There is a social media post going around recently that has captured the amazement of many people. In this post is a compilation of pictures showing various sheep and goats climbing up or walking along sheer-faced cliffs upwards of 60 degrees or more where no one else is able to go!
The secret of these animals lies in their feet. They have hooves with a hard and pointed exterior that allows them to get into tiny crevices while the convex-shaped bottom, consisting of soft, rubber pads help the feet stick and conform to the rocky surface. Because of this, they can traverse dizzying ledges like it’s a breeze! The same could be said of similar hoofed animals like deer and elk, who can run straight up a mountain side with no problem (and while I’m hunting them and they’re running away from me!). You may have never thought of it, but the hooves of these animals have great spiritual significance. For one, they are a reminder of who our God is. For example, the angelic living creatures around the throne of God have symbolic characteristics that point to the infinite and invisible God they surround. A familiar description is that their wings are covered in eyes around and within (Rev. 4:8), a reference to God’s all-seeing omniscience. Another description, though often overlooked, is that their feet are “like a calf’s hoof” (Ezek. 1:8). This is likely a reference to God’s omnipresence – He is all-present. Not even the mountain goats can escape His presence! But secondly, they are a reminder that when God is with you, and He is in Christ, He gives you the ability to do amazing things! Things you never dreamed you could do and go places you never dreamed of going. He gives you a sure-footed strength and ability over sin, Satan and circumstances that want to pull you down, and allows you to walk on the victorious mountaintops with Him. Habakkuk 3:19 says, “The Lord GOD is my strength, And He has made my feet like hinds' feet, and makes me walk on my high places.” You may never look at that verse or hoofed animals the same again! Pastor Justin
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When I was in Bible school, the president of the school told our class a story about a student softball game incident that had occurred a previous year. There was a close call at first base where one team was saying that the runner was out and the other team saying that the runner was clearly safe. And as things began to get a little heated between the two teams, some brave soul from the stands yelled out Philippians 2:14, “Do all things without grumbling or disputing[!]” (the exclamation mark added by the man in the stands and not apostle Paul).
As soon as this Word from God was spoken, the grumbling and disputing ceased. The team that was calling the runner out started giving the runner the benefit of the doubt and saying things like, “It was such a close call, he was probably safe! Let them stay on base.” The team that was calling him safe was then saying, “No, you’re right, he was probably out.” This, friends, is the power of the Word of God! And the reason why it is necessary for us to hide it in our hearts by memorizing it. The Word of God brought reconciliation to these believers and helped them continue to enjoy this friendly game of softball and more importantly, glorify Christ together through it. If you haven’t memorized a verse in a while, how about starting with this one? It’s very easy and very powerful. Pastor Justin “If you aim at nothing, you’ll hit it every time.”
Today is the start of a new month, which means it’s a good time to set some spiritual relationship goals. Unless we have an objective, a direction, or a focus, this month too will pass by with nothing but good but failed intentions. So what are you aiming at to grow in this month as parents? As a wife? As a dad leading your family? As a child? As a believer? Here are a few thoughts to inspire some thinking: In your relationship with your spouse, maybe it’s more date nights? More praying together? In your relationship with your kids, maybe it’s more quality time and or dinners together around the table? Kids, in your relationship to your parents, maybe it's honoring them by cooking them dinner. Maybe it's writing them a thank you note for all they do for you. In your relationship with the Lord, maybe it’s more gratitude and contentment? More reading or memorizing of His Word? More submission to His lordship in a specific area of your life as you study what He has to say about that area? Set some goals this month and write them down and pray them into your heart and mind and will. And don't forget to depend on Him to reach those goals. Apart from Him, we can do nothing (John 15:5) but through Him we can do all things (Phil. 4:13). Pastor Justin Last Sunday, we studied Mark 6:14-29. Herod Antipas threw a “stag party” for his birthday and invited all of the other leading men of Galilee to it. What took place there is unforgettable, to say the least, and not in good way. The lack of sensitivity to immorality and murder in that scene sadly reminds us of our own culture. Herodias, who wanted John the Baptist’s head removed, is almost a “type” of our culture that says, “I don’t care about half a kingdom or anything else you have to offer, just don’t place any moral standards on me.” She wanted the head of John the Baptist, God’s messenger, who told her the message that it was morally wrong for her and Herod Antipas to be living in adultery.
