To glorify God and enjoy Him forever

Psalm 145:15 Where does food come from?

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Cowperthwaite) — Tue, 20 Mar 2018 14:19:00 +0000

"The eyes of all look to You,

And You give them their food in due time."

Psalm 145:15 NASB

There are some verses in this psalm which speak to the grand design of God's Creation, His providence, and power. Others speak more to God's character and our response. In doing this psalm verse by verse, we are able to concentrate on each truth in due time, but reading the context is always necessary. If you have been following this study, I urge you to once again read the entirety of Psalm 145, just 21 verses, and see the beauty of the flow of this song of praise. I encourage everyone to meditate on the psalm as a whole, but not to lose the details either.

Here we see David speaking of Almighty God, Yahweh, the one true God who he has known and learned about from a child, speaking as if to a personal friend yet in humility and reverence. I believe it is this balance we often see lacking in churches today. Some enjoy singing modern songs, others like older songs. I like both, but detest bad doctrine which is becoming more and more prominent in the advent of professional musicians in the church and in a realm of entertainment that sells albums, concert tickets, and merchandise. I know these things firsthand having put on quite a few Christian concerts and spending time with bands who write, perform, and sell their music. Many are honoring to God, others appeal to the flesh and are man-centered. Sadly, the discernment that should be the hallmark of the well-versed Bible student, especially those designated to choose and lead songs in worship is often lacking, giving way to the myriad heresies that exist among certain groups of song writers.

I won't get into the specifics on this issue, except to say that the Word of God is to be our standard in all things, especially in the church where people are coming to be trained, encouraged, challenged, to worship God in spirit and in truth. Sadly, it is the culture of tolerance that seems to be leading the way in what people sing about and exposes what they believe, or even what they sing about and yet don't understand.

Here, though, David is an instrumentalist, a singer, a song writer, a king, the psalmist of Israel, and realizes that music, while a blessing in many ways, is ultimately a tool given to us by God with which He expects us to honor Him and place ourselves humbly before Him, in reverence because of who God is, and in appreciation because of what God does. We are and have nothing without Him!

We don't often sing about things like food, but should we? I suppose it depends upon what our purpose is, what our theology (knowledge about God) is, and what our ecclesiology (study of what God designed the Church to be) is. David's beliefs about Creation and the providence of God led him to write and lead Israel in a song that speaks of God providing food. See also Matthew 6.

It has often been said by those seeking more donations to the church that you can tell where someone's heart is by how they handle their finances. Giving to the Lord faithfully, cheerfully, and in recognition that all we have was given to us, this is the Biblical pattern. But what about food? Should we consider our food as part of the provision for which God deserves praise? Absolutely! What about our time? Certainly! I suppose the question that is really at the heart of this is "Is there anything in which we should not give, share, and serve as stewards of all that we have, as they are all gifts of God for our benefit and for His glory.

I always find it interesting the false dichotomies people concoct in their minds about such things. They say "Do you believe God can heal, or do you trust in doctors and medicine?" How about I pray that God would be glorified in my life, whether through trials and suffering, or through miraculous healing, and even if the wisdom God has given through science and medicine comes through an unbeliever, all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Christ Jesus, which means that in sickness, in health, and in every situation, God is shaping the lives of His people to bring glory to Himself. If God heals me, I will praise Him. If God uses the means of medicine and doctors to heal me, I will praise Him. If God allows me to suffer great malady and difficulty for the rest of my days on Earth, He is there with me still, and I will praise Him. This is how David saw things, praising God and asking God to intervene in his life for God's glory alone.

Does the verse we are considering today tell us where food comes from? If you ask the naturalistic scientist (an inconsistency in itself) they will say that "Mother Nature" just does what "she" does, and giving praise to a deity for such things is foolish and worthless, even as they do the same, only to another deity named Mother Nature, a false god whose praises are sung all over the Earth, another idol to worship instead of the true God. Nonetheless, the professing atheist, agnostic, Satanist, Buddhist, and all of us willingly accept food grown by sunshine, bearing fruit after its kind as if that were not a base challenge to their entire worldview, but indeed it is. If you think that nature is all there is, then you must consider its origins and realize the folly of such a view. Life does not come from non-life, and the exquisitely intricate workings of the seed from planting conditions to germination to growth all the way to harvest of fruit all demand uniformity in nature, which is not rationally defensible nor provable by the naturalistic materialist. The worldview which denies David's claim that everyone looks to God for their food is internally inconsistent and in fact idolatrous, giving praise and honor to the created things rather than the Creator and Sustainer of all things.

For the Biblical Christian, we must agree with David and join the chorus to proclaim the wisdom and power of God's incredibly complex creation from the smallest particle to the largest living animal and beyond. But David here is saying something more, I believe. I see here David challenging Israel to place their faith and trust in God, to call them to worship Yahweh for who He is and what He does every moment which allows us to have life at all on this planet. David is reminding Israel to live and think and speak as if the provision for the just and the unjust all come from God because of His choice to give so many good things to those who don't deserve anything but condemnation. God could let those who hate Him starve to death and live in misery without any happiness at all until their final judgement and sentence to eternal conscious punishment in Hell. But herein lies the mercy and grace of our God, that He provides for not only those whom He has rescued and redeemed by the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ in His bearing the wrath of the Father due to us as sinners, who He has called to Himself and adopted into His family. God also provides these things for those who hate Him, who mock Him, who trample underfoot the blood of Jesus and proclaim their own autonomy and ability to provide for themselves.

How many of us would, when opening our homes in hospitality, feed our friends only and let strangers go without? How many of us would share the Gospel with only those we deemed willing to receive it? Sadly, I know the answer to that as I have heard hundreds of times, "This person wouldn't accept the Gospel" and then give me an excuse for why they refuse to speak to this person. Folks, we are not God. We don't know the hearts of those around us, and even the worst offender is no closer to righteousness in God's sight than the seemingly moral and community minded person. Ours is not to pick and choose those worthy of sharing the Gospel with them, but to obey our Lord and Master who told us to go everywhere and tell everyone. How dare we think we are wiser than God? How dare we think that there is any human on Earth which could or would choose Jesus Christ as Savior on their own, especially due to the perceived morality of that person! Those who are without Christ are dead. DEAD!!! They aren't sick, they aren't close to coming to Jesus, they are either dead or they have been regenerated by the Holy Spirit by means of the preaching of the Gospel. Since God feeds every person and animal on the planet by His great grace and wisdom, we ought to take those things given to us by Him and use them for His glory. It keeps coming back to God's glory and obeying God's commands which lead to more glory for Him.

Every decision, every gift, every breath, every thought, every plan, every idea that is designed for the acceptance of those who are dead in their sins is faulty and will fail in God's eyes, no matter how others may understand the results. Every one of these things that is gleaned from the wisdom of God's Word, acted upon in faith for the sole purpose of bringing glory to God in the Gospel, no matter how many mock or reject it, is immeasurably profitable. Just as many churches have succumbed to the outward appearance of being popular or thinking more about preferences than truth, we can just as easily take the food and sustenance God provides for all of His creatures and make it about what we do, something primarily about us, or even believe falsehoods about our responsibility in light of the commands of our Redeemer, Savior, and the only Head of the Church, Jesus Christ.

May we go into all the world and proclaim the God who everyone knows exists, the God who feeds not only the people but the birds and bugs, whales and wombats, because of His great grace and in demonstration of His character. However, just because God feeds everyone doesn't mean He saves everyone. More on that at a later date as this is getting long. Go share your food with someone in need today and tell them how it is the God who created all things good, the Holy One against whom we have sinned, that saved us from our sin when we were His enemies. He is worthy!

Psalm 145:14 -Help for those in need

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Cowperthwaite) — Mon, 12 Mar 2018 13:14:00 +0000

"The Lord upholds all who are falling

and raises up all who are bowed down."

~Psalm 145: 14 ESV

This past weekend gave me some time off from writing to consider other things. I try to not study specific topics on the weekends, but prepare for and meditate on the worship of God, the preaching, the singing, the prayers, the fellowship. However, yesterday caught me off guard, though it should not have. With the changing of the clocks to Daylight Savings Time (a silly notion if ever I heard one) and our desire to enjoy the sunshine from its first light and rising above the horizon as we all watched together, we got out before church began to hold some Gospel signs at the intersection near our church.

This is one way we use to encourage Christians to be bold in their faith and unashamed to speak, by being public with our love for the Lord and for others to know and worship Him as well. To the unregenerate, it must seem that our family is either mentally ill (that accusation came this past week) or really passionate about something they don't understand. As the glory of God and the building of His Kingdom is the greatest work in which we can engage, we make it a priority to do that both in the world and in the church, so we get up early to share the Word with the world, and then go off to church to marvel in the work of God in the lives of His people and give Him the praise, honor, and worship that is due only to God.

The hard part about my health condition is that I usually walk with a rolling walker, sometimes with just a cane if the walker won't work where we are. Such was the case yesterday as we recently had a good Nor'easter storm which dumped copious amounts of snow here in our area. After the storm, the sidewalks were buried, leaving only about a foot of bare asphalt between myself and the cars coming to the intersection. I placed my daughters farther from the roadways, and attempted to make a place for myself to stand safely in the snowbank. I packed down snow under my feet and rammed my cane into the dense snow such that it stuck firmly.

Now that I was planted, I could hold my sign, smiling and waving at those who saw "Holy, Holy, Holy is the LORD GOD Almighty, the Earth is filled with His glory!" all the while marveling at the snow covered mountain in the background, singing "How great Thou art" and a few other songs. This didn't last long, as I knew I was unstable here, and really shouldn't have put myself in such a bad position. I crossed back to where Virginia was, and found a more safe place for myself to stand, where I could lean on a telephone pole if necessary. We continued on this way until a car pulled up, driven by an old friend who is a respected leader in the cult of "Jehovah's Witnesses".

As my friend pulled over into the parking lot where our van was parked, where Sara and the littles were practicing their catechism, Virginia and I crossed to where everyone else was and began to talk. We made some small talk and greeted one another with a friendly handshake, talked about why we were out there, and ended up talking for 20 minutes thereafter about the reason we love our friend and desire for him to leave the cult which he has dedicated decades of countless hours endorsing and recruiting people to their false religion and false Gospel.

We talked about the deity of Jesus Christ, which my friend denies, and I invited him to come over to talk where we could be inside, warm, and we could get off to church. We were not yet late for church, but only made it in time to say hello to a few saints before it happened. I was able to endure the excitement of talking, being challenged, rebutting my friend and rebuking him for robbing Jesus of the glory due to Him as God. I urged him to repent and stop denying who Jesus really is. We have walked through the Scriptures together on many topics over the 12 years I have periodically spoken with my friend, but I was indignant over his rebellion this day, as he was relegating the Creator to the place of a mere creation, an angel. I know that my body cannot endure much challenge lately, and though we finished our conversation, I was already headed downhill.

As we arrived at church, the spell came on suddenly and hard. God has always been gracious to me in keeping me conscious and able when needed, as if adrenaline can keep pumping me up until the valve blows, so to speak, and the pressure release valve opened all the way as I felt my energy flowing away from my brain, to the arms and legs, leaving me seated on my walker having to be held up. This continued for some time into the singing and prayer, and as I was coming back to normal, another friend from church came out barely walking, being led by her son, and dropped on the floor in a seizure. Sara and a few others tended to our friend, keeping her safe, and monitoring the situation as it is sometimes necessary to call an ambulance for our friend if her seizures persist.

With all this going on, I totally missed the sermon, hearing a few stray phrases but still trying to keep conscious. We went to church to sing together, and I sat in the entry on my walker barely upright. We went to hear the preaching, and I missed most all of it. We went to pray together, yet I could barely concentrate with 6 children (being mostly well behaved) sitting on the floor in the entry/library while Sara helped our friend, so distracted that I began to wonder why we were there. Usually I feel pretty well for church, and enjoy talking to folks, singing, praying, and I love hearing the Word of God preached for all to hear and heed, but today seemed like a wash. However, I then began to think about this verse (you thought I forgot what I was talking about, and I did) and realized that there are days when the best thing you can do is whatever you can do.

I began the day feeling great, getting up early, enjoying time with the family before church. I love to be in the open air preaching, holding Gospel signs at intersections, or talking with people about the Lord. Yesterday, however, I believe God was teaching me something else. As my friend recovered for some time, we began to talk. We spoke of God's provision of help for us, of how some might consider people with special needs and children more of a distraction than a benefit to the church. We spoke of the blessing of weakness that makes us rely on the Lord for every step, every hour, every day. I began to think again about this passage, "The Lord upholds all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down." I began to think over God's protection for me when I was in the snowbank where I should never have gone. I thought of the opportunity to proclaim the deity of Jesus Christ from the Word of God to a man who denies it. Sara was able to minister to a friend in need. The children watched, and some participated, in caring for those who have fallen (literally) and those who are bowed down.

While the meaning of this verse is not necessarily about those who are physically fallen or bowed down, it is often in such physical situations of need that we see the spiritual nature of the events around us. As I sat on my walker unable to stand, I thought of how God keeps me upright, not in stature so much as by walking upright in His sight. Our gracious Lord does this through the ministry of the Holy Spirit to apply the truths of God's Word to my heart and life. As my friend was literally bowed down, robbed of consciousness and ability to control her body, I thanked the Lord that even in such physical turmoil, we can enjoy the peace of God which raises Christians not only to their feet, but to the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

As everyone around us was singing, listening to the sermon, and enjoying fellowship, at first I felt sorry for myself and like a burden to others. I don't know if my friend feels the same way, but I have heard people talk about me when I am brought low, not knowing I can still hear even though I can't speak or move. In my training as a CNA, we were told that the last sense to go in those who are dying is hearing. When I think of that and sit or lie with other able bodied people all around me walking, talking, speaking clearly and being able to serve others, I sometimes forget the promises of God for a short while. But by God's grace to me, He always brings His Word to me, just what I need and just when I need it. He picks me up when I fall, often by the hands of others who wish to help even if they don't know what might be helpful. He raises me up each time when I am bowed low.

God is faithful! Always.

Today, we have some plans to minister to those in need. We are headed over to my former place of employment where a sister in Christ is being cared for as she is laid low. We want to bring her cards, sing for her, and pray for her. We plan next to visit another friend who has been physically been brought low, but whose passion for God's Word is often revealed in sharing with us. Such has often been the case, when those who need help the most are the ones ministering even in their weakness. I say these are our plans as we never know if I will be able to be part of these activities. I may have to stay in the van, unable to participate. I may get inside and collapse onto the walker, becoming a burden or fear to my former coworkers and our friend who we came to encourage. I may feel great and make people wonder why I am unable to work because they haven't seen me for a while and don't understand the nature of my disability. I don't know what will come, but I know that if God allows me to fall, He will also pick me up again. If He leaves me in the van while the family all goes to visit folks, then He will use me in that bowed down state and raise me up when He sees fit to do so.

I don't know if my rambling this morning makes sense to anyone else, but I felt more clear when I began to write and am currently fading. I don't know what God has in store for me today, but by His grace, I will trust Him to lift me up when I fall and, if He wills, to be used by Him to do the same for others. It is my prayer that I can be part of God's work to bless our friends in need. In strength and in weakness, God is able to use us for His work, that He would be glorified in our weakness, that His strength be revealed in and through us.

I pray that this post is a help to someone, whether those who wish to understand what it is like to be brought low, those who minister to others in difficult times, or just to know that even in the hard times, we trust in God and seek to honor Him in our words and deeds. God alone deserves all glory, honor, and praise, for He is the One who gives us each day, each breath. May we use them all to His glory!

Psalm 145:13 Two verses in one- Where is the Nun?

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Cowperthwaite) — Thu, 08 Mar 2018 15:24:00 +0000

I am so glad that we have passages in our Bibles like this verse, that challenge us to look not only to the oldest manuscripts, nor only the majority of manuscripts, but using every resource God has made available to us such that we know what He communicated to mankind, what He inspired men to write under direction of the Holy Spirit, and the preservation of the manifold riches of the glory and beauty of the character of God Almighty, the one true and living God in three eternally co-existent and co-substantial Persons. And yet, with even a moderate effort on the part of the Christian seeking God's truth, this passage, or its lack of inclusion in some translations tends to make people wonder about the preservation of the Bible and whether it can be trusted. If you want to learn more about this subject, I suggest to you the ministry of Dr. James White of Alpha Omega Ministries.

For now, let us look as we often have at this verse in various versions. You will see that some seem to be missing a part of this verse, or have added something which doesn't belong there. Being that this psalm is a Hebrew acrostic, and that Hebrew has 22 letters, and that this pattern is used in other psalms, specifically in Psalm 119, where each Hebrew letter is represented with an 8 verse section. So, if this passage rightly has only 21 verses (a modern invention, not inspired) then is verse 13 really broken in two and numbered incorrectly, does the verse not belong there, and what can we learn from variants in manuscript traditions? Is anything left out by not having the second part, the verse that begins in Hebrew with a "nun" or the letter "N" in English? One could go on for some time researching such things, but today I really just want to enjoy the passage while also wishing to answer the recent question about this "missing verse"... or is it "the added verse"?

Without further adieu, I give you multiple translations of Psalm 145: 11 as it appears in various English translations of the Bible.

NASB- "Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
And Your dominion endures throughout all generations."

KJV- "Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,

and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations."

ESV- "Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,

and your dominion endures throughout all generations.

[The Lord is faithful in all his words and kind in all his works.]

NIV-"Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,

and your dominion endures through all generations.

The Lord is trustworthy in all he promises and faithful in all he does."

One manuscript of the Masoretic Text, Dead Sea Scrolls and Syriac (see also Septuagint); most manuscripts of the Masoretic Text do not have the last two lines of verse 13.

