. Mom and Dad both work allowing them to spend 4-6 hours with their children in the evenings. We will not count the morning, because it is spent trying to get them out the door for school. One of these hours is spent eating and cleaning up; this only leaves 3-5 hours per night with their children. Instead of making wise use of this time, Mom and Dad are tired. They check out and watch television and do chores while the children play video games and watch television.

Is this the work required for parents to send their children out one day as arrows that are going to hit their mark? The obvious answer is no.

So, how much time and effort is to be given to this task? I think we find the answer to that question in Deuteronomy 6:4-9.

"Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates."-Deuteronomy 6:4-9

This is a lot of work. We are to teach our children at all times when we sit, travel, lie down, and rise. We are to be teaching them the Word of the Lord at all times.

You have your goal. The goal of parenting is to fashion arrows that will run straight and true to Christ when you send them out. Now make a plan to raise your children to maturity and send them out as arrows hitting the mark you are aiming them at.

In a sermon delivered on May 11, 1856, Charles Haddon Spurgeon told his congregation that the reason many of his people were weak in the faith was because they didn't receive from their parents the instruction they should have received. He said,

"If you had, you would have been so grounded, and settled, and firm in the faith, that nothing could by any means have moved you."

The point that must be driven home is that we must ground our children in the faith. Do you see why it is important to teach your children the faith?

Successful parenting is a blessing, but what does it produce?

The Result of Godly Parenting: A Legacy That Will Not Put You to Shame (Psalm 127:5)

The quiver that is spoken of in this passage of Scripture is full. From what has already been stated we see that this is a lot of children. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full, not has an arrow or two. I don't want to say that everyone has to have a lot of children. That is not taught in Scripture, but we need to see children for what they are: a blessing. If our thinking is correct on this then we will not look at the person with 5 children or more as the most cursed person on the planet. We will see them as blessed. Why does Solomon insist that the man with many arrows is blessed?

The blessing comes to the person who has many children who are "arrows in the hand of the warrior". The child that grows up to be a blessing to his or her parents is the child that is an arrow in the hand of the warrior. This is a lot of work, but also a lot of blessing.

The picture Solomon has here give is of judicial assemblies meeting at the city gate. So, the picture we are seeing here is of those who would accuse us. It is our reputation that is at stake here, and godly arrows are not like godly arrows in this matter are they?

Solomon who wrote this Psalm also wrote much of the book of Proverbs. Read what he has to say about ungodly children. He describes them as "a sorrow to his mother", "a grief to his father and bitterness to her who bore him", and the person who has an ungodly child is said to "get himself sorrow", and "the father of a fool has no joy" (Proverbs 10:1, Proverbs 17:21, Proverbs 17:25). The point is that the child that grows up in rebellion is not a blessing to his parents, but a curse. Though children are a blessing from the Lord, they don't all grow up to continue being blessings.

We have all seen it in life also. The child who curses at his mother at the grocery store doesn't seem like much of a blessing. We have seen children grow up to squander their mother and father's money even until their parent's death. We, like Solomon, would say that these children grow up to be a curse, and their reputation is no help when the accusers come. This is the point. The meaning is encapsulated in Proverbs 27:11

"Be wise, my son, and make my heart glad, that I may answer him who reproaches me."-Proverbs 27:11

The child Solomon is speaking of here is the child that grows up and does not bring reproach upon you. This is the child that exalts Christ and brings a good name to your family. This is the child that is like an arrow in the hand of a warrior. This is the child that is a legacy that you have left behind that exalts Christ and does not put you to shame.

Whether you realize it or not you are leaving behind a legacy. For those of you who had a glorious legacy of biblical faith passed down to them from their parents, you are continuing a legacy and reputation of your family. More importantly, you are furthering the faithfulness of your family in the Lord. For those of you who did not have that blessing, you have the opportunity to begin something. You have the opportunity to begin a legacy of faithfulness to the Lord, passing it down from generation to generation.

We in this room know of Jonathan Edwards. He was a brilliant man. His sermons and books are still circulated and read to this day. His sermons are thought to have sparked the 1st Great Awakening in the U.S. He was also a prolific writer and eventually became president of Princeton University, a college that was created to educate preachers to reach the Indians. But, as busy as he was he understood the value of family, and scheduled time everyday to be with family. He and his wife made it their business to train their children. Listen to a study of Jonathan and Sarah Edward’s descendants,

“In 1900, A.E. Winship studied what happened to 1,400 descendants of Jonathan and Sarah by the year 1900. He found they included 13 college presidents, 65 professors, 100 lawyers and a dean of a law school, 30 judges, 66 physicians and a dean of a medical school, and 80 holders of public office, including three US Senators, mayors of three large cities, governors of three states, a Vice-President of the United States, and a controller of the United States Treasury. They had written over 135 books and edited eighteen journals and periodicals. Many had entered the ministry. Over 100 were missionaries and others were on mission boards.”-“Jonathan Edwards, America’s Humble Giant”; Christianity Today International, 2008; http//chi.gospelcom.net/GLIMPSEF/Glimpses/glmps097.shtml.

What are we doing or going to do to leave behind a legacy that is going to glorify and honor Christ long after our death?

What are we as people in the ministry doing or going to do to train parents to raise their children in such a way that they leave that kind of legacy behind?

R. Dwain Minor

Are You A Distressed Believer?

2011-12-15T19:22:00.000-08:00

I read this from a daily email called Grace Gems. It is a comfort for the believer to know that God is in control and that nothing that happens to us is purposeless. So, if you are distressed take comfort in the words of J.C. Ryle.

Are you a distressed believer? Is your heart...pressed down with sickness,tired with disappointments,overburdened with cares?

To you I say, "Behold the cross of Christ!" Think whose hand it is that chastens you; think whose hand is measuring you the 'cup of bitterness' which you are now drinking. It is the hand of Him who was crucified! It is the same hand which, in love to your soul, was nailed to the accursed tree! Surely that thought should comfort and hearten you. Surely you should say to yourself, "My crucified Savior will never lay upon me anything that is not for my good. There is a needs be. It must be well."

The Message of Christmas: Peace on Earth...Later

2011-12-12T10:47:00.000-08:00

Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Christ. It is the celebration of God coming to us in flesh. At Christmas we celebrate, because God who is highly exalted far beyond us, who does not need us or our love whatsoever, desires to restore the relationship with His people. This desire is so strong that He sent His Son from the glories of Heaven to live on earth and eventually die for the sins of His people. God did not need us in any way shape or form, yet He desired to bring us into right relationship with Him. That is what we celebrate when we celebrate the message of Christmas.

What a glorious, yet divisive story.

What we find is that the Christmas Story did not bring the immediate peace on earth that we sing about at Christmas, it actually has brought division to the earth.

In John 1:9-13 we read that Jesus's coming to earth brought a split between people. The One who created the earth came to dwell on earth, yet His people did not receive Him. Here we have disunity and disharmony associated with Christ's coming to earth. Some rejected Him, but others received Him and to those "He gave the right to become children of God". Christ's coming was not a joy for everyone. In fact Christ's coming has had quite the opposite effect.

As Paul and others were preaching the Good News he stated that they were "a fragrance of Christ to God" to both those who were becoming believers and to those who were rejecting the message (2 Corinthians 2:15). He goes on to say that to the unbeliever it is the aroma of death, but for the believer it is the aroma of life. The message of Christ is not an incredibly uniting message for all human beings. The preaching of Christ is to some the realization that they are sinners in rebellion against God, and to some that they are sinners in rebellion against God who have now been rescued. So, the message that Christ has brought into the world is to some life and to others death. This is a divisive message if there ever has been one, and throughout history it has been met with the type of opposition that one would expect a message as this to bring.

We find that the Pharisees and many others had a strong dislike for Jesus, and by the time He died He only had a few followers. Jesus was also arrested, beaten, and crucified because of the nature of His coming and message. Later we find that Jesus's followers were persecuted, some even to death (Acts 8:1-3). This is scattered throughout the pages of the New Testament. Specifically we see that Paul was beaten many times for his sharing the message of Christ. It is believed that all of the apostles, with the exception of John, were martyred for their faith. And even today we find people all over the world beaten, tortured, and killed for this message that Christ has brought. In fact, there are more people killed for the cause of Christ today than any other time in history. (If you didn't know this you should examine the Voice of the Martyrs website.) This should not surprise us. The message of Christ has brought division to the world. And this is exactly what Jesus said He would do.

Jesus Himself stated that peace on earth was not what He was bringing, "but a sword" (Matthew 10:34-39). Christ stated here that He would be bringing division and disunity to even household relationships. So, why do we sing about peace on earth at Christmas time?

The work Christ did when He came to earth is completed. Christ came to earth and lived a completely sinless life and fulfilled all righteousness on behalf of the believer, while He was here. The righteous life He lived is credited to the believer. Christ also died on the cross paying the complete punishment for the sin of the believer. This work that Christ did for our salvation: earning our righteousness and paying for our sin is finished, so that everyone who turns to Christ in faith can be completely forgiven. But there is an aspect of redemption that is not yet completed.

We are people living in the time between Christ's two comings. Christ has already come to earth the first time, and He is coming again. When He comes again it is promised that all things will be made right. It is promised that at this time there will truly be peace on earth. This is encapsulated in many of the great hymns we sing around Christmas time.

One example of this is It Came Upon the Midnight Clear. It begins with Christ's birth and then looks forward to Christ's coming, when there will be peace over all the earth.

"For lo! The days are hastening on, by prophet bards foretold, when with the ever circling years comes round the age of gold; when peace shall over all the earth its ancient splendors fling, and the whole world give back the song which now the angels sing."

It is Christ's coming again that will bring with it peace on earth and good will to men, but it has already been achieved. The peace we sing about and talk about at Christmas time is revealed to us at Christ's second coming. So, we could say that the peace of Christmas is already achieved, but not yet realized.

The peace of Christmas is already achieved in the sense that Christ has accomplished completely the work of redemption. He has paid the full punishment for sin and has accomplished all righteousness on behalf of the believer. At the same time the peace of Christmas is not yet realized. It is not yet here. We are awaiting the day when Christ will return and there truly is peace on earth. In other words, we can look forward to the peace we sing about at Christmas time because of what Christ achieved after the first Christmas Day during His time on earth.

This is the world and mindset we live in. We look forward to what will happen while trusting in what Christ has already done. Here are some words from Charles Spurgeon on living between Christ's two comings.

"We are living in the age which lies between the two blazing beacons of the Divine appearings and we are called to hasten from one to another. The sacramental host of God's elect is marching on from the one appearing to the other with hasty feet. We have everything to hope for in the last appearing, as we have everything to trust to in the first appearing-and we have now to wait with patient hope throughout that weary interval which intervenes! Paul calls it, "this present world." This marks its fleeting nature. It is present, but it is scarcely future, for the Lord may come so soon and thus end it all. It is present, now, but it will not be present long. It is but a little time and He who will come shall come and will not tarry. Now it is this "present world." Oh, how present it is! How sadly it surrounds us!

Yet, by faith, we count these present things to be unsubstantial as a dream and we look to the things which are not seen and not present, as being real and eternal! We pass through this world as men on pilgrimage. We traverse an enemy's country. Going from one manifestation to another, we are birds migrating on the wing from one region to another-there is no rest for us by the way. We are to keep ourselves as loose as we can from this country through which we make our pilgrimage, for we are strangers and foreigners and here we have no continuing city. We hurry through this Vanity Fair-before us lies the Celestial City and the coming of the Lord who is the King thereof! As voyagers cross the Atlantic and so pass from shore to shore, so do we speed over the waves of this ever-changing world to the Glory Land of the bright appearing of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!" - C.H. Spurgeon The Two Appearings And The Discipline of Grace, 1886

R. Dwain Minor

The Incarnation of Christ: A Humiliation to Emulate (Philippians 2:1-11)

2011-12-07T10:16:00.001-08:00

The Christmas season is here. We find ourselves once again celebrating Christ's coming to earth. God Himself taking on human flesh, dwelling among us. Emmanuel, God with us. We will talk about this in Philippians 2:1-11.

Paul has just told the Philippians to let their manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ (Philippians 1:27). They are commanded to stand firm and to suffer for the name of Christ. This is the reason we find the word "Therefore" or "So" in Philippians 2:1. This passage is about humility, but humility is not the goal. The goal is for our manner of life to be worthy of the gospel of Christ. Paul shows that humility is a key part of our lives being lived in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.

We as believers are called to be united by our humility (Philippians 2:1-4), to imitate Christ's humility (Philippians 2:5-8), to understand that God exalts humility (Philippians 2:9-11). So, let us take a look at this passage. We will see that the incarnation of Christ is a humiliation to emulate.

We as believers are to be united by our humility (Philippians 2:1-4). Paul had undergone many hardships and trials for the cause of Christ and the good of the Church. But Paul is not alone in this. There are many hardships to the heart of a pastor. People sometimes fall into disobedience, they leave the Church, oftentimes never to return. This brings great heartache to a pastor, but much like Paul in this passage he finds great joy in his people being united (Philippians 2:1-2).

