Podcasts about him because

When God clearly shows His mercy in healing you or a loved one of some terrible affliction, when He mends a broken relationship, or when He brings to pass something for which you have so urgently prayed, you are not only taught by the text before us today to give thanks to the Lord for graciously hearing and answering your prayer, but also to exalt Him and glorify Him for His greatness. Consider these two elements in the healing of the 10 lepers -and the one leper who returned to give thanks to Jesus, Luke 17-15-16-.----Why make such a big deal out of this, that we are not only to thank God, but also to bless God and exalt Him- Because this is what we are to taught in God's Word -Psalm 34-3- Psalm 103-1-2-. Blessing God, exalting Him, and magnifying Him is different from merely thanking Him. Thanking the Lord is an expression of gratitude for a benefit received, but praising Him is exalting Him for who He is and what He has done. It is taking a magnifying glass with our thoughts and words to declare His greatness.----In the text before us today, we are taught to be thankful to the Lord for His answered prayer, but we are also taught to declare His greatness as well. The main points from our text are- -1- The King's Dream Revealed -Daniel 2-19-- -2- The Wisdom and Might of God Exalted -Daniel 2-20-22-- -3- The Thankful Heart of Daniel Expressed -Daniel 2-23-.

Philippians 4:13 For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength. Our God is a faithful God, whole onto Him Because he will not fail you enjoy your special meal

The story of God's redemption of mankind begins in the Book of Genesis- God created all things, and declared His work -very good.- Everything was perfect until Adam sinned against the Lord's one command, and thereby death and destruction came into the world. The hearts of all mankind, from that point on, became continually wicked. Throughout the Old Testament, God gave His people multiple opportunities to repent and return to Him- but they would repeatedly go right back to their own wicked ways. The painful fact is that we are not and never will be good enough to change ourselves. Even the heroes of the Bible are still portrayed as sinful human beings who were plagued by serious character flaws. But Jesus is the true Hero of the story- He came into this world and became one of us. He was tempted in all the same ways that we are, and yet He never sinned. Throughout His earthly ministry, He knew the ultimate purpose for why He had come to earth - and that was to redeem fallen humanity by His death and resurrection. It seemed as though death and the devil were going to have the final word - until He rose from the dead, bringing light and life that forever drives out darkness- This is indeed a historical fact - even though many have denied it, and many others still don't believe it today. And why is it important- While we were still sinners, Christ's death and resurrection made it possible for us to now be declared legally righteous in Him- Because of His payment for our sins, we are legally free from the bondage that sin had held us in- and we are now righteous in God's sight. Truly, the fact of His glorious and victorious Resurrection brings us joy and hope-

This week, Michelle and Lindsay hope to speak right to the heart of the Mamas!  In this mid-Lenten check-in, they seek to offer comfort, support and encouragement to Moms as they discuss the beauty of our vocations as the key to deepening our relationship with Jesus, and how leaning into our motherhood draws us closer to Him BECAUSE of our vocation and duties - not in spite of them!  

Luke 22:14-23 Sermon Notes1) The Desire of the Supper, 14-152) The Delay of the Supper, 16-183) The Deliverance of the Supper, 19-204) The Dread of the Supper, 21-23Reflection questions:1. Why did Jesus die? Because Judas betrayed Him? Because the Jews hated Him? Because God ordained for it to happen? Because Jesus (the God-man) wanted to fulfill His mission, God’s plan? See Luke 22:1-3; 22; Acts 2:23; Hebrews 10:5-10.2. How did Passover foreshadow Jesus’s death? See Luke 22:1-23 and Exodus 11-133. How did Isaiah foreshadow Jesus’s death? See Isaiah 52:13-53:12. Focus especially on 53:5, 12

