Active commands found in Romans.

I went through the book of Romans and listed all the active, explicit commands. What are not listed are the passive commands (the "do not"s), implied commands, or commands that were obviously only for the Roman church ("Greet Priscilla and Aquila). Maybe this can be a help to someone else as well.

1. Reckon yourself dead to sin. (6:11)
2. Yield yourself unto God. (6:13)
3. Yield your members servants to righteousness. (6:19)
4. Take heed, lest God not spare you as he spared not Israel. (11:21)
5. Behold the goodness and severity of God. (11:22)
6. Present your body a living sacrifice to God, holy, acceptable unto God. (12:1)
7. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. (12:2)
8. Think soberly. (12:3)
9. Prophesy according to the proportion of faith. (12:6)
10. Attend to ministering, teaching, and exhortation. (12:7)
11. Give with simplicity. (12:8)
12. Rule with diligence. (12:8)
13. Show mercy with cheerfulness. (12:8)
14. Love without dissimulation. (12:9)
15. Abhor that which is evil. (12:9)
16. Cleave to that which is good. (12:9)
17. Be kindly affectioned with brotherly love. (12:10)
18. In honor, prefer others. (12:10)
19. Be fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. (12:11)
20. Rejoice in hope. (12:12)
21. Be patient in tribulation. (12:12)
22. Continue instant in prayer. (12:12)
23. Distribute to the necessity of the saints. (12:13)
24. Be given to hospitality. (12:13)
25. Bless them which persecute you. (12:14)
26. Rejoice with those who rejoice. (12:15)
27. Weep with those who weep. (12:15)
28. Condescend to men of low estate. (12:16)
29. Provide things honest in the sight of all men. (12:17)
30. Live peaceably with all men. (12:18)
31. Feed your hungry enemy. (12:20)
32. Give your thirsty enemy drink. (12:20)
33. Overcome evil with good. (12:21)
34. Be subject unto the higher power. (13:1)
35. Pay tribute. (13:6)
36. Render to all authorities their dues. (13:7)
37. Love one another. (13:8)
38. Cast off the works of darkness. (13:12)
39. Put on the armour of light. (13:12)
40. Walk honestly. (13:13)
41. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ. (13:14)
42. Recieve the weak in faith. (14:1)
43. Be persuaded of the importance (or lack thereof) of holy days in your own mind. (14:5)
44. Follow after things which make for peace and edifying. (14:19)
45. Bear the infirmities of the weak. (15:1)
46. Please your neighbor for his good to edification. (15:2)
47. Recieve one another. (15:7)
48. Mark and avoid them which cause divisions contrary to true doctrine. (16:17)

Was typhoon Haiyan God's judgement?

As substantial news begins to trickle in about the wreckage left in the wake of one of the strongest storms ever to make landfall, the massive scale of the damage - particularly the potential of the final numbers - is truly staggering. It is feared that 10,000 may be dead already in one city alone, and as relief teams begin to penetrate the more rural areas that number may not be simply added to, but multiplied. All of this fails to account for deaths that potentially may come in the following days and months from disease, malnutrition, and starvation as the realities of looted hospitals, unburied bodies, and deserting personnel sets in.
As Christians, nay as humans, it is natural for us to ask why. Not a meteorologic why, but a philosophic why. What is the purpose for all of this suffering and death? The humanistic evolutionist would tell you that there is no rhyme or reason, that it is all an unfortunate accident of blind nature and chance. But as Christians, particularly those of us who believe in an all sovereign God who designs and commands the weather (Psalm 135:6-7 Whatsoever the LORD pleased, that did he in heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and all deep places. He causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth; he maketh lightnings for the rain; he bringeth the wind out of his treasuries.) we cannot accept that as a suitable answer. Why would God direct Typhoon Haiyan into this disaster-prone country with inadequate infra-structure to deal with such devastation? The first conclusion we jump to is that God must be judging this nation! Yes, that must be it, these people with their strange blend of Roman Catholicism and cultural mysticism have finally been judged by God with this massive wall of water, figuratively washing away the sins of these people! We've already decided that was God's purpose behind Hurricane Katrina and the indonesian tsunami, here again we pat ourselves on our collective backs for being bright enough to figure out what God is doing, and we nod our heads in consent to the grand justice those people received. However, let me insert a word of caution before we become too settled in our minds that this is the certain answer.
Job's friends were all in consensus that his material, familial, and physical devastation had come upon him as judgement from God for some particular sin. Though not one could put a definitive finger on just what it was, that did not stop them from making lots of guesses and never swayed them from their first and now deep-seated impression that it was God's judgement. The problem is, at the beginning of the story we're given a behind-the-scenes look at what really was going on between Satan and God and at the end of the narrative we find God rebuking Job's friends for making false accusations about both Job and more importantly God himself!
Roughly 2,000 years later, Jesus ran into the same assumptions by his followers on multiple occasions, was the man blind because God was judging him or his parents for sin? (John 9:2) What grievous sin had the Galilaeans committed that God caused them to be killed by Pilate? (Luke 13:1) Or what were the heinous crimes perpetrated by those whom God crushed under the fallen tower of Siloam? (Luke 13:4) And every single time Jesus had the same answer for them, this was not judgement from God for any particular sin but a result of sin in general which reminds us that we all must repent and thus bring glory to God.
While I do agree that sin has built in consequences that are not pleasant, and while I do not disagree that God has and may still judge individuals and nations by acts of nature, let me also point out that almost every time someone in scripture thought they knew the mind of God in the midst of a tragedy, appropriating judgement as the necessary answer, they were wrong. Do the Phillipines deserve judgement more than America? Do we imagine that since we stamp "In God We Trust" on our fiat currency, he will excuse the "Against God We Rebel" stamped on our hearts? Does our official pledge (of allegiance to a piece of cloth representing an earthly kingdom... But that's another discussion altogether) of "one nation, under God" blind him to the fact that we refuse to be under his Lordship and make a mockery of his commandments at every turn? No, but unless we repent, we shall all likewise perish!
Secondly, why do we assume that large catastrophes equal God's judgement but small ones do not? Many who assert that this storm was an outpouring of God's wrath against sin would be appalled if we we made that same claim if a single child drowned in a stream. But because this was so large, so far away, and thus so impersonal, we have many who find it easy to stay atop their holy perches and dictate to us all what exactly God is doing in this situation.
Lastly, the assumption that this typhoon was God's judgement on sin, is a very light opinion of sin. Every one of the people who have died in this storm or will die as a result of it were going to die eventually anyways. Many of these people may have died a much quicker and less painful death than they would have had the storm never blown their way. God judges sin in two ways, by pouring out his wrath against it on Jesus as he hung on the cross and by pouring it out on those who rejected Jesus for an eternity in hell. A typhoon does not begin to compare with the gravity of either of those.
Instead of trying to figure out why God judged the Philippines, why don't we let God be God and we his servants obedient to his commands. Which are,
1. To repent ourselves, seeing what misery sin has brought into the world.
2. To love our neighbors as ourselves, look into how you can help the people of the Philippines.
3. To preach the gospel to all people, rejoicing with those who accept it and mourning for those who reject it, knowing that they will face a final judgement that makes the largest typhoon on record look like a gentle rain.

