So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. (Ephesians 2:19-21, ESV)
The apostles and New Testament prophets are the foundation of church. They were led by the Holy Spirit to communicate the New Testament truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Now the church is being built on that foundation. We don’t need apostles or prophets anymore. The foundational work has already been done. The church is being built on the truth of the gospel recorded for us in the New Testament.
So when Paul writes to Timothy, he spends 10 chapters in two books hammering home again and again the priority of teaching and preaching God’s given Word. This is what we need. This is how the church grows.
So we must prioritize the Bible. It is through the public teaching and preaching of God’s Word, as well as personal exhortation and encouragement from the Word, as well as personal study and meditation in the Word that the church is built up.
The Bible is the measure by which we must evaluate every practice in our church and in our lives, and so we must prioritize the Bible in our church and in our lives.
The Bible’s message of the gospel is the foundation of the church. Take up and read!
Be careful that you don’t turn away How could you treat Christ with such disdain? Vengeance is the Lord’s, He will repay Without Christ, only judgment remains
Chorus Fast, Fast, Hold fast Hold fast to Jesus the Better One Near, Near, Draw Near Draw near to God through His only Son
Now call to mind how far you have come All the trials you had to endure Don’t quit now for your reward will come Look to your hope, glorious and sure (Repeat Chorus)
To God we have confident access Through Christ our priest, His death made the way So draw near, come into God’s presence With true faith, fully cleansed, come today
Chorus Fast, Fast, Hold fast Hold fast to Jesus the Better One Near, Near, Draw Near Draw near to God through His only Son
Hold fast your hope without wavering God’s promises never throw away Commit to the church’s gathering Stir up to love and good works today (Repeat Chorus)
For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ…. (Ephesians 5:23-24a)
Christ is the head of the church. And the church must submit to Him, obey Him, follow His leading.
Christ is in charge of the church, not the pastor, not the leadership team, not you. Christ alone is the head of church.
Follow the illustration. My body follows the instructions of my head. My head tells my neck to turn, my foot to rise, my hands to clap, my fingers to scratch my head. If my body doesn’t listen to my head, then my body is sick. And to whatever extent the church is not listening to Christ, to that extent the church is sick. Christ is the head.
So let us commit to Christ’s leading – as a church and as individual Christians. We must be committed to the leading of Christ. We must follow His instructions in His Word for the church and our lives. We don’t go off and do our own thing. We don’t make up the church or what we believe or how to live. No, we must commit to follow Christ in all things. Christ is our head.
I am excited to introduce you to OT Journey 2.0 this summer. Bible Journey studies and reflections have been on this site for quite a while. This summer I am launching OT Journey 2.0 which is a reworking and revising of that earlier material. It is designed to help you take a group through the entire Old Testament (except Psalms) chapter by chapter in three years (150 lessons). You can find all the details for this new study (as well as the older one) on the Bible Journey page here. I plan to start posting studies next week. It would make a great study to start this Fall with your Sunday School class or small group Bible study.
How Should We Pray? A Helpful Framework of Seven ‘P’s – John Stevens It helps to have some framework for prayer that shapes our thinking and speaking. I find it helpful to bear in mind the following aspects of prayer, both for my personal praying and public prayers.
Leave Church a Little Tired: Serving the Saints on Sunday Morning – Sam Emadi (DG) The next time you gather with God’s people, I hope you leave strengthened and spiritually fed, I hope you’re built up by the gospel, and I also hope you leave a little tired. I hope you leave looking a little more like the Son of Man, who gave his life to serve.
The Radiance of Real Holiness – Trevin Wax I’ve been thinking more carefully about how compelling and attractive holiness can be in a world that has forgotten the sacred dignity of humanity and the high calling God has for us.
Follow the Truth, Not Your Heart – Robby Lashua (STR) The Christian worldview teaches that the heart is deceitfully wicked and that transformation happens when our minds are conformed to the truth. According to the New Age worldview, the mind is a trickster, so we should follow our hearts. This is a complete inversion of the truth.
Flashback: Where God Dwells God is high and holy, so it should not surprise us that he dwells in a high and holy place. What should absolutely amaze us….
Hope you have a great Lord’s Day worshiping God with your local church!
Never Too Busy to Pray – Scott Hubbard (DG) God wants us to run and build and work in this world, but not apart from prayer. Jesus knew as much. So, though busy, though sought out, though needed, though weighed down by a world of urgent responsibility, Jesus prayed. Will we?
10 Ways to Fracture Your Church – Conrad Mbewe (Crossway) Although I have given ten ways to fracture a church, there are many more. This is only a sample. Often you will find that it is a combination of these causes that finally lead to the fragmentation. To arrest a possible breakup, you need to talk about the threat before the root of bitterness grows. Deal with it quickly. Like cancer, it must be handled as soon as it is discovered because any delay only allows the cancer to grow.
In the School of Contentment – Doug Eaton (Fight of Faith) It is easy to boast when things are good, but the believer must often be trained by many hardships to make contentment a reality.
Have You Lost the Ability to Think Deeply? – Lydia Kinne (TGC) Our society desperately needs more people who can think wisely, discern clearly, and guide the next generation in God’s truth. It sounds like a big task, but it can start with something as small as turning off the TV and picking up a good book.
