What do we see?

Sometimes life in this fallen world can be discouraging, because we so easily see the sinfulness of mankind vividly lived out before our eyes. We can become disheartened by the profane lifestyles of so many people as we seek to live a life that befits a follower of Jesus Christ. If we are not careful, when faced with the seemingly unending examples of church-goers who blend in with the way everyone else lives in the world, we can become judgmental and harsh toward them and the other people we meet, erroneously thinking we are being holy. When that happens, we have lost sight of the powerful reality of the cross where Jesus died. We forget that it was for our sins that He was crucified as well as for theirs.

What did God do about it?

In Psalm 85:8-10 we read, “⁸I will listen to what God the LORD will say; he promises peace to his people, his saints—but let them not return to folly. ⁹Surely his salvation is near those who fear him, that his glory may dwell in our land. ¹⁰Love and faithfulness meet together; righteousness and peace kiss each other.”

Scholars tell us that verse 10 is pointing ahead to the work of Jesus on the cross and what would happen there. Of course, from our perspective today the cross has happened, the work of Jesus has been accomplished. Love and faithfulness have met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other. As the old Puritan wrote, the cross is the place where truth and mercy meet. The cross is the place where the God of all Creation once and for all brought restoration in place of the separation between sinful man and holy God. That means not that God has ignored the sins of the wicked—but the truth is, the sacrifice that atoned for them was given on the cross. The truth is, our sins were the cause of the punishment that fell upon Jesus and our punishment was assigned to Him on the cross. The truth of our sin met the mercy of God in Jesus when He died there. The love and faithfulness of God met together so that the justice of God was achieved in the death of Jesus. The righteous requirements of the Law of God against sin and our absolute need of peace with God have kissed each other in the death of Jesus on the cross. The result is salvation for those who stand condemned by their sin.

How do we respond?

It is because of the wonderful truth of the cross that the mercy of God is given to people who in no way deserve mercy but altogether need mercy. So we look at the undeniable sinfulness of mankind, and we are reminded daily of our debt to the mercy of God in Jesus. And we rejoice because it is done: the mercy of God has been applied to us personally, and we are saved from the end of all sinfulness: namely, eternal separation from God. We rejoice because the Savior has come and our sin has been judged in Him; and because of the mercy of God given to us, we can be merciful to others, refusing the opportunities to judge them.

We can live in the reality of the truth of what happened on the cross as is so clearly spelled out in Psalm 85:10 and in the New Testament in Colossians 2:13-14, ¹³“When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, ¹⁴having cancelled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross.” Amen.

32nd General Assembly unanimously opposes insurance mandate

Livonia, Mich. – June 28, 2012 – At its 32nd General Assembly in Baton Rouge, LA from June 19th through June 23rd, the Evangelical Presbyterian Church voted unanimously to take the following position regarding the regulations put forth by the Department of Health and Human Services on February 15th, 2012 under the 2010 Affordable Care Act.

On February 15, 2012 the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) issued final regulations under the Affordable Care Act requiring almost all new health insurance plans after August 1, 2012 to cover “all FDA-approved contraceptive methods, sterilization procedures and [related] patient education and counseling” (the “Preventive Care Mandate”). The regulations mandate health care plans provide free access to Plan B (known as the “morning-after pill”) and ella (known as the “week-after pill”) as part of “all FDA-approved contraceptive methods.” Each is an abortifacient drug. HHS classifies Plan B and ella as contraceptives.

In a substantial departure from prior federal law, HHS’ regulations define “religious employer” narrowly to include in essence only churches and other houses of worship. As a result, many religious nonprofit organizations do not fall within the definition and accordingly will be required to provide insurance coverage for Plan B, ella, other FDA-approved contraceptive methods and sterilization procedures, and related education and counseling.

The regulations apply to employers generally. Churches and other houses of worship are exempt from the mandate. However, a private company headed by a person with strongly held religious convictions and religious nonprofit organizations (or what we might refer to as para-church groups) are not exempt. Examples of such entities that are not exempt are Christian and other faith-based K-12 schools and colleges, religiously-affiliated hospitals, Gospel Rescue Missions, religious drug rehabilitation programs, prison ministries, and religious charities.

Thus, many non-church, religious nonprofit organizations and devout owners of for-profit organizations will be forced to participate in the provision of these drugs, procedures, and services to their employees. Currently, the penalty to the employer for non-compliance will be approximately $2,000 per year per employee.