What place do creeds, confessions, catechisms, and commentaries have in Christendom? (Part 1)

I'm a firm believer in Sola Scriptura, that is "The Scriptures Alone", however, that is a vague motto that has been used, misused, and abused by people from all different denominations to mean and support varying and often conflicting ideas. One particular misuse of this maxim has been termed biblicism, the belief that the scriptures are alone the only writings to which a christian should refer, casting aside all iterated doctrines, dogmas, and teachings that men have formulated (even if they have scripture as their foundation). While this sounds solid on the outset, it is dangerous in its intimation and impossible to apply. First, it will do great damage to sound doctrine by opening the door to any orator who can make a good argument for his interpretation of a particular passage of scripture. When we rely strictly on our own interpretation of scripture we give place to any Mormon, Catholic, Arian, Pelagian, etc. to make a case for their form of heresy from scripture (as they all attempt to do) because we refuse to look at what godly and learned men have decided about these very issues after much study and long debate. Second, it is impossible to implement because as soon as you've convinced someone that this is the proper way to interpret scripture, you have made a disciple and are now guilty of doing the very thing you're advocating against, i.e. allowing the teaching of a man to influence how you interpret scripture.
With all that being said, we must ask, "What then does Sola Scriptura mean? The Scriptures alone... what?" The answer is that the Scriptures alone are our ground and final rule of faith and practice. However, there are many helps that God has given to the church to help it in its definition and articulation of what the Scriptures teach. (Eph. 4:11-14) And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;
I. Creeds
According to dictionary.com a creed (in the sense I'm using it here) is "an authoritative, formulated statement of the chief articles of Christian belief." It comes from the Latin word "credo" which means "I believe". These have played an important part throughout the history of the church as concise statements which differentiate Christianity from other religions. In fact it is almost certain that in I Corinthians 15:3-7 Paul is quoting an early church creed that was probably formulated just 5-6 years after Jesus' death. The first clue is that he said in both verses one and three that he was giving them something that he had received. The Greek words behind "delivered" and "received" are the words that were used by scribes who copied and passed on written traditions. The next hint is the four part structure of the verses, further broken down into two parts made up of a fact with its supporting evidence. Note,
1. Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures.
1a. He was buried. (Not just a coma, or swooning, he was dead enough that they put him in the ground.)
2. He rose again on the third day, according to the scriptures.
2a. He was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve, then of over 500 brethren. (It wasn't just a spiritual return or a hallucination, he really, bodily rose again.)
Thirdly, the connecting word "that" serves as quotation marks in the Greek (since it uses grammar to give sentence structure, instead of quotation marks) and Paul uses "how", "and", and "after" as additions to add emphasis to what he was saying, to keep the Corinthian church from hearing it as a cliche since they had probably heard and repeated it a hundred times before. So this early Christian creed probably went like this,
"We believe that Christ died for our sins,
according to the scriptures,
he was buried,
he rose again the third day,
according to the scriptures,
he was seen of Cephas,then of the twelve,
(whether verse seven was part of the creed or not is debated, if so it would have finished up with "He was seen of James then of all the apostles.")
Three early creeds that are very sound and have been held by Christians in all ages are the Apostles Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed. The Apostles Creed is said by tradition to have been written by the twelve apostles, each contributing one of the twelve articles, on the day of Pentecost and that this is what they were doing when the Holy Ghost came upon them in Acts 2:1. Whether that is the case, or whether it was formulated by their students from their writings is not definitively known. What is known is that it was written in the first century and is entirely consistent with apostolic writings and teaching. John Calvin said this concerning this creed in his catechism.
Master. Then the foundation and beginning of confidence in God is to know him in Christ?
Student. Entirely so.
Master. I should now wish you to tell me in a few words, what the sum of this knowledge is?
Student. It is contained in the Confession of Faith, or rather Formula of Confession, which all Christians have in common. It is commonly called the Apostles’ Creed, because from the beginning of the Church it was ever received among all the pious, and because it either fell from the lips of the Apostles, or was faithfully gathered out of their writings.
This is how the creed reads, (complete with the supposed contributer of each article).
Peter - 1. I believe in God the Father Almighty
John - 2. Maker of heaven and earth
James - 3. And in Jesus Christ his only Son, our Lord
Andrew - 4. Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost; born of the Virgin Mary
Philip - 5. Suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried
Thomas - 6. He descended into hell, the third day he rose again from the dead
Bartholomew - 7. He ascended into heaven; sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty
Matthew - 8. From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead
James, the son of Alpheus - 9. I believe In the Holy Ghost, the holy catholic church
Simon Zelotes - 10. The communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins
Jude, the brother of James - 11. The resurrection of the body
Matthias - 12. Life everlasting. Amen
(Notice in all three creeds that the word "catholic" is spelled with a small "c", it means worldwide or universal, it does not mean the church of Rome which now calls itself the Catholic Church.)