(Ez.16:1-15,60,63 or Ez.16:59-63;   Is.12:1-6;   Mt.19:3-12)  “I will remember the covenant I made with you when you were a girl, and I will set up an everlasting covenant with you.” Ezekial first “make[s] known to Jerusalem her abominations,” telling the people, “You were thrown out on the ground as something loathsome, the day you were born.”  And though by the Lord's blessing they “grew and developed”; and though when they were “old enough for love” He “spread the corner of [His] cloak over [them]”; and though when He “swore an oath to [them] and entered into a covenant with [them]” they became His, the recipient of all the bride's gifts and graces – “You were adorned with gold and silver; your garments were of fine linen, silk, and embroidered cloth.  Fine flour, honey, and oil were your food” – yet they took the beauty with which the Lord had endowed them, and turned to harlotry.  The wisdom of the Lord, His laws and decrees with which He favored no other people, which were the source of their glory, they spurned in favor of the wickedness of the nations. The hardness of the hearts of the Israelites we find well illustrated in our gospel today; their attitude toward the marriage covenant reveals their level of faithfulness to the Word of the Lord.  A covenant is made binding for all generations, yet the Lord relates the truth to those who question Him: “Because of your stubbornness Moses let you divorce your wives.”  Never was it meant to be so.  This promise, this sacrament Paul later tells us mirrors the love of God for His Church, was ever meant to be lasting.  But how weak is the faith and the love of even His chosen, causing even the disciples to marvel at all that is asked of them. But the covenant the Lord made with His people in their immaturity, the marriage He called them to when they were but profligate children, He now comes to make everlasting through the grace brought by His only Son.  He forgets us not in our sin and weakness; He remembers our humble origins. Now may we “be utterly silenced for shame when [He] pardon[s] all [we] have done”; now may we declare, “God indeed is my savior” and rely entirely upon His strength and the word from His mouth.  “Great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel!” and He comes now to wed you to Himself forever. ******* O LORD, let your Covenant with us never be broken; may we be wed to you forever. YHWH, if anyone ever had the right to divorce his wife, you have the right to separate us from yourself.  For how unfaithful we have been!  How profligate have been our actions against you who took us from the ground, from the gutter, and gathered us to yourself… washing us clean of our sin, of the blood upon our hands, and clothing us as a queen before your majesty.  How foolish we have been, and yet you show us mercy. Indeed, we are utterly silenced for shame at your grace at work in our lives, at the gifts you bestow on your rebellious child.  O LORD, to yourself once again you take us, and for this what can we do but shout with exultation?  We do not deserve your faithfulness toward us, yet you renew your Covenant with us in Jesus our Bridegroom; and even greater are the blessings now as we return to you.  In His blood let us be washed, and clothed in His wedding garment.

(Ez.16:1-15,60,63 or Ez.16:59-63;   Is.12:1-6;   Mt.19:3-12)  “I will remember the covenant I made with you when you were a girl, and I will set up an everlasting covenant with you.” Ezekial first “make[s] known to Jerusalem her abominations,” telling the people, “You were thrown out on the ground as something loathsome, the day you were born.”  And though by the Lord's blessing they “grew and developed”; and though when they were “old enough for love” He “spread the corner of [His] cloak over [them]”; and though when He “swore an oath to [them] and entered into a covenant with [them]” they became His, the recipient of all the bride's gifts and graces – “You were adorned with gold and silver; your garments were of fine linen, silk, and embroidered cloth.  Fine flour, honey, and oil were your food” – yet they took the beauty with which the Lord had endowed them, and turned to harlotry.  The wisdom of the Lord, His laws and decrees with which He favored no other people, which were the source of their glory, they spurned in favor of the wickedness of the nations. The hardness of the hearts of the Israelites we find well illustrated in our gospel today; their attitude toward the marriage covenant reveals their level of faithfulness to the Word of the Lord.  A covenant is made binding for all generations, yet the Lord relates the truth to those who question Him: “Because of your stubbornness Moses let you divorce your wives.”  Never was it meant to be so.  This promise, this sacrament Paul later tells us mirrors the love of God for His Church, was ever meant to be lasting.  But how weak is the faith and the love of even His chosen, causing even the disciples to marvel at all that is asked of them. But the covenant the Lord made with His people in their immaturity, the marriage He called them to when they were but profligate children, He now comes to make everlasting through the grace brought by His only Son.  He forgets us not in our sin and weakness; He remembers our humble origins. Now may we “be utterly silenced for shame when [He] pardon[s] all [we] have done”; now may we declare, “God indeed is my savior” and rely entirely upon His strength and the word from His mouth.  “Great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel!” and He comes now to wed you to Himself forever. ******* O LORD, let your Covenant with us never be broken; may we be wed to you forever. YHWH, if anyone ever had the right to divorce his wife, you have the right to separate us from yourself.  For how unfaithful we have been!  How profligate have been our actions against you who took us from the ground, from the gutter, and gathered us to yourself… washing us clean of our sin, of the blood upon our hands, and clothing us as a queen before your majesty.  How foolish we have been, and yet you show us mercy. Indeed, we are utterly silenced for shame at your grace at work in our lives, at the gifts you bestow on your rebellious child.  O LORD, to yourself once again you take us, and for this what can we do but shout with exultation?  We do not deserve your faithfulness toward us, yet you renew your Covenant with us in Jesus our Bridegroom; and even greater are the blessings now as we return to you.  In His blood let us be washed, and clothed in His wedding garment.

