Spanking children may soon be outlawed in Deleware!

I first saw this reported through Sermonaudio.com. Evidently the state of Deleware is wanting to redefine child abuse to include anything that casues pain. I would think that almost anything, from grounding, to taking away privledges, or even failing to buy them something they want, could be considered painful to the child, so who knows what this could lead to. Of course, I would be inclined to break the law for the sake of obeying the Lord on this one, by lovingly and appropriatly spanking my child as needed.

Here is the article - Spanking a crime

Voddie Baucham - "Why I Believe the Bible"

I saw this on Truth Matters and thought I must share! The audio is a little weak in a few points, but it gets resolved about fifteen minutes in.

Should we love the lost or send them packing?

I have written previously on the error of trying to isolate ourselves from unbelievers or expecting them to embrace our Christian beliefs. I saw the video below on Wretched Radio and was reminded of the ever present danger of putting our desire for a safe and affirming environment, over the call to be a light to a light in a dark world.

What if Jesus had a "just get out of town" attitude with those who didn't obey God's word?

 Isaiah 53: Who has believed our report?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
² For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant,
And as a root out of dry ground.
He has no form or comeliness;
And when we see Him,
There is no beauty that we should desire Him.
³ He is despised and rejected by men,
A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him;
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.

⁴ Surely He has borne our griefs
And carried our sorrows;
Yet we esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten by God, and afflicted.
⁵ But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.
⁶ All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned, every one, to his own way;
And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

⁷ He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
Yet He opened not His mouth;
He was led as a lamb to the slaughter,
And as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
So He opened not His mouth.
⁸ He was taken from prison and from judgment,
And who will declare His generation?
For He was cut off from the land of the living;
For the transgressions of My people He was stricken.
⁹ And they made His grave with the wicked—
But with the rich at His death,
Because He had done no violence,
Nor was any deceit in His mouth.

¹⁰ Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him;
He has put Him to grief.
When You make His soul an offering for sin,
He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days,
And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.
¹¹ He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied.
By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many,
For He shall bear their iniquities.
¹² Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great,
And He shall divide the spoil with the strong,
Because He poured out His soul unto death,
And He was numbered with the transgressors,
And He bore the sin of many,
And made intercession for the transgressors. (NKJV)

Praise the Lord that He not only didn't tell me to get out of His face (what I deserve), but actually was willing to be despised, punished and even die, so I could have forgiveness a for my sin and the Holy Spirit's indwelling power to help me see, embrace and obey, the same word which previously only condemned me!

"Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved."

Interesting Perspective on Missions!

This article below,  from The Gospel Coalition,  has some shocking information on missions from a recent book. I am not suggesting I am in 100% agreement with the author's conclusions, but if the statistics are accurate it is worth careful consideration.

Link to article - Reconsidering short term mission trips

A common question answered well!

What is the difference between teaching and preaching? I like the way R. C. Sproul explains it:

Follow this link - Teaching vs. Preaching

Spurgeon on bigots, by way of Pyromaniacs!

I saw these remarks from Spurgeon on the Pyromaniacs Blog (listed under links I enjoy) and had to pass it along!

Click on this link - Spurgeon on Christian Bigots

Do you sometimes find your faith unfruitful or barren?

 
Sometimes people struggle with past hurts, doubts or have “issues” that seem to be un-helped or only temporarily helped by God's promises as found in the Bible. We may know the Word says "if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation" (1 Cor. 5:17), but let's face it, we don't always live up to or feel the reality of that promise. 

Does our failure to find freedom or lasting peace from God’s Word regarding our “issues” suggest the need for secular counseling, medication or maybe the need to share our struggles with just the right person?

I would certainly not discount the need for medication if an actual medical problem is involved, and talking to others about our problems (professional or not) can bring some relief, but are God's promises dependent on these? Can we expect to find all we need to address our “issues” from God, through His Word and Spirit?

Consider some very bold and far-reaching promises from God in the passage below (bold and underlining added for emphasis) -

1 Peter 1:2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, 3 as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, 4 by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. 5 But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, 6 to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, 7 to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. 8 For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. (NKJV)

Wow! Consider the blessed promises – “Grace and peace,” “all things pertaining to life and godliness,” “partakers of the divine nature” and the promise to “be neither barren nor unfruitful” - does that sound like enough to overcome our issues?

