First Footings for the New Year

A New Year Offering – 2012

2 Chron. 29:31 (ESV)

Then Hezekiah said, "You have now consecrated yourselves to the Lord. Come near; bring sacrifices and thank offerings to the house of the Lord." And the assembly brought sacrifices and thank offerings, and all who were of a willing heart brought burnt offerings.

Renewal and recommitment are often the hopes we bring to a New Year. We hope for better days and pray that God will give us strength to do better. The way to get started off on the right foot, of course is in giving due tribute to the One who holds our days and in whom time and eternity his held, our faithful Creator and Redeemer. The Scotch Presbyterians were not much on celebrating Christmas, but big on celebrating the New Year. Today things have changed, and like most of the world, gift-giving happens on Christmas day, or there about. But in years past, giving a neighbor a gift and a blessing on the morning of the New Day, known as Hogmanay in Scotland, was a tradition that is all about getting on the right foot (called first footings) with your neighbors and bringing goodwill among the children of man. In biblical times, renewal was also a time to cross thresholds of goodwill, but for the people of God it meant bringing the right sacrifice to God’s house. In dark days of hypocrisy and idolatry, no matter the sacrifice, worship was not acceptable to God, if given without true devotion. Getting a right footing with God meant sacrifices of the heart.
I’ve been thinking lately about this as it relates to our worship and our new year. I am asking myself what kind of offering will I be bringing to God? Of course, we don’t bring sacrifices to get on right footings with God, because Jesus did that for us. The cross of Jesus is where we start in renewal with a fresh start. Thank offerings are tributes of a heart that knows the gift of that new start. Tomorrow we will break bread, drink wine and hear the Gospel of our Lord on the first day of the New Year. Get on the right foot and join us in worship and in giving God our best and our first.

Beza on the Incarnation part 2

Summary of the accomplishment of our salvation in Jesus Christ

He therefore descended to earth to draw us up to Heaven. (Eph. 2:6). From the moment of His conception until His resurrection, He bore the punishment of our sins in order to unburden us of them (Matt 11:28; 1 Pet 2:24; 3:18; Is 53:11). He perfectly fulfilled all righteousness so as to cover our unrighteousness (Rom 5:19; Matt 3:15). He has revealed to us the whole will of God His Father, by His words and by the example of His life, so as to show us the true way of salvation (John 15:15; Acts 1:1-2).
Finally, to crown the satisfaction for our sins which He took upon Himself (Is 53:4-5), He was captured in order to release us, condemned so that we might be acquitted. He suffered infinite reproach in order to place us beyond all shame. He was nailed to the cross for our sins to be nailed there (Col. 2:14). He died bearing the curse which we deserved, so as to appease for ever the wrath of God through the accomplishment of His unique sacrifice (Gal 3:13; 2 Cor. 5:21; Heb 10:10,14). He was entombed to show the truth of His death, and to vanquish death even in its own house, that is to say even in the grave; He experienced no corruption there, to show that, even while dead, he had conquered death (Acts 2:31). He was raised again victorious so that, all our corruption being dead and buried, we might be renewed in new, spiritual and eternal life (Rom 6; and nearly everywhere in St. Paul). By this means, the first death is no longer to us a punishment for sin and an entrance into the second death, but, on the contrary, is the ending of our corruption and an entrance into life eternal. Lastly, being raised again and then having spoken throughout forty days here below to give evidence of His resurrection (Acts 1:3,9-11), He ascended visibly and really far above all heavens, where He sat down at the right hand of God His Father (John 14:2). Having taken possession for us of His eternal kingdom, He is, for us also, the sole Mediator and Advocate (1 Tim 2:5; Heb 1:3; 9:24), and governs His Church by His Holy Spirit, until the number of the elect of God, His Father, is completed (Matt 28:20, etc).