Before everyone starts ranting about the perversion of the NIV, note that the translators here are honest about their choices to include the "Nun verse" in the text, completing the acrostic, whereas others leave it out due to the challenge of which are the most authoritative, earliest, or most copied manuscripts. In my study, I have found that most charges against the NIV deleting verses are without merit. In fact, if anything they are being quite open about the challenges of such an endeavor as translating the Bible into modern languages, and don't forget that some of the versions we have available to us were translated long before we found the Dead Sea Scrolls and other major discoveries of ancient manuscripts and copies which today we have access to from our homes. We can go buy a Greek New Testament, learn the language and all its nuances, or we can trust the collection of men who God has used to preserve and protect His Word.

So what does all this mean to you and I, the average American Christian who isn't up on the latest issues challenging textual critics, the liberals vs. the conservatives, the purist along with the one desiring to just understand God's truth? Considering in this passage, the "added" part of the verse is actually repeating other things that appear in the context, I cannot imagine anyone actually having a problem with affirming that "The LORD is trustworthy in all He promises and faithful in all He does." If you don't believe that is in wholehearted agreement with inspired Scripture, then you haven't been reading Psalm 145. The rest of the chapter certainly bears witness to the truth of this portion, giving me no reason to leave it from our discussion.

Verses 11-13 take us through the proclamation of God's Kindgom, His power, and the multigenerational approach to making sure God's truth is passed on to others, equipping them to train the next generation, and so on. This multigenerational teaching is not limited to father or mothers to their own children, but elders to the saints in the local church, older women instructing the younger to obey that which God prepared and commanded of them, and for the father training his sons to be men of God. It even includes the elderly widow in a nursing home sharing the Gospel with fellow residents, singing praise to God wherever you find yourself, preaching on the street corner, attending church services that lift high the name of Jesus and every other way one can obey these commands to sing and shout of the mercies of God in Christ Jesus, until every knee bows and every tongue confesses that Jesus Christ IS Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

You can see all translations agree on the dominion of the Kingdom of God, the only everlasting Kingdom which ever has or ever will exist. God rules above the heavens, for He has created them. Consider John chapter 1, 1 John 1, Hebrews 1, and other passages that speak of the beauty of God become man in the person of Jesus Christ, the God/man whose sinless and self-sacrificial life is the only reason a man like David, a murderer and adulterer, could hope that repentance and faith would bring forgiveness of his grave sins. Trusting in the everlasting King rather than his own kingdom of Israel is infinitely more wise, and we know from Scripture that God holds and turns the heart of the kings of the Earth in His hand and turns them however He will.

This speaks of the sovereignty of God, the depravity of man, and the desperate need for a perfect Savior who has also defeated death, which is our due payment, or wages, of our sin. The free gift of God, eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord, would never be possible unless the Kingdom of God was an everlasting, undefeatable Kingdom, whose soldiers are ever storming the gates of Hell, knowing that even the Devil is God's devil. God made Satan, a conquered foe that is just waiting for the time when he will be finally cast into the Lake of Fire, the final judgment, never to raise his voice or marshall his troops against the True King.

If God was not faithful and trustworthy (and able) to keep His promises, then we should just throw out our Bibles and walk away. If God could fail, then our faith is unstable and not worth laboring in, let alone giving our lives to. However, God is true and faithful, in fact we read in 1 Timothy that "if we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself". God's very character is faithfulness, truth, justice, if anything these are terrifying attributes to those who hate God and live in disobedience to Him, which is every person living today besides those who were given new life in Christ, purchased with His blood, who are born again to a new and living hope.

This hope is missing from the lives of those who neglect to worship Jesus Christ, repent and believe that He alone can save them. Their lives scurry about worrying about everything from finances to housing, how people view them, who they need to please, or how they will acquire the latest and greatest cure for their eternal hopelessness and embrace of the logical conclusion of a worthless existence because of their flagrant rejection and turning directly opposite the only way that leads to everlasting life. But this lack of hope is not a reason to stop preaching the Gospel, in fact, knowing God's power to choose and save those whom He wills, as revealed in Ephesians chapter 1, rather it is the motivator for the Christian to love and obey the Master who bought them with His blood by proclaiming His nature and His offer of salvation to all nations, every ethnicity, every tribe, tongue, and nation, including breaking down the cultural false barriers that say that we shouldn't impose our beliefs on others.

Indeed, Jesus said to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature, to make disciples. He didn't say to avoid hard cases, to avoid the homeless, the divorced and single parents, the seemingly moral person who claims to be irreligious. We are to go to all, and proclaim all the Gospel. The only hope for the soul destined for Hell due to their sin (that is everyone without Christ) is the proclamation of the Gospel, in person, by email, letter, song, preaching, tracts, and many other ways which the one who loves Jesus and obeys Him as Lord and Master will employ to make Christ and His Gospel known, no matter the cost to their reputation, finances, dedicating themselves wholly to the King of Kings to fill and to proclaim His Kingdom.

We know that God is faithful, we know His Kingdom endures forever, even if we don't have "the nun verse", but I argue that the inclusion of the verse is warranted and changes nothing except to broaden and widen the praise and glory of God. Read His Word, know His truth, follow His ways, and do all to the glory of God. Go in His grace today and fill your heart with His praise until it spills from your lips! He is worthy!

Psalm 145: 12- Here comes the evangelist!

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Cowperthwaite) — Wed, 07 Mar 2018 01:11:00 +0000

OK folks, this is one of my favorite verses in this text because it is the evangelist verse. What do I mean by that? As we did previously, we need to set up today's verse in its context, so we know who the players are in our little drama as it unfolds in Psalm 145. We will pick up at verse 10 and then head into today's verse, the equipping verse, the pastoral verse, the parenting verse:

"10 All thy works shall praise thee, O Lord;

and thy saints shall bless thee.

11 They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom,

and talk of thy power;

12 To make known to the sons of men his mighty acts,

and the glorious majesty of his kingdom."

You may be wondering what all the hoopla is about in my introduction, but if you bear with me a little, I want to share with you a little wider angle on what David was saying here. I believe the Holy Spirit put a lot of great truths in the Old Testament that the original hearers only knew in shadow, looking forward to when the Messiah would come and they would see greater things than the splendor of Solomon's Temple or his lavish home, to see the Kingdom of God established on the Earth through this descendant of David, by the God-man who would be born in the city of David, but that this Messiah would not come to rescue the Jews from political turmoil and oppression, but from the penalty of their sin against Almighty God, a peace maker, a heart changer, with a glorified body which offers hope beyond the grave to those who will repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, of whom it was said "The Lord said to my lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet". Let's return from the shadows to the present, where the mystery is revealed and the Savior reigns.

Virginia is a faithful witness of the Gospel. She learned from her Daddy, who was taught by many including "Bible Bill" Welzein who has preached in the open air at Key West's Sunset Celebration for over 30 years while pastoring the local OPC church and raising a pile of kids. Three generations of heralds of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

As all the works of God praise Him, and the saints bless Him, as these saints speak of the glory of His Kingdom (that requires use of the mouth and vocal cords) and talk of His power in Creation, in sending a catastrophic worldwide flood and saving one righteous family along with the animals by the various kinds. The power of that work also is evident in the confounding of languages and dispersal of mankind from Babel, God's judgement of Sodom and Gomorrah, the deliverance of Israel from Egypt after the unspeakable plagues.... I could go on forever telling of God's power to other people. But my experience with God's power I pray is something that each of my readers also experience.

When one is dead in their sin, refusing to seek God, denying His authority over us as lowly created beings, when we are at enmity with God and had done nothing to deserve His favor, then BAM! God opened my eyes to see His beauty, my ears to hear His truth, to drive me to brokenness over my sin such that I could echo the words of Isaiah, "Woe is me, I am undone!" in light of His glorious grace and mercy toward me, a wicked and undeserving self-righteous sinner. That God would send His Son to die in my place, that Jesus would willingly go, when you read verse 11, isn't that just like the Christian who has dedicated themselves to God entirely, to depart from pursuing anything this world has to offer, only to follow our Shepherd, to serve in battle under the Captain of our salvation, and then comes verse 12. After all this glorifying God in word and deed, having understood God's plan from eternity past to send His Son as a ransom for many sinners, who were washed clean in the crimson flow of the blood of Christ, to look forward to that blessed hope, the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Then verse 12.

God reveals Himself to men, to the coming generations of mankind, throughout all the Earth beginning at the Great Commission and then on into the Acts of the Apostles, through Paul's missionary journeys to the Christian man, woman, boy, or girl who takes the truths they have learned from God's people, from God's Word, from testimonies of faithful saints of the past to the example of each saint in the local church. To know God is to wish to tell others. To be saved from eternal condemnation demands joyful proclamation of that message of hope to others. To love God and enjoy Him forever starts not after death in eternity, but today, the day that God gave you to live for His glory alone. We all fail at that, but we should never accept our failure, but repent and ask for God's strength to press on in sanctification, with every victory over sin celebrated and testified about to any who will listen.

Christian, if you are still reading this, then you are probably stirred in emotion, as I am in sharing this with you. Don't let the passion of the stirring speech of men be the impetus to prompt you to obedience of the principle of this passage, to faithfully proclaim God's truth to all mankind. Let it be the Holy Spirit of God which, as we read the Scriptures, that continues to reveal the fullness of the mystery of God from ages past. We serve a known Savior, a Savior who died, but lives evermore, a Savior whose great love and mercy, grace and compassion, are lined in every Gospel account of His words and deeds. Go love your neighbor while they are dead in sin, because you were dead in sin and without any hope of salvation until someone proclaimed to you the Word of God, the Gospel of Jesus. Let His suffering, majesty, and glory motivate us all to fuller commitment to His commands, to build His Church, to purify His Bride.

This need to teach the coming generations is not limited to parents and children, but brother to brother, sister to sister, church member to elder and so on. If your church has 100 Christians in it, then each of them faithfully prays for and witnesses to 1 person every month, then by the end of one year, that church will have not only grown immensely in their corporate faith and be blessed by the fellowship of the Gospel, but also have spent time praying and sharing the Gospel in grace and love with 1,200 people in their community. In most towns in Maine, you would have reached everyone in town in the first 3-5 years. So why, after hundreds of years of churches dotting the landscape of Maine do we still have many congregations under 50, buildings that once bursted at the seams now empty? We can't blame the culture, because God's salvation doesn't depend on culture. Rather, it depends on the faithfulness of those who began the work to teach and train, to disciple and encourage others.

We might say that somewhere along the way, someone dropped the ball. I would call it the Judges cycle in application to our day. The first generation Christian usually is faithful to their death, having been born again. Their children often make professions that turn out to be false in the long run, or by God's grace, He regenerates them at the age of 30. The third generation carries significantly less conviction and more tradition, having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof. Barna has researched this as has America's Research Group. People agree on the trends, but tend to not agree on the remedy to the apathetic professing Christian toward personal holiness, evangelism, solid doctrine, and accountability. I have the answer:

Obey Psalm 145 and trust God for the results!

Psalm 145:11 They who?

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Cowperthwaite) — Mon, 05 Mar 2018 17:56:00 +0000

"They shall speak of the glory of Your Kingdom

and tell of Your power."

~Psalm 145:11 ESV

For those who have been following the blog, you know that we are working Psalm 145 through, one verse at a time, and today we happen upon a verse that is sadly out of context. In light of this, I want to quote also the preceding verse to make sense of who "they" and "You" are.

"All your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord,

and all your saints shall bless you!

They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom

and tell of your power,

to make known to the children of man your mighty deeds,

and the glorious splendor of your kingdom."

Psalm 145:10-12 ESV

With our context providing clarity of who "they" and "You" are in this passage, we see that it is the saints of God (Christians) who are speaking of the glory of this Kingdom, and that the Kingdom belongs to God, who is the "You". We know from other passages of Scripture that saints are the blood bought believers in Jesus Christ, who are declared righteous, not according to the works they have done, but according to God's mercy and the sacrifice of Jesus for sin, are seen and truly own the righteousness of Jesus Christ as it has been given to them as a gift from God along with being born again of the Holy Spirit.

In John's Gospel account, chapter 3, we are given the narrative account of Jesus talking to a man named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. Let's pick up the account from the Scriptures in John 3:2-8 KJV

2 The same [Nicodemus] came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi,

we know that thou art a teacher come from God:

for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.

3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee,

Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

4 Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old?

Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?

5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee,

Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

7 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.

8 The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof,

but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth:

so is every one that is born of the Spirit.

As we think about the Kingdom of God in the psalm, the saints are speaking of the glory of the Kingdom of God. However, in John 3, Jesus makes it clear that not only can one not enter the Kingdom of God unless he is born again by the Holy Spirit, regenerated, quickened, brought to life from death, but they cannot even see it. This is challenging to some as the Old Testament is speaking of saints and God's Kingdom (not national Israel) through a king of Israel, but one whose line would lead to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Jesus Christ, whose lineage traces back to King David.

Here we see God's overarching knowledge and sovereignty over time, "declaring the end from the beginning", and the trust that one can have in God as one who He chose to set His love upon, a sinner rescued from death, one who once stood condemned, but now one for whom there is no condemnation, being in Christ Jesus. John 3 goes on to speak more of the work of the Holy Spirit in this life giving salvation, and of the consequences to those who are not saints, not adopted of God, nor washed in the blood of Jesus. In verses 35- 36 we see that:

"35 The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand.

36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life:

and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life;

but the wrath of God abideth on him."

Herein lies the difference between the Israelite who rejected God for idols and King David whose love for God, though he fell into sin, always produced a repentance that leads to life. In the New Testament passage, Nicodemus seems to be awakened to the truth of Jesus as Messiah, though we do not know for certain, but later on we read of Nicodemus following Jesus.

It is my contention that this discussion was not an intellectual back and forth about spirituality, but a man who knew of Jesus, heard of His signs and miracles, and was regenerated by the Holy Spirit, and thus sought Jesus out and learned great truths previously mysterious to many generations of Jews who longed for the Messiah to come, but Nicodemus now seems to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, that he needs to be born again (even if he doesn't understand at first) and it seems from later testimony that Nicodemus truly repented, believed, and was born again to a new and living hope in Jesus, even while Jesus had not yet died for sin.

Yet, in the definite plan of God, which cannot be ruined, we see here another bridge between the Testaments, with men like Abraham and Moses looking forward in hope, trusting completely in the promises of God which were given to them, yet not fulfilled even in their lifetimes. Abraham never saw his seed as numerous as the stars in the sky, and Moses was not allowed to enter the promised land because of his sin striking the rock against God's command. Here we meet Nicodemus in John 3 due to a clue about the coming Kingdom of God in Psalm 145, and watching God's masterful plan unfold before his very eyes, we next see Nicodemus in John 19: 38-40 that Joseph of Arimathea came to recover and properly prepare Jesus' body for burial with this very same Nicodemus, and he brings along with him a hundred pounds of myrrh and aloes to prepare the body. This is worth a serious amount of money, so considering the vast gift to prepare a dead man's body and his personal involvement in the burial process, it would seem that Nicodemus was born again, trusting first in Jesus early in His ministry, to Jesus' death and burial, and also for His rising from the dead and walking the Earth for another 40 days before ascending to Heaven. Nicodemus got to live in the middle of these events, speak personally with Jesus, see the crucified corpse, and presumably see Jesus again in the interim between the grave and the ascension into Heaven, where Jesus is preparing a place for those who loved Him.

So where does this leave us, the average American who hasn't seen miracles and signs, who didn't live in Israel or have the Law of God passed on from generation to generation? Nothing has changed about how people get to see or inherit the Kingdom of God, and so we can find great solace from the words of Jesus to Nicodemus in John 3. In fact, we have in this chapter a great explanation of how God saves sinners, one that I find is best explained by reading Romans.... the whole thing. I also highly recommend Ephesians 1-3 which speak of the character and nature of God's plan to save His elect, the fact that we are all dead in our sins without being born again, and the grace of God that gives salvation as a gift, not as any results of works on our part, but a new creation that because it is indwelt by the Holy Spirit, will hate sin and love truth.

For me, I am left wanting more. I want more wisdom about God's salvation of man, more filling of the Holy Spirit, more power and conviction in my preaching, more of the character of the perfect Husband, Jesus, and of the love the Bridegroom has for His Church, His Bride. I want more of God, and I want to share God more with others, share more with my friends, family, strangers, anyone anywhere who will listen to this Good News, the Gospel of Christ Jesus our Lord, our Redeemer.

But to those who are not born again, those who are not saints, those who are still dead in their sins, this is a wake up call to the eternal nature of God's punishment for sin, from John 3:36, "the wrath of God abideth (remains) on them." This is what breaks my heart, this is what drives me to pray, and this is why we spend our time and resources, limited though they are, in spite of disability, pain, hardship, mockery: that there are people out there who need to hear the Gospel, maybe for the 50th time before God chooses to give them life, but people whom God loves and Christ died for, people that God will use weak servants like us to reach them in love and truth, grace and mercy, loving even those who are our enemies because Christ Jesus loved us when we were dead in sin and full of rebellion against Him.

I don't want to go on forever in this post, but to be honest, as I write through the things that I have meditated upon the last month or so, I am again renewed in hope, bolstered in strength, and pressed to action for the cause of Christ the King. We give our lives an offering til all the Earth resounds with ceaseless praise to the Son." ~ "For the Cause" by Keith and Kristyn Getty

Until the King returns, we herald His coming to all who will listen. All Hail, King Jesus!

Psalm 145: 10 Thanks and blessing from the saints

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Cowperthwaite) — Sat, 03 Mar 2018 13:53:00 +0000

"All your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord,

and all your saints shall bless you!"

Psalm 145:10 ESV

Today is a blustery March day in Maine. The wind storm has been raging over a day here, blowing down trees, sloshing the boats in the harbor, even in Rockland as our harbor is protected by a massive breakwater. The wind is cold and chilling to the bone, though the temperature is above freezing. It is the kind of day that I am glad there is no snow, but you don't really feel like going outside. There are dangers associated with driving a high profile van like ours on very windy days, so the extent of our driving has been limited to going to the various harbors nearby and seeing how they are protected or vulnerable from certain storms. Some harbors are well protected from most directions but if the wind comes a certain direction and strength, then you can easily lose your boat or your life even in the harbor. Wisdom and experience guide the seasoned fisherman and pleasure craft operators, to know both the need to protect the boat, but also to protect their own life and abandon their boat.

