April 29, 2022

“Life is but a walking shadow…It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” ~Macbeth~

If you ever wondered how a worldview impacts your thinking just read Shakespeare. Atheism leaves no room for hope beyond the visible. It is the world of naturalism and nothing more. There is no supernatural world. It is only the world of B.F. Skinner where man is beyond the reach of freedom and dignity. Man is the same as a rat or a radish. All is material and nothing more. If all we are is protoplasm one day to become manure, then your view of life and of people is very myopic. Atheism has terrifying consequences. On the one hand it is the abolition of man and on the other hand it is the ascendance of man to be the measure of all things. It results in a canceled culture because it is the cancelation of God. Think here of the thinking of Putin today or of Stalin in the last century. Make no mistake - ideas have consequences. Theism is a different world view and biblical theism is the great and grand meta-narrative, it is the panoramic paradigm that displays reality and reveals the divine nature. As Christians, we live in a Theo-centric world, a Christo-centric world, not an Anthro-centric world. We live for the Glory of God. We live to manifest His Glory and to ascribe to Him the glory due His name. So, how do saints live in a secular age? How do moral men live in an immoral world?  How shall we then live? With holy conduct and a heavenly outlook.   The men of Issachar understood the times and knew what to do.  Serving Him with you until He comes for us, Fred

April 22, 2022

“A certain type of ministry of the gospel is cruel. It doesn’t mean to be, but it is.” J.I. Packer

I have many friends who are going through difficult times in their lives. There are the two women, one in her late 80’s and the other 91 who both have fallen and are dealing with hip and knee replacements. I have a friend in his late 70’s and another in his late 60’s suffering for months with a hip replacement of a hip replacement. I have other friends --- one who is paralyzed, one who struggles to take each breath, and others living with debilitating illnesses. I have a friend just diagnosed with a rare form of cancer and others who have the regular kinds of cancers. And others who do not struggle any longer. The one thing all these people have in common, besides being Christians, is that they are all incredibly faithful to the Lord, and each one of them is my teacher. Their life is a portrait by which I measure my life and mature my faithfulness to Jesus. All of us must endure the vexing vicissitudes of this life. In fact, that is a biblical promise and a human certainty. (James 1:2) The Lord does not shield us from these unwanted situations as He leads us into unmapped territory. But by exposing us to impossible circumstances it is meant to drive us to Him and find our adequacy in His arms and not our own. I have learned much from my teachers through their trials. Their example in the difficulties of life is a ministry to me as Paul described in 2 Corinthians 1:3-7. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ. But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; or if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which is effective in the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer; and our hope for you is firmly grounded, knowing that as you are sharers of our sufferings, so also you are sharers of our comfort. As Wade Berry reminds us, “We are always more than the tragedies we face.” And we are not alone in the tragedies we endure. We can look to our faithful friends, and we must look to Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith. Serving Him with you until He comes for us, Fred

April 15, 2022

Holy History or a Horrible Hoax

Today we observe Good Friday and soon we shall celebrate Easter Sunday. Upon these two days and events of Easter hang all of history and eternity - Death and Resurrection. Thank God they go together.   We live in a distressed world filled with doubt and despair. At times we feel isolated and insulated from not only others, but also ourselves. In our cities, our country, and our culture, many people feel helpless, hopeless, and often homeless. It appears that Ecclesiastes is right - All is vanity.   Easter is God’s answer to doubt and despair. Easter is seen in contrasts as we move from suffering to glory.   On Friday Jesus is on trial by unrighteous leaders of Israel and Rome - But Sunday Jesus is the Righteous risen King and ruler of the universe. On Friday the Call to Crucify Him - But Sunday the Angels declare He is risen! On Friday the Darkness of the Cross - But Sunday the Radiance of the Empty tomb. On Friday He is Dead— But Sunday He is Alive! On Friday our eternal destiny is hell - But Sunday Heaven’s gates are opened wide. On Friday a day of Despair - But Sunday a day of Delight.   Easter is the glory of God manifested in the great reversal - a reversal from death to life. Friedrich Nietzsche declared, When the world discovers that God is dead there will be universal madness. But mark it well, Nietzsche is dead and Jesus is alive.  And so as Roger Lundin said, We do not live in the darkened shadow of Good Friday, but on ground that has been illuminated by the dawn of Easter Sunday.   “Tomb thou shalt not hold Him longer Death is strong, but life is stronger Stronger than the dark with the light Stronger than wrong with the right Faith and hope triumphant say Christ will rise on Easter day   ~ P. Brooks ~   Serving Him with you until He comes for us, Fred

