Christmas / The Advent / Our Savior's Song

As we prepare for Christmas Eve candlelight services and family gatherings this evening, we'll light the final candle in the Advent wreath. The Center. One word pierces through my busy thoughts, invades the often inadequate prayers I pray and the struggles that remain unresolved, reminding me of how and why I can celebrate this night:   

Grace. 

Grace sums up the Christian life. In Christ it is a grace life we live.

I love that the first verse my grandson learned and memorized was Romans 5:8 "but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." 

It's beyond beautiful, isn't it? This passage is the eternal, divine heartbeat of the Gospel of God's Grace in Jesus Christ his Son. 

I know it's Christmas and not Easter. Before Jesus can die he must live, and before he can live as one of us, he must be conceived. In a virgin's womb, no less, born of woman, but conceived by the Holy Spirit and not of man's corruptible seed. Truly God and truly man. Human and divine. Known theologically as the "hypostatic union." Two natures existing in one person. Only Jesus can be this. Christ alone. 

In his flesh as our representative he can experience and understand our struggles while his perfect Godhood could pay the penalty for our sins and intercede as our High Priest. ( Hebrews 2:17 ) 

In Bible days, and throughout most of human history, the visible church gathered in the house of God on the Sabbath and the Lord's Day to hear the Scriptures read and taught to them. Precious few owned a copy of the Scriptures. 

Luke 4:16-22 explains to us, after his birth, his baptism by John the Baptist, and after the temptation in the wilderness by the devil, how Jesus began his earthly ministry: 

"And he came to Nazareth, where he was brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, 

'The spirit of the Lord is upon me,

because he has anointed me

to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives

and recovering of sight to the blind,

to set at liberty those who are oppressed, 

to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.'

And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, 'Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.' And all spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth."

We know that the words all spoke well of him would eventually sour because in three years time Jesus would be hanging from a Roman cross. 

And yet the gracious words that came from his mouth would manifest themselves into living words through His life, death, and resurrection for all those who would repent and believe in Him. ( John 1:12 )

"For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ." ( John 1:17 ) 

"Today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion." ( Hebrews 3:15 ) 

"Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." ( Hebrews 4:16 ) 

And it is a time of need. 

Today a "weary world rejoices," so listen to the Savior of the world's song of grace. 

In your need, repent of your sins and believe! 

This is the glorious, gracious song of Christmas! 

Merry Christmas, Friends! 

💜

T.G.I.M. / Advent Week 4 / Elizabeth's Song

Tomorrow as we light the fourth candle in the Advent wreath, we'll take a look at one more song in the nativity narrative: Elizabeth's song. Her humble melody is short and sweet. 

The angel Gabriel appeared to Elizabeth's husband the priest Zechariah as we saw last week while he was serving in the temple and told him the couple would indeed have a son in their old age who would be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb. And he would make ready for the Lord a people prepared. ( Luke 1:5-24 ) 

Their son John the Baptist would be the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy, "A voice cries: In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God." ( 40:3 ) 

After Mary's visit from Gabriel with the magnificent news that she would conceive the Christ Child by the power of the Holy Spirit and her barren relative Elizabeth would also bear a son and was, in fact, already in her sixth month, Mary went with haste into the hill country to visit her. She entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. 

"And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord." ( Luke 1:41-45 ) 

The baby in Elizabeth's womb was foreordained to prepare the way of the Lord and to point the people to Him. And the very first person he pointed to Christ was his very own mother. How beautiful is that? 

I love that babies can be filled with the Holy Spirit in their mother's womb. I don't understand the theology behind it, but I do understand that "Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases." ( Psalms 115: 3 ) And it pleased him to fill a baby in the womb with his Holy Spirit, and it pleased him to send his Son for " a people prepared." 

That's the thing, isn't it? There is no way to prepare ourselves for Christ because we can't, because there is no preparation. There is nothing we can do to make ourselves worthy except to know that we are unworthy. That's how we prepare. That's how a people prepare - by knowing their unworthiness and need of Christ the Savior. 

The only way we can prepare our hearts in this way is by the power of the Holy Spirit pointing us to Christ and preparing our hearts for us. ( John 16:14 ) 

"Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." ( Matthew 3:2 ) 

Elizabeth's humble words show us the way, "And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" Let's meditate on her song these few days left before the blessed Advent. 

"A people prepared." 

For our coming King. 

💜

T.G.I.M. / Advent Week 3 / The Song of Zechariah

 "And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God..." ( Luke 1:76 & 77 ) 

As we light the third candle this week in the Advent wreath, we'll look at another song in the Scriptures. And that's the song of the high priest Zechariah - John the Baptist's dad - which is another prophetic word given of the promised Messiah soon to come. 

The story of Zechariah is similar to Mary's in that the angel Gabriel appears to him to let him know that the long awaited Savior is coming to redeem his people, and as the virgin Mary would carry the Christ Child, Zechariah's son would be the one to prepare His way. 

Except Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth had no children. Elizabeth was barren, and now both were advanced in years and far beyond the child-bearing stage. Have you ever noticed in the biblical narrative how God seems to work through barren women in his story? 

God works salvation miraculously by a virgin and a barren woman each conceiving and giving birth to ensure to all of us that it is Him and Him alone who brings about the rescue of his people. He's the only One who can. As we saw in last week's blog, God worked the miracles in Egypt, "so they will know that I am the LORD." ( Exodus 10:1-2 ) 

The Bible lives and breathes, not as a disjointed arrangement of stories, but as one cohesive, soul-stirring narrative of the redeeming work of God through the life, death, and resurrection of his Son. 

The angel Gabriel appears on the right side of the altar as Zechariah is serving as priest, burning incense before God according to the custom of the priesthood in the temple of the Lord. Gabriel tells him that Elizabeth will indeed bear a son in her old age and they are to name him"John." Gabriel says that Zechariah's prayer for a child has been heard. Going past the eleventh hour, has to be like a Red Sea moment. ( Luke 1:5-25 ) 

Although the Scriptures tell us that Zechariah was fearful with Gabriel's appearance, one can't help but wonder if he didn't suppress a laugh as well. Surely the couple had given up on this prayer for a baby decades ago. It rings of Abraham and Sarah, doesn't it? 

God told Abraham that he would bless all nations of the earth through his offspring with his barren wife Sarah, and here we are again. God will prepare the way for his Offspring, born of a virgin, no less, by another barren woman. You have to love the way God works. ( Genesis 12:1-3, Genesis 15 ) 

But if we get focused on things other than Christ, we'll miss God's true work and what he is accomplishing through his Son. Zechariah's prophetic song helps remind us. 

Because of his unbelief, Gabriel informs Zechariah that he will be unable to speak until the child is born. And once his lips are loosed, this is what flows out: 

Let's meditate on these fulfilled words this third week of Advent: 

"Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,

for he has visited and redeemed his people

and has raised up a horn of salvation for us 

in the house of David,

as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old,

that we should be saved from our enemies

and from the hand of all who hate us;

to show the mercy promised to our fathers 

and to remember his holy covenant,

the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us

that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies,

might serve him without fear,

in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.

And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High;

for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,

to give knowledge of salvation to his people

in the forgiveness of their sins

because of the tender mercy of our God,

whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high

to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,

to guide our feet into the way of peace."  ( Luke 1:68-79 ) 

To God be the Glory

Soli Deo Gloria

💜

They called a "Ruber" lol Too much partying 

                                   

"Then Sings My Soul"

Awhile back I had a dear friend who was going through a very difficult time, so one week I decided to join her at her Sunday morning worship service for support. I noticed as I took my seat that the stage had fog machines and big screens wrapped around it. I told myself, "Rebecca, please don't be a big fuddy-duddy. Just sing and praise the Lord." 

When the praise band began singing one of my favorite hymns, "How Great Thou Art," my heart really did start to sing. Like most good hymns the words are theologically sound and grounded in biblical truth, and when sung, God's redeeming love, grace, and mercy cause hearts and hands to be lifted high and tears of joy to begin to flow. 