Notice that it is not a false unity that is desired here, but a true unity. This is not a unity that is simply ignoring differences, this is true unity. Paul says here that they be of the "same mind", that is that they are joined together in thoughts. They think the same way. This happens as an entire group of people are joined together thinking as Scripture directs. Their hearts and minds are being transformed by the Word of God and because of this they are thinking the same thoughts. They have "the same love". Paul's desire is that the Church would be joined together in mutual affection. And that they would be "in full accord". Paul's desire is not for a fake unity, it is true unity where they find themselves to be completely united in Christ. If this were to happen Paul's joy would be made complete.

For this to occur we will be humble, for it is out of humble actions that these occur. Paul here commands that we not do anything from rivalry or conceit (Philippians 2:3). Rivalry is a desire to put one's self forward. It was often used in the world of politics. We can see this in our own political system today as political candidates will talk bad about each other and about how good they are. This is the sense that the word is used. Conceit is about our self-esteem. It is doing something to exalt one's self.

Think with me to today's political campaigns. The tactic oftentimes used by candidates is a smear campaign. This is where candidates will talk bad about other candidates and then mention that they are a lot better than these other candidates. Oftentimes the allegations brought forward are true, oftentimes they are not. But what they are doing is acting out of rivalry and conceit. They are exalting one's self as they degrade the people around them. It is blowing everyone else's candle out so that their's will burn a little brighter. This is not the way believer's are commanded to act.

Instead we should be humble and count others more significant than ourselves (Philippians 2:3-4). We are to think little of ourselves and our rights. We are to think little about ourselves while thinking of others as significant.

Think to the last time you were fighting with someone. Was it not because one of you or both of you felt that you had rights and privileges that were owed to you that someone had taken away or diminished in some fashion? Was it because of someone's desire to exalt their self, or make you look bad? Was it because you desired to exalt your self and make someone else look bad?

We are not to act in this manner. We are to count others as more important than ourselves. Instead of acting this way, we are to imitate Christ.

We as believers are to imitate Christ's humility (Philippians 2:5-8). Paul begins by stating that we are to have the same attitude that Christ had (Philippians 2:5). Looking at Philippians 2:5-8 we find that Christ underwent quite a humiliation in His life that we are to emulate.

Being God, Christ existed as God, equal with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit (Philippians 2:6). Christ existed before the creation of anything with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. All three of them present as one deity. This is the doctrine that we call the Trinity. God is one, but made up of three persons. Christ has always been one of those three persons. He existed as God the Son. But even though this is the case He would live in great humility.

Being God, Christ did not count this equality something to hold on to (Philippians 2:6). The word here is ἁρπαγμός. It means grasped, seized, or retained. The King James Version translated it robbery. Even though Christ was equal with God He did not think of this equality as something to hold on to, to retain. This is an incredible act of humility in and of itself. Think with me momentarily about what this means. Even though Christ was Himself God, His attitude was not to hold on to what was rightfully His. His attitude was the opposite of this. Though He was rightfully God, He did not hold onto that which was rightfully His: majesty, being worshiped, among other things.

Being God, Christ actually "made Himself nothing". The word for this phrase is κενόω, it means to empty. So, even though Christ was rightfully God He emptied Himself. This does not mean that He was not God while on earth, but it is closer to meaning His deity was veiled. His being God was hidden for His time on earth. We would also say that His majesty for this time period was emptied. He emptied Himself of His majesty. He was still God, we see this in the miracles that He does here on earth, but we also see that He was human as he was tired, sleepy, hungry, etc.

Being God, Christ took the "form of a servant", being in the likeness of men. This is really quite interesting because though He did not grasp or seize at retaining the glories of Heaven, He took the form of a servant. What He did seize was His humiliation in becoming a man. What a show of humility that we are to emulate! That Christ would forego what was rightfully His in Heaven to take for Himself becoming a man is a thought that is hard to imagine. And that He would go even further is even more incomprehensible.

Being God, Christ humbled Himself by making Himself killable (Philippians 2:8). I do not think that "killable" is really a word, but I will use it here anyway. It seems to work. When Christ was in glory there was no way He could ever be killed. He had to make Himself mortal man in order to undergo the punishment that was to come. The chasm that exists between creator and creation at this point is so unfathomable making it difficult to even think through this. Christ humbled Himself making Himself able to die, so that He could take upon Himself the punishment for our sins.

Being God, Christ humbled Himself by dying the most humiliating of deaths, death on the cross (Philippians 2:8). The cross was not a dignified death by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, it was on the complete opposite of the spectrum. The cross was reserved for the worst. It was the most degrading death that had been devised and was so degrading that it was not to be used on Roman citizens. Don't forget that before the cross Jesus was beaten, mocked, spit upon, and flogged. As He was on the cross He continued to be mocked as He hung naked on the most degrading of torturous instruments of death.

There really are no illustrations that can aptly cover what Christ did in coming to earth. The chasm that Christ crossed from being worshiped in Heaven to coming to earth is far greater than we can ever imagine. Then we see that not only did He come here but He also submitted Himself to the cruelty and degradation of the cross. These are thoughts that boggle the mind. Yet, at the same time, He is our example of humility. Christ, our eternal creator, came to us, lived on earth, made Himself able to die, and died the most lowly of deaths.

Now we must ask ourselves, what is holding us back from acting in a humble manner toward one another? What is it that we think is so great that we have to hold on to? Is it greater than what Jesus had as He was worshiped in Heaven? Do we think that our friends will think we are stupid? Do we think that it will cost us something greater than being worshiped in Heaven?

Christ is our example, but in Christ we also see God's exaltation of humility (Philippians 2:9-11) Christ is here set before us as an example of God's treatment of the humble. To understand this a little better look at Matthew 20:25-28. Here we see one of the great paradoxes of Christianity. In this present age the one who is great will later be a servant, and in this present age the one who will be exalted will later be a servant. And we see this played out in the exaltation of Christ.

Philippians 2:9 begins with the word "therefore", or "so". This is from the word “ἵνα” in the Greek. It begins a cause and effect statement. So we should understand this as "because of Christ's humiliation God has highly exalted Him". This exaltation does not concern the Son's eternal nature, He was God before He came to earth, He continued to be God, and He will always be God. This is about the God-man Jesus Christ. You see Jesus exists at this present moment still as the God-man. When He ascended He did not lose His being human, He will always be that way. Jesus Christ, the God-man, is now highly exalted due to the humiliation that He bore on this earth. And because of this God has exalted Him and we see that everyone everywhere will bow to Him (Philippians 2:9-10). All will bow to Christ and confess Him as Lord. This includes believers, atheists, those who worship other "gods" presently, angels, demons, Satan, and anyone else. They will all bow their knee to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. All "to the glory of God the Father" (Philippians 2:11).

Here is where we are to go and what we are to do. We are to live humbly with one another, not thinking more highly of ourselves than others. We are to have the same thinking about our own rights and privileges that Christ did, who left the glories of being worshiped in Heaven, veiled His deity, emptied Himself of His majesty, came to earth making Himself killable, and dying on a cross for our sins. This is our example of humility.

We should also not lose sight of the great paradox in Christianity. The humble are exalted, the last shall be first. We are not humble to bring ourselves less joy, but more.

R. Dwain Minor

God is in Control: A Great Comfort for the Believer

2011-12-05T15:00:00.000-08:00

Repeatedly I have heard James White from Alpha and Omega Ministries say that theology matters, and it really does. Theology matters in our day to day lives whether we realize it or not.

Theology is the study of God and His relation to the world. The more we understand about God and His relation to us the more we understand the meaning and significance of all that surrounds us.

I have been reading Bruce Ware's book God's Greater Glory: The Exalted God of Scripture and the Christian Faith. It is a book about God's sovereignty and providence. Sovereignty is God's power or control over the earth and all things in it. God's Providence is His divine guidance and care of the Universe. Many questions arise with implications into our daily lives.

What does this power look like?

How does God exert His power over the Universe?

How are we affected by God's control over all the Universe?

How does God guide and direct the events of the Universe?

How does God guide and direct my life?

When the hard times come is God in control? Will this work out for my good?

The answers to these questions will greatly influence the way we look at the world that surrounds us, and will greatly influence the way we look at the good times as well as when problems and hardships enter our lives.

I have been reminded again that God is in complete and total control of all that happens in this Universe, and this brings great comfort and joy to the life of the believer. Here is a quote from the book.

What comfort, joy, and strength believers receive from the truths of divine providence. Nowhere else are we given such assurance that the One who perfectly knows the past, present, and future, the One whose wisdom can never be challenged or excelled, the One whose power reigns and accomplishes all that He wills, governs all the affairs of creation, fulfilling in all aspects what He alone knows is good, wise, and best. What may seem to us as "accidents" are no such thing in the universe governed by the providence of the true and living God. Prayers may be directed to this mighty and reigning King knowing that while He tenderly and compassionately hears the cries of His people, He "sits" in the unique position of knowing perfectly what is best and possessing unthwarted power to bring to pass what He wills. The world is not spinning out of control; in fact, not one atom or despot or demon acts in any respect to hinder the fulfillment of what God has eternally ordained. To know this God, and better to be known by Him (Galatians 4:9a), is to enter into the security and confidence of a lifetime of trust in His never-failing arms. (Bruce Ware, God's Greater Glory pg. 15)

God is in control of every situation. We will never find ourselves in a situation in which we are outside of God's control. Because God is in control I can trust that His promises are true. I can trust that God is working all things for the good of His children (Romans 8:28). I can trust that no matter how dark a time period I am in God is working it out for my good.

As we examine our lives I think we will see that it is because of God's control over the universe that we can have the confidence that David had as he wrote Psalm 23.

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness
for His name's sake.
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff,
they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies;
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.-Psalm 23

David could have confidence in the midst of his enemies, because he knew that God was with him, working all things together for his good. David was trusting in God's control and care over all the universe. And so should we when the hard times come.

We are not trusting in some wimpy being, that would really like to help us but cannot. We are trusting in the God of the Bible. We are trusting in God who does whatever He pleases (Psalm 115:3, 135:6), who accomplishes all of His purposes (Isaiah 46:10), who is so powerful that no one or nothing can thwart His plan (Daniel 4:35), who is in control of what we would see as chance occurrences (Proverbs 16:33), who is Lord over human plans (James 4:13-15), who gives what we would see as both good and ill (Deuteronomy 32:39; 1 Samuel 2:6-7, Lamentations 3:37-38, Amos 3:6-7), who has ordained the history of the nations (Acts 17:26), and works all things according to the counsel of His will (Ephesians 1:11).

This is the God whom we serve. This is the God who has promised to move all things for the good of believers. Theology matters.

R. Dwain Minor

I Am Not A Tim Tebow Fan, But In Some Ways He Should Be Emulated

2011-11-29T13:43:00.001-08:00

I don't think Tim Tebow is a good NFL quarterback. This may anger some folks who absolutely love him, but that is my opinion. He does have a love and passion for the game that it is refreshing to see out of people from time to time, and he is winning, but that doesn't make him good. His completion percentage and overall work as a quarterback is very unimpressive. It seems that he has a good defense that keeps him in games and he has something special allowing him to pull the game out at the end.

I wrote all of this to say I am not a Tim Tebow fan, but he is a brother in Christ. Therefore, I have a love for him that goes beyond the scope of this world. I also believe that he is doing a very good thing when day after day he is exalting Christ in His life on and off the field.

Here is an article answering why he speaks of Christ as much as he does. This is an article that I picked up floating around on facebook.

Though I do not believe him to be a great NFL quarterback, he is doing something of far greater consequence than leading his team to the Superbowl. He is honoring Christ and telling the world about Him.

What am I doing to honor Christ and tell everyone about Him?

R. Dwain Minor

To Love the World or Not to Love the World Pt. 4: The One Who Does The Will of God Lives Eternally

2011-11-18T15:00:00.000-08:00

John here states that the one who does the will of God lives eternally (1 John 2:17). This is given in contrast to the person whose desires are wrapped up in the world. In other words, the person we spoke of in the last post.

We know from the rest of Scripture that living eternally is not the result of doing good, but the result of Christ's work for our salvation. We stood condemned before God and Christ came to earth, lived a perfect life, fulfilling all righteousness on our behalf, and died paying the full punishment for our sins. This is the basis for our eternal life. Jesus paid it all.

But the point John is here making is that Christ will make a difference in the life of a believer. When one comes to Christ He is a new man (2 Corinthians 5:17). It is the new birth Jesus talks about in John 3. All those who come to Christ are supernaturally born again, by the power of God (John 1:12-13). It is the prophesy fulfilled in Ezekiel 36:22-27. The believer is made new, made able to follow God's command, and given a desire to do so. Christ will make a difference in your life if you are a believer.

