Jesus Christ is the I Am

God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” (Exodus 3:14 ESV)

Sacred Scripture or the Bible, which is the living Word of God, His communication to His people, is not just a collection of writings or a simply a history. The Holy Spirit not only indwells Christians he also indwells Sacred Scripture. When believers read and study the Word of God, The Holy Spirit works through it to accomplish spiritual, eternal work within them. God communicates with His people primarily through His Word. One of the main goals in this is God’s revelation of Himself to those who love Him.

Jesus Christ is the interpretive key to Sacred Scripture. Any other hermeneutic will lead people into various forms of heresy or unbelief. If anyone has ever debated a Jehovah Witness apologist or a Morman apologist or an Islamic apologist then you know how difficult it can be to address their complete misunderstanding of who Jesus Christ is and what His role is all things pertaining to our faith and creation. However, if we do view all of scripture from this key, it enables us to see clearly the utter depravity of fallen man because it imparts this to us via God’s Word by the Holy Spirit working in our consciences and minds. We see that the Gospel is not what most of us have conceived of as we have listened to some preacher’s water-down version of it. No, we see that Christ is the center and purpose of all creation and that the Word of God clearly shows us God’s plan of redemption of those chosen before the foundation of the World.   Continue at Mike Ratliff

The Laws of Moses in the Hands of the City Council

Herbert W. Schneider, who is no friend of Christianity, makes an interesting observation in his widely-used philosophy text, A History of American Philosophy (New York:  Columbia University Press, 1946).

Schneider observes, “as the New England church covenants gradually became secularized and were increasingly indistinguishable from the town ordinances, the `standing order’ (as the New England theocracy was called) was put on the defensive and resisted the growth of both political and religious individualism” (12).

Schneider's comment raises the question of what actually happened in those specific cases where Christians succeeded in governing themselves and others in the civil kingdom by legislating particular laws of Moses, as in the historical scenario Schneider describes above.  Could it be that when this happened another law raised its head--the law of unintended consequences? 

Fleshing out Schneider's point a bit may help to illustrate the fact that legislating “biblical” morality in the civil kingdom often serves to aid the process of secularization--the very thing those seeking to implement biblical legislation are trying to avoid.  There are four things we ought to consider in this regard.  Continue at Kim Riddlebarger

A Defense against Pastoral Burnout

Plurality of shepherds in a local congregation is the model of leadership we find in the New Testament church, which is a model first established in the Old Testament. Just as Jethro made it clear to Moses that solo leadership was “not good” then, so it is not good now. Jethro’s reasons are just as pertinent today as they were then. “You will surely wear out, both yourself and these people who are with you, for the task is too heavy for you; you cannot do it alone” (Exodus 18:18). Without a plurality of shepherds, both the pastor and the people suffer and do not experience the best the Lord has for us. Certainly there are times when solo leadership is the only option, but it should be viewed as temporary and men should be intentionally discipled toward leadership qualification, roles, and responsibilities.

Our elders recently read Timothy Witmer’s exceptional book, The Shepherd Leader: Achieving Effective Shepherding in Your Church, and spent many hours discussing its implementation recommendations at an all-day elders’ retreat. We are really excited about the intentional shared-shepherding strategy we are embarking upon.

Since pastoral burnout is a widespread problem in the Western church, as well as a current topic of discussion among many, I thought I’d pass on the following portion from Team leadership, as Witmer makes clear, is one practical defense against pastoral burnout.

One of the practical outcomes of the identification of those who give themselves to preaching and teaching is that these individuals have often become viewed as primus inter pares—first among equals. This may have practical benefits in terms of providing initiative and direction in the local church. However, we must not lose sight of the fact that the biblical picture of leadership is ‘team’ leadership. All elders, including teaching elders (pastors), are called to shepherd the flock, but not all elders have the gift of teaching, though they should be apt to teach.    Continue at Paul Tautges

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An Agreement Between The Serpent and Jesus Christ

For the past week I have been meditating on Numbers 21, where God sent “firey serpents” into the camp of Israel while in the wilderness for their blasphemy. The snakes were biting the people, and many were dying. They then came to Moses, confessing their sin, asking Moses to intercede for them. As Moses prayed for the people the Lord said to him, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” So Moses made a serpent out of bronze, set it on a pole, and lifted it up. When anyone was bit by a serpent, he could look at the bronze serpent and be healed.

Later in the Gospel of John Jesus said, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” (John 3:14-15 ESV)

Is Jesus really like a “serpent?” Not exactly. But he is like the bronze serpent lifted up by Moses. John Gill wrote some fantastic words on the “agreement between the serpent and Jesus Christ.” I have formatted it below and given subtitles, but the words are all Gill’s.

There is, in many things, an agreement between this serpent, and Jesus Christ:

An Unlikely Savior.

As in the matter of it, it was a brazen serpent; it was made not of gold, nor of silver, but of brass, the meaner metal, and was a very unlikely means, of itself, to heal the Israelites; and might be despised by many: this may denote the meanness of Christ in his human nature, in his birth and parentage, and place of education and converse; and especially in his crucifixion and death; and which, to an eye of carnal sense and reason, seemed a very improbable means of saving sinners; and therefore were to some a stumbling block, and to others foolishness:  Continue at Joe Thorn

The Law Renders Us Inexcusable and Drives Us Into Despair

But, in order that our guilt may arouse us to seek pardon, it behooves us, briefly, to know how by our instruction in the moral law we are rendered more inexcusable. If it is true that in the law we are taught the perfection of righteousness, this also follows: the complete observance of the law is perfect righteousness before God. By it man would evidently be deemed and reckoned righteous before the heavenly judgment seat. Therefore Moses, after he had published the law, did not hesitate to call heaven and earth to witness that he had "set before Israel life and death, good and evil" [ Deuteronomy 30:19 p.]. We cannot gainsay that the reward of eternal salvation awaits complete obedience to the law, as the Lord has promised. On the other hand, it behooves us to examine whether we fulfill that obedience, through whose merit we ought to derive assurance of that reward. What point is there to see in the observance of the law the proffered reward of eternal life if, furthermore, it is not clear whether by this path we may attain eternal life. At this point the feebleness of the law shows itself. Because observance of the law is found in none of us, we are excluded from the promises of life and fall back into the mere curse. I am telling not only what happens but what must happen. For since the teaching of the law is far above human capacity, a man may indeed view from afar the proffered promises, yet he cannot derive any benefit from them. Therefore this thing alone remains: that from the goodness of the promises he should the better judge his own misery, while with the hope of salvation cut off he thinks himself threatened with certain death. On the other hand, horrible threats hang over us, constraining and entangling not a few of us only, but all of us to a man. They hang over us, I say, and pursue us with inexorable harshness, so that we discern in the law only the most immediate death.   Keep Reading...

 

 

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What is the Importance of the Parting of the Red Sea?

Question: What is the importance of the parting of the Red Sea?

Answer: The importance of the parting of the Red Sea is that this one event is the final act in God delivering his people from slavery in Egypt. The exodus from Egypt is the single greatest act of salvation in the OT, and is continually recalled to represent God’s saving power. The events of the exodus, including crossing of the Red Sea, are immortalized in the Psalms as Israel brings to remembrance God’s saving works in their worship (e.g., Psalm 66:6; 78:13; 106:9; 136:13). Keep Reading>>>