April 8, 2022

Growing Older - Getting Better

Becoming mature in Christ is a process that produces progress in becoming conformed to the image of Christ. Although this can happen during the mountaintop highs of life, it seems that most of the time it occurs in the difficult valley below where most of our life is lived. Maturing as a Christian does not mean that we are shielded or immune to the difficulties and dangers of the world. We are not exempt from the weakness of our fallen flesh, nor unaffected by the schemes of our adversary the devil. We do not somehow escape the frustrations of difficult circumstances or painful situations. The fact is, all of these difficulties are planned and provided by the Lord so that as we are exposed to them, we come to the end of ourselves and find Him. One day as Jesus was teaching concerning the difficult realities of life, many of His disciples decided to turn away, leave Him, and no longer walk with Him.   Jesus said therefore to the twelve, “You do to want to go away also, do you?” Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life and we have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God.” John 6:67-69 Maturity in the Christian life is recognizing who has the words of eternal life and to whom we should go. Serving Him with you until He comes for us, Fred

April 1, 2022

We Call it Worship

Every generation revisits, reviews, revises, and hence rewrites history. It does this to meet its own private needs and its personal preoccupations, with the result that it often manifests personal pathologies.  Although the past remains constant, the prism through which our perceptions are filtered and at times altered and distorted is in a constant state of flux. The personal perspective provides not only cognition but also understanding. The final result which is achieved is the creation of “the power of place.” Place, whether physical or spiritual, is essential for life. It is that piece of rock, provided by land or language, experienced in people or philosophy that engages the mind and empowers the spirit. It is this metaphorical and literal power of place that has been so completely compromised in the church today. No longer does the physical place of church provide a promise of solitude and silence where a person is able to engage in the contemplation of God or the introspection of the self. The secularity of society is ubiquitous and has confused and replaced the sacred, both in the place of worship and the mind of the individual. It has caused the church to traffic with the secular and trifle with the sacred. In fact, the sacred is barely considered. Consecration seems a foreign concept, an alien consideration for the modern Christian. From the dawn of time in the Garden of Eden to the unending future foreseen in the New Jerusalem, God has sought to provide a place of solace and sanctuary where men and women may meditate and be mindful of God Himself. We call it worship. Today, worship has been supplanted by guest artists that play and perform a concert in which the audience is invited to join but is unable, since the offered dialogue is actually a monologue, which explains the applause at its ending. More often than not, worship is reduced to the appearance of the Christian dancing bears and the jugglers for Jesus. However, novelty and creativity, is no replacement for consecration. This is not a complaint about “Form” but a consideration and concern about the corruption of “Function.” There is nothing sacred about the organ, nor anything innately secular about drums. This is a clarion call to the biblical concept of Sacred Worship. Perhaps the inauguration of the therapeutic society inoculated and alienated the church from learning from the Bible and leading people into biblical worship of God. For at its core worship is a theocentric event not an anthropocentric enterprise.    Given the myriad of diverse personalities and psychological histories of each person in any local church body, how could you ever make everyone happy? That is why buffet lines were created giving everyone what they want. Not so in the Church of Jesus Christ. The church is not a democratic society or a republican government. It is a theocracy with a king and the king has His way of doing things. We would do well to learn His will and His ways concerning Worship. Serving Him with you until He comes for us, Fred