As 2011 draws to a close I wanted to recall World Magazine's 2011 Books of the Year.  Check out World's full article HERE.

Should Christians Embrace Evolution?  Biblical and Scientific Responses, edited by British medical geneticist Noman Nevin.

God and Evolution, edited by Jay Richards.  You can read  chapter 1 HERE.  See a video intro to the book HERE.

Here are a a few quotes from the World Magazine article:

"The problem, though, is that many theistic evolutionists should rightly be called deistic evolutionists, since they believe that God created the first life-form and then left the rest to standard Darwinian processes. Theoretically a theistic evolutionist could also believe in God's creation of each of the trillions and quadrillions of mutations that led to today's world, but that would also be rewriting the Bible-and we're still left with the issue of Adam and Eve's direct creation. In any event, mathematician Bill Dembski sums up well the standard TE position: 'Theistic evolution takes the Darwinian picture of the biological world and baptizes it.'"

"Should Christians Embrace Evolution? and God and Evolution are both worth reading...they are both at the center of the biggest current battle both among Christians and between Christian and anti-Christian thought. As University of Chicago atheist Jerry Coyne declares, 'to make evolution palatable to Americans, you must show that it is not only consistent with religion, but also no threat to it.' Theistic evolutionists are the pointed end of Darwinians' wedge strategy: By making evolution 'theistic' Darwinians hope to divide Christian against Christian."

This article also draws attention to the fact that much of the funding for TE research is coming from the Templeton Foundation, whose Science for Ministry Initiative “invites organizations to develop programs that will help ministers and the congregations they serve to move away from simplistic ‘solutions’ to the tensions between science and faith.” While the billion-dolloar Tempeton Foundation has been a positive force in many areas, "its grants in religion reflect the theology of its founder, John Tempeton, who tried to meld aspects of Christianity with Eastern religions."  This billion-dollar powerhouse is investing in programs whose purpose is to help churches "move away from simplistic 'solutions." To move away from the simplistic solution of reading Genesis 2 as real history, of Adam as real man created by special creation, etc.    

“Certainly I have not the powers of speech with which to set forth my valuation of the choice blessing which the Lord bestowed upon me in making me the son of one who prayed for me, and prayed with me. How can I ever forget her tearful eye when she warned me to escape from the wrath to come?...How can I ever forget when she bowed her knee, and with her arms about my neck, prayed, 'Oh, that my son might live before Thee!'”

Check out this great overview of "Water and the Blood," an album by Sojourn where they sing 12 Isaac Watts hymns rewritten for today (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pv4BBvVZROk).

“You and I have need of the strongest spell that can be found to wake us from the evil enchantment of worldliness . . . .” (C.S. Lewis)

New live album from Worship God 11 is more than worth the $5 downlaod price:  http://sovereigngracemusic.bandcamp.com/album/the-gathering-live-from-worshipgod11

"The philosopher and the scientist will admit that there is much that they do not know; but that is quite another thing from admitting that there is something which they can never know, which indeed they have no technique for discovering.

To admit that there is One who lies beyond us, who exists outside of all our categories, who will not be dismissed with a name, who will not appear before the bar of our reason, nor submit to our curious inquiries: this requires a great deal of humility, more than most of us possess, so we save face by thinking God down to our level, or at least down to where we can manage Him. Yet how He eludes us! For He is everywhere while He is nowhere, for ”where” has to do with matter and space, and God is independent of both. He is unaffected by time or motion, is wholly self-dependent and owes nothing to the worlds His hands have made." (Read the full chapter here:  http://www.heavendwellers.com/hdt_chapter_5_koh.htm)

http://sojournmusic.bandcamp.com/album/reformation-day-sale-isaac-watts-hymns

“It is a serious thing to . . . remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare.  . . . . There are no ordinary people.  You have never talked to a mere mortal . . . it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.”  (C.S. Lewis, from "The Weight of Glory")

“I do not urge you to look within, to try & see whether this new birth is there. Instead of looking within thyself, look thou to him who hangs on yonder cross, dying the Just for the unjust, to bring us to God. Fix thou thine eyes on him, and believe in him; & when thou seest in thyself much that is evil, look away to him; and when doubts prevail, look to him; and when thy conscience tells thee of thy past sins, look to him.