When we hear God's Word and what Christ has done on our behalf, it does cause an emotional response. It should. How could it not? It doesn't mean that we'll cry like a baby every time, but it does mean our souls will sing for joy because of our salvation. Not because any special effects have manipulated us into an emotional frenzy but because the knowledge of the Gospel of Jesus Christ transforms our lives. It causes us to weep at the feet of Jesus. 

Except that morning it didn't happen.

Because for what ever reason the praise team didn't sing the middle verse. They cut it out. 

I've tried to drop this for months now, but it won't stop bothering me. Let me explain in case you're not familiar with the hymn: In four verses the lyrics sum up the entire redeeming, biblical narrative with a power chorus in between each. 

The song starts off with two verses in what is known as "general revelation" - seeing God's eternal power and divine nature in the things that he has created as told to us in Romans 1. 

"Oh Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder, consider all the worlds thy hands have made; I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder....." 

The Scriptures tell us that we can clearly see God's invisible attributes in creation, but not the Gospel. Jesus's disciples, and if you are in Christ, you are one of his disciples, are commissioned by Him to proclaim his Gospel to the nations before he ascended back to the Father. ( Matthew, Mark, Luke, & John )  

Paul sheds light on this command: "'For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.' How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?" ( Romans 10:13-14 ) 

The third verse of "How Great Thou Art" is the heart of the Gospel of Jesus Christ: "He bled and died to take away my sin!" 

The last verse is about Jesus returning to get his Church. "When Christ will come with shouts of acclamation...." 

So my question is this: Why in the world would a church sing the first, second, and last verses - seeing God's divine attributes in creation and then Jesus coming back to get us -leaving out the heart of the Gospel message? Half a gospel is no gospel at all. The first, second, and fourth verses make no sense without the third verse. It's stripped of its power. ( Romans 1:16 ) 

Maybe I'm a fuddy-duddy to some people when it comes to church liturgy, but I don't think I am when it comes to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. How can we cut Jesus out in a church service of all places? 

Paul told Timothy in his pastoral instruction to "preach the Word, be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching." ( 1 Timothy 4:2 ) Christ's Church gathers to share the sacraments, ( Luke 22:19 ) to read the Word, pray the Word, sing the Word, and teach and preach the Word. We are then sent out to the world. 

Christians have a saying around Christmas time "Keep Christ in Christmas, but this should most certainly apply to our church gatherings. Without Christ's atoning work and resurrection, there's no hope. 

I know many will think that I'm making too much of this and that I'm on a spiritual high horse, but I promise I'm not. The truth of the Gospel of Christ is the one thing we have to change people's lives - anything else is empty and meaningless. People are looking for hope. We have it. 

We also must have the courage to speak the truth in love, with gentleness, clarity, and kindness. I pray that I am. I have been mulling this over for some time now because I can't wrap my mind around a church worship leader doing this. I don't understand, but I want to be clear that there were many, many years when it wouldn't have bothered me a lick. And I'm still growing in my faith today, repenting daily for my sins and shortcomings, and many times with the help of the Farmer's insight which I'm thankful for. 

Recently I found out that the same church was hosting an event with some questionable speakers who are known for teaching some biblical errors and for not centering their messages on Christ but rather on a self-help, me-centered gospel. And it hurt my heart to see this. Even if event speakers are doing great works around the world, they mustn't be let off the hook for teaching a false gospel. Again, I've made countless mistakes in my choice of teachers over the years. It grieves me so much now, and I want to gently help others if I can. 

When we come in to a worship service, lost in our sin and our shame and guilt and are crying out for help, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only thing that can heal us, not being told that we are enough. However, we must proclaim that God's grace is more than enough to make us enough in Christ. ( 2 Corinthians 12:9 ) 

The hard truth that we are indeed sinners collides with the Good News that Christ has bled and died for all of those sins when we repent and believe in him. It means we are forgiven, clothed in Christ's righteousness, and adopted into the family of God. It's the only song that can regenerate the unbeliever's heart and also continually remind the believer's heart of the Good News that truly causes our souls to sing. 

Wherever we open the Bible and expound the Scriptures contextually, we find the Gospel. We never move away from it. Its hope is for both unbelievers as well as believers. Always and forever. 

We live in such uncertain, fearful times with many voices claiming to be the truth and crazy things going on inside and outside of our nation, above our heads, and the Church needs to operate in spiritual discernment more than ever it seems. People are desperate and need the hope and life-changing message of the Gospel of Christ Jesus, so we absolutely must stay on point. 

Let's sing the whole glorious truth to a lost and dying world this Christmas and always - because after all, God's grace and unending mercy were once sung to us. 

How will they hear? 

💜

Carl Boberg, 1886

O Lord my God
When I in awesome wonder
Consider all the works
Thy hands have made,
I see the stars,
I hear the rolling thunder,
Thy pow’r throughout
The universe displayed!

Chorus
Then sings my soul,
My Savior God, to Thee;
How great Thou art,
How great Thou art!
Then sings my soul,
My Savior God, to Thee;
How great Thou art,
How great Thou art!

When thru the woods
And forest glades I wander
And hear the birds
Sing sweetly in the trees,
When I look down
From lofty mountain grandeur
And hear the brook
And feel the gentle breeze,

Chorus
Then sings my soul,
My Savior God, to Thee;
How great Thou art,
How great Thou art!
Then sings my soul,
My Savior God, to Thee;
How great Thou art,
How great Thou art!

And when I think
That God, His Son not sparing,
Sent Him to die,
I scarce can take it in –
That on the cross,
My burden gladly bearing,
He bled and died
To take away my sin!

Chorus
Then sings my soul,
My Savior God, to Thee;
How great Thou art,
How great Thou art!
Then sings my soul,
My Savior God, to Thee;
How great Thou art,
How great Thou art!

When Christ shall come
With shout of acclamation
And take me home,
What joy shall fill my heart!
Then I shall bow
In humble adoration
And there proclaim,
My God, how great Thou art!

Chorus
Then sings my soul,
My Savior God, to Thee;
How great Thou art,
How great Thou art!
Then sings my soul,
My Savior God, to Thee;
How great Thou art,
How great Thou art!

One of my favorite Christmas gifts from the Farmer - Atlas's granddaughter, my girl Skipper now runs the sheep show with one paw tied behind her fluffy undercoat. I couldn't do it without her. 

T.G.I.M. / Advent Week 2 / The Songs of Moses and Miriam

"A darkness to be felt" ( Exodus 10:21 ) 

Last week we looked at Mary's song, known as the Magnificat, that is recorded in the first chapter of the Gospel according to Luke, and for the second week and lighting of the next candle in the Advent wreath, I thought it important to look at two other songs. These are found in the Book of Exodus, and sung by the great leader and prophet Moses and his sister Miriam. 

I decided to combine my weekly blogs for the month of December in the Advent season. 

The Exodus out of Egypt is the epic story of Moses leading the children of Israel out of slavery in Egypt and toward the land of Canaan, the land God promised to give to Abraham and his descendants in Genesis 12 & 15 when he promised to bless all nations of the earth through him and his offspring. 

As the tenth and final plague strikes the Egyptians due to Pharaoh's hardened heart and refusal to let God's people go, the Israelites obediently smear the blood from their slain lambs on the doorpost of their dwellings. Because of the lamb's blood, God does not permit the destroyer to enter their homes but to pass over them. 

This act commanded by God of applying the blood to their dwellings is a type and shadow of the blood to come from the sacrifice of his own Son, the Lamb of God, who would come and die for the sins of his people, releasing them out of their life of slavery to sin and into a life of freedom in Christ. 

In the biblical narrative as the children of Israel hurry to eat their meal and make their way out of slavery that dark night, they reach the Red Sea where God has guided them and where there is seemingly no way of escape. Pharaoh's forces are pursuing close behind them, as Pharaoh has once again changed his mind. 

It's an impossible situation, but God does the miraculous by opening up the sea in front of them. He made a way - just as he does in the New Testament in his plan of salvation for his people. He again opens up the only Way. 

And this was his plan all along. We see it in the promise to Adam and Eve in the garden after their sin, and with each patriarch God's covenant becomes clearer and more intense, with Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David. 

