Preparing for Christmas in 2020

Covid, quarantine, and Christmas. Not the most exciting combination in the world. In this video Jennifer and I share some resources and traditions that have helped our family “prepare Him room” as we get ready to celebrate this most joyous of seasons.

I hope you find it useful!

Veterans Day- My Thanks for a Picture of the Gospel

Today is Veterans Day. As one who has never served in the armed forces but values those who give of their lives for the freedom that I enjoy, please let me give you a whole-hearted thank you!

Every Veteran Has Given OF Their Lives; Some Have Given Their Lives

When you tell a veteran that they have given of their lives, and this presumes that they are living, they immediately think that they have not. They think of services members who have given of their lives as those who have died while serving. While those people have given all of their lives, every veteran has given something. Time away from family, time in country, time when they could have been building a business or career, whatever it may be.

All of the veterans that have given of themselves, whether in whole or in part, deserve our thanks.

Freedom Isn’t Free

Those who have served know that freedom isn’t free. Those who haven’t served, like me, get to enjoy the freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, and countless other freedoms that we have in this country…for free.

We have probably all heard someone say that freedom is inherently free. They often say something like…”Why is it called freedom if it isn’t free?” The answer is that freedom is free to those who merely enjoy it, but to those who pay for it, freedom isn’t free.

Grace: Free to Us but Not to Jesus

God’s grace, by which I mean the forgiveness of sin and the gift of every spiritual blessing that God has supplied, is absolutely free. It requires no payment on our part. All one has to do to receive God’s grace is believe in Jesus payment for our sins and turn away from the sin that we tend to cling to.

In Romans 8 Paul tells us that it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. He continues on to say that we are either slaves to sin or that we have been set free from the law of sin and are now slaves to righteousness. But there is no way to buy God’s grace. No way to buy freedom from sin. It can only be received freely.

Why must grace only be received freely? Because Jesus payed for it when you and I could not. God is holy—totally set apart from sin. He can tolerate no injustice, no wrongdoing, no exploitation of people. I would hope that we would all be grateful for a God like that. The problem is that we have all sinned, and the punishment for that sin is death. But thanks be to God that He sent his only Son, Jesus Christ, to die for us so that we could live glorify him and enjoy him forever.

Grace is free to you and me because Jesus was willing to give His life to purchase it.

Freedom in America is free to you and me because men and women have been willing to give of their lives to earn it and then to keep it. Some gave all, all gave some.

I am eternally grateful to Jesus for the sacrifice of his own life to give us life eternally and without cost.

I am grateful to those who have given of their lives for freedom here on earth as well.

Happy Veterans Day, and welcome home!

Election 2020: From My Heart to Yours

It is November 3rd, election night in 2020. A year that most of us are probably ready to be done with. This year has stretched us, challenged us, changed us. But as we prepare to see what the this election might hold (I say might because we all know it may not be over today) I would like to share some thoughts to both encourage and challenge you.

Why?

The reason I share this with you is that there is more fear surrounding this election than any election I can recall. Real, existential fear. There are some on both sides of the aisle who want to deny the fears of the other side. I find no profit in this whatsoever. Whether or not peoples fear is justified or warranted, it is nonetheless real.

Our neighbors, friends, relatives, co-workers, and fellow church members may be genuinely afraid of what happens if “their guy” doesn’t get elected. So it is with that thought in mind that I write to you today.

Encouragement

First I would like to give you a word of encouragement. Here it is…the outcome of tonights election is under the control of the sovereignty and goodness of God. Here is Romans 13:1:

“Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.”

— Romand 13:1 (ESV)

Did you catch what Paul is telling the church in Rome? He is saying that whoever is in charge, whatever governing authorities are in place, God has instituted them.

Nero! Nero was the Emperor in Rome when Paul wrote this letter to the Church in Rome from Corinth in 65 A.D. Nero! Who bronzed Christians alive to use as statued. Who skinned them alive. Who dipped them in oil and lit them on fire as torches for his night time parties. Who blamed Christians after the great fire in Rome in 64 A.D. That is the “governing authorities” that Paul is telling them to be subject to.

How in the world can Christians submit to such authority? How could God have possibly allowed that? Why would God allow that? The answer is simple: I don’t know! I don’t know why god would allow that to happen, but I do know this…

“He who did not spare his own Son but gave him us for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?”