I have to go through this story almost every day of the year, and sometimes half a dozen times in a day. If there is a despairing soul anywhere within twenty miles, it will find me out, no matter whether I am at home, or at Mentone (on vacation), or in any other part of the world. It will come from any distance, broken down, despairing, half insane sometimes; and I have no medicine to prescribe except “Christ, Christ, Christ; Jesus Christ and him crucified. Look away from yourselves, and trust in him.” I go over and over and over with this, and never get one jot further. Because I find that this medicine cures all soul sicknesses, while human quackery cures none. Christ alone is the one remedy for sin-sick souls. Receive him; believe on his name. We keep hammering at this. I can sympathize with Luther when he said, “I have preached justification by faith so often, and I feel sometimes that you are so slow to receive it, that I could almost take the Bible, and bang it about your heads…”

One said to me just lately, “Oh, sir, I am the biggest sinner that ever lived!” I replied, “Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners.” “But I have not any strength.” “While we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died.” “Oh! But,” he said, “I have been utterly ungodly.” “Christ died for the ungodly.” “But I am lost.” “Yes,” I said, “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” “The Son of man has come to save that which was lost.” I said to this man, “You have the brush in your hand, and at every stroke it looks as if you were quoting Scripture. You seem to be making yourself out to be the very man that Christ came to save. If you were to make yourself out to be good and excellent, I should give you this word — Jesus did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. He did not die for the good, but for the bad. He gave himself for our sins; he never gave himself for our righteousness. He is a Savior. He has not come yet as a Rewarder of the righteous; that will be in his Second Advent. Now he comes as the great Forgiver of the guilty, and the only Savior of the lost. Wilt thou come to him in that way?” “Oh! But,” my friend said, “I have nothing to bring to Christ.” “No,” I said, “I know that you have not; but Christ has everything.” “Sir,” he said, “you do not know me, else you would not talk to me like this;” and I said, “No, and you do not know yourself, and you are worse than you think you are, though you think that you are bad enough in all conscience; but be you as bad as you may, Jesus Christ came on purpose to uplift from the dunghill those whom he sets among princes by his free, rich, sovereign grace.”  (C.H. Spurgeon, The Simplicity and Sublimity of Salvation)

We recently have been asked this question, “Why doesn’t Cornerstone do Baby Dedications?”  What follows is an answer to that question.

We did a dedication ceremony about 15 years ago on a Sunday morning for several parents who had expressed a desire for it.  On that occasion, we explained that we preferred to think of it as a PARENT dedication, not a BABY dedication.  We joined many other churches in taking this approach for two reasons:  1) the parents were the only ones volitionally involved in the occasion, and 2) we wanted to avoid giving any impression that the ceremony was some kind of sacrament through which God’s grace is imparted to the child (which is what is believed with the practice of infant baptism).  With that understanding clearly communicated, the prayer service was meaningful, and everyone seemed blessed.  Since that time, however, we have very rarely been approached by parents requesting such a dedication ceremony. 

Why so few have approached us since that time is anyone’s guess, but we think it has something to do with an ever-enlarging appreciation of the covenant we all make when we become members of Cornerstone.