Vaclav Havel: Postscript on a Life

On hearing of the death of Vaclav Havel, the first democratically elected president of the Czech Republic after the fall of Communism, I offer this postscript. Europe’s most famous dissident and intellectual statesman is not well known in the U.S. While not a Christian or what can be discerned, a believer in a personal God, Havel spoke against the materialism of Marx which had captured the devotion of most European intellectuals. He argued for the transcendent values of morality and public justice. James Sire wrote a Christian appraisal of Havel a few years ago published by InterVarsity Press.
“Vaclav Havel is one of the twentieth century’s most amazing people. In character, life and career he breaks all molds we associate with each of the six main categories into which he so obviously falls. He is dramatist, humorist, intellectual, moralist, politician, statesman. We may well ask, How can this be? Surely never before the combination of these six-two perhaps, three maybe, four unlikely, but six?” (James Sire, Vaclav Havel, IVP, 2001)
And then towards the end of the book after engaging in an appreciative critique of his worldview, which affirms such universals as truth, justice and the need for hope, Sire shows how Havel falls short of perceiving how these essential aspects of our humanity are tied to a transcendent personal God. The man who spent years reflecting on these truths as a political prisoner and cultural critic, found no answer for his quest for freedom from his personal guilt and flaws. It is an example as high as common grace can lift a human soul above the rabble of human corruption it cannot redeem the soul.

Theodore Beza's Reflections on the Incarnation

He therefore descended to earth to draw us up to Heaven. From the moment of His conception until His resurrection, He bore the punishment of our sins in order to unburden us of them. He perfectly fulfilled all righteousness so as to cover our unrighteousness. He has revealed to us the whole will of God His Father, by His words and by the example of His life, so as to show us the true way of salvation.
This is an excerpt from his Confession of the Christian Faith (1558). Beza was John Calvin's successor at Geneva.

We are using these reflections on his Confession for our Advent readings prior to worship each Sunday. It is deep, profound, poetic and highly experiential. And you were told he was a rationalist! Don't believe half you hear...

Will Heaven be Boring?

It is not that all we will do in heaven is worship, but that everything we do will be the untainted praise of God that is full of his majestic glory. Heaven will not be boring like an unending sermon and three hymns, so we can begin the week of living, but the rightful use of our lives and vocations for the honor of Christ in endless joy. It will be the liturgy or literally the great work of God's redeemed gathered around the Lamb. Todd Baucum

by Lord Sacks of England

At the most basic level, the consumer society is sapping our moral strength. It has produced a society obsessed with money: salaries, bonuses, the cost of houses, and expensive luxuries we could live without. When money rules, we remember the price of things and forget the value of things, and that is dangerous.
(from a recent speech at Pontifical Georgian University)

The Value of Books

For the cost of a game of golf, I could buy a good book. Then with that book I could spend several nights in intimate fellowship as I hold it in my hands, touch and smell the pages as I turn each one in delight. It becomes a companion to new insights of knowledge or adventures of the imagination. A good book, one that is bound well, crafted under high standards and authored by a wise pen is like being invited into a circle close friends in a gracious conversation. One can argue with a good book. Much as one would argue and debate a dear friend over issues that matter or truths worth sharpening. Bad literature and sloppy books can be easily closed, discarded or forgotten. But the ones that demand your attention and engage your thoughts toward higher and loftier ideas are like treasures in a barren field. Is the book then a dead object once read? Not at all – they are to be shared with others and passed down to our children. They can find repose on the open shelves of the den or the room of one’s house where people dwell, talk, and laugh. There the book waits and silently beacons the next reader to take down and begin the fellowship again. Books do not live in the sense people do. They are not souls. But books have a way of living longer than people. They span generations. In this they possess great power.

Ministry to the Military (MMI), a PCA related specialized church planting work, is seeking to expand

Ministry to the Military (MMI), a PCA related specialized church planting work, is seeking to expand
Click to read about this special ministry that comes out of our Presbytery and I have the priviledge of working with through our Mission's committee. Doug Hudson is a dear brother working as a pioneer in this work for spreading the Gospel and planting Reformed churches around the globe.