Back in Egypt, the ninth plague that God imposed on the land after Pharaoh's stubborn refusal was darkness. "Then the LORD said to Moses, 'Stretch out your hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, a darkness to be felt.'" ( Exodus 10:21 ) 

I remember before I came to faith in Christ the darkness that permeated every area of my life - it was so heavy upon me that I couldn't find words to describe its bondage; until I saw this verse recently in the Book of Exodus. 

"A darkness to be felt." ( 10:21 ) 

That's exactly how I would describe my life before Christ. Maybe you understand exactly what I mean. The human condition of slavery to sin is such a horrific, dreadful feeling because it's a reality of the darkness that grips the lost soul. When this darkness is felt, that means there is actually hope. We must first be awakened to the darkness, the seriousness of our true condition of sin, in order for us to see the Light, the Way that is opened before us. 

In order for the Light to be good news, we first must understand and feel the darkness. If we don't know our need, we will never come to Christ for salvation. If we don't understand that we are completely cut off from God because of our sin with no way through the deep darkness, we will never see the beauty and abundant life Christ bled and died and resurrected to give us. "While we were sinners Christ died for us." ( Romans 5:8 ) 

That's the glorious good news of Christmas. When the Holy Spirit regenerates our hearts and gives us faith to believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that truth leads us to praise him as Miriam and the other women did after they made it through the Red Sea. It's an organic act of worship out of a humble heart when we see our desperate need and then the Way opened up before us.

It's the angels piercing the dark night above the lowly shepherds watching over their flock, to proclaim the great tidings of joy that Christ the King is born in Bethlehem. 

And as we saw Mary singing and praising God for his salvation after the angel Gabriel visited her, we see the same with Moses after the children of Israel are saved from slavery and walking through the Red Sea. 

I think back to Moses as an infant floating in the Nile River inside of that little "ark" his mother constructed to save his life out of papyrus reeds that she daubed with bitumen and pitch. I think of his big sister Miriam watching her little brother from a distance to see what would become of him. 

Now they sing and dance together because of the LORD's saving grace. What a story. That's the story of God redeeming his children through his own Son. 

"The LORD is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation." ( Exodus 15:2 ) 

"And Miriam sang to them: ( by the way, Miriam is the Hebrew name for Mary ) Sing to the LORD, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea." ( 15:21 ) 

"You have led in your steadfast love the people whom you have redeemed; you have guided them by your strength to your holy abode." ( 15:13 ) 

This weekend and into next week take some time to reread Luke 1 and Mary's Magnificat, and Exodus 14 &15 and the Songs of Moses and Miriam. 

The Bible is so good when we learn to read it in context and for what it truly is - God's story of redeeming mankind through the life and death and resurrection of his Son. "Every verse whispers his name." "The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." ( John 1:29, 1:36 ) 

That's the glorious, good news of Christmas. 

💜

( I thought I'd share a Christmas photo from the HBF archives of the late, great Atlas. I sure miss that big old boy. 💔💚 ) 

T.G.I.M. / Advent Week 1 / Mary's Song: The Magnificat

"For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost." ( Luke 19:10 ) 

Today as we celebrated and lit the first candle in the Advent wreath, my mind went to Mary's song of praise in the beginning months of her pregnancy recorded in Luke 1:46. Although we don't pray to Mary or worship her, we must meditate on these wise words of Scripture inspired by the Holy Spirit through this young woman chosen to carry the Christ Child. Every year, Mary's song seems to bring a deeper degree of comfort to me in the shortened, dark days leading up to the winter solstice. ( Psalm 1:1-2 ) 

The early darkness that closes in each night is a reminder that the world God made and the image bearers he created are alienated from him because of their sin. Psalm 14, Psalm 54, and Romans 3:11-18 all describe the wicked and hopeless disconnect in no uncertain terms: "None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one." 

We are enemies of God. No one even seeks for him. Even if we did seek for God and stumble upon him in the bleak darkness, we have nothing to offer him for reconciliation but our own filthy rags of righteousness. ( Isaiah 64:6 ) 

Nineteen chapters over from Mary's Magnificat in the Book of Luke, a now grown Jesus tells a despicable tax collector and repentant sinner named Zacchaeus that salvation has come to his house. 

Because even though fallen humanity is incapable of seeking God, Jesus has come to seek us. 

That's the glorious good news of Christmas. 

Jesus goes on to proclaim to Zacchaeus and all of the curious and grumbling onlookers that day, "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost." ( Luke 19:10 ) 

And Jesus didn't just take the first step toward reconciliation, he took all of the steps. Since we are dead in our trespasses and sin, unable to take any steps back to God, Jesus took every step necessary for lost sinners to be reconciled with God. Jesus took every one of the steps, all the way to the cross. He fulfilled the words of praise his mother Mary spoke.  ( 2 Corinthians 5:18-20 ) 

Let's hold and ponder her words this week in our own hearts. I believe when we do, our hearts will sing with hers. 

"My soul magnifies the Lord, 

and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 

for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. 

For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed;

for he who is mighty has done great things for me,

and holy is his name.

And his mercy is for those who fear him

from generation to generation.

He has shown strength with his arm;

he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts;

he has brought down the mighty from their thrones

and exalted those of humble estate;

he has filled the hungry with good things, 

and the rich he has sent away empty.

He has helped his servant Israel,

in remembrance of his mercy,

as he spoke to our fathers,

to Abraham and to his offspring forever." 

( Luke 1:46-55 ) 

💜

HBF Archive photo of Natasha and Atlas watching over the flock. 

"The Helper"

In my last blog post about the name of "Jesus" through out the Book of Acts to the Revelation of Jesus Christ being forever yoked to the name "Christ" and "Lord" and "Savior" we saw that Simon Peter first proclaims this truth in the gospels when asked by Jesus, "But who do you say that I am?"  

"You are the Christ the Son of the living God," Simon Peter replies. And Jesus answers him, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven." ( Matthew 16:13-16 ) 

Peter not only acknowledges that Jesus is the Christ ( the Greek word Christos meaning Anointed One - the Hebrew equivalent Messiah ), but he declares that Jesus is the Son of God. Jesus is divine. And Jesus tells Peter that God revealed this to him. 

Throughout my life, six decades on this planet, in church all of them, I have heard many things, some quite fanatical, attributed to God the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer, but the greatest work He does is connecting a lost soul to the finished work of Jesus Christ. 

Even though Christ's work is finished, we are still lost, dead in our trespasses and sins, unable to reach the cross until the Holy Spirit regenerates our hearts, giving us faith to believe in the Lord Jesus, granting us repentance, so we can be adopted into the family of God as his dearly beloved children to live with Him forever. 

"Salvation is of the Lord."  ( Jonah 2:9, Psalm 3:8 ) 

"Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you." ( John 16:7 ) ( We see here that the Holy Spirit proceeds from both the Father and the Son. ) 

And even if our theology isn't filled out on the matter, that's okay. Repent and believe - you can fill in the blanks later as you begin your journey as a student of God's Word. For now: Our Sovereign God had the plan, Jesus carried it out, and the Holy Spirit yokes us to the work and stays with us forever. 

Paul explains it to Titus this way as he reminds him what to teach Christ's sheep: "But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life." ( Titus 3:4-7 ) 

It seems this vital work of regeneration is often overlooked in the church, and ironically, no other spiritual work in the Holy Spirit can be done without His initial working in our dead, dark hearts to bring us from death to life. Jesus came to give us abundant life, but without the Holy Spirit yoking us to Him, we remain spiritually dead. 

Since this truth seems to be largely ignored or possibly misunderstood in the Western church, we neglect to thank God for the move of his Spirit to actually save us in the first place. 

In the often quoted passage of Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus wasn't referring to physical rest when he spoke to them, although physical rest certainly comes from the knowledge of Christ, he was teaching them that being yoked to him, trusting him, brings the only peace possible with God and rest for their souls - the eternal rest that comes from knowing our sins are forgiven by Christ and not from any work we could do to earn out salvation. 

And we see in Titus and other Scriptures that the Holy Spirit yokes us to that beautiful, eternal rest in Christ. 