Earlier in 1 John, we are told that if we have true fellowship with Christ we will not walk in darkness (1 John 1:6). Our pattern of life will not be that of doing evil. And we are also told that we can know that our life in Christ is real when we keep His commandments (1 John 1:3). This new life in Christ will make a difference in our lives. We will desire to follow Christ and our pattern of life will not longer be that of walking in darkness, but of walking in the path of God given to us in His Word. Charles Haddon Spurgeon in a sermon on Matthew 9:12 said it very well when he stated,

"Christ Jesus did not come in order that you might continue to sin and escape the penalty of it; he did not come to prevent the disease of being mortal, but to take the disease itself away. Many people think that when we preach salvation, we mean salvation from going to Hell. We do not mean only that, but we mean a great deal more; we preach salvation from sin; we say that Christ is able to save a man; and we mean by that he is able to save him from sin and to make him holy; to make him a new man. No person has any right to say, "I am saved," while he continues in sin as he did before. How can you be saved from sin while you are living in it? A man that is drowning cannot say he is saved from the water while he is sinking it it; a man that is frost-bitten cannot say, with any truth that he is saved from the cold while he is stiffened in the wintry blast."

The point is that salvation will make a difference in a person's life. The true believer will do the will of God, as a style of life. They will be imperfect and may fall into terrible sin, but they will be characterized by doing the will of God. Remember, those who participate in the eternal now are proving that they have eternal life and will live eternally.

We must examine ourselves. We must take a look at our lives and see if we truly love God or if our love for Him is a fraud. Even though we must examine our lives, we do not hope in how well we work, but in Christ's perfect salvation. We fail in our lives, but Christ has made a way for. He has justified us. He has made us right before God. But a believer's life will be marked by obedience.

On a cold winter day with just over 8 inches of snow on the ground an eight year old son who loves his father dearly is outside helping his father feed the dogs. As they walk across the yard you will notice a funny thing. There is only one set of consistent footprints. The son is following in the footsteps of his father. He wants to be like his father. He is at times missing the giant step. He is tripping because of how far he has extended his legs, but he is attempting to walk like his father. His little feet will not fill up the footprints left behind by his father, but he is walking in the path of his father. Though he is doing it imperfectly he is walking in the path of his father.

This is what it is like for the believer. God has done a powerful work in transforming our lives. God has made us new creatures, who desire to follow Him, and though we oftentimes fail our lives are characterized by a love for God and not a love for the world.

So, in conclusion, can the man we spoke of in the first post in this series truly be a believer?

R. Dwain Minor

To Love the World or Not to Love the World Pt. 3: The World is Temporary

2011-11-17T16:00:00.000-08:00

John continues to state another reason why we are not to love the world. If you have not read the first reason click here.

The next reason that he gives for not loving the world is that the things in this world are temporary (1 John 2:17). It is all temporary, it is all here today and gone tomorrow. The things of this world are not going to last. The riches and passions of this life will not be here long. They will soon be gone.

John doesn't just state that they will soon be gone, but he here shows us that the entire world system is already in the process of passing away. It is not that it will simply be gone, but that it is already in the process of passing away.

The question is not simply whose will all that stuff be when you die, but why do you want it. It is already passing away. Why do you desire it so much? It is already in the process of decaying. It is temporary and will not be here forever.

My brother and I lived in a house that at one time would have been very nice. It was pretty large, with a second story that had a large bedroom. It had 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. It had solid wood floors and the living room and kitchen were big. But there was a reason why 2 college students could rent it for cheaper than we could live on campus. It was about 100 years old. It once was a beautiful house, but only a few weeks after we left that house to live somewhere else it was torn down and turned into a parking lot. It was in the process of passing away when someone built it, and it completely passed out of existence after I had lived there. But this is the way of all things on this earth. What about that house you love? It is in the process of passing away. What about that car you dream about? It is in the process of passing away. All of the desires for the world and this world system are already passing away. They will all one day be gone.

When Johnny Cash looked back on his life, shortly before he died, he saw how his life had passed away. He saw the fame in his early life and the fragility and loneliness he now lived in and decided to sing a song called "Hurt". As he looks back on his life he sang these lyrics, "What have I become? My sweetest friend, everyone I know goes away in the end. And you can have it all, my empire of dirt." Wow. Cash called everything he had attained in this life an empire of dirt. He saw clearly at the end of his life that it was all fading away. It was already in the process of passing away. Here is a link to the video.

The riches and passions of this life are already passing away. The money that so many people spend their lives seeking will soon be gone, it is already headed that direction. The lusts and sexual desires that so many seem to be seeking will soon be gone. The power that so many people seek in this world will be gone. In the end the proud will be humbled when they find their self-exaltation is ended. The thing that we must understand here is that the person whose desires are wrapped up in this world system will pass away also, eternal death.

R. Dwain Minor

How Do I Know And Do The Will Of God? How Do I Live A Life Really "Experiencing God"?

2011-11-15T11:11:00.001-08:00

I intentionally used the title "Experiencing God". Blackaby's book has been hailed by many as a glorious teaching on knowing the will of God, but is it?

I think this is a question that must be asked. This book has been popular for many years and even today is found to be used by churches all over the country to move people to know and do the will of God. Christians everywhere follow the "Knowing God" model of decision making, it permeates believers thinking. So, it must be examined and carefully thought through.

I believe the passage of Scripture that we must look at when we speak of God's revelation to us presently is Hebrews 1:1-2.

"Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us in His Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world."-Hebrews 1:1-2

What is it that the writer of Hebrews is telling us?

Well, there was a time when God spoke by prophets. If you look back in the Old Testament, you will find that God repeatedly used prophets to proclaim a word to the people of Israel. Oftentimes the prophet would even begin by saying, "Thus saith the Lord". We have also found in the past visions and even a talking donkey. But the writer of Hebrews does not place this in the present time, he places it "long ago". We are to understand that this is the way God did things in the past, not in the present.

So, the most important question concerning this discussion is, how do we hear from God now, if that way was in the past?

God speaks to us now in His Word. The revelation is now complete and it is found in Scripture. Here is a picture of what we are talking about.

It is like you are walking up a dark stairwell and for some reason your flashlight will only shine to the next step and to the steps behind you. That is how God revealed Himself in the Old Testament. The believers were given small bits of information at time, and not the full revelation. Now you reach the top step and you are there. You can now see all around you and down the stairs. This is what the author is saying in Hebrews 1:1-2. Now that Christ has come we have God's full revelation. We can now see clearly what was only a shadow in the past. There was a time when it was done differently, but now God has spoken to us in His Son.

Does this mean that God does not speak to people today? No, that is not what this means. It means that God speaks to us in His Word. God reveals Himself and His will for us through His Word, the revelation of His Son.

I believe that God still speaks to people today, but the means by which He does so is different. God now speaks to us through His Word. Some would ask "what about the Holy Spirit?" My answer would simply be that the Holy Spirit has bound Himself to God's Word. We are not guided by feelings in our gut, visions, open doors, etc. We are directed and guided by the Holy Spirit revealing God's will to us through God's completed and perfect revelation. Our big question is not, give me a sign. Our biggest question is "God, what does your Word say?"

This is where, I believe, Blackaby has missed the boat. It seems that he thinks there has been no change. It seems that he believes that Hebrews 1:1-2 doesn't exist, and that we don't have the full revelation of God. For example, Blackaby states:

"After God spoke to Noah about building an ark, Noah knew the size, the type of materials, and how to put it together. When God spoke to Moses about constructing the tabernacle, He was extremely specific about the details. When God became flesh, He gave specific directions to His disciples-where to go, what to do, how to respond to people who accepted or rejected their message, and what to preach...The Holy Spirit continues to give clear directives today. he will give you unmistakable guidance for your life."1

He goes on to say at the end of the chapter,

"God has always spoken to His people. Today He communicates by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will use the Bible, prayer, circumstances, and other believers to speak to you. The method, however, is not the key to knowing God's voice. You learn to know the voice of God through an intimate love relationship. God may choose to speak in ways that are unique to you. But be assured that He will be able to convince you that you have heard a word from Him."2

Do you notice what the problem is? The problem is God doesn't speak to us in the same way as He did to those in the Old Testament. There is not a 1 for 1 translation of what God did then and now, it is now different. Without a hint of Scripture leading him to this assumption, Blackaby assumes that God reveals Himself to us today the same way He revealed Himself to the saints of the Old Testament. It simply has no Scriptural support.

There doesn't seem to be much of a differentiation between human experience, feelings, liver shivers, possibly gas, and Scripture. Even though Blackaby would say that these feelings are subject to the Word of God, feelings seem to be a close second if not on the same plane as Scripture. He even begins the book by giving a statement about Scripture's authority, but then the very next chapter is entitled "Knowing God by Experience".

This has led people to a very confused state of mind today. Believers often have questions like, "Who will I marry?", "Where should I go to school?", "Where should I work?", and the list can go on and on.

What is the secret to knowing and doing God's will? It is not following your heart or your feelings, for your heart is deceitful and sick, "who can understand it?" (Jeremiah 17:9). Our answer really comes from Scripture.

We read Scripture, study Scripture, and know Scripture and act upon what Scripture teaches to the best of our ability. Where Scripture does not seem to speak directly to the subject we are needing answers, we obey principles taught in Scripture. All the while we understand that God is in control of all things. We cannot go outside of God's plan for us. He accomplishes all of His plans and this includes our lives (Isaiah 46:8-10, Daniel 4:35, Psalm 115:3, Psalm 135:6, Proverbs 16:33, Acts 17:26, Psalm 33:10, James 4:13-15, Lamentations 3:37-38, Amos 3:6-7, Ephesians 1:11). There is not one rebel atom in this universe not doing as God has directed. You cannot go outside of God's plan for your life. God is working out all things that come to pass as part of His plan. Trust that God is working all things after the counsel of His will for the good of His people (Romans 8:28).

We understand Scripture act upon it and trust in God's providence. Here is an example.

How do I find out who I am supposed to marry?

We know from Scripture that believers are not to marry unbelievers (2 Corinthians 6:14). So, all unbelievers are out of consideration. We want a spouse that will fulfill the role that they are called to in the home for a good marriage (Ephesians 5:22-33). We pray for God's help in understanding Scripture and applying it to our decisions then we begin the process of trying to find "the one".

When I decided that I wanted to marry Amanda, I did not have to seek God's secret will on the matter. I can't know God's secret will and plan anyway, why would I seek to know it?. I knew that she was a Christian, loved God, submitted to His Word, I was attracted to her, and loved her. So, I asked her to marry me. Apparently she felt the same way because she said yes and we got married.

How do I know that she was the one that God had chosen for me to be with? That is easy. I got married to her. That is not to make this sound unromantic, but it is the truth. The sovereign God of the Universe had decided long ago that I would be married to Amanda and now I am married to the woman God had planned for me to marry. It was not a mistake, she is the one for me.

What I have laid out here is a very broad and quick way of treating decision making. So, here is Dr. Scott from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary teaching on the subject. He taught one of my seminary classes and helped me to understand many of the areas in decision making where I had gone wrong. Click on the link below to hear this teaching. It is very helpful.

God's Will and Biblical Desicion Making: Dr. Stuart Scott

R. Dwain Minor

1. King, Henry T. Blackaby & Claude V. Experiencing God: Knowing and Doing the Will of God. Rev. & expanded. ed. Nashville, Tenn.: B&H Books, 2008. (pg. 151)
2. King, Henry T. Blackaby & Claude V. Experiencing God: Knowing and Doing the Will of God. Rev. & expanded. ed. Nashville, Tenn.: B&H Books, 2008. (pg. 152)

To Love the World or Not to Love the World Pt. 2: You Cannot Love the World and God

2011-11-15T11:06:00.001-08:00

In 1 John 2:15, John commands believers to not love the world, but what is love and what is John here calling the world?

Love is to be content with something or having our affections set on something. In other words, that which we love is that which we are fond of and devoted to.

When John uses the word "world" here he is talking about the "Kingdom of Darkness", he uses it this way quite often in his writing.

Satan is the ruler of the world-John 12:31; John 14:30; John 16:11
The world is under the control of Satan-1 John 5:19
John helps us to define his usage of the word "world" in this passage as he states, "the lusts of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and boastful pride of life" are what are in the world.- 1 John 2:16

So, now that we know what the world and love are in John's usage, we will look at the first of three reasons not to love the world.

