REJOICING IN GOD

TRIP TO LIBERIA: Three weeks to go. Most of my class notes are prepared. Just a few quizzes to prepare. Thank you to my wife Gloria for selling some paintings, plants and hand-made towels to raise funds for this trip, and thank you to those who have donated. If you would like to donate to this trip see tab above for information.

PRAY WITH ME FOR AFRICA: Algerian Christians suffer persecution in this mostly Muslim country but this indigenous church continues to grow. Pray for growing leadership for the Algerian church, for Christian families where the girls often have to hide their faith and marry Muslims, and for employment in a Muslim dominated culture.

ALGERIA IS IN NORTH AFRICA

The Return of the Seventy-Two - Luke 10.17-20 

The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!” And he said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.

Jesus sent 72 disciples out to minister in his name. They returned with joy because even the demons were subject to them in the name of Jesus. The power was invigorating and exciting. Being a disciple of Jesus was the best. Jesus even acknowledge their ministry and power over Satan and over the enemies of Jesus. Jesus even gave them power over nature so that serpents and scorpions would not harm them. Wow. A life in Jesus to strive for, right?

But look at the last statement of Jesus. He tells his disciples that their joy should not be in the power and effect of their ministry, as good as that is, but in their relationship with him. The goal of salvation is to know God and Jesus Christ whom God has sent, John 17.3. see also Philippians 3.10, 4.4 and Romans 8.28-29.

We are to know God's power in our ministry and circumstances but our joy is to come from our relationship with God. If our joy is received from things and circumstances then our joy will depend on those things and circumstances; our relationship with God will become secondary to those things and circumstances; our focus will be on things and circumstances rather than God; when things and circumstances fail us then we will become bitter against God; and finally a focus on things and circumstances can begin to erode our belief in the Sovereignty of God.

 

 

Our joy is to be found in our relationship with God. He is to be our joy. His Goodness and Love to us are to be the source of our joy. No matter my things and my circumstances, God is my Joy. 

 

Good Articles This Week:
1) Assisted Suicide for Children

BIBLE HEROES

TRIP TO LIBERIA: I received my Liberian visa yesterday. Thank you to Diane and Ashley and the Bishop family for their help in this process. Continuing to prepare notes in what looks to be a very very busy month. Please pray for me this month and for donations to my trip. (see tab above for details on donations). Thank you to those who have already donated and are praying.

PRAY WITH ME FOR AFRICA: Algeria is 80% desert and 99% Muslim with 100,000 Christians (some estimate it may be even higher) with a majority from the Kabyle Berbers. There is an exemplary unity between the Berber and Arab and foreign Christians which provides a strong contrast and testimony against the backdrop of the animosity of those outside the faith. Pray for continued growth in the church in Algeria.

 The flag features two equal vertical bands of green and white with a red, five-pointed star within a red crescent centered over the two-color boundary. The crescent, star, and color green are traditional symbols of Islam (the state religion).


I have two new bible heroes. My longtime bible heroes are Abigail and  Uriah because of their loyal character but this week I want to add Boaz and Ruth to my short list of heroes to emulate. I have been studying the book of Ruth in preparation for teaching with TLI in December in Liberia and my heart has burned within me with delight and praise (Luke 24.32). I admire the moral stature of Boaz along with his lovingkindness and faithfulness to Yahweh. I admire Ruth's courage and lovingkindness and devotion to Naomi. These are character traits I want to strive for.

I want to encourage you to slowly read the book of Ruth and to imagine what is taking place and to notice the character of those in the story as the story unfolds. Ask God to warm your heart with His Love and Lovingkindness to you as He fulfills His promises and shows you His worthy character through this story. God's steadfast love endures forever (Psalm 139).

 Good Articles This Week:
 1) The Old Covenant is Over; The Old Covenant is Authoritative
2) Pakistan Protests Delay Release of Asia Bibi

FIVE SOLA'S OF THE REFORMATION

TRIP TO LIBERIA: My flight is booked and my visa is on its return voyage from the Liberian Embassy in Washington DC. In just over 5 weeks I will be on my way. Class preparations will be my focus until then. Please continue to pray for me, our team of six, and the 85 Pastors we will be teaching.

PRAY WITH ME FOR AFRICA: Togo is a country deeply entrenched in darkness which has scarcely been challenged by intercessory prayer and the power of God in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Even among professing Christians there is much participation in animism and voodoo rituals. Pray for Christians to break with these false beliefs and embrace the freedom of Christ. Pray for God to raise up Bible believing Pastors who speak and live truth in the power of the Holy Spirit.

