Two lessons from Genesis 11

Action: They built a city
Purpose: ...in order not to be dispersed over the face of the whole earth
Desire: Security

Action: They built a tower with its top in the heavens...
Purpose: ...in order to make a name for themselves
Desire: Praise

(from a chart in the ESV Study Bible p. 69)

Notice where Genesis 11 is placed, directly before the story of Abraham which begins in Genesis 12, whose life will be used to illustrate faith in God.

Right Thinking and Right Knowing

From John Piper's sermon recently preached in Germany:

1. It is possible to have strong feelings and be lost if the feelings are not based on knowledge (Romans 10:1-2).
2. God has planned that thinking about the Bible is the means he uses to give understanding (2 Timothy 2:7).
3. Paul is given as an example of reasoning with the Bible (Acts 17:2-3).
4. Jesus assumes and requires that we will use logic in understanding both what is natural and what is spiritual (Luke 12:54-57).
5. Jesus refuses to deal with people who use their reason to conceal truth (Matthew 21:23-27).
6. Thirteen times in Paul's letters, he asks the question, "Do you not know?" Paul assumes that if his readers knew something, they would see things differently, feel differently, and act differently.
7. The Bible tells us that Christ has given pastors and teachers to the church and tells us that they should be apt to teach—because God intends that the Bible be explained to ordinary folks who don't have the time or ability to go as deep as God wants them to go. Christ would not have given teachers to the church if he thought they were not needed.
8. The Bible declares that we should proclaim the whole council of God (Acts 20:27). That implies that there is a coherent unified whole, a body of doctrine, that should be given to the church. It is not easy to find this whole council in a book with 1,500 pages! It's mainly mental labor. Finding the unified biblical theology that the people need to know takes hard thinking.
9. The Bible is a book, which means that it must be read.
10. An example of how thinking and valuing and acting relate to each other is Matthew 7:7-12.

Grace! Grace!

God is always amazing, but I am reminded of that when He speaks through everything around me. You simply cannot get away from God. When He speaks, His voice is heard throughout a preacher's world and beyond.

Preparing messages each week is a joyful yet often daunting task. Sometimes it includes writing a lot, sometimes writing little because one is puzzled over a text, but it is always a time of seeking what God has to say. This week, during my trek through Zachariah's visions, I have been studying Zechariah 4:1-14. Zechariah is not an easy book to interpret, so God's help is essential.

And this post is just a little exultation in how God is so gracious to speak. I was laying down in my bed for the night and thought, for sure, I must read a commentary to get some more understanding on this text, time is approaching for me to preach and I am still seeking much understanding of this text---and then I said, no, let me commune with God a little apart from my work on this text, and seek to just enjoy him with all work aside. And so I pick up Communion with God by John Owen, and I read the following:

Grace is everywhere in Scripture ascribed to Jesus as his chief characteristic. He dwelt among us, 'full of grace and truth' (John 1:14). All who were before Christ were but symbols and representatives of grace. Only by Christ did grace come in truth and reality. 'Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ' (John 1:17). 'And of his fulness have we all received and grace for grace.' (John 1:16). That is, we have communion with Christ in grace. We receive from Jesus all manner of grace whatever. In grace, then, we have fellowship with Jesus.

In the apostolic blessing, grace is also ascribed to our Lord Jesus Christ (II Cor. 13:14). Paul is so delighted with this that he makes it his motto (II Thess. 3:17, 18). Paul makes these two -- 'Grace be with you' and 'The Lord Jesus be with you' -- equivalent expressions. Grace, then, is that which we are especially to see in the Lord Jesus. Grace is that which we are to receive from him. That grace which is revealed in the gospel is that grace by which we have fellowship with Jesus Christ. Christ is the headstone in the building of the temple of God, to whom 'grace, grace' is to be shouted (Zech. 4:7).(Communion with God, R.J.K. Law edition, p.46)

Let us shout, Grace! Grace! to our hearts all the day. Blessings!

Grace Community Greensboro website

I noticed a major redesign of Grace Community Church's website today, looks great, check it out!

When you do not understand

Jon Bloom of Desiring God writes a helpful devotion on John 13. Here is an excerpt I found very helpful:

Two lessons from this account in John 13:1-11:

First, much of the Christian life is spent trusting Jesus now and understanding him later. Jesus typically does not feel it necessary to explain on the front end why he is doing something the way he is doing it. And, like Peter, when it looks wrong to us, we are tempted to object to the Lord's will.

God understands and is patient with our confusion and even our deep wrestling or grief. But he wants us to trust him and not grumble. God's ways are not our ways (Isaiah 55:8). His purposes for bringing or not bringing certain things to pass often extend far beyond us—maybe even generations beyond us.

So during those times we need to remember Jesus' words to Peter: "What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand."

Second, what Jesus is bringing about in the sometimes confusing, sometimes very painful work he is doing in our lives is sanctification. He is washing our feet. He not only bathes us, completely removing the guilt of our sin in his cleansing work on the cross, but in love he keeps forgiving us (1 John 1:9) and disciplines us so that we will share his holiness (Hebrews 12:10-11).

Our understanding his purposes in a particular providence tends to be not as important to God as our trust in his character. So together let's continue to "trust in the Lord with all [our] heart, and…not lean on [our] own understanding" (Proverbs 3:5). Because one day we will understand. And we will, with great joy, proclaim, "The Lord is righteous in all his ways and kind in all his works" (Psalm 145:17).