What's behind the notion that everything should always go my way? That's what we're going to explore today. If you had some challenges in your week like I did, I'll bet you just might be encouraged by what we discover. This Sermon Was given By Pastor Clark Cothern Virtually on April 5th Allowing Christ to overcome my irrational belief that everything always goes my way. What is it about us that causes us think that things should always go our way? We’re going to explore this idea this week. So…how did your week go? (Have you forgotten what day it is? I think it may be February 65th or something like that.) Jesus never made a blanket promise in His preaching and teaching that would give us that impression. (See Matt. 5:11) At the core of this problem (the Bible calls it sin) is the concept that somehow we should know better how things should go than God knows. Three words for “sin” include: Hamartia (Greek) means, “Missing the __________.” (Rom. 5:12) Rasha (Hebrew) means, “to intentionally _________ or __________ from the path.” (Psalm 18:21) Pasha (Hebrew) means, “to ________ against authority.” Often translated as “______________.” Psalm 51:13 The root problem: “I know more than God does.” Even in the Coronavirus Pandemic we see evidence of the curse of sin. Everything on the earth was affected by the curse of sin. Mankind was ______________ from God. Work would become _____________. Mankind is subject to _____________ and _________. Perhaps the most devastating result of the fall is that we (mankind) lost sight of our true ______________. You are NOT the ________ ___________ of the world. If you try to find an answer to the question, “what is love?” I think that you keep arriving at something that points to God and that we can’t improve on what He started for us by creating this world. Why can’t people see clearly what God displays for us? Because of the fall our “consciences are _____________.” (1 Timothy 4:2; Romans 1:21). “Taste and see that the LORD is good. How happy is the person who takes refuge in him!” (Psalm 34:8, CSB) Only God can make us spiritually sensitive again. The word “regeneration” describes this. Many people in Jesus’ day wanted a good old-fashioned revolution. They wanted renewal on their terms. Why did Jesus do for us what he did, even though it seemed very unfair to Him? Because of his love for us. And someone might ask, about God, “But why didn’t He do something about that rebellion if he knew it was going to happen?” He did! Christ became the unblemished Lamb sacrificed for atonement of sin. John the Baptist announced, “Behold the Lamb of God who comes to take away the sins of the world.” Because Jesus is also the Good Shepherd, we can trust him with our lives and can become the sheep of his pasture. He is the GOOD shepherd, the one who lays down his life for his sheep. Is the Lord your shepherd? Trust Jesus. He will hold you fast.

