Created in His Image - Psalm 8

Recently I heard a sermon preached on the importance of remembering that Christians, "God's workmanship," (Ephesians 2:10) need to understand that we are empowered by God and should expect His favor to be on us. According to the speaker, we should expect the blessing of God upon whatever we try to do as ministers.

The sermon was in the context of speaking to present and future ministers of the Gospel and his point was that we should expect God to bless our ministry. While he was mostly true to the text he used, I believe this particular preacher was reading it with a false understanding of the whole of Scripture.

Of course it's true that we are God's workmanship and that we are creatures made in His image, but this should not be cause for us to think that God owes us anything or that we are guaranteed to be blessed by "success" in whatever we choose to do. The speaker I heard didn't say that explicitly, but his point, I think, came dangerously close to going down that trail. His point was that we should not be content to live with the same circumstances as the rest of the world. His implication was that because we are followers of the one true Lord of the universe, we should expect more.

I'm not saying the guy was a heretic, I just hope people understand that God is totally in control of everything. God's definition of "success" is usually quite different from ours. That means that if we are experiencing times of great blessing or hard times, God's in control. It may be hard, even impossible, for us to understand, but He's in control. I think specifically of two people as examples of this in my life: my friends Jean Ray and Theresa Norris. In both of their cases, it's really hard to see the good that God has planned.

Mrs. Jean is basically stuck at home with 2 broken legs; Miss Theresa recently found out she has liver failure and needs a transplant. Both situations are terrible and yet both of these women are examples of God's mercy and love. While they are going through miserably difficult times, both of these women have been forgiven of their sin and will spend eternity in the presence of a loving, merciful, just, and holy God. No matter what happens to them in this world, no matter how bad or how hard it gets, they both trust in Jesus Christ and will therefore spend eternity with Him. The God of the universe who spoke everything into existence is the same God who's involved in our lives at all times.

This is what makes the fact of Jesus' life so amazing. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, Immanuel, God in human flesh, came and walked the earth in real human history. He was, and is, a real human person. He was crushed according to the Father's will, according to Scripture, and he really died; He didn't merely fall asleep. Three days later He was raised from the dead, a full bodily resurrection and subsequently ascended to heaven. Now, He sits at the right hand of God the Father, making intercession for us.

There really is a place called heaven. It's not just a place of enlightenment in our minds or some dreamed up "Atlantis" in the clouds. When Jesus returns, to claim his bride, all who trust in Him as their Lord and Saviour will be in His presence forever and ever, Amen.

Likewise, there really is a Hell. It's not just a place we talk about to make children "act right" in public. There really is a place of "outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Matthew 25:30. Being totally given over to our sin in eternal separation from God is a terrible place to be...a place where none of us will want to be but where every one of us deserves to be.

In thinking of our place in God's creation, I think Psalm 8 gives a great description of God's glory and how everything has been created for the purpose of His glory. Specifically, verse 4 points out that while humans have been crowned with God's glory and majesty, and are made to rule over His creation, we don't deserve His grace in the least.


1 “O LORD, our Lord,
How majestic is Your name in all the earth,
Who have displayed Your splendor above the heavens!
2 From the mouth of infants and nursing babes You have established strength
Because of Your adversaries,
To make the enemy and the revengeful cease.
3 When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,
The moon and the stars, which You have ordained;
4 What is man that You take thought of him,
And the son of man that You care for him?
5 Yet You have made him a little lower than God,
And You crown him with glory and majesty!
6 You make him to rule over the works of Your hands;
You have put all things under his feet,
7 All sheep and oxen,
And also the beasts of the field,
8 The birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea,
Whatever passes through the paths of the seas.
9 O LORD, our Lord,
How majestic is Your name in all the earth!”
Psalm 8

May you know Him better and worship Him continuously.
Grace & Peace

Casey

Baptism (part 1)

Today at my church, Grace Church Louisville, we had a beautiful service. It was very exciting, humbling, and wonderful. It was similar to almost every service there I’ve witnessed except for one major thing: We had two baptisms today.

Two men, John and David, made public confessions of faith in Jesus Christ as their LORD and Savior by participating in believer’s baptism.

One of the last things Jesus Christ told His disciples before returning to heaven to reign at the right hand of God the Father was “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:18b – 20 ESV

David is a man who lives at the Salvation Army Shelter in Louisville. A few of the guys at Grace Church go to the Salvation Army every week to preach the Gospel and David got to know them there. They invited him to church one week and he’s been coming ever since. He’s been faithfully attending Grace Church for quite a while now.

He was raised in the church and was baptized when he was young but now admits that he had no idea what he was doing. He began asking about salvation and baptism and his walk with the Lord, and he and Pastor Mark reasoned from Scripture that he wasn’t truly baptized before, so he got baptized today.

