God's Blessing

My daughter sent this to me, I have decided to post it. Christian parents are a blessing, but Christian siblings(adult children) are a very big blessing.

The blessing of the Lord, it makes me rich and adds no sorrow to it.

I always thought of that as material or temporal. My brain rarely traveled beyond into the eternal or even in the emotional...until lately. Today is no exception. In fact, today is as an exclamation point on the fact that the Lord has blessed me.

My son, who is 8 years old (going on adult) helped the neighbor across the street, gathering flowers from an empty lot and planting. The neighbor paid Jason for his help by giving him whatever flowers he found he did not need.

Jason ran in with all the energy and excitement of 10 children, "Mom, Mom, guess what I got you..." he grabbed my hand and pulled me outside to show me his treasure.

That was a few days ago, yesterday, he brought home more flowers and an onion plant. Where I live, I am not permitted to have a garden, but an onion mixed in with the flowers probably won't be a problem. He wanted to know where I wanted the flowers. He decided on a spot, which I said would not work because of the clay all around. Besides, I was busy with other things and was not prepared to find a home for those plants.

This brings me to today, when he went to his neighbor and asked for help. With neighbor recruited and shovel in hand, Jason set about the job of planting my flowers and onion. Along with this, he and the neighbor weeded my front flower garden and pulled a couple bushes that I couldn't stand. My flower garden in the front is now ready for planting.

The blessing of the Lord truly does make rich. I am truly blessed.
written by Karlen Ann (Clouse) Jacobsen

Ken Clouse
Lay Leader
North East Michigan Reformation Society

The Christian Life

I sure hope during my life as a Christian I am a blessing to those I meet. I read an article not long ago about the offices of the Church, the invisible and visible church. The writer claimed the gospel is properly proclaimed by pastors, teachers, evangelists and missionaries. The effects of the Gospel is lived out by Christians living in their neighborhoods and are not preachers of the Gospel. The writer made this claim, (I am still thinking about it,) he said “it’s not a requirement of members of the local church to preach the Gospel; it is required of local church members to live and be a testament of the Gospel.” This sure is different from what I have heard all my life. It’s been taught we are to know the Romans Road, to memorize verses for witnessing, to pass out tracts, to invite friends and neighbors to church etc.

Not so the writer claimed, Christians of the local church are to live a life demonstrating the characteristics of Christianity (regenerated men), of Godliness, of humility, of worship, of benevolence. We are to treat our neighbor as we treat our selves. We are to raise our children in godliness. We are to serve the body of Christ in humility.

How off the mark I think we may be, we the local church people. We have given up living the Christian life for the promoted activity (nearly every ministry promotes this) of carrying a big Bible telling everyone how they need Jesus. We are more than happy to point these folks to the correct place of worship, "now bow your head and repeat after me, and I will see you Sunday." It’s no wonder no one listens to us.

I think the writer may be correct it's not the job of the church member to be the minister, the evangelist, the missionary. The job of the church member is to live the Christian life. Seeing acts of godliness/holiness of us in our neighborhoods and our places of worship just might be the calling of the local Church/Christian (regenerated). My goal in life is not to be a good reader (I am not) or be anything else good. No, I desire not even to be a great soul winner. I do plead with God that He will make me a blessing, a caring person, and in my community a known God lover. To my church family, my friends, and most of all my wife, children, and siblings I pray God will keep me from falling so I may full fill the calling of a Christian. Note, I am not asking for God's help as if I can start and keep it up as best I can as if I may or may not need Him. No, I need God from beginning to end.

Here it is, My thinking altogether, I need Him (God) more and more.

You comprehend my path and my lying down,
And are acquainted with all my ways.
For there is not a word on my tongue,
But behold, O LORD, You know it altogether.
You have hedged me behind and before,
And laid Your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
It is high, I cannot attain it.
Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?(Psalms 139:3-7)

Oh, Lord you have hedged me behind and before, You have laid your hand on me

Ken Clouse
Lay leader
North East Michigan Reformation Society

MacArthur's Sermons Available Online

I was not sure if everyone knew this or not. John MacArthur's sermons are available online at http://www.gty.org/Resources/Sermons. You can read, listen, download, and purchase his sermons. This is an excellent biblical resource.