When a person becomes a member of Cornerstone, he or she signs a covenant which entails several formal commitments, one of which is, “I covenant to teach my children the Word of God” and to “seek the salvation of my family.”  One does not become a member of Cornerstone without formally dedicating himself or herself to such a task on behalf of his or her children.  Hence, to say it another way, ‘parent dedication’ is a vital part of the membership process.  All parents who are members of this church can rightly be viewed as having dedicated themselves to bringing up their children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

Additionally, looking at the matter of child dedication from another angle, one can observe that the people of Cornerstone are doing child dedications all the time here at Cornerstone.  In fact, we dedicate (surrender) our children to the Lord every time we pray for them and with them.  Indeed, it is good and helpful for parents to surrender their children to the Lord and to do so daily; and it is wonderfully redemptive for children to grow up under the sound of their parents pleading with God for the salvation of their souls.

Terry Johnson expresses this sentiment well:

“Children growing up with the daily experience of seeing their parents humbled in worship, focusing on spiritual things, submitting to the authority of the Word, instructing their children will not easily turn from Christ.  Our children should grow up with the voices of their [parents] pleading for their souls in prayer ringing in their ears, leading to their salvation, or else haunting them for the rest of their lives.”  (Terry Johnson, The Family Worship Book:  A Resource Book for Family Devotions, 10).

Charles Spurgeon gives moving testimony concerning the power of his mother’s prayers for his soul:

"..I cannot tell you how much I owe to the solemn words of my good mother. It was the custom on Sunday evenings, while we were yet little children, for her to stay at home with us, and then we sat round the table, and read verse by verse, and she explained the Scriptures to us. After that was done, then came the time of pleading...and the question was asked, how long would it be before we would think about our state, how long before we seek the Lord. Then came a mother's prayer, and some of the words of that prayer we shall never forget, even when our hair is grey. I remember on one occasion, her praying thus: 'Now, Lord, if my children go on in their sins, it will not be from ignorance that they perish, and my soul must bear a swift witness against them at the day of judgment if they lay not hold of Christ.' That thought of a mother's bearing swift witness against me, pierced my conscience, and stirred my heart....” (“Early Religious Impressions” from Spurgeon’s autobiography.  http://www.spurgeon.org/earlyimp.htm)

Spurgeon’s powers of eloquence failed him when testifying of the impression that his mother’s prayers had upon him:

“Certainly I have not the powers of speech with which to set forth my valuation of the choice blessing which the Lord bestowed upon me in making me the son of one who prayed for me, and prayed with me. How can I ever forget her tearful eye when she warned me to escape from the wrath to come?...How can I ever forget when she bowed her knee, and with her arms about my neck, prayed, 'Oh, that my son might live before Thee!'

Here at Cornerstone we are passionate about the dedication of our children to the Lord.  We are so passionate about this that we parent them, pray for them, and bring them up with the goal that they themselves will one day, of their own volition, call upon the name of the Lord for salvation and dedicate themselves to a life of following Christ.  If there is such a thing as a child dedication ceremony in Scripture, it is Believer’s Baptism, when our children give public testimony of their salvation and the full committal of their lives to the Lord.

Hence, to parents who wish to dedicate themselves and their children to the Lord, we would recommend a minimum of the following three steps, 1) join a solid local church which requires such a dedication of yourself as a part of the membership process; and 2) pray for and with your children daily, dedicating yourself and your children to God’s gracious and saving purposes;  and 3) when God chooses to take your children and lead them into a life of service to Him, release your children to do as He bids them.

If, in addition to these three steps, you would like to ask your Care Group, any fellow-believers, or the elders to pray for God’s enabling grace upon you as you seek to parent your children, then feel free to ask as often as you like.  We will be delighted to pray with you!

"Imagine Jairus' anxiety during all of this;  the disciples' irritation;  Jesus' patience and composure.  This woman with a chronic condition is getting attention instead of the little girl who has an acute condition.  Jesus chooses to stop and talk with the woman who has just been healed.  This makes no sense.  It is absolutely irrational.  In fact, it's worse than that:  It's malpractice.  If these two were in the same emergency room, any doctor who treated the woman first and let the little girl die would be sued.  And Jesus is behaving like such a reckless doctor.  Jairus and his disciples must be thinking, 'What are you doing?  Don't you understand the situation?  Hurry, or it will be too late.  The little girl needs help from you now, Jesus.  Hurry, Jesus, hurry.'

