Review of Ryken's Galatians

I just finished reading Philip Ryken's Galatians.  What a wonderfully uplifting book.  It is a series of sermons through Paul's great letter.  Ryken is a wonderful exegete and very easy to read.  Here is my favorite quote from the book:

Referring to Galatians 2:19-20 he writes,

At least four things were nailed to the cross of calvary.  The most obvious, of course, was Jesus himself, through his hands and feet...Also fastened to the cross with a hammer and a nail was the public pronouncement that read: "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews"(John 19:19).  The third thing that was nailed to the cross was the debt of our sin. Paul explained this to the Colossians: God forgave "all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.  This he set aside, nailing it to the cross"(Col. 2:13-14)...But here is the surprise: if you are a follower of Christ, then you were nailed to the cross too!  The crucifixion is not just a fact about the life of Christ and a momentous event in human history, but is also part of every Christian's personal life story...This is not a subjective experience in the life of the believer, but an objective reality that is based on the believer's relationship to Christ...The reason union with Christ [in the cross as well as all things]..is that everything Christ has ever done becomes something we have done.  It is as if we had lived his perfect life and died his painful death.  It is as if we were buried in his tomb and then raised up to his glorious heaven (Rom. 6:3-5).  God attaches us tot he events of Christ's life so that they become part of our lives.  His story - the story of the cross and the empty tomb - becomes our story."(page 73-74).

If this inspired you, so will the rest of the book.  I hope you find it as wonderful to read as I did.

Teaching Kids about money

Here's a post from the Wall Street Journal about teaching children about finances.

http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgetingk/article/109200/the-15-money-rules-kids-should-learn?mod=bb-budgeting

Where's Jesus? Joseph Interprets Pharaoh's Dreams (Genesis 41)

Both of Pharaoh's dreams are one and the same in meaning: bountiful years followed by famine.  Most often we focus on the dreams (we seem to be hopelessly enamored with the spectacular), but verse 38 contains the key for seeing Christ in the story.  In this verse Pharaoh asks,

Can we find anyone like this man, one in whom is the spirit of God? (Genesis 41:38)

The answer is, "No." There is only one man in all Egypt like Joseph, a 30 year old man (vs. 46) who rules Egypt in such a way that the whole country is both saved from famine and taken under the King's authority.  Joseph is full of the spirit of God; he is granted wisdom and exaltation, power and authority and as we will see in coming chapters, he uses that authority beneficently and graciously towards those who wronged him.  In fact, without Joseph, there would have been no salvation for Israel (Jew) or Egypt (Gentile).

This is an extraordinary foreshadowing of a 30 year old Jewish carpenter from Galilee, of whom it is written,

Justified Forever (Galatians 3:1-5)

Plato, in Timeaus, makes the statement that there are 2 kinds of fools:  One lacking instruction and the other due to madness.  What he is saying is that fools exist because they haven’t been taught, have been taught incompletely OR because they are insane.  The first is correctable, the second isn’t.  Let me illustrate, the definition of insanity has often been reported as being, “doing the same thing and expecting a different result.”  This charge could be leveled at our congress for the past 50 or 75 years: spend more and expect the budget to be balanced.  Continue to spend and proclaim loudly that the deficit will be overcome.  Spend even more and decry all who stand against progress as lacking faith in the government’s ability to balance the budget.  This is insanity, it is madness and it doesn’t seem to be based on a lack of instruction.  There is plenty of data in history to counter these thoughts, but it is ignored or explained away. This is one kind of foolishness.

But there is another kind of foolishness, a foolishness that is grounded in a lack of instruction and education.  This would be like me checking the voltage on a switch.  When it is off, there is none; when it is on, there is 120v.  I repeat the process, same results.  Again, the same.  Now if I go on indefinitely expecting something different, I am either crazy or testing for product failure.  But if after 2 or three tests I quit, and go and study more to understand what is happening inside the switch, then my foolishness about electricity and switches is alleviated with new education.

Paul’s opening words this morning are You foolish Galatians!

Heidelberg Catechism Devotional Q20

Q.20. Are all saved through Christ just as all were lost through Adam?

A. No. Only those are saved who by true faith are grafted into Christ and accept all his blessings.

Monday

This question has caused many debates and disagreements in Christian history.  For that reason some Christians would rather avoid the question all together. But to avoid the question is to ignore the elephant in the room.  Knowing the answer sets one free to share the good news with others so that they too may hear and believe and also be saved. Read Romans 10:9-14.