You cannot love God and the world. (1 John 2:15-16)

John is here telling us that love of the world and love of God are both exclusive. If you are going to love God then you cannot love the world. If you are going to love the world then you cannot love God. He really is stating here that it is one or the other. This is so true that we see in 1 John 2:15, that to love the world is to despise the Father. If we love the "Kingdom of Darkness", we despise the Father. One cannot live in both worlds, there really is no straddling the fence, you are on one side of it or the other. You are either a friend of the world and an enemy of God, or you are a friend of God and an enemy of the world. This is not the only time we find this thought in Scripture. Look at the way James says it,

"You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy with God."-James 4:4

Every person begins their lives enemies of God. We are well inside enemy territory, but not opposing God's enemies, we are fighting for them. Every person who has ever been created has begun their lives as enemies of God, yet God made a way for us, His enemies to be called friends. He sent His Son to die on a cross, paying the full punishment for our sins. He bore the full wrath and penalty for being an enemy of God, though He had not sinned and had never rebelled against God. he took that punishment in place of all those who would repent of their sins and believe the gospel. What does it say about Abraham? Abraham believed, he was counted righteous, and he was called a friend of God. We too can be taken from enemy to friend. We too can be called children of God. We too can be taken from the world and made friends of God. Repent and believe.

The things of this world are not from the Father, but from the world. He lists those things that exist within this "Kingdom of Darkness" and shows that they are in stark contrast to God. In fact, they are much of the reason God is set against them. The list is "the desires of the flesh", "the desires of the eyes", and "pride in possessions".

Another way to say "lusts of the flesh" would be to say "passionate longings of the flesh". And he goes further with this when he states "lusts of the eyes". These could be called "passionate longings of the eyes". Pornography and bad thoughts definitely fall into this category. These things are particularly heinous and are part of the "Kingdom of Darkness". This can go further than the sins mentioned to most of what we find on television today and in magazines, etc. Our world has become a "lusts of the flesh" and "lusts of the eyes culture. Everywhere we turn there is more of it. Understand that it is not a good thing. Understand that this is a culture in rebellion against God, even more than many cultures that have gone before. And John is telling us that we cannot love these things, we cannot love the "Kingdom of Darkness" and love God. It is not possible. You can't love one and also love the other.

Saying that one can love God and love the world is saying that it is possible for one to love completely opposite things. It would be like someone saying they love African-Americans and also love racism. It would be like someone saying they love Jews and also love the Holocaust. It is not possible.

Is it not also an impossibility to love God and to love the very thing which He is eradicating from the earth through the death and resurrection of His Son?

A person that lives a pattern of life that shows a love of sin cannot also love God. The person who professes faith in Christ and then spends the rest of his life fulfilling his sinful passions is not truly a believer. Doesn't this make sense? Those who claim to have love for God, yet live in opposition to Him are either lying or don't know what love for God is.

This is not to say that I can tell where someone is going to go after they die. My own heart is so sinful that I cannot even understand myself the way I ought. But a lifestyle of sin, is a pretty sure indicator of whether or not I or anyone else is a believer.

R. Dwain Minor

To Love the World or Not to Love the World

2011-11-15T07:27:00.001-08:00

A man lives a life that can only be described as immoral. He has told his wife that he has extra work to do two nights a week. On those three nights he gets into his car wearing his three piece suit and takes off his wedding ring, hiding it in the console of his car.

Later, when his wife finds out there is no remorse for his sin. He acts as if he has done nothing wrong. In fact, he may even plead that God created him in such a way that he could not be with only one woman. The fact is, he loves his sin and throughout the rest of his life he desires to continue this pattern of life.

More disturbing than this is that this man attends a prominent local church and professes faith in Christ. Is it possible that this man can love his sin and love it enough not to be willing to even think about giving it up, and at the same time love God?

Ultimately as a human being I cannot judge the heart of man, I know this is true. At the same time Scripture does have something to say about these sorts of actions.

Read 1 John 2:15-17 and think about the way you would answer that question. I will write more about this in the following posts.

R. Dwain Minor

An Age Where Everything Is True Becomes An Age With No Truth

2011-11-11T13:01:00.001-08:00

I was on Facebook a few days ago and I noticed a large number of people loving this picture. I should not be surprised at this.

I should not be surprised because this picture encapsulates the very spirit of the age that we live in. We find ourselves in a time period that has been called post-modernity. The emphasis seems to be that everything is true, and at the same time anyone that claims to have found the truth is thought to be arrogant and prideful.

The problem is that when everything is truth nothing is true. We can see this by looking at Mathematics.

2+2=4 is objectively true. Ask any math teacher? They will confirm this for you. The moment that we decide that 3+3=4, 3+2=4, and 3+5=4 is true, because we cannot say that anyone is wrong, we have destroyed truth. There is no hope of ever coming to true knowledge of the truth because everyone has decided you can put any numbers together and it equals 4, because no one is wrong.

The moment that we decide that it is noble to look at people going down different "paths" in their life and state that no one is wrong, we have buried the truth for the time being. We have covered up the truth under a pile of "truths" that are really lies.

My point really is this. Is it really noble to look around and see people going every which way in life and simply say, "Your road's not like mine, but that's o.k.."? Is this noble, or just silly? My vote is for silly.

Not only does this way of thinking betray all human logic, but it betrays the One to whom the path is moving toward.

If God created the Universe and all it contains and is at this time sustaining it, does He not have the right to make a single right path for people travel? Of course He has the right.

Christians understand that this path is Jesus Christ.

All people have offended the holiness of God. They have trampled on His law and they all have a date with His just punishment. All people are owed condemnation, but God made A WAY. Notice that this is singular. This one way is through Jesus Christ. He lived a perfect life and fulfilled all righteousness on our behalf. He also paid the punishment for our sins on the cross as God the Father poured His wrath that was owed believers out on His Son. God showed His approval of the sacrifice by raising Christ from the dead three days later. Here is an excellent explanation from John MacArthur.

Even though God's actions do not seem politically correct, is it not morally correct for God to make one way rather than many? Of course the answer is yes. God can do with His creation as He pleases. And it pleased God to make this one way for us to be saved. Not only did it please God to make one way for us to be saved, if we understand this correctly we see that it is grace and mercy that brought God to make a way for us at all.

The thought that God would make a way for us should overwhelm us. The thought that God made a way for us at great cost to Himself should also overwhelm us.

Rather than questioning God's decision to only make one way, shouldn't we be praising the grace of God for making a way at all?

R. Dwain Minor

Would You Exalt Satan if He Attended Your Church?

2011-11-08T21:34:00.000-08:00

Of course the answer to that question is no. But if the answer is no then why would a "pastor" exalt Oprah at his "church". (Both of the terms "pastor" and "church are here being used lightly. When I say lightly, I mean very lightly.) But it seems that Joel Osteen is at it again, click here.

Many seem to think that Oprah is overall a good person and she is loved all across the country, but one will look long and hard to find a bigger enemy to Biblical Christianity. But Osteen went so far as to call her a "world changer" and "one of the greatest voices of this generation". His introduction of her can be seen here.

But here is the major problem with this introduction. She has been very open about her belief in many ways to salvation and her proclamation of Jesus' death simply as a model for us to live by. She does not hide the fact that she believes that people are to sculpt their best lives here on this earth. We could go on and on about the enemy of the gospel that she has been in this life, but there is simply not enough time to go into that. Here is a video from some time ago where Oprah began to show her true colors. Later her "spirituality" filled with New Age babble became evident and "The Church of Oprah" came into being.

Maybe this is the key to understanding why Osteen would exalt her at his "church".

Osteen wants us to have our "Best Life Now", and preaches works rather than the gospel. I wrote about this in my last post. He has failed on multiple occasions to stand for the truth of God's Word on national television. And although he may not believe in many ways to salvation, he certainly has trouble saying it. This is evident in his interviews with Larry King.

Maybe this is why his church applauded so loudly when Oprah was mentioned. She really isn't much different than what they hear on a week to week basis.

The reason this upsets me so is that in a time when local churches need pastors who will stand up and proclaim the Word of God with boldness and protect their flock from people like Oprah, we see Joel Osteen at it again.

R. Dwain Minor

Is God's Concept Of Blessings the Same as Ours?

2011-11-03T16:15:00.000-07:00

We oftentimes think of blessing as having wealth and being healthy, but is this God's view of blessing?

Sometimes it is. There is no doubt in my mind that sometimes God blesses people in this way. God gives gifts to people. Every good thing anyone has is a blessing. I have been given a tremendous blessing of late which is my son Haddon, and have been blessed more than I could ever imagine with my wife. We have a home, two cars, and a couple of dogs. Despite the fact that both cars couldn't be traded in for $2000, and the dogs can be quite the pain, God has blessed us tremendously. Here is the question we should ask ourselves: Is this always the way God blesses us?

There are some in the "christian" world that would think so. (I placed it in quotations and left it uncapitalized because it is not Christian.) I am thinking right now of the Word-Faith movement. This is made up of people like Kenneth and Gloria Copeland, Jesse Duplantis, and I will argue, Joel Osteen.

These people advocate a form of the Heath, Wealth, and Prosperity Gospel. The major claim of this teaching can be seen from the title. It is that Scripture teaches that the will of God for the believer is health, wealth, and prosperity. The Word-Faith movement is a little different than this. It goes further, and one might say it is a subset of the Health, Wealth, and Prosperity Gospel. The Health, Wealth, and Prosperity Gospel is horrible in itself, but this mess is even worse.

The difference is that one can basically speak their health, wealth, and prosperity into existence if the person has enough faith and they give what is termed a "positive confession". Many people call this "name it and claim it". The thought is that God has already willed that we should have these things, and so it is the believer's for the taking. Simply have enough faith, name it, and claim it. The thought is that God wants to "bless" the believer. The problem with this is that the health wealth and prosperity people, as well as the Word-Faith people get to define what the word "bless" means, rather than God.

An illustration of this might be that you are sick and you have faith that you will be healed, so you say "I am healed", and you speak your own healing into existence. Pretty strange stuff. But one can also see the attractiveness of such teaching. The attractiveness is that this is the very thing the world wants. This is the concept of blessing that the world has. It is the world that thinks that God blesses in this way and only this way. And as I have already stated, they get to define what it means to be blessed, rather than God.

Now, what I and many other people are claiming is that Joel Osteen is not only a Health, Wealth, and Prosperity teacher (that is pretty much a given), but he goes even further stepping into the Word-Fatih realm of teaching. He is not as audacious about it as many are, but he does teach it. Take a look at this statement from Twitter,

"If you believe in faith and keep speaking victory, favor, health, and wholeness, you will see positive changes begin to happen in your life."

Do you see what he has done? If you have the faith and speak victory good things will happen to you. It is a drastic downgrade of the grace of God that is poured out on unworthy sinners. It is also a drastic upgrade of man that somehow gets to choose his own destiny if only he has enough faith. It is sickening once you begin to think about what exactly this means. Osteen has also stated,

"I believe God, Jesus, died that we not just go to heaven but that we excel in this life. ...Just keep [God] in first place and God will open up doors you never dreamed of."

You can read more of this article here. The point is Osteen teaches that if we are good then God will bless us. If we have enough faith then God will bless us, and the insinuation is that God will bless us monetarily in this world. If you are still not convinced here are a few more of his posts from Twitter.

"JoelOsteen: If you believe in faith and keep speaking victory, favor, health and wholeness, you will see positive changes begin to happen in your life."-- http://twitter.com/JoelOsteen/status/113259966852378624 "

"JoelOsteen: When you show honor and recognition where it's due, there is a commanded blessing that God releases back into your own life."--http://twitter.com/JoelOsteen/status/113975452070195200 "

"JoelOsteen: If you will seek God, if you will put Him first and honor Him with your life, His blessings will seek you."--http://twitter.com/JoelOsteen/status/114345404153348096

"JoelOsteen: Faith is what moves God. When you speak in faith and declare God's favor, you activate the power of the Most High."--http://twitter.com/JoelOsteen/status/116489561600819201

You see, Osteen and others like him don't understand that God may have something bigger than big houses and private jets in mind for His children. They don't understand that not all of God's blessings are temporal. They don't understand that sometimes God's blessings come through the hardest situations in life. And we must be careful also, because it is human nature to think of blessing in this way. It is our depraved nature that leads us to think that the only blessings are temporal. We fail to remember that there is much more to life. For the believer your best life is not going to be now, it is going to be later.

Listen to this testimony from Laura Story about her husband and the journey they have been through together. It is the story of why she wrote the song "Blessings".

Trials and hard situations in our lives are not because we don't have enough faith, but as Laura Story so aptly explained here God may be giving a much bigger blessing than complete healing or wealth. In a different interview she stated,

"So we're finding with Martin's disability - he has a visual deficit and a pretty substantial memory deficit; he can't work right now, and can't drive. And those things are hard; they're hard on a daily basis. But there is a reliance that we've had to have on the Lord, if for no other reason just to stay hopeful in a situation like this. But we've learned to trust God, we've learned to cling to that old rugged cross like never before - and there's a blessing that comes in that alone."

The rest of that article can be found here.

This is a blessing that those who go through hard times realize. Interestingly, though she did not state the Scripture, God really does strengthen the believer through hard times. We find in 1 Peter 1:3-9, that it is the hard times and sufferings we endure that strengthen us in this life. God actually uses that to help us to look forward to the life to come and to strengthen us to live a life of faithfulness in this life. There are echoes of this in the song. Here is the song.

