God has made abundantly clear in His Word that His children are to love and serve one another (Jn. 13:34,35; Phil. 2:1-8). Growing and excelling in such love, by His power and for His glory, is absolutely non-negotiable.
Assuming you are passionately pursuing loving one another in the love of Christ – which is one of the most fundamental evidences of truly being born of God (1 Jn. 4:7,8) – have you considered the importance of PRAYER as a key expression of love for others? Hear this exhortation from God, through Paul, in Eph. 6:18:
“…praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints…” (ESV)
Beloved, this is a divine, authoritative command – we MUST PRAY for one another! And we must do so according to God’s will, zealous for God’s agenda and purposes in one another’s lives. This is exactly what Paul exemplified in his prayers for the Ephesians (Eph. 1:15-21; 3:14-21). Are we learning to pray this way for each other??
I often talk with believers in our church who don’t know how they should be ministering to others. Here’s my first response: begin by praying specifically and regularly for every member of RCG! It doesn’t matter if you know them well or not – you can pray for them according to God’s will! Practically, why not be committed to praying through one page of our church directory each day, and just keep doing this on a daily basis? Begin praying in this way for others, and you’ll discover countless other ways to minister!
God does amazing things as we pray for one another, not the least of which is transforming our own selfish hearts to His purposes and care for His people. As we genuinely pray His will for our brothers and sisters in Christ, we begin to think and act differently toward them. We begin to really care about their lives, about their circumstances, about their souls. And all to the glory of our Great Savior and Lord!
Oh beloved…pray, pray, pray for one another!!!
What follows is a bit longer than what I normally write, but please read!!
We had a rich and fruitful time at our Member Meeting this past Lord’s Day evening, and greatly missed those of you who were absent. One of the items I mentioned is that I’ve been interacting with a man named Jonathan Leeman, and have now confirmed with him to come and teach a weekend conference for us at RCG. Please mark these dates on your calendar: Nov. 9-11 of this year. Jonathan is an elder at Capitol Hill Baptist Church, and is on the staff of 9Marks Ministries (you can read Leeman’s postings on the 9Marks blog here ).
Our interest in hosting Jonathan for a conference revolves around one of the excellent books he’s written entitled The Church and the Surprising Offense of God’s Love: Rediscovering the Doctrines of Church Membership and Discipline (yes, a bit of a mouthful!). Here’s the book’s description from Amazon:
When the world speaks of “love,” it often means unconditional acceptance. Many churches have adopted this mind-set in their practice of membership and discipline-if they have not done away with such structures entirely. “Yet God’s love and God’s gospel are different than what the world expects,” writes Jonathan Leeman. They’re centered in his character, which draws a clear boundary between what is holy and what is not. It’s this line that the local church should represent in its member practices, because the careful exercise of such authority “is God’s means for guarding the gospel, marking off a people, and thereby defining his love for the world.”
Myself and the other elders see great benefit in having Jonathan come to unpack these truths more fully for all of us in the concentrated format of a weekend conference. We believe this will be a timely opportunity to deepen our biblical understanding and zeal of God’s plan for His church, and be all the more protected against the countless misguided and unbiblical views of the church so rampant in our world today. Again, please mark Nov. 9-11 on your calendar for this conference – more details will be forthcoming.
Certainly, I would encourage you to purchase and read Jonathan’s book. But please note: the book is pretty detailed and dense, coming in at just under 400 pages. You might want to wait until two smaller separate books by Leeman, one on church membership, and one on church discipline, are scheduled to be published at the end of April. Both of these will be under 150 pages each, and might be a bit more manageable. Either way, you’ll be greatly blessed through what Jonathan’s written.
May God help us all to rightly love and cherish His Bride, the church (Eph. 5:25-27)!