But Jesus will not be hurried . . . . .

"God's sense of timing will confound ours, no matter what culture we're from.  His grace rarely operates according to our schedule.  When Jesus looks at Jairus and says, 'Trust Me, be patient,' in effect he is looking over Jairus' head at all of us and saying, 'Remember how when I calmed the storm I showed you that my grace and love are compatible with going through storms, though you may not think so?  Well, now I'm telling you that my grace and love are compatible with what seem to you to be unconscionable delays.'  It's not 'I will not be hurried even though I love you';  it's 'I will not be hurried because I love you.  I know what I'm doing.  And if you try to impose your understanding of schedule and timing on me, you will struggle to feel loved by me.'  Jesus will not be hurried, and as a result, we often feel exactly like Jairus, impatient because he's delaying irrationally, unconscionably, inordinately."

But precisely because of the delay . . . Jairus gets far more than [he] asked for.  Be aware that when you go to Jesus for help, you will both give to and get from him far more than you bargained for.  Be patient, because the deal often doesn't work out the way you expected.  Take Jairus.  He came to Jesus to cure his dying daughter, but he got far more than that . . . [a resurrection!] . . . . Jairus came to Jesus for a fever cure not for a resurrection.

It seemed to Jairus and the disciples that Jesus was delaying for no good reason, but they didn't have all the facts.  And so often, if God seems to be unconscionably delaying his grace and committing malpractice in our life, it's because there is some crucial information that we don't yet have, some essential variable that's unavailable to us.

Right now, is God delaying something in your life?  Are you ready to give up?  Are you impatient with him?  There may be a crucial factor that you just don't have access to.  The answer, as with Jairus, is to trust Jesus.  (Timothy Keller, King's Cross, 63-67)

"Those who make rapid progress in spiritual attainments -- who grow visibly in grace, knowledge, strength, and usefulness -- will always be found to be hard workers.  They leave no stone unturned to promote their soul's well-being.  They work hard at the Bible, in private devotions, in hearing sermons . . . and they reap according to what they sow."  (J.C. Ryle)

"Many people say, 'Sure, I believe that Jesus is a great teacher, but I can't believe what they say about him being God.'  That creates a problem, because his teaching is based on his identity claim.  Do you like his teachings about the Sabbath?  They are based on his being Lord of the Sabbath.  He is the source of the Sabbath.  He is the One who created the world and then rested on the seventh day.  Here is how historian N.T. Wright puts it:  "How can you live with the terrifying thought that the hurricane has become human, that fire has become flesh, that life itself became life and walked in our midst?  Christianity either means that, or it means nothing.  It is either the most devastating disclosure of the deepest reality of the world, or it is a sham, a nonsense, a bit of deceitful playacting.  Most of us, unable to cope with saying either of those things, condemn ourselves to life in the shallow world in between."  He's right.  I believe you'll see that in the end you can't simply like anybody who makes claims like those of Jesus.  Either he's a wicked liar or a crazy person and you should have nothing to do with him, or he is who he says he is and your whole life has to revolve around him and you have to throw everything at his feet and say, "Command me.'  Or do you live in that misty 'world in between' that Wright says no one can live in with integrity?  Do you pray to Jesus when you're in trouble and otherwise mostly ignore him because you get busy?  Either Jesus can't hear you because he's not who he says he is--or if he is who he says he is, he must become the still point of your turning world, the center around which your entire life revolves."  (Timothy Keller, The Reason for God, 44-45)

What makes this situation of special interest to the Pharisees is the fact that it is the Sabbath Day, and this man’s condition was not a life-threatening condition.

The Pharisees believed that one could offer medical aid and minister healing to a person on the Sabbath only when the patient’s life was in danger.  Because the man with the withered hand was not suffering from a life-threatening condition, the Pharisees were watching to see if Jesus would violate their Sabbath rules.  Such rules were never taught in the Law, but they were added over the centuries that followed the giving of the Law.  Over time, these extra regulations were elevated to the same status as the Old Testament Scripture itself.