 The country of Togo in West Africa.







The Five Sola's of the Reformation 
Halloween reminds me that it is October 31^st. October 31^st reminds me of Reformation Day. Reformation Day reminds me of Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation. And the Protestant Reformation reminds me of the Five Sola’s.

 

Reformation Day is the anniversary celebration in some Protestant Churches of the nailing of Martin Luther’s 95 theses on the Wittenberg Castle Church door in October 31^st, 1517. Martin Luther’s aim to reform the Catholic Church with regard to the selling of indulgences led to a confrontation with the Catholic Church that fuelled the Protestant Reformation.  The Reformation was a return to the authority of the Bible which led to a renewed understanding of the truth of Justification by faith. The thrust of the Reformation is summed up in the five Sola’s of the Reformation.Sola is the Latin word for alone. Here are the five foundational Sola’s of the Reformation.
Sola Scriptura: Scripture Alone, was the foundation for the Reformation. Sola Scriptura declared that the Bible was the sole authority for truth and conduct. At the Diet of Worms, where Martin Luther was put on trial for his challenge to Catholic teachings, he declared “my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. God help me. Amen." Sola Scriptura meant that all that the Church did and taught was to be supported by the authority of Scripture alone. The teachings and conduct of the Church were not to be based on past traditions, or the influence of the surrounding culture, or the teachings of men but on the Word of God alone. No teaching or conduct was to be added to the Church that was not authorized by the Word of God. The Reformation’s call of Sola Scriptura was a call for the authority of Scripture alone, condemning all that was not based on the absolute authority of the Bible. 
Solus Christus: Christ Alone. The Reformation called the church back to faith in Christ as the sole mediator between God and man. For the Reformers, Solus Christus, meant that salvation was through Christ alone. Nothing was to be added to Christ and nothing was needed for salvation but Christ alone. Solus Chrisus denied the teachings of purgatory and indulgences for the dead, the mediation of Mary and the saints, and sacramental salvation through infant baptism. As the Heidelberg Catechism teaches, “...either Jesus is not a complete Savior or they, who by a true faith receive this Savior, must find all things in him necessary to their salvation." 
Sola Gratia: Grace Alone. The heart cry of the Reformation was salvation from sin in Christ Alone through Grace Alone. Grace was the unmerited favor of God. The Reformers understood by the clear teaching of Scripture that salvation was not earned but given by God to undeserving sinners. The Reformers understood that God offered salvation freely to all because Jesus Christ stepped in, took the punishment upon Himself and bore the judgment due to sinners, and that with His own blood He paid for the sins which made them enemies of God and thereby satisfied God’s Holy Justice. Salvation was not to be worked for, earned or merited but to be freely received as a Grace from God. 
Sola Fide: Faith Alone. Faith was the hand that took the grace gift of salvation in Christ. The Reformers taught that a man was justified (declared righteous by God) by believing that God had provided salvation in Christ and that those who believed were justified by faith. Those who religiously worked for God’s acceptance could never be saved but those who received by faith the righteousness that God provided in Jesus Christ were instantly saved and received eternal life. As Romans 1.17 teaches, “In the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last”.
Soli Deo Gloria: The Glory of God Alone. The Reformation reclaimed a focus on God’s Glory. All that was done was to be done to bring glory to God. Maintenance and advancement of the institutional church was not their priority. Their priority was to lift up the Character of God and the Sovereign Purposes of God in all that was done in and out of the Church. Truth glorified God. Holy living glorified God. Honest secular work glorified God. Marriage glorified God. All of life could glorify God. The Reformation had a high view of God and placed God at the center of all things. Their desire to glorify God coloured all that they did and taught.
For me the five Sola’s of the Reformation summarize basic Christianity – The absolute authority of the Bible for truth and conduct; Salvation from sin in Christ, by Grace, through faith; and a life lived for the Glory of God.  God invites you to read His Word, receive His Gift of Salvation in Christ by faith, and to Glorify Him with your life.

Good Articles This Week:
1) The Pashtuns
2) "Gosnell" is this Halloween's Most Horrifying Film

THE SONG OF MOSES

TRIP TO LIBERIA: My Liberian visa application is being processed at the Liberian embassy in Washington DC. I leave in six weeks. Please pray for quick processing and return of my visa, and for funding (see tab above) for this trip, and for the preparations that are being made both here and in Liberia.