The Gift of Self Forgetfullness

The Gift of Self Forgetfullness
Written by Tullian Tchividjian
Tuesday, 06 December 2011 19:26
“Many pulpits across the land consistently preach the Christian and not the Christ.”

Living as Family - A Sermon

Living as Family
Sermon preached by Pastor Todd D. Baucum, First Presbyterian Church, Enterprise, AL
Nov. 26, 2011
1 Tim. 5:1-12 (ESV)
Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father. Treat younger men like brothers, [2] older women like mothers, younger women like sisters, in all purity.

The great struggle in applying the truths of this passage to church life today is not in understanding the text or its teachings. It is plain in what it says. There is much about how we should apply the principles of family life to the everyday experience of being the Church, the Body of Christ. The words are clear, the exegesis is not difficult. The problem is that we have lost the normative model of family social structures and the values that was representative in Eastern cultures, of which Ephesus was a part.
“Treat older men as fathers, treat older women as mothers and younger women treat as sisters”, implies basic assumptions that were for Timothy and the early church very basic to the culture. We in the postmodern West – just look at any “family” tv show and you see what I mean. Fathers are usually portrayed as imbeciles. We simply do not have the social structure (or much of one) to support us.
The great difficulty we have with this chapter today is that we no longer share these assumptions. Family life, for most of us has broken down. Respect for our elders is a forgotten concept. How can the Church meet this challenge today, and instill in its members a culture of family relationships that will in turn direct our lives?
Perhaps no other issue is so critical for us today. If we don’t grapple with this issue, then we must relegate chapter 5 to our footnotes of our Bibles. We will just scratch our heads and then place this among the texts that just don’t fit our culture.
That for us is not an option. This is God’s Word; it judges us for a reason. It hold up our culture and our times to not just an ideal, but to the standard God demands of us. Church as salt and light in our times has to rethink and to challenge our assumptions. Paul helps us to do this. In the Church, our view of people are radically adjusted.
In the Church the way we protect and provide for the most vulnerable and weak among us is critical.
In the Church, the people the world dismisses as useless are of immense importance.
1. First of all, the Gospel alters the way we look and treat one another.
Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father. Treat younger men like brothers, [2] older women like mothers, younger women like sisters, in all purity.