This is the greatest miracle that could ever be accomplished in a person's life. In fact, without this one, nothing else that happens really matters. That's why this work of the Holy Spirit along with the preaching of the Gospel should be at the center of everything we do. 

Because there's nothing as precious as hearing someone whose heart has been changed by the power of the Holy Spirit say, "Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God." 

It is written that it even makes angels rejoice. 💜

Happy Weekend, Friends! 

This was our first sheep, an Icelandic ewe. She is the reason we still have a touch of thick wool in our Katahdin flock. ( HBF Archive Photo ) 

T.G.I.M. / "A Time to Gather"

The terms "friendsgiving" and "thanksgathering" in recent years have become popular around the Thanksgiving holiday season, emphasizing the importance of the gathering aspect of this tradition with friends and family: Giving thanks together. 

When we gather as Christ's church, we are instructed, I believe it's found in the Augsburg Confession, to "gather around Christ's Word and the Sacraments." This is taken from the first century church observed in Acts 2:42  "devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers."  

Meaning in our church gatherings we will position ourselves around Christ, in our prayers and singing, in the preaching of the Scriptures, and in the partaking of the Lord's Supper together in remembrance of Him as he has instructed us to do until he comes again. 

As Christians, may we carry this same pattern into our Thanksgiving holiday. 

Because we don't just have a God who says that he loves us - I mean, that's wonderful, but we have something even greater. We have a God who has demonstrated his love toward us in that while we were sinners, damned, condemned, he sent his Son, who knew no sin, to be the sacrifice for our sin, paying our debt in full. ( 2 Corinthians 5:21, Romans 5:8 ) 

"It is finished." ( John 19:30 ) 

This Son is worth gathering around when we come together, not our needs or our desire for miracles, but the One who bled and died to heal our greatest need and to give us the greatest miracle of all, a new birth. Because of his atoning work we now come into his kingdom and live with Him forever. If he never did another thing for us, wouldn't that be enough? How can it not be? 

This Thursday is an opportunity to share that love with the many others who come to the table to gather with us. May Jesus Christ our Lord be the centerpiece at our Thanksgiving meal, reflected brightly through our demonstration of love, humility, and service to the many others in our lives as God has so mercifully imparted his grace to us. 

Just like the divine service at our church gatherings, our Thanksgiving meal, with the many utterances of thankfulness we each will proclaim around the table for the various blessings in our lives, is our response back to God for the life and death and resurrection of his Son. 

Joy and thanksgiving go hand in hand; they flow out of knowing the Gospel of Christ. 

Of course, following this pattern of worship at our table will look a bit different than in does in church, but it's the same spirit of the Gospel of grace that's displayed in our lives outside of the church doors. What does it look like? 

"For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me." ( Matthew 25 ) 

Physical food and spiritual meat, hot coffee and the Living Water, hospitality and Christian fellowship. 

"they flow out of knowing the Gospel of Christ" 

"Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen." ( Hebrews 13:20-21 ) 

Happy Thanksgiving! 🍗

Thanks be to God! 

"The Name above all Names"

"He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs." ( Hebrews 1:3-4 ) 

Recently after I hung up from a call with my oldest man child, I was left pondering over the words I used to respond to some biblical questions we were mulling over in our conversation. And a truth began to set in that I hadn't thought of before: 

My Bible teachers rarely use the name "Jesus."

Let me explain: 

It started with Sinclair Ferguson's "Things Unseen" podcast - I've recommended Dr. Ferguson's five minute morning devotional before in my blog and still emphatically do! Let me tell you that Dr. Ferguson can pack some enormous amounts of biblical wisdom into those brief five minute lessons. I usually end up listening to them over and over. 

But this seasoned, beloved Scottish pastor and theologian, almost always uses the words, "the Lord Jesus" when referring to Jesus. 

It dawned on me that all of them are that way. I don't know why I didn't see this before. It's never just "Jesus," but it's "the Lord Jesus Christ" or "Christ," or "Christ Jesus," "Lord," or "Lord Christ." And furthermore, on the phone, I had caught myself doing it with Johnny. I kept saying, "in Christ" when identifying myself. I couldn't remember ever doing that before. 

The first thing to note is that it appears, whether we realize it or not, we are indeed influenced deeply by what we surround ourselves with. It shouldn't surprise me. After all, we've been told this since we were young children. 

Then I became curious as to what the writers of the New Testament called Jesus. I had never stopped to think about this as I read through the books of the Bible. I'm sure that this information is a quick Google search, but I had a desire to see it for myself. So I conducted my own word investigation. 

We must examine the Scriptures to see if our experience matches the Bible. I was very sure it would because these teachers had earned my trust beforehand, but still, we must be like the noble Bereans in Acts 17 who checked out what the Apostle Paul was teaching them to see if it indeed measured up to the Word of God. 

Never bend the Bible to match your experience; that's dangerous and how false teachings get started. Many a false doctrine and religion as well as cults began when someone had a vision or a visitation outside of the closed, canonical Word of God. 

In the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, we see Jesus mostly called "Jesus" or "Jesus of Nazareth" because in Bible days people were often associated with where they grew up or currently lived. 

In the opening lines of the Book of John, the disciple and apostle calls Jesus "the Word" three times, which could be pointing to the Trinity. He then calls him "the true light." Continuing in the first chapter, John the Baptist sees Jesus coming toward him and says, "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" 

But what I was concentrating on was how they addressed him. 

I know this might get confusing, and rightfully so, because to pin point the name of Jesus is an impossible task for his name is infinite because he is the infinite One, and his name is who He is in all of his infinite glory. This assignment is bigger than me, for sure, but this is what I am getting at:

Matthew, Mark, and Luke all record Jesus asking his disciples, "Who do you say I am?" after he asks them who do people say that I am to which they reply that people say Jesus is John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. 

"But who do you say that I am?" 

Peter responds in all three gospel accounts: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." ( Matthew 16 ) "You are the Christ." ( Mark 8 ) "The Christ of God." ( Luke 9 ) "Christ" is the Greek word "Christos" meaning "Anointed One." It is the equivalent of the Hebrew word "Messiah." 

And Jesus tells Peter that God has revealed that truth to him. 

In my own personal research from Romans to Revelation, it wasn't until I got to the book of 1 Thessalonians that I found the name "Jesus" used by itself without Christ or Lord attached to it, and it was apparent in context why Paul used it in this way. 

Have you ever wondered why God wouldn't let Moses lead the Israelites into the Promised Land? I have. I mean, he just committed one, seemingly little sin, and God refused to budge and let him take the people all the way into the land "flowing with milk and honey" after all that he had already done! The baby years, the burning bush, miracles in Egypt, the parting of the Red Sea, the manna and quail, the wilderness years. 

Moses is so epic. He was such a devout, patient leader of the often rebellious people, from the amazing birth story when his brave mother constructed a little ark to save his life, then rescued by Pharaoh's daughter as she discovered him floating in the Nile, the meeting with God on Mount Sinai as God spoke with him and gave him the Ten Commandments "inscribed by the finger of God" on the stone tablets. 

And that last fact is why. 

Moses, as grand as his story may be, was the lawgiver. 

And the law can only take us so far. It is God's standard - it's what he requires and requires to be kept perfectly, which no one can do. One sin has the power to destroy us. Moses's sin against God reveals sin's power.  ( Romans 3, Psalm 14, Psalm 53 ) 

Think about this: The human condition of being born sinners, ending in death, spiritually and physically, came into God's perfect creation because of just one sin committed by our first parents. One sin separated all of mankind from God. Ponder this. That demonstrates the power of sin, and more importantly, the holiness of God.  

No matter how grand we think we are, we are all born sinners and without hope. Since the law is the standard that must be kept perfectly, and there's no way we can achieve this, it was impossible for Moses to take the people into the Promised Land. 

So, who did? 

Joshua. 

Remember him? Marching the children of Israel around Jericho seven times and blowing trumpets before the walls fell down? Joshua stepped into Moses's shoes after he died. Joshua or Yehoshua means "God is deliverance" or "Yahweh is salvation." 

Joshua and Jesus are the same name in different languages. 