Flashback: Everlasting Significance Don’t seek lasting significance in the temporary. Only an eternal God can give you lasting significance. He gives us an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.
Hope you have a great Lord’s Day worshiping God with your local church!
5 Habits That Changed My Life – Ian Harbar (Back Again) Everyone is different, but if you find yourself struggling under the weight of life, I hope these habits are something you’ll consider as we move into the new year. They won’t solve every problem, but I’ve found that they have helped me bear life and increase my capacity for love.
The “Plus One” Approach to Church – Kevin DeYoung (Clearly Reformed) Are you feeling disconnected, unhappy, or bored with your local congregation? Let me suggest you enter the “Plus One” program of church involvement.
How I Am Getting My Mind Back This Year – Wyatt Graham (TGC) If our age’s pathology threatens to unmake what it means to be human—that rational and emotional structure based on deep structures of reality—then how can we—how can I—get our minds back this year?
Flashback: What Are You Seeking? What are you seeking? This is Jesus’ question to two of John the Baptist’s disciples. It is also an important question for us to ponder as we end this year and begin a new year.
Hope you have a great Lord’s Day worshiping God with your local church!
My Dad passed away last month. It is hard to write that. One evening I was texting him about our big family summer get-together, the next evening he was gone.
My wife and I headed back to my parents’ home to be with my mom, and grieve, and prepare for a funeral, and all those things.
On Sunday we headed to church as we do every week, only this time not our home church, but my brother’s church. We sang “The Solid Rock” – a great old hymn about our hope in Jesus. I say we sang, but I had trouble singing, coming in and out, as the emotions raged between grief and the very real hope that is ours. During the pastoral prayer, the pastor prayed for our family in our loss, and there real tears. Then we sang “There Is One Gospel” – a new hymn that I knew, but had never sung in church before. It too spoke of our hope in my grief. Then came “O Lord My Rock and My Redeemer” – a new song too, but one I had never heard before. No matter – it too spoke of our hope.
The message was from Mark 4 about the Sower and the four soils. I confess I don’t remember much about it, except that it was grounded in the Word. After the message, we sang “I Will Glory in My Redeemer” – one of my favorite newer songs that again talked about my hope. We celebrated the Lord’s Supper, my wife and I with my brother and his wife and a church full of people I didn’t know. But we were all brothers and sisters in Christ celebrating the reality of Christ’s death on our behalf that gives us hope for the future. We closed with “Great Is Thy Faithfulness” – another great old hymn reminding us that in all of this, God was still faithful.
And sometime during that service, it hit me – this was what will get me through. This weekly rhythm of singing songs about our great hope in Jesus that transcends death. Prayer, the Word, the Lord’s Supper – all reminding us that we have a great God who has redeemed us and promised us a glorious future with Him. This weekly rhythm rehearsing the glorious truths of our Savior.
And it didn’t matter if it was an old hymn or a new one, a song I knew or didn’t. All that mattered were the words speaking the gospel hope into my life.
Some people say that church is boring, but it is anything but boring when you are wrestling with the realities of life and death, grasping for hope in the midst of tragedy. And maybe that is our problem. Not church, but us. Too often we are pre-occupied with more trivial matters, distracted by things that have no eternal value. The gospel speaks words of life, but we are too busy chasing the next thrill, the next meme, the next new something that means nothing compared to the old, old story of Jesus.
I don’t remember anything about the message that Sunday. I don’t remember what I had for lunch that day either. But in both cases I was fed. And just like I need that daily rhythm of eating, I need that weekly rhythm of worship together. To be fed, to refocus on what is important, to be reminded again and again of our hope in the Lord. This weekly rhythm is what will get me through.
And yet, the weekly rhythm would mean nothing without the truths behind it. The rhythm would be worthless if I didn’t know that our Redeemer lives, and because He does, so shall my Dad.
The rhythm would just be wishful thinking without my Savior risen and reigning. The rhythm points to Jesus. And that is why the rhythm is powerful. Because it is a means that He will use to get me through.
But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. – I John 3:7-8 (ESV)
John gives us a spiritual equation that teaches us about love.
Goods + Need + Heart + Action = Love
First, I have the world’s goods; that is, the means to help someone in whatever way. It might be money, time, a skill, or an ability. It might also be as simple as a word of encouragement, a prayer, a listening ear, even a hug. It is whatever good is necessary to meet the need.
Which brings us to the second part of the equation – I see my brother or sister in Christ in need. To see the need means I have contact with them, I am around them, I know them. And so I am able to see the real need; not just symptoms, but the real need. And that may require observation. It may require some communication. My first impression, or what I may want to do, may not be what they need.
Third, having the goods and seeing need, I must then refuse to close my heart. I must not shut off compassion. I must not slam the door of empathy. If I do, that is a failure of love.
Not having the goods is not a failure to love. Not seeing the need is not a failure of love (though maybe I need to be more observant). A failure to love is when I close my heart.
Finally, if I have the goods, see the need, and have a compassionate heart, then I must do something. My heart must lead me to act. I must actually apply the goods to the need.
My heart leads me to act to meet the need with the goods that God has given me. That is real love.
Brian J. Mikul 