Lalibela pictures

Here is a slide show of some of our pictures from Lalibela. You can view it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSJ8vvckmdU

The Ethiopian Church

An Ethiopian Eunuch, the Queen of Sheba, Cush, and other references are plentiful in the Scriptures.  Ethiopia is a land rich in Bible history and Christian history and that is what we found as we traveled through the country last month.  Our first stop was in the Coptic orthodox churches of Lalibela.  A word about the Coptic orthodox first.  They trace themselves to the early church.  The liturgy is very high, much like the Greek Orthodox church next door, but there are theological differences that stem from the Council of Chalcedon 451 A.D. The Coptic orthodox never accepted the Chalcedonian formula that Christ had 2 distinct natures: Fully God and fully human, not mingled, but also not separate.

So what did we find in the Ethiopian churches and among the people?

Our first time meeting the Girls

This is my first shot at doing my own video.  This is from the first few moments of meeting our girls.  I will upload a few other videos of our travels in the coming day.



you can view the file directly on youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3xx4pEb8VE

Yemrehanna Kristos church, Bilbilla

While in Ethiopia we saw some really cool churches.  This one was built under an overhang.  It is an example of Ethiopian Cave Churches.  The exterior block wall in the first picture was added in the past few years for security purposes.  Behind the wall is this beautiful olive wood and marble church which floats on top of the marshy ground. The rock details in the windows are wonderfully intricate and each one is different.  Behind the church are the bones of countless pilgrims who came to die in the dark recesses of the cave.

 

How did God do that?

How did God do that?  I found myself asking that question over and over again on our trip.  One such occasion was in Awassa.  Jen and I received the opportunity of meeting with our daughters’ birth mother.  For 20 minutes we were allowed to ask her questions and she to ask us questions.  (Everything through a translator.)  The time was wonderful, we got to take pictures with her, hear some of her story and enjoy her presence.

Daema is a beautiful woman of very short stature compared to my wife and I.  During the conversation she asked about our other children and we showed her a picture of the five of them and told her their names.  The translator then asked if we were Christians since all the names were bible names.  To which I replied that I was a protestant pastor.  Immediately she lifted her hands toward heaven and started thanking God.  As it was explained to us, she too was a protestant believer and had been praying that God would send her children to a Christian family, and now here she was with a pastor.  How did God do that?  How did he took two little girls in need of a home, hear a mother’s prayer, match them to a family half-way around the globe that exceeded this mother’s desires and now let us share in that joy with her.  How did God do that?  Only he knows, but I am sure glad he did.

There are other things about the meeting that are amazing to me, but they belong to my girls who will need to decide if and when they are to be shared.  In the meantime, I continue to be amazed that God did what he did.  May his name always be praised and may I always believe that God answers prayers beyond what we could ask or imagine.

Christian Parenting - Meeting their Needs

Last night my wife told me about an interview she heard with a Christian psychologist.  In it the woman claimed that we need to meet the needs of our children in creative ways.  The example,

An adopted girls from Russia asks her mom for a Powerbar (c).  Dinner is on the stove, it is 10 minutes from being ready.

How would you respond?

Where's Jesus? Joseph the Interpreter of 2 Dreams (Genesis 40)

The cupbearer and the baker - 2 dreams, 2 interpretations.  Most often we stop here, but let me add another, to our list. Do not the cupbearer and the baker represent 2 kinds of people?  If we are to find Christ in this passage, then I believe we must see these 2 men as representing two kinds of people in the world: the condemned and the saved, the self-righteous and those who abide in the vine.

The Case of Peter: Negating the Gospel by our life - Galatians 2:11-21

Have you ever had a friend that you liked, but you were ashamed to be around?  I have heard stories of people who really thought the school geek was fun and enjoyable to be around, but who ignored this person when the popular kids came around.  Or who denied their friendship in public when others talked bad about the “nerd.”  You are not alone.  Politicians are famous for doing this kind of behavior.  So is Business.  A recent example is Gilette’s distancing from Tiger Woods, along with AT&T as another business trying to withdraw.

Our text this morning tells of another story where former friends and partners began distancing themselves. 

Heidelberg Catechism Devotional Q19

Q.19. How do you come to know this?

A. The holy gospel tells me.  God himself began to reveal the gospel already in Paradise; later he proclaimed it by the holy patriarchs and prophets, and portrayed it by the sacrifices and other ceremonies of the law; finally, he fulfilled it through his own dear Son.

Monday

God’s Word is our guide.  The Bible tells us the story of humanity’s creation, fall and redemption.  We come to the Scripture in order to learn about our sin and Christ’s saving work.  Why do we trust the Bible to teach us?  Read 2 Timothy 3:16-17.The Bible is God’s very breath for us.  Breathing is essential to living.  Try holding your breath, eventually you will be forced to open your mouth and take in air.  Why is this?  Because, we were made to breath, to take it into us.  Paul picks us analogy when he calls the Scripture “God-breathed.” It is the very life of God poured out to us.  Let us never forget that we need the Bible and its truth, just like we need air to breathe.

