I once heard a succinct definition of the Church that I found fitting for at least my biblical knowledge. The Church is a group of individuals empowered by the Holy Spirit to continue the work and ministry of Jesus.  Following this definition, a question begins to invade my thoughts. What exactly was the work and ministry of Jesus? Through a casual reading of any gospel account it becomes apparent that Jesus focused and did many things for many purposes. How do we then as the Church sift through Jesus’ work and ministry? What are the specific things we should be doing?

The Bible makes it clear, but we often do not like the answer. We often desire a list of actions.  Putting them into a nice list and daily taking stock, checking off actions we feel are completing our role as part of the Church. Unfortunately, thinking like that is unbiblical. What then is Jesus’ work and ministry if it is not a list of actions to accomplish? Jesus’ work and ministry was to simply preach the good news of the Kingdom of God (Matt. 4:17, Mk. 1:15, Lk. 5:43). That’s it. It appears general and that’s because it is. Often when things are defined generally it is difficult to get traction and start going in the right direction. Most of us become frustrated and give up all together. This is big though. This is what Jesus’ work and ministry was about and we are supposed to emulate it, so it cannot be tossed aside.

Now, think about the vastness of God, and then think about the kingdom that God would rule over. It would be big. The Kingdom of God is a big enough playing field for His followers to play well. It is by the grace of God the Father that the Kingdom of God is large enough for his followers to respond to the wide grace shown to us by King Jesus. If you want a wide and big enough view of the Kingdom of God then get to know King Jesus whose sacrifice and love for you is wide and big. Then we as a Church can begin to play in the general, big, and wide Kingdom of God. Just as Jesus did.

Below is the chart I drew on the whiteboard from last Men’s Fellowship. I know many of you asked for it, so hopefully it is helpful to you. If you would like a copy of the chart for reference please email me here. Also, below are resources that I used for my study and some other additional resources.

Friends in the Book of Proverbs

Jesus the True Friend

Additional Resources

• The Gift of Friendship – Kevin DeYoung (Article)
• Friendship – Tim Keller (Sermon)
• Lonely in LA – Tim Chaddick (Sermon)
• The Four Loves – C.S. Lewis (Book)

As we began our series in Genesis I said that I was going to concentrate the Sunday morning messages on the historical narrative focusing on the worldview that Genesis establishes for the believer.

That being said, we will be submitting material to the blog that deals with (what we would see as) secondary issues and questions that are commonly raised about the accounts of Genesis.

In this post I want to share with you twelve reasons why I believe in a  world wide flood. There are probably more that one could come up with but twelve should suffice.

• Historical evidence- virtually every culture has a flood tradition.
• Geological evidence- fossils are millions of dead things, incased in rock, laid down by water all over the face of the earth. Marine life fossils are found in some of the highest mountain ranges in the world.
• Many geologist now believe that the earth’s present topography is best explained not by gradualism, but suddenly through catastrophic events like floods. Why not go one step further and admit that one great catastrophic event like the Flood is really the best explanation?
• Could all the animals fit on the Ark? The Ark- 450/75/45. The volumetric capacity of the ark would have been approx. 1,400,000 cubic feet. This is equivalent to 522 standard livestock cars used on modern American railroads. 522 cars could hold 125,000 sheep. Only 11% of land animals are larger than a sheep. Since Noah took two of each kind (and seven of every clean animal) and didn’t need all the varieties with-in the kind, the total amount of animals on the ark could have been as low 16,000 and need be no more than about 40,000.
• Noah would not have been able to gather all the animals to the ark because many of them would have been in different parts of the world.
  - The dry land was at that time one mass, and the period of time for the completion of the ark was over one hundred years.
  - Many animals have a migration instinct and there’s no reason that God couldn’t have moved the animals in that way.
  - Noah couldn’t have cared for that many animals for more than a year on the ark.
  - Hibernation- God created many animals with the hibernation instinct and there’s no reason to believe that he couldn’t have extended that to all the animals on the ark during that time.
• The wording of the text leads one to believe the flood was universal.
• The construction of the ark would be an utter waste of time and resources if the flood were but a local flood. Migration would have been a much better solution to the problem, for Noah, as well as the birds and beast.
• All flesh died that moved upon the earth. In a local flood, most of the fauna can escape death by fleeing the rising waters or by swimming to dry ground if necessary (or by flying away, as in the case of the birds); but this would be impossible in a universal flood.
• God’s promise never to send such a flood again has been broken repeatedly if it were only a local or regional flood.
• The N.T. uses the unique term (kataklusmos, “cataclysm”) instead of the usual Greek word for flood.
• Later Biblical writers accepted the universal Flood- “The world that then was perished…”
• Jesus accepted the historicity and universality of the Flood, even making it the climactic sign and type of the coming worldwide judgment when He returns.

As I said, the debate of whether there was a local flood or a world wide flood is a secondary issue, the primary theme of scripture is to record for us God’s dealings with mankind and his salvation through Christ that he has faithfully wrought and offered to all. I do believe that there is some importance to believing in a world wide flood and my main reason for doing so is that I believe that the Bible clearly states it.