So, what does a wind storm, harbors, and boats have to do with this verse? The story in my mind is much longer than I care to write, but I will try to share what is in my mind so that the application is evident. You see, I grew up on the coast of Maine and have lived within a few miles of the ocean most of my life. I have worked on the water tending dive boats, working on mussel dragging boats, and worked in various aspects of the seafood industry for many years. Growing up, I laughed at the ignorance of tourists who would sit at the dock in Bar Harbor as my father and I broke claws off live stone crabs (the best meat available, and they regrow them) with people asking what kind of shrimp we were working on. I remember backing down harrowing ice laden alleys between shrimp shacks in areas like New Harbor, Bremen, and more. I guess it comes with the territory to have a close connection with wind and weather when you live near the ocean.

Growing up, I would have affirmed much of what Psalm 145 says, at least I would have given mental assent to to such things. However, it was on a calm and warm summer day when the wind and waves I know so well and the lighthouses that keep traveling ships from losing their way and their lives should they crash into the multitude of ledges and rocks that litter the ocean floor. On this clear summer day, I was driving home from camp and turned on the Christian radio station that I grew up listening to. I hadn't listened to anything Christian for years and I don't recall why I would have tuned in to WHCF 88.5 in Bangor, but at 25 years old, with my 4 year old son in the back seat of the car, I heard a familiar voice singing a familiar song. It was a man named (no kidding) Rusty Coffey. The song, I believe, was called simply "The Lighthouse"

The song spoke of a lighthouse and a ship at sea being tossed about by the wind and waves, ready to be wrecked. I had known the song my whole life it seemed, growing up in church, going to Christian schools, reading bedtime Bible stories with my mother, and making a profession of faith and baptism before my 6th birthday. But it wasn't real, I was not born again. I wasn't renewed. And now, a few decades later, I find myself divorced, a single parent, a drug addict and drunkard, an adulterer and liar. I heard the song and realized that I couldn't overcome the familiarity and the accompanying hypocrisy in my heart singing such a song about the salvation of God through shining His Light into my dark heart. I was struck by the holiness of God, the perversion of God's image that my life had become, and genuine repentance such as I have never felt before.

I was first brought to marvel at the glory of the sun shining above me, and in spite of a few clouds, the glory of the sun shone through and reminded me that when the storms come, it isn't so much that God went anywhere, but that the clouds were obscuring my view. My sin and my love for sin was obscuring the radiant beauty and Light of God in my heart. I wanted to change many times, whether at the end of my first marriage, or times when I realized my addiction was ruining my life, when I felt guilty about how terrible of a father I was and how bad a husband I had been. But in the end, I could never seem to change myself fully. I could get a better job, clean up for a while, and then go back to my own vomit.

However, as the sun shone through the windshield this day, as I heard the words of this song and considered my life on the stormy seas and near ruin, that I finally saw that "Lighthouse that stands up there on the hill, and I thank God for the Lighthouse. I owe my life to Him. You see, it's Jesus! He's the Lighthouse. And from the rocks of sin, He has shone a light around me that I might clearly see. If it wasn't for that lighthouse, where would this ship be?" I knew where I would be, just where I was, where I had been my whole life even with all the religion and instruction, even the guilt and desire to be reconciled to God. I was not born again of the Holy Spirit, I was not made a new creation in Christ Jesus, I was still dead in my trespasses and sin, without hope and headed for eternity enduring the righteous wrath of God for my sin against Him in a literal place called Hell, tormented for my sin. I was lost just like God's Word said.

I had to pull over from this stormy tossing about in my heart and mind. The day was clear and bright, the wind was calm, but inside I was being driven and tossed horribly until a moment came when I felt peace. I don't recall what I prayed, nor if I confessed my sins by name, but I remember a brokenness of spirit which produced immediate and dramatic results in my life. I had no desire to drink alcohol, nor use drugs, nor commit adultery. I was still in a hard situation raising a child on my own, living at a camp for the summer with no plans for just a few months out. And yet, I now had a peace and a purpose. Knowing so much Bible even before I was given new life in Christ, I suddenly understood many things that I had heard before, but had previously been hidden from me.

The greatest of these revelations to my soul from the Word of God, which I now devoured voraciously, was my inferiority contrasted with the majesty, the mercy, the love, and forgiveness only available by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone. The changes in my life weren't earning anything, rather they were the outpouring of that which now filled my heart, gratitude, thanks and blessing from this saint toward the God who loved me when I was dead in my sins. I had no hope, now I have an eternal hope which I share with others. I had no peace, now I know for certain because of what Christ has done for me and in me, that I have a home in Heaven, as an adopted son of the King, though I didn't even deserve to serve at His feet He now welcomes me to His banqueting table. His banner over me is Love.

As we return to our verse for the day, the storm is still blasting around our home, blowing things across the laws, wind chimes wrangled into knots from the tossing about, I can't help but remember the visual image I had in my head about that storm tossed ship, the Lighthouse has "shone its light around me that I might clearly see", and now I know, love, and serve the One who rescued me from the death I deserved and called me to His service. I can echo the words of the psalmist:

"All your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord,
and all your saints shall bless you!"

As we drove down to the harbor yesterday to watch the waves, the overspray as it crashed over the breakwater at an astronomical high tide (higher than normal due to the moon) I saw a few boats taking on water or being thrashed about, even the ferry to Vinalhaven seemed to be rocking hard on its return journey to the harbor, which we watched to be sure all those on board got to the mainland safely. I got to thinking that the calm seas are always appreciated because we often have rough seas. The difficulties help us to recognize the blessed times. The winter helps us to appreciate the spring, summer, and autumn with their stages of new life springing up all around and coming to fruition before the death of winter returns.

Life is a cycle, and we are all in different stages. But will we see our stage as a reason to complain and live as if life is about us, or will we repent of this self-idolatry and realize that our lives are created by God, we are made in His image and for His glory, and He controls all things? To the religious person like I was, I didn't feel cause for giving thanks to God, and I did not bless Him. However, once God rescued me from my own destruction and made me a new creation in Christ, by His own choice, while I was His enemy, while I loved my sin, He changed me, made me a new creation! I am a brand new man, a saint of God by His calling and election. I have been given a new heart and a new mind, one that longs for righteousness, yearns to have intimate fellowship with God and His saints, and join together with them to proclaim the great Rescuer, the Good Shepherd, the Light of the world, Jesus Christ the Righteous Redeemer and Savior, the only hope for every storm tossed vessel on the sea of life.

So today, as I look out my window, 18 years after that day when I truly met Christ and was given eternal life, it is my greatest desire and consistent goal in life to bring glory, honor, and praise to the One who first loved me and has given me every good thing I have ever been given. The winds obey His voice, the demons cower at his chastisement, and the Word of God along with the Holy Spirit have been given to me so that I might declare the glorious praise of my God with all my heart, mind, soul, strength, talents, skills, resources, gifting, EVERYTHING! And for all eternity, the saints of God will revel in His Light, we will tell His stories of mercy and grace, of salvation, and of our ruin without Him, and all of Heaven, every saint and angel will rejoice and worship the Sovereign King over all Creation in a unified voice, with no more storms to fear, and no more false professions, but those which come from a heart of genuine love, appreciation, affection, adoration, and humble submission.

What a glorious God we serve! What a blessed hope in Christ Jesus! What a painful cost Jesus paid to redeem His enemies from their rightful wages for sin, which is death, now given life that will never end. What a glorious thought on such a stormy day, one we can face head on knowing that God is our Salvation, we have nothing to fear as He controls all things. May we serve Him with gladness, proclaim Him with boldness, and love Him with all that we are and have!

If you have read this message and want to learn more about the God who saved me, He is still calling people to Himself through the work of the Holy Spirit and the proclamation of the Gospel, which is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes. Will you believe God? Will you surrender your will and your thoughts to believe who He says He is?

I am here to talk if you would like to. Email us at Maine4Jesus@gmail.com or visit our Facebook page at facebook.com/Cows4Jesus

Grace and peace to all the saints in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is worthy of all glory, honor, praise, and gratitude. Go in His grace.

Psalm 145: 9 Yahweh is good to all!

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Cowperthwaite) — Thu, 01 Mar 2018 18:47:00 +0000

"The Lord is good to all:

and his tender mercies are over all his works."

Psalm 145: 9 KJV

As I have considered this verse, I can already hear the complaints that I hear every time I preach the Gospel on the street, every time I confront someone with the truth from God's Word about their own condition. "That's not fair!" folks claim in light of the truth that every human alive today has knowingly and willingly transgressed God's standard of perfection, we have trespassed against the boundaries God puts before us, and we are living in a world cursed with sin, sickness, sorrow, death, and more. For today, as we look at this verse, we are going to apply to first to the hater of God, and then to the lover of God. These are the only two categories we find in the Scriptures.

We read about lost sheep who need to be brought home to the Great Shepherd. We read of the separation of sheep and goats, but we never find goats turning into sheep. We read of the quickening/regeneration of the dead to life in Christ, but we never hear about those who weren't quite dead, just sick, that just needed a little help to find faith in Jesus Christ and true forgiveness of sin and eternal life. Ephesians chapters 1-3 speak much of who God is, how He chooses in His sovereign wisdom to rescue some from their sin while leaving others to die in their sin. So, in light of my assertions here about God's salvation and these two categories of people, it seems one group enjoys the goodness of God to all while others claim that if God truly exists as stated in the Bible, that He is an ogre, a tyrant, a monster. So how do we reconcile Psalm 145 with the rest of the Bible?

So, what is the complaint from the person who is rejecting God, mocking God, denying the very existence of the Creator who says that everyone knows Him? They might say that it isn't fair that God allows suffering, sickness, death, unplanned pregnancies (God plans every one of them) and more. Why do bad guys get away with doing bad things while the unsolved murder rate in the largest city near us is around 40%. This means that in 10 murder cases, 4 murderers will get away with it and never be punished. The atheist, agnostic, or other skeptic has no rational reason to be bothered by activities that are immoral because their worldview does not supply the justification for morality at all. Indeed, the same people who cry about God's unfairness to them is contradicted by their claims of autonomy and moral outrage when recently a married couple beat their 10 year old daughter to death here in Maine. Depraved Indifference Murder certainly seems like the right charge to me, but to those who think we all evolved from protoplasm to fish to human, where do you even get morality? Most people asked this question with one of two answers: 1) Pure democracy, or mob rule. If the majority of people say it is acceptable to kill everyone else, then it would be moral to do so. 2) The hater of God and His morality borrow His morality and try to accuse God of wrongdoing for letting man sin. Either of these answers is untenable, and yet the inconsistency of worldview on morality and justice is evident in every realm from public education to courts and politics, including whether or not it is acceptable in one's world view to kill babies in the womb. Some atheists argue against abortion, however they have to stand on a Biblical worldview of absolute right and wrong in order to do so.

You may be saying right now that I haven't really dealt with the verse in regard to the unregenerate. However, when considering whether or not someone accepts the Word of God and the statements written therein as true, it is good to realize that God tells us that everyone knows He exists and about His divine nature and Godhead in Romans 1. Thus, the role of the professing atheist or agnostic is actually disingenuous on the face, and those who reject the existence of God then blaming Him for not being good to them is nonsensical. Yet in the face of the nonsense arguments, inconsistency, and irrational nature of the unbeliever's argument against the goodness of God, one must realize that in order to make an argument against God, they are making a moral judgement (while claiming there is no absolute morality), impugning the character of God (blasphemy), breathing air that God gave them, and pumping oxygenated blood around their vastly complex and intricate body in order to give them the ability to see, feel, taste, touch, smell, reason, and laws of logic that only make sense in the Christian worldview. So, to sum up, the one who rejects God as Creator and Judge over all that He has created is incapable of opening their mouth to speak without relying on God's good gifts of grace to all men every moment of every day of their lives. I could go on in this vein, but honestly I am bursting at the seams to get to the truth of this God who is "good to all" and whose "tender mercies are over all His works. "

Those who began this series with us extolling our God and King and proclaiming His goodness to the next generation and all throughout the world will easily agree with this statement of Yahweh/The LORD being good to all. In fact, goodness is a character attribute of God. He IS good, period! There is nothing bad in God, nothing evil, nothing lacking moral goodness, and as the Univeral Lawgiver and Creator of all things, the morality we rely on to govern our actions and cultures must come from such a source as an all good God who cannot do or be evil.

As a Christian man, husband, father, friend, minister, and more, I will never have enough time or energy to fully proclaim the goodness of God to me, even (especially) when I was dead in my sin and living a life filled with wickedness in direct contradiction to all I knew to be true about God. I didn't think I hated Him, I tried being apathetic. But one cannot be apathetic about the redemption of the sinner's soul, the sacrifice of Jesus for a worm such as I, and I would urge you that if you think vague thoughts about God, not living a life dedicated to Him but merely acknowledging God when the topic comes up, but living your life outside of obedience to His commands, then you know not God. You cannot know the most marvelous, awesome, creative, loving entity in all the Universe and not be excited about it! The idea of the worldly, or carnal Christian is a recent invention, possibly a reaction to looking around churches and seeing a lot of worldliness and not much holiness, but moving the bar isn't our choice to make. God sets the standard, and while none of us are perfect in this life, we can live in humble obedience to our God as much as we understand about Him. We must desire growth, closeness in relations, and even correction when we sin against God.

What are some ways in which we see the goodness of God to the Christian?

You woke up today and are still alive. The sin you committed yesterday deserves death, but God in His mercy left you here to learn, to obey, and to enjoy fellowship with Him and His people.
You have the ability to read this post, which includes for most people eyesight, comprehension of language, a brain that can process light from your eyes into words that you understand, and whether you realize it or not, keeps your heart beating and your lungs breathing even if you aren't paying attention.
You have been shown mercy from God in spite of your sin, Jesus took upon Himself the punishment you deserved, and now you are not only a new creation in Christ, but you have been called as an ambassador for Christ, with the duty of urging others to be reconciled to God in Jesus Christ.
God has given you the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, God Himself, living in you and teaching you from the Scriptures, convicting you of sin, and interpreting your groanings that are too deep for words to Jesus Christ, the Advocate for His people, before God the Father. Your prayers are heard!
Most everyone who is reading this has ready access to the Word of God, in many languages and translations, such that we can continue to learn about God and share His truth with others.
God has given faithful men the charge to preach the Gospel not only in churches, but on the town square, from house to house, and you live in a country where you can do this without going to jail or risking death for your beliefs. This cannot be said about everyone in this world, and even in America, a preacher was put in jail yesterday for telling people while preaching that they were "dead in their sins"and needed to be made alive in Christ Jesus.
We haven't even touched on family, friends, church, communities, caregivers, police, emergency medical staff, firefighters, and more. While these people are not perfect, they are a blessing from God to those whom they serve and protect. We ought to pray for our leaders and those who protect our communities, those who guide our churches, parents who lovingly provide for and teach their children.

As I continue to endure the struggles of my current physical and mental condition, this blog has allowed me to work as I have time and clarity of mind to share with others. Thank you for reading, and share our posts if they bless you. May you spend the rest of your day, even all your life, and into eternity, singing and marveling in the praise of our gracious and merciful God!

Psalm 145: 8 Grace, Mercy, Compassion, and Love

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Cowperthwaite) — Mon, 26 Feb 2018 14:44:00 +0000

As we continue our study through Psalm 145, considering various translations, I am not advocating the daily use or intense study of all the versions cited here. I do, however, find that it is helpful to consider other translations, especially more literal versions, though at times the phraseology and wooden translation is difficult to understand.

We won't be using every version here going forward, but I do want to put to rest the idea that the only way English speaking people can know what God has said is to read a specific version, or that any English version of the Bible is inspired. Rather, it is the originals which were inspired and we have plenty of evidence that what we have today is that which was originally given to the apostles, prophets, and others God used to write His Word as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

Today, as we examine the character of God through Psalm 145, verse 8, I am going to share a whole pile of Bible versions available online to compare and contrast. For these comparisons, I find the site Bible Gateway to be helpful, as it provides up to 5 side by side translations at a time, with dozens to look at, even some in various languages for those who don't have English as their heart language.

"The Lord is gracious and merciful;

Slow to anger and great in lovingkindness."

NASB New American Standard Bible

" The Lord is gracious, and full of compassion;

slow to anger, and of great mercy."

KJV King James Version

"The Lord is gracious and merciful,

slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love."

ESV English Standard Version

"The Lord is gracious and compassionate,

slow to anger and rich in love."

NIV New International Version

"The Lord is gracious and full of compassion,
Slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness."

AMP Amplified Bible

"You are merciful, Lord!
You are kind and patient
and always loving."

CEV Contemporary English Version

"Gracious and merciful [is] Jehovah,

Slow to anger, and great in kindness."

YLT Young's Literal Translation

"The Lord is gracious, and merciful,

slow to anger, and of great mercy."

Geneva 1599, notes from this passage cited below

"He describeth after what sort God showeth himself to all his creatures,

though our sins have provoked his vengeance against all:

to wit, merciful, not only in pardoning the sins of his elect,

but in doing good even to the reprobate,

albeit they cannot feel the sweet comfort of the same."

~ Geneva Bible notes

Given all of these various translations available to us, some using the literal word for word, thought for thought, or dynamic equivalent standards for translation, one would think we would have chaos, but rather what I see here is a harmonic blend of interpretations that all say the same things about God. What are these things upon which we all agree about the character of God, whether we are KJV only or prefer the Geneva which predates the King James.