Christian Parenting - Adoption changes the rules of the game

10 days ago my wife and I received two new adopted girls into our home.  That brings the total number of children in our home to 7.  2 adults, 7 children, we are a family of nine.  Naïvely I thought that raising these two children would be basically the same as raising my other 5, but 10 days in and I am realizing that this is an entirely different game.  We just moved from playing checkers to playing chess.

Where's Jesus? Joseph and Potiphar's wife (Genesis 39)

In Genesis 39 we continue with the Joseph narrative.  He has been sold into slavery by his brothers and reported as dead to his father and now we find that Joseph is bought by the captain of the Egyptian guard.  he is put in charge of the household and brings it quickly into top-notch control.  The one problem is his master's wife tries to tempt him to sin, to shift his focus from his work to the pleasantries of life, and although Joseph withstands the temptation, this ultimately brings about further imprisonment due to false allegations.

Does this sound familiar?  It sounds an awful lot like the opening and closing of Jesus' ministry.  In Matthew 4:1,

Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

Like Joseph, Jesus is tempted by one who promises the pleasures of life.  Joseph's temptation was that of sexual intercourse, Jesus' was much more sinister, the vices of self-reliance, self-protection and self-rule permeated the devil's attempts.  But like Joseph who withstood the temptation and fled the scene, Jesus stood the temptation by relying on the Word of God (Matthew 4:4,7,10)

Then if, we jump to the end of Jesus' earthly life, we see that it is similar to Joseph's.  Joseph was condemned again on the testimony of his accusing temptress, so too was Christ condemned by the Jewish courts under false allegations and lies, for

the chief priests and the whole council sought false testimony against Jesus that they might put him to death, but they found none, though many false witnesses came forward (Matthew 26:59-60)

Truly the Scriptures do testify to Jesus as he promised,

You search the Scriptures for you think that in them you have eternal life; yet it is they that bear witness to me (John 5:39).

Let us go to him for our salvation, for we will see that just as Joseph saved his people, so Jesus saves us as well.

Liberty without License - Gal 5:13-18

I am preaching through Galatians currently, and this week I am reflecting on Galatians 5:13-26 in order to speak on it a few weeks from now.  While I inherently have an understanding of what Paul is saying about not using our freedom to sin, actually expressing this without it sounding like a new form of legalism is a hard thing.  One can speak experientially of their own life, but not be able to convincingly articulate that reality to others. Convincing articulation is what sets apart great writers and orators.  I am neither, but I believe the following quotations are excellent food for thought in this regard.

"Anyone who uses freedom to indulge the flesh is not really free at all.  Jesus said, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin"(John 8:34). In other words, license is the very opposite of liberty.  It is really a form of slavery.  Real liberty comes when Christ frees me from sin, not to sin...[but our newfound] freedom to serve others...is actually a new from of slavery.  the word "serve"[Gal 5:13] is the Greek word for 'be a slave'- the kind of person who washes the dishes and takes out the trash.  So here is the paradox: By setting us free to serve, the Holy Spirit enslaves us to one another in love." -Ryken, REC: Galatians, chapter 18

These words wonderfully articulate the new Christian life to serve and love.  But how does one serve and love.  This is where the law of God comes in.  We are not freed from the law, but from its demands for becoming righteous through the law.  Now that we are righteous in Christ, we can live out the law by the empowerment of the spirit and truly love one another.  Granted, we will still sin, we will love imperfectly, we will fail along the way, but we can continue to walk in this way and learn what it means to love our God and love our neighbor.  This is our calling in the Christian life.  To be free to love.  Let us press on toward the goal of heaven where love will be the rule of the day.

Adoption Update #8 - We are Home!

We are home and getting over jet lag.  The trip was long, but relatively uneventful, even got in an hour early, which after more than 24 hours of traveling (I lost count of the exact length) is really cool.  All in all the girls are adjusting well, although they are afraid of our dog, Tawni, and hate to lay down and sleep.  However, once they quit screaming, they fall asleep and sleep soundly.  Normally takes 15-20 minutes.  Thanks for all the prayers and We will get some pictures up on my blog in the coming days and let you rejoice with us some more.

Thanks again.

Jeffrey Scott Roberts

robertsjs@mac.com

Heidelberg Catechism Devotional Q18

Q.18. And who is this mediator – true God and at the same time truly human and truly righteous?

A. Our Lord Jesus Christ, who was given us to set us completely free and to make us right with God.

Monday

We have already seen that Jesus fulfills the demands for a mediator, but let us look at further scriptures in order to firmly establish this truth in our hearts and minds.  Read Isaiah 7:14 and Matthew 1:21-23.  In this passage we find that Jesus is the fulfillment of the prophecy that God will be with his people and will save them from their sins.