Ash Wednesday and LentSong: O God of Earth and Altar (Prayer for the Nation)Passage: Joel 2:12-19A Simple Church Year Catechism - Lent & Easter Hello everyone and Welcome to episode #8 of the Anno Domini Podcast. A podcast dedicated to the supremacy of Christ over all things including our days, weeks, and months.Join me as we explore how Christ is revealed through the cyclical life of the church calendar year. We’ll discover how this calendar once structured culture and how it can again. We’ll also discuss practical ways to observe and celebrate these holy days in our quest to glorify God and live the good life in the midst of all good He has given us. Welcome back! My name for those just joining us is Joe Stout and the last few weeks have been extremely eventful in the Stout household. We welcomed with joy the birth of our 5th daughter, Ruthie Jane. Both Elizabeth and baby Ruthie are doing wonderfully well, God be praised. It’s been a little over 7 weeks since our last podcast. So In that episode I introduced the season of Epiphany in which we celebrate the manifestation or revealing of Christ to the world. He is revealed on Epiphany to the Magi, revealed to the world through His public baptism, revealed at the temple to Simeon, revealed to His inner circle on the mountain through His transfiguration and finally, His manifestation culminates as Christ goes into the desert and reveals Himself to Satan where he does battle for 40 days. With Christ entering the desert for 40 days of temptation we will transition from our celebration of His epiphany into the celebration of Lent. As the days lengthen and spring approaches we will daily be reminded that Easter is on the move and the days of the power of sin over God’s people has ended.----more---- As a quick reminder we will look at for different segments, we generally start with the practical ways of celebrating a holiday or season of time, we then examine the biblical rationale for the holiday, then we look at how the holiday has been celebrated in history and finish with a hymn or psalm of music that we examine and listen to together. So let’s get started PracticalStarting with the practical side, In the Stout house, we have never observed Lent or Ash Wednesday for that matter. This is due really to a combination of reasons the biggest one being that observing this time wasn’t a part of our families upbringing. We tend to emulate the way we were raised and that is a design feature not a bug. Kids turning out like their parents is how God made the world. It shouldn’t surprise us. Personally, this is an area of huge blessing for both Elizabeth and I as we had and still have righteous parents who raised us in the fear and admonition of the Lord. In fact in many cases we also had righteous grandparents going back several generations. We ought to go in the ways of our Father when our father’s go in the ways of the Lord. As GK Chesterton once observed, “these are the days when the Christian is expected to praise every creed except his own.” Christians shouldn’t fall into that temptation. We ought to feel a deep comfort in following the paths our father’s have laid for us provided those paths were honoring to God law. I say this because I have no paths to follow on this one; no prior experience to hearken back to. On the plus side, Ash Wednesday and the season of Lent have no sentimental or nostalgic value for me or my wife that could cloud God’s voice. On the negative side, it has none of the familiarities that for many Christians they have come to expect and naturally are held accountable too.With that in mind what should Christians do during Ash Wednesday and the season of Lent? Let’s take a look at the historical practice of the church and then answer that question. HistoricalAsh Wednesday and the season of Lent precedes Easter by 40 days. As we stated earlier, In the gospel, Jesus fasts and does battle with Satan for 40 days in the desert. 40 days is a common number in Scripture and indicates a period of fullness or a complete cycle of time. Because the time of lent precedes the victory of Christ on the cross, we know that the suffering Christ experienced led ultimately to His glorification. Just as God’s promise to us is that if we humble ourselves, He will lift us up, so Jesus was tempted for 40 days and and beyond, was humbled to the point of death on a cross (a cursed tree) and during all of this faithfully obeyed His Father in Heaven. Because He was faithful in this, God raised Him up to glory and Christ calls us to follow the same path.Now if you check the math you will see that Wednesday February 26th 2020 is actually 46 days before Easter on April 12th. This apparent inconsistency is actually proof of a point I’ve tried to make every episode thus far on the Anno Domini podcast. And that point is this: The church calendar is not a binding requirement for Christians. However, the Lord’s Day each week is the one day that Christians are bound to observe. It is literally one of the 10 commandments so ignoring it is not an option. Therefore 40 days of Lent don’t include Sundays since those Sundays are the Lord’s Days and are ALWAYS and I do mean always, a day of Feasting, Celebrating, and Joyfully giving God glory by setting the day aside for Him. If we are in a season of penance, and I will define that in a moment, than we set that discipline aside on the Lord’s Day to give Him the glory due Him by feasting. Bottom line: The Lord’s Day is not a day for fasting.So what is Lent and what is Ash Wednesday?Lent comes from the Middle English word Lente (with an e on the end) which simply means “spring.” It also comes from an Old English word Lengten which means to lengthen, referring of course to the lengthening of days leading up to Spring and Easter morning.Lent is similar to Advent in that during lent, we are anticipating something coming that is well worth the wait. Just like in Advent, we patiently and eagerly anticipate the coming of the Messiah. During Lent we are anticipating and waiting on