Year: 2018

From the Heart of the Pastor: Teach us to Number Our Days

By God’s gracious providence, you are days away from entering the new year of 2019. And as divine providence leads you toward welcoming another new year in your life, and you continue doing what you have planned to do and accomplish in the year 2019, how does your approach towards receiving a new year looks like? Are you taking the winding up of the old year (2018) and the entering of the new year of 2019 for granted?  Do you live as if the law of nature or chance makes it possible for you every year, or as if you somehow manage to stay alive through a good habit of eating and physical exercise in order to advance from one year to another year?  

As a fellow believer who confesses the God of the Bible as the creator of the World and everything in it— including the years, days and times that we take part in— you would agree with me that without the Creator’s will and approval, all helpful human efforts that we do in life such as balancing our diet, visiting our doctor regularly, gymnastics, managing our savings well and becoming a law-abiding citizen will not guarantee the preservation of the days of our lives in order to move from an old year to a new one.

I am sure you are familiar with the story of Job. After Job lost everything he had, including his own children, under the attack of Satan but the hidden will and permission of the Sovereign Lord, for God’s glory and Job’s sanctification, Job uttered these instructive words, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord.” (Job 1:21)

 What do we see in Job’s righteous response?  Job understood that God was the source and giver of life. Not only that, the Lord gives life (breath) and when He wants to do so He takes it away in the year, day or time that He appointed before eternity. Like many unbelievers and skeptics today, Job was not a fatalist who believed in a god of chance or a universe that was created by a supernatural God but after he created it he detached himself from it and left it to take its course by itself. No, Job believed in the God of the Bible who created the whole universe by the power of His word and one who governs and preserves it and everything in it till the end.

What Job recognized and declared about God who gives life and dispenses it to people as He wishes was also acknowledged by a pagan king. After King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon saw the mighty power of God delivering Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, from the burning fiery furnace into which he throw them he bowed down before the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and declared God to his entire kingdom with these words, “I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation: all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand or say to him, “what have you done?”

 As you can see in the testimonies of both Job as a confessing believer and King Nebuchadnezzar, at first a heathen but then a repentant king whom the Lord humbled to give God glory due to His creating and governing power over the life, days and years of the inhabitants of this world (which includes you), the years of our lives are in the hand of the Sovereign God.

The Evangelist Luke confirmed this truth to us by the words of Acts 17:28, “For in him we live and move and have our being.” Because of this biblical truth, as you enter the new year of 2019, you really need to pray the prayer of Moses the servant of God in Psalms 90: 12, “So teach us to number our days, that we may get a heart of wisdom.” According to Moses, what does numbering our days mean? In that remarkable prayer that Moses presented to God, we see that Moses acknowledged the Lord as the ruler of life and to whom we will give an account on how we lived out our life here on earth. In his prayer Moses first teaches us that the days and years of our lives are the gifts of the Creator to us, and that the Giver, on the day of judgement (reckoning), will have us stand before His throne to give an account on how we used them for His glory and the good of our souls.

Because of this, we should count every day of our lives in relation to eternity and the God of eternity. Towards Him we are answerable. But what does counting your days mean?  It does not mean that you count them to know how many they are. No, because you don’t need divine instruction in order do that. You just need to know your math. But even if you know how to count days, that was not what Moses meant, because being a mathematician doesn’t give you knowledge and insight to know how many years you will have here on earth. No one except the Creator knows that (Ecclesiastes 9:5).

And that is the reason why we need wisdom and instruction from God on how to count our days, and again, not to know how long we will live in this world, but to understand its value, and by the grace of God make it a life well lived.  To count our days means to count and treat our days as if they will be the last ones.  As if they will be days on which the Lord will require our souls from us. That is the first lesson that Moses teaches us through this petition.

The second valuable lesson that we must learn from it is knowing that life is a precious gift from God, and as we don’t know how long we will live here on earth, we should always ask the Lord in prayer to give us wisdom to count every day of our lives in relation to God and eternity. King David did the same thing in Psalm 39:4-5 when he prayed this prayer to the Lord “O Lord, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am!  Behold, you have made my days a few hand-breadths, and my lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath!”