It is the position of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church that these regulations constitute an unprecedented overreach by the federal government and an infringement upon religious liberty and rights of conscience guaranteed by the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

We acknowledge not every part of the Preventive Care Mandate offends the conscience of all believers. The Evangelical Presbyterian Church, for example, does not take a stand against artificial means of contraception. However, we do profoundly object to abortion on demand (see “Position Paper on Abortion,” http://www.epc.org/about-the-epc/position-papers/abortion/). Others, like many of our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters, object to artificial contraception.

1. The Evangelical Presbyterian Church encourages its members to pray fervently and humbly to our God for the protection of our religious freedoms.
2. The Evangelical Presbyterian Church strongly and respectfully objects to this government overreach and infringement of the Free Exercise Clause. It humbly requests the Department of Health and Human Services to rescind the offending regulation.
3. If the Department of Health and Human Services does not rescind the regulation, the Evangelical Presbyterian Church requests the United States Congress to take appropriate action to ensure the protection of religious liberty and rights of conscience.
4. Where deemed advisable by the Committee on Administration, the Evangelical Presbyterian Church will join as amici curiae in pending or future civil actions to ensure the protection of religious freedom and rights of conscience.

More than 120,000 people attend 362 EPC churches nationwide. To learn more about the EPC, visit www.EPC.org.

We need purpose.

The professional football quarterback for the New England Patriots, Tom Brady, was interviewed by 60 Minutes journalist Steve Kroft. Despite the fame and career accomplishments he had achieved already, Brady told Kroft that it felt like something was still lacking in his life:

Grapevines are pretty amazing things. They are useful, very useful! We enjoy their fruit in our daily lives and we enjoy the cooling shade from their leaves on a hot sunny day.

Jesus said to His disciples in John 15: 5, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”

Stay connected!

The idea is, in order to produce fruit, the branches have to stay connected to the main structure of the vine. They have to continue to be connected to the plant. If they are cut away, they wither and die. Certainly there is no possibility of fruit growing on a branch that is cut from the plant. That branch may be strong, it may have had fruit in years prior, it may be a beautiful branch; but if it somehow gets separated from the plant it immediately begins the process of dying.

Many of us have seen overgrown brush and trees along the sides of the road. If they are in the wrong place at the wrong time those trees can be covered by destructive vines that choke the life out of the tree by blocking the light to the tree’s leaves so it cannot survive. Those kinds of vines don’t produce fruit; they produce destruction. Those vines are not what Jesus was talking about but the principle of separating the branches from the plant is still the same. In fact, the only way to rid the trees of the tentacles of the vines is to cut them off so that they die from lack of nourishment. Then they are pulled down and thrown into the trash pile.

The idea is still the same whether it is a good vine or a destructive vine: cut the branches away from the plant, and the branches wither and die. Jesus applied that principle to His disciples, who can put themselves in danger of withering away by not staying connected to Him.

Good fruit!

If we remain in Him, remain connected to Him in the living of our life, we will produce fruit because that is what happens to everyone connected to Jesus. The fruit that He designs is fruit that is good and produces good results, and it comes from Him. A red grapevine produces red grapes because that is what grows on a red grapevine. When we live connected to Jesus, the fruit that grows in our life is Jesus fruit. The fruit Jesus has is the fruit that grows on the branches. The branches display the fruit that comes from the vine. Being continually and consciously connected to Jesus produces the fruit of holy living, righteous living, joyful living, hope-filled living, eternal living. It produces a life that is protected from the life-choking tentacles of stress and the peace-stealing vines of worry and doubt. Remaining in Jesus is where we are supposed to be, it’s how we supposed to live.

There is so much to do in our life on the earth, so much to do that God has called us to do and the only way to do it all is to remain in contact with Jesus. As the Apostle Paul taught the Church in Philippians 4:13, “I can do everything through him who gives me strength” (NIV).

Jesus told His disciples in John 15:1-8, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.”

Bearing fruit

Branches are where the fruit is grown, but it is the vine (or the trunk of the tree) that carries the nourishment out to the branches. The vine can grow more branches, but the branches cannot grow any fruit without the life of the vine flowing through them.