the victory of Christ over sin, the devil, and death itself.Ash Wednesday has historically been the day that Christian get an ashen cross drawn on their foreheads to remind them of that primeval curse pronounced at the fall that “dust you are, and to dust you shall return.” We are mortal and the dust or ashes signify this. Abraham seems to understand this truth while speaking to God in Genesis 18:27 when he remarks. “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes,” and God certainly knows this seeing that he formed man from the dust of the ground and Psalm 103:14 promises us that He hasn’t forgot this either “for He knows our frame; He is mindful that we are dust.” So the point of Ash Wednesday is to remind us that we are as frail as dust. Not that man is as lowly as dirt…nothing more than a worm. No we are not being reminded of this but rather the question which James 4:14 asks and answers “What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.”This is the point of Ash Wednesday, to set the tone for the weeks to follow which is that of penance. Now what do I mean by penance? This is important to define because in the Catholic church penance is an actual sacrament and I believe one of the chief ways in which Catholics wrongly follow a path toward what amounts to self justification. If I do enough penance I will be worthy. This is totally anti-gospel. We are not penitent so that we can become worthy, we are penitent because we’ve been made worthy by the blood of Christ and our only logical response to this kindness of God is a spirit of penance as defined in 1828 by Noah Webster as simply repentance. Lent ought to be a season, and certainly not the only time, in which we take careful notice of the gargantuan gulf separating sinful man from the Holy God. Christians often minimize the distance between the holiness of God and the lowliness of our own spiritual state. But our natural spiritual state is antithetical to the station of God in heaven. Without the blood of Christ making us worthy, no amount of penance could ever be “enough” to bridge the gulf. We are helpless and dead in our sin and only the empowering work of the Holy Spirit through gospel can change this. Therefore during the time of Lent we should use it as an opportunity to pay careful attention this empowering work of the Spirit. In Ezekiel 37, the Lord tells the prophet to preach the gospel to the valley of dry bones and both flesh and breath enters the bones and they are seen as a great army. This is a picture of the gospel. The breath of life entering and bringing life to a corpse so dead all that is left are a heap dry bones.During Lent we are reminded of our need to examine ourselves in the light of the gospel. What patterns in our life are inconsistent with a life of victory over sin?Practical Things to do during Lent:Devote your time to others. Give to those who cannot repay. Visit nursing homes, the sick, or shut-ins.Pray for the Spirit to reveal hidden sins and then confess them to God remembering that He is faithful to forgive them. Also remember that repentance and self hatred are at odds with one another. We are made in God’s image and only Satan hates that we never should. We can face our sin and repent of it without self loathing.Fasting from food, not just one or two things but actually experiencing times of fasting. Fasting works like a spiritual alarm clock, protecting you from the complacency found with a full belly.Devote yourself with other to times of prayer for specific requests and mark these times by fasting from food. But never on the Lord’s DaySeek community and unity during this time. While personal times of devotion to God are important we are the ONE bride of Christ. There won’t be any empty seats that table of supper of the lamb. We will be one body for eternity so we should act like we are now.A quick word on fasting which at this point is the main thing that Lent is associated with. In the law there is only one prescribed day of fasting which is called the Day of Atonement. However there are literally weeks and weeks of prescribed feast days. This seems to indicate that feasting is either more important or at least AS important as fasting. However Peter Leithart notices that as the scriptures progresses fasting becomes more common. He speculates that this could indicate that with maturity comes patience in waiting for the good things to come. You don’t expect nursing infants and little kids to fast but as they grow in maturity you expect them to grow in the discipline of waiting for good things. Fasting provides an opportunity for this. However don’t give things up simply for the sake of giving something up. Give something up in order that you can be a more useful servant for the Cross of Christ.Will we be celebrating Ash Wednesday by receiving an ashen cross on our heads? No. While I know that Catholics and Lutherans know about the teaching of Christ and His express prohibition on outward signs of fasting, I feel, at least at this point, that going and getting smudged with ashes so that the world knows I am now fasting is in direct opposition to the teaching of Christ when He said “And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” This “anointing your head and washing your face” seems to indicate the greater feast that is to come and so the outward sign of an unwashed face seems to miss that point. While I won’t be getting a visible outward sign on Ash Wednesday I will be attempting to follow, in secret, the practical ideas listed above. Also, I will include a link to a wonderful little catechism that is excellent to use during Lent for yourself or your little ones too. Biblical Joel 2:12-19Our biblical passage today is from the Old Testament lectionary reading in Joel. I’m not going to give any commentary on it but just read it and you will see what an apropos passage it is for Ash Wednesday and the days of Lent to come. The Gospel as throughout this passage. God is full of lovingkindness toward those who humble themselves before Him.