O.K., but suppose you have read these and other promises from God's Word and still feel burdened by doubts, fears or the pain of past hurts? Suppose you have seen the promises and just don't feel like they were enough to solve your problems?

Is it time to look to other means of help? Time for a better teacher, a better book, a better friend, a professional, group therapy, a better...?  Or, perhaps it is time to do what God's Word says is necessary to actually have His promises effective in your life?

Consider the underlined “work” we are to do in order to experience the promises -

“giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, 6 to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, 7 to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love”

You see, the promises are there to believe and enjoy, but they will not be effective in our lives, we will not be fruitful, etc. unless we give "all diligence" and  "abound” in the prescribed work!

As someone who is a bit out of shape I can compare this spiritual concept to a physical one. The promise that “if I eat right and exercise, I will have a more healthy body” I believe to be true. However, believing that promise does not change my body at all. The promise tells me how to have a more healthy body; it doesn't make my body healthy by magic! If I try eating better and exercising for a few weeks, it will likely be uncomfortable and bring very little positive change to my life for all my effort, so I may quit. However, if I eat right and exercise over several years, I will undoubtedly find that I am in better shape for my efforts.

The problem we experience with our “issues,” the reason we don't find lasting peace or fruit in our lives from God's promises in relation to them, isn't necessarily because we don't know God's promises or even believe them, but that we won't do the work necessary for them to actually bring about lasting change in us!

Now, I am not talking about salvation here or a need to work for that; I am talking about experiencing the fruit of our salvation now as promised in God's Word!

Of course, if you think you need a medical doctor for your problems, by all means go to one! However, if you think you need a different book, a better teacher, a secular counselor or some form of group therapy, I simply want to ask you this - have you been and are you now doing the things God says will help? Have you continued to practice them with “all diligence”?

Are you entirely sure what “add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, 6 to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, 7 to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love” means? If not, then you certainly haven't done them as prescribed! If you do understand them well, can you honestly say you are fully committed to them now, as the answer to your “issues”? If you are only partly committed to this path - they won't be “yours and abound” and neither will the related promises!

God does not promise us a pain-free or issue-free life, but He does promise us “His divine power” to be all He intends us to be, for our good and His glory! A pain-free and issue-free life is coming, but you need to die in Christ physically to achieve the fullness of that promise, and He says we need to wait on His timing for that!

In the meantime, don't do what we do with so many other less important things…don't look for help and healing elsewhere, when you have only begun to scratch the surface of God's resources.

I do want to affirm that God's plan for helping us enjoy His promises often includes other people, but not just for some sort of supposed therapeutic sharing of our “issues.” No, God's Word gets very specific about what kind of sharing is necessary and helpful –

Sharing to a third party about what others have done to us, is gossip/sin, so we aren't helped by that, even if it seems to bring some feelings of relief. God's Word does give us direction in such matters - it says if we are sinned against we need to forgive them no matter how bad or how often they have sinned (Matt. 6:14-15, 18:21-35). It may also be necessary to go to the one who sinned against us personally regarding their sin and then eventually go through more steps of church discipline (Matt. 18:15-17). I would not deny, nor would Scripture, the right or even necessity at times to report illegal or dangerous activity to the proper authorities (Rom. 13:1ff), but simply wanting to get together with others and talk about the bad things others have done to us is generally gossip and un-helpful as far as finding lasting peace from God's power and promises is concerned.

I can get help from confessing my own sins to others and asking for prayer - James 5:16 Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. (NKJV)

I can also greatly benefit from frequent reminders from other believers about where hope and help lies - Heb. 3:12 Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; 13 but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, (NKJV)

Isn't this interesting? The kind of help we need from others is actually to point us back to the promises and resources of God and His Word! Holding to the end the confidence we had at the beginning is evidently hard, but necessary, so we need frequent encouragement from others.

My church is about to embark on a new ministry of meeting in homes to encourage each other in the Lord as this passage prescribes and hopefully reach the lost as well. I am very excited that we are taking this awesome and faith-stretching step.

