Keeping Your Faith Fresh

by Patrick Hurd

Zephaniah 1:12 "It will come about at that time that I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and I will punish the men who are stagnant in spirit, who say in their hearts, `The LORD will not do good or evil!'

We have this fountain on our back patio.  It is suppose to have a motorized pump that circulates the water for aesthetics.  But ours doesn’t.  The water just sits there waiting to be drunk (drank, drinked, whatever) by a dog or cat or something.

All of us know what happens to the water if it doesn’t circulate or evaporate:  Things begin to grow in it.  Things that are mostly disgusting.  So disgusting that even the dogs look at it and look up at me like, “Really?  I’m supposed to drink from this?”

Every second that ticks off the clock moves all of creation closer to the consummation of redemptive history, the second coming of Christ.  All of us are at different places in that time table.  Some nearing the end of our physical presence in this physical world, others on the brink of starting their journey, and the rest of us at different points in between.

The challenge for all of us is to remain “fresh.”  That is not too difficult for our young ones who are just beginning their journey.  As parents, our task is to get them armed and equipped and on the path that not only includes personal salvation in Christ, but also to be the means by which our Captain continues the process and progress of discipling nations, to be soldiers of the Cross.  Theirs is the newness and freshness of the battle, to follow their Captain farther into enemy territory than any previous generation has gone. As God brings life to each succeeding generation, so He sounds the trumpet for that generation to courageously follow the lead of their Captain.

But for those who have been in the trenches for a while, it is easy to become disillusioned, cynical, and just plain stagnant.  And so it is that too many veterans in the ranks have lost confidence in our Captain to bring His bride, the Church, to perfection.  She is fragmented, dysfunctional, incompetent, and riddled with heresy and aberrant practices according to their view of the landscape.  Our Captain is not paying attention.  He is allowing the troops to be ravaged, divided, and overwhelmed.  “Oh” they will say, “He will eventually do it somehow, but right now, in this time of history, the best thing to do is retreat.  I know for sure He will succeed.  But not with me… not right now” Some, though they would never say it aloud (but their actions betray their beliefs) even believe that our Captain is in retreat.  Sadly, in their hurts and disappointments from the battles, they translate their sentiments to the next generation of soldiers who then look upon the battlefield before them and, likewise, quickly loose heart.

The battle wages all around us and our families.  The strategy of the enemy is not new, but the means of conflict advances quicker and quicker (e.g., advancements in technology).  Our weapon, the sword of the spirit (the Word of God) is sure and sound, but the means by which we wield that sword must continue to progress and mature to match and overcome the aggressions of the enemy.  We must not be complacent or stagnant nor are we to equip the next generation with an old sword that is less than adequate for the current issues of culture and life.

Thus we as veterans are to be refreshed continually by our Captain’s means of grace so as to stand courageous at the front.  And our children are to know for sure their sovereign calling by standing with us and with our Captain partaking of His means of grace – equipped for the battle.

Soldiers of the Cross, engage the battle!  Train and equip the next generation to take the battle deeper and more effectively into enemy territory …  for the Crown Rights of King Jesus!

True Foundations and False Dichotomies
by Patrick Hurd

“Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock:  and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.  But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand:  and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.” – Jesus; (Matthew 7:24-27)

Thus Jesus concluded what we refer to as “The Sermon on the Mount,” recorded at Matthew 5, 6 & 7, with a lesson on foundations.  All that He said to them was foundational to the belief and life practice of one who was to be His disciple, of one that was to find eternal life.

The importance of a solid foundation cannot be overlooked whether building a structure or building an effective Christian faith and practice.  As tempting as it may be to focus on the pretty window dressings and fine finish trim of a house, those things do little to nothing to support a structure whose foundation is not solid and maintenanced.  The difficulty the modern Church finds herself in today is due to too much focus on the fun, the pretty, the emotional trim work of the Christian faith while neglecting the foundations laid for her by Jesus, the Apostles, the early Church Fathers, and the Reformers.  The result is broken relationships, broken homes, broken churches, and a broken culture.

Before we can know what to expect from God the Father (or what He expects from us) we must know who He is – His nature and character.  Before we can know the extent of the redeeming work of Jesus Christ, we must know of His nature, character, and the “mission”  He was called upon by the Father.  Before we can know the extent of the work and influence of the Holy Spirit, we must know of His nature, character, and the “mission”  He was dispatched with by the Father and Son.  And, before we can know the impact of the work of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit upon creation, we must know ourselves and the extent of our need.

The Reformed Faith lays its foundation with the assertion that we serve a really really big God who is really really sovereign.  "Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father's will.” (Matthew 10:29)  Observe that Jesus didn’t say, “….apart from your Father’s knowledge” but rather, “…apart from your Father’s will.”  That is a huge difference.