“Now, therefore,” says the Lord,“Turn to Me with all your heart,With fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.”So rend your heart, and not your garments;Return to the Lord your God,For He is gracious and merciful,Slow to anger, and of great kindness;And He relents from doing harm.Who knows if He will turn and relent,And leave a blessing behind Him—A grain offering and a drink offeringFor the Lord your God?Blow the trumpet in Zion,Consecrate a fast,Call a sacred assembly;Gather the people,Sanctify the congregation,Assemble the elders,Gather the children and nursing babes;Let the bridegroom go out from his chamber,And the bride from her dressing room.Let the priests, who minister to the Lord,Weep between the porch and the altar;Let them say, “Spare Your people, O Lord,And do not give Your heritage to reproach,That the nations should rule over them.Why should they say among the peoples,‘Where is their God?’ ”Then the Lord will be zealous for His land,And pity His people.The Lord will answer and say to His people,“Behold, I will send you grain and new wine and oil,And you will be satisfied by them;I will no longer make you a reproach among the nations.The promise of God is that to those who humble themselves He will lift up but the proud He actively opposes. During this season of Lent may our attitude toward God be one of repentance and humility so that we might be lifted up by Him. May we choose the seat at the foot of the table so that we might be called up to the place of honor. MusicalIn 1906 there was a young energetic English Anglican by the name of Gilbert who penned a rousing hymn full of vitality and courage. It was a call to National Repentance. The song is called O God of Earth and Alter and in parenthesis were the words, (Prayer for the Nation). It was written by GK Chesterton in his early thirties before he converted to the Church of Rome. In the Spirit of the Lenten Season may this hymn, written 114 years ago be just as appropriate for us 21st century Americans as when it was written. Let’s listen to the words.O God of earth and altar,Bow down and hear our cry,Our earthly rulers falter,Our people drift and die;The walls of gold entomb us,The swords of scorn divide,Take not thy thunder from us,But take away our pride.From all that terror teaches,From lies of tongue and pen,From all the easy speechesThat comfort cruel men,From sale and profanationOf honour and the sword,From sleep and from damnation,Deliver us, good Lord.Tie in a living tetherThe prince and priest and thrall,Bind all our lives together,Smite us and save us all;In ire and exultationAflame with faith, and free,Lift up a living nation,A single sword to thee.Verse one is striking to say the least and sets the tone for what is a VERY striking and convicting hymn. There are no platitudes here. God is high in heaven and we are low on earth and we are asking God to bow down and stoop to our level and hear our cry. Why are we crying to Him? Because our rulers here on earth are faltering failures and we as a people are drifting and dying. We are drifting and dying because our walls, made of gold in our prosperity, are actually entombing us. Scorn has become so common place that it is merely used as a weapon to divide brother against brother. We are asking God not to spare His wrath or His thunder against us but instead to take away the one thing that is causing all of this mess…our pride.Verse 2 is even more visually intense. We confess that fear is teacher and not the fear of God either. Buttressing fear as our teacher are lies both written and spoken. Speeches that are nothing more than pandering platitudes to achieve political gain are the order of the day and they ease the conscience and comfort men and women who have cruelty bound in their hearts. We ask in verse two for deliverance from many things, greed, a love of the profane, violence, the fear of man disguised as honor, laziness, and ultimately the fires of hell. We ask the Father, our good Father in Heaven to deliver us from these evils.Verse 3 shows somewhat the peculiarity of the writers connection to the Monarch and Church of England. The prince is the monarchy, the priest is the Church of England, and the thrall are those bound under the rule of the King. I’d like to quote Peter Leithart again from an article he wrote last December on the website First Things “Few hymns offer so stark a portrait of the human condition—lies, terror, cruelty disguised as niceness, tombs of gold, lazy indifference, pride. It’s stark, and very contemporary. “Swords of scorn divide”: Chesterton could have been watching CNN or Fox News, or following Twitter. Chesterton doesn’t permit a jot of sentimentality. No “Sweet Hour of Prayer” for him; his prayer is an anguished cry. He’s not looking for a gently wafting Spirit; Chesterton invokes divine thunder. He doesn’t want God to hold back, because he knows salvation lies on the far side of judgment: “Smite us and save us all.”Yes Chesterton knows a secret that the mare Hwin discovered in the book “The Horse and His Boy” In the book Hwin, who is terrified of lions, is shaking all over while Aslan, the ruler of Narnia approaches her and goes to him saying “You may eat me if you like. I’d sooner be eaten by you than fed by anyone else.” The best place to be is a willing participant under Providence of God even if that means, like Job, the life as you know it will be consumed. Okay that concludes the episode for this week. As usual I have the preceding hymn set to music I’ve recorded. In this recording, I set the hymn a new tune and one of the things I am most excited about is that I was able to record this song with my oldest daughter Eva singing the vocals with me. She is a dear girl and I hope you enjoy it. I will be back on April 5th with four simultaneous episodes for Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday itself. Until then, I hope you have a blessed Lent and may these next 40 days grow you in maturity in ways only the Holy Spirit can accomplish.