Joshua the leader of the Israelites was a type and shadow of the Joshua to come. Our Redeemer. Jesus was fully God and fully man. Our only hope. One of us, but also God, the second person of the God Head, and the only One worthy enough to sacrifice himself for the sins of his people and ransom their lives out of slavery. 

Only Jesus Christ the Son of the living God can lead his sheep into heaven. He is the only Way. This story isn't just beautiful; it's true. 

"Jesus" was a common name in biblical days, and Jesus took that common name as one of his people. But what isn't so common is that he was also given the name that is above every name: "Jesus Christ" ( the anointed One, Messiah, Savior, Lord ) after he was crucified for the sins of the world and raised from the dead to new life! 

So now, along with Peter, and all of our brothers and sisters, we can say, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." 

And on that rock, our Lord Jesus Christ is building his church. ( Matthew 16:18 ) 

💜

Happy Thanksgiving! 

To be continued. 

T.G.I.M. ( I'm a bit late this week )

"Two things I ask of you, deny them not to me before I die: Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say who is the Lord? Or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God." ( Proverbs 30:7-9 ) 

Whenever we feel at a loss as how to pray, we can be greatly encouraged because God's Word is so satisfying and complete that he has even provided for us the prayers to pray to Him. We can pray his Word right back to him. ( And sing it too! ) 

We can turn any Scripture into a prayer, but the Bible is full of prayers already formed: The Lord's Prayer, the Book of Psalms, Paul's epistles to the churches, and the Lord Jesus Christ's prayers. 

The Book of Proverbs contains only one prayer. And the pray(er) asks for two things in that one prayer: 

"Remove me from falsehood and lying." We live in a day when more than ever we need the Holy Spirit to guide us and give us discernment to navigate the voices all around us claiming to be from him while keeping our own lips holy and pure, speaking truth. I think of Isaiah 6 when the prophet realized only after witnessing the holiness of God how unclean his speech really was. 

"give me neither poverty nor riches" 

"feed me with the food that is needful for me"

I love this so much because my Mighty, Sovereign God knows exactly what I need before I even ask him. Our Lord Jesus reminded us of this in his Sermon on the Mount. And I know what I want, but I in no way know what I truly need. 

So we can pray this prayer each morning and trust Him: 

"Our Father in heaven, I need you to lead me and to feed me."

"He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake." ( Psalm 23:3 ) 

"Give us this day our daily bread." ( Matthew 6:11 ) 

I think of this as we enter into the Thanksgiving holiday season and how grateful I am to pray these two prayers and know that no matter what comes my way, He is sovereign over it all. He has ordered my steps. Nothing comes into my life that he hasn't allowed because I am needful of it as he leads me always in the Truth. 

💜

The New and Better Job

"For God who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." ( 2 Corinthians 4:6 ) 

The problem of evil is the number one reason people give when asked why they do not believe in God. There's this world of suffering all around us and if an all-powerful, all-loving God really did exist, they assume he would end all suffering immediately because there can't possibly be any good reason for suffering to exist. 

What I've found to be more perplexing is how some movements within the visible church can deny the existence of suffering in a true believer's life, saying that God doesn't allow his children to suffer. If they are in fact suffering, they should be able to banish it immediately if they have enough faith and of course no egregious sin hiding in their lives. To me this is more disturbing than the first group. 

Sometimes we absolutely do cause our own suffering, but not always. More understandable are those Christians who admit God does allow suffering in his world and in the believer's life, but assume God has left us without insight into the mystery and pain. 

For those, I would like to offer comfort and submit into evidence exhibit A: The Book of Job. 

In the opening scene, the idea that God does not allow suffering in the lives of his "righteous"children is sharply refuted when God gives Satan permission to wipe away Job's own children, servants, and livestock. This suffering is granted to Satan after he insists Job only serves God because of his many blessings and the hedge placed around his life. Take it all away, and he will "curse you to your face." ( 1:11 ) 

But notice, God was the one who started the conversation with Satan in the first place, "Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?" ( 1:8 ) 

Job remains steadfast through the suffering, and God asks the question again to Satan: ""Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?" ( 1:8 ) 

"He still holds fast his integrity, although you incited me against him to destroy him without reason." ( 2:3 )

Notice the words God uses: "without reason" 

Oh, Satan answers: "Skin for skin! All that a man has he will give for his life. But stretch out your hand and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face." ( 2:5 ) 

"And the LORD said to Satan, 'Behold he is in your hand; only spare his life.'" 

God in his divine sovereignty grants even more permission when Satan insists Job will certainly curse God once his body is inflicted as well. "

Except Job never curses God. 

Job is not Jesus; however, he is a type and shadow of God's suffering Servant prophesied of in the Book of Isaiah, Chapter 53, by God's chosen prophet Isaiah. The Bible is not a book about us, we are not David, Daniel, or Esther; all of these biblical saints are pointing us to the Redeemer God has promised in his covenant of grace to rescue his people. Mere shadows, "but the substance belongs to Christ." ( Colossians 2:17 ) 

"Every verse whispers HIS name." 

Job was "blameless and upright." He was innocent. So was Jesus.

There was none like Job on earth. Absolutely a picture of Jesus.  

It's interesting Satan says, "skin for skin" before he plagued Job's skin since we know that Jesus took on human flesh. 

Job's friends saw that "his suffering was very great." Jesus suffered the worst suffering in the history of the world. ( 2:13 ) 

Job said "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return." ( 1:21 ) Jesus was stripped naked, nailed to a Roman cross, and bore our shame. ( Matthew 27:27-31 ) 

"In all of this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong." ( 1:22 ) Jesus was without sin. ( 2 Corinthians 5:21 ) 

Job did not curse God; however, he did cry out to him. Jesus cried out too, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" ( Psalm 22:1, Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34 ) 

God forsook his only Son on the cross, so he would not have to forsake us. 

God is angry with Job's friends for speaking of Him what is not right. He tells the friends to offer up a sacrifice for themselves and have his servant Job pray for them, "for I will accept his prayer not to deal with you according to your folly." ( Job 42:8 ) 

This a beautiful picture of Christ, our great High Priest who ever lives to make intercession for us. ( Hebrews 4:14, 7:25 ) 

God was sovereign over Job's suffering. God was sovereign over Christ's suffering. "the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world." ( Revelation 13:8 ) 

The critical difference is that Satan was not given permission to take Job's life, on the other hand, Jesus's life was not spared. 

"yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief." Jesus suffered the greatest suffering the world has ever known when he willingly drank the cup of God's wrath for the sins of the whole world. ( Isaiah 53:10, 1 Corinthians 15:3, 1 John 2:2 ) 

When we read the full counsel of Scripture, the pieces begin to come together for us through the power of the Holy Spirit as He reveals one cohesive, powerful narrative held firmly together by Christ. ( Colossians 1:17 ) The parts we formerly saw as disjointed, offensive, and contradictory are illuminated to us as the perfectly-fitting, brilliant Truth. 

And that Truth sets us free. 

Our suffering is wrapped up in the life of our Savior. It is no little thing. 

One last, beautiful shadow to behold in the life of Job and his suffering:

"And the LORD restored the fortunes of Job, when he had prayed for his friends. And the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before. Then came to him all of his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before, and ate bread with him in his house. And they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the LORD had brought upon him. And each gave him a piece of money and a ring of gold." ( 42:10-11 ) 

"And the LORD blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning." ( verse 12 ) 

This portrayal of Job's latter end is pointing forward to our "latter end" - our eternity with Christ. There's so much richness to this passage, and really all of Job, that this flimsy blog post doesn't even begin to do it justice. 

Job eating bread with his brothers and sisters reflects Christ's church feasting on the bread of life together in a common faith and never being unsatisfied again. The comfort and plenty and gold are indicative of Heaven. And in the last paragraph of Job it tells us that Job gave his daughters as well as his sons an inheritance. This practice was not normative by any stretch in ancient, patriarchal cultures. But it is in the kingdom of our Lord Jesus. 

On that glorious day God will deal a final, fatal blow to the suffering in the lives of his children. 

"For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at last he will stand upon the earth." ( Job 19:25 ) 

T.G.I.M. / Amazing Grace

Continuing from Saturday's blog on the goodness and severity of God, I want to see if I can 'briefly' bring clarity out of some confusion I recently recognized from a conversation with someone in sharing the Gospel because I think it may be a question many struggle with, actually even within the church. I know for years I didn't understand this doctrine. 

