Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Sabbath Rejoicing and Delight

Conisdering the variety of sabbaths instituted in the Old Testament, Rushdoony comments, "There is thus a wide difference between the sabbaths....so that rest is not the essence of every sabbath; rejoicing and faith are. The other sabbaths were largely seasons of feasting and celebration. All the sabbaths were to be a delight to the covenant people."

"...The merely external rest of the sabbath was important, but an even deeper and more basic rest was the rest in the authority and work of God, and man's delight in it."

It seems this must be essentially recovered and practiced in order to call the Sabbath a delight.

Monday, January 24, 2011

God of the Storm

Matthew 8:23-25 Now when He got into a boat, His disciples followed Him. 24 And suddenly a great tempest arose on the sea, so that the boat was covered with the waves. But He was asleep. 25 Then His disciples came to Him and awoke Him, saying, “Lord, save us! We are perishing!”

How often in your life do the situations you find yourself in seem far stronger than the LORD in whom you believe? Who looks stronger on the boat – A Killer Storm or a Sleeping Savior? How often does it look like the problem is far greater than Jesus could handle? How often does it appear that He is asleep or doesn’t care?

That is why you are summoned here to worship and renew covenant with your God – so that in the midst of your life and in the midst of our corporate life as a church, and even as a priesthood of this nation, we might go to God and wake Him up if we think He needs to be awakened. Is He oblivious to your financial difficulty or the problems in your marriage? Is He asleep while our nation continues into a moral decline and multiple seeming disasters? In covenant renewal we hear, “I will be Your God and You will be my people”.

Matt 8:26-27 But He said to them, “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. 27 So the men marveled, saying, “Who can this be, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?

It is here, in this service of worship that He will correct and strengthen your faith, redirect it where it should go, reveal more of His mercy and love, and call upon you to trust Him again in the midst of whatever storm He has placed you – or us. You have come to worship the God of the winds and the sea, the God of the stars and the mountains, the God of the storms and the God of the calm. In every situation, He is God – in every circumstance, He is your God. Come, He would speak with you…

Is Abortion a Sin?

If you are faithful to the Scriptures, there is no debate. Abortion is nothing less than the murder of a human being (Ex 20:13, 21:22-25, Psalm 139:13-16). Modern medical technology has not only made abortion a far safer procedure for the mother, it has also revealed the glorious hand of God in the womb in living color and in our growing knowledge of the details of the life and development of a baby during his or her nine months in his or her mother’s womb. And the logical fallacies of our nation betray us even in the recent news. Conservatives and Liberals all joined together in acknowledging the ongoing, life-saving work of doctors over Rep. Gabrielle Giffords even though her life depended upon the skill, care, time, sacrifice and expense of others. No one called for a debate as to whether such costly care required determining whether or not Giffords was a person; no one was given a choice. How much easier should it be to see the simple, normal, and yet profound work going on in the womb of an expectant mother?