None like Him Because--1- God sent John to Bare Witness of Him-2- He is the embodiment of grace and truth-3- He is the only begotten Son who reveals the Father

Thy Kingdom Come - Matthew 13:1-23: When was the last time you asked yourself the question “How's my soul”? You have a soul. You might feel broken, you might feel full, or maybe you feel completely empty. Jesus has something to say about you and to you. The Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13… go and read it!) is like a biblical “personality-soul” test. We're going to take a good look at our souls and, by the grace of God, respond. We all have deep places that we're scared of looking at and acknowledging - but Jesus won't let us ignore them. If we surrender to Him, He will take us to these places that are uncomfortable and maybe even to places we've never wanted to go. This journey is hard work but also results in new heights of freedom and healing and love. Are you ready to listen to Him? Because this journey will change your life. So I've got a question for you: how's your soul? See you at church this weekend!

Thy Kingdom Come - Matthew 13:1-23: When was the last time you asked yourself the question “How's my soul”? You have a soul. You might feel broken, you might feel full, or maybe you feel completely empty. Jesus has something to say about you and to you. The Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13… go and read it!) is like a biblical “personality-soul” test. We're going to take a good look at our souls and, by the grace of God, respond. We all have deep places that we're scared of looking at and acknowledging - but Jesus won't let us ignore them. If we surrender to Him, He will take us to these places that are uncomfortable and maybe even to places we've never wanted to go. This journey is hard work but also results in new heights of freedom and healing and love. Are you ready to listen to Him? Because this journey will change your life. So I've got a question for you: how's your soul? See you at church this weekend!

God loves you. So why not put your faith in Him? Because faith leads to hope, and love pours out of the one who lives in faith and hope. It just so happens that faith, hope, and love together make you glad, and when you're glad you'll be thankful regardless of the challenges we face.