R. Dwain Minor

The Glories of Creation

2011-11-02T06:06:00.000-07:00

The earth is the Lord's, and all it contains,

The world, and those who dwell in it.

For He has founded it upon the seas

And established it upon the rivers.

-Psalm 24:1-2-

Oh how big and majestic God is! We serve a sovereign and powerful God who created the earth and owns it. He owns the world and all things that are contained in it, including you and I.

I was reminded of this as I was looking through pictures I had taken while hiking, fishing, and other outdoor activities. The pictures are not the best, but they drove the largeness of God into my mind and heart all over again. It is all His. This vast and marvelous creation is all His. He created it and He owned it all.

When I first came to Arkansas Tech University, here in Russellville, Arkansas, I was taken just outside of town to Mt. Nebo. I was very impressed with the view and took some photos. One of those photos is on the top right. Notice the vast landscape that is seen here. There is another mountain at the farthest point of the photo. There is a river winding out of eyesight. The sun is peeking through the clouds causing rays of light to fall on portions of the landscape. And it is all God's. He owns it all. He created it all and it is His.

Here is a photo from Hemmed-in-Hollow, which is another hiking destination in Arkansas. It is located near Harrison, Arkansas. In the fall a few years ago some friends and I hiked there and I again took some photos. Though this photo is not of a huge and vast area like the photo above the beauty of God's creation is apparent.

There is a pretty high waterfall upstream from this point. There is not a lot of water falling from the highest point, but it gains water as springs feed into that stream and eventually it feeds into the Buffalo River.

Once again I am struck at God's ownership and creation of all things. And I am struck by His creativeness. It doesn't take long for anyone to realize that God is creative as they walk out into the wilderness and see something like a waterfall or some of the crazy animals you can run into in the wilderness.

And here is one last photo. My father and I were out fishing one evening and were leaving as the sun went down. Dad took a picture of the scene as I was driving the boat in. I am in the boat that is in the picture, but if you will notice I am a rather small and almost unnoticed part of the picture. But notice the sunshine being reflected off of the lake and the way the sky is lit up in purple, pink, yellow, and blue.

All of these photos, though they are definitely not professional shots, bring me to a greater understanding of the greatness of God as revealed in His creation. Through nature one can see God's power, creativeness, beauty, and His care for us. You see God could have made a world that had one color. He could have made a flat world for us to live on, but He did not do that. God created the earth with aesthetic beauty. He created a world that screams out His glory and His majesty.

R. Dwain Minor

Simplify And Starve Or Feed And Thrive

2011-11-01T06:55:00.000-07:00

"All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work."-2 Timothy 3:16-17

Notice that when Scripture is rightly taught and rightly understood it is profitable for "teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness". Not only is it profitable in those ways, but when it is rightly taught and understood the result is that the "man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work". What an awesome thought! Scripture will make the believer adequate and equipped for every good work.

There is a problem. There is a famine in the land. It seems that many people do not have confidence that the Word can do what it says it can do. Preachers and teachers of God's Word have been stripping it down to make it more palatable for an unbelieving world that the preaching and teaching of God's Word loses its usefulness. Read this quote from A.W. Tozer:

"We have simplified until Christianity amounts to this: God is love; Jesus died for you; believe, accept, be jolly, have fun and tell others. And away we go-that is the Christianity of our day. I would not give a plug nickel for the whole business of it. Once in a while God has a poor bleeding sheep that manages to live on that kind of thing and we wonder how."-A.W. Tozer, Man: The Dwelling Place of God pg. 136

It sounds harsh, very harsh. But the truth that Tozer is trying to get across to us is tremendous. Christianity is not a simple, dumbed down, palatable, weak, and frail system of beliefs. We have dumbed it down to be something that it is not. Christianity is so much bigger and better than this. God's Word is so much bigger and better than this. There is life and substance to be found in His Word.

The God we worship is Sovereign over all things. He is not a deity that is constantly saddened by the things that are going on in the world. It was all His plan. God is powerful. He is mighty. He is holy. He is righteous. The God of Scripture is far better and far more glorious than the "god" many hear preached about and worship on Sundays. We encounter the true God in Scripture. We encounter God who has spoken to us in His Word. His Word is not weak it is profitable and will make us adequate for every good work.

When there is a little god with a little word preached and taught there will be little sheep starving for nourishment and fighting for survival. But when the Big God of Scripture is preached and taught and His Big Word is delivered the sheep will thrive.

R. Dwain Minor

Christ Is Building A Glorious Family of God: Ephesians 2:19-22 (Unity of the Church 4 of 4)

2011-10-24T21:53:00.000-07:00

Here in the last of the four posts on Christian unity we see that Christ has taken away all barriers to fellowship with other believers and believers with God. Christ has destroyed the barriers that standbetween believers. We also see that Christ is building something bigger and grander than wecould ever imagine (Ephesians 2:19-22).

All believers are brought into the same family. Jew, Gentile, American, Chinese, Indonesian,European, African, and every other people group will be sitting around thebanquet table of the Lord as brothers and sisters. We were at one time “strangers andcitizens”. We lived without citizenshipto God’s Kingdom, but we have been brought near. We are fellow citizens of God’s Kingdom withpeople like Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, Ruth, Elijah, Elisha,David, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the other Old Testament saints. Those people that we hold up as heroes of thefaith will be our fellow citizens. Notonly are we fellow citizens with them, but we are family with them. We are brothers and sisters with them.

Paul here pictures this household as a temple of theLord. The foundation of this temple isthe Word of God (Ephesians 2:20). We cometogether with our very foundation being God’s Word. The very foundation of the Church is the Wordof God.

Some people act as if God’s Word is rather unimportant. They act as if is doctrine, or the teachingsof God’s Word, that divides people. Well, according to Paul it is the very foundation of our beingunited. You want to know why apreacher’s task is so important, it is because he is preaching the veryfoundation of our faith every Sunday. You want to know why it is so important for you to hear God’s Wordpreached Sunday after Sunday, you are hopefully hearing the very foundation ofour faith week after week. You want toknow why it is important to read the Bible; it is the very foundation of ourfaith and the foundation of God’s family. It is to be taken seriously. Itshould be here noted also that true unity comes from standing firmly upon thisfoundation. We only have a false unitywhen we, as a church, do not follow God’s Word. When believe what it says and do what it says then we have trueunity. Otherwise we will not have unitybecause we are not standing upon the foundation that has been laid for us. The foundation of the Church is the sure Wordof God.

The cornerstone that holds all pieces of this templetogether is Christ. And why would wethink that it would be anything or anyone else? It is Christ who is the fulfillment of the first promise of the gospelwe find in Scripture found in Genesis 3:15. He is the one who would come and crush the head of he serpent. It is Christ who is the fulfillment of theOld Testament sacrificial system and ceremonial laws. It is Christ who the prophets foretold wouldbe the Messiah. It is Christ who leftHeaven and came to earth to live the life I could not live and die the death Ishould have died. It is Christ whoconquered the power of sin and death and rose from the dead. It is Christ who is now seated at the righthand of God ascended on High making intercession for us on the right hand ofthe Father. It is Christ who has takenaway all barriers of disunity between us as believers, and it is Christ who hastaken away the barrier between us and God. Why wouldn’t Christ be the cornerstone?

All pieces of this temple are held together by Christ. It is in Him that we have peace with oneanother and it is in Him that we are united to one another. It is in Chris that we have peace with Godand it is in Christ that we have been given access to the Father. All pieces of this glorious temple called theChurch are held together by Him. It isin Christ that this entire building is “being fitted together” (Ephesians 2:21).

In Christ we find the process of God’s family growing. This temple is not completed. There are more coming to faith inChrist. The people within the family ofGod are growing as they grow in holiness. The Church is a living organism that is growing into a holy dwelling ofGod (Ephesians 2:21-22).

We are stones in a temple that is being built. Our foundation is the Word of God, and theentire building is held together by Christ. The temple is glorious now, but it is unfathomable how great it will oneday be.

We are people who are unworthy of such great honor. We lived in disunity and animosity with oneanother, yet Christ removed these barriers. We lived in rebellion against a Holy God, yet Christ moved this barrierfrom us also. And now God has given usthe great privilege of being a part of His family. A family that Christ is building, evenpresently, as all things fit together in Him.

R. Dwain Minor

Christ Has Taken Away The Barrier Between Us And God: Ephesians 2:16-18 (Unity of the Church 3 of 4)

2011-10-24T08:07:00.001-07:00

As we move from the last post we see that not only has Christ established peace between believers themselves, butHe has also established peace with God for all believers (Ephesians 2:16-18).

Christ’s work on the cross was to bring peacewith God to the entire people of God. The barrier that stands between us and God is God's animosity and anger toward us as sinners. We fail to understand this as we ought. There is animosity thatexists between us and God and it had to be removed (Ephesians 2:16).

We are sinners by nature and from birth. And God is holy and does nottolerate sin. To put it a little morebluntly, God is dead set against sin. Doyou see a problem? To fix this problemit is commonly said that God loves the sinner but hates the sin, but thisdoesn’t seem to square with the teaching of Scripture. Let’s look quickly.

“The boastfulshall not stand before Your eyes;

You hate all whodo iniquity.

You destroy thosewho speak falsehood;

The Lord abhorsthe man of bloodshed and deceit.”

-Psalm 5:5-6-

“The Lord is inHis holy temple; the Lord’s throne is in Heaven;

His eyes behold,His eyelids test the sons of men.

The Lord tests therighteous and the wicked, and the one who loves violence His soul hates.

-Psalm 11:5-6-

There is a sense in which God loves the sinner, but there isalso a sense in which God hates the sinner. You see the wrath and anger of God that is poured out on sinners is notimpersonal. It is very personal. God is dead set against sin and sinner andHis wrath and anger will be poured out on them on the Day of Judgment.

Our being sinners has made it impossible for us to have arelationship with God. We are the verything which God hates. We are sinners toour core. The only way for us to havepeace with God is for this barrier to be removed. This passage states that there is enmity, orhostility and hatred that existed between us and God. God also loves sinners, and this is evidentwhen we view the cross. It is becauseGod also loves sinners that we find that this passage also teaches that Christhas established peace with God by removing this barrier.

In the same way that the wrath and anger of God is notimpersonal. And likewise Christ’s death and paying the punishment for sin is notimpersonal. Christ hung on that crossbearing the full weight of my punishment. A Bible Dictionary describes it this way,

“God demonstrated his justice bypunishing sin—but by punishing himself in the person of God the Son, serving asour substitute. God has taken uponHimself the sins of humanity, and thus is able to pronounce us righteous in Hissight.”—Revell Bible Dictionary pg. 829 propitiation

An illustration of this is found in ancient Greek mythology. In ancient Greek thought when bad thingshappened to you it was because the “gods” were angry. If this was the case a propitiatory sacrificecould be offered to appease the wrath and anger of the angry “god” and hisfavor would return to the person who had offered the sacrifice. This is also seen in Greek mythology. Helen, who was the wife of one of the King’ssons, was taken by Paris and this started the Trojan War. As he fleet was about to leave the wrath ofthe “goddess” Artemis caused there to be a plague and lack of wind. A prophet states that the only way for thewrath of Artemis to be taken away is for the sacrifice of Agamemnon’sdaughter. Agamemnon was leading thefleet that was to attack Troy. He hadhis daughter sacrificed for the removal of the wrath of Artemis, the plague waslifted and the winds began to blow and they eventually made it to Troy to fightthe Trojan War. The wrath of Artemis hadbeen appeased.

The wrath and anger of God is less arbitrary than we find inGreek mythology, but the idea is the same. Christ’s sacrifice appeases the wrath of God for us, thus allowing Hisdivine favor to fall upon us. Thedifference is that Christ is bearing our sins and paying the punishment for oursin, rather than an arbitrary sacrifice.

Christ hung on that cross bearing the full weight of mysin. Christ hung on that cross bearingthe full weight of punishment for every one who would ever believe. Christ died bearing the full weight of thedivine wrath of God standing in my place, taking every bit of punishment that Iowed. All of the fury and anger of God thatshould have fallen upon me fell upon Him. Christ bore the wrath of God in my place, so that the barrier of thewrath and anger of God could be removed. Christ’s punishment appeased the wrath and anger of God. We broke the law and Christ paid our fine. And so, we find, it is here at the cross thatGod’s justice and mercy meet. God’swrath is poured out on Christ, and His love is shown in that He made a way forus who deserved His wrath to be free. Christ“put to death” this anger and wrath of God removing the barrier that we couldnot remove on our own. And He did notjust do this for the Gentile, but for the Jew also.

