God’s Plan vs. Our Plan

Amid Stephen’s speech in Acts 7 is the story of Moses, which presents a stark contrast of Moses’ plan and God’s plan for his life:

“When he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Israel. And seeing one of them being wronged, he defended the oppressed man and avenged him by striking down the Egyptian. He supposed that his brothers would understand that God was giving them salvation by his hand, but they did not understand. And on the following day he appeared to them as they were quarreling and tried to reconcile them, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers. Why do you wrong each other?’ But the man who was wronging his neighbor thrust him aside, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’ At this retort Moses fled and became an exile in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons. (Acts 7:23-29)

At age 40, Moses had a plan, fully aware of the cruel oppression of his people; he believed that, given his lineage, access, training and knowledge, he was prepared to deliver his people at that moment.

God’s plan was different and included an additional 40 years of preparation in the wilderness for Moses working as a shepherd in obscurity, and continued enslavement and work on the lives of the Hebrews to prepare them for their emancipation and exodus.

There is a great phrase in verse 25: “He supposed that…but…”

Even his rejection (perceived failure) was part of God’s plan, as many commentators believe the incident to only further position Moses as a type of the ultimate deliverer, Jesus Christ:

  • Moses – “He supposed that his brothers would understand that God was giving them salvation by his hand, but they did not understand.” (Acts 7:25)
  • Christ – “He came unto His own, and His own received Him not” (John 1:11).
  • Moses – “…who made thee a ruler and a judge over us?”
  • Christ – “We will not have this Man to reign over us” (Luke 19:14).

The Centrality of Easter Sunday

The apostle Paul said, “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Galatians 6:4). Today we celebrate that Christ did indeed overcome death on the cross, enabling and guaranteeing the resurrection of all the saints (1 Corinthians 15:20).

The late bishop J.C. Ryle explains that Christ’s atonement for sinners on the cross is the central truth in the entire Bible,

“This is the truth we begin with when we open Genesis. The seed of the woman bruising the serpent’s head is nothing but a prophecy of Christ crucified.

 This is the truth that shines out, though veiled, all through the law of Moses and the history of the Jews. The daily sacrifice, the Passover lamb, the continual shedding of blood in the tabernacle and temple – all were emblems of Christ crucified.

 This is the truth that we see honored in the vision of heaven before we close the book of Revelation. In the midst of the throne and of the four animals, we are told, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain (Revelation 5:6). Even in the midst of heavenly glory we get a view of Christ crucified.

Take away the cross of Christ, and the Bible is a dark book. It is like the Egyptian hieroglyphics without the key that interprets their meaning – curious and wonderful but of no real use.”

Join us in celebrating the centrality of Easter Sunday: “For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:22).

Theological Significance amid Overlooked Events

As we commemorate Good Friday, there is great theological significance contained in often overlooked events of that historical day. Sinclair B Ferguson notes two such incidents in his book To Seek and to Save: Daily Reflections on the Road to the Cross.

First, the three hours of darkness that shrouded the land at noon in which creation itself appeared to be thrown into reverse gear and God said, Let there NOT be light (in contrast to Genesis 1:3). Ferguson explains that nature itself put on the dark clothes of mourning as Christ the Creator was put to death by sinful men, and on the cross came under the curse of God (Galatians 3:13).

Second, the massive curtain of the temple was torn in two (Luke 23:45) as God Himself de-consecrated the Jerusalem temple, removing the barrier between God and man. Ferguson emphasizes that it was not merely the temple veil that was rent, but the flesh of Christ had been torn to create the new and living way into God’s presence (Hebrews 10:20).

Join us in celebrating the fact that “Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit” (1 Peter 3:18).

Take heart….for Sunday is coming!

All failures are not equal

Life is full of trouble. Expect it.

Job 14:1 says, “Man born of woman is of few days and full of trouble.”

Jesus said in John 16:33, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

However, all failures are not equal.

In fact some failures are the inevitable result of faithfulness (John 15:20).

Consider Jesus’ reaction to two perceived failures of the part of the disciples:

Luke 9:1-5 when Jesus sent His disciples out to preach the gospel and perform miracles. Knowing that not everyone would receive the truth about him (John 15:18), he taught the disciples how to handle positive inevitable failure. “If people do not welcome you, shake the dust off your feet when you leave their town, as a testimony against them.”

In Matthew 17:14–20 Christ’s disciples were unable to exorcise a demon from a young boy, even though Jesus had previously given them the authority to do that very thing (Matthew 10:1). Jesus addresses the reason for their failure: lack of faith.

These two events represent different kinds of failure.

In the first Jesus encouraged them to be faithful, stay the course and move forward.

In the second event, however, Jesus gave them pause for reflection on why they had failed in order to equip them for future success.