Christian Parenting - No entry this week

Sorry, but I am unable to post this week  and next due to severe schedule limitations.  I plan on resuming posts on March 25.

Where's Jesus? Judah and Tamar (Genesis 38)

Judah and Tamar is an unsettling story for the modern reader.  Brothers sleeping with family widows and dying because they refuse to get her pregnant.  A widow dressing as a prostitute and tricking her father in law into getting her pregnant.  A father acknowledging this chicanery as righteousness.  What is a modern reader to do with such a story?  How is Christ revealed in a pericope like this?

For those who quickly skip over the genealogies in Matthew and Luke, there is reason to go back and read them again, for in Matthew 1:3 we find the names of Judah and Tamar recorded in the family line of Jesus Christ.  What is fascinating is that Judah had married outside of the family, he married a Canaanite woman (Genesis 38:2), thereby incorporating the unelect into the elect, the Gentile is melded with the Jew in this unholy union and Jesus becomes the savior of them both (Galatians 3:28).

The grace of God is magnificent, it comes to us even in the midst of sin and sinful situations.  He can take human sin and depravity and bring about salvation.  He can take human weakness and bring about strength.  He can take the sinners of the world and bring about his plan for their salvation.  Truly He is the Great and mighty God.

Heidelberg Catechism Devotional Q15-17

Q.15. What kind of mediator and deliverer should we look for then?

A. One who is truly human and truly righteous, yet more powerful than all creatures, that is, one who is also true God.

Q.16. Why must he be truly human and truly righteous?

A. God’s justice demands that human nature, which has sinned, must pay for its sin; but a sinner could never pay for others.

Q.17. Why must he also be true God?

A. So that, by the power of his divinity, he might bear the weight of God’s anger in his humanity and earn for us and restore to us righteousness and life.

Monday

Last week we learned that a human or any other creature would be unable to save us or cover our sin.  Does that mean there is no hope?  Does it mean that we are doomed to die for our sin, and be punished by God himself?  Yes, if an acceptable offering can’t be made to satisfy God’s sense of justice and his extreme anger at our sin.

Consider this. If you were trapped under a giant rock and couldn’t get out from under it, would you look for someone to help?  Of course, you would.  Would you look to a small child or a weak, sickly person?  No, you would look for someone who was healthy and strong, preferably the strongest person at hand.  The same is true for people who are trapped under the stone of sin, we need a really big person to come along and rescue us, and they need to be in prime condition, not a sinner like ourselves.

We need a perfectly sinless human being, and that is exactly who Jesus Christ is.  Read Hebrews 7:26-28.

Christian Parenting - Instilling the Discipline of Silence

Every mother dreams of the few moments of silence that she gets when the children go down for a rest.  I must admit, that as a father, I relish those times as well.  Children are a blessing, each and every one of them, but they are noisy blessings. As a father of 7 children (we have recently adopted 2 girls from Ethiopia) I get my fair share of noise. We don't get alot of silence in our home. My kids all live together in shared rooms, a boys room and 2 girls rooms. I have boys who are very quiet, and girls who can make more noise than a freighter passing through the Straits of Juan de Fuca on a foggy night.  I also have the opposite, some of my kids love to be quiet and alone, others hate it and can't stand it.  

Recently, my middle daughter has had the opportunity to live alone until her new sisters arrive from Ethiopia.  It is the first time this 8 year old has ever had long amounts of silence to herself.  She is relishing it and the questions that she is asking as a result of being still, thinking on the Scripture and meditating are wonderful.  Questions about the veracity of scripture, how we can know that the message is true, why God loves us so much, etc.  

My question is this, should we as parents teach our extroverted children the discipline of silence?  

Where's Jesus? Joseph Sold into Slavery (Genesis 37)

In this story, Joseph has two dreams about reigning over the family and he is ultimately sold into slavery by his jealous brothers who can't stand how his father treats him.  This story has Jesus written all over it.  Jesus is like Joseph in many respects.  He is hated by the Jewish leaders just as Joseph was hated.  He is sold into slavery, condemned to a life of death just as Joseph was sold and condemned.  He was treated horribly by those who should have been concerned about the requirements of the Law, just as Joseph was treated poorly by a family who should have been concerned with his welfare.  Just as the brothers refused to kill him themselves but sold him for silver, so Christ was sold by the Jewish leaders for 30 shekels of silver so that another could do their dirty work.

But the greatest similarity and the one that is the most life giving is this:  while Joseph who had images of authority and power in his mind that extended over his family, Jesus had even greater images as the great king whom all the nations of the earth will bow down before.