Elders – that is those who are older – are to be accorded respect - treated as a honored father – a patriarch. This is still an important value in Eastern and African cultures.
Job 12:12 (ESV)
Wisdom is with the aged, and understanding in length of days.
Men who have the wisdom that comes with age, are to be valued because of the lessons they can give to the young. Now, this does not mean as in some cultures an older man can never be corrected, but that he is to be honored and shown respect.
The movie “Gran Torino” starring Clint Eastwood, a tough, widowed Korean war veteran lives next door to a family of South East Asians. There is a young man from that house is about to be trapped into joining a gang. Eastwood takes him under his wings (he has no father, no role model). He helps him get a job in construction, tells him the value of work. One point they have a conversation in the garage, Eastwood is showing how to repair things – boy looks at all his tools. “I will never be able to afford all these”, he says. Eastwood replied– “I did not buy these all at once – I collected them over 50 years.”
There is a lot of wisdom in that scene. It is about what an older man can give to younger generation. To mentor and teach and share perspectives that takes 50 years to acquire.
This very comprehensive passage - Paul covers every possible relationship that we would encounter. How we treat older women also will tell us a lot about our faith. Proverbs 31 is a picture of a family where a mother gives, nurtures her family and supports her husband, but not as an oppressed servant, to be kept in her place. She is to be honored and highly respected by her husband, her children and the city leaders.
Proverbs 31:27-28 (ESV)
She looks well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness.
[28] Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her:
Of, course there is also the way men – especially younger men were to treat younger women. In this area, some things never change. It was true that in Ephesus, women were targets for men and they were exploited. A culture that worships women (the ideal women), is the same that will abuse them.
Today we have not progressed or advanced in the way young women are treated. Our culture has lost the honor of true chivalry and respect for maidens. The egalitarian view of modern education is to treat everybody as equals, and this goes for sexes. We have done more than denied God as a culture, we have denied the God created differences of men and women.
Our children are experiencing the disastrous fallout of this social bomb.
The Gospel reshapes our thinking and our attitudes about these realities. It is not about a conservative turn back to the age of our grandparents, but towards the way God intended the way men are to be men and how they then view women and treat them. The Gospel will then be our only way forward in a dark world. Verses 1-4 set the tone for the rest of the chapter. But, the direction goes toward the issue of how we treat widows – what the church considered this important social issue. This chapter is a powerful look at how the NT church dealt with a key social problem of their day. The Lordship of Christ impacted their economics and their family life.
2. The Church and the Family worked together for God’s Kingdom.
(true widows)
[3] Honor widows who are truly widows. [4] But if a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show godliness to their own household and to make some return to their parents, for this is pleasing in the sight of God.
Niv – says “put their religion into practice”
[8] But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
One of the key social issues of the early church was the care of widows. Acts 6:1 – some widows were being neglected, so deacons were chosen to care for their needs – take them food. This was a church based welfare program. But, Paul makes is clear that only those who are true widows, who do not have family to care for them, are the ones who are to be cared for by the church.
See how the church and family work together? They are not competing against other, nor does one supplant the other or make it obsolete. The church is to support family life and families are to be under the guidance and oversight of the church. Families are reminded of their responsibilities to care for their household. Caring for parents and grandparents is a mark of true faith. This is a central theme in this letter – True faith connects to right living – Biblical orthodoxy is shown in godliness. If one fails to take care of his family he is faith denier. He is worst than pagan.
We are also called to pay back the life we were given. Grace is always connected to gratitude.
Verse 16 states the same rationale and God given duty for our families.
. [16] If any believing woman has relatives who are widows, let her care for them. Let the church not be burdened, so that it may care for those who are really widows.
James 1:27 (ESV)
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
3. The Forgotten ministry of Widows.
[5] She who is truly a widow, left all alone, has set her hope on God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day, [6] but she who is self-indulgent is dead even while she lives. [7] Command these things as well, so that they may be without reproach. [9] Let a widow be enrolled if she is not less than sixty years of age, having been the wife of one husband, [10] and having a reputation for good works: if she has brought up children, has shown hospitality, has washed the feet of the saints, has cared for the afflicted, and has devoted herself to every good work.
In the Church, widows were not just to be recipients of care – but honored as important part of the ministry of Christ’s kingdom. First, they were to be given to a ministry of prayer intercession.
Like Anna – who prayed day and night in the temple, waiting for the coming of Christ, they are to be prayer warriors, engaged in a crucial ministry of intercessory prayer in the church. She was also to be like Dorcas, who took care of other women in the community through her service.
Acts 9:36 (ESV)
Now there was in Joppa a disciple named Tabitha, which, translated, means Dorcas. She was full of good works and acts of charity.
There is a strong hint that this was a formal kind of ministry. Now, I don’t believe the Bible supports the notion of deaconess as an office. But, it is clear that there is a formality of some list – a register not just who gets meals on wheels, but of 60’s something women, who had to meet qualifications, of faithful service, hospitality and humility. In other words, they were women who had something to contribute to the church. (While I don’t endorse RC view of order of nuns and monks- we need to recapture this model of prayer and service.)
Whatever that looked like in the early church, there is a critical need for these spiritual grandmothers who through their godly prayers and holy service, teach our children, instruct our younger women and provide Titus 2 ministry of helping this present age see some wisdom: I pray for it and yearn to see it. Our daughters need it and our generation cries out for it.
Titus 2:3-5 (ESV)
Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, [4] and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, [5] to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.
Imagine what would happen if in our homes and in our church we saw the Gospel making a difference in the way we viewed each other and in how we treated one another. It would be a glorious reality that would transform our society. This high standard of God’s Word is meant to confront our brokenness and it is a call for us to repent. Let’s repent and trust in God’s grace to do something glorious in our lives.