The second most important creed in christian history is the Nicene Creed, so named because it was adopted at the first ecumenical church council held in the city of Nicea in 325. This creed is a little longer and speaks more directly to the nature of the trinity, particularly the divine nature of Jesus, since that was the heresy that was sweeping the church at the time (the Arian controvery). Of over 300 christian bishops gathered at this council, this creed was accepted and signed by all but three who were denounced as heretics. If this creed were more widely accepted in Christianity today, those who reject the doctrine of the Trinity such as T. D. Jakes and William Young (author of The Shack), might not have such a large following nor find such acceptance among those who claim to be orthodox Christians. This creed states,
We believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, light from light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one Being with the Father;
through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven,
was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary
and became truly human.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father,
who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified,
who has spoken through the prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. Amen.
The third creed is know as the Athanasian Creed, named after Athansius who championed the true doctrine of the trinity in the face of Arianism. Unfortunately, even after the first council of Nicea in 325, and in spite of the denouncing of Arianism and the adoption of the Nicene Creed, Arianism actually became more popular than the accepted Christian position for the next fifty years until the council of Constantinople in 381 where the Nicene Creed was reaffirmed, and Arianism was crushed with Athanasius leading the charge. This creed was probably not written by him, in fact it may not have been written until the 700s, however, because it so clearly states what he articulated it bears his name to this day. It goes like this,
1. Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the catholic faith;
2. Which faith except every one do keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly.
3. And the catholic faith is this: That we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity;
4. Neither confounding the persons nor dividing the substance.
5. For there is one person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Spirit.
6. But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit is all one, the glory equal, the majesty coeternal.
7. Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Spirit.
8. The Father uncreated, the Son uncreated, and the Holy Spirit uncreated.
9. The Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible, and the Holy Spirit incomprehensible.
10. The Father eternal, the Son eternal, and the Holy Spirit eternal.
11. And yet they are not three eternals but one eternal.
12. As also there are not three uncreated nor three incomprehensible, but one uncreated and one incomprehensible.
13. So likewise the Father is almighty, the Son almighty, and the Holy Spirit almighty.
14. And yet they are not three almighties, but one almighty.
15. So the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God;
16. And yet they are not three Gods, but one God.
17. So likewise the Father is Lord, the Son Lord, and the Holy Spirit Lord;
18. And yet they are not three Lords but one Lord.
19. For like as we are compelled by the Christian verity to acknowledge every Person by himself to be God and Lord;
20. So are we forbidden by the catholic religion to say; There are three Gods or three Lords.
21. The Father is made of none, neither created nor begotten.
22. The Son is of the Father alone; not made nor created, but begotten.
23. The Holy Spirit is of the Father and of the Son; neither made, nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding.
24. So there is one Father, not three Fathers; one Son, not three Sons; one Holy Spirit, not three Holy Spirits.
25. And in this Trinity none is afore or after another; none is greater or less than another.
26. But the whole three persons are coeternal, and coequal.
27. So that in all things, as aforesaid, the Unity in Trinity and the Trinity in Unity is to be worshipped.
28. He therefore that will be saved must thus think of the Trinity.
29. Furthermore it is necessary to everlasting salvation that he also believe rightly the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
30. For the right faith is that we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and man.
31. God of the substance of the Father, begotten before the worlds; and man of substance of His mother, born in the world.
32. Perfect God and perfect man, of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting.
33. Equal to the Father as touching His Godhead, and inferior to the Father as touching His manhood.
34. Who, although He is God and man, yet He is not two, but one Christ.
35. One, not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh, but by taking of that manhood into God.
36. One altogether, not by confusion of substance, but by unity of person.
37. For as the reasonable soul and flesh is one man, so God and man is one Christ;
38. Who suffered for our salvation, descended into hell, rose again the third day from the dead;
39. He ascended into heaven, He sits on the right hand of the Father, God, Almighty;
40. From thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
41. At whose coming all men shall rise again with their bodies;
42. and shall give account of their own works.
43. And they that have done good shall go into life everlasting and they that have done evil into everlasting fire.
44. This is the catholic faith, which except a man believe faithfully he cannot be saved.
If under the guise of Sola Scriptura, we forget what our forefathers so clearly iterated for us, many times in spite of the fact that it could cost them their lives, (it is said that many of the bishops at the first church council bore in their bodies the scars of persecution since Rome had only very recently legalized Christianity) we dishonor the very Word we claim to be upholding. For it is the scriptures themselves that have told us that God has given the church Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of it. That means that we not only need the godly ministers we have today, but until the church is perfect and complete, we still need the foundational men and their works by which the church until this point has been edified and built.