Jesus is referred to as “the Son of God.”  He is begotten, not created.  He is not a creature though he donned human flesh:  “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14).  Not only is Jesus begotten of the Father, He is the only begotten – there is no other.  Yet, He is from the beginning.  “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.” (John 1:1,2)  His role as the second person of the Trinity, the redeemer of mankind, is, too, from the beginning:  “All who dwell on the earth will worship him [Satan], whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” (Revelation 13:8)

The Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, also is from the beginning:  “The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.”  (Genesis 1:2)  The Holy Spirit is dispatched by the Father and the Son to indwell (John 14:17), teach (John 14:26), comfort (Acts 9:31), and convict (John 16:8) God’s people.

There is much more to say about the nature and character of the one God consisting of the three persons of the Godhead:  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  There is much more to be said of the never ceasing works of the Godhead in creation and, in particular, with the creature of man.  But suffice it for now to say that all this involvement in and around creation by the Godhead isn’t simply for man’s convenience, comfort, or enjoyment.  We are in a grave and desperate state of separation from our Creator, on the brink of eternal damnation, that requires grave and desperate action on behalf of the only one who can save us:  Our Creator.

Since the rebellion of our first parents, Adam and Eve, every human born into this world has been born dead in their sins (Ephesians 2:1 & Psalm 51:5) and in need of a second birth (John 3:3).  And yet, this “born again” only happens at the calling and will of Father God (John 6:44), not by the will or decision of ourselves (John 1:13).  But what about man's free will and ability to make his own choice as that relates to God's eternal judgment of men?

The tension is between the “freewill of man” and the “sovereignty of God” and the supposed need to reconcile the two.  But friends don’t need to be reconciled – it is a false dichotomy.  To attempt to reconcile the two is to exalt man to the status of God and/or reduce God to the status of man.  It is to blur the distinction between creator and creature.  We are to simply live like creatures who have free will that is limited by our creatureness (not to mention our fallen nature) and have not the sovereignty of our God reserved only for the Creator.

How we handle this supposed “point of tension” determines the rest of our faith and life practices: how is one saved, who is baptized and when, who takes communion and when, who and why is the head of the family, child rearing and education, are there circumstances when abortion is OK, same sex marriages, how is the local church body to operate, what is appropriate worship to our God and who decides, how do we respond to the civil state, etc….

How we, as Christians, build the rest of the house, and whether it stands or falls, depends on how committed we are to the foundations of the nature and character of the God we say we serve, that we say we swear allegiance to.  Fortunately, whether the house stands or falls is not solely in our hands – the house will stand and prevail.  Yet there are individual consequences.  There is YOUR house and YOUR calling to serve your master.  The question before you is:  How is your foundation?  Are you on rock or sand?

That Which Connects Yesterday With Tomorrow

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” George Santayana; 
Life of Reason, Reason in Common Sense, Scribner's, 1905, page 284.

We’ve all heard this or some form of this common axiom.  It is the shortest way to stress the importance of human history to the progression of human advancement.  But it is not a new idea. Jesus, for example, taught two disciples the meaning of their day’s reality based on history, “And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.”  (Luke 24:27)  Today’s Christian possess a rich tradition, a rich and deep heritage – much of which was bought for us not only by the blood of the prophets and Christ, but also by the blood of many martyrs since.  While Jesus said, "Therefore every scribe instructed concerning the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure things new and old" it is a travesty of the condition of the modern Church who is quick to embrace whatever is “new” and equally quick to distance herself from that which is “old.”

The historic Christian Confessions, Creeds, and Catechisms exemplify just one of the ways God is superintending His Church to maturity.  They serve the Church as a means of Christian education, a means of codifying the essentials of the Christian faith, and as a means of shielding and protecting the Church from destructive aberrant beliefs and practices. 

A good portion of the New Testament Epistles was directed at bad beliefs and practices infiltrating the infant New Testament Church.  The post Apostolic Church encountered many of the same challenges along with some new aberrant beliefs and practices.  It should not be surprising that our modern Church struggles with the same issues 2000 years later since she has, for the most part, jettisoned everything the Apostolic & Early Church Fathers wrote, taught, and died for.  Since the late 1800’s, the Church in America has become more and more revolutionary in her theology and practice rather than progressively covenantal. The historic Christian Confessions, Creeds, and Catechisms serve as an anchor in today’s stormy doctrinal waters for which we can tether ourselves to the historic truths while venturing out into the stormy waters of modern pop culture.

Thus, the Confessions serve to isolate specific doctrines scattered throughout the Scriptures concerning the nature of God, man, sin, and salvation (for example) into a systematic and rational codification.  That is not to say that God’s inspired Special Revelation to mankind was wanting or inadequate.  It is to say that, God in His inspired Special Revelation, covenantally speaking, is echoed by the words of Jesus recorded at Matthew 13:10-13.  In Jesus’ own words at Matthew 13:9 "He who has ears to hear, let him hear!"  We live in a universe ruled by His sovereign laws of logic. Maturity is understanding and applying His word according to those laws of Logic for the furtherance of His Kingdom. 