PRAY WITH ME FOR AFRICA:  This week our focus is Togo, a thin wedge of land between Ghana and Benin, with a population of 8 million people. Over half of the population practice traditional African beliefs which are animistic, including fetishes, ancestor worship, magic and voodoo. Christians account for 29% (many are Catholic) and Muslims for 20% of the population but even many of these continue to hold their animistic practices. Togo is in great need of God's work of new birth and sanctification. Pray for Togo.

• Red for blood shed by Martyrs to gain independence
• White for hope, star of hope
• Green for the forests, agriculture, nature, and overall hope for the future
• Yellow for natural resources of the country

I want to encourage you to slowly read Deuteronomy chapter 32 at least a couple of times, over a couple of days, and sense the flow and the emotion of what Moses is saying in this tragic outline of Israel's history up to that point, and the heart of God for his people. This history of Israel is a warning to us to remain faithful and mindful of God in the blessings He has given to us.

God is great and perfect and just and upright, unlike His children who have dealt corruptly with Him. God chose Israel and richly provided for her but Israel in gratification of her appetites forgot her God and turned from Him in scoffing rebellion and to the worship of idols. For this God must punish them. Those He once called his children are no longer his children (v5) and in anger receive disaster through foreign enemies, disease and drought.
But praise God, His wrath does not endure forever and He promises to punish once again the enemies of His people and restore His people when they realize their need of God and His Sovereign rule.
We serve both a Holy God and a God of Compassion. Let us learn to fear God and worship Him and be obedient to Him.

Good Articles This Week
1) Audacity of Gender-Reveal Parties
2) Euthanasia for children in Canada

LISTEN

TRIP TO LIBERIA: I will be traveling to Liberia December 6 to 15 with Training Leaders International to teach from the books of Ruth and Jonah and to encourage the Pastors in preaching. If you would like to donate to this trip see banner above on how to donate to my trip.

PRAY WITH ME FOR AFRICA: Corruption and bribery is widespread in Burundi and is worsening. As in most countries in Africa there is a great need for biblically trained leadership for the churches. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only answer to tribal enmity, and nominal shallow Christianity. Pray for this populous country to know their God and follow Jesus with wholeheartedness.

 White color of the X and circle represents peace, green represents the nation's hopes placed on future development and red symbolizes the suffering of the nation during its freedom struggle. The three stars in triangular configuration stand for the three major ethnic groups of Burundi: the Hutu, the Twa and the Tutsi.
  
Listen! Listen is a very important command in the Bible. Listening expects both hearing and obedience, like the parent who says to the disobedient child, "why don't you listen to me". In Psalm 81, God admonishes His people for not listening to Him. There is a sense of sadness in God's voice as He speaks to His beloved people because He must punish them for their unwillingness to listen to Him. "Oh, that my people would listen to me, that Israel would walk in my ways!" (v13, see also v11 and 8).

Shema Yisrael (Deuteronomy 6.4) means Hear Israel. This twice recited daily prayer is a call for God's people to hear and know and love and obey their God. As Christians we are often called to listen to God and to obey Him. Jesus often said, "he who has ears to hear, let him hear". The judgement of God on Israel was a removal of their capacity to hear (Isaiah 29.10; Romans 11.8). We are called in Hebrews 3 to hear God's voice and not to harden our hearts and live in unbelief. James exhorts us to be quick to hear and slow to speak. (1.19) Revelation closes with this plea, "The Spirit and the Bride say 'Come'. And let the one who hears say 'Come'.
We find in Jesus the perfect listener to God his Father. I love this verse from Isaiah 50.4-5, "The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary. Morning by morning he awakens; he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught. The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious; I turned not backward." These verses remind me of Jesus. Jesus heard and listened to his Father and then taught the people. "So Jesus said to them, 'When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me. And he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him.”
Are you listening to God? Do you hear what God is saying to you? God speaks as we read and meditate on His Word and spend time in prayer. God the Holy Spirit makes the Word alive if we are willing to listen not just to consider obedience but with the purpose of obedience.
Let us take a little more time to listen to God.