The regulations were sometimes very stringent.  For example, if you were a doctor in this culture, and someone wanted you to give her some medicine for a toothache, you were supposed to turn her down, because her life was not in jeopardy.  In fact, you were prohibited from even giving yourself medical aid on the Sabbath if you were not suffering from a life-threatening condition.  For example, a person suffering from a toothache could not gargle vinegar in his mouth on the Sabbath, because that would be considered applying medical aid to a non-life-threatening condition. 

Incidentally, the Jews found a way to get around the restriction against gargling vinegar on the Sabbath.  Obviously, everyone was allowed to eat and drink on the Sabbath, so they would gargle vinegar, and then swallow it – and that way it was considered “eating,” and was thus legal!  If they spit it out, though, that would make them Sabbath breakers.

It is in this kind of environment that Jesus encounters the man in the synagogue with the withered hand.  The tension in the room could not have been thicker.  Jesus’ response shows that He has absolutely no regard for the man-made rules of the Jews.  Instead, Jesus’ actions show that He has the greatest regard for the commandment in the Law to “love one’s neighbor as oneself.”

The Pharisees take offence at Jesus for healing on the Sabbath.  Apparently, however, the Pharisees see no problem with plotting to destroy Jesus on that sacred day (3:6).

The religious leaders could not deny that Jesus was the most amazing Person they had ever seen.  He was a teacher with an authority unlike any other.  He was casting out demons, and He was healing all who were brought to Him.  And no one could draw a crowd like Jesus. 

The religious leaders were impressed, and they liked much of what they saw.  Their first thought was that Jesus might make a great addition to their brand of Judaism. 

Problem was, Jesus didn’t cooperate with their plan.  He didn’t fit into their system, and He rebuffed all their efforts to squeeze Him into their mold.

In reading Mark 2 and 3, one sees that the religious leaders’ first approach to Jesus was to try to fit Jesus into their system.  They nitpicked and criticized Him in an effort to mold and shape and fit Him into their largely man-made brand of Judaism.  In Mark 2:1-12 (the healing of the paralytic), they fault Jesus for presuming to forgive the man’s sins.  In Mark 2:13-17, they fault Jesus for spending time with tax collectors and sinners.  In Mark 2:18-20, they fault Jesus for the fact that His disciples do not fast.  In Mark 2:23-28, they criticize Jesus for allowing His disciples pick heads of grain while walking through a field on the Sabbath.  And in Mark 3:1-6, they show up at the synagogue for the specific purpose of seeing if Jesus was going to heal anyone on the Sabbath, and thus violate their rabbinic rules.  If, at any of these points, Jesus would have caved in and accommodated Himself to their system, then Jesus and the religious leaders would have gotten along swimmingly.

But Jesus refuses to accommodate Himself to their man-made ideas.  And on top of that, He delivers to them a stunning warning.  In Mark 2:21-22, He says, “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment;  otherwise, the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear results.  No one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost and the skins as well;  but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins.” 

Essentially, what Jesus is saying to the religious leaders is this:  “Stop trying to fit Me into your system.  I am new wine, and I don’t belong inside your old wineskins.  Your old wineskins can’t handle Me.  I am new fabric, and you have no business using Me to try to do patchwork on your old worn-out system.  If you try to fit me into your old system of religion, I will bust it wide open and destroy it.  I don’t fit into anyone’s system, I AM THE SYSTEM!  Throw your old systems away and replace them with ME!”

When the religious leaders realized that they were not going to be able fit Jesus into their system, they immediately begin plotting with the Herodians as to how they might destroy Him (Mark 3:6).  To their credit, they seem to understand something very important about Jesus:  either they destroy Him, or He will destroy their precious little religion.  What they did not realize was that their success in eventually crucifying Jesus would only serve to establish the very centerpiece of the Christian Faith.

