One Year in the Deep End

How has it already been a year since we began this adventure? There have been so many ups and downs, frustrations and joys over this past year, it's hard to know where to start! 

In the Apartments

Our apartment ministry continues to grow, albeit slowly and not in all the ways we expected. We have come to know many of our immediate neighbors in a close way, and we will often just spend time outside together, chatting, playing soccer with the kids, helping with groceries...

Our office management underwent a change several months ago. We ran into difficulties with the former office staff. Our visions for what this LIV ministry program should be were obviously different, and no one seemed to be happy with how things were going. However, the new staff are so encouraging to work with! We are freer now to pursue this program in the way that seems best to us, which is just so much more enjoyable. We have already noticed an improvement in our personal attitudes and the response of our neighbors.

We have had rough times, however. Many of you might know that Keith was the victim of an armed carjacking in the apartment parking lot last Thanksgiving. Praise God, the car was recovered the very next morning, the criminal was caught, and Keith had no lasting harm done to him. We strongly felt that this was a spiritual attack more than a simple crime, and our hearts were very discouraged in this ministry for a while. There was a very real possibility of us leaving then with no hard feelings from the LIV ministry, or the management, and we thought about seeking something safer; something easier. 

But the Lord encouraged our hearts. Through the support of God's people, especially in our local church, we were strengthened to endure and continue our ministry. We were reminded of Acts 14:22, "that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God." By God's grace, we endured, and the carjacking even opened up new doors for us to get closer with families and the management. 

In the Church

In my role as pastoral apprentice of outreach/evangelism there have also been highs and lows. This role has afforded me plenty of new opportunities to meet people. The local restaurant outreach in particular has been very fun, even just on the strategic and social levels. It has been a thrill to walk into an establishment with a secret mission, not just to care for the souls of the wait staff and managers, but to maybe meet another patron, or secretly buy a mom and kids' meals and have the cashier tell them the angels covered their costs today. What a treat for me!

There have also been opportunities to merge our ministries together. And so we held our church's Christmas Eve service outside, in the middle of our apartment community. Several church members have made the effort to get involved in our apartment events. Our church has been particularly encouraging to me in these ministries and we have been encouraged to see this attitude rub off on church members.

Future Hopes 

In spite of the effort and the prayer, the ground has proven hard. We have yet to witness a conversion through these efforts and that has been discouraging. People have been led to Christ through our words and actions, but we have yet to see someone embrace Him as their Savior. 

I am reminded, though, that there was a drought of rain for more than 3 years in Elijah's time. It did not rain in Israel for years, but Elijah was bold when he told the wicked king Ahab, "Get thee up, eat and drink; for there is a sound of abundance of rain." (c.f. 1 Kings 18) Following his prophetic declaration, he went and prayed. But even then, he had to pray seven times to the Lord before God sent a little cloud to rise out of the sea. 

Though the first year of our ministry looks like a drought, we have seen little clouds popping up all around: increasing relationship with our neighbors; increasing interest in evangelism; increasing concern for their souls among the people we meet. Our field of labor is marked by dry, hard ground, and we've yet to see the Spirit pour out rain, but I believe we hear the sound of an abundant rain coming. The Lord keep us faithful until we see it. 

Thank you for your support, friends. We love y'all!

+ Blessings in Christ +

The Law of Greatest Love: First and Foremost

"The LORD our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. The LORD made not this covenant with our fathers, but with us, even us, who are all of us here alive this day. The LORD talked with you face to face in the mount out of the midst of the fire...saying, I am the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage." (Deuteronomy 5:2-6)

First and Foremost

Before God delivers any of the Ten Commandments to Israel, He establishes the basis of this Law. He rehearses for Israel what God has brought them through; what He has done among them. This is highly significant as we try to understand the nature of God's Law and our relationship to it. 