God loves you. So why not put your faith in Him? Because faith leads to hope, and love pours out of the one who lives in faith and hope. It just so happens that faith, hope, and love together make you glad, and when you're glad you'll be thankful regardless of the challenges we face.

"Because of Him – Because of You" Pastor Kate Mackie, daughter of James Mackie, U.S. Army, Korea Romans 5:1-11 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+5%3A1-11&version=NIV

Matthew 5:43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” The Bible and Christianity are so shocking at times. I mean maybe to you and to me it is not shocking anymore, familiarity makes that true. But really, if we read it for what it is and we really consider what God is asking of us it is really shocking. It is surprising. Think of picking it up for the first time and reading what we just read. It is so unnatural to us. If we are honest, it really is not just strange but mysteriously shocking. I think it is interesting to hear non-Christians say things like, “Yes, the teachings of Jesus are good, He was a wise man.” What does that mean, really? Does that mean they think His teachings should be followed? Do they, do we, read a passage like Matthew 5:44 which says we should love our enemies and think that is a good way to live, I agree with that? On the surface many people say, “We should just all love each other and get along.” But the reality in our world is so much different. When we see people wearing shirts that say “love wins” while they are attacking another person verbally or even physically, there is something wrong with that. We are so divided in our country. There is so much hate, so much animosity. Even for Christians, we may work at tempering our actions but can we love our enemies and love them from the heart? Who are you in conflict with right now? In the conflict are you loving them from your heart? Who is making your life hard? Are you loving them from your heart? Who in your life has done you wrong? Are you loving them or are you avoiding them? Who has hurt someone you love? Are you loving in return? Jesus is calling us to radical behavior that is so unnatural to us. He is saying, love those with whom you have conflict, with those who make your life harder, with those who have done you wrong, with those who have hurt you and with those who have hurt someone you love. And I’ll add with those with whom you have affection but will not return it. Now let’s not forget that as these words leave Jesus’ mouth, to love enemies, as He clarifies this command, He is also committing to live this out personally, perfectly. As we fail, He covers it. As we stumble in our obedience, His perfection covers us. Let’s not forget that He lived perfectly and we are hidden in Him so His perfect life is ours through our redemption. But having said that, our aim and our goal should be to live for Him. If we are truly in Him then our goals have changed and our desire should be to live according to His ways, His commands. So this is the great journey, that is, with His help, His Spirit in us, we live for Him, meaning we live how He has described we are to live. This is our expression of love for Him, that we obey His commands, that we represent Him in this world and that we glorify His name. So as we consider these commands, please think of them in relation to loving Christ Jesus our Lord. If we love Him we will keep His commands, right? But we need Him in us to give us the strength and the will to keep His commands. We can ask for that, pray for that. Pray for a stirring love that directs us to keep His commands; this is how we best glorify Him. Why do we need Him? Because our flesh is strong and our will is strongly bent counter to this command. What if Christ had said, “Hate your enemies, ignore them, do to them what they have done to you, go after your enemies and get revenge, do to your enemies what they deserve?” What if Jesus would have taught us that? Well, that would be easy! We don’t need the Holy Spirit for that! We don’t really need the strength of Christ in us to carry out that command! No one has to teach us how to respond with sharp and hateful responses to our enemies, to someone who hurts us or treats us badly or just rubs us the wrong way. I don’t know about you but returning evil for evil seems pretty natural to me. And you know what? The first century Jews who heard these words from Jesus were actually taught to hate their enemies! Yes, they were conditioned by their so-called religious leaders that it was okay and good to hate your enemies. They thought this was a good thing and that their hate was sanctioned by God, so can you imagine their surprise? Jesus said in verse 43, look at it: Matthew 5:43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’” Where did they hear that you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy? They did not get this from the OT; no where in the OT does it say to hate your enemies. Now the “love your neighbor” part is biblical. For example look at: Leviticus 19:18 You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord. So who was saying “hate your enemy?” Well, not God, not the OT and certainly not Jesus. They were hearing this from the religious leaders. What was happening was that passages like Leviticus 19:18, which commands a love for one’s neighbor, was being taken to mean you don’t have to love those who are not your neighbor. The Essenes are a sect of Jews taught that they were to “hate the children of darkness.” In fact they were to take an oath and vow to “always hate the wicked and asset the righteous.” One Jewish scholar commented on Leviticus 18:19 by saying “He is thy neighbor if he is good, but not if he is wicked, as is written, the fear of the Lord is to hate evil (Proverbs 8:13). He goes on to say “Although, Jews should not seek to kill Gentiles with whom Israel is not at war, they should not intervene to save the life of a Gentile.” The tendency for many ancient Jews was to love their fellow Jews and hate all others. They define neighbors only as fellow Jews. This was even noticed by those outside of Jewish communities. Some Roman writers said that they inferred from the behavior of Jews that hating non-Jews was an essential part of the Jewish religion. Here is the point. Many Jews had been taught all their lives that it’s okay to hate. Hate had been institutionalized among the Jews. It was good and it was excepted. And, you know, it was easy because it was natural, it is what the flesh wants. Jesus begins here and continues in other parts of His ministry to define the word “neighbor,” and defining correctly who our neighbors are totally changes how we are to respond to and treat our enemies. What He teaches is that our enemies are included in the population of who our neighbors are. And this makes the command to love, sometimes, most difficult. Jesus said: Matthew 5:44 But I say to you, Love your enemies. Now to be even more clear let’s jump over to Luke: Luke 10:25 And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” 27 And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” 28 And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.” 29 But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” 30 Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. 31 Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. 32 So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. 34 He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ 36 Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” 37 He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.” And with that parable Jesus defines who our neighbors are, all people. So who are we to love, our neighbors, all people. Now I want to make two comments about what we have looked at so far and then I’m going to wrap up. We are going to take the Lord’s Supper in just a moment so this message will be a little short to make time for that. And we are going to pick up on this same passage next week to cover it more thoroughly and in more detail. But for today, I want to make two points, and again, just think of what we have covered so far. I want you to think of two things for the next week. First of all, all people are our neighbors and we are to love our neighbors; then there is no place in the Christian's life to elevate any people group over another. It seems to me that if everyone is our neighbor and we are to love everyone then there is, in my mind, this great leveling of all people groups in the mind of God. We are all equal. I am not crazy about the popular term that we hear so much right now, the term, “social justice.” The reason I’m not is because usually when I hear it, it is used if you watch carefully to try to single out certain ethnic groups and to elevate them in some way that also tends to tear down another group; or to say it another way, to give to one group by taking from another group and when I say give I don’t mean necessarily to give things, material things, but maybe to give power or position or praise or something else. So it is favoring groups over other groups, it sometimes ends up tearing down more than building up, again, tearing down one group to build up another. Where does that end? Well if you carry it out logically, then in a few years we will need a new social justice campaign now to build up the group that was purposefully torn down just a few years prior. I realize I’m probably in an evangelical minority here, but it seems to me that we simply need to follow Jesus’ command here which is that we love everyone no matter who they are, no matter what community or ethnic group to which they belong or even gender, that we love all of our neighbors. And if we are not doing that as individuals or as a church or in the Christian community as a whole, then we need to repent of that and obey. If anyone is not being loved biblically then let’s love them biblically no matter who they are. Tearing a group down to elevate another is not loving the group we are tearing down. We are to love the rich and the poor, the educated and the uneducated, the kind and the hostile, the black and the white, the devoted Christian and the God-hater, the Republican and the Democrat, the straight and the gay. Who is our neighbor? To love biblically does not mean that we agree with unbiblical things or condone all people’s behavior. To love biblically does not mean to buy into lies or anti-God rhetoric. To love biblically also does not mean to look the other way and never speak out. Jesus spoke out, Jesus spoke truth, Jesus talked about sin; but Jesus also healed sinners, fed sinners, and most importantly saved sinners. What are the aspects of love? 1 Corinthians 13:4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. We are to love our neighbors. The last point for today is this: We can make much of the Jews’ wrong understanding of who their neighbors were and what I would say was their institutionalized condoning of hating people. To hate was accepted and taught in many Jewish circles. I know we can look at this and act shocked by it. We can say things like, “Well, I can’t believe they taught their people, their children, to hate; that it is okay to hate people!” But here is what I want you to think about. Do we, by our actions, condone hateful behavior, do we teach people by our actions that it is okay to hate under certain circumstances? Here is what I mean. Parents, do our children see us doing or saying things that are hateful toward other people? Kids, do your friends see you do things that they would say are hateful toward other people? Do your coworkers observe that you are hateful toward other people? Or are you loving in all these cases? I mean, are we guilty of doing what the Jews did, not by our direct teaching but by our example? What do our responses to mean people teach those around us? That is what I am asking you to consider and what I need to consider as well. How are we doing in this matter of loving our neighbors? Well, Jesus goes on to further explain His point and Lord willing we will pick up with this same passage next week. Matthew 5:43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

This is a special follow up episode from today’s verse of the day! Why do we struggle with obeying God? With trusting Him? Because we don’t understand that God is...

A slave, by earthly definition, serves his master not with love, but with bitterness and contempt. Why then would our loving God, call us to be servants to Him? Because serving God is nothing like serving any other master.