I was thinking about the text of these various translations, about the cross references, about the meaning of the words, which I have explained and defined in previous posts, and found that the note in the Geneva Bible were in complete agreement with the text, while drawing ideas such as pardon for sin, election, reprobation, and comfort from the general knowledge of God revealed in other Scriptures. I have been called a Puritan before, as if that were some sort of insult, but indeed these people who lived most of their lives in full dedication to knowing, enjoying, and proclaiming God and His Word as a manner of life who crossed the Atlantic some 400 years ago, planting seeds that would lead to the United States of America, were carrying with them not the KJV, which was the most recent translation available to them, but the Geneva Bible.

Putting history aside for a moment, let us consider what we can learn from this beautiful passage which continues to burn itself into my heart and solidify the truths I have known personally as a sinner saved by the grace of God, dead in my sin and now alive in Christ, ruined and wretched and now a new creation in Christ Jesus. The more we see the beauty and glory of the God over all Creation, the more our sins should grieve us, the more sensitive we become to sin around us in our brothers and sisters, and the more we are driven to go proclaim the Word of God to a dying world, to proclaim the Good Shepherd to anyone who will listen, knowing that among the throngs of people wandering our towns, schools, churches, and businesses, there are lost sheep who need to hear the Shepherd's voice. When they hear it, they will follow Him, so the charge to go and herald this great Savior is all the more engulfing our minds as we are sanctified, set apart for His work, and blessed in the doing of that work.

Think about how you talk about God. Think about how you explain His character, His plan of saving sinners through the blood of Jesus Christ. Think about what you are conveying when you speak to people about their need for forgiveness. Yes, present the truth about man's condition, certainly speak to the desperate need for reconciliation, but don't forget to proclaim the cure, regeneration by the Holy Spirit, washing away of sin by the atoning blood of Jesus on the cross, the wrath of God poured out not on a guilty man, but upon a sinless and spotless God/man, the suffering Servant, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

Go and tell everyone about all these things in full view of the character of God as listed below, taken from the same passage, understood in context slightly differently, expressed in many terms that we need to have in our hearts, on our minds, and meditate on the goodness of God to save sinners and then use saved sinners to tell others of the Savior.

Then think about the fruit of the Spirit and see if these things are also true about us, as people who have been cleansed from sin and made new in the image of Christ Jesus, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, adopted sons and daughters of the Most High God. These traits show us God, but they also show us what God is doing in the lives of Christians to make us like Him.

GOD IS:

Full of grace

Full of mercy

Slow to anger

Great in loving kindness

Full of compassion

Abounding in steadfast love

Rich in love

Kind and patient

I have asked myself which of these are true about myself consistently, not just once in a while, not just with those closest to me, my wife and children, but the elderly and downcast, the single parent and the marriage of the couple with many children, of the single young man who is troubled by pornography's grip on his mind who wishes to be set free, of the abortion minded mother who can't see the blessing of a child in light of the circumstances around them. These are convicting questions, dealing with not only actions, but motivations. I fall short in these far too often, and now as I write, I am convicted and broken, desiring to do better. But I can't do it alone, in fact, I can't do it at all. It is only Christ in me that makes me even consider doing these things for the glory of God, rather than mere guilt or hope of reward. To have the mind of Christ is to not be conformed to this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, to be made more like Jesus and live every moment for His glory, knowing that without Him, we could do nothing.

As you go about your day, I hope that you will take into account the challenge here, and remind me of it as well. I need accountability more than others because of the influence God has given me in my marriage, with my children, with those we counsel, and our public ministry. I don't speak out of pride, nor expecting anyone to live by the standard of my life, but I do set forth the standard of God's Word as the only standard worth following. Paul said we should follow him as he followed Christ. I take that to mean that where he sinned, we should not follow. None of us are perfect, but we as Christians are being made into the image of Christ, and one day will be perfect as He is perfect. I long for that day, to see the gracious, merciful, compassionate, loving, kind, and patient God and to no longer sin against Him, but to give Him all the glory and honor due to Him. Walk in His truth today!

Psalm 145:7- Singing and shouting the righteousness of God

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Cowperthwaite) — Sat, 24 Feb 2018 15:15:00 +0000

The first night I read this Psalm most recently, which began a month long study and now these blog posts, my focus was actually on the issue of music and the worship of the church. Surely, there are many whose traditions are good and faithful to God's design for worship. Others have fallen into man-centered songs whose primary goal is to talk about how God makes them feel. While these may be helpful in some settings, I believe that the Bible bears out that what we offer to God in corporate worship is not to be dictated by the latest popular song, or led by stylistic preference, but should be focused on allowing the entire congregation of blood bought saints of Jesus Christ to focus on who He is, what He has done, and offer our songs and our lives in devoted praise and obedience.

Today's verse I want to share from the various versions I have been considering, to compare and contrast as I have done here previously, as the multiple translators take the original languages and try to express them as faithfully as possible to the American reader in my case, but in the English language as is the case in many countries across the globe.

The New American Standard Bible (NASB) renders the passage as follows:

"They shall eagerly utter the memory of Your abundant goodness

And will shout joyfully of Your righteousness."

The King James Version (KJV) is slightly different, but flows with beauty:

"They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness,

and shall sing of thy righteousness."

And last, but not least, the English Standard Version (ESV) another beautiful and rich rendering of what happens when we understand the glory of God as revealed in the rest of this psalm:

"They shall pour forth the fame of your abundant goodness

and shall sing aloud of your righteousness."

We see here some slight differences, which give a fuller sense of meaning to the underlying inspired Hebrew original texts, preserved by God for our edification and education, along with leading us to praise God with our lips and not merely intellectually or philosophically, but outwardly as a spring bursting forth from the heart that knows and loves this merciful and gracious, majestic and glorious God.

We might put together these renderings and come up with something like this: "They shall pour forth abundantly and eagerly the fame and memory of God's great and abundant goodness, and will shout and sing with joy-filled hearts of the righteousness of God" The question that comes to mind when I read this and consider the state of my own heart, the patterns of the family I lead, and the members of the church we attend along with those who attend churches throughout Knox County, Maine, the United States of America, and throughout the world is this: In light of all we have learned from this Psalm already, of all the marvelous works of grace and mercy that God has done for His people, with all the abundant blessings we have been given, chiefly among them the salvation from eternal Hell and condemnation and the promise of eternal life and forgiveness of sin through the atoning death of Jesus Christ for His Bride, when the wrath of God due to me was poured out on the spotless Savior who willingly died in my place to rescue and redeem me when I was dead in my trespasses and sins,

ARE WE WHO ARE CALLED BY THE NAME CHRISTIAN KNOWN,

NOT ONLY IN CHURCH BUT EVERYWHERE WE GO,

FOR POURING FORTH FROM OUR HEARTS THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD?

IF NOT, WHY NOT?

Are we truly filled with the Holy Spirit? Have we truly been born again to a new and living hope because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, enduring the wrath of God due for sin? Have we, as seasoned Christians, come to the House of the Lord to worship Him as this verse shows, or are we following the traditions of men (which have value, but only if pleasing to God) or are we just doing what we think keeps people interested, offends as few people as possible, or we just like certain forms over others?

This is not an accusation against anyone, but a challenge I have been considering for years, a study I have been laboring at for over a decade, and the subject of many struggles that faithful Christians have as they see the progress of modern churches toward man centered songs and sermons. You would not believe how often this issue comes to my email inbox or messenger, along with personal conversations too numerous to count. If our purpose for living as Christians is to make disciples of all nations, teach them to observe the commandments of Jesus, and all the other things we find in the New Testament, is it time to consider EVERY practice and pattern in the church by God's design, and then to implement only that which we know to honor God rather than allowing dozens of man made and even contradictory practices, let alone songs and sermons into our churches?

I will leave this post here as it was not my intent to get into the regulative principle of worship, nor to criticize anyone or any church. Rather, we need to do as the psalmist did here, to meditate on the character and nature of God and let that drive how we live our lives, how we raise our children, how we reach the lost, and how we worship God.

Thank you for continuing to read this series, now 7 posts long with 15 more in the works. If you enjoy these posts, please share them via social media, or print them out to read to your family to spur discussion of profitable things from the Word of God. Please also read some my series, also posted here from years ago, on "The Ideal Church" a 5 part series that speaks simply and Biblically about the practices of the early church and our need to return to the patterns God instituted at the beginning of the Church.

May the splendor and majesty of God compel you to sing and shout His praises for all the world to hear.

A fool for Christ,

Mark

Psalm 145: 6 Declaring the greatness of God

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Cowperthwaite) — Fri, 23 Feb 2018 02:52:00 +0000

Today, a famous man of God passed from this life into eternity to receive the reward of his Lord and King. I have not always agreed with the man's stances on multiple issues, but his love for the Lord and passion to reach the lost were without question to anyone who ever heard him preach. I once reviewed a book of quotes by Mr. Graham, and even watched a movie about him once. I know many a Christian, elders/pastors, missionaries, and many more who will tell you that their eyes were opened to their sinful condition and depraved estate after hearing a fiery preacher speak of the great God. I doubt there are many others alive today whose influence is even close, and I know and love some of the finest preachers of this era. A ministry spanning decades upon decades coupled with the blessing of God allowed this one man to speak in the living rooms of almost every person in the English speaking world, and a whole lot more.

Our passage for today will be quoted from the ESV. In Psalm 145:6 we read:

"They shall speak of the might of Your awesome deeds,

and I will declare Your greatness!"

When one considers the cultural use of the term "awesome", you just might miss this one entirely. However, if you can get past the often flippant use of the term and realize that what is being said here is that God's might inspires a sense of awe and wonder to think that not only does such a God exist, but that He is concerned with the lives of mankind. How marvelous and unexpected, and also quite unjustified it is that God should bother with created beings who live their lives primarily in sin against Him, not giving Him thanks nor praising His works! What an incredibly merciful God is Yahweh/Jehovah!

Here we also see the continuation of the generational confessions of eyewitness accounts of the work of God to take men, women, boys, and girls and transform them from dead sinners to living and active agents indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Our testimonies and declarations of God's greatness come primarily from the Word of God, His self revelation to mankind in the Bible. But the great and mighty, awesome deeds of God are also seen throughout the world each and every day.

From the North Korean prison camps where Christians are being beaten and dragged to death behind vehicles for their faith in Jesus Christ as Lord, Savior, and reigning King over kings and Lord of lords, to the sidewalks outside abortion clinics where babies are being murdered under cover of law while Christians plead and beg for the lives of babies they have never seen before, God is at work. We have seen Him reverse the course of abortion minded women, and we have heard the testimonies of those who died in faith under totalitarian regimes and self appointed dictators.

But we must not only see these things for our own edification, or even share them with Christians at church during a time of testimony and praise. We must go to the streets, the doors of our neighbors, the soup kitchens and the banks, to the young and the old, the infirm and the fitness enthusiast. And when we go there, we must speak the truth of God's wonderful and awesome deeds even if they will not listen, even when they mock and blaspheme. We have been called to love even our enemies, and surely Jesus Christ died for the ungodly, paying the debt of their sin and enduring the wrath of God poured out upon Himself in the place of all those who repent and believe, who have been born again to eternal life. Christians should be filled with jubilation and joy at the myriad blessings of every day we are given to live. We recognize our struggles, and don't diminish the pain and difficulties we face, but we face them with hope, with joy, leaning on Him who created all things to continue to produce in us His character, the fruit of the Spirit, and a reverence for God our Father.

The more we examine this psalm, the more I enjoy it. The more time passes without meditating on this passage, the easier it is to worry, to be anxious, and to not trust God. We must be on our guard, and rather than reacting when we see ourselves without the joy of the Lord and awe at His deeds, we ought to make a practice of counting our blessings, sharing them with others (especially unbelievers) and go with the humility and compassion for souls that should accompany one who knows they have been bought with the precious blood of Christ, that they belong to Him, were created for His glory, and that the greatest achievement we can hope for in this life is to honor and obey God in all things so that His purpose is fully accomplished in us, as a trophy of His grace and mercy, and nothing else matters.

The joy that fills my heart even in great trials, the loss of our son, leaving ministry due to my own sin and error, and the health issues that have kept me from providing for my family are only possible with an eternal perspective. So when I cannot go out and proclaim Christ, I stay home and proclaim Christ to myself, my wife, my children, my guests, whoever is willing to sit and listen. I can write on this blog to share my experiences and encouragement from God's Word with others. I can pray for all those many needs that come to me from friends serving God all over the world. I can prepare to know and serve God more fully and faithfully as He gives opportunity.

I want to know if these posts are hitting home with anyone. I feel compelled to write them, and believe God will use them for more than just keeping my own journal. I pray that is the case. If you have been challenged or encouraged by these posts and want them to keep coming, please contact me at cowperthwaitefamily@gmail.com. Until then, I hope to keep having the mental clarity to read, digest, meditate upon, and share this precious psalm with you all.

How will you declare the greatness of God today? Who will you tell? Will you write a letter, make a phone call, go knock on your neighbor's door, or share your testimony with a coworker? Whatever way it comes out, let your heart and soul be filled with the praise of our great God, of His awesome power in Creation, His awesome promise of resurrection unto eternal life for those in Christ, His awesome character that is without spot or blemish, the awesome and incredible nature of an eternal being who interacts within time for our sakes, that we might know Him and make Him known.

We are considering how best to serve the Lord with the situation we find ourselves in. If I am still unable to work this summer, we hope to help with evangelistic VBS programs and community outreach events. If you are interested in having our family work with your church, please email me as well. We have older children who have a passion to reach kids with the Gospel, and also hope to spend more time in nursing homes singing God's praise and sharing the Word of God. If you know of a venue willing to have us (6 kids ages 6 months to 15 years) in, we will take each idea to God in prayer and see what He gives us to do.

We may even do some traveling in the state of Maine to work with various churches, so we may be looking for a camper to borrow or otherwise acquire in the near future. We have no finances for such a purchase, but God has provided for His work in many marvelous ways over our years serving Him. We are thinking of parking at a church for a week of Gospel outreach, whether preaching on the street, visiting homes, holding events at a church, or maybe even some things we have not yet considered. Will you pray for us as we continue to seek wisdom about my medical situation and our future ministry? We appreciate your prayers immensely.

Psalm 145:5 the glorious honor of God's majesty

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Cowperthwaite) — Wed, 21 Feb 2018 14:41:00 +0000

There are many passages of Scripture that teach us about the majesty of God. Today's verse deals with this, but we will look at others to see the harmony of the Word of God in regard to the revelation of God, which, if I do my job well, will lead you to praise, honor, adoration, and great love for the Creator of all things and His salvation of sinful man. But first, the text for the day:

Psalm 145: 5 KJV

"I will speak of the glorious honour of Thy majesty,

and of Thy wondrous works."

This verse correlates with verse 4, so instead of repeating myself, I thought I would bring in other Scripture in regard to the majesty and glory of God. The first passage that comes to mind is one that I knew for years, but truly understood after reading R.C.Sproul's book, "The Holiness of God". That passage is Isaiah 6: 1-7

"In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne,

high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.

Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face,

and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.

And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts:

the whole earth is full of his glory.

And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried,

and the house was filled with smoke.

Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips,

and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips:

for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.

Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand,

which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar:

And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips;

and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged."

As I consider the "glorious honour of Thy majesty", and the explanation of the vision of Isaiah here, we cannot help but be humbled once again that the Creator, the King, the thrice Holy (other, separate, transcendent) God would reveal Himself to mankind in such a way. Truly, the images one sees in their mind as they read through this is absolutely breathtaking. And such was the case when witnessing this vision. Isaiah, a prophet of God, a trustworthy, faithful, and persecuted man of God would say that his lips were unclean, not because of some exposure of sin by God's words or the vision, but in view of the Holy God who stands as Creator, Ruler, and Judge over all Creation, but because of the glorious majesty of that God. He spoke of the uncleanness of himself, specifically his lips, BECAUSE his eyes had seen the King, Yahweh of Hosts. And yet, Isaiah's response of self-analysis and loathing of his sinfulness and that of his people, was not the end. God mercifully went on to cleanse Isaiah's lips, to burn away the sinfulness and then send him off to tell others of the glorious vision of the majesty of God, that they might also repent and follow the one true God.

In Revelation chapter 4, we see a similar seen given to John, the aged disciple and apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. In this revelation of Jesus Christ, after issuing warnings and chastisement along with encouragement to repent, we transition to a scene in Heaven. Here is John's account:

"1 After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice

which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said,

Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.

2 And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven,

and one sat on the throne.

3 And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone:

and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald.

4 And round about the throne were four and twenty seats:

and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting,

clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold.

5 And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices:

and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne,

which are the seven Spirits of God.

6 And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne,

and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind.

7 And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf,

and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle.

8 And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him;

and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying,

Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.

9 And when those beasts give glory and honour and thanks to him that sat on the throne,

who liveth for ever and ever,

10 The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying,

11 Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created."

Here, we see similar descriptions of the majesty and glory of God. The repeat of "Holy, Holy, Holy" and the additional descriptor: "Which was, and is, and is to come" speaking of the eternality of this glorious majesty, the unending reign of the Creator over Creation, and yet despite the sinfulness of mankind, even after regeneration, God has allowed redeemed mankind into His presence. To consider the majesty of an earthly king's coronation, where the invited guests are not the members of Congress or Parliament, the rich and the powerful, but the treacherous and wicked sinners whose only reason for invitation is the mercy of God in calling them out of darkness and into His marvelous light, is to challenge the human mind's ability to think rationally.

Why, after all, if God is so glorious and majestic, holy and awesome, would He not choose to reveal Himself only to the men like Isaiah whose lives were dedicated to proclaiming the truth of God (though Isaiah was indeed one of God's chosen people) and instead chooses to use Jacob the deceiver to be the father of God's chosen nation? Why would God use Saul of Tarsus to be the proclaimer of divine revelation of not only God's justice, but also His mercy and love? Why, and for that matter, HOW, could God invite men to His presence, adopts them as His children, and gives them eternal life with Him? The answer is found in the love, mercy, patience, grace, and compassion that God shows to us freely through the sending of His only begotten Son, Jesus of Nazareth, as the Christ, the Messiah, the Lamb of God. Jesus is the only way that sinners such as inhabit this earth can see and understand the majesty of God. And when God's majesty is revealed to the human heart through the work of regeneration, or being born again of the Holy Spirit, the work is always completed. He who began a good work in His people will be faithful to complete it.