— Romans 8:32 (ESV)

God gave up his Son. For us. Jesus, the eternally existent Son of God, became a man and lived a sinless death so that he could die in your place—paying the penalty for sin—so that you could be forgiven, set right with God, and inherit every blessing in the heavenly places (Eph. 1:3).

Since God was willing to give us his most prized possession, his very Son, we can trust that there is no good thing he with holds. God hasn’t gotten any election wrong. He didn’t mess up in allowing COVID-19. He hasn’t withheld any good gift from us and we can trust that he never will. For whatever reason God has allowed our current circumstances, and no matter who get’s elected tonight, it is in the control of God’s sovereign goodness.

Challenge

The challenge upon us all will be to obey the governing authorities when “our guy” doesn’t get elected. But obey we must because whoever wins tonights election will have been put in place because they have been “instituted by God.” And when God has instituted a governing authority God requires our obedience. Romans 13:2 says…

“Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.”

— Romans 13:2 (ESV)

To only obey those governing authorities we want to is nothing but pure rebellion. It’s disobedience.

So do we just obey blindly?

The answer to this is no. We obey the governing authorities only so much as they do not require us to disobey God. Let me give a couple examples…

In Acts 4 Peter and John, after having been arrested for telling people about Jesus, are commanded not to tell anyone about Jesus any more. After being releases they continue to do what they were forbidden to do. The same thing happens in Acts 5.

The apostles had a choice. They could obey God OR the governing authorities, but they could not obey both. They chose to obey God and disobey the governing authorities. But unless we are faced with that choice, we must obey.

Here is another example…Masks. I don’t want in any way to argue as to whether or not we should or shouldn’t wear masks. But here is the question we must ask ourselves. Is it disobedient to God to wear a mask? If the answer is yes, then we must obey God and not the government. But if the answer is no, then we must obey the government, here is is, AS AN ACT OF OBEDIENCE TO GOD.

Summing It All Up

Here the point…

First, no matter what happens tonight, put your hope and fear in the capable, sovereign, and good hands of God. He hasn’t withheld his Son from us and so we can trust him to give us every good thing.

Second, no matter what happens tonight, determine to ask yourself in all things “can I obey the government and Jesus?” As long as the answer to that is yes, then determine that you will obey God and the government. As soon as the answer becomes no then always obey God over the government.

One last thought…so much us this is a matter of conscience. Be sure that you conscience is soaked in the Word of God.

Can You “Watch Church”?

I have begun hearing people say that they “watched church” on Sunday. And while I certainly know what this means… I’m beginning to wonder if it is really even possible. Before you halt reading I want to give a disclaimer and an explanation.

Disclaimer

I understand that their are real existential threats to some people regarding Covid-19. I understand that there are some whose medical condition is such that staying home and staying safe is a wise and warranted course of action. I also understand that to some there is either no threat or no perceived threat from Covid-19. Nothing about what I am writing today is about what you should do concerning Covid. I am merely writing to help us understand what the church is and how we should interact, at least under normal circumstances.

Explanation

Let me share with you some phrases I have never heard…

• “I watched Boy Scouts today”

• “I watched Chamber of Commerce today”

• “I watched Costco today”

Hopefully you get the point. These organizations are something to which you interact and belong. They are not merely performances to be enjoyed. They require membership, dues, involvement, participation etc.

Conversely, this language does fit with things we merely watch as spectators…

• “I watched the Seahawks today” (Raiders would be better!)

• “I watched Hamilton today” (It’s on Disney+)

• “I watched Mary Poppins today”

Things we use to entertain, study, consume, etc… these are easily said to be watched. But when we belong and participate we begin to talk about things differently. We participate, belong, enjoy, etc.

What is a church?

Knowing what language to use is determined by what something is and how I relate to it.

The church is not presented to us in Scripture as an organization, thought there are certainly organizational elements to it. Scripture presents us with the truth that the church is an organism. The church is not a bunch of individuals who are placed into rooms, buildings, classes, groups, whatever. That would be an organization. A church is a local body (that’s organism language) of people who have trusted in the death and resurrection of Jesus for their forgiveness and freedom from sin who are connected in vital relationships with a distinctly spiritual thrust.

