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A Tomb in Canaan
God purposes to get praise for His glory by working out His will in stages.
He made a promise to Abraham about possessing land while calling Abraham to be a pilgrim. Then Abraham acquired a small piece of property in the land in order to bury his wife. Generations later took control of much of the land, and we believe that there is still coming the final fulfillment for Israel’s boundaries as described to Abraham under Christ’s reign in the land of Canaan.
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Internal Adornment That Shows
Moses does not paint a flattering picture of Sarah, Abraham’s wife, in Genesis. Twice she resents and punishes others in her household. Twice she followed her husband’s lead and lied to those outside her household. Once she even laughed at the promise of God. She did praise the LORD for the birth of her son Isaac, but the very next thing she did was lash out and demand that Abraham “cast out this slave woman with her son.
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The Top of the Faith Chart
When we co-opt the apostle John’s language and talk about faith as victory that overcomes the world, we do so without smirking or crossing our fingers behind our back because our faith is in victory that overcomes death. If your god can’t do something about death then he can only offer so much.
Abraham believed in the God who overcomes death.
By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.
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Close to Home
God will test our faith. The apostle Peter wrote that various trials cause heaviness:
so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 1:7) Solid faith, not faith-leaf—like gold leaf, a thin layer of faith hammered around the outside—solid faith now will result in our being esteemed and rewarded by God when we see Jesus Christ and will no longer need faith.
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Well, is it or not?
I’ve been meaning to post this for a while, at least for myself to reference in the future. It’s from Wayne Grudem’s book, Politics - According to the Bible: A Comprehensive Resource for Understanding Modern Political Issues in Light of Scripture, pages 64-65.
IS THE UNITED STATES A CHRISTIAN NATION?
(1) Is Christian teaching the primary religious system that influenced the founding of the United States? Yes, it is.
(2) Were the majority of the Founding Fathers of the United States Christians who generally believed in the truth of the Bible?
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The Red-Blooded Trivium
I gave the following talk at the end of February for the Information Night at Evangel Classical School. If you’d prefer to watch the talk instead of read it, I won’t be offended.
How would you describe most modern education? A lot of parents and professionals (and employers) agree that there is a crisis, but there is little agreement on the cause or the cure. So many students graduate from high school with pale interests, foggy thinking, and sickly convictions.
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This Election Is a Disaster (so far)
I already tweeted a link to this, but “Two Kinds of Voting, Two Kinds of Disruption, and Two Kinds of Unrighteousness” should be read in its entirety. Here’s just one of many fantastic points:
the act of voting is also a civic duty that tells people what we think America means, what we want to teach our kids about moral leadership, what face we want America to present to the world, and what sort of candidates we want more of in coming years.
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It's not just okay
This book claims it’s not just okay to enjoy the things of earth, but it is our duty to do so.
—Jim Martin about The Things of Earth by Joe Rigney
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Strong "Ewww" Reflexes
Maybe the only threat more grave to our souls than unrighteousness is self-righteousness. Both make us enemies of God, the former by honest rebellion and the latter by dishonest resistance.
If our consciences are working, either by the Spirit or common grace, then the last section of Genesis 19 turns our stomachs. But we need it to turn them in such a way that we appreciate God’s mercy more than we appreciate that we are not like Lot and his daughters.
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The Life Behind
One of Jesus’ primary teachings is about losing and keeping. Anyone who tries to keep his life will lose it, but anyone who loses his life because of following Christ will keep it. This isn’t about leadership style, it’s about eternal life, and it has application in every relationship you can think of. It also isn’t one strategy for success “God’s way.” It is the only way to salvation.
All four Gospel writers cover this teaching.
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The Forgotten Planet
Here’s a short story I told the students for the ECS year-end assembly.
On the day before the very first summer break, the planets talked about their plans for the next three months. There were eight planets in the class, and their names were: Sol, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Luna, Mercury, and Venus. (Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto weren’t old enough for school yet, though they had finished Kinder Prep and were enrolled for the Fall.
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The Age of Pick and Choose
Here’s another guest post by my oldest daughter, Maggie.
In the age of Pick and Choose personality, gender, race, and status, Tommy had no idea which head to wear….
so he chose all of them.
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Spoonfuls of Judgment
Even as a woman who survived exclusively on mail-order cookie dough and who never got dressed before dinner, she still managed to aggressively judge others.