As we continue to ponder the wonders of this psalm, we will find other character traits of the Holy God, we will be led to worship and praise, and when the love of God overflows the boundaries of our hearts and minds, we will pour forth these wonderful truths to others, that God will be glorified, and that others may enjoy the glorious praise and worship of our majestic God, who sits enthroned in the heavens, and yet also cares about me, my worries and fears, the needs of my family, the need of my heart to know Him more and love Him more deeply. This is just another step on the journey to knowing God, experiencing His grace each day, and drives the receiver of God's grace to go and spread the message the world around. To God be all glory, honor, majesty, and praise, both now and forevermore!

Soli Deo Gloria

Psalm 145: 4 Telling the next generation

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Cowperthwaite) — Tue, 20 Feb 2018 14:17:00 +0000

Today I am feeling pretty well, and even the rain falling outside my window reminds me of the loving care of our gracious God who sends rain on the just and unjust. Yesterday, I had the opportunity to go out and preach for the first time in a long time, and while I had to lean on my walker the whole time, I was able to speak with clarity to those passing by, the waitress at the restaurant across the street, the people who came out of shops to listen, of the glorious God who gives us all life and breath, the God who deserves all glory, honor, and praise, for He is the Giver of every good gift.

The verse we will be considering this morning is Psalm 145: 4. In the NASB, we read:

"One generation shall praise Your works to another,

and shall declare Your mighty acts."

This was one of the verses that I wanted to spend some time on in the declaration of the Gospel yesterday. Why is it that Christians are known for such passionate proclamation of their faith in the public square? Why do Christians spend so much time teaching their children, going out to reach others with their message, and pass by so much of what the rest of the world is enjoying in the realm of entertainment and self gratification? There are myriad reasons, one of which is that much of what our culture produces and enjoys are in contradiction to what God has revealed in His Word as healthy and worthwhile.

Another reason Christians are so passionate is because they understand what others do not. There are things about the message of Jesus Christ which seem as foolishness to those who have not been given a new heart that yearns for the things of God rather than the things of this life. Christians routinely spend hours singing songs about how weak and humble they are to proclaim the strength and glory of God. We speak with authority about the things revealed by the Creator in the Bible, because without the Christian worldview, you could not really know anything for certain. If there is no guiding force, no all- powerful and all- knowing authority that reigns over the universe, then we couldn't have any certainty that everything wouldn't come crashing down on us tomorrow, or that tomorrow would ever come. It is only in the Christian worldview that these things make sense. If you want to understand more about why this is true only of Biblical Christianity, I recommend Dr. Jason Lisle's message here and Sye Ten Bruggencate's message here.

Having established the basis for why the Christian can have certainty for the message of the Gospel of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, it seems evident to everyone that the rational and expected response to knowing truth that transforms the heart and life and prepares the soul for eternal life, it would seem the next step from learning knowledge of God would be to share it with everyone you encounter. Truly, if God created humankind for His own glory, in His image, and if our purpose in this life is revealed, clarified, and guided by the purpose of glorifying God in our hearts, minds, and every aspect of life (and it is) , then David's statement about one generation declaring God's mighty works to following generations is completely expected. We all share with our children and those around us the things about which we are passionate. The things that we know to be true, the reason for living, everything will be wrapped up in God's great grace and mercy toward mankind, our words will be laced with Biblical truth, brokenness over sin, repentance and faith, and we will desire to do that which Jesus said He came to Earth to do, "to seek and to save that which was lost."

As I began to speak, heads began to pop out of shops and restaurants, art galleries, and music stores. Sadly, as those curious folks came out to hear what was going on, most saw the signs we hold quoting scriptures such as "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God, the Almighty. The whole Earth is filled with His glory" and "Children are a blessing from the Lord, the fruit of the womb is a reward" many shook their heads and went back where they came from. The world today has come to think that passing the truth of God's Word on to the coming generation is brainwashing, child abuse, and more. These accusations have been hurled against us more times than I could count.

Yet, even the ungodly do the same. They deny God's existence and concoct wild and fanciful stories that are much more incredible than that which God's Word declares, of parasites morphing into people over millions of years. They indoctrinate other people's children, as if children belonged to the state and so the state is responsible and given authority to teach, train, and disciple children who are sent to them. The sad part is, that when you send your child off on that bus, or walk them through the doors of the school, you have agreed with them that their ungodly and perverted view of the world is acceptable to you and that you want your child to learn their ways. Even Christians do this, sending their children to be taught history, science, social sciences, and a whole worldview of ungodliness, and then wonder why their kids leave the faith. This is the caution David is exposing here, as did Moses and many others in the Word of God, all the way into the New Testament era where Paul tells Timothy to "commit these things to faithful men who will be able to teach others also."

Certainly, there is great power in having generous amounts of hours (over 1,000 per school year) to mold and shape the minds of the coming generation. The question is, are we as Christians doing what we are called to do, or are we ignorant of the schemes of the Devil in regard to our children, or worse, apathetic to what is being taught and modeled for our children? If we belong to Christ, then it is our blessed calling, our holy duty, and the desire of our hearts to herald to the coming generations the goodness, grace, mercy, love, and mighty works of our God, our King. Note that David isn't giving a command here so much as explaining what is the natural outflow of the heart and mind that know the living God and have seen Him change their lives, to raise them from the dead in Christ, to make them a new creation that is being conformed day by day more into the image of Jesus Christ.

The Bible contains many commands to "train up a child in the way he should go..." and "Fathers, do not exasperate your children, but train them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." However, here we don't have a command so much as an expectation. If I find a person whose life was transformed from sinful pride and self gratification, who because of the transformation of regeneration (born again) is now a humble servant of others for the glory of God in Christ Jesus, then I expect to see this happening. If someone comes to church regularly, knows the phrases and lingo, but whose life is not marked by joy in the midst of suffering or love for Christ and the lost sheep in the world that compels them to seek them out and point them to the Savior, then I worry for their soul. The marvelous work of God in salvation is enough to make me weep over my sin, and weep again for joy to know that all my sins are paid for by the blood of Christ, that I am His because He has purchased me with His blood on Calvary's cross.

If you are a Christian, maybe today is the day you need to renew your commitment to tell others of the grace and mercy showered down upon you in Christ. Maybe today you are reading this and don't feel any relief from the burden of sin, nor joy in knowing Jesus. If so, you should read this psalm in fear and conviction, and realize that you don't have these things which God produces in His children because you are not His, or you have forsaken what you once believed. If this is you, today is the day to repent, to cry out to God and confess your sin against Him. You can try your best to fulfill every command in the Bible, to follow the whole Law, but you will never accomplish anything of eternal value on your own. You must first be made alive in Christ, reject your sinful past, confess your sin before God, and beg Him to make you a new creation in Christ.

As I look back on many years of walking with the Lord, I see too often that my zeal for the lost is diminished, spending too much time thinking about myself and my own goals. In times like these, I must remind myself of the character of God, the character of man outside of God's salvation, and the marvelous works He has done in my life and the lives of many around me. I have been blessed to know thousands of people across the country whose lives exude the grace and power of the Holy Spirit, and rather than complain because I can't do all the things they are doing for God, I need to know what God has planned and purposed for me to do, and then I must dedicate my heart and mind, everything I am and have to following the perfect plan of the all knowing God, by whose name I am called, and for whose glory I want to live until the day He calls me home.

Ephesians 2 is a favorite chapter of mine, but in regard to the things that flow from the work of salvation as manifest in the hearts of those who are truly Christians, I want to close with this passage in knowledge that my words are useless and vain unless they are in agreement with the Word of God. Test all these things by the only Truth man can ever know for certain, the Word of God.

Ephesians 2: 1-10 KJV

And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;

Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:

Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,

Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)

And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:

That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

Not of works, lest any man should boast.

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works,

which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

Christians are made by God in Christ for the purpose of doing good words, including that great work of telling the coming generations of the mighty acts of God. Go in His strength, and proclaim His truth, that God alone be glorified in all the Earth, for He is worthy!

Psalm 145: 3 Unsearchable greatness

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Cowperthwaite) — Mon, 19 Feb 2018 14:23:00 +0000

Today I want to look at the focus of the first three verses of Psalm 145. The last few posts, we have been considering the way we should interact with God's Word, and how the praise and blessing from us toward God are to be our eternal theme. Some people unfamiliar with the Psalms have asked me before "Why should we praise this God instead of the other gods(idols) and for that I want to take a look at other passages of Scripture, including Psalm 115 and Job 38. But first, let us look at our verse for the day, Psalm 145:3

"Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised;

and His greatness is unsearchable"

First of all, we need to see the difference between the generic word Lord, which means master, and this all capitalized version, LORD. This is the rendering most Bible versions give to the Sacred Name, or the memorial Name by which God revealed Himself to Moses, in English pronounced Yahweh or Jehovah. In this passage, David is not speaking about himself as King, nor the promise that he would be in the line of the Messiah, but speaking of the character and nature of the one true God, the ever living one, the Creator and Sustainer, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The term is very significant and yet often missed by English speakers as most translations don't render the Name, but replace it with LORD. From here on in this post, we will use "Yahweh" where the text says The LORD, as we are talking about a personal God and so using a generic term that people often don't understand hopefully will become more clear.

With this knowledge that the being talked about here is so great, exceedingly great, greater than our minds can comprehend, it makes sense to follow with this greatness of Yahweh/Jehovah as being unsearchable. This does not mean that it is not in the heart or mind, even the ability, to search out truths about God, to know Him personally and correctly as revealed in the Holy Bible, the Word of God. However, it does mean that we can never plumb the fullness of the depths of the wisdom, knowledge, power, authority, and vastness of our great God. Let's consider some examples from other passages of Scripture to see more about this God.

The book of Job begins with an interaction between God and Satan, where God points out a righteous man named Job and allows Satan to torment him and afflict him with myriad trials, death of his children, his flocks and herds, sickness and boils all over his body, and more. The first chapter ends with a rather shocking response by Job in the midst of such chaos.

Job 1:20-22" Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell

on the ground and WORSHIPPED. And he said, " Naked I came from

my mother's womb, and naked shall I return.

Yahweh gave, and Yahweh has taken away; blessed be the name of Yahweh."

This is a good beginning on Job's part, but as we read further in his story, the counsel of his wife and friends seems to expose a weakness in Job's thinking about God which develops over many chapters of this book. For now, we will skip forward to chapter 38:1-7 where we see a bit more of the longsuffering, patience, and mercy toward men.

"Yahweh answered Job out of the whirlwind and said:

"Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?

Dress for action like a man;

I will question you, and you make it known to me.

Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?

Tell me, if you have understanding.

Who determined its measurements- surely you know!

Or who stretched the line upon it?

On what were its bases sunk,

or who laid its cornerstone,

when the morning stars sang together

and all the sons of God shouted for joy?"

I don't know about you, but if I were Job, I would be laying face down in the dirt and begging God to stop this revelation of His work in Creation and sustaining power over it all. Even now, in the 21st century, man has concocted all kinds of outlandish means of the origins of the universe, our planet, and life. They deny what is revealed by the Creator, and willingly suppress the truth which they know in their unrighteousness. We could go on for many verses, even chapters, discussing Yahweh's creative acts, power over the environment, knowledge of when animals give birth, the counting of every hair on our heads, and so much more. So, is the greatness of God unsearchable? Yes.

Another passage from God's Word, also in the Psalms, that speaks of the differences between the one true God and the idols/gods of the people is Psalm 135. Consider your own view of God, and see if there is anything in your life that you have put in the place of God. Then read this psalm and consider whether you know and love and worship the one true God, or some god cobbled together from various things people have said that may or may not agree with what God has revealed about Himself in Holy Scripture.

Psalm 135: 15-18

"The idols of the nations are silver and gold,

the work of human hands.

They have mouths, but do not speak;

they have eyes but do not see;

they have ears, but do not hear,

nor is there any breath in their mouths.

Those who make them become like them,

so do all who trust in them."

It is easy to look at Moloch/Molech or Artemis or Buddha, or any of a host of other idols and see that these are inanimate objects with no power except over the minds of deluded people. Yahweh created the heavens and the earth, the birds and fish, people and animals. He made all the stars and knows them by name, but these idols crafted by human hands cannot save your soul, give you eternal life, reconciled you to the God against whom you have sinned. They are worthless, and to meditate on them is to rob from the true God time and resources that He gives us to use for His glory.

The idolater is not only the one who bows and gives fruit to a statue, but the one who places anything before God in priority. I would venture a guess to say that we all are guilty of that one far more often than we would care to admit. Let us consider a recent example where Christians who generally attend multiple services at church each Lord's day. However, their commitment to worship of God can be replaced at times with sporting events. Others leave right after church and miss the time of fellowship , prayer, and counsel that often occurs at these times when Christians gather together. Why do they leave? Because the race is on, the game is on, or they really haven't had any time to go fishing, so they do their duty to the church as they see it, but in reality are prioritizing fun and entertainment over the fellowship of the saints.

Now that I have gotten off track a little, let's look at one last passage in regard to the unsearchable nature of God. Deuteronomy 29:29 was a passage I had skimmed over a few times until it was brought to my attention by a dear brother named Earl from Key West. Here, after God renews His covenant with the people of Israel after they disregarded His commands, leaving them outside the Promised Land, curses promised for disobedience had been imposed by God, and then this: "The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law."

God here reminds His people, who He chose to love not due to anything in them, but because He chose to set His love upon them, that they are blessed if they keep the covenant, but cursed if they break the covenant He made with them. I find here and in other passages that we can't cover here that God chooses to reveal much of His character and nature through His laws, His ordinances in the church, but that in the Old Testament these exist in shadows and don't reveal the fullness of God's plan for redemption and salvation of sinners through the penal substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary.

Even now, with the canon of Scripture closed, the fullness of God's plan revealed in Christ Jesus, even seeing the future through the apocalyptic writing of John in the Revelation of Jesus Christ, we cannot search the depths and heights, the wonder and awesome power, the beauty and glory of Yahweh, the God who is. We cannot truly fathom eternity, singing songs that speak of "when we've been there 10,000 years....we've no less days to sing God's praise than when we first begun" as these still limit us to days and years rather than the lack of time, the eternal nature of God, and His unfathomable mercy to send His only begotten Son to die in the place of His people.

The greatest computer in the world cannot reveal His thoughts. The greatest philosopher can only know what God has revealed. The greatest theologian can only go as far in knowing God as the Scripture and the Holy Spirit express. The most eloquent poem and the greatest melody cannot capture the beauty and grace of His character. Truly, God is unsearchable. However, that does not mean that we should not pursue Him, study what is revealed, pray and meditate on Him and feel His leading and loving in our lives. We have been given much that assists us in seeing what God has created, and Christians take seriously the exploration and understanding of His works, but in the end those that I know of, many men with doctorate degrees in math, science, astronomy, physics, geology, cosmology, medicine, researchers and professors at universities who seek God through His Word and as revealed in His works continue to press on for truth, for wisdom, starting with the Word of God and going from there, as the revealed Word of God, the God-breathed Scriptures must be the necessary starting point of all knowledge. These men and women, such as Dr. Jason Lisle, Dr. Jake Hebert, Dr. Danny Faulkner, Dr. Andrew Snelling, Dr. Randy Guliuzza and many more working with Answers in Genesis and Institute for Creation Research along with many other ministries dedicate their lives to knowing that which God reveals in Creation with the guidance and authority of the Bible leading their hearts and minds. Can we fully know God, or is He truly unsearchable? The Scriptures reveal very much about God so that we can know Him, but in the end He truly is unsearchable.

What are you doing today to get to know the unsearchable God?
How much time do you spend in prayer and study of His Word?
What is getting in the way of searching the Scriptures to know God and learning to walk in His ways?
Do you you use the things God has revealed about Himself to share with others their need for the God who reconciles sinners to Himself?
Do you know Him at all?

These are questions that will challenge us all, as they have challenged me as I have studied Psalm 145 and considered its ramifications in all of life. May God richly bless you with knowledge and wisdom of Him, and leave you in awe and wonder, marveling over the God who is unsearchable.

Humbled in His presence,

Mark

Psalm 145: 2 Every day I will bless you

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Cowperthwaite) — Fri, 16 Feb 2018 17:54:00 +0000

Thank you for coming back for another post about Psalm 145. This psalm has been such a rich blessing to me this past month, and a reminder that while my body and mind are weak and we endure real trials, that our focus is not to be primarily on the things of this earthly existence, but ultimately on the Heavenly promises of the one true and living God, the Creator, Sustainer, and Healer who is worthy of our praise, worship, adoration, and unending love.

As we take a moment to discover the next verse in our Hebrew acrostic poem, we have come to verse 2, which excluding a "thee" instead of "you" is word for word the same between the various versions of the Bible that I own. Those are the NASB, ESV, and KJV. All have their own subtle differences in places, but in this psalm they agree so much that finding differences to enjoy is at times not possible, but in others we find synonyms, greater explanations, and more as we compare the various versions.

"Every day I will bless you,

and praise your name for ever and ever."

Psalm 145:2 ESV

As we consider what David was communicating to the children of Israel with these words, they are always to be understood in the greater context, and yet this short verse is enough to challenge the most faithful and obedient Christian, as none of us have yet achieved perfection in our walk with the Lord Jesus Christ, the Creator, the Word become flesh who dwelt among men. The same applies for the youngest believer, the person who just days ago was enlightened and regenerated by the Holy Spirit and given eternal life and forgiveness of sin by the miracle of redemption.

As a father, husband, and minister of the Gospel this passage touches on every area of my life. As I rise in the morning and see all my children rousing from sleep and preparing for the day, am I leading by example in the attitude of my heart and the words of my mouth telling them that God has made a day for us, a day in which we should grow in our knowledge of and love for Him, to bless Him, to praise Him.