A vine is a vivid metaphor for living the life Jesus calls us to live. He didn’t mail us a “To-Do List” of jobs to be checked off after we have completed each one. No, He called us to come to Him and remain connected to Him all the days of our earthly life.  But, as some may say, we can’t see Jesus! How do we “remain” connected to someone we can’t see?  God said we do that by faith, by trusting Him ahead of circumstances. We persevere in spite of the temptations and distractions that life in this world can throw at us. We do whatever it takes to remain in Him.

As the professional football season was coming to a close one year, I heard a sports commentator talking about the teams that were probable championship contenders. He said, “A championship team is the one who finds a way to win regardless of the difficulties.” A Christian is someone who finds a way to obey the instructions of Jesus and “remain” in Him, regardless of the difficulties. In the Bible, Romans 12:1 says: “I urge you, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices…” We may have to sacrifice some of the time we spend in front of the television or time we spend sleeping in the early morning so that we make ourselves available to Jesus through prayer, Bible study and reading, and meditating on what He has told us in His Word.

It’s a personal relationship

Remaining in Jesus is about our relationship with Him. We can’t have a relationship with a car or a house or a cow; we can only have a relationship with a person. Jesus is a person, not some mythological figure from history, and He is alive! Every healthy relationship grows as we spend time communicating with the person in the relationship with us. Just because we can’t see Jesus doesn’t mean we can’t communicate with Him. When someone we love goes to a foreign land we still communicate with them through letters and telephone calls. Those are no substitute for the special times of personal contact, but they do keep the communication in the relationship. Our relationship with Jesus grows as we read the “mail” He sends us in His Word, the Bible. It grows as we talk with Him in prayer and listen to Him speak to us through His Word and in the thoughts of our heart as we meditate on His Word. Then when the special times of personal contact come, when the presence of God is strong and clear in our lives, we will have developed our communication with Him and can appreciate those special moments all the more. And through it all we will find that, more and more, we remain in Him.

Weeds in the garden

My favorite season of the year has to be spring! Maybe it’s because after the gray deadness of winter, the bright color and new life of spring are a welcome contrast. Or perhaps it’s because we know that when spring arrives, the days will be getting longer, and the temperatures will be growing warmer. Whatever the reason, I like springtime! Some of the things I like best are those beautiful yellow daffodils that are among the first flowers to bloom in the garden.

Did you ever notice the cleanness of daffodils? I don’t mean they don’t have dirt on them but they stand out so clearly in the flowerbed because the weeds haven’t come up yet in the brisk early spring temperatures. In a perfect world there wouldn’t be weeds. There would be sunshine and gentle rain and healthy plants—but no weeds. In a perfect world…but we don’t live in a perfect world yet. We live in this world and this world has weeds, lots of them. Every year my wife, who loves to work in her gardens, spends hours digging and pulling and spraying those gluttonous weeds that will consume the garden if she doesn’t. It seems the flowers have to bloom in between the weeds!

Weeds in our lives

Not only do we not live in a perfect world, but we don’t live with perfect people! Have you noticed how imperfect the people in your world are? Especially the person whose picture is on your driver’s license! And in addition to an imperfect world filled with imperfect people, we are members of an imperfect local church!

The weeds in our world cause worldwide problems like wars, famines, financial crises, false religions, and mass confusion of all kinds. The weeds in our lives cause personal problems like fear, greed, lust, anger, envy, hatred, and the like. The weeds in our local churches cause problems like strife, gossip, slander, unfaithfulness, rebellion, ungodliness, and more.

If you put all that together, you have a world and people and local churches with big problems, with stress, with pressure to just give up! But did you know that none of the above problems have taken God by surprise? Do you understand that Christians have good reason to rejoice in the midst of all the problems in the world, and in their lives, and in their local churches? Has it sunk in, down to your toes, that God is not just a Holy Observer in our lives, but that He is working in our lives—and He works through our circumstances and even our problems? Every one of God’s people in the Bible had problems and lived with dysfunctional families, and God used them and God led them and God blessed them anyhow!

Bloom anyway!

I think the prophet Habakkuk (huh-BAK-uhk) got it right! He understood why what he had to rejoice about overpowered what he had to worry about. Habakkuk 3:17-18 says, “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior.”

Christian, we have an eternal relationship with God. Not like we have a relationship with a distant relative—but with our Father. Not an earthly, imperfect father, but with the Father who created us, knowing we would fall into sin. Who not only made us but also made a plan for our lives and a plan to save us. We have, in the words of Habakkuk, a relationship with “God my Savior.” That doesn’t mean that He makes all the problems go away in this imperfect world, but that He makes a way for us to bloom in between the weeds.