The circumcision accomplished by human hands did not take awayGod’s wrath toward mankind. Theslaughtering of animals for the remission of sins was an act of faith on thepart of God’s people. The actualpunishment that paid for their sin was the death of Christ on the cross. God looked forward to the death of His sonand counted their debt as paid (Romans 3:23-26). For the believers of Paul’s day and our dayGod looks back in time to the punishment on Calvary and counts our sin debt aspaid. It is through this one man and Hislife, death, and resurrection that we find forgiveness of sins. Paul has this in mind when he quotes a fewdifferent Old Testament passages (Ephesians 2:17).

Peace was preached to those who were far away, theGentiles. Peace was also preached tothose who were near, the Jews. Peacewith God for both Jew and Gentile has been achieved through the death of Christon the cross. It is through Christ andChrist alone that peace with God has been achieved. Nothing that we could ever do could bring uspeace with God. It is through Christ andChrist alone that we could ever have peace. It is through Christ and Christ alone that anyone could ever besaved. Jew and Gentile alike findthemselves in the same position, totally lost and at war with God and in needof the only way that the hostility can be removed. Therefore peace through the cross of Christhas been preached to both Jew and Gentile. It is through Christ’s work that we have peace and we have access to theFather through the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 2:18).

The peace that we find with God because of the work ofChrist is not simply a removing of hostile relations between us and God but italso grants us access in one Spirit to the Father. We have the ability to “boldly approach thethrone of grace” (Hebrews 4:16). Christhas paid the full punishment that we owed. His payment was perfect. There isno more guilt, no more condemnation, and no more reason to fear the wrath ofalmighty God. Christ’s perfect andrighteous life has been credited to our account. So, not only do come to the Father withoutsin, but we also come to Him clothed in the perfect righteousness ofChrist. The work of Christ has broughtus to a position in which we can approach God. We can have a genuine relationship with God. We have been made acceptable to God throughthe work of Christ and because of the work of Christ we can be assured of Hislove and good favor toward us.

We find that we approach God in one Spirit, The HolySpirit. God loved His people and wantedto bring them to Himself. He sent Hisonly Son to live the life we couldn’t live and die the death we should havedied. And He has given every believerHis Spirit which Paul has already mentioned in this letter as the seal andguarantee of our persevering until the end (Ephesians 1:14). The point here is that God did not giveindividual believers a different “spirit”. God has given Jew, Gentile, African American, Caucasian American,Latino, European, or any other nationality the same Spirit. All believers are indwelt by the Third Personof the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. And allbelievers can approach knowing that God has declared them righteous because ofthe work of Christ and they are indwelt by the Holy SpiPeace with God for every person that ever haspeace with God comes the same way, through Christ. Where then is our boasting? Why do we think that our opinion is worthmore than someone else’s opinion in the Church and why do we think it is worthfighting for? Why do we let pride guidethe way we act? What have we ever doneto allow us to have so much pride? Christ completely and totally accomplished our salvation on ourbehalf. We had nothing to do withit. What reason do we have forboasting? The point is we don’t have anyground for boasting. We all findourselves in desperate need of a Savior. We all come to God through Christ. This should move us to humility, not pride.

R. Dwain Minor

Christ Has Taken Away The Barrier To Unity With Other Believers: Ephesians 2:11-15 (Unity of the Church 2 of 4)

2011-10-22T14:00:00.000-07:00

Christians are united in Christ. This is what we find Paul stating here. Their uniting is based solely on Christ and Christ alone. Read Ephesians 2:11-15.

In the Old Testament there was a major division among Jewand Gentile. God had called to Himself apeople that would be separate. Thedividing wall that stood between Jew and Gentile was greater than any divisionwe could ever imagine between races or social classes of people today. In fact, one scholar writing in the 1960’sstated that,

“No iron curtain, colour bar, class distinctionor national frontier of today is more absolute than the cleavage between Jewand Gentile was in antiquity”.-FF Bruce

God had set apart a people for Himself, and Paul reminds thechurch at Ephesus of this very fact. Thechurch was made up of Gentiles and Paul tells them to look back at their formerstate Ephesians2:11-12.

Paul reminds them that at one time they were Gentiles in theflesh called the “uncircumcision” by the “circumcision”. They were not God’s people, and they weretold that by those who were God’s people. They were “gentiles in the flesh”. They were born outside of the covenant of God and were looked at as suchby the Jews who were part of God’s covenant people.

Circumcision was the sign of participation in the covenantthat God made with Abraham. Even though,as Paul here points out, it was performed by human hands, it was the physicalsign of the covenant God had made with Abraham. And it is upon this promise given to Abraham that the covenant blessingsof God hang.

God had promised thatAbraham’s seed would be a great multitude, that Abraham’s seed would live inthe Promised Land, and that all the nations would one day be blessed byAbraham’s seed. The sign of thiscovenant was circumcision, which was accomplished by human hands. Even so, it was the physical sign that one was inthe covenant of grace that God had given Abraham, and the Gentiles were bornseparated from this covenant.

Not only were they separated from the physical sign of God’scovenant, but they were completely and totally separate from Christ Himself (Ephesians 2:12). They were completely and totallyseparate from all covenant benefits. They began their lives excluded from the commonwealth of Israel. They did not have the benefit of being God’schildren. They were not citizens in Hiscovenant community. Because of theirbeing born Gentiles they were strangers to the covenants and promise (Ephesians 2:12). God had made the everlastingcovenant with Abraham, but it was not for them. The covenant was for Abraham and his children. The Gentiles found themselves outside of thecovenant grace of God, and outside of the covenant love of God. And they like every other pagan that has everroamed the earth found themselves “without God in the world”.

But now in Christ Gentiles have been brought near by theblood of Christ (Ephesians 2:13). You see, thepromise to Abraham was for himself and his seed, but repeatedly we see that allnations of the earth will be blessed through him. We find the fulfillment of this in Christ,who has made a way for the Gentiles to be brought into this covenantrelationship alongside Jewish believers. It is through the gospel that Christ has brought the Gentile near. It is through the gospel that we as outsidersare brought into the covenant relationship with God and His people.

Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity, came toearth and lived a perfect life, fulfilling all righteousness on ourbehalf. He lived the life that we arerequired to live, perfect and completely set apart to God. He kept every law, loved God completely, andalways had the right attitude throughout His life. He fulfilled every requirement that God had made. Then, Christ bore the fullpunishment for our sin on the cross. Hepaid the punishment that was owed for my sin.

I am credited with His righteous life because He lived a perfectlife. I am forgiven of my sin because Hepaid the full punishment for my sin. Thework of Christ has brought us into this covenant of grace alongside of the Jewwho has also submitted to Christ.

But Christ’s work was not a simple bringing Gentiles intothe covenant. Christ made the believing Jewand believing Gentile into one (Ephesians 2:14). Christhas now brought peace and unity into the relationship between Jew and Gentilewhere there once was disunity and strife. On the cross Christ tore down the dividing wall that stood between Jewand Gentile.

What is the dividing wall that Christ tore down between Jewand Gentile?

It is the “Law ofcommandments contained in ordinances”. Christ fulfilled the ceremonial law of God. No more are we required to slay animals forthe remission of sins. No more are werequired to be circumcised. No more is aperson considered unclean for the food that he eats. The Israelites were required to be separatefrom all other people’s of the earth in these regards, but now the dividingwall of the “Law of commandments contained in ordinances” has been torn down.

Christ fulfilled the law completely and Hefulfilled all of the Law, not just the ceremonial law for all who wouldbelieve. The Israelites could not keepthe law completely and the Gentile didn’t even know it existed, yet Christ fulfilledthe law for both and broke down the dividing wall. He abolished in His flesh the enmity put inplace by the ceremonial law (Ephesians 2:15). Christ,through His bloody death on the cross, has taken away the hostility and hatredthat previously existed between those who would be God’s people. Christ has torn down the dividing wall.

For us here today, we see that Christ has torn downeverything that should ever divide us. There are no more divisions between us. We all come as Gentiles drawn near to God by the blood of Christ. Yet we choose to divide over much moreminiscule issues than those that divided the Jew and Gentile.

Christ has broken down the barriers thatexist between us as different races. Christ has broken down the barriers that exist between us coming fromdifferent cultures. Christ has brokendown the barriers that existed between us in financial statuses. We have all been drawn near to God by thework of Christ.

None of us have anadvantage over the other one. And whoare we to erect barriers to fellowship, when Christ came to earth and died totake away the barriers that exist. Whoare we to not speak with people of different ages or monetary status than us,when Christ Himself came to unite us as one body. Christ died to make us one. Christ died to perfectly unite the childrenof God into one great fellowship of believers. And he accomplished that goal.

For us to create and spur on division in the church is forus to rebuild a wall that has already been torn down that inhibits purefellowship from occurring. Deciding tofight and live in discord with one another is like re-erecting the Berlin Wallwhich divided East and West Germany and was torn down in 1990. It was already torn down and destroyed. The same goes for our sinful fightings anddiscord in the church, it has already been torn down. We have been made one in Christ; don’tre-erect the walls of discord and disunity that has already been torndown. We are to live in the peace andunity that Christ has already established.

R. Dwain Minor

Ephesians 2:11-22 (Unity of the Church 1 of 4)

2011-10-21T22:50:00.000-07:00

In my lifetime I have attended a church that looked healthy to an on looking world, but didn’t really fellowship with one another. I have attended two churches where there were cliques who didn’t really speak with one another. I have attended churches that had major clashes between the young members and the old members. At one of those churches the older and younger members seemed to fight over everything. I have attended a church that disintegrated into fighting until the church almost had to close its doors. The point is, I have attended churches that have had a lot of disunity. But is this the way things are supposed to be?

Read Ephesians 2:11-22 and think on the unity that the Church has in Christ. I will post more later. This is the first of four posts on the unity of the Church found in Ephesians 2:11-22. Note that unity of the Church has already been established. I will argue that it is our sinfulness that erects barriers, disunity, and discord in a local congregation.

R. Dwain Minor

What Is The End Goal of All of Our Preaching, Teaching, and Discipleship?

2011-10-17T18:00:00.000-07:00

Why do we preach God's Word? Why do we teach God's Word? What is the goal that we are to be moving toward? Is the goal simply to make converts to the faith? It is good for us to have goals. If we do not have goals we do not know where we are going.

After I had graduated High School a couple of friends and I decided we were going to go to Gulf Shores. We had fun on the trip, but we left without really knowing where we were going. We knew the cities we would go to, but we didn't book any hotels in advance, we just drove. The plan was to go to Biloxi, Mississippi, then New Orleans, Louisiana (we realized when we got there it was no place for 3 young Baptist boys), then spend a few days in Gulf Shores, Alabama. We had no problems on our first two stops, then when we made it to Gulf Shores we were too young to be in any of their hotels. They needed identification and none of us were 21. We drove for quite a while stopping at every hotel, even driving into Florida to find a place to stay. Finally we found one place that would take us in. But my thoughts were, "did we drive all this way only to find no final destination?".

That is what the teaching and preaching of God's Word can seem like if we don't have the right goal in mind. We may seem to wander aimlessly with no direction. So, as we prepare messages and lessons, as we preach and teach what are we attempting to do? What is the goal preachers and teachers of God's Word should aspire to?

"Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all His energy that He powerfully works within me."-Colossians 1:28-29

The goal is not simply conversions. The goal is not simply to be uplifting to all the people present. The goal is to "present everyone mature in Christ".

This is the goal of every teacher and preacher in a congregation is to move the believer to grow in maturity bringing to be more and more like Christ. The goal is for every believer in our congregations to stand in front of our Glorious Lord and for Jesus to look at them, size them up and say that they look a lot like Him.

Our goal is to "present everyone mature in Christ".

R. Dwain Minor

Oh, The Difference A Good Purpose Statement Can Make

2011-10-14T15:22:00.000-07:00

There is a misconception in a lot of churches today that seems to be a noble thing and is repeated by pastors as much as those outside of the pulpit. The misconception is that the purpose of the Church is evangelism. Don't get me wrong, evangelism is important. In fact, it is of utmost importance, but it is not the purpose of the Church.

Dictionary.com states the definition of the word "purpose" as, "the reason for which something exists or done, made, used, etc."

The purpose for which the church exists is to glorify God. The singular reason for which the church exists is to glorify God. There are many other things that we do that fit into that main purpose. All of those things glorify God.

We gather together on a weekly basis to hear God's Word preached. Both God's Word preached and our hearing of God's Word preached are to glorify God. We are to worship God (Luke 4:8, John 4:23), this glorifies Him. We are to love one another (John 13:35, Philippians 1:1-4), this brings glory to God as an onlooking world sees how we relate to one another. We are to help one another (Galatians 6:2), this glorifies Him. We are to be baptized and partake of the Lord's Supper (Luke 22:19-20), these both glorify Him. We as the people of God grow in holiness. We grow to be more and more Christ-like throughout our lives. The world sees our good deeds and God is glorified (Matthew 5:16, 1 Peter 2:12). We have jobs and we are to do them in such a way that glorifies God (Colossians 3:23) We raise our families in the fear and admonition of the Lord, this also glorifies God. In fact, we are supposed to do everything to the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31). There is not to be a single facet of our lives that does not glorify God. Evangelism fits into this category also. We tell people about Jesus and that fits into our purpose of glorifying God (Matthew 28:18-20). Evangelism glorifies God as His name is spread to all the nations.