As far as unfortunate conditions go, leprosy was in a class all by itself.  In Bible times, there were paralytics, epileptics, there were those who were blind and deaf, but all of them would say, “Thank God I’m not a leper.”  When it came to diseases, leprosy was the worst of the worst, not only because of the physical devastation of the disease, but also because of the social ostracism that followed, along with the spiritual excommunication from the people of God and the denial of privileges of going to the temple to worship God.

The Rabbis had hundreds of remedies for a whole variety of conditions and diseases that involved superstitious formulas and quotations of Scripture.  But they had no remedy, no prescription for leprosy.

If a leper approached the Rabbis and said, “Is there something I can do to be cured of my leprosy?”  They would have said, “There is nothing you can do to be cured.”

But they would say to him, “From this day forward, you are banished to live the rest of your life outside the walls of the city.  You are being chastised by God for sin in your life.  No one is to salute you or greet you again.  You yourself are unclean;  and wherever you lay your head, it will be unclean.  Anything you touch will be unclean.  You must stay away from other people at all costs.  If you are downwind of them, you must remain six feet away from them.  If you are upwind of them, you must remain 140 feet away.  You are never to touch another person again or converse with another person unless that other person is a leper as you are.  If and when you are within view of other people, you are to cover your upper lip and cry, “Unclean! Unclean!” so that they will know to avoid you.  Also, you are to wear torn garments and let your hair be disheveled at all times.  If you break any of these rules, we will punish you with 39 strikes with a whip.”

Some of the Rabbis were known for their cruelty to lepers.  One Rabbi, in his writings, boasted that he always threw stones at lepers “to keep them far off.”  Other Rabbis, when they would see a leper, would hide themselves or run away.

As to the disease itself, leprosy starts when the body’s warning system of pain is destroyed.  The disease acts as an anesthetic, bringing numbness to the extremities of the body – the eyes, the ears, the nose.

One writer says, “The devastation that follows comes from such incidents of reaching one’s hand into a charcoal fire to retrieve a dropped potato, or washing one’s face with scalding water, or gripping a tool so tightly that the hands become traumatized . . . .  In Third-World countries, vermin sometimes chew on lepers while they sleep.”  It is because of this fact that a Dr. Brand, who serves as a doctor in India, usually sends a cat home with a leper patient on whom he has just performed surgery.  He does so in order to keep the rats away from the patient.  Dr. Brand calls leprosy a “painless hell.”

Socially, lepers were outcasts.  Spiritually, they were cut off from access to the temple.  Physically, there was no cure.  So all that most lepers could do was watch and weep as their bodies became mutilated from head to foot, rendering them a rotten, repulsive, stinking mass of flesh.

This is the condition of the man who comes to Jesus in Mark 1:40.  This is the condition of the man whom Jesus allows to approach Him.  This is the condition of the man whom Jesus actually touched and healed.  In Luke’s parallel account, we learn that this man was “covered with leprosy” (Luke 5:12) indicating that he was in the final stages of the disease.  The man’s leprosy was awful, but it was no match for the power and compassionate love of Jesus.

We are encouraging our people to read through the Gospel of Mark this summer, and we are wanting all of our heads of households (including single moms!) to take their families through the Gospel of Mark the summer quarter.

The Plan:  We have broken the Gospel of Mark into 36 readings, so if you do a reading from Mark 3 times a week, then at the end of 12 weeks you will have completed the Gospel of Mark.

The Resources:  Obviously, you will need your Bible for this, but we are also making available the following resources: 

King’s Cross:  the Story of the World in the Life of Jesus, by Timothy Keller.  This is a very readable book which contains numerous meditations on various passages throughout the gospel of Mark.  This is not a verse-by-verse commentary on Mark, but is a collection of meditations on various basic Christian themes that are interwoven into Mark’s Gospel.  Timothy Keller handpicks certain stories and incidences in Mark and uses them to discuss certain themes that lie at the heart of Christianity. 