Just haul off, right there in the middle of the weeds, and thank God for loving you and for being your Savior! And thank Him that His salvation is more than enough to handle the weeds in the garden of your life!

“I want to give a little lesson in Greek and Hebrew, to make sure we all know what the New Testament means when it says in three different places, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” (matthew 21:9, 15); “Hosanna in the highest!” (Mark 11:9, 10); or simply, “Hosanna!” (John 12:13).

A Lesson in Greek and Hebrew

You all know that the New Testament was first written in Greek, and the Old Testament was first written in Hebrew. Wherever the word “hosanna” occurs in the New Testament, do you know what the Greek word is? Right! It’s “hosanna.” All the English translators did was use English letters (h-o-s-a-n-n-a) to make the sound of a Greek word.

But if you look in a Greek dictionary to find what it means, you know what you find? You find that it is really not originally a Greek word after all. The men who wrote the New Testament in Greek did the same thing to a Hebrew word that our English translators did to the Greek word: they just used Greek letters to make the sound of a Hebrew phrase. I know this sounds sort of complicated. But it’s really not. Our English word “hosanna” comes from a Greek word “hosanna” which comes from a Hebrew phrase hoshiya na.

And that Hebrew phrase is found one solitary place in the whole Old Testament, Psalm 118:25, where it means, “Save, please!” It is a cry to God for help. Like when somebody pushes you off the diving board before you can swim and you come up hollering: “Help, save me … Hoshiya na!”

A Shift in Meaning

But something happened to that phrase, hoshiya na. The meaning changed over the years. In the psalm it was immediately followed by the exclamation: “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” The cry for help, hoshiya na, was answered almost before it came out of the psalmist’s mouth. And over the centuries the phrase hoshiya na stopped being a cry for help in the ordinary language of the Jews. Instead it became a shout of hope and exultation. It used to mean, “Save, please!” But gradually, it came to mean, “Salvation! Salvation! Salvation has come!” It used to be what you would say when you fell off the diving board. But it came to be what you would say when you see the lifeguard coming to save you! It is the bubbling over of a heart that sees hope and joy and salvation on the way and can’t keep it in.

So “Hosanna!” means, “Hooray for salvation! It’s coming! It’s here! Salvation! Salvation!”

And “Hosanna to the Son of David!” means, “The Son of David is our salvation! Hooray for the king! Salvation belongs to the king!”

And “Hosanna in the highest!” means, “Let all the angels in heaven join the song of praise. Salvation! Salvation! Let the highest heaven sing the song!”

Two Kinds of Hosannas

Picture a Super Bowl game, and (believe it or not) the Vikings are three points ahead of the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Steelers are on their own 35 and have no more time outs. There are two seconds remaining on the clock. The Vikings’ fans are going wild. The Steelers line up, fake a pass to the receivers on the left sideline, and run a wide sweep around the right end, and the quarterback breaks into the open and heads down the right sideline—40 — 45 — 50 — 45. The only hope for the Vikings is Willie Teal, the safety, cutting a diagonal across the field. And out of the Vikings’ grandstand come two kinds of hosannas, the old kind and the new kind. One part of the crowd is yelling: “Catch him! Catch him, Willie!” (That’s the old hosanna.) The other part of the crowd is yelling, “You got him! You got him, Willie!” (That’s the new hosanna.) The word moved from plea to praise; from cry to confidence.

So when we sing “Hosanna” now, let’s make it very personal. Let’s make it our praise and our confidence. The Son of David has come. He has saved us from guilt and fear and hopelessness. Salvation! Salvation belongs to our God and to the Son! Hosanna! Hosanna in the highest!”

• I am God’s child (John 1:12).
• As a disciple, I am a friend of Jesus Christ (John 15:15).
• I have been justified (Romans 5:1).
• I am united with the Lord, and I am one with Him in spirit (1 Corinthians 6:17).
• I have been bought with a price and I belong to God (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).
• I am a member of Christ’s body (1 Corinthians 12:27).
• I have been chosen by God and adopted as His child (Ephesians 1:3-8).
• I have been redeemed and forgiven of all my sins (Colossians 1:13-14).
• I am complete in Christ (Colossians 2:9-10).
• I have direct access to the throne of grace through Jesus Christ (Hebrews 4:14-16).