Have you ever thought about how holidays bring glory to God?

There is little debate that we humans are creatures of habit. What we see everyone else doing is what we assume we should do, and what we do (or did when we were younger), is what we assume our children should do. There are some habits and uniquely cultural activities that are healthy and I have no problem passing on to the next generation. When I got my first job I also got my driver's license and my first car, that's a fairly common practice in America and one that will probably be repeated by my sons, should God be so gracious. To brush our teeth every night, go to church every Sunday and go to Grandma's every Thanksgiving are all traditions that have legitimate value and are worth passing on.
The danger comes when we allow ourselves to fall into the trap of thinking that since we've adopted many customs and traditions of our culture and childhood that are good and healthy, everything our culture does is good and worth repeating. This is seen perhaps nowhere clearer than in the celebration of holidays. Some of your fondest memories may include shouting "Happy New Year" at midnight, receiving a heart shaped box of chocolates, hunting for eggs after a sunrise church service, watching fireworks, dressing up in costumes and making yourself sick on your collected candy, sitting around a large table eating turkey with your cousins, or tearing the brightly colored paper off your presents around a gaily decorated tree. And because there are such precious memories associated with the sounds, sights, smells, tastes, and feelings of those holidays we are lulled into thinking that they are all inherently good, after all surely something that feels so right can't be wrong... Or can it? The very word "holidays" points us to the fact that most of these were initially intrinsically religious, and even those that weren't at their inception take on moral value when they are celebrated by a follower of Jesus Christ who is to do everything to the glory of God. If we really do claim to desire to bring every thought and action under submission to the Word of God and the lordship of Jesus Christ, then willful ignorance is no excuse either. Can we disconnect Valentine's Day from it predecessor Lupercalia, the pre-Roman celebration of fertility from Feb. 13-15 to commemorate the she-wolf Lupa suckling Romulus and Remus and worship the Greek god Pan, which was celebrated by shepherds running nude through the streets? Can we redeem objects like the Easter Bunny and colored eggs and return them to their original symbolism of life after death and birth from virginity, or should we discard them as being wholly corrupted by commercialism? Is the "harmless fun" of dressing up in costumes and eating candy a sufficient reason to engage and partake of a holiday that has come to represent witchcraft, ghouls, vampires, zombies, and generally every creature that has been historically viewed as coming from hell? Can a christian celebrate Christmas and justify partaking of a Mass or the sacrificing of the Son of God afresh? To say nothing of the ancient pagan festivals held on Dec. 25 worshiping the "sun god", from which Christmas evolved (Jesus wasn't born anywhere close to Dec. 25)!
While I have an opinion and conviction about every one of these issues - which we should embrace, which to redeem and which to reject - the purpose of this article is not to tell you what to believe but to challenge you to think! To stop doing things just because that's the way you've always done it, or that's what everyone else does, and decide whether what you're doing is consistent with scripture and your obedience to it. With Halloween just a day away, now is a good time to ask ourselves what we are doing and why! I can handle it if you've studied the scriptures and have come up with a conclusion that is different than mine, what drives me crazy is people who claim to be followers of Jesus Christ and yet have never even stopped to think about how they bring glory to God through every activity they partake in, even the holidays that bring the warm fuzzies.

A litmus test of true love.

"Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth:" -I Cor. 13:4-8
This is less a command on how we ought to love and more a simple statement on what love is when it is pure. It suffers long and is kind, not because it has been told that is what it is to do or because the gain is greater than the pain, but because love makes pleasurable what others would see as suffering. The old man who has loved the same woman for more than half a century finds not suffering, but joy in being able to be her support and help when she reaches a point where she can no longer care for herself. The parent who has a handicapped child, finds not sorrow in caring for that child, but a joy in love. Selfishness (or self-love) finds that the dependency of another breeds bitterness, real charity (or an active love for someone outside yourself) finds that it nurtures love.
It envies not, because when you love someone your own happiness hinges more on seeing them happy than it does any good that could be done to you or material things that could be given to you. Envy is the perfect antithesis to love, the more good the object of the love receives, the happier the lover is.
Similarly, pride runs contrary to charity because a heart fixated on another has no time or room left for "looking out for number one". Many times professed love for another is nothing more than another facet of self-love, this becomes evident when one party becomes incensed because they are not receiving for themselves the good they imagined would result from their "love". Unadulterated love seeks not her own but always what is best for the beloved.
Is not easily provoked for love covers a multitude of sins. Love is the master emotion in that it tames, tempers, and directs all others. It is a strange truth that an action that can irritate you when coming from anyone else, can cause you to laugh and look back in nostalgia when done by the beloved. In this way the emotions of anger, pride, and envy are displaced by love.
It thinks no evil and while this has been termed by some to be "looking through rose colored glasses" or "being in the honeymoon phase" the scripture considers it a laudable attribute of love. That everything about the beloved would be filtered through the mindset that would interpret the best intentions every time is a reality that we know from experience, and of all the aspects mentioned here this is perhaps the one I most want to facilitate in all my relationships. To always think the best of someone until proven otherwise, is a valuable trait.
Rejoices not in iniquity, but rejoices in truth. While the world is happy to embrace most of these descriptions as they cling to their own definition of love and place it on a pedestal above everything else, this clause here is rejected by them for they often place their god of "love" above law and truth. True love however, does not rejoice in iniquity. Therefore, any perversion or disobedience that one would attempt to justify in the name of love, is not! Those who would cover their wounds of adultery or fornication with the balm of love will find that it is a cleansing agent that stings not one that numbs. The homosexuals that would take it to be their lawyer will find that it is their judge! While love may be the master emotion, it is not the master of ethics, it too finds its very being in obedience to the truth.
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. Not through naivety, but because it is love and therefore finds it a privilege to bear extra, that the beloved may bear less. It believes things are different this time; though it has not forgotten the offences previously committed, it is willing to risk further injury if the reward is a relationship with the object of its affection. Hopes always for the best, never losing hope or throwing in the towel regardless of the merits or history of the individual, for the hope is grounded in love. Love endures all things, the situations and circumstances surrounding you are peripheral and can be endured and that easily if only all is well between the two of you. And so the marriage vows promise "For better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and health".
Charity never fails. Of all the descriptors this one informs me that this kind of charity is divinely given, for everything that originates from man is destined to eventually fail, love on the other hand has its author and highest form in heaven and has been given to men as the primary check to evil ultimately winning in this world.

"There is no safe investment. To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket - safe, dark, motionless, airless - it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell." -C. S. Lewis

A defense of the courage shown at the Aurora, CO theater

I read a blog post this past weekend that attempted to establish the premise that everyone in the Aurora, CO theater was a coward because no one charged the gunman and tried to take him down. I found the opinion piece extremely disturbing, not only because of the level of heartlessness it would take to attempt to blame the victims for the crime, but because of the blatant disregard for the facts of what happened there. For starters, he completely ignored every story of the men who died shielding their girlfriends from the spray of bullets. In his haste to defend his presupposed premise of cowardice he completely overlooked the obvious acts of courage and bravery.
He compared this event to the passengers aboard United Airlines 93 who overwhelmed the terrorists and courageously crashed it into the Pennsylvania field on September 11, 2001. There are a few problems with that comparison though. First, the passengers that day had already been made aware that the terrorists were turning the planes into missiles and therefore their own best chance for survival was to retake the plane. Second, the terrorists on that plane were not armed to the teeth with assault shotguns, semi-automatic AR-15s, handguns and body armor. Third, they had time to consult with one another and come up with a synchronized plan. On the other hand, the theater goers on the night of July 20th were taken by surprise by a man whom they initially thought was part of the movie, then hit with smoke grenades, and by the time they knew what was going on the entire thing was over, from the time he walked through the exit door to the time the shooting stopped was under five minutes. Just a few minutes of utter pandemonium and chaos! The two events were so dissimilar in their basic elements that to attempt to compare the two is a disservice to the heroes from both attacks.
Lastly, my disagreement with his point hinges on his assumption that courage must take an offensive strategy. Thomas Aquinas on the other hand said, "The principal act of courage is to endure and withstand dangers doggedly rather than to attack them". In my opinion, it would have been easier in a moment of panic to charge the gunman and leave my loved ones to fend for themselves, than it would have been to stay hunched over them as I heard the killer and his shots moving ever closer to my aisle. But "easier" rarely equals "right" or "brave" and in this situation I side with Mr. Aquinas, I salute the incredible courage shown by those who chose to withstand the danger of being shot while protecting their girlfriends over the option of madly attacking the villain.
This author attempted to form the premise that bravery always attacks the danger, but I think the flaw in that assertion should be obvious, the only person in that theater that was a real coward, was the one doing the attacking!