We would love to see all of our people go through this book this summer.  You will find much in this book that will edify and encourage you, and you will also find various stories and explanations which our heads of households might find worth sharing in their Family Worship time as they go through the Gospel of Mark.

Emails & Blogs.  If there are any additional ideas and suggestions or resources to help you as you read through Mark and/or as you lead your family through Mark, we will try to provide that for you through emails or postings on the Cornerstone Blog & Cornerstone Man Blog.

FOR OUR MEN!  2^nd Day Man Forum.  In our 2^nd Day Man Forum times (Tuesday mornings from 6:00am – 7:05am), we will take some time each week to discuss various issues from Mark and King’s Cross that might be of help to you as you work through Mark privately and/or with your family.  The goal of the 2^nd Day Man Forum is to encourage our men in their leadership of their families, but we will be taking time to help each other out as we go through Mark’s Gospel together. 

Why do this in the summer?

1. Because there is no Sunday School during the summer quarter.  This program will provide an opportunity for us to accomplish some of what might have been accomplished during the Sunday School hour.  Think about it . . . three readings a week, praying, along with any discussions that you might have with others and especially with your family.  At the very least that’s 30 or 40 minutes of time, and probably more!

2. Because summer is the time of year when we have the most time available to do the things we “want” to do.  If you don’t have the time to read through Mark privately and/or with your family during Family Worship in the summer, then you will probably never have the time.

3. The rest of the year is often so busy, especially coming into September.  Summer is a great time to take a breath, re-evaluate, and establish some good habits that will hopefully endure through the fall, winter, and spring.

For heads of households (husbands, fathers, & single moms):  Don’t feel pressure to teach through the Gospel of Mark (although it is ok if you do).  If all you did were read the passage and the assigned readings and then pray for your family members, then you have great reason to be encouraged by what you are doing.  God can do much with a few loaves and fish, especially when those loaves and fish are being delivered by a husband, father, or single mom who is seeking to step out in faith and lead their family in the worship of God.

Is not Christ your treasure? Is not heaven your inheritance—and will you murmur? Has not God given you a changed heart, a renewed nature, and a sanctified soul—and will you murmur?

Has He not given you Himself to satisfy you, His Son to save you, His Spirit to lead you, His grace to adorn you, His covenant to assure you, His mercy to pardon you, His righteousness to clothe you—and will you murmur? Has He not made you a friend, a son, a brother, a bride, an heir—and will you murmur?

When you were dead, did not He quicken you? When you were lost, did not He seek you? When you were wounded, did not He heal you? When you were falling, did not He support you? When you were down, did not He raise you? When you were staggering, did not He establish you? When you were erring, did not He correct you? When you were tempted, did not He support you? and when you went in dangers, did not He deliver you?—and will you murmur?

What! you who are so highly advanced and exalted above many thousands in the world? Murmuring suits none so badly as saints.  (Thomas Brooks, The Mute Christian Under the Smarting Rod, from the March 31 posting at http://firstimportance.org/)

“I myself could never believe in God were it not for the cross.  . . . . In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it?  I have entered many Buddhist temples in different Asian countries and stood respectfully before the statue of the Buddha, his legs crossed, arms folded, eyes closed, the ghost of a smile plays round his mouth, a remote look on his face, detached from the agonies of the world.

But each time, after a while I have had to look away.  And in imagination I have turned instead to the lonely, twisted, tortured figure on the cross, nails through hands and feet, back lacerated, limbs wrenched, brow bleeding from thorn pricks, mouth dry and intolerably thirsty, plunged into God-forsaken darkness.  That is the God for me!