The Law of Moses is Gracious

A common misconception in large portions of evangelicalism is the idea that God's Law, specifically the Ten Commandments, are given through Moses as a list of commandments that Israel must keep in order to have a relationship with God. We view the Law given through Moses the same way we might view the Law given to Adam. The Westminster Confession says, "God gave to Adam a law, as a covenant of works, by which He bound him and all his posterity, to personal, entire, exact, and perpetual obedience, promised life upon the fulfilling, and threatened death upon the breach of it, and endued him with power and ability to keep it." (WCF 19.1) In other words, when Adam received commandment from God, he received it with the promise of life for obedience and the threat of death for disobedience. Adam disobeyed God, broke the Law, and here we are. 

We are mistaken if we think that the Law given through Moses functions the same way. To lump Moses in with the same covenant of works that Adam was under is mistaken. The reason this is so important is that, as Christians today, if we ask the question, "Does a Christian need to keep the Ten Commandments?" the answer is YES! But we automatically import this idea that the need is relative to being made right with God. So if I asked a random person in an evangelical church, "Do Christians need to keep the Ten Commandments?" their answer would probably be something like, "No. We are justified by faith alone, not by keeping the Ten Commandments. Keeping the Ten Commandments is legalism." We hear the question about Christians keeping the Ten Commandments, and we automatically assume that we are asking, "Do Christians need to keep the Ten Commandments in order to be justified before God?" The answer to that question is an adamant NO. But that is a different question than, "Do Christians need to keep the Ten Commandments?"

The Significance of Order

Consider what God does in giving the Ten Commandments. First, He establishes and rehearses the history of His relationship with Israel. He emphasizes two things in this preamble to the Ten Commandments: 

1. His enduring, personal covenant with Israel ("The LORD made not this covenant with our fathers, but with us, even us, who are all of us here alive this day. The LORD talked with you face to face in the mount out of the midst of the fire" 

2. His salvation and deliverance that He has already provided for them ("I am the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.")

Only after God has established and rehearsed His relationship with Israel does He then give them the Ten Commandments. He 

So another way to say it in contemporary "Christianese" is that God gives the Law to His people, because they have a personal relationship with Him through Jesus. God doesn't give His Law to Israel so that they can earn His love, but because they have already graciously received His love. The Law instructs them in how to live in this loving relationship with God. He already has a personal relationship with them. He has already accomplished their deliverance from Egypt. And, in light of this grace He has already given Israel, He then gives them the Law as a gift, not a curse.

+ Blessings in Christ +

 

The Law of Greatest Love: Dividing the Tables

"Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."
(Matthew 22:37-40) 

Dividing the Tables

Jesus divides the Law into two general sections, both relating to love: we must love God and love our neighbor as ourselves. The 98th question of the Westminster Larger Catechism asks, "Where is the moral law summarily comprehended?" The answer given is "The moral law is summarily comprehended in the ten commandments, which were delivered by the voice of God upon Mount Sinai, and written by him in two tables of stone; and are recorded in the twentieth chapter of Exodus. The four first commandments containing our duty to God, and the other six our duty to man."

If we list the Ten Commandments out according to this division, we see the following:

Loving God

1. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
2. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, etc.
3. Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain.
4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.

Loving Neighbor

5. Honour thy father and thy mother, etc.
6. Thou shalt not murder.
7. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
8. Thou shalt not steal.
9. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, etc.

Since the Ten Commandments are a summary of God's moral law, and a perfect reflection of His own character, everything about how to love God and how to love our neighbors is summed up in the them. One consistent thing we will see in the Ten Commandments is that each commandment contains both positive and negative elements. So every duty commanded also carries a contrary sin forbidden; and every sin forbidden also carries a contrary duty commanded.

For example, the seventh commandment not only forbids adultery, but also commands the duty of loving your spouse. The eight commandment not only forbids stealing, but also commands the duty of seeking our neighbor's welfare. We will consider this reality with each of the Ten Commandments as we address them. Ultimately, we will see that each of these commandments is wrapped up in the word "love", and we will see that "love" is properly defined and clarified in each of the commandments.  