Is Circumcision Required today?

I am doing a study on Exodus presently in preparation for 2010 to preach through the book. It has made me begin to think through certain issues already that I would have not otherwise done. One Scripture that has puzzled me often is this one:

Now it came about at the lodging place on the way that the LORD met him and sought to put him to death. Then Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son's foreskin and threw it at Moses' feet, and she said, "You are indeed a bridegroom of blood to me." So He let him alone. At that time she said, "You are a bridegroom of blood"--because of the circumcision.
(Exodus 4:24-26 NASB)

What I understand here is that God was going to kill Moses because he did not circumcised his son. There is a picture here of salvation by the blood per se and any Christian would have to run to the Cross on this one and be reminded of Christ who is the bridegroom of blood to us; who has saved us by His blood of the New Covenant. And much of the answer lays arest in such thoughts.

Even so, we must understand something about circumcision and it is first found in Genesis, well before Moses. It says there:

God said further to Abraham, "Now as for you, you shall keep My covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations. "This is My covenant, which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you: every male among you shall be circumcised. "And you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin, and it shall be the sign of the covenant between Me and you. "And every male among you who is eight days old shall be circumcised throughout your generations, a servant who is born in the house or who is bought with money from any foreigner, who is not of your descendants. "A servant who is born in your house or who is bought with your money shall surely be circumcised; thus shall My covenant be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. "But an uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant." (Genesis 17:9-14 NASB)

I have color coded the words above to highlight what is happening. If you are reading this via facebook it may not show up so you will need to go to the original post. Even so, you will see that God takes his covenant seriously and it's sign. And if so, the question must be---does God require circumcision today to be right with him?

The book of Acts testifies that physical circumcision is not a requirement for Gentile believers to be saved. Even so, we can get an idea of what God is communicating through the physical act of circumcision by something Moses says later.

"So circumcise your heart, and stiffen your neck no longer.
(Deuteronomy 10:16 NASB)

"Moreover the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live.
(Deuteronomy 30:6 NASB)

And when Israel was on not so good of terms perhaps like Moses was when the Lord was going to kill him, Jeremiah says:

"Circumcise yourselves to the LORD And remove the foreskins of your heart, Men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, Or else My wrath will go forth like fire And burn with none to quench it, Because of the evil of your deeds."
(Jeremiah 4:4 NASB)

So, is circumcision required today? And if so, in what way? And what is the sign of the covenant? Is it circumcision, baptism, or a changed heart, or a combination, or something else?

Six Truths to Believe Regarding Satan and Demons

The following list is found in Death by Love by Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears p.48. These are truths "to believe and highlight in your Bible so you can revisit them often."

1. Satan and demons are your foes and not in any way your friends according to 1 Peter 5:8
2. Satan and demons are actively at war against you according to Ephesians 6:10-13
3. Satan and demons want you to die because Satan is a murderer; he wants to bring death to everything in your life, including your love, joy, marriage, and ministry according to John 8:44.
4. Satan and demons have no claim to you, because you have been delivered forever from Satan's kingdom of darkness to Jesus' kingdom of light according to Colossians 1:13.
5. In Jesus there is for you personally protection from and authority over Satan and his demons according to Luke 10:18-20.
6. Because you are in Jesus positionally and all things are under his authority, you too can command Satan and demons to obey you by the authority delegated to you from Jesus according to Ephesians 1:18-2:8. Practically this means that if in Jesus' name you command a demon to leave you alone, it must.

The need for concentrated prolonged Bible study

No, not a popular title or subject at all; neither is Bible study simply for pastors. It is not a cop-out for pastors either, but rather a call for pastors and lay-persons alike to seek the need for Biblical study that asks the questions to the text and to God seeking understanding. It is rare however that you find someone with a child-like mind seeking to know more of God through the Scriptures, rather they are only spectators looking on others who are truly eating, tasting, and seeing that God is good. Sitting and hearing a preacher via radio, TV, Internet, or in person is only as valuable as the person is studying Truth all the while.

As I study through Zechariah this week, I came across a quote that is helpful to the end of study by James Montgomery Boice:

"There were no shortcuts...The work still had to be done: the stones still had to be laid. Any worthwhile work always begins small and progresses from that point to become bigger. As I counsel with people in our day, any of them young people, I am convinced that one of their biggest problems is that they expect shortcuts. They want a simple principle that will explain all the Bible and eliminate the need for concentrated and prolonged Bible study. They want an experience that will set them on a new spiritual plateau and eliminate the need for hard climbing up the steep mountain paths of discipleship. They want a fellowship that has all the elements of a perfect heavenly fellowship without the work of building up those elements by their own hard work and active participation. This is not the way God has ordered things. He could have given shortcuts, but he has not. Even Zerubbabel, who was the leader of Israel at this time and who in this vision receives a promise that he will live to see the completion of the temple--even Zerubbabel, who is promised the fullness of the Holy Spirit to complete his work--even Zerubbabel still had to take his plumb line in hand and work away at the mountain one day at a time" (Minor Prophets, p. 510-511).

What Boice says is still relevant. We need to study our Bibles.