The skepticism revolves around how humans can be sinners when we are created in the image of God? First, no one likes to be called a sinner, I get it. But this understanding is crucial for anyone to come to faith in Christ. We must see our need, or we will never see the truth and come to him. 

Sin came into the world to all mankind through Adam when he sinned as our human representative. I'm not going to address the response "that's not fair." Maybe later, but today, just understand that even though we are now all born sinners, we are STILL created in the image of God with intrinsic worth! However because of the sin nature given to us through our first parent's sin, that image has been shattered. Check out the proof texts that I list at the end; they will connect the dots. This is just a fly over. 

Try as we might, none of us can perfectly obey the law ( the Ten Commandments, God's gold standard listed in Exodus 20: 1-17 ) therefore, we are separated and alienated from a thrice holy God, who is light and no darkness, at all, deserving punishment for our sins. Remember, if God is good, and he is, he must also be just. "who will by no means clear the guilty." ( Exodus 34:7 ) Both are attributes of God. 

When the reality and weight of our true condition hits and crushes us, we are getting the picture. When we understand the bad news, that we are sinners and nothing we can do, no amount of good works or self-righteousness, can earn God's favor and salvation, despair begins to set in. 

And that's actually a good thing. Now, it's time to deliver the good news: 

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." ( John 3:16 ) 

"but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." ( Romans 5:8 ) 

When we experience godly sorrow over our sin, forgiveness is freely given to us. Repent and believe in Jesus, trusting him as your Savior and your Lord. The perfect, righteous life Christ lived on earth, perfectly obeying the law in every way, is imputed to us as if we obeyed it perfectly ourselves. 

And Jesus died the death we should have died being the sacrifice himself and taking the penalty for our sins, theologically known as sacrificial substitutionary atonement. But you don't have to know that term; just meditate on this verse:

"For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a results of works, so that no one may boast." ( Ephesians 2:8-9 ) 

Jesus mercifully healed our fragmented pieces with his broken body. 

"and with his wounds you are healed." ( Isaiah 53:5 ) 

Jesus was crucified on a Roman cross between two criminals, one on each side of him. 

One of the criminals "railed at him" saying that if Jesus really was the Christ, "Save yourself and us!"

Look carefully at the rebuke given to him by the other criminal: 

"Do you not fear God since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong. And he said, 'Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.' And he said to him, 'Truly I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.'" ( Luke 23:39-43 ) 

Many commentators agree that this is a picture pointing back to Jesus's teaching on the final judgment with the goats on one side and the sheep on the other. The first criminal wanted Jesus only for what he could get from him. He didn't acknowledge his sin or understand he even was a sinner, let alone the beauty of Jesus, an innocent man atoning for his sins. He just wanted to be saved, some pastors refer to this as "fire insurance." 

The second thief didn't know any theological terms, and yet his response was like a mini Gospel presentation. He knew he was getting what he deserved and Jesus wasn't. He called out to Jesus by name. And Jesus extended to him his grace. 

I believe John Newton phrased it this way: 

"Amazing Grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I'm found, was blind, but now I see." 

Let's sing that chorus this week as God's amazing grace in Christ stirs and moves our hearts to serve others as he has so graciously served us. And let it move us to boldly speak the truth in love. 

Happy Monday! 

And Happy Veteran's Day to the Farmer and to all who served our country! May God richly bless you all! 

💙

( It's hard to cherry pick verses from the Book of Romans - slowly and deeply read chapters 1-8 for the beautiful, golden chain of the Gospel of Christ. Ephesians 1-3, John 14-16, 1 John 1-5 ) 

Recent picture of the upper sheep pasture. 

Goodness and Severity / Part 3

"'Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God,' writes Paul in Romans 11:22. The crucial word here is 'and'. 

The Christians at Rome are not to dwell on God's goodness alone, nor on His severity alone, but to contemplate both together. Both are attributes of God - aspects, that is, of His revealed character. Both must be acknowledged together if God is to be truly known." ( J.I. Packer; Knowing God ) 

Last blog I was focusing on God's wrath, the one before that his goodness, and the difficulties and questions we can face when sharing our faith, but how vitally important it is that we not leave the hard parts out because half a gospel is no gospel at all, in fact it is a different gospel altogether and saves no one. 

As Dr. Packer explained, "God's goodness and severity are inseparable." It's only when we are crushed by our sins against a holy, righteous God and their consequences that we can behold and appreciate the beauty of Christ's atoning work on our behalf.

But we have to share the true Gospel for it to bring true freedom in people's lives. It's been said, "How much do we have to hate someone not to tell them the truth?" If we are in Christ, we are commissioned to proclaim the Gospel to every nation and to speak the truth in love. ( Matthew 28:16-20, Ephesians 4:15 ) If we saw someone walking inside of a railroad track who couldn't see or hear an oncoming train, we wouldn't hesitate to do all we could to alert them and push them to safety.  

"Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain." ( 1 Corinthians 15:1-2 ) 

Paul has just finished addressing a multitude of problems with this church in Corinth including sexual immorality within the congregation ( a man sleeping with his father's wife ), the wealthy eating the Lord's supper and not leaving any for the poorer members of the church, confusion, arrogance, and disorderliness in the structure of the service and in the operation of the spiritual gifts, to name a few. 

Paul calls for all things in the church meetings to be done "decently and in order" and then reminds them of the Gospel he preached to them. Similarly in much of the American church throughout the last century and into this one, we've seen a slow and sad movement of Christ and the core doctrines of the Christian faith out of the center and into the fringes at best, being replaced in many churches with emotional encounters, works righteousness, and materialism. 

And it's not just the American health-wealth gospel, but any teaching that does not exalt the Gospel above all else, from the mainline progressives to the social gospel to the word of faith message to the new apostolic reformation. It's any movement that moves Christ and his Word from the center and replaces them with self and one's own interpretation, desires, and agendas, even if some of those things are good things. We become our own god, not reading the entire counsel of Scripture and allowing it to "reprove us, teach us, correct us, and train us in righteousness," but rather reading ourselves and our purposes into the biblical narrative. ( Exodus 20, Deuteronomy  2 Timothy 3:16-17 ) 

It started in the garden of Eden and continues to this day. And Paul reminds the Corinthians and all of us of "the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved.." 

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only thing that can save us, Paul reminds them. In fact, it is the only way that we can ever "stand" before a holy God - in the righteousness of Christ, and not a righteousness of our own. ( Philippians 3:9, Romans 1:16 ) 

"if you hold fast to the word I preached to you - unless you believed in vain." 

This is strong and sobering language. "In vain" - meaningless, worthless, fruitless. As difficult as it may be to share my faith and the concept of hell and God's wrath with someone who has very little biblical knowledge, I've found an even more daunting task to be sharing my faith with someone who thinks they're saved, but may not be. 

Evangelism seems to take many forms. 

I think of a beautiful, young college student who visited the farm from South America and had literally no knowledge of the Bible or Christianity. She admitted this and claimed to be an agnostic. I found it easy to share Christ with her after we had spent a morning together feeding the animals. Of course, when you're surrounded by God's country and his amazing livestock ( especially when those livestock are guarded by fluffy, white, gentle giants ) it does create an atmosphere of beauty and belief to work within. Creation was on my side. No doubt it was a team effort. 

On the other hand, when someone already thinks they know the Bible and have been in church their whole lives, but it's clear by their language that they do not have a proper understanding of the Gospel, it can be quite challenging. I was in that group. It's so easy to offend them. I've learned this type of witnessing takes careful finesse that I've had to develop as to not be a bull in lipgloss. 