+ Blessings in Christ +

The Law of Greatest Love: Introduction

"For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the LORD our God is in all things that we call upon Him for? And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day?" (Deuteronomy 4:7-8)

The Law of Greatest Love

In the history of the world, there has never been anything like what Moses and Israel experienced at Mount Sinai. God manifested Himself in a tremendous firestorm of lightning, thunderous booms, smoke, and the trumpet blast (Exodus 19:16-20). The smoke covered the mountain to such an extent that it was no longer visible and the earth quaked and shook. And out of the midst of this terrifying storm, God commanded His people to stay away from the mountain, lest they gaze upon God's glory while still in their sins and be destroyed. But God called for Moses to ascend the mountain, where God wrote with His own finger in stone the Ten Commandments.

These Ten Commandments are the perfect self-revelation of God's own moral character. They are the Law of God written with His own finger (Exodus 34:1). They are perpetually binding on all people, and will never fade away, even into eternity, for they are the full expression of love for God and our neighbor (Matt 22:37-40; Rom 13:8-10; 1 John 2:3-8). Jesus was very clear in the sermon on the mount:

Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. (Matt 5:17-18)

It is in light of this that I am branching out into a new writing venture, specifically focusing on the Ten Commandments. How can these commandments comprehensively cover our relationship with God with other people around us? Are Christians still obligated to keep them all? What do we do with the hundreds of other commandments in the Bible? Lord willing, we shall seek and discover some answers...

+ Blessings in Christ +

Walking Through Westminster, WCF 14.1-3 "Of Saving Faith"

 Westminster Confession of Faith 14.1-3

I. The grace of faith, whereby the elect are enabled to believe to the saving of their souls, is the work of the Spirit of Christ in their hearts, and is ordinarily wrought by the ministry of the Word, by which also, and by the administration of the sacraments, and prayer, it is increased and strengthened.

II. By this faith, a Christian believes to be true whatsoever is revealed in the Word, for the authority of God Himself speaking therein; and acts differently upon that which each particular passage thereof contains; yielding obedience to the commands, trembling at the threatenings, and embracing the promises of God for this life, and that which is to come. But the principal acts of saving faith are accepting, receiving, and resting upon Christ alone for justification, sanctification, and eternal life, by virtue of the covenant of grace.

III. This faith is different in degrees, weak or strong; may often and many ways assailed, and weakened, but gets the victory: growing up in many to the attainment of a full assurance, through Christ, who is both the author and finisher of our faith.

Summary

Faith is a grace; a gift given by God. True faith is not something conjured up by us in our hearts, but something that God the Holy Spirit works in the hearts of His elect people. It is the responsibility of the believer to exercise that God-given faith, but the faith itself is from God. This faith is normally given by the Spirit through the ministry of the Word, particularly the preaching of the Bible. Additionally, this saving faith is strengthened and increased through the Word, the sacraments, and prayer. This is not to say that saving faith is only ever wrought through these means, but that these are the channels the Spirit normally uses to work saving faith in a believer's heart. The Lord may, of course, work in unordinary ways to produce saving faith. For example, John the Baptist expressed faith in Christ when he was still in his mother Elizabeth's womb.

This saving faith leads the Christian to believe everything that the Bible says. The Christian acknowledges all of the Bible to be true because it is God speaking therein. Based on God's supreme authority, the Christian submits even his own mind to the truths of Scripture. The Christian does not submit to the Bible because of the authority of the Church, the pope in Rome, the opinion of critical scholars in high academia, nor even because their own reason tells them to. Rather, the Christian submits to every part of God's word because of the authority of God Himself. 