Good Articles This Week:
1) Canadian Win for Free Speech
2) Assessing Bruxy Cavey on the Atonement

ETERNAL-HEAVENLY PERSPECTIVE

PRAY WITH ME FOR AFRICA: The republic of Burundi is small but has the second highest population density in Africa with 11.3 million people. Burundi is 90% Christian (61% Catholic and 29% Protestant), almost 6% Muslim, with about 4% tribal religions. Since the 1990 conflict between the Tutsi and Hutu which claimed 300,000 lives, mutual respect and government representation have brought peace and stability to Burundi. Pray for growing peace and reconciliation for Burundi.

Whom have I in heaven but you?

And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.

My flesh and my heart may fail,

but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

 Psalm 73.25-26

 In Psalm 73, the man of God is taking a hard look at the realities of life around him. He is having a hard time with what he sees. The arrogant and wicked are prospering. They are not suffering any pain and their bodies are fat and sleek. They don't seem to have any troubles. They are proud and wicked and full of follies. They scoff and speak with malice and threaten others with oppression. They speak against God and and others. They mock God's knowledge of what they are doing. They are at ease and increase in riches.

The man of God is discouraged that the wicked are doing so well while he is trying to live a holy life and do good and is being persecuted and mocked for it every day. The man of God is ready to throw in the towel, to tap out, and to join in "your best life now" of the wicked. It is just not worth all the effort of trying to follow God. God seems to be unaware and unconcerned. Have you ever felt that way?

What made the difference in this man of God? He looked up to God and reviewed those around him from a heavenly-eternal perspective. The end of the proud and wicked around him is ruin, death and eternal loss. The man of God also sees that his wrong perspective was one of ignorance and of animal desires.

Finally the man of God with a heavenly-eternal perspective realizes that God is with him, leading and guiding him, with knowledge and understanding and the destiny of glory. He knows the true God of heaven. Those things which looked so pleasant from his wrong perspective are no longer his desire. He knows the weakness of his flesh and heart but he also knows that God is his strength forever.

What a beautiful conclusion to the despair of this man of God.

 For behold, those who are far from you shall perish;

you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you.

But for me it is good to be near God;

I have made the Lord God my refuge,

that I may tell of all your works.

Good Articles This Week
1) This is Augustine’s understanding of grace. Grace is God’s giving us sovereign joy in God that triumphs over joy in sin. In other words, God works deep in the human heart to transform the springs of joy so that we love God more than sex or anything else. …Loving God is being so satisfied in God and so delighted in all that he is for us that his commandments cease to be burdensome. Augustine saw this. And we need him badly today to help us recover the root of all Christian living in the triumphant joy in God that dethrones the sovereignty of laziness and lust and greed.
Quote from The Legacy of Sovereign Joy – the Life of Augustine.
2) Good News from Sudan

LIVING LIKE JOB

PRAY WITH ME FOR AFRICA:  Even though Madagascar suffers from poverty, ecological destruction (80% of rainforest cover already lost) and political instability, the church is growing. The church is in great need of unity and deliverance of compromise with old beliefs, worship of ancestral spirits and witchcraft. Its greatest need is for biblically trained leadership. Pray for the church of Madagascar.

 The colors of the flag represent Madagascar's history, yearning for independence, and
traditional classes.





    


Thinking about Job this morning.
1) Job trusted God even though he was going through a very difficult trial where he lost all his belongings, his family, and his health, and was also being accused of sin by his friends. Job did not know why all this was happening to him but he knew God was in charge and trusted in God’s love to him. Job worshiped God. After Job had all his stuff taken away this is what Job said, “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” “Though God slay me, I will hope in him”. (13.15) Job also said, “For I know that my redeemer lives,…and after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God”. (19.25-26) Job trusted God through all his suffering and loss, even though he did not understand what was happening to him.

2) Another one of Job’s qualities was his steadfastness. Steadfastness means you keep on going and don’t quit. Job steadily moved forward no matter how difficult it was to keep on going. Sometimes in the Christian life all you can do is keep on going even though the future looks hopeless and the trial we are in seems like it will never come to an end. Job is known for his patience in suffering so that today when we see someone not quitting in their suffering we say he/she has the patience of Job. Job is mentioned in the book of James as an example of persevering in his faith through suffering.
3) Finally a lesser known quality of Job is his powerful prayer life. Job is mentioned along with Daniel and Noah, by God as a man of powerful prayer. Ezekiel (14.14,20)

Job is a good example for us to follow especially today in light of a fuller revelation of God in Jesus Christ. Trust, Steadfastness, Prayer - a good formula for a full entrance into God's kingdom.

Good Articles This Week:
1) Fuad's Story
2) Agent's Hunt Christians After Preacher's Visit