Therefore…a church is not a building, location, or performance but rather the people who gather in those places to do those things.

Church as performance

For those of us who are familiar with the church this might sound strange. But let me see if I can help you understand. When you go to a play, or watch Hamilton on Disney+, there are several components necessary to a successful performance. While there are more, I’d like to share 3.

The Players

• The Director oversees the performers in such a way as to produce a play that is meaningful and enjoyable.

• The Actors are the ones who actually participate in the performance.

• The Audience are those who watch and critique the show, either approvingly or disapprovingly.

The Wrong View of Church

• God is the Director- instructing all of the people what to do. (No doubt God is the author of all things, but hand in with me on this analogy)

• Pastors and Musicians are the Performers- they are, after all, on stage playing instruments and speaking.

• The People are the Audience- watching and enjoying the show and criticizing if they didn’t get what they paid for.

The Right View of Church

• Pastors and Musicians are the Directors- who use the script God has given us, His Word, to direct the performers in Worship (the play).

• The People are the Performers- who live, act, worship, “perform” the script according to how God has given it.

• God is the Audience- Who watches and enjoys our worship for His glory (and maybe even approvingly or disapprovingly according to our conformity to the script-His Word)

Conclusion

You might watch a church service, but if you have repented of your sin in trust of Jesus Christ as your sole sufficiency before God, then you ARE the church. How we worship matters. God has called us into his Body—the church—where worship Him.

If you are separated from the church right now for health reasons, I am praying for you and I am looking forward with great anticipation to a time when we can be together.

If you are separated from the church simply because it’s more convenient to “watch church” than gather with God’s people… then I pray that you will joyfully join the celebration of God in worship this Sunday with the local church to which you belong.

Applying the Old Testament Today: Part 4 of Understanding Our Relationship to the Old Testament

In our final installment of Understanding the Old Testament I want to give you a series of questions to ask yourself when reading the Old Testament that might help with attempts to apply it to today. There are 6 questions in total, and I will try to be brief in explaining them.

Here they are…

Is this connect to the Mosaic Law Given in Deuteronomy?

When the New Testament speaks of the old covenant being imperfect and temporary (see Hebrews) it usually speaking of the Mosaic Covenant. This covenant was given by God to the people of Israel at Mt. Sinai. It contained many instructions for how the nation was to live and worship. There, God promised that there would blessing for obedience and discipline for disobedience. The rules given in the law of Moses (see Deuteronomy) are no longer the means that God use to govern his peoples lives and worship. If a commandment is connected to the Mosaic Covenant it is not likely to be required of God’s people today.

What type of law is this?

Not all of the laws given in the Old Covenant were given for the same purpose. Civil Law was given to govern the people. Israel was to be a theocracy, that is that their worship and religious system was their legal system. Therefore, some of the laws giving were civil laws and do not apply today. Ceremonial Law was given to instruct Israel on how to worship. We are no longer bound by these laws as God has given us a “better” way to worship and approach him, Jesus Christ (to borrow language from Hebrews). Moral Law was given to show people what was right and what was wrong. Because God is not a changing God, we can know that these things are still wrong today.

There is no formula for knowing which laws are which. Scripture doesn’t give us a code for figuring it out. We have to do that as we read and interpret God’s Word. We may not always get it perfect, but we will hopefully grow in our understanding over time.

Was this command repeated in the New Testament?

This is probably one of the most helpful questions to ask ourselves. Laws that are not repeated in the New Testament can be considered obsolete. Why? Because the Old Covenant way of relating to God has been replaced by the worship of God through Jesus. An example of this would be the Ten Commandments. Nine of the Ten Commandments have been repeated in the New Testament therefore we can know that God still requires them of us. Which one isn’t repeated? The command to remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.

Does this commandment express something true about God’s nature and character?

This one doesn’t speak to commands and laws, but it a really important question to ask ourselves. When the Old Testament speaks of God as loving, kind, just, forgiving, hating sin, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, etc. we can know that these things are still true about God today because he never changes. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Have I lived up to this command?