This does not mean that a Christian never wrestles with believing the Bible, nor does it mean that they believe what every human teacher might say about the Bible, but it does mean that the Christian believes everything in the Bible in the way it is meant to be believed. This is what it means to "act differently upon that which each particular passage thereof contains". We yield obedience to the commands of Scripture; we tremble at the threatenings of Scripture; we embrace the promises given to us in Scripture. We accept the histories as history. We embrace the miraculous events portrayed in narratives as real and true. We embrace the metaphors of the psalmists in describing the character of God. We take the Bible as it is presented to us, and in no other way than that.

All that being said, the ultimate significance of saving faith is not found in our relationship to the Bible, but to the God who reveals Himself in and through the Bible. The chief significance of saving faith is found in what we will do with Jesus. Real, living faith must lead the believer to accept, receive, and rest upon Christ alone for justification, sanctification, and eternal life. Those three theological terms and statements cover the entirety of human life; from the moment we are reconciled to God all the way into eternity. So another way of saying it is to say that saving faith looks to Christ alone for everything that we need for all of our life. Saving faith looks to no other source for anything that we need, for all our needs are met by God the Father through Jesus, His Son.

Saving faith is the same in every believer in its object (Christ), its source (the Holy Spirit), and its ultimate end (victory and eternal life). But saving faith differs among individual Christians in its strength and conflict. Some Christians have weaker faith than others; some have stronger faith than others. Some Christian's faith is attacked in one way; some are attacked in wholly different ways. Some Christians have faith that leads to a full assurance of their salvation; others struggle all their life with finding full assurance. But Christ is the author of every Christian's faith, and He is the one who will ultimately finish it in each of us, bringing it to full fruition in heaven. 

When people board a plane, some folks are totally confident in flying; others only have enough confidence to get them on board and in their seat. While their levels of faith and assurance may vary, the success of the flight does not truly depend on their individual levels of confidence, but on the skills and training of the pilot. If God has given you saving faith in Jesus, then it ultimately depends on Him to bring you to your eternal home. Your faith may weaken or falter, but God has promised and He is faithful to fulfill what He has sworn.

+ Blessings in Christ +

Walking Through Westminster, WCF 13.1-3 "Of Sanctification"

Westminster Confession of Faith 13. 1-3

I. They, who are once effectually called, and regenerated, having a new heart, and a new spirit created in them, are further sanctified, really and personally, through the virtue of Christ's death and resurrection, by His Word and Spirit dwelling in them: the dominion of the whole body of sin is destroyed, and the several lusts thereof are more and more weakened and mortified; and they more and more quickened and strengthened in all saving graces, to the practice of true holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.

II. This sanctification is throughout, in the whole man; yet imperfect in this life, there abiding still some remnants of corruption in every part; whence arises a continual and irreconcilable war, the flesh lusting against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh.

III. In which war, although the remaining corruption, for a time, may much prevail; yet, through the continual supply of strength from the sanctifying Spirit of Christ, the regenerate part does overcome; and so, the saints grow in grace, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

 Summary

All those whom God has chosen, called, and regenerated, He will also sanctify. The word "sanctify" means "to set apart" or "to make holy". So God determines to not only call His people and regenerate them, but He does these things in order to make them holy. It is important to note that God is the one doing the sanctifying. Sanctification is not where God abandons His people to their own devices. It is not as though God justifies a person, makes them born again, and then leaves them to figure out the rest on their own. Rather, the work is all of God, from beginning to end.

What does it look like to be sanctified? First, the dominion of the whole body of sin is destroyed. This means that the dominion of sin over the human soul is undone. Mankind in his fallen state is under a yoke of bondage, unable and unwilling to do anything but sin. But when God calls us to Himself, that yoke of bondage is destroyed in such a way that we become able and willing to not sin. This happens instantaneously, the moment that the sinner is converted. While this does not destroy all sin within the human soul, the power of those lusts are weakened and put to death with time as the Christian walks in grace and the Spirit's power. The Christian becomes stronger and stronger in true holiness, and weaker and weaker in sin. 