John is a man who just recently started coming to Grace. He actually overheard Pastor Mark talking with someone in a coffee shop. Pastor Mark noticed that he was paying attention to the conversation so he approached him. John soon started attending Grace Church regularly. He grew up attending Catholic school and when his parents separated, he lived with his father. Soon after the separation, he began to get involved with drugs and alcohol. At this point in his life, he was an atheist. He admittedly had contempt for God and anyone who believed in Him.

After his life was getting more & more deeply involved with drugs, he sought help through a rehabilitation facility. He quickly learned that depending on himself was not going to work. His resentment toward God soon turned to openness which soon turned to trust. Recently John was at The Abbey of Gethsemane, a local monastery, where he saw a statue that represented Jesus Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane before His crucifixion. He thought to himself “Jesus, what can I do to make my life right? What can I give you to make up for everything I’ve done?” It was at this point that it dawned on him that he had absolutely nothing to bring. He was completely undone and dependent on the grace of Jesus Christ to save him.

It is so wonderful to welcome these two brothers into the family of God; into the body of Christ. Luke 15:10b says “there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” (NASB) How joyous a day it was today that two publicly proclaimed their utter dependence on the grace of God! We all rejoice when another soul is brought into the body! All glory and honor and praise to His name! Amen.

Grace & Peace
CRH

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead" 1 Peter 1: 3 NASB

First Semester of Seminary

As the end of my first semester at Southern Seminary draws nigh, I figured I’d share a few thoughts about how it has gone so far. If I had to describe my attitude in one word, I guess that word would be “thrilled.”

I’m thrilled by many things here.

I’m thrilled to be in a place where each class begins with reading Scripture and prayer. Coming from a secular university, I’m definitely not accustomed to that.

I’m thrilled to be in a place where Gospel ministers go out each day and tell people about Jesus.

I’m thrilled to be in a place where the future of the Church is being shaped by the leadership of so many brilliant and godly men and women. The professors here are among the most gifted in the world and the students here are examples to me.

I’m thrilled to be a part of something so important in God’s creation. It’s humbling to know that God has the ability, grace, mercy, and love to use someone as flawed and sin-loving as myself to accomplish things that glorify Himself.

I’m thrilled to be a part of a body of believers which meets together to truly worship Jesus Christ and proclaim His love to the community around us as well as the entire world. I love my church.

I’m thrilled to learn so much. I sincerely hope and pray that I can retain much of what I learn here. Every class meeting seems to be better than the one before and I’m learning so much.

I’m thrilled to know what terms like Soteriology, Eschatology, Infralapsarianism, Hermeneutics, and other smart-sounding theological words mean. I do realize that I don’t necessarily need to know what they mean in order to know Jesus, but they do help me to know Him better.

I’m thrilled to make new friends…friends who I know will be there for support, fellowship, wise counsel, and accountability for years to come as a minister. I have already met so many people here whom I love and respect.

I’m thrilled to just sit at the breakfast table with a good friend and have a deep and meaningful conversation about Jesus. It makes me think of what the new Creation will be like after Christ returns. We will constantly be worshipping Him. That doesn’t mean it will be one big long choir practice. Rather, it will be more wonderful than anything we can imagine because sin won’t be holding us back and we’ll be in the presence of Christ Almighty, the Savior.

While there are so many things that thrill me (many more than I've mentioned here), there are also things with which I struggle daily…things that are embarrassing to me and, more importantly, are sins against God.

I struggle with discipline. This semester I took a class called Personal Spiritual Disciplines and it has helped show me just how little discipline I actually have. Lord inculcate me with the desire and grant me Your grace to pursue righteousness! "Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses." (1 Timothy 6:11b-13 ESV)

I struggle with discontentment. I’m not usually the type of person to get too worried about different situations but I’m quick to think things should be happening a different way and that my way would be the best choice. "Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and how inscrutable His ways!" (Romans 11:33 ESV)

I struggle with lustful sins of the flesh. Being 32 years old and single, it’s a constant struggle to stay pure. Sin is so appealing and I’m so prone to wander. Please, Lord, cleanse me of all unrighteousness. "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me." (Psalm 51:10 ESV)

Today I heard something I hope I am never able to forget. Every time I sin, I am personally thrusting a sword into the side of my precious Lord and Savior. Every time I sin, I am personally bringing about the suffering and death of Christ. Every new sin I commit is a new sword thrust into Jesus’ side. That’s beyond convicting, that’s heartbreaking. O God, please sanctify me that Jesus Christ would no longer suffer on my account!

I truly look forward to the rest of my time here and I'm excited to see how God will work in my life and the lives of others around me. I look forward to seeing people come to know Him. I look forward to people doing whatever they can to glorify Him. This is a thrilling and wonderful time and I long for Christ to be honored through His Church.