The Subtle Art of Sabotaging A Pastor by Jared Wilson

Dearest Grubnat, my poppet, my pigsnie, The reports of your progress warm my blackened heart. When you were assigned to one of the Enemy’s ministers ten years ago, his infernal Majesty and I knew you’d have a rough go of it. The zeal of one new to the pastorate can be a daunting challenge to even the most cunning of our comrades, but we also believed that time breeds all wounds and that your task would become easier the longer your patient remained. You now prosper from that sweet spot of pastoral fatigue and assimilation. The shine of newness is gone. And up pop the cracks in the ministerial armor. There are many temptations common among the Enemy’s undershepherds but one universal temptation of them arises from their flesh and it is this: they want people to be pleased with them. Wanting to be liked is not a sin, really — to use the Enemy’s terminology — but it can be quickly turned to one at the hands of a spiritual disintegrator as shrewd as yourself. Some tacks you might consider: Suggest to your client that he works for the people, not the Enemy. This will not be a hard sell as they are faces he sees every day. Remind him who pays his salary. The quicker you can get your patient to see himself as a professional, as an employee, the better. Strike up with your fellow workers to send in to his office, voicemail, and email inbox parishioner after parishioner with demands, requests, and philosophical banners to wave. Through them propose hill after hill to die on, all save Golgotha. Keep his head spinning. Even so-called “innocent” concerns can be proper distractions from Who your patient is ultimately beholden to if they offer plausible substitutes for the “first importance” of the Bad News. The slip into people-pleasing mode can be masked as subtly as a serpent slithering in the tall grass (no offense intended to his Majesty). Help your patient to see all that he lacks. Stroke his discontent. The less satisfied your patient is with what the Enemy has done for him and all the Enemy has given him, the more alluring the validation, approval, and praise of others will be. Empty him of his confidence by highlighting his failures so that therefore his head will be far more easily swelled with adulations and self-confidences. Then pop those like a pin to a balloon and start again. It is easy for a pastor to move to pride—it is his default setting—so this should not be too difficult for you. Turning your patient into a man-pleaser may require employment of what we have come to call the “rope-a-dope” technique, outlined as follows: First, make things very comfortable in the church for your patient. When he is very much pleased with himself and neither sober nor watchful, but drunk on ease and set to pastoral autopilot, then it is time to strike. Bring in reinforcements to stoke division and dissension in his flock. Put him on the defensive. Demoralize him. Make him feel as though he has more to prove, more to be. Prod him to strive to enter the unrest. Make arrangements to see that he comes to shepherd under compulsion, not willingly, much less eagerly, and suggest that he view the sheep of his flock as problems to be fixed or resources to be used. If you can steer him into a position of prideful domineering, that would be most excellent, but the key in all congregational unrest is not just to divorce the people of a church from each other or from their leaders but to divorce the leader from faith in the Enemy. Hype his understanding, if you must, so he will lean on it. Or deconstruct it, if you must, so he will fall back into man-pleasing. Whisper, “Yea to you when all men speak well of you.” Convince him that difficulty is something strange, undeserved. Convince him that allegiance to himself is a suitable substitute for allegiance to the Enemy. Convince him to seek peace at all costs, especially at the expense of the truth of the Bad News. Your patient is a needy, insecure little man. Ply him with the tenuous, vaporous security of being liked as if it is the end all, be all. And these are but the rudiments of but one temptation. There is always more to do and much to learn. More to come, if the Enemy delays. Indefinitely yours, Wormwood

What do angels want?

"Of which salvation... the angels desire to look into." I Pet. 1:10, 12 This passage always captures my imagination, the Greek word for "to look" literally means to stoop down or to bend over. Such illustrious word usage makes it easy for the imagination to run wild, for us to picture the angels leaning over the edge of heaven straining to see details of this divine drama. It begins with a race, though made a little lower than the angels, made superior to them in the fact that they were made in God's own image, rebelling against the God who made and sustained them. The concept of rebellion would not be strange to them, the angelic race was itself divided between those who rebelled against the Almighty and those who remained loyal. However, it was at the mere generality of rebellion that the similarities stopped, for unlike angels these humans married and procreated and perhaps the angels were ponderous at the idea of a spreading, contaminated race. The gulf between the humans and angels is further widened by the fact that when the angels rebelled it was an unpardonable act, they were separated, the angels that remained loyal God placed on one side and those siding with Lucifer placed on the other, forever antithesized. With these humans on the other hand, the first thing God did was to kill an animal as their substitute, cover their nakedness with it's skin, and promise that one day a conqueror would come to relieve them of the curse. Surely by now the angels were curiously crowding around to see what the Father of lights was doing. And then for the next 2,000 years (for whatever sense of time is had by such creatures in such a setting) the anticipation builds as they are periodically sent as messengers and helpers to steer these unruly sons of Adam and daughters of Eve along the course the Captain has set. Then, in the fullness of time, God the Son is brought forth as incarnate deity and the angels are allowed once more to enter the realm of man and sing of the mystery that they still don't fully comprehend, that of peace on earth and good will toward men. They continue their ministrations to the Son for the next 33 years, and one is even given the task of delivering the message to Jesus' followers at the empty tomb that they should not look for the living among the dead, that he was not there but had risen. Finally, Jesus has ascended back into heaven, the angels continue to marvel at this unfolding mystery and yet Peter says in the present tense that the angels still long to "look into" these things. The main purpose of this small statement is to cause the reader to stop and consider how precious, unique, powerful, and wonderful is the gospel. We are so enthralled with the doctrine of angels, we love to read novels depicting what it might look like "behind the scenes", we love to hear preachers and teachers unfold the biblical revelation we have on who they are and what they can do, and if they could give us a word of advice from their personal experience, I bet they would say to follow their example and be less interested in them and more interested in the wonder of the gospel!