My greatest hope for the groups is a mirror image of my greatest fear. My fear is that some people may misunderstand the way God fixes us - through His Word and His Spirit - and inadvertently substitute group therapy or good practical advice. It is absolutely crucial that people see a relationship with God in Christ and His power/truth as the ultimate answer to their issues or they may tragically see the group or certain people in it as their hope.

However, I also have very high hopes that we will fight this very natural tendency and use the groups as a way to point people to the source of our hope and peace, the only true lasting source for it - God's power and promises from His Word as made available through the work of Jesus Christ on our behalf!

"Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved."

Not much time to write - enjoy this in the meantime!

More Fawlty Humor!

Missions - David Platt

Worth a listen!

What do we get and how do we get it?

Religions hold many similarities when it come to eternal rewards and how to achieve them:

For Buddhists - good works or good karma, gets you a better reincarnation in the next life and can eventually break the cycle of rebirth and death and take you to a state of Nirvana. Those who achieve Nirvana have escaped the cares of the physical life and experience a pleasurable and pure existence.

For Jehovah's Witnesses - good works lead to possibility being one of the 144,000 who get to heaven and rule over the earth.

For Mormons - good works lead to the possibility of becoming a god and ruling your own planet one day.

For Catholics - good works might get you to heaven (you can't really be sure) and they can also reduce your time in purgatory before you go to heaven. Sad that a Catholic can't have assurance of salvation or hope to escape time in purgatory, but at least within their system of beliefs, for those who eventually make it to heaven, it is God's presence that is seen as the goal and source of all blessing.

For Bible believing Christians - Eternal life is earned by the work of Christ alone and is offered freely to those who are born again and trust in His work to save. The reward for those who's faith is in Christ's work is being promised the opportunity, when we leave this life, to worship the one who earned our salvation for us face to face forever.

The catholic doctrines of salvation lacks assurance that the very worthy goal of living in God's presence can be achieved.

Of course the "you must earn it" religions have human pleasure/power as their end goal.

It is no small difference when you compare any false religion to biblical Christianity which has worshipping the one who earned the reward for us as it's end goal!

Eph. 2:4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.

Rev. 21:22 But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 23 The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light.

"Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved."

Confidence in Christ alone, leads to confidence in His followers!

I preached the funeral of a friend and trusted servant of the Lord last week. I had the opportunity to participate in a very large service attended by hundreds at our church, as well as sharing a few words at a family cemetery in another town. For the shorter graveside service, I simply read Psalm 146 and was particularly struck by vs. 3ff.

3 Do not put your trust in princes,
Nor in a son of man, in whom there is no help.
⁴ His spirit departs, he returns to his earth;
In that very day his plans perish. (NKJV)

I read the entire Psalm and shared about two minutes of comments on how we can love people and depend on or trust them, but our hope must ultimately be in the Lord! I was myself ministered to by this truth, especially as it relates to the loss of this faithful and important servant in our church, who I trusted with very much. Just as God provided him to meet very important roles in his family, community and our church and he met them faithfully in the Lord's power, God can/will now provide for all those needs in some new way through some other people. As great a blessing as this man was, he was still a gift of God and God never runs short of gifts!

At the same time I am preaching through 2 Corinthians and am this week covering ch. 7:13 -16. I am again blown away by God's word as in vs. 16 Paul declares of this formerly wayward church -

16 Therefore I rejoice that I have confidence in you in everything. (NKJV)

A faithful and trusted servant could only be trusted properly, because he was serving the Lord and it is understood that he was a gift from the Lord. Likewise, the wayward, but now repentant Corinthians, could be trusted by Paul, simply because Paul trusts first in the Lord and they have demonstrated that they too belong to and trust in the Lord!

The rest of Psalm 146 reads as follows -

⁵ Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help,
Whose hope is in the Lord his God,
⁶ Who made heaven and earth,
The sea, and all that is in them;
Who keeps truth forever,
⁷ Who executes justice for the oppressed,
Who gives food to the hungry.
The Lord gives freedom to the prisoners.

⁸ The Lord opens the eyes of the blind;
The Lord raises those who are bowed down;
The Lord loves the righteous.
⁹ The Lord watches over the strangers;
He relieves the fatherless and widow;
But the way of the wicked He turns upside down.

¹⁰ The Lord shall reign forever—
Your God, O Zion, to all generations.

Praise the Lord! (NKJV)

"Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved."