Faith

Following his resurrection, Jesus had appeared a couple times to His disciples, but one of the disciples, Thomas, was absent. When Thomas heard about Jesus' appearance, he didn't believe it. He said, "Unless I see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe" (John 20:25).

When Thomas said "I will not believe," was he sinning?

Well, on the one hand we could say Thomas' unbelief is only natural when the other disciples got to see Jesus in His resurrected body, but he didn't. The other disciples had hard evidence he was lacking. No wonder they believed.

We're not asking whether it's understandable, though, but whether it's wrong? And the answer has to be, "Yes, unbelief is sin." How do we know this?

Let’s celebrate Easter
with the rite
of laughter.
Christ died and rose
and lives.
Laugh like a woman
who holds her first baby.
Our enemy death
will soon be destroyed.
Laugh like a man
who finds he doesn’t have cancer
or does but now there’s a cure.
Christ opened wide the door of heaven.
Laugh like children
at Disneyland’s gates.
This world is owned by God
and He’ll return to rule.
Laugh like a man
who walks away uninjured
from a wreck
in which his car was totaled.
Laugh
as if all the people in the whole world
were invited to a picnic
and then invite them.

-Joe Bayly (from Psalms of My Life)

Jesus, Lover of my soul,
  Let me to Thy bosom fly;
While the nearer waters roll,
    While the tempest still is high!
Hide me, O my Saviour, hide,
    Till the storm of life is past;
Safe into the haven guide;
    O receive my soul at last!

(This post was written by Pastor Dave Curell.) Recently, I heard a commercial on the radio advertising a cancer care center. The commercial was militant: the cancer patient is under attack; cancer is the enemy and the patient's allies are the oncologists and treatment centers. There are powerful weapons and there is hope for victory.

While some people diligently monitor their physical condition, most of us live oblivious to the battle our bodies wage to maintain our physical health. Oblivious, that is, until the doctor gives us "the long face." Then we become acutely aware of that battle. And typically, we take one of three courses of action: we begin to fight for our lives; we resign ourselves to the enemy (surrender to the disease); or we begin an elaborate program of denial. If we chose to fight, we surround ourselves with allies and weapons that will improve our chances of winning the battle. Thus, we find the most powerful weapons and aggressive allies. Does anyone want a pacifist for his oncologist?

If this is true of the battle for our bodies, what about the battle for our souls?

We sing the words to "Jesus, Lover of My Soul" and think it nice that someday, if and when we encounter a storm, Jesus will be there for us. Yet we seldom notice the words refer to the present “storm of life." All of life is a storm and this hymn indicates that the turbulence we face begins with our new birth and only ends at death...

(Tim) Can anyone think of a better Christmas present for the beginning of Advent than these men doing the hard work of reconciliation? May God increase the  Lawyer and Mattes tribes as all of us follow their example in asking and receiving, and giving forgiveness.

God rest ye merry, gentlemen, let nothing you dismay...

(Tim: Last week I was talking on the phone with my friend, David Faulkner, from Presbyterian Church (USA) days and heard again of his inability to get pulpit committees to give him a serious look, given his disability. David mentioned he'd written an op-ed piece on the plight of the blind that the newspaper had rejected, so I asked him to send it on for the blog. Brothers and sisters, David's a valuable and gifted part of the Bride of Christ and I commend him to you. Although earning more money would help him with the expenses of raising the five children he and his wife, Dorothy, have been blessed by God with, David also needs to be using the gifts God has given him.

If your church, school, or business could use a wise, thoughtful, cheerful man who's received the gift of teaching, get in contact with David, please, and give him a chance to use those gifts. To reach David, you can E-mail him at dfdf at acninc dot net).

A NATIONAL SCANDAL?

By David Faulkner

My friend David is blind. A few years back he was living in a tiny apartment in Washington, DC, working as a medical transcriptionist, making just enough to live. He might still be there had his parents not sent him a plate of cookies by a friend. David moved back to Michigan and married the messenger, a clinical counselor with a good job. They adopted a brother and sister out of foster-care.

David still types medical transcriptions. When I asked about the job he responded, “It’s something to do, but you can’t make a living at it.” David has a college degree. I have three, a Bachelors and two Masters. What’s more, I can see—barely. But I can’t get a job...

Not that I have already obtained it, or have already become perfect, but I press on in order that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:12-14)

(Tim) It may be dispositional with me, but I have an intense dislike for packaging. Those clear plastic frames around little electronic components and almost everything else small and easily pilfered drive me crazy when I get home. They never surrender their product easily, and more often than not, my hand's cut before the extrication's complete.

If our president must use each State of the Union Address to pander to us, I have a suggestion. Next year, instead of a new promise to throw our great, great, great grandchildren's money at our present health care crisis, why not a simple promise that would cost us nothing? The POTUS could promise a consumer protection law requiring stores to hire big strong union men holding box cutters to stand next to cashiers, ready to disengage products from their packaging. Maybe union women could do it too, but the essential law would be that no consumer is allowed to take a product home with its packaging intact. The danger is simply too great. Are you with me?

Speaking of packaging, it helps to think of packaging when it comes to the church today--not simply the evangelical subculture, but the church as she does evangelism...

But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. - 1Timothy 5:8

In a nation where the majority of citizens claim to have "a personal relationship" or to be "living a narrative" with Jesus at the center, how is it that babies keep being murdered at a rate of 1.3 million per year? How is it that women continue to take on more positions in which, by design and intent, they exercise authority over men? How is it that the family meal has died? That what my Dad called "that huckster" now owns the center of our living room and dying room? That no one practices hospitality any more—except perhaps at restaurants or hotels? That husbands love internet sluts instead of the wife of their youth? That one fifth of our nation's women now arrive at their early forties never having given birth to a child?

Really, the older I get the more sense it makes to me that the New Testament Epistles place such constant and heavy emphasis on simple (or should I say foundational) household matters. Do we really think that killing babies, women sleeping with women and men with men, children defying their fathers, mothers abandoning their children and home for a public life, husbands loving prostitutes instead of the virtuous wife God gave them, wives refusing to submit to their husbands and taking over the leadership of the church and state, smutty plays and drama and poetry, and spoiled cats and dogs are things unknown in the world of the early Christians?

(Tim) So why do we hate authority? Is it really that difficult to submit to our husband or father?

It struck me this morning that Jesus must have thought it important to tell His disciples what great difficulty He had submitting to His Father's will the night He was betrayed. Three times we're told "He went a little beyond" Peter, James, and John when He prayed, "My father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not as I will, but as you will."

Maybe the disciples overheard Him?

But Luke records the "little beyond" Jesus went to pray was "about a stone's throw." And Matthew, Mark, and Luke all record the disciples fell asleep as Jesus prayed. So no, it's unlikely they heard Him.

Our Lord must have thought it important His disciples know of His weakness, and how He pled for the cup of God's wrath to be kept from Him. And beyond His disciples, you and I, also. Our Lord determined that we should know and be encouraged by His Own terrible struggle toward submission to His Father.

Slaves, students, congregants, children, employees, wives, presbyters, citizens--every single one of us in the place of our submission to the authority God has placed over us--our Lord Jesus was tempted in all ways like as we are, yet without sin. Surely He has born our griefs and carried our sorrows.

Nevertheless, not my will, but thine.

(Tim) This is true Christian faith.

(Tim) Since the election, I've boycotted the news, and my family will be skipping January's investiture or ordination or coronation or divination--whatever it's called. But what to think and feel? Balking at the idolatry is not faith and prayer.

Then, this morning, I read Kyriosity, the blog of our esteemed sister Valerie, and here's what she had to say...

(Tim) Things are quiet here at the church-house. It's New Year's Eve and I've been doing odd jobs in between reading Christmas cards and letters that piled up the past few weeks.

Just now, I finished my second letter in a row from friends with lots of children--one family with eight and the other nine. And last night, we sat and talked through the evening with our dear friends, David and Jill Crum, who are in town to visit their six sons now living here in Bloomington. David and Jill have been blessed by God with eleven children--ten sons and one daughter.

These are happy, happy families God has used to propagate a godly seed for His Own glory. And not one of the mothers or fathers cast a longing eye at other believers who chose money, career, or status over another child. They're all poor, and they're all joyful. Trust me. (If you want to test it, send me a private e-mail and I'll put you in touch with them so you may ask them yourself.)

So here's the New Year's Resolution I'm so impertinent as to suggest, dear brothers and sisters. Why not follow these three pastors and their godly wives and dedicate this coming year to being fruitful and multiplying? To propagating a godly seed. To making love and life, both at the same time? And if you and your wife are not able to have children, take in foster children or adopt a child.

What could you expect if you did so...

(Tim, w/thanks to Kamilla) You could fill railroad tank cars with the ink spilled on the issue of homosexuality and the church in the past few years. None of it would come close to addressing the subject as well as this meek and humble confession of past sin and present temptation, followed by wise pastoral exhortations. It's titled, "The Celibate Homosexual," and it was posted by Ed Pacht on his blog, POETREADER.

Over the years within our fellowship...

(Tim) Here's a report from a missionary couple I've had the pleasure of getting to know recently. I was so encouraged by their report that I thought I'd pass it on to our readers. The names of the couple and their cities have been removed to protect them, their brothers and sisters in Christ, and their Gospel work.

* * *

Although we're learning Hebrew, (my husband and I) are able to minister in Russian here, too. There are an estimated one million Russian-speaking immigrants in Israel. They're coming to Christ in unprecedented numbers...

...but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth. (Acts 1:8)

(Tim) Here in Bloomington, there were two sweet endings to a wonderful week among the People of God celebrating Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter. Let me share them with you for the building up of your faith.

First, following the service, yesterday, a young man came up to me with a smile on his face. Accompanied by a friend, he said he had a sin to confess and told me of his quite-serious dishonesty in certain academic work. Today he will tell the authorities about his sin--confess it to them--and it could well mean the end of his plans for the future. He was ashamed, but joyful. Christ died for that sin and he is forgiven. Christ rose from the grave and because He lives, we also shall live.

What a precious gift this confession of sin is. Everywhere it goes, it lays waste the pride of man and glorifies Jesus Christ. We are less and He is more. It was the perfect end to Holy Week!

But wait, there's more...

Later on in the afternoon, as the sanctuary was being cleaned up after having been packed for several hours with people feasting on ham, potatoes, and green beans, four young men who attend our public high schools asked for advice concerning how they should respond to the Day of Silence that will be taking over their schools' classrooms this coming Friday.

But first, a word of explanation.

The Day of Silence held April 19th each year is a day of student advocacy of sodomy and other sexual perversions. But of course, those who love sexual perversion never admit they love sexual perversion, nor do they demand that others love it. That would be gauche...

(Tim) This past Lord's Day, I was strengthened to sit under the preaching of God's Word done by Lucas Weeks, one of the middler year men in our ClearNote Pastors College. Lucas' sermon was titled, "We Are a Fragrance to Christ," with the text 2Corinthians 2:12-17. Download the sermon here from the iTunes store (of course, there's no cost). Then listen to it the next time you take a walk.

(Tim) We've all been through it many times, with many different families. Struggling to survive, financially, and no high salary on the pastor's conscience keeping him from asking the Lord for His provision, one of the few wealthy families the church has managed to get bonded within her fellowship becomes an increasing problem and it becomes apparent the only answer is formal discipline.

The years past are littered with informal discipline: many pastoral visits to the home, pastoral counseling sessions, post-small group exhortations from fellow believers, deacons, and elders; the wife has had the sweetest and wisest Titus 2 women go aside with her to entreat and exhort her concerning the damage her sin is causing to her own home and the Household of Faith. But all the informal, quiet, gentle ministry has been to little avail.

The family's wealth has complicated matters beyond the simple question of the church's fiscal solvency. The pastor and elders wonder--at first privately, but then openly in elders meetings when harm the family has caused others in the flock is on the agenda--how the congregation and community would be able to understand the discipline of such a beautiful and gifted and (shall we say rich?) family. No one would deny the family's generosity has been used by God to strengthen the fellowship. They have been a blessing in many ways and are loved for it. But also for who they are: hospitable, kind, loving, generous.

Of course, the wealth also has been a key contributor to their failures. There's been a bodaciousness to the sin that's seemed to have its origin in the pride of wealth. But as the private admonitions have failed to produce any substantive change, the family's wealth and resources have continued...

(Tim) First, if you haven't read the sermon David preached yesterday posted just below (A Sermon for the President--and for the People of God), I commend it to you. We need sermons like this to be preached across our country until those called by God as civil magistrates lead us to return to the fear of God and mercy to the poor, helpless, sojourners in our midst, and unborn. Note particularly David's comment about our self-made bonds.

Second, we're still getting the occasional Christmas/Easter letter and I thought we'd all benefit from this statement from my dear Roman Catholic friends from Denver, John and Molly Archibold:

Just right...

(Tim) Friends, the last two days have brought a blow to Church of the Good Shepherd and, despite the ephemeral nature of this forum, personally, I'd like to ask your prayers.

From Baylyblog comments, some of you will recognize the name, Eric Rasmusen. Monday evening, Eric and his wife, Helen, lost their second daugther, Elizabeth, as well as Eric's parents, in an automobile collision. Here's the statement Eric released...

(Tim) Recently, I've done some reading on the teaching of Scripture concerning children who die early in life, whether in the womb, at birth, or before the age at which they are able properly to discern the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ--to examine themselves as they come to His Table.

First, we have to admire the single-mindedness of the Roman Catholics. Although the doctrine of limbo is widely reported to be on life support at the Vatican right now (and I'm sure abortion has played a key role in bringing it into question), we can see they acted on principle in their manufacture of this dogma. (And yes, despite their efforts to deny it, this doctrine has been dogma until now.)

From conception, children are corrupted by Adam's sin; therefore children, too, need to be saved from that corruption if they are to enter Heaven; baptism washes off the corruption of original sin, saving a man; children who die in the womb are not baptized; therefore, children who die in the womb are not saved. Thus such statements as these...

(Tim) Our spam filter has been acting up again causing legitimate comments to be thrown into a spam bin where, in thirty days, they die if David or I don't go in and browse the smut to see if there's some treasure. You can imagine that browsing the smut is, for us, not something we want to do. So that, combined with time constraints, means we are late to find those treasures. And that means when we do find the treasures and post them, often they're so late to the queue that they don't show up on the "Recent Comments" column of the blog's main page. So, you'd have to be reading old comments for the fun of it to find them.

Sad state of affairs, isn't it?

All this to point your attention to a couple comments you don't want to miss, both toward the bottom of the page. One is by Eric Rasmusen who, grieving the loss of his parents and nine-year-old daughter, Lizzie, last month, wrestles with the question of Scripture's teaching on the eternal destiny of children of believers...

(Tim) This is a sermon manuscript--not a transcript--and thus differs substantially from the sermon itself.

From the Pulpit of Church of the Good Shepherd
(Service held at Sherwood Oaks Christian Church)

Funeral Service for Elizabeth Rasmusen held July 24, 2009 at 10:00 AM

My Little Daughter Is Dying
Mark 5:21-24; 35-43

(Preliminary comments on the frequency of death of children in Colonial America, followed by excerpts from prayer requests taken from the flip sides of Jonathan Edwards’ sermon manuscripts.)

Professor Stephen Stein, a retired faculty member here at Indiana University, read the flip sides of hundreds of the scraps of paper on which Jonathan Edwards wrote his sermons. At the time, paper was a valuable commodity and Edwards recycled the pieces of paper given him by his parishioners containing their prayer requests each Lord’s Day, later writing his sermons on them. Professor Stein published an article outlining the content of those requests and they're instructive for us today, on this occasion of the death of little Lizzie Rasmusen. Listen as I read you a few excerpts of these requests and see if there is anything for us to learn from souls who have gone before us...

To the woman He said, “I will greatly multiply Your pain in childbirth, In pain you will bring forth children (Genesis 3:16a)

(Tim) One mother who recently gave birth to her first child wrote this meditation on the pain of childbirth, woman's curse from our Heavenly Father. Thank God for this mother and every other woman who is not ashamed of her sex, but gives herself to it as an act of faith and courage. How I love and praise God for these women that surround us as we do the work of husbandry in the home, church, and public square! "The woman is the glory of man."

* * *

Thank you ______ for this testimony of motherhood... I had similar thoughts of the "pain in childbirth" part of the curse until this past year.

Even after I realized that the whole pregnancy was included in "childbirth," I think I still thought that once I got through labor and delivery, I would be done with the pain of childbearing. Almost every day, I realize how wrong that is, but I started to learn that lesson in my first days after delivery...

(Tim) You may remember our Heavenly Father's kindness, giving us the safe delivery of Chris and Michelle Holmes' twins, Anne-Claire and Elise, I wrote about back on May 26th. Since then, the little girls have been doing very well, but today Elise went into Riley's Children's Hospital with breathing problems and a spot on her brain that may indicate she had a stroke. They've put her on a ventilator and I ask you to join us in prayer for little Elise and her family.