Being an uneducated man myself, I firmly believe that the Bible is written not for the scholar, or the philosopher, not for the elite with higher education. I believe that God’s word was written for the common man, that all may hear and understand. We should be able to read the bible literally when it speaks literally, and poetically when it speaks poetically and metaphorically when it speaks metaphorically.

That being said, we should be able to read most passages (not all, see Deuteronomy 29:29) of scripture under the inspiration of the Spirit and understand what is being taught, without having a PHD or a THD.

I’ll end with this, Paul said, “I commend you to God and the word of His grace that is able to build you up and give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.”

Amen.

Vaya con Dios!

Ever since we heard we have been praying for Jesse, that the Lord’s will would be done in this situation, believing that the Lord Jesus is more than able to touch and heal him.

Please visit http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/jessecobb.

This link will keep us all updated as to how Jesse is and how we can pray.
We ask that you would continue to pray for Jesse, his father Dan, his mother Cindi, his sister Abbie, and all others including family and friends who are being affected by this situation.

Remember our God is the one who said, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.”
Praise the Lord he is a God of resurrection power!
Vaya con Dios!

One of the goals of this blog series is to walk through God’s Word to gain a full and exegetical view of the Sabbath. Why is this important? Because there are implications on our understanding of the Gospel as well as daily implications in our lives as followers of Jesus Christ.

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.

- Genesis 2:1-3

In this passage we see the very first allusion to the Sabbath, which we understand as the Day of Rest. The word Sabbath carries baggage in English. The word has been packed with lots of meaning that is not necessarily in the Bible or intended by the Word of God. In these first few verses of Genesis Chapter 2 we see the uniqueness of the Seventh Day as recorded in the Creation account. It begins with the fact that all the creating was completed; finished. Verse 2 makes it clear what we are supposed to understand concerning what God did on the Seventh Day, He does nothing. He rests on the Seventh Day. This word Seventh is where the Word Sabbath comes from. It doesn’t linguistically mean rest… it means seventh. However, the word Sabbath has become synonymous with rest because of this verse as well as later passages which we will get to in later posts. From this particular text and the context surrounding we can learn a few things about the Seventh Day which will later be simply called Sabbath.

1. Rest is tied to ceasing from work rather than a need for a recharge.

I have actually heard theological discussions questioning whether God was really omnipotent because He had to rest on the Seventh Day. It is quite clear from the context that God was not straining Himself when it came to creation. He didn’t take six days to create because He was pacing Himself. All of creation was to display His character of holiness. The essence of holiness is separation or better called sanctification. Each day God creates something and separates it out from other things even if that separation is simple declaration of distinction. And each day of creation is separated from the next. The pinnacle of this is the Seventh Day which is separated out from every other day of creation. It is made holy, or in other words, sanctified. Since this text does not explain this fact any further, we will also go no further. We will pick this idea up in other texts dealing with this particular subject. For now, take away the idea that the Sabbath Rest is not a rest to be able to work more, it is simply a ceasing from striving and labor.

2. The only thing that actually makes the Seventh Day special is the fact that God sanctifies it. 

God is the one that makes the day holy. There’s nothing cosmically supernatural about the number seven. Verse 3 says it’s set apart because God rested it was not set apart so God could rest. It becomes by quality a different kind of day from all the others days of the week, separated out, and that’s what God intended.

3. Humans were not even involved in the first Rest.

The first Sabbath, even though Adam and Eve had been created and given their charge to fill the earth and to subdue it, God is the One who rests on the Seventh Day. There is not even a record of God telling Adam and Eve about the concept of the Sabbath Rest or commanding it. We don’t actually hear about the concept of Sabbath Rest again until the time of Moses in Exodus 12.

4. God lives out the example He wishes us to employ.

This is the first time we see the God modeling behavior before humans. He shows them the concept of resting from laboring. This might not seem like a terribly important point for God to have to model before mankind. However the fact that He does might indicate to us that we have failed to see the great importance Rest plays in the understanding of the Gospel.

By John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: desiringGod.org

I just recently bought a 1985 Toyota Land Cruiser and I am already experiencing buyer’s regret. It’s not that I truly regret buying the car, but all of a sudden I’m having thoughts of fear and doubt whether or not this was the right decision. It’s an old car and, as we all know, old cars tend to have more problems. So already I’m thinking about the problems that could potentially come.

It’s good for us to research and weigh our decisions so that we make wise decisions, but I’m talking about something else. I’m talking about being guided by fear. I’m talking about our thoughts condemning us over the decisions that we make; saying things like, “you made the decision, and come what may, you must bear the consequence.” Sometimes this is the case. When we sin there are consequences. When we make poor decisions there are consequences to those decisions. But even in the midst of the consequences we must remember that the Lord Jesus is with us, walking us through these lessons, giving us the grace we need to overcome.

I was encouraged this morning as I read C.H. Spurgeon’s morning devotion from his devotional Faith’s Check Book. I thought it would be good to share it with all of you as a reminder that the Lord is a shelter for us in times of trouble. I encourage you whatever the circumstance might be, hide yourself in Him. Remind yourself of his faithfulness and power, and you will be protected from the arrows that the enemy seeks to throw at you.