The Helmet of Savlation

As we witness the chaotic world around us, it would be easy to become worried and weary. However, Scripture calls us to have a different outlook: a conviction and comfort that God’s eternal plan is on schedule and closer to completion with each passing day.  

The Bible refers to the helmet of salvation in both Ephesians 6:17 and 1 Thessalonians 5:18. In each case, Paul refers, beyond the acquisition of salvation, to the assurance that comes from the “confidence of our salvation.” Ray Stedman explains,

“Jesus Christ is coming back, and He will appear again, and He will establish His own reign in righteousness on the earth. That is the helmet of salvation, which will keep your thinking straight in the hour of man’s utter confusion and darkness.

If you can keep God’s eternal plan in view at all times, it will save you from enormous heartache and fear as you read the news daily. When you see the chaos in the world, you will know that even the disorder that Satan seeks to stir up in the world is being used to further God’s plan and bring His kingdom one day nearer.”

Thank you for your continued support for the EA team, as we work for Christ while it is still day, knowing that night is coming when our service on earth will be complete (John 9:4).

Faithfulness

The book of Jeremiah is an autobiography during the reign of the last five kings of Judah. Jeremiah is known as “the weeping prophet” because of his sorrow over the unrepentant nation, and the impending destruction of Jerusalem and subsequent exile.

This is evidenced in the following key verse:

Now therefore, amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of the LORD your God; then the LORD will relent concerning the doom that He has pronounced against you. (26:13)

Jeremiah provides two key insights for believers today.

Faithfulness, not apparent fruitfulness, is the basis of the Lord’s evaluation.

Read closely Jim George’s description of Jeremiah:

Most people’s definitions of success would include the acquiring of wealth, popularity, fame, power, or accomplishments. By these standards, Jeremiah was a complete failure. For 40 years he served as God’s spokesman and passionately urged the people to return to God, and no one listened, especially the kings. He was penniless, friendless, and rejected by his family. In the world’s eyes, Jeremiah was not a success. But in God’s eyes, Jeremiah was one of the most successful people in all biblical history. Why? Because success, as seen by God, involves obedience and faithfulness. Jeremiah obeyed God and, regardless of severe opposition and great personal sacrifice, committed himself to fulfilling God’s calling on his life.

The next insight is found in the Lord’s condemnation is Jeremiah 2:13:

For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.

Falsely placed faith proves disastrous.

John MacArthur explains that Israel had abandoned the Lord, the source of their spiritual salvation and sustenance and turned to idolatrous objects of trust. The Lord compared these with underground water storage reservoirs for rainwater, which were broken and allowed water to seep out, rendering them useless.

Likewise, evangelicalism, particularly in America, has overwhelmingly and undiscerningly turned to worldly ideologies that Paul warned us about (Col. 2:8). As we witness evangelicalism’s hermeneutical attempts at catering to culture by marrying secular ideologies to biblical terminology, the warning of commentator Arno Gaebelein reign true:

It is so among the professing people of God in this dispensation; the two evils are present with us also. The result for Israel was enslavement. The young lions came (the Assyrian invasion) and made the land waste. Egypt, did the same. It came as the fruit of having forsaken the fountain of living water.

Pray for American evangelicalism. Ours is quickly becoming an ideological enslavement from which we must be freed .

Lasting Benefit

Lasting benefit. In this verse, Paul is referring to the quotation from Psalm 69 and the lasting benefit of the entirety of the Old Testament scriptures. Paul declares that God intended them to benefit not merely the generations to which they were first delivered but to have enduring value for the instruction of all subsequent generations of mankind.

This desire for providing enduring value compelled Jonathan Edwards at the tender of eighteen, and having only been a Christian for a year, in 1722 to begin to pen 70 purpose statements for his life, which would become known as his Resolutions.

Being sensible that I am unable to do anything without God’s help, I do humbly entreat him by his grace to enable me to keep these Resolutions, so far as they are agreeable to his will, for Christ’s sake. Remember to read over these Resolutions once a week. 

Resolved, that I will do whatsoever I think to be most to God’s glory, and my own good, profit and pleasure, in the whole of my duration, without any consideration of the time, whether now, or never so many myriad’s of ages hence. Resolved to do whatever I think to be my duty and most for the good and advantage of mankind in general. Resolved to do this, whatever difficulties I meet with, how many and how great soever.

 As Edwards sought to ultimately glorify God (1 Cor. 10:31), he also desired to benefit his fellow man through his endeavors. Similarly, while my ultimate desire in my research is to work as unto the Lord (Col. 3:23-24), I also desire that my efforts would have lasting value to Christ’s Church in providing divinely-empowered spiritual benefit (Rom. 1:11).