You may be asking yourself right now, "Why is this important?". Well, I am glad you asked. Here are a few examples of things that go on in local churches and how understanding our purpose will help.

For a long time a lot of people and a lot of local churches have claimed that their purpose is to "get people saved." We can do things differently as long as we "get people saved". What is meant by that is the purpose of the church is to get people into the building and for them to make a profession of faith. The truth of the profession doesn't really matter much, just get them to ask Jesus into their heart or to say "yes" at the right questions. The point is when the purpose is moved off kilter then we act off kilter. This can be seen in the way we look at church and the actions that come out of this wrong view.

Pastors worry about what they can or can't say because they think the purpose of the church is to "get people saved". They limit their message to something for lost people rather than giving God's people a good diet and attempting to teach all that is written in God's Word. This means that a pastor essentially gives the same message to his congregation week after week. He doesn't get into any weighty matters in his preaching because in his mind those messages are for people that are believers, and he is preaching for decisions. He may even say that the flock is to feed themselves, when in fact it is the pastor's job to feed his flock.

Another interesting thing that has happened of late is that pastors think they are being obedient if they draw a crowd. Their purpose, they believe, is to bring people in and share the gospel with them. The glory of God is put on the back burner for numbers and the number of people making a profession of faith. The pastor attempts to showcase himself to get people in and "get people saved". They go to extraordinary lengths to accomplish this feat. Oftentimes they try to be rebellious and provocative to get people in. There are even some who are so bad that they call their church services PG-13. Just so you understand this let me say it this way. Their language is so bad that children are not allowed to be in the church service. No one under age 13 is allowed to enter.

Crazy antics have been used for many years in youth and children's departments where it has been noted time and time again that these ministries are oriented toward entertainment and not the Word of God. The problem has been quite evident as most youth and children that make professions of faith leave the faith never to return. Maybe they came to a big rock concert and prayed the sinner's prayer as every head was bowed and every eye was closed. Maybe they made a profession of faith at a VBS one week during the summer that was geared toward entertainment and getting a profession of faith out of the little kids. The point is they are not in the church anymore. And their not being in church gives us proof that they were never really believers to begin with (1 John 2:19).

Whatever happened we see that they were in an entertainment driven group that packed a lot of people in a building but did not bring them to a true knowledge of their sin and rebellion against God and the perfect salvation found in Christ.

If the purpose is to "get people saved" and numbers these tactics may seem acceptable, but if the purpose is God's glory then the pastor should be preaching "the whole counsel of God" (Acts 20:27), and doing it in such a way that God is glorified. If God's glory is the purpose then we will not think it a small thing to preach the wrong gospel to our people. We will actually find it to be quite offensive. And if it is God's glory that is the goal then we will endeavor to not only preach the gospel correctly, but to preach and teach in such a way that equips the flock and spurs them on to good works.

Paul Washer does a very good job of explaining the problem that comes about when a pastor is not preaching the whole counsel of God and is leading a rather carnal ministry in order to get bodies into the building.

We as believers are to grow in holiness and the church is to hold us accountable in holiness (Matthew 18:15-20, 1 Corinthians 5:12-13). This fits into God's glory as being the purpose, but really does not work well if the purpose is to "get people saved". The logic goes like this. If we do that in our church people will get angry and leave. And they are probably correct, but we will have been obedient and this local church will honor and glorify God in her being set apart and not acting like the culture.

Now, the very important question is, "Where does evangelism fit in this picture if it is not the church's purpose?"

Evangelism is one of the most important of the tasks given to the local church. It was part of Jesus' marching orders before He left the earth.

And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."-Matthew 28:18-20

Is this important? Absolutely. Should we all be engaged in evangelism? Absolutely. Should this task omit the others? No.

If a church is going to live out glorifying God as they ought they will not allow evangelism to become the sole reason their church exists. They will exist for the glory of God and will evangelize, but will also spend much time "making disciples" and growing in grace.

Evangelism itself also has to be done to the glory of God. There are ways that evangelism is done that do not glorify God. One of those ways is torturing people into making a profession of faith, as was done by the Catholic Church in the Spanish Inquisition. This is not really an issue in our day and age, but we still find less than godly methods of evangelism in our day and age. Similar to torturing people for a decision is psychologically coercing people into making decisions. Here is a terrible instance on video of a group psychologically coercing children into making a decision.

Of course they want Jesus to be their best friend. They want to be everybody's best friend. But children are not the only ones that are psychologically coerced into making a decision for Christ. Adults find themselves in auditoriums with the same song playing for what seems like hours with every head bowed and every eye closed asking them to recite a prayer when God calls us to repent of our sins and believe the gospel. What is being done in this instance? Well, it is not biblical evangelism. It is not God glorifying. There may be a few true believers that come out of these instances, but it is creating a large number of false-converts. And worst of all it does not bring glory to God.

If our evangelism is less than biblical it is not God's message and we are not doing it to the honor and glory of our Lord. If our message is not Christ's life, death, burial, and resurrection with a response of repentance and faith then we are making up our own message. We persuade people to come to Christ, we plead with people to come to Christ, but the message stays the same. That is God glorifying evangelism.

There is something quite ironic in all of this. The irony in all of this is that if a church sets its sights on doing all of the things a church is called to do, it will be better at evangelism. When the people are taught the Word of God, they are more capable of preaching God's Word to the lost. This may mean that the pastor actually evangelizes less because he is spending his time studying to teach, but he is ending up with more boots on the ground doing evangelism. More work gets done this way than one man could ever do on his own. He has equipped a church to do the work they have been called to do.

What a novel idea, doing it the way the Bible teaches.

R. Dwain Minor

Are Mormons My Brothers And Sisters In Christ?

2011-10-12T19:00:00.000-07:00

I am really quite unsure of why this is even an issue. The very beginning of Mormonism insists that they are in disagreement with Orthodox Christianity. Insisting that the Bible had been changed and now full of errors, Joseph Smith claimed to have received new revelation from God. This new revelation was true and Scripture was not. From the very beginning it is a denial of Christian Orthodoxy, stating that it is a restoration of the true faith.

So, it would seem, from the very beginning it was the Mormon who separated themselves from the Christian. This seems to be a very clear separation on their part, but for whatever reason they are still seeking the acceptance of Christians and this has been in the news a lot lately. So, I thought I would link to some interesting articles on this topic. This will allow you to get informed about this big question that has become prominent yet again.

Here are some articles from Albert Mohler. He is the president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Here is an article about a debate entitled "Are Mormon's Christians?". There is also a link that allows one to find the actual debate, click here. Here is a second article over the same debate, click here.
Here is an article on Mormonism and how it should inform voters in the upcoming elections, click here.

Here is an article from Denny Burk that asks the question, "Is Mormonism a Cult?". He defines the term cult this helps us to understand the question, and looks at a few of the claims of Mormonism to answer the question, click here.

Here is a very helpful article from Kevin DeYoung called "Mormonism 101", click here.

The most helpful of the articles I will link to are from James White at Alpha and Omega Ministries. If you are truly interested in this question it would benefit you greatly to read through these articles.

The first article has to do with a portion of Joseph Smith's "Explanation" of Facsimile #2 in The Book of Abraham. If you don't have a clue what that is it is explained in the article, so don't worry. Just click here.
Here is a very helpful chart that explains the difference in what the word grace means when a Mormon uses it and when a Christian uses it, click here.
Mormon's will at times claim that the early church taught what they teach. Here is an article with citations from the Early Church Fathers that shows just how untrue that claim really is, click here.
The LDS church claims that Jesus is not eternal. In fact, many of their writings have gone so far as to state that Jesus was begotten physically by the Father, click here. Sounds strange, it will sound even stranger and more outlandish after you read what major people in the LDS church has written on the topic.
Here is an article about the twisting of 1 Corinthians 8:4-6 to fit LDS Theology by Joseph Smith that exists even today in the teaching of the LDS Church, click here.

The question is not a question of whether or not the Mormon has the right to be a Mormon, they do. The question is can they legitimately be called Christian. Does Scripture condone Mormonism? Does Scripture bestow upon Mormon's eternal life? These are the questions we must ask. And the answer to both of these questions is a resounding "no".

R. Dwain Minor

Can The Person Who Is Living In Rebellion And Sin Be Assured Of Their Salvation?

2011-10-07T06:52:00.000-07:00

Salvation is not simply a "Get Out of Hell Free Card". God does not simply rescue us from our condemnation, but He rescues us from sin. Here is a quotation that sums this thought up very well.

"Christ Jesus did not come in order that you might continue to sin and escape the penalty of it; He did not come to prevent the disease of being mortal, but to take the disease itself away. Many people think that when we preach salvation, we mean salvation from going to Hell. We do not mean only that, but we mean a great deal more; we preach salvation from sin; we say that Christ is able to save a man; and we mean by that He is able to save him from sin and to make him holy; to make him a new man. No person has any right to say, "I am saved," while he continues in sin as he did before. How can you be saved from sin while you are living in it? A man that is drowning cannot say he is saved from the water while he is sinking in it; a many that is frost-bitten cannot say, with any truth that he is saved from the cold while he is stiffened in the wintry blast." -Charles Haddon Spurgeon

With this being said, I watched a very good sermon this morning from Tom Schreiner on Galatians 6:7-8 speaking of this very topic, so here it is.

R. Dwain Minor

A Picture of God’s Holiness And The Pride and Rebellion of Man: Leviticus 10

2011-10-03T10:59:00.000-07:00

We live in a day and age where tolerance and indiscriminate acceptance is said to be the mark of the good person. If you are going to be accepted in today's society this is how you will act. Strike out on your own, be an individual, find yourself, and don't listen to authority are all slogans for today's day and age. We are expected to accept all of this and even to act this way.

Today's values don't have room for a God who is holy and righteous and stands over all of His creation as the Great Judge. So, people have created a "god" that better suits them. This happens even in our churches.

"The "god" which the vast majority of professing Christians "love" is looked upon very much like an indulgent old man, who himself has no relish for folly, but leniently winks at the "indiscretions" of youth. But the Word says, "Thou hatest all workers of iniquity" (Psalm 5:5). And again, "God is angry with the wicked every day" (Psalm 7:11)-A.W. Pink The Attributes of God

The one true God is not an indulgent old man in the sky. The God of Scripture is holy and righteous. He does not tolerate sin and He will not allow for His holiness and glory to be trampled on by the whims of prideful and arrogant people.

The Almighty-we cannot find him; He is great in power; justice and abundant righteousness He will not violate. Therefore men fear Him; He does not regard any who are wise in their own conceit"-Job 37:23-24

God is holy and He will protect His holiness. We will see this in the story of Nadab and Abihu in Leviticus 10.

God has been laying down guidelines for how He is to be worshiped. God has been giving the people of Israel a precise set of rules for the sacrificial system that would now be put in place. These rules would govern how God was to be worshiped Christ. This sacrificial system was fulfilled in Jesus Christ and so, it has now been done away with, but this is how God was to be worshiped in the Old Testament.

We find in Leviticus 9 that Aaron offered the sin offering to God and an amazing thing happens. The glory of the Lord showed up and all the people fell to their faces in awe of their Holy God. We see this in Leviticus 9:22-24.

This sets the stage for what will happen next.

The Prideful Arrogance Of Setting Aside The Lord's Commands (Leviticus 10:1)

God has made commands and He intends for us to follow them, and He has exercised this right with Nadab and Abihu. God can demand to be worshiped however He pleases. As the Creator God owns all things that exist. It is all His. And not only does He own it all, He sustains it. Everything that exists owes its existence to God and it also owes its continuing existence to God. He has rights and can demand whatever He wants of any being that He desires.

We see, in this instance, that God has already given His commands on how to offer fire at the altar of incense. This can be found in Exodus 30:9, 30:34-38. We are not given the exact trespass, but we see that they offered "Strange fire before the Lord which He had not commanded them." In looking at the passages in Exodus, it is likely that they took coals from the burnt offering and placed it on the altar of incense, but we cannot know for sure. This is simply because we are not told the exact offense. What we can know is what the author told us and that is that Nadab and Abihu offered "strange fire before the Lord which He had not commanded them." They had enough arrogance and pride to think that they could come and worship the God of the Universe at His altar in the place where He dwelt their way instead of His. This seems to be the height of prideful arrogance.

The sin of Nadab and Abihu seems somewhat innocent. It seems like it could have been a simple experiment. They had just witnessed the glory of the Lord in chapter 9, maybe they thought they could see it again, using their own means. If this was the case maybe they genuinely wanted to worship the Lord. We are not given the answer as to why they did such a thing. But we can see in this passage that the great sin of Nadab and Abihu is not simply that they broke on of God's commands, but that they thought more highly of themselves and their own thoughts than the thoughts of God.

