A Light in the Darkness

  Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. John 17:17 ESV             These words come from the high priestly prayer of our Lord the Christ, and express His desire and aspiration for the whole Church. Here He wishes the Church to be brought into perfection, by perfect alignment with the word of God that is the Bible. God’s word is absolute truth, unchanging (Psalm 119:89), and effective (Isaiah 55:11). It is therefore a firm foundation, steady and unmoving, consistent throughout the ages. At the same time, it is able without any adjustment to answer the challenges of humanity in all seasons. It is thus the perfect standard to which we must adhere.             The difficulty is that men like to form their own foundations, and to adjust the dimensions of the buildings to suit there own ideas, for as it is said throughout the book of Proverbs, “There is a way that seems right to a man,” and so men go about in their own way making changes for the sake of change. Such men misap

  For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” Romans 1:17 ESV             The good news (gospel) of Jesus Christ is that grace is available in Christ to all people who will receive it and submit to Christ in faith. Faith is alone the response to grace. And so, the just shall walk by faith alone. There is no other way.             Now we might find it easy enough to walk by faith when our sight has failed, or our strength has fled; but that is not what we are called to. It does not say that we live by faith when life is hard, or when life is easy; but it is written that the righteous shall live by faith always. In this there is much rest. There is rest from trying to earn what we never can earn. There is rest from needing to know things never shall know. There is rest in finding ourselves in the hands of an almighty and perfect God who is worthy of all our faith and trust.             How then shall

  “For I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed…” Malachi 3:6 ESV                 The center must hold. If the center is lost all else will go with it. So, if the center of our cosmos, or our understanding thereof, is unstable or vulnerable in any way so all of life will be. As a mutable center shifts all of reality would come apart, fragmenting, and scattering into incoherence. There would be no salvation from these awful cataclysms. There would be no salvation. There would be nothing we could trust. Every human endeavor would become incommensurable: if indeed anything like humanity would remain.             Fortunately, at the center of all things is God, immutable, and immovable. He is not like a man that He should change His mind. His mind is made up, His word, His decrees, His promises are settled forever. He will not suddenly improve upon His plans, there could be no improvement on any of His words, decrees, or promises they are all per