 

References:

https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/eng/acc/romans-15.html

The Unwavering Resolve of Jonathan Edwards by Steven J. Lawson

 The Resolutions Of Jonathan Edwards by Jonathan Edwards

Year End Campaign

Just a quick update on our year-end match campaign. I’m happy to report that we exceeded our goal and raised $57,159 which when combined with the $50,000 match totaled $107,159. This gives us a great nudge into the new year of ministry in which the Lord has already provided some exciting opportunities and developments even in the past week.

So thank you once again for your continued prayer and financial support. This is our 10th year of ministry and I’m continually amazed at God’s provision through generous financial partners.George Muller once said, “God has many ways of moving the hearts of men all over the world to help us. While I am praying, He speaks to one and another on this continent and on that, to send us help.” And for that, we too are eternally grateful.

Happy New Year

Over the years, on early morning New Years Day runs, I’ve contemplated the dawn of a new year amidst the solitude and serenity.

Proverbs 4:18 states, “The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining ever brighter till the full light of day.”

The desire for God’s will in the days to come is my perpetual prayer on such occasions.

Haddon Robinson explains that the existence of the three wills of God often confuses even the most earnest Christ-follower:

  • God’s Sovereign Will – God’s purpose from eternity past to eternity future whereby He determines all that shall occur (Eph. 1:11).
  • God’s Moral Will – The Scriptures tell us what God wants us to believe and how God wants us to behave (Ps. 119:97-104).
  • God’s Individual Will – While God works out His sovereign will through all men and has revealed to us His moral will, He doesn’t necessarily reveal His specific, individual will to us.

Robinson provides a good exhortation as we approach 2022, emphasizing the importance of repeatedly dedicating ourselves to the glory of God:

In God’s sovereignty, He can work in our choices, through our choices, and in spite of our choices, to accomplish His will.

The Bible is clear that glorifying God is our ultimate goal. But it doesn’t leave us with vague generalities—in achieving that goal, we are given intermediate goals.

God’s direction is clear and unambiguous. We are to act in love and kindness. We are not to be self-serving. We are to have integrity. We are to be faithful and generous. And we are to act out of proper motives. If we apply the characteristics of God’s sovereign and moral will to every decision we make, we will be well on the road to glorifying Him and living a fuller, happier life.

As we begin another year of ministry, our prayer for our program participants is the same for you, our faithful supporters:

  1. Strength in the Word of God, which is essential to make good decisions;
  2. Conviction to make Christ-honoring decisions, which often entail hardship and frustration;
  3. Inspiration in Christ Jesus, who demonstrated that peace and pain-free living can not be proof that we’re in God’s will (Lk 22:41–44).

Waves

Paul warned Timothy, “in the last days there will come times of difficulty” (2 Timothy 3:1). Savage seasons have, in fact, battered Christ’s Church through its history by means of waves of worldly ideologies:

  • Sacramentalism – in which ordinances and rituals were falsely elevated and undermined salvation by grace
  • Rationalism – where scholarship and human reason attempted to dethrone God
  • Orthodoxism – with its dead, cold, indifferent spirituality 
  • Politicism – which led to a preoccupation with political power and social causes
  • Ecumenism – where a lack of discernment resulted from an obsession with unity at any doctrinal cost
  • Experientialism – that viewed truth as originating in feelings, intuition, and special revelations, relegating Scripture to secondary importance
  • Subjectivism – where psychology captured the church, resulting in a man-centered, needs-based theology 
  • Mysticism – as people began to seek individual, subjective spiritual experiences apart from the objective truth of God’s Word
  • Pragmatism – where appropriate means of ministry were defined by the “customer-parishioner,” and truth was the servant of what worked 
  • Syncretism – in which evangelicals, intimidated by cultural agendas and eager to find favor with the unsaved world, capitulated to blending Biblical truth with all forms of theological error

There is a cumulative effect as these movements increase in frequency and intensity (2 Tim. 3:13). In response to Paul’s exhortation that we have the divinely-empowered weapons to destroy such strongholds (2 Cor. 10:3-5), Guzik explained that wrong thoughts and perceptions, which contradict the true knowledge and nature of God, stubbornly set deep roots in human hearts and minds, influencing adversely an individual’s beliefs and behaviors. 

Christ’s church currently finds itself besieged by the ideological tidal wave of the Social Justice Movement, having been described as the greatest threat to the church in the last hundred years. Likened to a three-headed dragon, its peril lies in emulating secular culture while undermining Scripture in the areas of race, gender, and sexuality. The comprehensiveness of the movement presents unique challenges to church leadership, as it functions as a worldview, complete with its own soteriology, epistemology, sacred texts, and prophets. 

Almost a century ago, Machen cautioned regarding the powerful force of modern culture, which is either “subservient to the gospel or the deadliest enemy of the gospel.” He declared that subjugating culture necessitates not mere religious emotion but neglected intellectual labor, stating, “The Church has turned to easier tasks. And now she is reaping the fruits of her indolence. Now she must battle for her life.”