Resources, resources!! As we all know, the internet provides access to an endless web of the good, the bad, and the ugly. Well, here is a great resource for your edification called Precept Austin. You can learn about the website and it’s curator for yourself, but I’ve found it to be an excellent, biblically solid (for the most part) resource. And particularly when it comes to Bible Commentaries, I’ve found this to be one of the most exhaustive collections of generally solid commentaries (and sermons), available on the web. The commentaries are easily accessible according to all 66 books of the Bible – quite voluminous!
I would encourage you to familiarize yourself with this very helpful website, and use it as a resource in your own Bible study and growth in Christ. Who knows – what you discover and benefit from here might even help you keep those preachers of yours on their toes!
Grace upon grace,
Greg
Sin is often far more subtle and insidious than many realize. When the Lord exposed the elders who came to Ezekiel (14:3), He again revealed that humanity’s fatal flaw is no mere act of disobedience, but wholly defective affections, perverted worship – “idols in their hearts.”
After observing the presence of idolatry throughout human history, John Calvin commented:
From this we may gather that man’s nature, so to speak, is a perpetual factory of idols… Man’s mind, full as it is of pride and boldness, dares to imagine a god according to its own capacity; as it sluggishly plods, indeed is overwhelmed with the crassest ignorance, it conceives an unreality and an empty appearance as God (Institutes, I.XI.8).
That’s not exactly a flattering portrayal of human spirituality – what a mess!
And yet, the Lord extends His hand to all who “turn away from your idols” (14:6). Anticipating the full redemption He would accomplish in Christ, how He would give His people “one heart” (Ezek 11:19), and make us “alive together with Christ” (Eph 2:5) – our God mercifully receives those who turn from idols to Him in faith. “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you” (Jas 4:8).
One day, the transforming work of God in Christ will be complete. There will be no more idols and no more divided loyalties in our hearts. Until that day, we pray continually with David, “Unite my heart to fear Your name” (Ps 86:11).
Yours for the Master,
Pastor Steve
Social media guru, Erik Qualman, recently enumerated 40+ Things Tech Will Kill This Digital Decade. He predicts items as commonplace as wristwatches, paperbacks, DVD’s, alarm clocks, greeting cards – and even the Post Office that once delivered them – will soon go the way of the Dodo, supplanted by “smarter” technology.
Surprisingly, he listed at 24 something that is quite irreplaceable: “Face-to-Face Conversation.” Qualman writes, “Sad, but true. We have less interpersonal communication than in years past.” It is indeed sad for all humanity, but it would be even more tragic to the faith of Church.
Meeting face-to-face has been integral to the faithfulness of every generation of God’s people. As we saw in Malachi 3:16-18 on the Lord’s Day evening, we are assured that when God’s people gather they are both helped by one other in a world of unbelief (see vv. 13-16), as well as heard by the Lord who will adopt them for all eternity (see v. 18).
Dietrich Bonhoeffer poignantly captured this in his classic, Life Together:
The physical presence of other Christians is a source of incomparable joy and strength to the believer… The believer therefore lauds the Creator, the Redeemer, God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, for the bodily presence of a brother… God has willed that we should seek and find His living Word in the witness of a brother, in the mouth of a man. Therefore, the Christian needs another Christian who speaks God’s Word to him… The Christ in his own heart is weaker than the Christ in the word of his brother; his own heart is uncertain; his brother’s is sure.
Our God is an omnipresent Spirit, but He created us to be finite bodies, mere dust and breath. We need the physical presence and audible words of our brothers and sisters. If joined with biblical discernment, every technology may be harnessed for God’s glory. But no technology – however “smart” – can ever replace meeting together to exalt the Lord and to exhort, encourage, and even embrace one another. May our high view of spiritual things accordingly give us a high view of our physical meetings.
Until We Meet Again,
Pastor Steve
1 Peter 1:3-9
“(3) Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, (4) to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, (5) who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. (6) In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, (7) so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ; (8) and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, (9) obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls.”