When my wife (who is always awake before I am) hands me my coffee and breakfast, is it on my heart and coming from my lips that she is appreciated and cherished as a gift to me from God, causing us to bless Him and praise His name?

When I am reading my Bible, giving counsel to a friend, talking to unsaved loved ones, or the clerk at the store, is my heart so full of the love of God that I tell each of these people about it, and apply the truths of God's Word in my counsel, my study, and those conversations so that it is true of me what I have often said, that if you meet me for 5 minutes you will know that I am a Christian husband and father who is striving to preach the Gospel to every creature and make disciples to my great Shepherd?

Maybe you have, like me, had some ups and downs in your walk with the Lord. With me, the times of greatest blessing tend to make me forget where all these blessings come from, while the greatest trials are when I am constantly reminded of God's strength which is made perfect in weakness, that even when I am not faithful, God remains faithful because He cannot deny Himself. It is part of the character of God to be faithful, which leads us by example and causes us to beg Him to fill us, use us, and guide us into all truth and be used by Him to share that truth with others that He may be worshiped, praised, and adored by many more.

As I did in the previous post, I want to define what this means to "bless the Lord". This term means literally to kneel, a position of humbling ourselves in the presence of the Lord of the universe, the God revealed in the Holy Bible, which as one considers the various postures of prayer, we often see people either on their knees in prayer, or prostrate on the ground, that is face down, broken and humbled by the glory of God and placing ourselves in a vulnerable and lowly position. Consider what Jesus did when He walked the earth. He was born as a baby, who needed his bottom cleaned, who needed to eat and be nourished, who obeyed his parents, and even after He revealed Himself as the Messiah, was mistreated and despised as it was prophesied would happen in Isaiah 53.

If this is the posture of the only begotten Son of God, to pray and cry out to His Father, then as Christians who now have Jesus as the Advocate before the Father's throne as we pray, bowing or lying face down before Him as His glory overpowers us, and we realize that we are but creatures while He is the Creator. We are clay in His hands, made for His purpose, and literally account as nothing in our own value. However, when we are bought by the blood of Christ, we are washed, made clean, and adopted as sons. Can you imagine that? How then ought we approach our blessing and praise of God? With reverence, gratitude, humility, and asking things according to His will rather than trying to twist God's arm to get things that are for our own pleasures.

As we prepare for the next post, from verse 3, I encourage folks who are desiring to read this series to read Psalm 145 slowly once each day as I have been doing. After you read, and as you read, just pour out your heart before the Lord. Thank Him for His Word, thank Him for opening your eyes to see Him in all His beauty, thank Him for the life you have and the opportunities you have to serve Him and make Him known to others. Praise God for His marvelous work of salvation, forgiveness, atonement, reconciliation, and much more that belongs to those who are in Christ as an act of His free will in election. Don't dwell on the sins which you once enjoyed and be broken in sorrow, but be the new creation He has made you to be and hate the things He hates as you learn to love the things He loves.

Take some time to list out your blessings, and then thank God for them one by one. You will be amazed at how long a list you can come up with. I will share a short list here, only concerning my own family as a prompt for others.

Blessings of today, February 16, 2018:

Life .
Breath (I am an asthmatic, and never take this for granted).
Ability to walk (I don't always have this).
Ability to speak and have conversation with those I love (I don't always have this either).
A full belly of healthy and nourishing food that is pleasurable to eat.
My precious wife who has her own health issues but cares for me and never complains.
My 7 children, all for various reasons, who bless me, serve me, snuggle with me, and remind me to honor God most of all, as He is also doing a mighty work in their lives.
Friends who understand my weaknesses and are willing to help when they are able.
Church family who encourage, pray for, and edify us and give us opportunity to do the same for others.
Men of God who proclaim the truth of God to me when I am failing, who hold me accountable, and who labor alongside me in our mutual goals of making disciples for Christ Jesus.
My home which protects our family from the cold, rain, snow, and once in a while oppressive heat (it's Maine, that isn't often).
Friends from far away who keep in touch to build me up in knowledge of God and so, also bless God and praise Him with me, or as an example when I fail to do so.
A computer which allows me to type as my writing is horrible, and internet access in our home which allows me to share these posts with others.
Electricity which, while common in most parts of the world, is affordable enough that I can afford to keep the house warm and also use the computer.
Hot water to wash dishes and ourselves in. Not everyone has this luxury.
Insurance from my employer which covers much of the cost of my constant medical bills.
A good running vehicle to take our family in safety to go get groceries, get to the hospital to do blood work, and to see my doctor and discuss what might be learned as we continue to try to discover what is causing me such debilitating seizures and weakness.
Did I mention my wife? She should be in here a few more times, because she is AWESOME!!!!
A computer which was given to us so that the kids can do their research for school while I can write posts like these to encourage others.
Multiple versions of the Bible, copies for everyone in the family.
Books that glorify God by giving Him blessing, honor, and praise such as those from Dr. Jason Lisle, Ken Ham, R.C.Sproul, and many many more that spend many years following God and applying their knowledge of Him in order to share that with others.
Children to invest my time and wisdom in, and even admit my mistakes to, which humbles the heart of their father. Yes, I said kids a few times, too, but they are worth it.
The honor of training boys to be men, to protect and provide for their families, to lead in fighting for justice, to honor those in authority over them and so honor God who places all authorities where He wants them, for His glory.
THIS LIST COULD GO ON FOREVER.... LITERALLY!

As you can see, it isn't hard to find many things to bless the Lord for, to praise Him about, and at least for me, there is no shortage in supply of people to talk to and teach these things. I have 4 sons and 3 daughters, and a wife who thirsts and hungers for righteousness and encourages me to persevere in the hard times. There has never been a day that I didn't have much to praise God for, but there have been days when I get too tied up in the busyness of life to give God what He deserves, what He has commanded, what He rescued me from sin to do. And so, I hope you will join me and remind me to bless the Lord at all times, to praise His name for ever and ever.

Psalm 145:1 Extolling our God and King

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Cowperthwaite) — Tue, 13 Feb 2018 15:06:00 +0000

It has been a long time since I posted on this blog, but I wanted to begin to use it again as I have been blessed immensely by my recent study of Psalm 145 and I thought it would be helpful to others to consider some things I have recently learned. Indeed, every day I read over this passage, I continue to learn more about it and feel God speaking to my heart about my own lack of obedience in various ways. This psalm is primarily one of praise to God, beginning in the first verse.

Left to right: KJV, NASB, ESV Bibles

As is often the case, I find a richer depth to Biblical texts by examining the various English translations we have in our home. I have read this psalm many times in the last few weeks and want to share with you all what God is revealing in my life from this beautiful passage. Let's look today at just a small portion of this glorious psalm, which is an acrostic beginning with each letter of the Hebrew alphabet. This is similar to Psalm 119 which does the same but has whole sections, broken into 8 verses each, giving us 176 verses and culminating in the longest chapter in the whole Bible. Let's take a look at the text:

NASB
I will extol You, my God, O King, and I will bless Your name forever and ever.

KJV
I will extol thee, my God, O king; and I will bless thy name for ever and ever.

ESV
I will extol you, my God and King, and bless your name forever and ever.

As we examine all of these texts we see the same thing. A passionate plea from the heart of the writer, David, to extol God. For those, like me, who like to look up words to see how they are defined, we find that this term "extol" means to laud, to give excited praise, to lift up. Since we don't often use this term today, one could understand this opening verse to say that David wishes to lift up the name of God, to excitedly praise his Creator, or to laud Him. As we get farther on in this psalm, we will see more of the reasons why David wishes to give such excited praise based on the character, nature, and works of God revealed throughout Creation.

I am not seminary trained, nor am I able to even read with comprehension all the time due to my neurological problems, but this passage is understandable to me as it is clear and beautifully written. As we teach our children to know and obey the one true God as revealed in the Bible, it is our goal to do as the psalmist here has done, to extol God who is also our King, and to bless Him at all times, from now into eternity.

Today, we will share some personal stories as we interact with the poetic beauty of the King James Version, and share from this passage things that we have learned as we read, study, examine, meditate on, and apply this song of praise.

"I will extol thee, my God, O King; and I will bless thy name for ever and ever."

As a young man, I grew up in a home where the Bible, specifically the King James Version, was read often. We went to church whenever the doors were open, and I recall sitting or lying in my bed while my mother read stories from a Bible story book which I now have in my home. I knew who God was, and I was taught that God was the Creator of all things. We started in Genesis with the Creation account and I was given much instruction about the one true God. A solid foundation was laid for me from God's Word, but I was not yet regenerated by the Holy Spirit, not truly born again to a new and living hope in Christ Jesus. Yet even as a child I knew in my heart that this God was the truth, that Genesis held the true historical account of God making the world and everything in it, and that I was part of His creative acts. I knew about God, but I did not know God.

I see this same thing in our younger children, who have been taught the Bible since any of them were born, even hearing Sara and I singing songs of praise, honor, and adoration to God while they were still in the womb. They know about God, and it is our earnest prayer each day that God would be glorified to bring each of them to repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sin and eternal life. The youngest of them can recite to you passages of Scripture, catechism questions and answers, and answer questions about who God is. But do they extol God as King in their hearts and bless His Name forever? As a parent, that is our greatest desire, and the goal that we spend a large amount of time to achieve, knowing that the means God uses to draw His children to Himself is the proclamation of the Gospel, of His truth about who He is and who they are, and so we press on with reverence and passion toward God.

I know as a parent that my children will generally do what they see me do, whether good or evil. Knowing this, we ought to be wise and discerning about what we say to them, that we get our information from the source of wisdom and knowledge, the inspired Word of God as revealed in the Old and New Testaments. When we sin against them, we confess it to them and ask them to forgive us. When they sin, we point them to the sin nature as revealed in God's Word and tell them of their need to be reconciled to God in Christ Jesus. When we pray, we ask our petitions of the Lord through the only Mediator between God and man, the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ, and we submit all our requests to the sovereign will of Him who is all wise, all powerful, and who loved the world so much that He would send His Son to die for sin and endure the wrath due to us as sinners.

And yet, with all of our teaching and singing, reading and explaining, we admit our weakness, our failures, our sin and repentance, our catechisms and books, we at times fail to truly extol our God, our King, and to bless His name not only in the good times, but in great trials and persecutions, in sickness and weakness. We have, however, grown in obedience by the grace of God, and desire at all times to do these things. Given that even as adults, maturing in our faith over decades of walking with the Lord, we fail so often, we must admit that there is still nothing in our flesh which will please God, and so we must walk in the spirit and trust God to accomplish His work in us.

As we go through each day, it is not enough to simply read the Bible as an academic exercise, but to meditate on it day and night, to digest it so that it becomes part of who we are, and to recognize and remember that, but for the grace of God in our salvation, we too would not truly understand these truths or be able to know God intimately and personally unless He has first brought us to repentance, a change of heart and mind which brings true life, eternal life, and gives us the gift of the Holy Spirit to apply His truth to our lives, achieving that which we could never accomplish, life from death, resurrection in spirit which will culminate in resurrection on the last day when Christ Jesus returns for His Bride, which He purchased with His own blood. These precious truths as recorded in various passages of the Bible cause us to give jubilant praise, honor, and adoration to our Creator and Savior, our King and our God.

So today, as we walk in this world, it is our heartfelt desire, our earnest prayer and plea, that our words and deeds would do as David did, as recorded in Psalm 145:1, to "Extol You, my God, O King, and bless His Name forever and ever." We hope that this is the desire of every Christian, indeed every person who reads this post, to do the same. He is indeed worthy of all we are and have, for He has given us light and life!

As we do this in our hearts, and then in our words and deeds, those around us should expect to not only see that we are religious or church goers, but that we are no longer as we all were before God saved us, dead in our sins and seeking our own desires, but that the God and King over all Creation is working in us and through us to make disciples through sharing and proclaiming the Gospel and shining the Light of Him who sent us into all the world to spread His fame throughout the world.

May the God and King over all Creation be extolled forever and ever! Amen.

Night sounds

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Cowperthwaite) — Fri, 10 Feb 2017 13:48:00 +0000

I never tire of the sound of Virginia reading the Scriptures aloud. Every night before bed, she reads 3 chapters, always out loud. In one room, Sara and the littles are listening to Scripture songs as they head off to sleep. In the other room, a few more listen to a sermon about the God of creation and His powerful, wise, and awesome plans. Virginia reads the Scriptures as I sit and type.

As we prayed together tonight, we thanked the Lord for the opportunity to preach the Gospel, to disciple our children, to love our enemies (thanks for the challenge Todd Caverly) and to glory in the Lord we adore. In the face of seizures and vomiting, morning (all day) sickness, back pain and neurological dysfunction, we choose to fix our eyes and our hearts instead on the eternal, that which truly matters.

We entrust ourselves to Him who never fails, who loves and leads His children every step of every day, knowing that in all things He is working to get glory for Himself, things He prepared before time began that we might see His glory and wisdom, to marvel and wonder, to worship and adore our King, our Father, our Creator and Lord.

In weakness, His strength

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Cowperthwaite) — Fri, 10 Feb 2017 13:41:00 +0000

You know that feeling you get when your little girl's heart yearns to minister to others but you are unable to do anything? I have them all too often lately. These are moments when you must rely on the Lord for wisdom, strength, and healing. With sickness in the house and Daddy's neurological problems making it unwise for me to drive long distances alone, we won't be able to make it to Planned Parenthood today to preach the Gospel and plead for the lives of the unborn.

How long will our nation continue in opposition to the Author of life? How long must we battle just to see babies allowed to live rather than being murdered by their own parents? How long will our King tarry? Until the last of His elect have called upon Him in repentance and faith for salvation. Until that day, the wicked will continue to slaughter the innocent, to persecute the righteous, and to rebel against their Creator.

Instead of driving to Portland, we will be in our home, fervently praying to the God who intervenes in hearts and lives for His glory. The lessons God is teaching us as we parent a young woman are at times heartbreaking, but always beneficial in the long run. The things we have taught our children to yearn for are not fashions, entertainment, nor earthly fame, but to know and be known by the only One whose opinion matters. His strength is made perfect in weakness, whether or not I understand or see how. I must continue to "hand over the keys" to Him who controls all things. I must also discern when weakness can be overcome and faith must be believing enough to act no matter the circumstances.

It is no wonder God has us walking through Proverbs this year, as the more I serve Him, the more I see and feel my weakness and lack of wisdom. In all things, I must walk by faith in obedience. How does one deal with the broken heart? Take the broken pieces to the Great Physician that it might be healed. It is only in brokenness that we are fully molded into the image of Christ, in whose name we pray, our Advocate before the Father, the great High Priest who ever lives to make intercession between us and our God.

I pray for healing that I might serve the Lord I adore more fully, and I long to be there more than I can express, but here I sit in a body that at times seems broken and useless. Maybe this post will help others who struggle with similar issues. Maybe I just need to get it off my chest. Maybe my inability to speak coherently this morning causes me to speak my mind more clearly through the written word. Brethren, pray for us. We are praying for you!

#endabortionnow
#preachthegospel

What change is needed? Food part 4

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Cowperthwaite) — Sat, 05 Dec 2015 21:32:00 +0000

I have to admit that this last week or more since my last post has been difficult. As I continue to examine other issues in my Christian walk, those issues have brought me to what I believe are some final thoughts on the issue of food, but more than anything it is because the Lord has graciously taught me so much more in the interim, I don't want to dwell too long on any single issue. I have an immense amount of encouragement in the Lord from walking day by day as a Christian man, husband, father, and in all my relationships with others. Let's see if we can finish up this topic and find some practical applications that go beyond the realm of food into health and good stewardship of all God has given us.

When I used to think about food, I just looked on the shelves either of our pantry or of the local grocery store. I used to shop and choose what I ate by what felt good at the moment. While I still have decisions to make each day about what I will eat and drink, I have not been tempted to purchase anything that is not food. I thank the Lord for a change of mind that took us in a different direction. When we went out to eat the other night, it wasn't even a question of whether or not we would have soda. It wasn't even an issue worth considering. Soda doesn't have any real contribution to my health, so it is no longer a temptation. I have been inconsistent at times with candy, maybe somehow still justifying the fact that I haven't bought any, that is was in the house already. It just proves to me how little we even think anymore in this culture. It requires no thought to pick up whatever is at arm's reach and looks appetizing, but that does not mean I have to continue to live this way.

I find the implications of this thought pattern everywhere. Recently I came to the realization that we do this same thing in the church. The body of Christ, our Savior and Lord, the One who left Heaven to take on a body of flesh, the One who suffered and died to pay for the sins of evil, wicked, wretched, and unlovely creatures such as myself told us that He purchased us with His blood. Scripture reveals that it is the duty of the Church through its elders' preaching, teaching, and accountability to not only help us to know the character of our God, but also how to live right and stop the evil patterns of sin that we bring into the church from our fleshly past.

I could cite example after example, but for today we are going to speak in general principles and tackle the tough details later. As we said before about alcohol use, the Bible is not silent. The Bible does not mandate abstention from consuming alcohol, but it does offer many warnings and regulations in specific passages. Elders are disqualified due to excess use of alcohol, and the only time we see it seemingly commanded for use is in the general terms of those who are indeed perishing. When we look to the Scriptures we find that God created our bodies to need food. God made us and told us what to eat. After the Flood of Noah's day, meat was added to the diet.. Israel was commanded to refrain from certain foods, while having certain foods incorporated into the mandatory (and quite beneficial) feasts and commemorative times where God's people recalled the goodness, mercy, and grace of God through the use of food.

I feel like I have gotten to the point of beating a dead horse in my own mind, and our family has learned so much in the days since my last post that goes beyond the practical to the spiritual. However, there is one issue I want to leave you to consider, dear reader, that I had never considered before. It has to do with idolatry, regeneration, and taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.