Joy in suffering

"My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing." James 1:2-4 Trials... afflictions... persecution... those situations that make it hard to believe that God is not only in control but is working all things together for my good, I should consider those times to be "all joy"? Just as true love is manifest not by loving those who are the most lovable, but by loving our enemies (Matt. 5:43-48), so true joy brought about by the Spirit of God is evidenced not in the easiest of times, but the hardest. Remember the story of Job? Our great adversary was not convinced that his righteous character and strong faith was anything more than an allegiance based on self-preservation, Satan thought that if God stopped blessing Job in every area of his life that Job would lose faith. The opposite turned out to be true and Job's faith was strengthened through the severe trials he endured. I live Job's life, I feel as though I have nothing in my life worth complaining about, my health, my job, my family, my church, the list would go on indefinitely were I to try to act upon that old gospel song and count my blessings, naming them one by one. However, what would my reaction look like if I fell into "divers temptations"? If my health, my family, my friends and my resources were all stripped away from me in the blink of an eye, could I say with Job, the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord? I'd like to think so, the truth is that a man who is ultimately satisfied with God will always be content, his greatest satisfaction is something that cannot be taken away from him. On the other hand a covetous man, one who looks to physical things - whether material or intangible - will never be content. So I write this now, and a time in my life when everything seems to be going my way, to remind myself that my ultimate joy must be in Christ or else it may be gone tomorrow. In this passage I'm called to ask myself, "If luxuries of this world cause me to have a leanness in my soul, (Psalm 106:15) oughtn't my prayers contain less requests for tangible solutions and more requests for trials that drive me to Christ?" C.H. Spurgeon once eloquently said, "I have learned to kiss the wave that throws me against the Rock of Ages." If the Captain of our salvation was made perfect through sufferings (Heb. 2:10) am I to expect anything less? Is it enough for me, the servant, to be as my Lord? (Matt. 10:25) That which will make me entire is not propinquity in a relationship, position in society, or possessions in my domain. God has promised only one thing that will put me in a state where I lack nothing, and that is the trying of my faith! So let me be tried, let me be like my master, who endured the cross and despised the shame for the joy that was set before him! (Heb. 12:2) And let me learn to be like those wise apostles who when imprisoned and beaten for preaching the gospel, rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer for the name of Jesus. (Acts 5:41)

A defense of sabbatarianism

The Ten Commandments are almost universally held by modern evangelicalism as the basis for morality and the groundwork on which our system of obedience to God is built. Certainly, we understand that Jesus expanded the understanding of them from strictly physical to obedience from the heart, but in essence that only serves to strengthen their purpose not undermine it. The teaching by Jesus that anger against your brother without cause is a sin (based on the command not to murder) presupposes that the physical act of murder is, without question, a sin. It surprises me then, how little dialogue there is about the fourth commandment in modern evangelicalism and is thought (or at least practiced) by most to be the only one of the Ten Commandments to be non-binding for today’s followers of the one true God. My attempt here is to call back our attention to this commandment that is directly referred to and taught on from Genesis through (at least) Hebrews, and not our attention only but our obedience. I will attempt to do this by outlining five points, first, at creation we see The Principle Established, in the law we see The Command Solidified, in the prophets we have The Idea Expanded, in the gospels we have Its Existence Reiterated, and in the epistles we’re shown The Day Exposed.

I. The principle established.

The first reference we have to the seventh day being set apart from the others as different and distinct by God is found in the second chapter of the bible.

Gen 2:2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.
Gen 2:3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

Here’s the curious thing about this being the one command generally set aside in our culture today as being an extinct part of the mosaic law; it’s the one command that has it’s root in the beginning of the world when everything was still perfect and untainted by sin. All other nine commands were only necessary because of sin. In a perfect world there was no command given about having no other gods before Jehovah, making graven images, taking God’s name in vain, honoring parents, not murdering, not committing adultery, not stealing, not bearing false witness, or not coveting, and yet there was a principle laid down that the seventh day was blessed and sanctified as separate from the others. So the argument that keeping a seventh day holy was abolished along with the Jewish feasts and holy days is debunked from the beginning of the bible. This was a creation mandate, and notice that it, like everything else already created, was altogether good and for the benefit of mankind.

II. The command solidified.

Exo 20:9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
Exo 20:10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
Exo 20:11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

Listed among the Ten Commandments, the moral obligations for God’s people, on the first tablet - those laws dealing with our responsibility toward God – is included this command to keep one day out of seven holy unto the Lord. However, it is here that God tells his people what is meant by the day being blessed and sanctified, it was to be a good thing and a help to them. It was to be a day in which they could put aside the affects of the curse, the difficulty and sweat of their work, and spend one day a week, like Adam and Eve in the beginning, focused solely on worshipping God and fellowshipping with him with their fellows. Lost men look at this command with their twisted priorities and natural distaste for everything pertaining to God and see a day of lost profit, a day of boredom and a waste of time. But for a child of God this command is gracious and helpful, one day every week to put aside those things that are our duties, work to provide for our families, and indulge in those things that are our pleasures, time spent with our friends and families worshipping God and learning more of him. The fact that this was even a necessary command speaks to the depravity of man’s heart, for he either he is lazy wants to shirk from his duty to work six days or else he is greedy and wants to spend every day pursuing his own gain without any regard for relationship with his Creator.