He laid aside His immunity to pain.  He entered our world of flesh and blood, tears and death.  He suffered for us.  Our sufferings become more manageable in the light of His.  There is still a question mark against human suffering, but over it we boldly stamp another mark, the cross which symbolizes divine suffering.  The cross of Christ is God’s only self-justification for such a world as ours.”  (John Stott, The Cross of Christ)

“Destructive forces are often released in earthquakes, cyclones, tornadoes, volcanic eruptions, and floods, which bring untold misery on mankind. . . . We should always bear in mind that there . . . are always sufficient reasons why God should visit cities, districts or nations with dire calamities.  It is rather a wonder that He does not more often visit us in His wrath and in His sore displeasure.”  (Louis Berkhof)

“If I ende up at the end of my life having been an astronaut, but having sacrificed my family along the way or living my life in a way that didn’t glorify God, then I would look back on it with great regret.  Having become an astronaut would not really have mattered all that much.  And finally I came to realize that what really meant the most to me was to try to live my life the way God wanted me and to try to be a good husband to Evelyn and to be a good father to my children.”   (Rick Husband, former Air Force Colonel and Space Shuttle Commander)

“Then Jacob said to Laban, ‘give me my wife.  My time is completed, and I want to be with her.’  . . . the Hebrew expression is unusually bald, graphic, and sexual for ordinarily reticent ancient discourse.  Imagine saying to a father even today, ‘I can’t wait to have sex with your daughter.  Give her to me now!’  The narrator [of Genesis] is showing us a man overwhelmed with emotional and sexual longing for the woman.

“Why?  Jacob’s life was empty.  He never had his father’s love, he had lost his beloved mother’s love, and he certainly had no sense of God’s love and care.  Then he beheld the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, and he must have said to himself, ‘If I had her, finally, something would be right in my miserable life.  If I had her, it would fix things.’  All the longings of his heart for meaning and affirmation were fixed on Rachel.

“We learn that through all of life there runs a ground note of cosmic disappointment.  You are never going to lead a wise life until you understand that.  Jacob said, ‘If I can just get Rachel, everything will be okay.’  And he goes to bed with the one he thinks is Rachel, and literally, the Hebrew says, ‘in the morning, behold, it was Leah’ (Genesis 29:25).  One commentator noted about this verse, ‘This is a miniature of our disillusionment, experienced from Eden onward.’  What does that mean?  With all due respect to this woman (from whom we have much to learn), it means that no matter what we put our hopes in, in the morning, it is always Leah, never Rachel.

“If you get married as Jacob did, putting the weight of all your deepest hopes and longings on the person you are marrying, you are going to crush her with your expectations.  It will then distort your life and your spouse’s life in a hundred ways.  No person, not even the best one, can give your soul all it needs.  You are going to think you have gone to bed with Rachel, and you will get up and it will always be Leah.  This cosmic disappointment and disillusionment is there in all of life, but we especially feel it in the things upon which we most set our hopes.”  (Timothy Keller, Counterfeit Gods, (from chapter 2, “Love is Not All You Need,” pp. 22-47)

Hello men,

 If you are a head of a household, then you have an official ministry leadership position in the church;  and it is our job to make sure that you are sufficiently equipped and encouraged in your role as a man before God, your wife, your children, your church, and your community.  Please pray for us, and offer us feedback, on how we can serve you better.  You have every right to expect the very best from us. 

SUNDAY SERMON.  The sermon this Sunday will be over some or all of Romans 6:8-13.  Up to this point of the chapter, Paul has told us that we are dead to sin, and he has explained the mechanics of how that is true.  In Romans 6:8-13, Paul builds upon this fact and tells us what some of the ramifications of our death to sin are.  A provisional title I have given this section is, “Since We Are Dead to Sin.”  In these verses, Paul is essentially saying, “Since we are dead to sin, here are some things we should believe . . . and things we should do . . . and not do.”  It might be a good exercise for you to go through these verses and make a list of what the practical ramifications of our death to sin are (and it’s not a bad question to ask your family if you ponder this passage together with them in family worship).

Milton Vincent