Many kids today, like Herodias’ teenage daughter Salome who danced for Herod, are growing up without believing in any certain moral standards or think they can create their own standards, as if they’re just relative or subject to change. The reason they believe this is because their parents, like Herodias, and some teachers have denied the source of moral standards, which is God. They’ve been trained that way by the world system. The corruption in the text, and particularly Salome’s insensitivity to what is right and wrong (her rapt obedience to her mom’s evil ways) makes you a bit angry and mournful at the same time because it’s terrible to see this young girl so lost and living such a destructive life. As believers, we know that the most satisfied people in this world in the long run and the most satisfying marriages are those who do things God’s way, saving sex until marriage and keeping the marriage bed pure. Hebrews 13:4 says that standard is to be held in high honor among us and we want our kids to hold it high as well. However, one of the things we do that that can be a great disservice for our kids is to set the standards of God’s Word and not don’t equip them to keep it.[i] We’re just setting them up for failure if we don’t equip them. So I want to give us a few equipping principles for meeting the standards, or like Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 4:2-5, knowing how to possess our own vessels – how to steer our own ship, as those who know God (1 Thess. 4:2-5). The first principle deals with the relationship picture between God and man – the theological picture behind sex & marriage. 1. Relationship. (Get the picture!) We were created for and foremost for a relationship with God and until we find God as our all, we will greatly struggle to fill our longing for intimacy with Him through intimacy with others. However, because we have a God-shaped void in our heart that only God can fill, we are left ultimately unsatisfied. Marriage and sex is the most intimate thing in this world and carries an intimate picture of God. When God created man, the Godhead deliberated saying, “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness.” When we were made in His image, it means we were created with a personality made up of mind, emotion and will. But also that we are relational like Him, created for love, communication and fellowship – whereas the rest of the creatures He created, weren’t. There has always been love, communication and fellowship in the Godhead. So just as you have this singularity to God (there is one God), but also a plurality to God (Father, Son, Holy Spirit), so you have a singularity and plurality to man. He created us male and female (Plural) but through marriage Adam and Eve would become one flesh. Eve was “bone of [Adam’s] bones and flesh of [Adam’s] flesh” and the two were “joined together as one flesh”. Just like there is a purity & oneness to God in three persons, so there is a purity & oneness to the husband and wife and their three-fold relationship with God. The NT also reveals that a husband and wife are a picture of Christ & the Church (Eph. 5:15-33; 1 Cor. 11:2-16). Remembering this incredible picture that marriage is to be will go a long ways in our honoring that picture through purity because without purity, relationships are damaged and the picture of our intimate & holy God is damaged. Again, though, it is a picture and not a replacement for the most important relationship in our life. When someone finds God as their all in all, that sex drive which He gave us, can be greatly curbed and put in its place because we were created first and foremost for a relationship with Him. 2. Run. The second thing to remember is that there’s just going to be times where it’s necessary to run away from temptations. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 6:18, “Flee immorality”. It’s a graphic reminder of Joseph in Genesis 39:12, who had to literally run away from Potiphar’s wife who was trying to get him to do commit adultery with her. She grabbed Joseph’s garment and he ran away, leaving it in her hands. Run when you need too. 3. Refocus. Third, learn to refocus when you mind starts to drift in that direction. Refocus on God’s Word. Memorizing helpful Scriptures to bring to mind to get focused again on eternal things. Psalm 119:9 says, “How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping it according to Your Word.” Proverbs, chapters 1-5, are also great place to go when you’re struggling. There, Solomon (the wisest man in the world) gave his son instruction on how to avoid immorality. One of things I keep in mind is that just as God designed Eve perfectly for Adam and brought her to him, so God designed my wife and brought her to me. In His sovereignty, He didn’t have to allow us to be introduced to each other – but He did. He knows we are perfect for each other. So if you’re ever tempted to lust after someone who is not your spouse or will lead to immorality, thank God for your spouse who is perfectly fit for you by Him or thank Him for your future spouse, should it be His will. Chances are, the person you are tempted to lust over, has a personality you wouldn’t like anyway. 4. Replace. Read Romans 13:11-14. In the same context of teaching on the believer’s purity, Paul finishes by saying, “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provisions for the flesh in regards to its lusts.” This basically means stop providing opportunities for the flesh to lust and provide opportunities for the Spirit instead. A great example of this is when Paul tells thieves to stop stealing and start working. If they work and have money, they’re not as tempted to steal, right? If you’re trying to lose weight, you don’t keep a candy dish around, do you? That’s how simple and practical this is. David said, “I will set no evil thing before my eyes. I hate the work of those who fall away” (Psalm 101:3). I’ve heard of some men writing that verse out on a card and taping it to their tv’s! How about instead of doing some last-minute late night browsing through social media before you fall asleep, you simply set your alarm and pray instead. Just do what you have to keep the flesh from rising up and causing problems. Get rid of anything in your home that might tempt you. Try taking advantage of apps that cut out the immoral parts of movies you watch. 