They did something that seems so extraordinarily outrageous that we can't believe what they have done. The had exalted themselves to a place higher than they should have and at the same time degraded God. They did this in their own minds enough that they thought it was acceptable to walk into the presence of God and offer the sacrifices their way instead of His. Worshiping God and serving Him our way and not His way is disobedience and it is an act of prideful arrogance. It is offering strange fire to the Lord and expecting Him to accept it.

Yet, we worship and serve God our way even today. Here are a few examples.

Evangelism is something that we are commanded to do, and should be doing a lot of. But evangelism that does not give the message of salvation as Christ's life, death, burial, and resurrection calling men to repent and believe the gospel is a disobedient way of serving the Lord. When an evangelist walks up to someone and simply asks them to "ask Jesus into their heart", and does not call them to repentance and faith they are offering strange fore to the Lord. They are acting as if they are doing the Lord's work when in fact it is a strange fire and is not the message that God has commanded us to deliver. We tell the world about Christ's life, death, burial, and resurrection and call men to repent and believe the gospel. Everything else is strange fire offered to the Lord. Strange fire that He has not commanded.

We also see this in much of parenting in the church. When parents become so busy with church activities that they do not have time to raise their children in the fear and admonition of the Lord they are in disobedience. Parents are to raise their children in the fear and admonition of the Lord. AWANA's, Children's Church, Youth, and Sunday School are lousy parents. They are not supposed to be your children's parents. We are to teach our children about the Lord at home and becoming so busy that you do not have time to do it yourself is offering strange fire to the Lord. This is particularly deceptive because it is easy to think that we are doing the right thing when we work at church, but if we are working here during the week and not giving the time needed to our family then we are offering strange fire to the Lord that He has not commanded.

And it is not just wrong worship and service to Him that God does not tolerate. We find in the totality of Scripture that it is sin in general that God does not tolerate. But in the sin of Nadab and Abihu we find that they had disregarded the Word of the Lord in how He was to be worshiped.

God Opposes The Arrogance Of Disobedience: The Wrath Of God In Protecting His Holiness (Leviticus 10:2-11)

God is not an indulgent old grandfather figure. He is holy. He is completely separate from us. He is not like us. We tolerate sin constantly, even within our own lives and God will not have it in His presence. He does not tolerate sin. And we see this in God's response to the "strange fire".

What is sin? The best definition of sin would be the Bible's definition of sin and that is found in 1 John 3:4. Sin is lawlessness. Sin is doing something illegal or contrary to the law. It is acting without regard to the law.

In Scripture we find God's moral law that all the world is held accountable and expected to follow. This is summarized in the Ten Commandments. We find that most of the Old Testament case laws are that culture's outworking of the Ten Commandments. We also find God's commands for God's children. We see how we are to relate to other believers. We see how God has commanded us to handle sin in the church. We see how God has commanded that we live in light of God's promises. Any time we go against God's Word and His command we are acting in a lawless manner. We are acting without regard to His command.

One thing that is very clear in this passage is that God does not tolerate a disregard for His rule (Leviticus 10:2). When Nadab and Abihu offered the strange fire that had not been commanded God did not wait for an explanation before bringing His judgment upon them. God did not overlook the sin because of their being Aaron's sons. If anyone was to be favored it would be Aaron's sons. God did not wink at the indiscretion of a couple of young people. God is holy and God is righteous. He immediately killed Aaron's two sons bringing divine retribution to the defense of His holiness.

We also see that God is holy and will be treated as such by those who draw near to Him and honored by all. Those who draw near to Him is specifically speaking of the preisthood in this passage of Scripture. It is those who would offer sacrifices to the Lord.

Aaron went to Moses, probably to complain as had happened in the past. Moses had gone and plead with the Lord on behalf of the people before. It seems that Aaron went to Moses for this purpose again, but the results are probably not what Aaron expected (Leviticus 10:3). Moses did not sympathize or empathize with Aaron. Moses simply said "This is what the Lord said", and began to tell Him what God had said.

God's command was violated by Aaron's sons. God had said that He would be treated as holy, and when Aaron's sons offered this strange fire they were not treating God as holy. They were acting without regard to God's command. They were acting without regard to His Word. And they were acting with arrogance toward God, God would not treat it as a small thing. This act was seen to be a particularly heinous crime against the Lord. It happened where the presence of God dwelt. It was an arrogant offering to the Lord, and rather than His holiness be violated God brought divine justice upon these two young men and upheld His holiness.

This is what we should expect God to do. This is how we should expect Him to react, because of God were to simply wink at sin and sweep it under the rug we would no longer be morally pure.

"Indifference to sin is a moral blemish, and he who hates it not is a moral leper. How could He who is the Sum of all Excellency look with equal satisfaction upon virtue and vice, wisdom and follw?-A.W. Pink The Attributes of God

The person who does not hate sin is morally sick. Why would we expect our God to act that way? But He is not like us is he? He is completely and totally separate from us. He is holy. The very foundation of His rule is righteousness and justice (Psalm 89:14), and He will not give these characteristics away. He will defend and uphold His holiness.

And what is the reaction that we have to God's judgment? We stand with mouths stopped at the judgment of God for His judgement is good and His judgment is true. Aaron lost two of His sons in this incident. Yet, after hearing from Moses his reaction was not to spout off an excuse. His reaction was not to get angry and rebel against God and Moses, but rather he "kept silent" (Leviticus 10:3). "Aaron kept silent". His mouth had been stopped by the holy judgment of God. This is the same reaction that we have at the judgment of God. He is holy and His just and His judgments are good and true. We will all one day see the great judgment of God. We will not argue with God about His sending people to eternal condemnation. We will praise Him for His goodness, righteousness, and justice. We ill not look upon God as if He has made a mistake, we will see that His judgment is good, righteous, and true.

If we were honest we would say that we do not want God to be fair with us. Fair would be for God to condemn us to eternal punishment the first moment we sin against Him. The fact that you can read this blog tells me that God has treated you unfairly. You should be dead.

There will be one type of person in Heaven, the one God has been unfair with and given them grace. There will likewise be one type of person in Hell, the one God has been fair with and given them their just due. We will not complain of God's righteous judgment when this happens for it is good and true. We, like Aaron stand with mouths stopped at the righteous judgment of God.

This thought process is hard to understand, because we do not understand the heinousness of sin. Rebellion and sin against God is a most heinous of evils and is punished as such (Leviticus 10:4-5). Not only were Aaron's sons struck dead, but Moses ordered their bodies to be taken outside of the camp. Outside of the presence of God.

The tabernacle sat in the middle of the twelve tribes of Israel. They encircled the tabernacle. This meant that the presence of God was equal distance from all twelve tribes of Israel. Outside of the twelve tribes of Israel is said to be outside of the presence of God. These two young men were not only struck dead by God but were to be carried outside of the presence of God. Their sin was so heinous that their bodies were to be treated as the leftover ashes of the animal sacrifices to the place where the scapegoat was sent. One animal was slaughtered for the sin offering and one animal was sent out into the wilderness after the priest laid hands on it, symbolically transferring the sins of Israel to that animal. The bodies of Aaron's sons are sent to the same place the leftover ashes and the scapegoat was sent. Into the wilderness out of the presence of God.

When we compare ourselves with other sinful people we think we are doing pretty good. When we think that we and everyone else is pretty good we have a hard time understanding divine punishment. We simply do not understand how heinous sin is. But it is sin that brought a separation between God and humanity. It is sin's entrance into the world that has brought death and destruction. And sin is bad enough that Christ Himself died to solve the sin problem in humanity. God does not treat sin softly, and neither should He.

And we find in this passage that God's glory, not you and me are the greatest of all things. (Leviticus 10:6-11) God begins to speak to Aaron, and does not bring words of encouragement. God does not give condolences, but it seems that He gives clarification to what Moses had said. Even though tragedy had struck, they had been set apart for the work of God. God's honor and God's glory would not be set aside to mourn the loss of family. God is more important. God would be treated as holy and honored among all people. They would continue to offer sacrifices and teach the people the ways of the Lord. He would be honored and He would be worshiped.

God's glory and His honor is the purpose for which all things were created. God will be glorified and honored by all people and all things whether it be through an exhibition of His wrath and justice or His mercy and grace. God will be glorified. As C.S. Lewis wrote,

"A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, 'darkness' on the walls of his cell."-C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain

God will make sure that He is glorified by all. This will happen either through His perfect justice and wrath or His perfect grace and mercy.

We Still Pridefully And Arrogantly Choose To Do It Our Way (Leviticus 10:12-20)

Fallen man desires to rebel against God and to rule his own life, and we see that despite clear instruction and seeing what had happened to Aaron's other sons they rebel anyway.

Moses gave Aaron and his sons clear instructions from Moses (Leviticus 10:12-15). The offering that is not burn up was to be given to the priests as their portion. They did not work outside of the temple and this was one of the ways God provided for them. But this is not a normal occasion. This is leftover from the sin offering and is most holy. So there are special instructions for it. That is probably why Moses was careful to point out what to do with this food. But even with this clear testimony they did not obey.

Moses finds out what is going on and his response seems to be "What are you doing?" He probably was wondering if they were trying to get killed. He probably pictured this to be like running in front of a semi. But we are just as foolish as they are.

We naturally know the law. It is written on our hearts (Romans 1). We naturally know it is long to steal, kill, and murder. This is because the law is written on our hearts. God has revealed in His Word that there is coming a day that God will judge the world in righteousness. Yet our hearts still scream in rebellion, "I will do it my way".

We have a strong desire to do things our way. We do not like authority. We go so far as to idolize the bad and rebellious people in moves. We even root for them at times. We enjoy hearing songs of rebellion like, "I Did It My Way". Advertisers feed off of our prideful arrogance and desire to rule our own lives by telling us we should "Have It Your Way!" and about us being in charge. We desire to rule ourselves, but this act of rebellion is not the strangest part of this story.

God does not kill Aaron's other two sons. Moses accepts Aaron's excuse and drops the issue. The question I had as I read this passage is "Where is God's justice now?" Was God righteous in passing over these sins?

I believe the answer to this question is found in understanding Romans 3:23-26.

God has made a way in which He can pass over sins righteously. This is done through Jesus Christ. God was looking ahead, it says "in His divine forebearance". God was passing over sins, or forgiving sins while looking ahead to the perfect sacrifice of Christ. When God forgave someone for their sins in the Old Testament, those sins were paid for by Christ on the cross.

Christ's death is a propitiatory sacrifice. Propitiation is defined as "a sin offering by which the wrath of the deity shall be appeased". Jesus bore the full measure of punishment that was due Eleazar, Ithamar, and every other believe who has or ever will walk the earth. The fury and wrath of God that we earn because of our rebellion came down from Heaven upon Christ as He was punished for our crimes. This is why God can pass over our sins in a holy manner. The fine has already been paid. So we see that God's love is not a pampering wink at sin kind of love. Even in His great love for us, He does not tolerate the sins that He has forgiven us. But He paid for them. Jesus paid it all. And so, the glory of God is seen at the cross of Christ in full display as His goodness, justice, righteousness, wrath, love, mercy, and grace are on full display. Christ's death satisfies God's goodness, justice, righteousness, and wrath. And God shows His great love, mercy, and grace there at Calvary.

How do we respond to this righteous and holy love of God. We repent, or turn from our sins and trust in the Savior. We repent and believe the gospel. We turn from ruling our own lives and surrender to Christ.

In conclusion, don't be prideful and set aside the command of the Lord. He is holy and will be treated as such. We must understand that God is exalted above all beings and demands that He be treated as such. We are frail human beings who on the best of days fail to love, honor, and glorify God as we ought. We fail to measure up. But God has made a way for us to measure up. God has made a way for us to be redeemed righteously. God sent His Son to pay the full price that we owed on the cross. Jesus Christ bore our sin and our shame on the cross. He stood condemned in my place and in your place, bearing the wrath of God that flew out from the Holy of Holies and destroyed Nadab and Abihu. Jesus paid it all.

If you want to do some extra reading on the topic of God's holiness here are two books you could read. The Holiness of God by RC Sproul, and The Attributes of God by Arthur W. Pink.

R. Dwain Minor

Quick Thoughts On Persecution.

2011-09-28T21:05:00.000-07:00

The number of people losing their lives for their faith everyday is staggering. The number of people dying in today's day and age is even higher than in the early church when persecution seemed to be pretty standard. That is hard for me to fathom. The last number that I heard (it is uncomfirmed) is over 2,000,000 in the last three years.

Here is how we are to respond.

"Remember those in prison, as if you were there yourself. Remember also those being mistreated, as if you felt their pain in your own bodies."-Hebrews 13:3

One person that may lose their life is Pastor Nadarkhani. You can read his story and possibly help him out here.

Dwain Minor