This may seem like a funny questions after I have just said that most of the laws in the Old Testament don’t apply to believers today. But as we saw in a previous post, Galatians teaches us that the law is a “tutor” that leads us to Christ. This means that the point of the law was to teach and show us that we cannot obey the law and thus need a savior. Seeing where we have not, and in fact cannot, keep the law reminds us that we need Jesus and that is in fact the whole point of the law.

Do I believe God will love me for my obedience?

It’s really easy to look at the laws we easily obey and think that God loves us more, or approves of us more, because we have kept the law. The truth is the only one who has kept the whole law is Jesus. When we believe that Jesus obeyed the law on our behalf, died on the cross as the punishment for our disobedience to the law on our behalf, and was raised again on our behalf then God applies the obedience of Christ to us so that we can now be seen as not only not guilty of breaking the law but as righteous having perfectly obeyed the law.

May your readings of the Old Testament serve to grow your understanding of your need and appreciation for Jesus!

Understanding Our Relationship to the Old Testament: Part 3

What Is the Purpose of the Laws in the Old Testament?

In the last two posts we saw that the Old Testament writings remain authoritative as all scripture is God breathed and profitable for us (see 2 Tim. 3:16). We also briefly explored the covenants, or promises that God made to his people, and saw that God’s promise to Israel does not equate directly to the church. But how should we understand and apply the Old Testament laws?

In the next post, which will be the closing post on this matter, we will look at some specific ways that Christians can apply the Old Covenant laws to their own lives, and in some cases not apply those laws. But first we must understand what the purpose of all fo the laws that were given in the Old Testament are for.

John Calvin, in his book The Institutes of the Christian Religion, gives us a helpful starting point. He points out 3 purposes of the law.

The Law Reveals the Character of God

In the Bible God reveals to us that he is a holy God. This means that he is absolutely perfect, free from any wrongdoing or sin. He is in fact so holy that he cannot tolerate any violation of what is good and right and pure. This is called God’s holiness. The law of God serves to us that God is perfectly separate from sin and expects the people that created to be free from sin also.

The Law Keeps People from Doing What Is Wrong

God knows that we are sinners by nature and prone to doing what is wrong. Because of this he gave his people, the nation of Israel, a set and systems of laws to keep them from doing what is wrong. It was also to keep the people just as part of God’s holiness means that he cannot tolerate injustice of any kind.

The Law Reveals What is Most Pleasing to God

This might be the most important point, at least to John Calvin, but can also be hard to understand. We will see that believers are not bound by the laws of the Old Testament in certain cases (we will define this more in the next post). But the law reveals the nature of God, what is good for His people, what is wrong for His people, and what is harmful. I imagine if you are reading this that you probably have some desire to live in a manner that is pleasing to God. The law can help us understand how to do that.

What is the result of all of this? Well Galatians 3:24 can be really helpful here. In this verse Paul explains to us that the Law was a tutor that leads us to Christ. Let me explain what he means by that.

• First it means that the law reveals our sinfulness. All of the laws of the Old Testament exist to show us that we cannot keep all of those laws. We are prone to think far better of ourselves than we actually are. We justify our wrong actions by pretending we had good motives. We make excuses for our behavior. The law shows us that there is some thing wrong with our hearts and we need help.

• Second the law shows us the nature of Jesus. Jesus was the only person who was ever able to keep the law perfectly. He did so because he is the eternal Son of God. He became part of his own creation to do what we could not…you guessed it…obey the law. He obeyed where we disobeyed. But then he died when we should have died. Then he lived, having been raised from the dead 3 days later, so that we might live.

• Thirdly the law, and our inability to obey it perfectly, reminds us daily of our need for Jesus to save us from our sinful selves. We need Jesus everyday. We need his saving grace to forgive our sins. We need his sanctifying grace to help us become more and more obedient to him.

The law, when we see that we cannot obey the law, is a tutor that leads us to Jesus. when we trust in his righteousness, death, and resurrection as the basis for God’s forgiveness of our sins then we are taught to run to Jesus everyday.

The point of the law isn’t to force us into perfect obedience. The point of the law is to show us that we are by nature disobedient and thus draw us nearer and nearer to Jesus every day.

In our next and final post we will look at a few questions that will help us to understand what to do with the laws found in the Old Testament when we run into them.