If you’re still reading this, and I hope you are, please know that God loves you so much He sacrificed His Son, Jesus Christ, so that you can be made holy in His sight. Jesus Christ loves you so much He was obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross, for you. Please, please trust in Him. Please give yourself totally to Him.

I pray that my meager words might be used by the Holy Spirit to bring glory to God. The peace of Christ to you.
Casey

"The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all." (2 Thessalonians 3:18 NASB)

My First, and Probably Last, Blog on Politics

Today I read a bit of dialogue taking place between a couple of people on Facebook. The subject was politics. The conversation was an argument over political “groups” on Facebook and their effectiveness. The discussion didn’t involve me but it did cause me to think about my own political opinions and how they’ve been affected by my walk with Christ.

As long as I can remember, I’ve been very conservative. I heard a saying once that if you’re not a Democrat in your 20’s, you don’t have a heart, and if you’re not a Republican in your 30’s, you don’t have a brain (or something along those lines). Well, I guess I’ve never had a heart because, while I’ve never been a card-carrying Republican, I’ve been a Conservative since I was a teenager. Years ago, I was a political junkie and lived to listen to all things political. I watched all the news shows, especially the Fox News Channel, and I was a huge fan of conservative talk radio. I almost never missed an episode of The Neal Boortz show (probably the biggest source of my Libertarian leanings) and even found myself listening to Rush Limbaugh occasionally. It didn’t take me long to get sick of Rush because he’s so full of himself, but you get my point, I liked political stuff.

These days I don’t listen to any of that stuff. Neal Boortz is entertaining but I just got tired of him trying to point out the hypocrisy of Christians while being a hypocrite himself. I don’t listen to Rush anymore, well, because he’s Rush and he’s obnoxious. I don’t watch the news channels anymore because I don’t watch any channels anymore. I have a TV but it’s unplugged and sitting in a closet. It’s not that I don’t think politics is important anymore. Obviously politics affects us all whether we want it to or not. I think it’s quite important and I participate in it, I just don’t give it undue attention.

Politics seems to bring out the bad side of people. I’ve seen people whom I would consider to be intelligent people, say some pretty stupid things just to get their person (or party) of choice in office. I remember when it was coming time to elect the successor to Bill Clinton, there were some Democrats saying that we should change the U.S. Constitution to elect him for a third term…that was stupid. Soon after Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected governor of California, I remember hearing some Republicans say that we should change the Constitution to allow someone who wasn’t born a U.S. citizen to be President…that was stupid too.

This election season has brought out the “stupids” as well. I’ve heard everything from “Sarah Palin is going to kill all the polar bears” to “Obama is a terrorist and he’s going to make the U.S. a Muslim country.” Good grief! As my professor at West Georgia, Dr. Hovey, once told my class on a totally unrelated topic, “Don’t be stupid!”

The discussion I mentioned at the beginning was about Facebook groups. These groups often involve arguments such as these, or worse. The reason I mention them is that, in the discussion of these groups, one of the people involved said that she would stop inviting people to join the groups when, as she put it, “Obama becomes elected and I have to simply resign myself to praying to God to help our nation over the next 4 years.” I know plenty of people with this kind of attitude and I would submit that it’s the wrong attitude to have about the election.

First off, Christians should be praying for God to help our nation no matter who wins the Presidential election, but that’s not the real problem I have. The problem is that we all try to do everything we can do, we take every precaution and make all necessary arrangements for success, and if everything we do ultimately falls through, then, and only then, do we depend on God for His help. That is exactly the reverse of what we should do. Our first step should be to trust in God no matter what’s happening. Remember, God is sovereign. That means He is totally in control and nothing surprises Him. Whether Sen. McCain or Sen. Obama wins the election, it’s not going to be some huge surprise to God and He’s not going to be sitting in heaven, wringing His hands, trying to figure out a way to deal with it. I hope Sen. Obama doesn’t win but I have a feeling he will. I’m definitely not the political prognosticator who has all the knowledge and experience and can guess who will win with much accuracy, but I just have a feeling that there will be more people to vote against Sen. McCain than there will be to vote against Sen. Obama. Please hear me, no matter who wins, Jesus is Lord…and I’m not just saying that to be trite, it’s the truth. I hope that people will not read that and say “Yes, that’s true” and then go right back to worrying about what’s going to happen.

I don’t know what the Lord has in store for our country. Perhaps the next four years will be a time of renewal for America. Maybe great strides will be made to ensure the freedom of all people by defending the unborn, to protect the sanctity and covenant nature of marriage, etc. Then again, maybe a direct assault will take place on these things and maybe the Lord will use this time to open the eyes of our nation and the world. As I said, I don’t know what’s in store for us. I do know, however, that God WILL be glorified. It may not seem like it to us, as a matter of fact, it may seem to be the opposite, but what man means for evil, God means for good.