One of the interesting and important aspects of the historic Christian Confessions and Creeds is their very specific focus on the essential doctrines and beliefs of the Christian faith while staying away from issues classified as matters of personal conscience.  Of Christian Liberty, the Westminster Confession of Faith states, “God alone is Lord of the conscience, and hath left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men which are in anything contrary to his Word, or beside it in matters of faith on worship. So that to believe such doctrines, or to obey such commandments out of conscience, is to betray true liberty of conscience; and the requiring an implicit faith, and an absolute and blind obedience, is to destroy liberty of conscience, and reason also.”  So it is that all the Church’s historic confessions and creeds point us back to the foundation of God’s holy and inspired Word as the only rule of life and faith practice. 

Today’s generation (like that of the 1960’s) may want to separate itself from the past, may deny history and any affiliation with it, may want to establish its own foundation of morals and ethics for going forward, but we cannot divorce ourselves from the covenantal bonds of our past.  We are made in the image of God and our calling is to be His image bearers yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

Things That Are Old and Things That Are New

“I’m sorry.  That’s not on the grocery list.”  Thus was a satisfactory explanation for our first three kids (Lindsey, Wesley, and Monica) whenever they spotted something on the shelf they wanted while shopping with Mom.  But then came Micah.  It worked for a while after he became aware of all the wonderful goodies lining the shelves of the grocery store.  But then one day, after asking again for some eye appealing delight and receiving the standard response from Mom, Micah shot back, “Put it on the list.”  Being the quick on her feet mother of five, Mom replied, “I don’t have anything to write with.”  Stumped for only a second, Micah shot back, “Buy a pen.”  Not to be outdone by a four year old, Mom quipped back, “That’s not on the grocery list.”  End of argument, at least for a while.

There’s a little bit of Micah in all of us.  Living within “the rules,” accepting the boundaries of life and societal living is a love/hate paradigm of what it means to be human.  We all love boundaries especially when they apply to other people and the protection of our own well being.  But then, we all love to push the boundaries imposed on us to try and satisfy our personal desires.  So when Jesus says, "Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For My yoke is easy and My burden is light" (Matthew 11:29, 30) I’m not sure we know what to do with His yoke around our necks that makes everything light and easy. (It is noteworthy, I think, that this saying of Jesus is only recorded in the Gospel of Matthew, written by a Roman tax collector.)

Covenant Theology gives us some insight and guidance in the quest for freedom found within the boundaries of Jesus’ yoke of life.  God, as creator of the universe, unashamedly established the physical, emotional, and spiritual laws that govern His creation.  It may be astonishing, but it should be of no surprise that the laws of physics apply universally, that is, not only on Earth, but universally.  So it doesn’t matter if you are a Christian, an atheist, deist, Mormon, Muslim, or anything else – if you leap from a twenty story tall building, you will hit bottom rather hard and die.  It’s just the law of physics.  I dare say we don’t know everything there is to know about the laws of physics and how to apply them in our lives, but that is the challenge of learning the glory of God.  The same applies to the laws of logic. The same applies to the laws of spiritual living.  God blesses the man, even the non-believer, who conforms to His created order and terms of living.  Likewise, God curses those who push the boundaries beyond the limits of His ordained order and attempt to live autonomously.

God’s covenant with creation is progressive and linear.  Progressive in the sense of mankind’s God given ability to comprehend and apply His covenantal terms.  Linear in that man’s God given ability to comprehend and apply His covenantal terms moves history closer and closer to the end of God’s redemptive plan for mankind.  Covenant Theology stands in contrast to secular humanism that portrays history as circular and repetitive and creation as sound and furious, signifying nothing.

Covenant Theology affects all of life living and thinking.  Covenant Theology connects all of history together – past, present, and future.  Covenant Theology connects all of mankind together – past, present, and future.  Covenant Theology progresses upon the foundation of the past.  Revolution discards the past in an attempt to establish a brand new paradigm.  Covenantally, all of Scripture is authoritative and the basis for societal ethics.  Covenant Theology doesn’t ignore the life implications of certain parts of scripture deemed old fashioned or irrelevant to our times.  We baptize our infants just as those before us circumcised their infants (Colossians 2:11-13) rather than looking for some kind of verbal confession of something.  We serve our infants communion as those before us observed the Passover Meal with their whole family rather than some recent invention of confession.

Yes, we have a tendency to be attracted to the “new” and “never thought of before” trends of culture – whether secular or sacred.  In reality, as each generation progresses along the line of historic redemption, there are “new” things – at least new to us.  But the new cannot be embraced at the expense of the old.  A new piece of the puzzle must fit with the old pieces already fitted together.  Just because we can see the real things today doesn’t mean the shadow of the thing was not real.

"Therefore every scribe instructed concerning the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure things new and old." - Jesus