Blogging the Institutes

I know we are behind on this, but I just found out that the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals is blogging the Institutes. They have a reading for each day and a blog from various writers summarizing the reading. The blogs are good reading on their own.

You can find this blog either by following the link to the right for the Alliance blog or start on todays reading here http://www.reformation21.org/calvin/2009/04/blog-76-21110-21114.php.

Pursuing Holiness 2

“Pursue holiness…without [holiness] no one will see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14
NKJV).

In an earlier blog, we discovered that the above verse functions as a warning to believers not to give up the pursuit of holiness. The pursuit of holiness becomes an indicator of one’s spiritual life. If one gives up the pursuit of holiness he is revealing his lack of faith in Christ. But, the person who continues this pursuit in spite of the difficulty shows that he does have faith in Christ. However, still another question arises from this verse, that is, if I am going to pursue holiness, what is holiness?

The technical theological term for pursuing holiness and the process is sanctification. The Westminster divines address this question in question 36, “What is sanctification? Sanctification is the work of God’s free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God, and are enabled more and more to die unto sin, and live unto righteousness.”[1] This definition implies that sanctification is a process that takes place over one’s entire life and affects one’s whole life. It is “both a status and condition”[2] The believer's status before God is perfect righteousness because of Christ’s death. “However, this status does not mean that the believer is in a wholly sanctified condition.” Martin Luther expressed this truth with the Latin phrase simul justus et peccator (“at once righteous and a sinner”). Believers will remain in this condition until they reach heaven because “sanctification is never complete in this life…Yet, as Thomas Boston notes, the work of sanctification will progress in us because ‘of the continued application of the blood of Christ to the believer by the Spirit.’” Thomas Watson adds, “’If [sanctification] does not grow it is because it does not live.’”

The Puritans used the term universal to describe the complete change that sanctification effects. “Everything is to be sanctified. Holiness…affects our privacy with God, the confidentiality of our homes, the competitiveness of our work, the pleasures of social friendship, and our Lord’s Day worship. No time is exempt.” The change is not only universal, but it is also “inward” and “moral” as 1 Thessalonians 5:23 and Galatians 5:22-23 suggest.

Sanctification involves both “[dying] unto sin” or mortification and “living unto righteousness” or vivification. “Mortification… involves putting to death every form of sin…watching and praying against any sinful habits in such a way that, whenever a bad impulse arises, you immediately recognize what is happening and ask the Lord for strength to refuse it.”

“Vivification is being quickened from the heart to do God’s will” (See Heb 13:20, 21). In other words, one is seeking grace to live in obedience to God’s Law, which is received through the means of grace (the Word, prayer, and worship) both privately and corporately. Perfect righteousness or holiness is described in God’s Law. Therefore, one must perfectly follow the Law of God to be righteous or holy. However, we must remember that God’s Law does not make us righteous or sanctified. Only Christ through faith makes one righteous, and a believer behaves righteously because of being made righteous. Thus, one’s status affects his condition.

If we are going to pursue holiness, we must seek the grace from God and mortify every sin that creeps into our lives so that every area of our life is holy to the Lord. The Word of God, prayer, and worship are the ways God works to apply grace to the hearts of his people. To be holy, we must make use of these means of grace on a regular basis both privately and corporately.

[1] Westminster Shorter Catechism. Q.35 available @ http://www.reformed.org/documents/wsc/index.html
[2] This blog is a summary of two chapters entitled Sanctification in Puritan Thought and Practice from Beeke, Joel R. Living for God’s Glory An Introduction to Calvinism (Reformation Trust 2008) all quotes unless otherwise noted are from Beeke. This excellent introduction to Calvinism is available @ http://www.heritagebooks.org/bookstore/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=9347