I sincerely hope that everyone reading this will place their hope not in a candidate and not in a country, but in Christ. One of my favorite songwriters, Derek Webb has a song that captures this idea quite well: “My first allegiance is not to a flag, a country, or a man. No, my first allegiance is not to democracy or blood…it’s to a King and a kingdom.”

We are all sinners. The Bible tells us that “ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23)...no one is exempt from the judgment of God’s righteous and perfect wrath, but that's not the end of the sentence. The next verse says "being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus" (Romans 3:24). In order for us to escape eternal punishment for our sin, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came to earth, was tortured and murdered in the most humiliating and degrading way possible, as our sacrifice. His was the only sacrifice sufficient to forgive us of our sin, no other sacrifice could possibly cover our sins. If we believe in Christ, in that King and His kingdom, and trust in Him as our Savior, we are forgiven of those sins and welcomed into fellowship with God. I hope you sincerely put your trust in Him.

CRH

I love You, O LORD, my strength. The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge; my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. Psalm 18:1-2

When Life Gives You Lemons, Memorize Scripture

One of my classes this semester is called Personal Spiritual Disciplines. My professor, Dr. William Cutrer, is quite an entertaining guy and he's challenged us to memorize Scripture as one of the assignments. I haven't done much Scripture memorization since I was a kid but we are all commanded in Scripture to "let the word of Christ richly dwell within you" Colossians 3:16. A good way for the Word to dwell in us is to memorize it. In Biblical times, Jewish children would memorize whole books of the Torah, and many still do. It's amazing to me to understand that the Scripture quoted by Jesus when He was tempted by Satan was Scripture he learned as a young boy. There are many good reasons to memorize Scripture and I highly recommend it.

For the class assignment, we were given several passages from which we could choose. I've decided to memorize Psalm 19 because it's been one of my favorites for a while and I thought it would be nice to know it by heart. I say it's one of my favorites but actually the first verse is the main reason I like it. "The heavens are telling of the glory of God and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands." How can you look at the sky on a clear night and not appreciate what a glorious God He is to have made such beauty? The first verse makes plenty of sense to me. It's a straightforward, declarative sentence and I understand it. The verses that follow are more poetic and it takes a literal-minded person like me a little while to "get" the symbolic nature of the language. In case you don't have your Bible handy, here are the first six verses of the text:

A Psalm of David
1 The heavens are telling of the glory of God;
And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.
2 Day to day pours forth speech,
And night to night reveals knowledge.
3 There is no speech, nor are there words;
Their voice is not heard.
4 Their line has gone out through all the earth,
And their utterances to the end of the world
In them He has placed a tent for the sun,
5 Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber;
It rejoices as a strong man to run his course.
6 Its rising is from one end of the heavens,
And its circuit to the other end of them;
And there is nothing hidden from its heat.
Psalm 19:1-6 (NASB)

The poetic language of verses 2-6 has confused me a little bit. There are some people who can read something like this and instantly know what the author means but I'm not that type of person. It takes me a little while to figure it out.

Today while I was at work at Chick-fil-A, I had the pleasure of "squeezing" lemons for our lemonade. It should probably be called juicing lemons because we use a juicer, but all the people who have worked there much longer than I, always call it squeezing, so we'll go with that. It takes a lot of lemons to make the lemonade y'all love so much. We go through about 800 - 1200 lemons a day depending on the amount of business we have, and we "squeeze" them one by one, by hand, with a juicer. It's a very monotonous job. Now you're wondering "Why in the world is Casey telling me all this about stupid lemons?" I know, I'll get on with it. Today while I was working on the lemons, I began to recite the portion of Psalm 19 I have memorized just to practice saying it and make sure I have it down pat. While I was going over it, I finally realized what the poetic language about "words" and "speech" and something about a "bridegroom," meant. Once I realized it, it made the passage even more alive and more glorious to me.

I realized that the verses following verse one were explaining how the heavens were indeed telling of His glory. I realized that it is saying that every day and every night, the heavens testify, not with words but with their beauty and majesty, to the intricacies with which God created the universe. The universe is bigger than our minds can fathom and the God who made them is even bigger. When I thought about verse 5, I had to smile. David is describing the sun as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber. He's saying that the sun, in doing what God designed it to do, is bursting forth with gladness and declaring God's glory "and nothing is hidden from its heat." Now I'm not married yet but even I understand how a bridegroom, especially a new one, would burst forth from his chamber. He would be excited, happy, and full of joy!

It was so exciting to finally better understand what this passage meant. I was so excited that I finished squeezing lemons in no time. I don't think I've ever finished them that quickly. You never know when the Holy Spirit is going to make something known to you. You might be in the middle of doing something boring when He decides to reveal a little bit of His glory to you. May we, like the sun, gladly declare God's glory as His creation!

CRH

"The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit." Philippians 4:23