A Light in the Darkness

Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. Psalm 139:16 ESV             What is true of the psalmist is also true of Jeremiah, Jeremiah 1:5, it is true of all of us according to Ephesians 2:10, and in Matthew 10:29-31.   The admonitions the Bible makes against anxiety are not unreasonable, but have the very best reasons behind them. The best of all these good reasons is that the Christian is in the hands of loving God. John 6:37-39 tells us this is the safest place we could possibly be. Our souls are secure in life everlasting.             As for our days on this Earth they are numbered friend. They are all accounted for in God’s book. We have only so many. And for those of us in Christ this good, for death is the doorway to a better life. There is simply no...

And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them. Genesis 3:21 ESV                 There is a line from a Petra song (Perfect world off the Jekyll & Hyde album) which has played through my head the past few days, “This is my Father’s world and He can fix it. Our hopeless band-aids are all counterfeit.” Mankind has always tried to solve the problems it creates. It goes all the way back to the fall in Genesis 3.   No sooner have our first parents realized the disastrous results of their sinful action than they try to do something about it. Their solution was garments of fig leaves. These proved immediately insufficient.                 Adam and Eve did not understand the fullness of what had happened, and could not find the answer they needed. The fig leaves could not cover their same, or ...

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. John 15:5 ESV                 As the song says, “…The fundamental things apply, as time goes by.”   I suppose it is cliché to say that a particular verse changed your life, especially for a minister of the gospel; nevertheless this verse did change my life, especially as a minister of the gospel. Now allow me to depart from my typical tone and pull back the curtain a bit. In the midst of this pandemic I have been troubled. As an individual I have been made to compromise, it is necessary, but to me very uncomfortable. As a minister I have often been at a loss as to how best to serve the church and its people. Some things had to change very quickly, and because of that a lot things had to be, “good enough”, or, “the best we can do right now” instead of the very bes...

  Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus,   by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God,   let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.   Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,   not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.   For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,   but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.   Anyone who ...

  For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do , but I am doing the very thing I hate. But if I do the very thing I do not want to do , I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.   For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. Romans 7:15-20NASB             This is a difficult reality; you can see the difficulty as Paul tries to explain the reality of the Christian’s internal struggle. We are now able to desire righteousness, doing right, but we are not entirely free of the impulse to do wrong. There is a ne...