Voddie Baucham spoke about his upbringing, how his single teenage mother who raised him in South Central Los Angeles was a practicing Buddhist. Voddie spoke of the sensory effect of idolatry and I just about fell out of my chair as I considered how far reaching the applications of idolatry can be. He spoke about how he remembered his life growing up, never hearing the Gospel until college. As he developed his point on the need to leave idolatry, he spoke of how God should have Lordship not only over who we worship, but how we worship. Again, this has implications in regard to the regulative principle of worship (I need to write a whole post on that) but has daily application in our lives, in every part of our lives.

Voddie tells his story of what the idol of Buddha (a statue) looked like, of the feel and sound of beads used in prayer and meditation, of the smell of the fruit offered to this mute and dead idol, of the smell in the air that reminded him, long after becoming a Christian, that Buddha still had a place in his memory that he could not shake. Now, one must realize that the statue itself does and is nothing, but that memories in our minds are often associated with smells, tastes, touch, sounds, and sights.

In the Old Testament, the priests of Israel were given a specific recipe for things to make incense offered before the Lord. That recipe was exclusively used in the worship of God and was not allowed to be used for any other purpose. God is holy, set apart, and He likes the smell of that incense. He will not share it with others.

We could continue to speak about God's design in the Old Covenant, where certain animals were offered, how their blood was shed, where it was sprinkled, how and where to dispose of unclean things, how to determine whether that spot on your head was leprous or not. While we are no longer living in the same age, we are fools if we truly believe that God does not care how we live. I believe the New Testament has equally important, often described (I would argue prescribed) details about how God wishes to be worshiped in this age, and I think most Christians are inconsistent, lackadaisical, and plainly foolish about what we bring into church.

The church is to be a place designated to the corporate worship of God in Christ Jesus, given to the doctrine of the apostles, the breaking of bread, to fellowship and prayer. Often, the church instead tries to make itself a relevant, culture-embracing place where we worship self, Satan, and America right alongside God. Don't get me wrong, I am all for patriotism in its proper place, but in my book draping an American flag over a wooden cross is idolatrous in at least two points. This cultural religion is destroying the true worship of God.

When I see a church decorated for Halloween, I cannot help but notice (and hear from my children in agreement) that those beautiful things that God has given that refer to the harvest of God's bountiful blessings, have been generally co-opted for the purpose of celebrating Satan's favorite holiday. Yes, that was kind of blunt, but as those pagans I know continue to laugh each year when churches hold celebrations of overtly Satanic origins and practices, I am not going to bother defending my statements here.

I look at God's gift of harvested pumpkins turned evil, carving scary faces and often showing depictions of death and evil. I see these at churches, and I want to vomit. I want to ask when we started worshiping the Devil in church, but I know the answer. When we disregard the implications of regeneration and God's commands, we find ourselves in bed with the world and its ruler.

Name a time of year that our culture engages in more eating of non-food, usually candy, more than Helloween. See if you can find a time when even moderately conservative church folk will dress just like the world, do exactly what the world does, and then claim to be redeeming a Satanic celebration for God's glory. I submit that on the issue of this Satanic holiday when everyone is dressing their little children up in fake blood soaked rags and watching horror movies, that the church is heading entirely the wrong direction in the fight to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.

When did we go so far off course as to actually defend such practices? How ungodly can we get and still proclaim our allegiance to Christ publicly before God pours out His righteous judgement on us? We must not presume on the mercy of God in such ways, and to be honest as I consider my own life and practices, I make myself sick. But I guess that's the point. That's why you are reading this post, because you want to hear me say things that make you think, perhaps that make you uncomfortable. I know this may be the last post some people ever read, and yet that is not my desire.

Rather, my desire is to bare my soul in public, to share with others who struggle in the same ways, who are troubled in their spirit by sin in their own lives, and who rather than disregard the urging of the Holy Spirit to change, will stand up and say "I have accepted my sin too long. Today I repent and by God's grace, I will change." I have so much more to learn about living a godly life, there are probably hundreds of things that I think, do, or believe that are in error. Yet, in this I am not comfortable, nor will I rest until I obey the commands of my Lord in every area. I will not quit until God either calls me home or Christ returns for His Bride. I will examine His Word, heed His calling, obey His commands, and bring honor and glory to His Name until my dying day.

What change is needed? Sadly, the list of my own sins is far too long and troubles me constantly. I have no desire to look at the sins of others unless they are flaunted in front of my eyes, and they often are. When I see sin, in my own life, and that of the church, I will speak out for the glory of God. I will do so because He is worthy of proper, appropriate worship. He has spoken to His people to tell them what He wants, and we must obey. What change is needed? Food is just the beginning.

What change is needed? Food part 3

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Cowperthwaite) — Mon, 23 Nov 2015 17:43:00 +0000

Over the course of the last few days, so much has changed in my heart and mind upon ceasing taking Keppra, it is difficult to put it all into words. In fact, I don't know if I could explain it all, but I will begin to attempt to record some of what has occurred for the benefit of those who may struggle with similar circumstances and need encouragement. I am also using this blog in part to remind myself of the many blessings given by the Lord as we seek to glorify Him in every aspect of our lives.

Readers may recall that I have had a preliminary diagnosis of complex partial seizures, which have gone away and returned at various times, since 2003. I want to be clear that while "diagnosis" is a term we all may use often, it is at times not terribly helpful in a situation such as mine. This diagnosis is less like knowing that your bone is fractured and needs to be put back in place, and more like I have a series of symptoms that cannot be seen nor measured with current technology, but which symptoms also do not fit into diagnoses which are measurable and repeatable. Therefore, my diagnosis is not actually a factual explanation of what is wrong in my body, but rather what seems to be the case given the available evidence. This is one reason why the neurologist has prescribed a test which lasts for days in a hospital setting. In that setting, they can monitor what I eat, when I sleep, oxygen levels in the blood, and more, the most important piece being electronically monitoring the function or rather malfunction of my brain.

With this process in mind, I have begun to challenge much of the conventional wisdom that is used in diagnostics. To be sure, I am not saying that we should stop searching for answers or at times trying new therapies. Rather, I want to examine how we understand what is and is not appropriate function of the human body, and ways in which we might have fallen off track in methodology. To someone whose only tool is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. I would argue that the same applies to some extent in the medical field. As with many other manifestations of poor health or improper body function, there is no real test to see what is going on in my brain, but rather testing to rule out other measurable activity. It is also the case that there is no pharmaceutical product known to man that can treat or cure a condition which is not notably measured and tested scientifically. We don't even know for sure, even in our modern society, that what we currently understand about brain function is indeed true. It wasn't that long ago that phrenology was all the rage, but as with Darwinian evolution, the longer we examine the evidence, the more problems we find with what we think we know.

This is to some extent the argument of Creation vs. Evolution, in that outside of an all-knowing, perfectly honest being, incapable of error, that not only knows where the world came from, but also has revealed expressly when time, space, and matter began, we cannot know for sure where/what/when everything came into being. Indeed, nobody has tested, nor can test, the age of the Earth outside of the historical account given by God in the Bible. I know, some will challenge that sentence, but I highly doubt that anyone interested in this blog will argue this point. For those who will, I would be happy to point you to the work of others, as this blog is given to Biblical explanations and the associated practical applications thereof.

In the same way that no fallible man is able to state with certainty outside of divine revelation when or how God created all things, no man knows precisely how the human body functions, how the brain is "supposed to work", nor what circumstances have led to the improper function of the body. To be certain, I presume that the human body was not designed to fall over unconscious sporadically, nor that even in the mass diversity among the human race that my body is functioning properly as designed.

I also admit into evidence that, so long as my memory is functioning properly and I am still able to discern reality for the most part, I endured 7 traumatic head injuries or concussions over a course of 2 1/2 years, a history or alcohol and drug abuse, and even got struck by a tree twice (different trees, different days). While I have no absolute knowledge that these events caused my first seizure nor the thousands to follow, these facts certainly seem suspect in the long term function of not only my brain and nervous system, but also in chronic back pain and other problems that did not exist until that series of events began.

Now all of this is history and foolishness if we do not attempt to apply what we know to identify causes and effects in the grand scheme of things. I spoke about alcohol and drug abuse earlier. It must be stated that even using these terms demands that there is such thing as the proper use of alcohol and drugs. We will look more into that in later posts, and I am working on some research in that vein also. However, our primary field of view today is what God created and designed our bodies to use, and what the use of items outside of, or contrary to, that design might cause in our lives. This is where we must go to the Scriptures. In the case of alcohol, one must examine what God's Word says about alcohol use, what methods were used, prescribed, or avoided in the Bible, and whether or not there were specific instructions and commands for use, and also whether those commands included avoidance of use under certain circumstances.

Some questions to consider in the use of alcohol would be the following:

Does the Bible mention alcohol?
Assuming alcohol is discussed in the Bible, has that term changed from our current cultural definition, and if so, what would the original reader understand the term to mean?
Is there any specific command to use or avoid the use of alcohol?
Is there any circumstance in which God takes credit for, or creates alcohol for the purpose of human consumption?

We could certainly add many more questions, but for now we are looking at a process rather than a specific treatment of alcohol as a topic. As we look at these questions, we begin to think outside of what we think we know, what we have been taught or assumed, and we go back to the source of all wisdom, God the Creator, to see how we need to think about the topic. We also

challenge ourselves to read in context, to see more than just a few conscripted thoughts, and actually understand what God has told us. This is one of the beautiful things about God's Word, the Holy Bible. If we will just honestly seek God's wisdom, ask Him in faith, and then do what He tells us, we will find the answers we need. If we merely seek to read studies, articles, and such, we will stay at the level of human wisdom and circumvent the process God gave us to learn.

I saw this yesterday in that the prescribed means of the church, functioning under the authority of God's Word, that being the gathering of Christians for worship, teaching, fellowship, prayer, etc. As we discussed not man's ideas, but the very Word of God, we found that while we all come from a different frame of reference, various life situations, that we can find absolute truth about which we can all agree. When we stay at the surface level about "what works for me" and "in my opinion" we will never find genuine answers. Instead, as we come to God for wisdom, asking in faith, we will no longer be tossed about by every wind of teaching, but will find genuine wisdom that applies to our lives, that encourages and equips us to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

I had to take a lengthy break in writing today, and now have much more to do, so this is going to have to be the end of today's blog post. I hope to pick up a point of application tomorrow, Lord willing. Until then, I hope that in all things, we continue to consider the marvelous creation of God, to give Him glory for all He has done, and in times when we must endure difficulties and trials, learn to trust the Lord and give Him praise for His grace and strength to endure trials.

Soli Deo Gloria

What change is needed? Food part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Cowperthwaite) — Sat, 21 Nov 2015 20:54:00 +0000

As I begin my journey into discovering and implementing God's design for food and the human body, I am finding the need to sort out my presuppositions and experiences from actual fact. It is my desire to look to the Word of God, which I believe is sufficient for all things pertaining to life and godliness, for my answers. It amazes me how difficult it can be to honestly weed through one's own beliefs, get beyond how long I have believed them, and get to the business of seeing the purpose and plan of the Creator for the human body from a purely Biblical perspective.

We will begin with the assumption that the world was created perfectly self sufficient, that Adam and Eve were expected and entirely capable of living in Eden's garden forever in a healthy and happy state, but that the entrance of sin ruined that perfect place in aspects that we usually don't take the time to consider, let alone genuinely explore or apply.

I will also work upon the supposition that the Biblical account of a vegetarian diet, while the original pattern at Creation, was changed dramatically when God gave Noah freedom to eat animals. I accept that there is a difference between the commands given to a specific people and those which apply to everyone in every place at all times.

We can even look to the things God specifically gave to people for a preliminary list of acceptable and profitable foods. God gave the Israelites not only manna, but quail to eat. The Levitical priests were given orders to eat meat, grains, and oil. Jesus Himself ate and served to His disciples the Passover feast. Jesus made wine at a wedding feast, seemingly destroying the argument that alcohol is inherently sinful to consume in all circumstances. From fruits to vegetables, Old Testament to New Testament, the Bible gives us not only description of what people ate, but what they were commanded to eat and given by God to eat. There were times to abstain from eating certain things. There is no short list of do's and do not's, but there are some rules, some principles, and wisdom from the Creator and Sustainer of all things that will guide us along the way.

While there are surely lengthy books dedicated to the infinite details about who ate what when, I am going to begin with a basic look at what is and is not food. I think it is legitimate for me to state that much of what modern society brands and advertises as food is not indeed food at all. While many can (and do) debate the virtues of wheat vs. white bread, not many will argue that the preservatives added to most breads are actually beneficial as food, but rather the way our society has chosen to erect its food supply chain, and is very new in the grand scheme of things.

In my quest to weed out those things which do not bring glory to God, or inhibit me from enjoying Him, I must admit that it is not only the brain altering medications which I take that are evidently outside the scope of God's designed plan for my body, but also the obvious Swedish fish, gummy bears, jelly beans, and Twizzlers.

I will be examining things like chocolate, Kit Kats, and other yummy treats as I continue down this road. I will be removing from my diet those items such as Coca- Cola and other beverages which not only contain no nourishment, but may even rob the body of nutrients already obtained.
I will continue to sacrifice my own personal sacred cows.

I have to admit that it is freeing to apply the quest for the glory of God and enjoyment of God to my life, yet it is a lot easier to write about it than to actually apply it. As I continue, I will have to get past picking off the easy targets and challenging our current food system. I will have to press on toward what it means to be healthy, what God's design is for the human body in regard to labor, weight, nutrition, sleep, and more.

I know this will not be accomplished in short order, and I expect to find out along the way that some of my early views are incorrect or in need of fine tuning. I expect to be called a jerk more than once, and I will try to be honestly blunt without being offensive. I will also be admitting into evidence my own body changes, including results in response to medications which I currently take to help reduce seizures. I have thus far seen very bad results from the seizure medication Keppra, which presents me with previously unknown challenges in the battle that continues between my spirit and my flesh. I hope to find relief from my maladies through a return to Biblical patterns of eating, sleeping, working, resting, and more. I pray for healing through supernatural means, knowing God is able, yet accepting that He who told Paul "My grace is sufficient for you." while fully able, may not be most glorified by my healing. He may even be more glorified in my weakness!

Part of my plan involves rethinking how we acquire food, how we use the resources given to our family by God, gardening and preservation, and more. I will be pulling from resources beyond the Biblical text, but hopefully only in consistent application of Biblical principles where details or explicit commands are lacking. I will be seeking counsel from Christians whose goal is also to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. I will be submitting myself to whatever changes I believe follow from the appropriate and thoroughly tested patterns of Scripture. And I expect to see changes for the better. I expect that I will find that the more I seek God's truth and submit thereto, I will find benefits the likes of which I never before considered possible, and God will get all the glory as He is due!

Action points from this post:

I will begin to systematically examine what I put in my body
I will not willingly harm my body by feeding it those things which I know to be harmful.
Jelly Beans, Gummy anything, and soda are hereby removed from my diet.
As I am currently undergoing treatment from a group of medical professionals, I will accept counsel from them as I continue this journey.
At this time, I am still working through how one deals with medications from a Biblical worldview. I expect to have more clarity as we proceed, by God's grace.

To be continued....

What change is needed? Food Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Cowperthwaite) — Sat, 21 Nov 2015 19:02:00 +0000

This is one of those blog posts I never want to write. The post is not sad, nor relaying fear due to the turmoil in the world, nor bad news in regard to the degradation of western civilization. Rather, it deals with public confession and accountability. These past few weeks, as I struggle with physical, financial, and emotional stresses due to the recent return of my seizures, I have begun to think more of the sins nobody ever talks about, examining aspects of my own life anew, and I don't like what I find.

Short of the example of my friend Jason, who at times I have felt defines gluttony with entirely too broad a brush, I don't recall hearing a single sentence, let alone a sermon, on how we ought to use food as Christians. While for some time I have surely gone beyond the bounds of "I eat to live", I have never felt that I have fallen into the pit called "I live to eat." and in this I have found comfort until recently. I have found ways to attempt to justify using my body as a kind of garbage disposal, to enjoy eating things that offer short lived satisfaction, yet in the end may well be detrimental to my overall health. Whether one likes the word "gluttony" or not, or even if I see my poor eating habits as definitively sinful or meeting the full definition of that dreaded term, I certainly do not always take good care of the temple of the Holy Spirit which is my body.

It was an odd circumstance that forced me to speak about this issue publicly. Indeed, Sara buys and prepares good quality, healthy food that I enjoy. In fact, it is not the overindulging in such food that is my problem. Rather, my problem is that I enjoy ingesting things that only in the last century were even considered to be food at all. We visited my primary care doctor today to discuss what was learned from my recent visit to the neurologist. We discussed medication, side effects, and explained the many facets of my daily routine that we have examined and changed to see if we can find out what is causing, or at least exacerbating, the seizure episodes.

After a long discussion of treatment options and what we are planning to do in case the seizures do not cease, my otherwise quite irreligious physician asked me about the spiritual side of my condition. He read back to me the record of our previous discussion and I was surprised that he had noted our report that while the seizures often came at times of great stress in my life, this latest series of seizures has come at a time when our marriage, relationship with family, living situation, and spiritual blessings are nearly without stress and indeed quite blessed!

The discussion continued to discuss whether my recent weight gain (5 lbs in 6 weeks) was due to my inability to exercise or other factors. While I was not excited about the way this lecture was going, he did not say anything to me about food and my personal responsibility for my health that I did not already know. Indeed, I have been thinking and praying about this issue more recently, and this is one of those classic battles between the flesh and the spirit. Some people struggle with drunkenness, sexual immorality and its relative sensual appetites. For me, the place where the flesh is weak is the area of those supplements that I add to my otherwise quite healthy diet. I am a candy addict! There, I said it!

They say that admitting the problem is the first step to recovery. I prefer to think of it more spiritually, and if God had to speak through my non-Christian physician to address a spiritual matter in my life, then evidently I have not been listening to that "still, small voice" or any of a host of other blazing neon signs that God in His providence and mercy has put in my path so much recently. The question now becomes "What change is needed?" to borrow from our Sunday School lesson. See my recent post for another practical application of this question. For now, we return to my own personal, well-guarded, hidden-where-nobody-ever-sees kind of sin.

