Abiding by the Gospel of Scripture with the Lord Versus False-Minded Ministers

What do you do when you’re abiding by the testimony of Jesus Christ in Scripture with the Lord, and knowing the Lord as your righteous Heavenly Father by faith, and you face false accusations of heresy and division from leading ministers and their congregations?  I’ve had to ask this question for myself because this has happened to me on several occasions.  I’ve suffered false words from lay people and their pastors across the broad visible church, the church seen by the world, that I have been a false teacher and a false Christian.  I’ve even suffered these false words from people and their pastors within my own home denomination, the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA).  I’ve been told that I don’t read the Bible the right way or that I’ll never change or mature in the faith or that I lead children astray.  Or people have looked at me or related with me suspiciously so as to say that they doubt that I’m saved, or that I’ll ever be right with them in their eyes.  Or I’ve been ridiculed in public that I just don’t know what it takes to handle the Christian faith.  So the above question gets intensely personal for me.

Justification, Adoption, and Sanctification in Christ – and Nothing Else: Doing Battle by the Gospel Foundation Against Alternative Forms of Salvation, for Our Marriages and for the Visible Church, to the Glory of the Lord

I write this article in reflection on an earlier lesson from Galatians that I did in quiet time studies with the Lord and in corporate study with my community group of my home church Emmanuel Presbyterian Church (PCA).  The apostle Paul writes to the Christians in the church in Galatia, a church embattled by false teachers, that Paul has confidence in these Christians that they will have no other mind in their walk with the Lord, and that whoever is doing harm to them will face judgment.  And I find this theme of judgment and confident grace in Galatians a good theme to think about not just for upholding the body life of the visible church, especially the visible local church, to the grace of Christ alone, but also for upholding our marriages to the grace of Christ alone, and upholding both marriages and local churches to contentment in Christ to the end of all things.

Mourning with God the Father of the Fatherless Over Broken Human Relationships and Rebellious Words

This week has turned out to be a rather difficult and bleak week in my abiding with God the Father and my blog writing itself.  I face the prospect of suffering some very harsh words from particular people who I had wanted to treasure and enjoy as friends in the name of the Lord.  I also face the prospect of suffering harsh words of controversy, even accusations of heresy, from people in the visible church, even leading ministers, as I look to lay down my lessons of the Gospel in writing for serving the Lord and serving the church with my blog.

New Knowledge from God and the Hardened Knowledge of Idolatry

One way that we will have to understand the Gospel as a very relevant word, a very relevant message, for very intelligent people is that we have to understand the Gospel as a gift of new knowledge about God, new knowledge given from God Himself.  And we have to understand in learning the Gospel out of Scripture with the Lord that the knowledge of this life becomes the central idol for many intelligent people’s lives, the idol of their minds and their hearts.  We have to understand that sin is a knowing experience; we breathe our fall from Adam and Eve in our words and our actions, and even in our thoughts.  We create knowledge as the comfort god for our lives apart from the true God.  And the faith of the Gospel that we have to grasp out of Scripture in new relationship with the Lord is that we do battle with our false desires for knowledge in this life, in using our minds and our hearts to new grace-rooted relationship with the Lord and using the inscribed Word to rejoice with God as our righteous Heavenly Father, the Father of lights and the Giver of new knowledge.

Book Review: “Private Power, Public Law” Susan K. Sell

After a long hiatus on doing book and movie reviews, it’s good to finally get back to doing them.  I present here a review on Susan Sell’s book about economics and culture shifts in liberal and conservative public policy, Private Power, Public Law: The Globalization of Intellectual Property Rights (New York: Cambridge, 2003).

Letting Go of Precious Things of This World for Knowing God the Father as Our Great Love

“ ‘My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord; neither be weary of his correction; for whom the Lord loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.’

This passage is taken entire out of the Old Testament, and inserted in the New (Heb. xii. 5, 6).

. . . This word of God liveth and abideth for ever.  The king who uttered it at first has passed away with all his glory like the grass.  The kingdom which he swayed is blotted out from the map of the nations.  The temple where they may have been read to the great congregation has been cast down.  Jerusalem became a heap.  But these words of Solomon remain at this day bright and pure like the jewels on the crown he wore.  The very gems that sparkled in the diadem of David’s son appear again reset in a circlet of glory round the head of David’s Lord.  Heaven and earth shall pass away, but none of these precious words shall fail.

Adding Batters to the Lineup: An Update on My Bible Reading Schedule

Yes, baseball season is in full swing (well, unless you’re a Nationals fan like me), so it seemed appropriate for my update of my Bible reading schedule to involve baseball analogies.  I added a couple extra heavy hitters to my starting lineup of Old Testament reading for the next few months: Exodus, Leviticus, and the Song of Songs (a.k.a., the Song of Solomon or the book of Canticles).  I’m due to finish Genesis, Joshua, and Hosea in the next few weeks, if it be the Lord’s will.  So I thought to tear up the old lineup card and make some adjustments.

The Son of Encouragement and the Author of New Beauty for His Believers

I enclose here two fairly recent sermons from my home church, Emmanuel Presbyterian Church (PCA), on the Biblical theme of seeking God’s grace, and not mere natural leadership, for serving and encouraging the church as part of our grasp of contentment with God alone, and the Biblical theme of leading lost sinners to know new beauty and a new image for their lives in Christ Jesus, the “imago Dei” born from above who brings us to new communion with God.  (For the first sermon, you may have to turn the volume up on your computer.)

“Seeing the Grace of God,” Scott Seaton  (Acts 4:36-37; 9:26-28; 11:19-22)

“Searching for Brokenness,” Young Lee  (Gen. 29:21-35)

Helping Women Feel Safe and Comfortable Around Men by Grace, and Encouraging Men to Shepherd Women to Holiness in Christ

I read through the book of John earlier this year, and one lesson that sticks out in my mind is how Martha the sister of Mary starts to engage in conversation with Jesus in a greater way than she had at the beginning of her encounters with Jesus, from the book of Luke.  I find this passage of John to be a helpful passage for thinking about encouraging men to serve women and help women feel safe and comfortable around them in friendship and fellowship in the name of Christ, and encouraging men toward their own directing and shepherding of women to holiness and spiritual wisdom and rest in Christ.

Exchanging Our Earthly Fathers’ Approval for the Heavenly Father’s Approval

I was reflecting on Psalm 40 this past weekend, and I used David’s outcry to the LORD for the health of the hairs on his head to think about the theme of seeking God the Father’s approval over our earthly fathers’ approval, and this spiritual exchange of God’s approval over man’s approval as our means of leading the church in evangelism.  The reality of our lives as fallen sinners is that we shape our lives by people’s opinions apart from God.  Our peers’ words and our parents’ words become the shaping influences on our lives; we use these words to shape our comfort zones and our comfort gods, our idols apart from the true God.