Oh how Jesus, our glorious, risen Shepherd, so perfectly cares for His own! How richly is this truth revealed in Jn. 21, as Jesus powerfully feeds and leads His weak disciples. What lessons there for us in learning to trust and follow our Master all the more fully! With keen insight, Alexander MacLaren offers these thoughts connected with John 21:1-14:
It teaches us that anything that interests us is not without interest to Christ. Anything that is big enough to occupy our thoughts and our efforts is large enough to be taken into His. All our ignoble toils, and all our petty anxieties, touch a chord that vibrates in that deep and tender heart. Though other sympathy may be unable to come down to the minutenesses of our little lives, and to wind itself into the narrow room in which our histories are prisoned, Christ’s sympathy can steal into the narrowest cranny. The risen Lord is interested in our poor fishing and our disappointments.
And not only that, here is a promise for us, a prophecy for us, of certain guidance and direction, if only we will come to Him and acknowledge our dependence upon Him. The question that was put to them, ‘Lads, have ye any meat?’ was meant to evoke the answer, ‘No!’ The consciousness of my failure is the pre-requisite to my appeal to Him to prosper my work. And just as before He would, on the other margin of that same shore, multiply the loaves and the fishes, He put to them the question, ‘How many have ye?’ that they might know clearly the inadequacy of their own resources for the hungry crowd, so here, in order to prepare their hearts for the reception of His guidance and His blessing, He provides that they be brought to catalogue and confess their failures. So He does with us all, beats the self-confidence out of us, blessed be His name! and makes us know ourselves to be empty in order that He may pour Himself into us, and flood us with the joy of His presence.
Learning to trust Him and follow Him with you!
Let’s be honest, who wouldn’t enjoy having a “White Christmas” sometime? There’s something about the beauty and purity of snow that captures us. How fitting that God, who created snow in all of its grandeur, would use it metaphorically to describe the cleansing of heart He can accomplish in sin-stained people. With what hopeful enticements He calls sinners to repent!
“’Come now, and let us reason together,’ Says the Lord, ‘Though your sins are as scarlet, They will be as white as snow…’” (Is. 1:18)
“Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” (Ps. 51:7)
Paraphrasing and commenting on the above statement from Ps. 51, which is King David’s great prayer of confession following his great sins of dereliction of duty, adultery, murder, and deception, C.H. Spurgeon makes these observations:
“’None but thyself can whiten me, but thou canst in grace outdo nature itself in its purest state. Snow soon gathers smoke and dust, it melts and disappears; thou canst give me an enduring purity. Though snow is white below as well as on the outer surface, thou canst work the like inward purity in me, and make me so clean that only an hyperbole can set forth my immaculate condition. Lord, do this; my faith believes thou wilt, and well she knows thou canst.’ Scarcely does Holy Scripture contain a verse more full of faith than this. Considering the nature of the sin, and the deep sense the psalmist had of it, it is a glorious faith to be able to see in the blood sufficient, nay, all sufficient merit entirely to purge it away. Considering also the deep natural inbred corruption which David saw and experienced within, it is a miracle of faith that he could rejoice in the hope of perfect purity in his inward parts. Yet, be it added, the faith is no more than the word warrants, than the blood of atonement encourages, than the promise of God deserves. O that some reader may take heart, even now while smarting under sin, to do the Lord the honour to rely thus confidently on the finished sacrifice of Calvary and the infinite mercy there revealed.” (C.H. Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Vol. 1, pg. 404).
Yes, a “White Christmas” would be special, but a heart that is whiter than snow, through the precious blood of the One who came to save helpless sinners, is of infinitely greater worth!
Rejoice the Lord is King!!
Isaiah 9:6-7 (ESV)
6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.
1 Peter 4:12-19 (NASB)
12 Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you; 13 but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation. 14 If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. 15 Make sure that none of you suffers as a murderer, or thief, or evildoer, or a troublesome meddler; 16 but if anyone suffers as a Christian, he is not to be ashamed, but is to glorify God in this name. 17 For it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? 18 And if it is with difficulty that the righteous is saved, what will become of the godless man and the sinner? 19 Therefore, those also who suffer according to the will of God shall entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right.