Without dispute, there is much evidence at hand of the problem.

The human body needs food to live.
Not everything I ingest is food.
I have complicated health conditions that demand proper nourishment.
Provided that I eat properly nourishing food, there is no need for that which is not food.
My body, as a born again Christian, is a temple for the Holy Spirit.
That temple should be cared for and treated as holy, rather than as a garbage disposal.
Many health conditions are at least partially alleviated when removing poison from one's diet.

OK, I am about done with writing on that list. To be honest, the debating logician and apologist in me could, with one side of my brain tied behind my back, pummel any position for the continued excuse of "moderation" in the intake of items to my digestive tract that are indeed not food. Taking only the argument of the sufficiency of Scripture into evidence, I am convinced that when God created the Earth, that it provided for Adam and Eve EVERYTHING they needed to not only survive, but to thrive, to fill the earth and subdue it, in short to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

It is due to the obvious inconsistency of my own actions that I must speak. Those who have known me for any length of time have heard me debate and defend the sufficiency of Scripture, the need for personal holiness, and the need to apply Biblical truth to all aspects of life. I have spent hours arguing that the intake of media to our eyes, ears, even our very souls, that every thought must be taken captive to the obedience of Christ. I have argued educational methodology, presuppositional apologetics, the regulative principle of worship, and more all the while straining my eye to see beyond the plank that is so obviously impairing clear vision. I have been what I hate the most, an inconsistent Christian.

I know to some this seems like a very small matter, but when you spend as many hours as I do defending a position, researching and writing publicly about absolute truth, when you find a flaw in your own reasoning, it has earth-shattering ramifications. I have been known to take things to their logical conclusion, and even beyond at times. If I were writing a sermon or article, I would tirelessly labor to expound not only what God's Word says on any issue, but I would say things that most would not dare to say if I genuinely believed God would be glorified as a result. I don't believe in protecting sacred cows, in fact I like them grilled medium rare with some kosher salt. It is immeasurably different however, to slaughter your own sacred cow. However, in order to be consistent I must tackle this one with as much vigor as I would anyone else's idolatrous bovine.

Knowing this about myself, I am genuinely fearful of what I might find as I pursue this subject, and I won't be surprised if I offend more than a few people (myself, first of all) by the time this is over. As I write this, I find myself wishing to merely hit the "DELETE" key and hold it down forever. My wife, who often proofreads my posts before publishing, asked if I needed her to look this over. I told her "I will never let you or anyone read it!" Yet, I continue to sit here and write. I will overcome my inconsistency and encourage her to read this and ask for her insights. I will do so because I must.

I have yet to put into words what must be done precisely to remedy my situation, yet I will do this when I have time. For now, we are headed out the door for a multi-day visit with friends. We have kids to dress, clothes to pack, phones to charge, a GPS to program, and more. To be honest, I am nearly exhausted even writing all this out, as I know once I publish this post all my readers will help me be accountable for what I have written. Before implementing my plan fully, I must continue to examine God's Word to see what the purpose of food is, how it is to be used properly, and how I must change.

For now, the question remains only partially answered. What change is needed? As we said before, one must be born again to see the Kingdom of God. By God's grace and mercy, that eternal question has already been answered and applied by the illumination and regeneration of the Holy Spirit, and applied by the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ to wash away my sin, having paid my debt of sin in full. I am born again, made new and given new life through the work of Jesus Christ. Now I must continue on, to surrender every aspect of my thoughts and deeds to bring glory to my Savior, my Lord. I will meditate on these things in the intervening hours, possibly even days. I will begin to implement those things I already know to be right and necessary. I will pray and ask for wisdom and strength. In the flesh, I can do nothing of eternal significance. By God's grace, I hope to see Him glorified and more thoroughly and intimately enjoyed as I take up this challenge.

To be continued....

What is the change we need?

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Cowperthwaite) — Tue, 17 Nov 2015 18:04:00 +0000

Today was one of those days that reminded me why our family makes daily family worship a priority. Our church Sunday School hour has been working through the " 9 Marks of a Healthy Church" series and we are currently in the book dealing with Biblical conversion. The fundamental questions of the book have led to very interesting discussions as a family, and we have enjoyed hearing questions and insights from the children in response to the teaching time.

It is days like today that remind me not only of the responsibility given to fathers to train their children in the ways of the Lord, but of the blessed privilege I have to lead my whole family in worship of the God that reaches down from Heaven and intervenes in our lives with His great grace and mercy. I continue to be amazed by the power of the Holy Spirit in this time of worship together, and I hope this account is an encouragement to others, whether for those not currently practicing daily family worship, or for those whose times of worship may have become more about completing a task than enjoying God in all His glory.

Today's question was "What is the change we need?" This question follows the preliminary questions of whether or not change is necessary and possible. For more on those answers, see my other blog posts. In regard to the discussion today, we read the passage from chapter 3 of our 9 Marks book and discussed it in great detail. John's Gospel chapter 3 was our text, that familiar meeting under cover of night between Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, and Jesus Christ.

The narrative of this account, while seemingly very familiar to our minds, was examined today in new light as we took our time to look at details previously missed. We enjoyed it so much that we never really even got to verse 16, which I would wager even the worst sinner in the darkest recesses of a prison cell, might be able to recite from memory. We were enjoying the story so much and seeing so much wisdom from the initial discussion that we never got around to "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son...." It is in times like this that I must voice my wholehearted agreement with those many Christians who have told me that God's Word is never "stale bread" but is fresh and new each day, with nourishment and unfathomable depths for us to explore if we are willing to take the time and dedicate ourselves to the Holy Spirit's illumination.

Indeed it is the illumination of the Holy Spirit that is the subject of this text. Nicodemus came to Jesus and affirmed that Jesus indeed was a teacher sent from God, one who not only spoke with the authority of God, but seemed to come directly from God to Earth, with power and a depth of spiritual understanding previously unknown to mankind. We may be guilty of taking the deity of Christ Jesus for granted, but for Nicodemus this was truly a revelation that one would not come to lightly nor without great consideration.

While I thought I knew this story so well, today I found something new in which to marvel at the grace of God in Jesus. Jesus, knowing the heart, intent, history, and spiritual state of Nicodemus, did not merely "share the Gospel" with Nicodemus, but instead challenged his very perception of existence. Jesus took Nicodemus beyond the realm of argument and apologetics, and spoke to the issue of epistemology.

That is to say, Jesus told this learned man, a teacher of Israel, that he wasn't able to truly know anything of lasting significance without spiritual regeneration. Nicodemus certainly got more than he bargained for in this conversation with the Rabbi Jesus. Jesus stopped him in his tracks and told this man that in order to even see, let alone enter, the Kingdom of God, that he would need to be born again, or regenerated.

It is at this point that I most likely submit into evidence my own theological position as I would argue that Jesus does not tell Nicodemus to choose of his own volition to exercise faith and repentance, but rather states that this regeneration is an act of the will of God through the Holy Spirit. Jesus tells Nicodemus that he is totally unable to come to Christ for eternal life unless he has already been born of the spirit. This was where "the rubber meets the road" in our family worship time. Our second son, Samuel, is approaching his 6th birthday. When we asked the "icebreaker" question from the 9Marks book, "In what ways do you think you should change?" Samuel said "I need to be born again!"

While the magnitude of this statement is enormous, I must confess that in our family we use a lot of theological terms and memorize catechisms and Scriptures that use terms like this so often that, while my heart certainly did begin to flutter at Samuel's bulls-eye-answer to the question, that what he said might well have been merely the logical result of hearing us speak and recite over and over again (even in song) that being born again is how we express the change of heart called regeneration. Yes, indeed, the girls immediately broke into song (as they often do) "What is this change of heart called? This change of heart is called regeneration. What is this change of heart called? Being born again."

With the predisposition of our family to vocally repeat those songs and catechisms that we so often recite, we don't jump up and down terribly quickly when one of our children answers such a question correctly. However, we also do not dismiss the daily grace and mercy of God in revealing His love for mankind, His marvelous salvation that is explained more fully in the following verses of today's text. While I was inclined as a man with a plan to go on to the next question in the book, instead we spent nearly an hour looking deeply into the way Jesus reveals His true nature, motives, and destiny to Nicodemus.

We rehearsed the account of the serpents in the wilderness, the obedience of Moses in the salvation from death by looking to the raised serpent. We talked about what Jesus meant, speaking prophetically about his body being "lifted up". We asked questions of clarification and comprehension of our older, converted children. We praised God together for His Word that tells us not only the events which took place to secure our salvation, but also the means and motivations of our Creator God and His only begotten Son,the nature and work of the Holy Spirit. And in the end, Samuel had a few more questions. He had a few more comments, and while I long to see the day that God truly regenerates the heart and mind of my son, I don't believe today was the day.

This is why we constantly speak of the glories of God. This is why we daily open God's Word and proclaim the true history it records. This is why we pray for our children daily, lifting up our praises, petitions, and even our confession of sin before the God who hears His children. This is why we do not send our children to the government to be taught, but rather spend time, money, and indeed give our lives to the training of our children. We eagerly await the day when Samuel is born again, and we will continue to put aside our schedules and our plans when something of eternal value demands our attention.

In the end, we learned today that Nicodemus coming to Jesus for answers was one part of God's plan to draw Nicodemus to Himself. We see later in John chapter 7 a bit more about Nicodemus, and ultimately in chapter 19 this ruler of the Jews who came by night to speak to the Rabbi Jesus now stood with Joseph of Arimathea and lovingly prepared the body of that same Jesus, having been lifted up as He had prophesied, which was now drenched in His own blood and no longer recognizable as a man. Nicodemus was one of the only men in history to have a private audience with Jesus, not only on that first night, but also after His atoning death. This man was certainly changed, he was born again of the Spirit of the living God. His questions led to answers, his faith to forgiveness, and his Rabbi having completed all things to complete his justification. This was all accomplished by God's grace, through faith, not of works, so that Nicodemus might not boast in anything but Christ.

To God truly be all glory and honor, forever an ever. Amen!

A busy week is a blessed week

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Cowperthwaite) — Mon, 16 Nov 2015 21:55:00 +0000

This week is going to be one of those weeks that we are exhausted at the end, and quite possibly all throughout, and yet one which promises blessing when we are willing to look beyond the busyness and see what God has prepared.

Today we had dentist appointments for two of the children. Tonight, we are headed to have dinner with a couple from church, who also raised 5 children and have wisdom to share with us young folks as we seek to raise our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

Tomorrow, the day begins with a run to my doctor to report all of the recent goings on with my seizures and see if he has any wisdom to share with us as we go forward. We then will have Nathaniel, our oldest son, over for supper and to spend the night before we take him to Portland for what promises to be his last appointment with the hand surgeon. We pray that this report opens the door for Nathaniel to continue his plans to leave next month for culinary school in Texas beginning in January. We will then take him to his home in Palermo and then head toward Kingfield for the next stop of our whirlwind week.

The stop in Kingfield promises to be one of the greatest blessings of the week. Last weekend we were scheduled to spend the day with the Bates family, our dear friends who will soon be moving to Canada for work. Rory is a border patrol officer and has accepted a position for the next few years in a place that we will not be able to visit. With our recent visit cancelled due to illness on their part, we are looking forward to this visit even more than we previously expected. We plan to spend the night at the Bates home and then head back to our own home on Thursday evening.

I realize that to some people, this doesn't look like that busy of a schedule. However, when you factor in the feeding, care, and training of 5 children and my recent physical constraints, this week is going to be a killer at least for Sara. She now must do all the driving, which is in itself a chore due to our infant daughter's disdain for riding in a car in the dark. Thankfully, the other children are very helpful in caring for the baby and we won't be driving in the dark too much. The more I think about the strength, patience, and compassion that are the hallmarks of Sara's life, the more I love her and thank the Lord for her.

Through it all, while we know there will be challenges aplenty, we will be together, We will endure whatever comes our way as a family. We will sacrifice for others, we will remind ourselves of the grace and mercy of God whose example of sacrificial love enables us to endure the trials, and we even find joy at the end. Truly, the words of James chapter 1 give us hope and wisdom.

What a blessing it is to know that our trials do not come from the apathy of God, nor any lack of power on His part to remedy our situation. Rather, trials serve a purpose, that is to make us more like Christ, to equip us for every good work, to show the steadfast love of God whose absolute power and wisdom can be trusted to work all things together for our good and His glory.

My weakness, His strength!

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Cowperthwaite) — Mon, 16 Nov 2015 21:31:00 +0000

Day 4 on Keppra: Today was a moderately good day. I seem to have caught a slight cold, yet besides a good sneezing fit here and there, I feel well. I am still feeling a bit of brain fog, whether from the meds or the cold I know not, but I find that almost any amount of physical exertion causes me great fatigue.

I had one seizure thus far that lasted longer than most, and I could not speak for nearly 30 minutes. I was able to type (very slowly) after 15 minutes or so, it seems my fingers know what my brain wants to express even if I can't make my mouth work!

Today I walked for 15 minutes, then stood talking for 15, and could not make it from the back yard to the house without laying in the wet grass for a while, exhausted beyond belief. Later on, I walked with the kids for about 25-30 minutes and had to come inside where I collapsed into my chair and had the aforementioned seizure. I cannot adequately express how tired I feel from even this limited activity, but this has hit with or without seizures more and more the last few weeks. Sometimes, I wonder if it is safe to go for a simple walk, as at times it seems that is all the energy allotted to me for the whole day.

I don't like this new normal. I love to work, I love to run up and down the halls and outwork everyone around me. I enjoy hearing people at work tell me to slow down, that the place won't burn down if I slow down a little bit. I wish I had that kind of energy today, but for some reason, God has placed me in a slow and weak body today. His will and His ways are perfect, even when, ESPECIALLY when I don't understand why. It is in my weakness that His strength is manifest.

In spite of the frustration, surely this time is being used of the Lord to conform me into the image of Christ Jesus, my Lord and my Savior, the One who willingly took upon Himself a body of flesh, endured temptation and suffering, and ultimately tasted (and defeated) death to save sinners from the wrath of the Father. Whatever it takes, Lord. Whatever it takes! Not my will, but Thine be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven. Soli Deo Gloria!

Remembering Joshua 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Cowperthwaite) — Fri, 13 Nov 2015 15:37:00 +0000

Friends, readers, and loved ones:
I would like to let you know about the events of the last day in our lives. We were expecting the arrival of our son, Joshua Daniel Cowperthwaite in the next few weeks. Joshua was born about 9pm Wednesday, March 25,2009. He never took a breath, his heart never beat outside of his mother's body, and we believe he is home with the Lord.

We cannot comprehend the reasoning behind this event, but know that God is in control and that His purposes will be revealed when we all get to heaven.
As the newspapers will not take death notices from the general public, and charge high rates to publish online, I have decided to put the information on here for those who wish to hear the story of our beloved son.

While we grieve and pray about what we do from here, we have no doubt that God is faithful, He is steadfast and strong. He is our rock and our fortress. Job 1:20-22 reminds us that everything we have is from the Lord, and He gives and takes as He sees fit. Blessed be the name of the Lord, our Savior and Redeemer.

Joshua was 20 3/4 inches long, weighed 7 lbs even. He was born quickly, without warning in our camper. We are in California doing evangelistic work. My friend Justin had just arrived to watch the other children as we prepared to go to the hospital. We were not able to get to the hospital. Things happened very quickly.

Joshua never took a breath, his heart was stopped and we did CPR for 10 minutes until the ambulances arrived. There were 7 medics here to help Sara and Joshua in the tiny walkway of our little traveling home, and not one of them left us without hearing the truth of the promise of eternal life through believing on the Lord Jesus Christ.

We have faith that our son is in Heaven, worshiping at the feet of our Savior and Redeemer. While the Scriptures are not absolutely clear on this issue, we rejoice in hope as King David did after the death of his own son. This gives us a peace that can not be comprehended by anyone that does not have a personal relationship with the Creator of all things. Truly by God's grace and mercy we have that hope.

Joshua's lifeless body never felt anything. The workers and I continued rescue attempts in the ambulance and in the NICU. Nothing ever worked. All told, we all worked on him over an hour before they quit. Sara was also taken by ambulance, healthy, but needing to be checked out. Justin stayed with our children, all of which were asleep but Nathaniel.

Nathaniel, just 13 years old, heard the whole thing but didn't come out of bed until we all went to the hospital. He understands what happened and also praised God for our family and the Mighty things God will do through this.He is a wonderful young man who we pray continues to show a heart dedicated to the Lord. Knowing the grace and mercy of God toward his father, I continue to pray and hope that God is glorified in the life of my oldest son.

After things were settled with Joshua and Sara, I went home to be with the other children. I talked to the cab driver, Billy, who took me home. His parents were Child Evangelism Fellowship missionaries for years, and he had "lost his faith" years ago. I talked to him about having peace in any situation.

At first Billy thought I was crazy, but after talking for a while, he saw that I was not in shock, but understood that our child went home early, and will live for eternity having never tasted the pain of this world, heartbreak, sorrow, no tears. He never had to endure the things we all think of as unfair in this world.I sent him home with my card and a CD that talks about how the believer in Christ Jesus can have hope even when things look unfair, impossible to bear.

We have a hope, a firm knowledge that no matter what comes, God is faithful. He is working in all things to bring glory to Himself. I pray that this situation is used to lead people to see their need for a Savior. I pray that God works mightily in our lives as we remember who He is and what He has called us to do. I pray that this terrible event can be used to bring people to see that this life is temporary, and they must choose their destiny while there is still time in these mortal bodies. Our resolve is strong, and God will work it all out.

Though we tend to doubt ourselves and second guess every choice made along the way, we were reassured by the Doctors who said Joshua could not have been saved be it at the hospital or at home. At least we got to hold our baby for such a short time and see his beautiful face, made in the image of God.

Praise the Lord, for He is good. His mercy endures forever.