III. The Idea Expanded.

Here’s the amazing thing about the depravity of man, every command that God gives us we try to find to a loophole to exploit, and everything he gives us for our own good we find a way to twist to our own detriment. God established and subsequently solidified one day which was to be separate from the other six days for man to put aside his work, rest and worship God. Israel then took that command and said, “All he said is that we can’t work on that day, he didn’t say we can’t play” and so traditions and practices were installed which allowed for the Israelites to technically keep the letter of the law (not the part about keeping it holy, but satisfactorily in their minds by not doing any of their weekday work) and yet waste the opportunity to fulfill the spirit of the command by squandering the day away with their own pleasures and pursuits instead of using it as a day of rest, worship and devotion to God. This led the prophet Isaiah to decry their practices and spell out what was expected of them each sabbath.

Isa 58:13 If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:
Isa 58:14 Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.
Isaiah’s explanation of the sabbath was that the Israelites were to not only forsake their work on that day but also forsake their recreational activities, whether it be travel (foot), activities (ways), or conversation (speak). Again, to a mind at enmity with God, this seems extremely restrictive, as though God is trying to force on us a day in which we are not allowed to do anything joyous, but that the day should be spent afflicting ourselves. But the idea of not doing our pleasure on God’s holy day does not exclude us from doing HIS pleasure on his holy day, and those things that God finds pleasure in ought to be a joy to us as well.
How many Christians do you know – you’ve probably said it yourself - who have said, “I would love to spend much more time than I do in my personal devotions, but there are only so many hours in the day” or “I’d love to socialize and visit more often, to get to know some more people in the church, but I’m always so busy” or “If I just had some more time I’d get to some of those good christian books I’ve been wanting to read for some time now” and yet they use Sunday afternoons as their time to wash the car, cut the grass, or go grocery shopping. Or else they spend that time watching football, reading the funnies and napping. God has given us an entire day to follow those pursuits that we claim we’d like to do as good followers of Jesus Christ if we just had the time, yet our actions betray our words and the truth comes out that no matter how much time we have we will give little more than what is squeezed out of us to something other than our self-centered desires.

IV. Its existence reiterated.

The argument is often made that 1. If obeying the sabbath were important in the gospel age why is the New Testament silent on reiterating its importance, and/or 2. Jesus came and fulfilled the law, putting an end to its ceremonial aspects. Ignoring for a moment the fact that sabbath day is one of the creation mandates, of which Jesus abolished none (marriage, work, dominion, etc…) let us consider whether Jesus actually spoke on the command to keep the sabbath day holy and if so what he said about it.

Mat 22:35 Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying,
Mat 22:36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
Mat 22:37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
Mat 22:3 This is the first and great commandment.
Mat 22:39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
Mat 22:40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

Not only did Jesus mention the fourth commandment, he included it as part of the greatest commandment given to men! When asked by this lawyer what was the greatest commandment given in the law, Jesus replied in essence that it was the first table, on which man is told how his love toward God ought to be expressed and that the next most important was a close second and that was the second table by which we are told how to show love to our fellow man. Jesus could have taken this time to say, “Well I’ll tell you what the least important command is, it’s that outdated notion of keeping one day holy, you ought to spend every minute in holy obedience to God therefore nullifying the necessity of one day.” But instead he did the exact opposite, he said it is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind, and every Jew listening knew what he was intimating; have no other gods before Jehovah, make no graven images to worship, don’t take his name in vain, and keep his day holy!

V. The Day Exposed

A frequent question raised by many on this issue is, “If this sabbath observance still exists for us, why have we changed it from the seventh day to the first?” That answer is found in Hebrews.

Heb 4:9 There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.
Heb 4:10 For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.
Heb 4:11 Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.

The King James Version of the English bible unfortunately obscures the meaning of this text thus we have long missed its importance in the discussion of keeping the sabbath in the gospel age and on which day it is to be kept. The word translated as “rest” in Heb. 3:11, 18, 4:1, 3, 5, 8, 10, 11 are all translated from the Greek word katapausis which is defined as “repose, cessation from labor, rest”. However, the word translated in as “rest” in verse 9 is a completely different word; it is the Greek word sabbatismos which is literally “a sabbatism, a sabbath day”. With that understanding then, look at how that verse reads, There remaineth therefore a sabbath/day of rest for the people of God. He then proceeds to tell us when that sabbath or day of rest is, as the sabbath in the Old Testament was predicated on God the Father finishing his work of creation, so our day of rest under the New Testament is kept on that day in which God the Son finished his work of creating a new creature in salvation; i.e. The first day of the week, Sunday.
In conclusion I hope you see as I have that this is not a ceremonial law, it was established from the beginning, solidified as a moral law, exposited by Isaiah, reaffirmed by Jesus and explained by Paul why it has moved from Saturday to Sunday. It is as binding on us as it was on Adam and Eve, Moses, Isaiah, and the lawyer who was a Pharisee, and it is for our benefit and help just as it always has been. It is a frightful sign that so many who claim to love God, fight tooth and nail not to keep this command, let us not be named among that number.