5. Realize & Rely. This may be the most important point of all. Realize you cannot do this on your own but you must rely on the power of the Holy Spirit (Gal. 5:16) because apart from Him we can do nothing (Jn. 15:5) but by Him we can do all things (Phi. 4:11). If we try to do this in our strength, we will inevitably fail. We must not think we can do it on our own, for pride comes before the fall. We must depend on the One who has set us free positionally in Christ so that we can live it out conditionally in our lives. Walk by the Spirit by focusing on Christ who set you free from the power of sin through the cross and raised you through the resurrection to walk in the newness of life by the Spirit (Romans 6:4). The gospel is not just for salvation but for living moment by moment as a Christian. The last tip I have is straight from out text in Mark: 6. Remember. We need to remember to care more about what God thinks than what others think of us or what we think. Herod cared more about his cool & powerful reputation before his buddies than he did about his obedience to God. And there’s nothing like a little peer pressure to test what we really believe, right? When the pressure is on, we find out if our beliefs have really become convictions. In his book called Love, Sex, and Lasting Relationships, Chip Ingram gave a great example of the difference between intellectually agreeing with something and when it is actually a personal conviction. He said that when he was in college he was a Resident Assistant (RA) and during their training, certain statements were made like “Premarital sex is wrong.” And the RA’s who agreed with the statement were told to go to right side of the gym and those who disagreed, go to the left. And with the sexual revolution raging at that time, out 70 students in the room, 67 went to the far left side saying they disagreed. 2 of them though, Christians in his Bible study, walked to the far right, unconditionally agreeing with the statement. What did Chip do? He said he walked about two steps to the right of the middle line. He said “I had a problem. I was willing to move a little in the right direction, but I wasn’t committed and I wasn’t definite. I had an intellectual belief that sex before marriage is wrong, but my conviction wasn’t fully developed. I didn’t believe the point of openly acting on that belief 100 percent of the time.” He said, “There’s nothing like social pressure or peer pressure to demonstrate the strength of our convictions (or lack of them).”[ii] So which side of the court are you on? Are your beliefs definite convictions that you act on? Are you like John who would suffer for the standards of God no matter what (to the point of execution) or like Herod, who when all the eyes are on him, forgets the all-seeing eyes of God? Herod caved under pressure against his conscience that knew it was wrong to behead the righteous man John. He sends for the executioner and has John beheaded in jail and the platter brought to Salome who brought it to her mom. If there’s anyone to feel sorry for in this text, it’s not John… it’s Herod. Herod gained the whole world and lost soul while John, a man of conviction before God, entered eternal bliss and left an impact on the world by his willingness to die for what he believed in. There is a great reward for those who run the race of the Christian life well. In Christ, Pastor Justin At the Connect 2020 conference this year, we were blessed to sit under the teaching of Sonscape Ministries president and previously Mitchell Berean's pastor, Giles Armstrong. He taught through many of the Scriptures concerning the life of Elijah. Here are some of the nuggets of truth I wrote down:
QUOTES: (beginning with my favorite) - “Sometimes the only reason the grass is greener on the other side is because it’s growing over a septic tank.” - “Stop moaning about millennials and start mentoring them.” - “If you don’t come apart for a while, you’ll come apart in a while.” - “In failing to make a decision, we make a decision.” - “Fear hobbles you.” - “It’s easier to hide a dent in your soul than a dent in your car.” - “Be less concerned about reputation and more concerned about character because one is who people say you are and one is who you really are.” - “Beware of the disease to please.” - “How many Ishmael’s have I birthed because I wasn’t willing to wait on God?” CONTRASTS: - Character or career & cars? - Live for money or live for God’s glory? - Obey or delay? - Resist or repent? - Programs or prayer? - Buildings or Bible? - Serving sorrow or serving the Savior? - Childlike or childish? - Pouting or praising? - Moaning or mentoring? - Worry or wonder? - My wants or His will? - Fear or faith? - Groaning or growing? I hope you enjoy these and they minister to you as they have been to me. The greatest takeaway however, is found right there in the title of conference - Connect. The best part of Connect is connecting with other brothers and sisters in Christ throughout our fellowship, get to know them personally and develop relationships. Each time I leave a Berean conference, I leave with a greater and restored sense of mission and how we are all in this mission together to make disciples to reach the world for Christ! Pastor Justin As Christians, should we support the organization Black Lives Matter?