Vaya con Dios!

And a man shall be as an hiding-place from the wind and a covert from the tempest. (Isaiah 32:2)

Who this Man is we all know. Who could He be but the Second Man, the Lord from heaven, the man of sorrows, the Son of Man? What a hiding place He has been to His people! He bears the full force of the wind Himself, and so He shelters those who hide themselves in Him. We have thus escaped the wrath of God, and we shall thus escape the anger of men, the cares of this life, and the dread of death. Why do we stand in the wind when we may so readily and so surely get out of it by hiding behind our Lord? Let us this day run to Him and be at peace.

Often the common wind of trouble rises in its force and becomes a tempest, sweeping everything before it. Things which looked firm and stable rock in the blast, and many and great are the falls among our carnal confidences. Our Lord Jesus, the glorious man, is a covert which is never blown down. In Him we mark the tempest sweeping by, but we ourselves rest in delightful serenity.

This day let us just stow ourselves away in our hiding place and sit and sing under the protection of our Covert. Blessed Jesus! Blessed Jesus! How we love Thee! Well we may, for Thou art to us a shelter in the time of storm.

- Spurgeon

Last post we discussed how often our views of the Gospel are narrow, and how they should be widened to a fuller understanding because the Gospel is vast and deep. We touched on the Gospel being the entire Bible or the story of God not just Jesus’ life & ministry. What we want to do now is move into Gospel implications.

What are Gospel implications? Gospel implications are seeing Gospel truths and allowing them to affect your heart. Gospel implications are a process not necessarily a thing. Jonathan Edwards called them religious affections, which today John Piper, Tim Keller, and Jonathan Dodson tip their hat to Edwards by incorporating them into much of their theology. Gospel implications are one of three steps in what I call the Gospel journey. As Christians, we encounter Gospel truths (step 1), Gospel implications (step 2), and Gospel actions (step 3). The order is key and unfortunately most Christians do a great job with Gospel truth, but fail with Gospel implications. The scary part is many Christians do not realize that misunderstanding Gospel implications voids Gospel actions. Let me explain.

In Luke 6:45, Jesus says the heart is the primary source of motivation, which will eventually become known from one’s actions. In the Bible, the heart encompasses the mind, emotion, and will of a person not the internal organ. Ultimately, the heart is the motivational center of human action. When Gospel truth does not reach the heart, the motivational center of human action, it voids Gospel action, or even worse, distorts it. Gospel actions require Gospel implications.  Otherwise the actions have no power because there is no heart motivation. We call this legalism or moralism. Doing actions because of fear, tradition, or easiness. In the life of Jesus both the Pharisees and even his disciples were prone to act in this legalistic manner.

This is why at times you do not feel close to God. Jesus is not a delight to you. Jesus is not an appetite you crave. Jesus is not the one you trust fully and consider His counsel before anyone else. This is not what Jesus wants. Jesus desires to be intimate and close with you, not distant and foreign. You need to allow Gospel truths to really affect and motivate you from your heart by letting the story of God penetrate your emotions, will, and mind. You need to be an individual who is controlled by Gospel motivations, so you do not fall into the sin of the Pharisees. How do we allow Gospel truths to affect our heart and then motivate us to Gospel action? That is for the next post.

If you didn’t know already, we have decided to cancel the Sunday night prayer meeting indefinitely. Some of you may be shocked. Some of you may not have known that we have a Sunday night prayer meeting and so you are shocked too but for different reasons.

It’s very important for us as a church that we don’t view certain “ministries” or certain “structures” as absolute necessities. What do I mean? For instance, that we need to have a college group, or that we need to have a mid-week bible study or that we started a ministry and it’s been going so long we can’t shut it down. Oh yes we can! I say this because it’s important for us to always be seeking the Lord and what He is doing currently among us and not hanging on to what God was doing years ago.

Ministries should be constantly revisited and revised and when there is no more vision or revising to be done we should kill them. Otherwise they become an unnecessary burden to the Church. We don’t have time to be unnecessarily burdened. In fact,  we want to know what God is doing presently and be a part of that.

The Sunday night prayer meeting started in my living room with my wife, one other couple, and a college student, over four years ago. The prayer meeting grew over time and so did the passion to pray. We had many great times of calling on the Lord and of asking for revival in the church and in our city. The format changed over the years but we always stuck to praying. The Sunday night prayer meeting is close to my heart because it is the first ministry I ever led at RCF and God has done great things among us and I believe in the power of prayer. But even so this should not be what keeps a ministry going. We must continually ask ourselves “What is God doing”?

All this is to say that I believe that the Lord has moved on and given us a better venue to pray. We are encouraging the whole congregation to engage in prayer at their Community Groups. This is a great context for praying for one another and the needs of one another. It is also a great opportunity to get prayer for yourself or personal issues going in your life. Community groups are also a great way for us to come together with one voice and one heart  in prayer for our church and our city. We also encourage all of you to come out to our Sunday morning prayer meeting at 8:30 and pray with us for the morning service, the church and our city.

May God bless you and make you a blessing.

Vaya Con Dios