I am assured…

• I am free from condemnation (Romans 8:1-2).
• I am assured that God works for my good in all circumstances (Romans 8:28).
• I am loved by God (Romans 8:31-39).
• I have been established, anointed and sealed by God (2 Corinthians 1:21-22).
• I am hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:1-4).
• I am confident God will finish what He started in me (Philippians 1:6).
• I am a citizen of heaven (Philippians 3:20).
• I have not been given a spirit of fear (2 Timothy 1:7).
• I am born of God and the evil one cannot have me (1 John 5:18).

I am approved…

• I am a branch of Jesus Christ, the true vine (John 15:5).
• I have been chosen and appointed to bear fruit ( John 15:16).
• I am God’s temple (1 Corinthians 3:16).
• I am a minister of reconciliation for God (2 Corinthians 5:17-21).
• I am seated with Jesus Christ in the heavenly realm (Ephesians 2:6).
• I am God’s workmanship (Ephesians 2:10).
• I may come near to God with freedom and confidence (Ephesians 3:12).
• I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me (Philippians 4:13).

We can’t find in the Bible any permission to not pray. Nor can we find justification for only a few praying. God has put a copy of His Word in every Christian’s inbox; none are given a special pass to be exempted from prayer.

It is true that God appointed priests in the temple to offer up prayers for the people, but those prayers were a ministry God had given them to pray on behalf of the people. That didn’t mean the people themselves were not to pray. Consider some of the many prayers in the Old Testament, and the exhortations to pray throughout the Bible:

• “I cried out to God for help; I cried out to God to hear me. When I was in distress, I sought the Lord” (Psalms 77:1-2).
• “’Because he loves me,’ says the LORD, ‘I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. He will call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him. With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation’” (Psalms 91:14-16).
• “In bitterness of soul Hannah wept much and prayed to the LORD” (1 Samuel 1:10).
• “Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up” (Luke 18:1).
• “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints” (Ephesians 6:18).
• “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful”(Colossians 4:2).
• “Pray continually” (1 Thessalonians 5:17).
• “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective” (James 5:6).

These are an individual’s prayers, one person, not a nation as a whole.

We are to also pray as “a people” and the prayers from the group are understood to be made by every member of the group.

For example: “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:13-14).

That prayer comes not just from the group but, of course, from every member in the group. When all the people “humble themselves and pray” means when each one, acting in unity, humbles themselves and prays.

“…because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:4-7).

Made for magnificence

One day, a man was enjoying himself on a hike in the mountains. He climbed to the top of a tall peak in the Smokey Mountains and stood on an outcropping of rock, just taking in the beautiful view. After several minutes in reverent silence, he said, “Man, I was made for this!” What he meant was, he felt connected to the beauty of the Creation; he felt he had found his purpose: to enjoy what he saw as he hiked along the rugged places of the country. What he was sensing was what one man called “the fingerprints of God.” He was appreciating being in a place where he could see the glory of what God had left behind when He “created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1).

In a way, he was correct. God made the view the man was experiencing, and like anything anyone has made, the maker likes to have his work admired. So you could say, at least in part, the purpose of the man was to enjoy what God had made (as we all should). But Christians have a greater, more significant, more meaningful purpose than that! Those who have been redeemed by the work of Jesus on the cross have been saved; as Ephesians 2: 7 says, “in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.”

Showcasing Grace

Like the mountains and valleys of the Smokey Mountains display the handiwork of God, so also we who are the redeemed of the Lord will forever display the riches of the grace of God that are so vividly seen in the salvation that was given to us by virtue of the suffering and death of the Son of God. We are the eternal canvas that displays the mercy and grace of God for all the universe to see. And it is not just a two-dimensional picture that hangs in a museum, no, we are to be a living and eternal demonstration of how rich the grace of God really is. So rich that, even though we were the enemies of God, even though we hated Him and profaned His name, He saved us. We understand what riches means when referring to money—it means the more we have the richer we are! In that light, God’s supply of grace is so immense it cannot be contained even in all the universe—He is rich in grace and we are the ones who are the recipients of all that His grace has given as Ephesians 2 says, “the incomparable riches of his grace.”

He gave His body on the cross so we could be saved! (1 Peter 2:24-25: “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”) Your purpose, Christian, is more amazing than you know! Everywhere you go from now through eternity you are showing off the lavish riches of the grace of God!