Understanding Our Relationship to the Old Testament: Part 2

In the first installment of this series we raised the questions of how the church should relate to the commands and promises in the Old Testament. It can be hard to know how Christians today are to relate to all the rituals and rules that fill the pages of the first testament in God’s Word. In order to understand how we relate to the Old Testament we need to understand the idea of a “covenant.”

This post may be a little technical, but it’s really important in understanding how Christians today are to understand and obey the Old Testament laws. I will do my best to keep things short.

What Is a Covenant?

Simply put, a covenant is an agreement between two parties/people. In the Bible a covenant can also be an unbreakable promise given by God to his people. While there are several covenants in the Bible, here are a few that we need to understand.

• The Abrahamic Covenant was a promise that God made to Abraham to give him a family that would grow into a whole nation. Today we call that nation Israel. God promised not only the nation, but also land, government, blessing, and a messiah who would save the people from their sin.

• The Mosaic Covenant was the agreement that God made with Israel through Moses at Mt. Sinai. The covenant included promises of blessing for obedience, discipline for disobedience, and a messiah who would save the people from their sins. Along with this were extensive instructions about how the nation of Israel was to approach, worship, and relate to God.

• The Davidic Covenant was the promise of God to David that he would have a descendent sit on the throne forever.

These covenants all see their fulfillment and realization in Jesus. He is the promised messiah who would save people from their sin and the king who will sit on the throne forever. All of these covenants were given to the nation of Israel in the Old Testament.

The New Covenant is the promise of God for the forgiveness of sins and eternal blessing in heaven to those who believe in Jesus. It is NOT a promise given to one nation, but a promise given to all who trust in Jesus for forgiveness regardless of nationality, age, gender, economic status, etc.

Who Are the Covenants for?

The first three covenants were given to the nation of Israel. The New Covenant is given to all who trust in the death and resurrection of Jesus for their sin. Thus all of the promises of government, land, blessing, prosperity, etc. that were given to the nation of Israel are NOT promises that belong to the church.

This may seem tedious and/or obvious but as we consider this in future posts it is an important matter.

An Example

Let me see if I can give an example of how an Old Covenant promise might be understood today…

I frequently hear 2 Chronicles 7:14 quoted in regards to American politics.

“If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”

— 2 Chronicles 7:14

An improper application of this verse would be to say that if the nation of America will heal and turn from their sin that God would heal our nation, cause our crops to be abundant, and remove poverty and division from our land. The reason that this is improper is that Israel, not America, is promised a prosperous land if they humble themselves, pray, and seek God’s forgiveness.

A proper application of this might pertain to the church, who is promised forgiveness of sin. So it would be a proper application to say that a hurting and broken church would find healing if they were willing to humble themselves, pray, and seek God’s forgiveness.

I’ll stop here for today. This might not be the most inspiring post you have ever read, but next week we will look at some specific principles for understanding Old Testament laws. This discussion will help us to better understand the application of those principles to God’s Word given to us in the Old Testament.

Worthy of the Gospel

Bad News…

Jesus saved sinners from the consequences of their sin. That is the message of the gospel in it’s most simple form. Every person who has ever lived, with the exception of Jesus, has been both a sinner by choice and a sinner by nature (HANG IN, THE GOOD NEWS IS COMING). We are born with a sin nature that is prone to disobedience to God. In fact, the one thing that we don’t have to teach our children is how to disobey. Everything else must be taught, but defiance comes hard wired in. We are also sinners by choice. We choose to do bad things. All of this is the bad news.

Worse News…

The really bad news is that our sin deserves punishment. God, being holy, can’t tolerate any sin. He cannot abide by any injustice, wickedness, evil, etc. Therefore, as Romans 6:23 states, “The wages of sin is death.” Wages. Earned. Deserved. Death. Our sin deserves eternal separation from God.

The Best News…

The good news is that Romans 6:23 doesn’t stop there. It goes on to say that “the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Free, not earned. Grace, not of works. God freely grants forgiveness to those who understand that it comes to us not because we deserve it but because Jesus earned it for us.

How it all works…

So how does all of this work? If I’m guilty and God is holy, how can I be forgiven? The simplest answer is this: Jesus trades me what I deserve for what he deserves.

• I am a sinner by nature and by choice and deserve punishment.

• He was holy and perfect and deserves life.

• He died a death he didn’t deserve, paying a debt I couldn’t pay.