While the Christian may make more or less progress in their pursuit of holiness, they will always remain imperfect in this life. Remnants of sin's corruption will continue in every part of the person (the mind, body, will, etc.) The continued existence of these remnants of sin, combined with the Spirit's presence in the soul of the Christian, leads to an irreconcilable conflict in the soul of the Christian. Paul describes this conflict in Romans 7, which is worth your personal reading. Paul says therein, "For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I want to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do." The Christian now has the desire and the ability to do good, but the remnant of sin within us means that we do not always do what we know we should; we still sin, as our lusts resist the Spirit and the Spirit within us wars against our lusts. 

In this irreconcilable conflict, the Christian has ups and downs, wins and losses. The reality is that a Christian may be, for a time, overcome by their lusts and the power of sin still within them. A Christian may, for a time, backslide into old sinful habits or practices. They may even appear to have given up on Christ completely. But if God has called them, He has promised to never give them up. If they are truly God's children, He will always call them back, no matter how long He may allow them to stray.

The English reformer, Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, jailed and under punishment of death, recanted all of his Reformed beliefs and confessed his teachings as sin. By all accounts, he had returned to the church of Rome as a corrected son, and had given up on true Bible religion. But Mary was determined to see him burn, in spite of his recantations. On the day he was to die, Cranmer stood in front of University Church at St. Mary's to issue a full, public recantation of his teachings. Instead, he recanted of his recantations, declaring all of them invalid and reasserting his belief in the Bible. Although it seemed Cranmer had totally backslidden, yet in his dying day, he returned to the true faith of Christ and admirably embraced the martyr's death that God had put before him, and entered into glory.

This reality should give us both caution and hope. Caution, that we not dismiss everyone who backslides as a hopeless unbeliever. When someone goes astray it is easy to be cynical and lose hope for them. But God would teach us through examples like Cranmer that, until death, no one is truly beyond the hope of returning to Christ. Even if we are the guilty party, and we are wholly uninterested in the things of God, and wonder if we are even Christians anymore, we can still hold out hope for ourselves that God will, in due time, restore us to the joy of salvation and not cast us off.

+ Blessings in Christ +

Walking Through Westminster, WCF 12.1 "Of Adoption"

Westminster Confession of Faith 12.1

All those that are justified, God vouchsafes, in and for His only Son Jesus Christ, to make partakers of the grace of adoption, by which they are taken into the number, and enjoy the liberties and privileges of the children of God, have His name put upon them, receive the spirit of adoption, have access to the throne of grace with boldness, are enabled to cry, Abba, Father, are pitied, protected, provided for, and chastened by Him as by a Father: yet never cast off, but sealed to the day of redemption; and inherit the promises, as heirs of everlasting salvation.

Summary

What did Jesus come to do? One very adequate answer is that He came to die for our sins (1 John 2:2). In line with last chapter, WCF 11, we know that He came to justify us before God the Father. But He doesn't just do that. His work of reconciling us to God does more. We are not simply reconciled as servants or creatures or image-bearers, but we are reconciled as sons and daughters of God. He adopts us into His family and we become His children. 

In one sense, everyone who has ever lived has been God's child, in the sense that He is their Creator and they are His creatures. They even all bear His image. But when God adopts believers into His family, He does so through Jesus. That is, the believer is viewed as a child of God in the way that the Father views Jesus as His Son. That unique relationship that the Father and Son have always had for all eternity is what the believer enters into. They are able to cry to God, "Abba, Father". We don't think of this much, but consider that no angel in heaven calls God their Father. In fact, the author of Hebrews makes clear that God's relationship with the angels is one of a Ruler and His servants (Heb 1:5-7). The believer experiences a relationship with God unlike any other creature, even unbelieving humans. The love that God had for His Son from eternity past is the love that is poured out on the believer in Christ, as we are called sons and daughters of the Father; fellow heirs with Christ of eternal life and everlasting glory. 

+ Blessings in Christ +