The Life of God in the Soul of Man - Part 7 (paraphrase)

Christ’s Patience in Bearing It
Jesus endured the most severe sufferings and misery than anyone ever experienced, without complaint, not because he was stoic about pain and suffering, for he fully apprehended the depths of human pain, “through sweat of blood and sorrow of heart,” he submitted to the dark providence of God. He prayed to God, “that if it were possible” or as the Gospel records, “if he were willing…the cup might be removed”, but added, “nevertheless not my will but yours be done.” (Luke 22:42). It is with unusual importance that Jesus first expressed the anguish of his spirit, “Now is my soul troubled”, and then say, “and what shall I say?”; all with a plea, “Father, save me from this hour,” which once said, seems on second thought to recall his mission, “but for this cause I came to the world,” and concludes with “Father, glorify your Name” (John 12:27). Now we cannot credit this as some flaw in Jesus for he knew he was to suffer and faced it squarely; but it shows us the unthinkable weight and burden of this suffering, that he could not think of it without recoiling. Yet, the will of God and his glory alone overruled his avoidance to this cruel suffering.

Jesus’ Constant Devotion
Another example of Jesus’ love for God was in his delight in talking with him in prayer, through his many retreats where he spent whole nights in heavenly communion without any sins to confess and few earthly concerns, which are the things that tend to occupy our focus in prayer. We can say, in a sense, that the life of Jesus was a prayer to God, even when there was no “sacrifice”, the fire of the altar still burned. Jesus never struggled with boredom or distractions which we wrestle with before we get to real prayer.

His Love for Others
Secondly, I should mention his love for all people; but to express it fully, one must look at the Gospels. For there is hardly anything recorded or spoken by Jesus that was not designed for the good of others. All his miracles and wonders were instances of his goodness benefiting those in need and awe for those who saw it. His love was not just confined to family and friends, nor just reserved for the one disciple whom he loved, but all who obeyed his commands were counted as friends, and those who “did the will of his Father, were his true brother, sister and mother”(John 15:14).
Jesus never turned away those who came to him in sincerity, but helped all those in true need. Those who met Jesus left him joyful except for the rich young ruler who went away sad and sorrowful at hearing the cost of following Christ was so high that he could not keep his wealth and gain his soul. This gave Jesus a heavy heart indeed because it appeared that the young man really wanted to follow him and the Scripture says that “Jesus loved him” (Mark 10:21), but even he could not make an exception for this man who loved his possessions more than he loved Christ (Mark 10).
Consider his meekness and humility. What ugly ingratitude and hardness of heart did the one who betray him show and yet Jesus said to him, “Judas, will you betray me with a kiss (Luke 22:48)? What further evidence do we need to see of his great love, they he would lay down his life for those who hated him? His prayer was mingled with his own blood as he asked the Father not to lay a charge against them, but through his death he would bring them eternal life (Luke 23:34).

Questions to Ponder:
1. How do you deal with trials? Do you complain or yield to God’s will?
2. What is your struggle in prayer?
3. Do you show love to other people or just people you naturally like?
4. Are things, money and pleasure controlling your affections more than your love for Christ?

Sounds From Heaven: The Revival on the Isle of Lewis, 1949-1952. By Colin & Mary Peckham

The last great spiritual awakening in our times was not in Toronto or Pensacola (although these locations experienced a lot of fanfare), but on a little known island off the west coast of Scotland. This book brought to us by our friends at Christian Focus and written by eye witnesses of the revival is indeed a marvelous gift to spiritually hungering people who long to see biblical, Christ-exalting, life altering, and community changing revival. This book retells the period of spiritual awakening around the ministry of the Presbyterian minister, Duncan Campbell, yet predating him and certainly overriding him in that it was a work of a Sovereign God and not any single person.

The standards by which genuine revival must pass the muster such as the long lasting spiritual and moral impact, clearly confirm the authenticity of this movement of God. I agree with William Mackenzie the managing editor of Christian Focus: ‘This book describes things that are not part of my experience.” But, may God see fit to visit our churches in such a way to bring genuine repentance and conversion that would transform a whole community. I long to see such a reality.