• I receive life that he deserved.

For those who believe that Jesus is Lord and that He died for our sins, who turn to Jesus and trust him, there is a great exchange. My guilt is exchanged for his righteousness. By trusting Jesus to have paid for sin, God the Father accounts Jesus righteousness to me.

“It is the most counterintuitive aspect of Christianity, that we are declared right with God not once we begin to get our act together but once we collapse into honest acknowledgment that we never will.”

— Dane Ortlund

Am I Worthy?

This is one of the fundamental questions of the Christian faith. Am I worthy of the forgiveness that God grants to me in Jesus? The answer depends on what we mean by worthy.

Most of the time what we mean by worthy is deserving. Do I deserve to be forgiven? The answer, though it is sometimes hard to hear, is no. The Bible often speaks of God’s forgiveness as grace. Rights can be demanded. Wages are earned. But grace is granted.

It is God’s gracious, loving, slow to anger character that causes his heart to be drawn out towards the deadly and miserable plight of sinners (which is what mercy is). God saves sinners not because they are worthy, but because He is good.

So what then does it mean to be worthy of the Gospel?

If you have ever seen the movie “Saving Private Ryan” you might have an idea. In the film Tom Hanks sets out on a journey to get and send home one “private Ryan” played by Matt Damon. Ryan’s 3 brothers had all died in WWII and as such Damon’s character was being sent home so that his parents would not have to lose all other sons in the war. Many of the soldiers, including Hanks character, lost their lives sending home private Ryan. Just before he died, Hanks character tells Ryan “earn this.”

Private Ryan couldn’t earn it. He didn’t earn a trip home. His brothers had died and so he was granted a trip home. What Hanks was saying was that private Ryan should live his live in a matter worthy of what it cost to send him home alive.

Those who repent of their sin and trust Jesus get to go to heaven free of any cost to them because Jesus gave his life for ours. We cannot earn it, we don’t deserve it… but we’ve been given the opportunity to make it all the home (heaven) safely because Jesus gave his life for ours. The call on our lives is to live in a manner worthy of what was done for us, precisely because we don’t deserve it. But God was please to grant it.

“I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called.”

— Ephesians 4:1

Understanding Our Relationship to the Old Testament: Part 1

How do all the Old Testament laws and requirements apply to Christians today? I have heard this question many times, and it’s an excellent and important question. The Old Testament is full of dietary regulations, clothing requirements, feast and festivals… and the church hasn’t practiced many of those things for thousands of years. So what is for us today and what is not?

The good news is that there are answers to these questions. And over a series of a few posts I would like to share with you some principles for understanding and applying Old Testament law as New Covenant believers.

However, before we get into the specifics of how to understand the laws of the Old Testament, we need to understand the relationship of the Old Testament to us today. Romans 15:4 is helpful in our understanding of this.

“For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”

— Romans 15:4

John Stott points out 5 truths from this verse that helps us understand the Old Testament…

1. All Scripture has a contemporary intention.

   We all understand that all of the books of the Old Testament were written to a particular audience in their day. But under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Paul here writes that “what was written in former days was written for our instruction.” God sovereignly intended for His Word written in the past to be for our instruction today.

2. All Scripture has inclusive value.

   Having quoted half of Ps. 69:9 Paul concludes that “whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction.” The word for whatever that Paul uses here isn’t a nebulous word but carries the idea of “everything.” Everything written was written for us as well as it’s original audience.

3. All Scripture has a Christological focus.

   Paul understands that Ps. 69:9, written by David, is a passage that really points to Jesus. This is the same verse that came to the disciples mind when Jesus removed the money changers from the temple. All Scripture ultimately points to, and finds its fulfillment in, Jesus.

4. All Scripture has practical purpose.

   In 2 Tim. 3:15 Paul, again under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, reminds Timothy that “…the sacred writings…are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.” The only “sacred writings” that would have been available to Timothy when he was a child would have been the Old Testament. Paul understood, like Jesus in Luke 24:27, that all of the Old Testament writings are practical in helping us understand who Jesus is and how to be forgiven through faith in Jesus.