—N.D. Wilson, The Outlaws of Time: The Legend of Sam Miracle, 24-25
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No Undiscovered Lurking-places
On God’s call to Abram (Genesis 12:1) to leave and seek what he could not see:
[I]t is not to be supposed, that God takes a cruel pleasure in the trouble of his servants; but he thus tries all their affections, that he may not leave any lurking-places undiscovered in their hearts.
—John Calvin, Commentary on the First Book of Moses Called Genesis
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Breaking the Divide
When Jesus instituted the Supper He was in the middle of the Passover Feast. Jesus was a Jew, His disciples were all Hebrews, and so they were observing a national event in Israel. Some twenty-five years later Paul wrote 1 Corinthians which included an extensive section about observing communion. By that time the Supper had clearly crossed national boundaries. Perhaps there were some Jewish members of the church in Corinth but many were Gentiles.
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No Stand Ins
The first of the Ten Commandments prohibits the worship of false gods. The second prohibits false worship of the true God.
You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
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Why My Night Was Like a Storybook
I spent some time in the hospital last week and my oldest daughter wrote the following story putting together some details from her visit and additional info from her mom. We thought it was funny and, since she doesn’t have her own blog (yet), worth sharing here.
Why My Night Was Like a Storybook By Maggie Higgins It all started when my dad got sick. It wasn’t a normal sickness.
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A Fight to the Death
Abortion does not make sense. It is, and always has been, “fatal violence–against the most helpless members of our human community.” But many in our generation are frantic to deny this reality, so a testimony like that in When Abortion Suddenly Stopped Making Sense is potent.
[Abortion] gets presented as if it’s a tug of war between the woman and the baby. We see them as mortal enemies, locked in a fight to the death.
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Communion Against Abortion
Here is an outrageous claim that I believe is true:
We must rejoice more when we remember Christ in communion if we want to stop abortion in our nation.
The decision of Roe v. Wade came 43 years ago last Friday. Since 1973 over 59 million unborn babies have been killed that we know about in the United States. God knows how many have not been counted.
The Supreme Court’s decision and its consequences have worked alongside a swelling cultural desire to stifle faith.
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Busts along the Wall
We started a string of exhortations on the Ten Commandments and last week we considered how Jesus summarized the first four commands by calling men to love God with all that they are (Matthew 22:37-38). It is also true that all men must love God, and all of man’s love must be for God, not split among gods.
In Exodus 20 we read that God spoke the following words (verse 1), starting with a reminder to the Israelites that He delivered them out of Egypt (verse 2).
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Chosen Symbols
Why do we observe communion? We do it because Jesus gave the ordinance to His disciples and commanded them to keep it until He returns. We eat the bread and drink the cup because He gave His Word.
Without His Word the Lord’s Supper would be a superstitious snack, a ritual resulting from man’s imagination and upheld by man’s tradition. It might make a man feel good or even think about good things but it would have no authority.
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Two Tables for Ten
We know, according to Paul, that the law was given to point men to Christ (Galatians 3:24). The law tutored sinners toward the Savior because the law required perfection and none of us are. Only Christ fulfilled every jot and tittle (Matthew 5:17-18), the rest of us, failing at even one point have become accountable for all of it (James 2:10). The law teaches us that we have not obeyed the law and that we must believe in Christ for our righteousness.
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Not in Remembrance of You
Of all the good gifts of God that have been abused, perhaps nothing has been more abused than the gospel. Salvation is not by works. No man can do anything, give any amount, or feel any emotion enough to earn favor with God. “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31). That’s it. We are declared righteous by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.
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Flotsam and Jetsam
The Bible contains some hard truths, truths that cut against the grain of our sin. Scripture is profitable, Paul wrote, for teaching and reproof and rebuke. Through the God’s law sin is revealed. The mirror of the Word reveals our imperfections. The living and active Sword divides in order to rearrange us and make us more pleasing sacrifices to Him.
Spiritual leaders sometimes say hard things to confront or challenge. Paul wrote that way to the Corinthians but he wanted to make sure that they understood his motivation.
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Harassing the Devil
In 1530 Martin Luther wrote the following to his friend Jerome Weller for his fight of faith against the evil one.
Whenever this temptation of melancholy comes to you, beware not to dispute with the devil nor allow yourself to dwell on these lethal thoughts, for so doing is nothing less than giving place to the devil and so falling. Try as hard as you can to despise these thoughts sent by Satan.