You might be called a heresy hunter or a Pharisee or accused of having a religious spirit, but again, I have to pose the question: "How much do we have to hate someone not to tell them the truth?" I have begged people to please examine the teachers, prophets, and ministries they follow to see if what they are teaching and proclaiming lines up with the Word of God. The Bereans fact checked the Apostle Paul's preaching! And were commended for it! ( Acts 17:10-11 ) 

Even if it means being called names, that is nothing compared to what my kids in Indonesia or our brothers and sisters in Christ around the globe experience when they share the true gospel of Jesus Christ. In fact, and I'm not making light of our persecution, but I believe the persecution we face here isn't at times worth mentioning because of what they suffer for the name of Christ. Everyday these dear ones are risking their lives and their family's lives for the sake of the Gospel and the name of Christ and should be at the forefront of our prayers. 

So we must not let it slide when people identify as a Christian without displaying a knowledge of Christ. For instance believing simply because they are an American that that automatically makes them a Christian or believing if they do enough good works or have enough faith, that's their "ticket to paradise." 

Or believing all they have to do is "reach out and take a hold of God" or "repeat after me" without being broken over their sins, repenting, and trusting in what Christ alone has done for them. 

Most often these folks have been presented with a false gospel to start with either through another person or social media or sadly, a church. It can prove to be a thorny situation when attempting to counter their arguments with the true Gospel of Jesus Christ, but we must. 

Wolves in sheep's clothing seduce their followers by teaching a message that contains a measure of the truth making it believable and almost undetectable and very sinister, appealing to our fallen natures. Only the power of the true Gospel can break the chain of unbelief that can take hold of us through false teaching. 

But again, I was in that category for years, so I understand the deception. I didn't at the time though. It wasn't until the fog of false teaching began to lift from my eyes and I started to read the Bible with those fresh eyes that I could see the truth. Another thing I can say is that it has bolstered my prayer life because I know how crafty the enemy can be and how easy it would be for me to stumble again. 

We must continually guard our hearts, praying for ourselves and others without ceasing. The Holy Spirit is the only One to keep us from stumbling. Don't think for a moment we could ever stand without Christ. We must live in repentance and humility about the vulnerability of our true condition with our dependence solely resting on Christ alone, and in the knowledge that sinless perfection doesn't come until the next life and that Jesus will sustain and keep us until the end. 

Amen. 

"And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray." ( Matthew 24:11 ) 

"Many" 

"Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints." ( Jude 3-4 ) 

"And have mercy on those who doubt, save others by snatching them out of the fire;" ( Jude 22 )

Some doubt and some fall into the fire, we are called to both. After all, we've been shown mercy and graciously snatched to salvation ourselves. Now we have a commission. God uses our prayers and our obedience to accomplish his purposes.   

Remember the verse I mentioned last week in 1 Corinthians 3:6-8, God is the only one who can perform the miracle of a new birth and regenerate the human heart, the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, but we must do our part in planting and watering the seed. ( Romans 1:16 ) 

"How much do we have to hate someone not to tell them the truth?" 

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"For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed." ( 1 Corinthians 15: 1- 11 ) 

A Hope That Never Disappoints

I usually don't post blogs on Tuesday, but I want share a post from my dear friend and brother in Christ, David Lambert who is a bit of a mentor to me and the Farmer. I met Dave and his wife Pam over forty years ago when they were part of my late father in law's congregation. They were also close friends with my parents, visiting our home as we shared meals, board games, and many fun times together. Precious memories. I'm grateful for the wisdom in these words:


Today's Morning Greeting.


Good morning! What are you hoping for this morning? The apostle Paul had something to say about hope to the people he was writing letters to in Rome. Remember, they didn't live in a representative democracy like we do in the United States - they lived under Roman domination, the enforced Caesar cult. Paul wrote to them about hope but what were they hoping for? This morning, let's consider that question as we read today's passage together:


Now that we have been put right with God through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. He has brought us by faith into this experience of God's grace, in which we now live. And so we boast of the hope we have of sharing God's glory! We also boast of our troubles, because we know that trouble produces endurance, endurance brings God's approval, and his approval creates hope. This hope does not disappoint us, for God has poured out his love into our hearts by means of the Holy Spirit, who is God's gift to us.
Romans 5:1-5


Paul writes here of being "put right with God through faith" and having "peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ". I like that, don't you? Following that, he begins to write about hope, saying, "And so we boast of the hope we have of sharing God's glory!" So far so good, right? He then writes of the process that creates hope: "We also boast of our troubles, because we know that trouble produces endurance, endurance brings God's approval, and his approval creates hope." He says that trouble is productive. It produces endurance which brings God's approval and that God's approval creates hope in us. Many Christians today might find this process disappointing. They don't want a gospel that says that trouble is good for us; they want a trouble-free gospel...but that's not really the gospel at all. Instead, Paul writes that real hope emerges from trouble, saying, "This hope does not disappoint us, for God has poured out his love into our hearts by means of the Holy Spirit, who is God's gift to us."


Even though they lived under the rule of the Caesar cult, those Christians had hope; in fact, they were boasting about it! It wasn't hope for better government or a better economy; it was the expectant, joyful hope that Jesus would always make good on His promises. Are you experiencing trouble this morning? Because of that trouble, do you feel hopeless? Let me encourage you today. Allow your trouble to be productive. Thank God for His peace. Thank Him for His love and mercy. Thank Him for His promise of eternal life, and for His welcoming you into His family. God will continue to pour out His love for you now and into eternity...and that's very God News!

Archive photo of me and the Farmer 1981 ( : 

T.G.I.M. / Part 2 The Severity of God / Redemptive Mercy

"'Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God,' writes Paul in Romans 11:22. The crucial word here is 'and'. 

The Christians at Rome are not to dwell on God's goodness alone, nor on His severity alone, but to contemplate both together. Both are attributes of God - aspects, that is, of His revealed character. Both must be acknowledged together if God is to be truly known." ( J.I. Packer; Knowing God ) 

When I share my faith with others, I've found people to be generally accepting of Jesus. As long as I'm focusing on his love, his easy teachings, his good deeds and miracles, the conversation usually runs along quite smoothly, for the most part. 

It's when I get around to things like sin, the wrath of God, judgment, hell, and the difficult passages of the Old Testament that people begin to squirm or change the subject. 

And yet, if we are not sharing these concepts, the bad along with the good, we are not sharing the true gospel of Jesus Christ. 

Honestly, I used to work up a major sweat whenever I felt I should be sharing my faith with someone until I discovered the reason. When I began to peel back the fearful layers, the root revealed the hard fact that I didn't know the Gospel myself. 

It's said that to truly understand the Gospel, we first must grasp the truth about ourselves, precisely that we are sinners in need of a Savior. Every other Gospel truth builds graciously upon this one. 

The Good News is actually good, bad, and good:  

God created us good in the beginning. Our first parents sinned - disobeyed the only rule they were given. This sin nature was passed to all of Adam's descendants. He was mankind's federal head. Not only do we all sin, but we are born sinners. That's the human condition. 

A thrice Holy God can't allow sin to go unpunished or he wouldn't be good. ( If one of your children were brutally murdered would you seriously want the judge to let the killer off without penalty if they stood in court promising not to do it again?? No, we would cry out for justice. That judge allowing criminals to go free without punishment would not be a just judge. ) 

Sin has to be paid for if God is good. God's wrath demands it. The law must be fully obeyed in all points if we are to be deemed holy and acceptable to God, and no one can do that. ( Romans 3 )  

But Jesus can and did. 

Jesus became the new and better Adam. 

The law shows us our sin, but the Gospel shows us our Savior. 

The unfathomable debt must be absorbed, and the perfect life Jesus Christ lived and the punishment he received on the cross are imputed to us when we believe in him, trusting him as Lord and Savior. Colossians 2:14 mercifully tells us that "Christ canceled the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross." 

"Behold the goodness and severity of God." They can not be separated; we must hold them both in our hand together. ( Romans 11:22 ) And this is a good thing. 

The more I read the Bible, the more I understood this amazing grace and the more comfortable I felt in sharing the true Gospel. The more I prayed, the bolder I got in sharing it because I was growing in my understanding of the grace and mercy Christ had on me and growing in my love and concern for others to know it too. And please be hopeful and not discouraged in your evangelism because this developed in me later in life. Learn from my mistakes. 

We don't have to be renowned theologians to share our faith and explain the gospel; we need to be consistent students of the Word and people of prayer, and the desire to help others grows alongside of our faith by the power of the Holy Spirit. 