5. All Scripture is a divine message.

   The same “endurance and…encouragement” that are attributed to Scripture in Romans 15:4 are attributed to God in verse 5. John Stott says that this “…can only mean that it is God himself who encourages us through the living voice of the Scripture. For God continues to speak through what he has spoken.” Scriptures words are God’s voice.

“And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.”

— Luke 24:27

Now that we have an understanding that all 66 books of the Bible are relevant for Christians today we can begin to see how we are to properly relate to the text of the Old Testament. We will look more at this in future posts…stay tuned!

Our Relational Design

As humans it’s pretty natural to look for similarities in others and then categorize ourselves accordingly. Sometimes this can be a good thing, sometimes not so much. A popular way to identify ourselves today is as either introverts or extroverts. I see this as a good thing.

How We Recharge

There’s a lot of ways to talk about the differences between introverts and extroverts. Many of them capture something that true, none of them probably paint the whole picture. It’s a common misconception that extroverts love to be around people and introverts don’t, or that extroverts are the life of the party and introverts are “wall flowers.” Neither of these are true. Part of the difference between the two is that extroverts get rest by being with others and introverts rest by being alone.

Our Relational Design

Whether you find yourself in one category or the other, you were designed for relationships. In Genesis 1 and 2 we see the true story of God bringing design and order to his creation. He creates lights for the day and night sky, land and sea, plants and animals, birds and fish… and for 6 days God creates everything and declares that “it was good.” Until…

God made a man. One solitary man. He gives the man, named Adam, the job of naming all the animals. As Adam does he quickly discovers that each animal has a pair but Adam did not. After saying “It was good” over all of His creation, for the first time in Gen. 2:18 God says “It is not good….” What was it that wasn’t good? It wasn’t good “…that the man should be alone.” So God made a woman and as the two of them stood there, together, in relationship, not alone… God said “It was very good.” (Gen. 1:31)

In His Image

God made mankind “in His image” (Gen. 1:27). Part of this image is that people are relational because God is relational. God has eternally existed as 3 persons in one God, a trinity of persons without distinction in deity. This is hard for us to understand because we aren’t God, but God has eternally existed in relationship as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He created us to reflect his nature and his nature is relational and thus ours is too.

Not a Mistake

God didn’t make a mistake when he made Adam alone. He didn’t make Adam and then adjust the plan later with Eve to fix what He had gotten wrong. He left Adam alone so that he would see and recognize his need. Once Adam realized that he was alone, God finished the original plan and declared things to be “very good.”

The Problem of Pandemic

This creates a problem for us as we face COVID-19 and the quarantine orders that separate us from others. Whether or not you believe the lock down is right or wrong, helpful or harmful, good or bad… we need relationships. Maybe you are more aware of you need for relationships with others than you have ever been before, maybe not. But maybe there is someone else out there who is more desperate for relationships than ever before.

Sinfulness of Complaint

Unfortunately, one of my first responses when things are going my way is to complain. But God is pretty clear on how he feels about complaining. 1 Cor. 10:10 is clear that God finds the complaints of his people to be wrong. Things don’t go our way and so we grumble. At the heart of grumbling is a heart attitude that believes God got things wrong. We complain because we think that we deserve better, or that God should have done better, or maybe even just that he could have done better. The reality is that even when we don’t understand what is going on around us, God never gets it wrong and is always working for our good (Rom. 8:28).

Ways to Honor God in Quarantine

1. Replace grumbling with gratitude. Regularly write down what you have to be grateful for and then review your list occasionally. 1 Cor. 10:10

2. Determine that you will return to church as soon as safety and conscience allow. There may be good reasons for you to be separate from the church right now, but church absence is contrary to design. Have a plan to return quickly. Heb. 10:25

3. Call people who might have limited access to relationships.

4. Visit someone who may be lonely. Just bring a lawn chair and sit outside at least 6ft away from each other.

5. Wear a mask in public. This point may be controversial… but whether you think it’s necessary or not, it is a way to make others more comfortable and be obedient to governing authorities. 1 Cor. 9; Rom. 13; 1 Pet. 2:13-17

6. Pray. Pray for those in charge of governments and agencies, pray for the church, pray for others. Sometimes when we pray it seem like we think we ought to be doing more. Always remember that praying is doing something! If nothing else, it places our trust in the hands of the one who is both sovereign and good. 1 Tim. 2:1-4