There are many voices out there today on the recent Black Lives Matter stuff that I’ve debated writing on it at all for our church. Surely, there are better and more articulate articles out there than this one. However, the more we see the fruit of this organization and the more we know about the basic tenants of their belief system, the more grieved I am over how much influence they are having even among churches and see the need to expose some of their true agenda to help give clarity as you decide where to stand and what to think. By now, much of this may already be old news for you (or maybe you still think BLM stands for Bureau of Land Management!), but I want our church and every believer to be wise about how they approach everything going on and to be aware of just exactly what this organization is all about. At first, the BLM movement can seem like a noble cause. What Christian doesn’t believe black live matter? All lives matter… Every single created being in every stage of life matters. And who doesn’t want justice more than believers? We desire perfect justice. God tells us to walk with Him, loving justice and doing justice (Micah 6:8). However, whether or not to support BLM is not that simple because even though the name “Black Lives Matter” is good, the overall agenda behind it isn’t. True justice must be coupled with righteousness and the agenda of this organization is ultimately not righteous. It’s at odds with the gospel and contrary to God’s creational order.[I] Albert Mohler said, “During a particular moral and historical context, it is not wrong to say something emphatically directed, like “black lives matter.” Just consider, as an example, Nazi Germany during the 1930s and 40s. The Nazi Party adopted a deadly antisemitism that led to the horrors of genocide during the Holocaust. At that time, to say that “Jewish lives matter” would not only have been right, but would have been morally urgent and necessary.” Fast forward to America in June of 2020. Today, there are very real and urgent moral concerns about the lives and well-being of black Americans. It is not wrong in our context, therefore, to say “black lives matter” as a sentence. But it’s not that simple.” Albert Mohler makes the point in his article that you can access below that we should support the sentence “Black Lives Matter” but not the movement. Jesus said that the whole Law and even the entire OT can be summed up by two commands: 1) Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength and 2) Love your neighbor as yourself. There are no greater commands then these. John MacArthur pointed this out yesterday in his sermon on “How Christians Should Respond to the Riots”, that some Christians out of a genuine love for their neighbor have begun pairing themselves with this organization. But since this organization does not give themselves to the first command of loving God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength, they cannot properly love their neighbor through it once they know what BLM is really out to revolutionize. If you check out their website and research what Black Lives Matter believes, it doesn’t take a lot of work or an intellectual expert to realize that Christianity doesn’t mesh at all with BLM’s agenda and is in fact, diametrically opposed to God and His desires for man and society on many levels:
One of the main reasons we are in this mess to begin with is because the fathers haven’t stayed in the home in the first place and the nuclear family has been disrupted. The nuclear family (husband, wife, children) is the best and healthiest place for children to be raised. It is how we were designed and time and trial has proven that over and over. This BLM organization would have kids raised by “villages” – probably referring to likeminded Marxist state-communities they want to create.
As believers, we have to stand on God’s precepts and principles and promises. And we know that homosexuality, transgenderism, or transvestitism is an abomination to God according to the Law (Dt. 22:5) because it goes against the creational order He intended. God created us male and female. His design for marriage is between one man and one woman and procreation is only possible that way. Christians seek to restore people from this error so they experience the blessings of doing things God’s way, and not affirm a self-destructive lifestyle. This organization wants to completely revolutionize our society in an unbiblical way and they will slanderously bully anyone who doesn’t align themselves with their movement (i.e. calling them racist, even if they’re not). They make it clear more than once that they are seeking much power and political power on their website and they will use their power to stand against not just injustice, but apparently against morality, conscience, the faithful Church, God, the biblical family structure and biblical marriage. It has a culturally disastrous agenda and going down this path will do anything but lift up a culture.[ii] It can only bring about temporal and eternal destruction – more oppression and more violence and more despair. As far as I can tell, this organization would have our nation resemble an atheistic and godless culture that depicts society similar to the way it was before the Noahic flood, or Sodom and Gomorrah. The only thing standing in their way is the authorities that exist and have been established by God (something God instituted immediately after the flood in Gen. 9:6) to be a minister for good (Romans 13:1-7). There are only 3 institutions that keep a society sane and they are the family, the Church, and the government. This organization rejects all 3 institutions as God would have them properly function. It operates under a spirit of lawlessness. I want to point these things out to you because even though the message that “Black Lives Matter” is obviously something good, the overall agenda is not. This is clearly not an organization we should be supporting once we know the overall agenda. It is not possible to love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and to love your neighbor by supporting this socially and spiritually destructive organization. It affirms many things contrary to God’s design. So just keep preaching and living the same old good truth of being in the world but not like it. Love your neighbor God's way. Let your neighbor know Jesus loves them so much that He died for their sin so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16). We love everyone and want to reach everyone with the gospel, just like Jesus did when He ate with the sinners and the tax collectors. Speak and live so that it reflects grace and truth. Pastor Justin For a good article by Albert Mohler on this topic: https://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2020/06/65132/ For a good sermon on this topic: https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/81-81 [i] Albert Mohler, Black Lives Matter: Affirm the Sentence, Not the Movement, accessed 6/19/20, https://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2020/06/65132/ [ii] John MacArthur, How Should Christians Respond to the Riots?, accessed 6/18/2020, https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/81-81 |
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