Which brings me to my final point: We can't save anyone. 

"What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building." ( 1 Corinthians 5-9 ESV ) 

Don't you love all of the earthy metaphors used in Scripture? 

I'm convinced it's because the good life God created began in a garden.

Now, go plant and water! 

Happy Monday! 

What Can Be Known

"But ask the beasts, and they will teach you; the birds of the heavens, and they will tell you; or the bushes of the earth, and they will teach you; and the fish of the sea will declare to you. Who among all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this? In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind." ( Job 12:7-10 ) 

"You clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews. You have granted me life and steadfast love, and your care has preserved my spirit." ( Job 10:11-12 ) 

As Skipper and I walked in the crisp morning air this week, the smokey fumes from the neighbor's chimney floated across our leafy path which runs parallel to the cow's field. The trail of smoke lifted above our heads as I looped the leash firmly around my wrist since Skipper was quickly pulling me along behind her. 

Skipper is one of those salt of the earth Great Pyrenees who could handle the farm with one paw tied behind her fluffy undercoat. When I do the morning rounds, I give her a break from the flock; she more than deserves it even though Skipper loves to work.  

In fact whenever I bring Aslan with me during chore time, if he gets to acting too goofy around the sheep, she pins him to the ground, yeah, as big as he is. It always cracks me up. Skipper runs a tight ship. That day Aslan stayed up at the house with the ducks and geese, so it was just me and my girl. 

And I soaked in our surroundings. I haven't always engaged in this activity as deeply as I should, but I'm learning. 

In the first chapter of Romans, we are taught right out of the gate that "what can be known about God" is plain to us because God has shown it to us. "For his divine 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." ( 1:19-20 ) 

When I meditate on this thought, it becomes exceedingly comforting. 

Seeing the truth about God in nature is known in theological terms as "general revelation." And when we refuse to acknowledge him and his greatness through what we see around us, the Scriptures go on to explain that we "have become foolish in our thinking" and are "suppressing the truth" that God has revealed to us. ( Romans 1:18-32 ) 

In Christ, even though we now believe not only in God, but in Jesus Christ whom he has sent for the remission of our sins, we must never stop gazing at the things that God has made because in the created order we find hope and hints of the life to come if we indeed have eyes to see and ears to hear. 

Last week after returning to the farm from a full morning of errands, I unloaded a few items from my truck and rested briefly while nursing two cups of coffee before heading back out with the dogs to check on the sheep. After I finished filling up the cow's water trough and walking back up the hill to the house, I felt out of breath, and that was unusual for me.   

I used one of the Farmer's many medical devices to check my oxygen and found my heart rate to be 177. Figuring it to be dehydration, I then drank a boat load of electrolytes to right my body, but it wouldn't get back in line. My heart felt like one of those top loading washing machines when the clothes inside are off balance in the spin cycle and it causes the machine to jump around in all directions at 100mph. At any moment you expect the thing will break free from the laundry room and out the back door. 

So I ended up in the emergency room watching my heart on an ultrasound. Even in the craziness of the pounding beats, I could imagine the intricacy and the divine order the heart was created to follow. 

We too are a part of creation, and I could see the hand of a divine, glorious God. 

Acknowledging that every step, breath, and beat is a gift from God is not just a "wake-up call," but a deeper understanding into the goodness and greatness of our Sovereign Lord. If we have eyes to see and ears to hear, these treasures are a very small sliver of the life to come. ( Psalm 115:3 ) 

In the fallenness of creation, including our human bodies, God allows hopeful glimpses of what he has in store for those who love him. Creation is just a glance of what's to come; imagine that. ( 1 Corinthinas 2:9 ) 

God never promised to give us a perfect life until heaven. "God has not promised us candy." (1) Much frustration and confusion can arise when we cling to promises that God never made. 

True rest is found only in the true promises of God. 

God has left his children here for a time in a broken world, and we are going to have to trust him with his sovereign decree. After all, he did send his perfect Son into a sinful humanity. He did not spare him. Our command is to serve with gladness as we go about our Father's business because we are no longer slaves to sin, but to righteousness, to God, praise be to Christ! ( Romans 8:32, Psalm 100 ) 

What He HAS promised is to never leave us or forsake us in the sanctification process. ( Deuteronomy 31:8, Hebrews 13:5, John 14:16, Philippians 2:12-13 ) 

Listen to this precious promise in Ephesians 1:13 that we have in our Lord Jesus:

"In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation and believed in him were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory." 

"Until we acquire possession" 

It's that tension thing again. In this life, we live in the knowledge that our Lord Jesus has secured all spiritual blessings for us on the cross, ( Ephesians 1:3 ) but we do not acquire possession of it until the next life. 

And yet, we already have them. 

I know, just stand in the truth. Let it be. 

We have them already, but not now, and by faith we walk in this mystery trusting our Father. 

How do we know? That's a fair question I think. Abraham asked it. The verse told us how we can know. 

"the promised Holy Spirit" 

He is the guarantee. We are indwelled by the Holy Spirit when we repent of our sins and put our trust in Christ. Every believer in Christ Jesus is a "Spirit-filled" believer, all of us, John tells us in 1 John 2:18-29, are anointed by the Holy Spirit, not just a select few, and He lives with us forever. ( John 14:16 ) Without the work of the Holy Spirit, we wouldn't be joined to Christ in salvation. 

He guarantees us - sort of like a promissory note signed however in Christ's blood - that one day Jesus will return for his bride. Are you going to not believe this promise when the Holy Spirit himself promises he's going to make good on it? It's a done deal. Signed, sealed, delivered. Jesus said so from the cross and backed it up when he raised himself from the dead. 

Friends, He's coming for us. He's sealed the deal. ( Revelation 1:7 ) 

And for now, these delicious morsels we see in creation give hope to our groaning appetites of the fully satisfying banquet that awaits us at the wedding supper of the Lamb. 

I can't help but think that God is working something extraordinary in these ordinary, normative, every-day walks of faith. They are opportunities to trust him that are preparing something. ( 2 Corinthians 4:17) 

We can't realize all that our Father is working here within us, but we can rest assure that having faith in Christ for our homeland above, like the cloud of witnesses who've gone before us, and clinging to his promises as we face suffering, has an enormous, eternal purpose and weight of glory that can't be fully understood until the life to come. 

Our sovereign Lord has chosen to do it this way. 

When we come to Christ, we must not stop gazing at the created order and marveling in it because God has purposely made it known to us. But more comforting than this is the fact that we get to know the "artist," not by looking at his masterpiece, because that only takes us so far, but by gazing into the Gospel of Christ. This is "special revelation" - God revealing his Son to us. 

We never get beyond the fullness or to the bottom of the grace and beauty of Christ because there has never been anything greater to behold. 

Everyday as we read the Scriptures and meditate on what they reveal, we must turn the truth of the gospel over and over and behold the majesty and splendor as one would marvel at a multi-faceted jewel. 

If it were heavenly conditions now here on earth, we wouldn't need faith, but we do because it isn't. This faith in Christ and his Word is creating something beautiful beyond all comparison within us, something not of this broken world. And yet, the brokenness plays a vital role in the glory. 

As Elisabeth Elliot famously wrote, "Suffering is never for nothing." 

I believe suffering and the uncertainty that confronts us in this life are actually the lenses that bring our sight. One day, in some mysterious, upside down manner, we're going to be glad and understand its existence and value. And not want to be standing before God without it. I believe then we will understand and marvel at the tension. 

I think of the cross. 

Our life here in Christ does not consist of doing all we can to survive another day, although at times I know it seems this way, but it is about always looking into the beauty of what Christ has done on our behalf in his sacrificial atonement. 

Remember his grace and mercy, and glory in that knowledge as we gladly serve him surrounded by a creation that refuses in its groaning to be silent about the eternal power and divine nature of the One to come.  

"In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind." ( Job 12:10 ) 

Who holds our breath and heart in his hands. 

His nail scarred hands. 

Soli Deo Gloria

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"For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience." ( Romans 8: 22-25 ) 

(1) "God has not Promised us Candy." sermon by Chris Rosebrough