You see, my friend, all the godly that we are considering: Moses, David, Luke, Solomon and even the pagan king of Babylon Nebuchadnezzar, were not being solicitous to know from the Lord the mystery of how many years they will live on earth in order to boast about their tomorrow and forget and live their lives without worshiping and honoring God. But they were very serious about meditating and reflecting on the shortness of their days and how they should glorify God with the brief time that the Lord gave them here on earth.  

Are you like them, my friend, as you now approach the receiving of another new year in your life? Are you boasting about it, saying, “Yes, I made it to the year 2019!” or “Lucky I am, I am about to enter to a new year and I am going to enjoy life more than I did in 2018!” Well, James calls this kind of approach to receiving a new year in life— PRIDE. Let me refresh your mind with James’s exhortation on this very issue, “Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit- yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes, instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.” (James 4:13-16).

According to God’s word, to approach and receive a new year with a boastful heart and attitude is sinful. But we are to welcome and receive it with a thankful heart that recognizes God as the giver of it and embrace it as a tool given to us by the Creator to be used for His glory and the well being of our own lives and all people around us.

My dear friends, after reading this article, if you ever wonder on how to receive the year 2019 as a gift from the Lord, to be used for his glory and your happiness, consider putting these godly habits on your plans for this coming New Year.

1. Fearing the Lord— which is the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 9:10)
2. To treat prayer like breathing— pray unceasingly (1 Thessalonians 5:17)
3. To love corporate prayer with the saints in your local Church (Acts 2:42)
4. To grow in your life of private and public worship (Psalm 42:1-5)
5. To dedicate your whole Sabbath for the worship of God (Exodus 20:8, Isaiah 58:13)
6. To read and meditate on the Word of God daily (Joshua 1:8, Psalm 1:2, 1 Timothy 4:13-15)
7. To pray for your earthly and spiritual leaders faithfully and often (1 Tim 2:1&2, Heb 13:7)
8. To partake the Lord’s supper faithfully (Acts 2:42, 1 Corinthians 11:25)
9. To grow in your love for the preaching and studying of God’s Word (Psalm 119:97, 1 peter 2:2)
10. To allocate time for personal witnessing (Mark 5:19, Matthew 5:16)
11. To love the saints, show hospitality and assist the needy (Hebrews 13:1-3)  

I pray that the Lord would give each one of you a heart of heavenly wisdom that Moses prayed for to consider applying the eleven qualities of the Christian life that I recommended above in your own daily Christian walk in the year 2019.

A very blessed and productive new year of 2019 to you all!

Your friend and Pastor,

Zecharias  

From the heart of the Pastor

Festivity VS Incarnation

Being festive is not sinful or wrong.  There is nothing wrong with people, as families, friends, or co-workers, coming together to enjoy the celebration of a certain holiday or get together for a party to have fun and renew friendship. In fact, it was God Himself, as the Creator of the entire universe and everything in it, who prepared a beautiful garden for our first parents, Adam and Eve, to dwell in, to enjoy life and everything that God created for their happiness, without a limit. Of course, after Adam sinned against the Lord by eating the forbidden fruit, the unimpeded jubilation and entertainment that Adam and Eve had been enjoying in God’s created world was negatively impacted by God’s ruling over man to eat his bread by the sweat of his brow.

Nevertheless, it does not mean that today man cannot or should not allocate a free time from the days and times of his labors to relax and do things that he enjoys, including enjoying his time with family and friends in a holiday season such as Christmas.

That being true and good for all people, there is one scenario in which holiday festivity, like what people do to celebrate Christmas, becomes wrong and man-centered. And that is, when the activities of people in celebrating Christmas ignore the Creator and his greatest gift to humanity, which was the incarnation of his son Jesus Christ, and make their focus entirely on eating, drinking and partying.

In 1 Corinthians 10:31, the Apostle Paul calls all people, especially believers, to do all things for the glory of God, including their eating and drinking. To do all things for the glory of God means to acknowledge all that you have and do as free and gracious gifts from God, and honor and exalt God openly and publicly because of them.

But things that we enjoy in life, things like eating, drinking, shelter, clothing, festivities, etc., are the lesser gifts from the Creator.  In Matthew 6, our Lord Jesus Christ Himself mentions these things as the lesser gifts of God for the created human beings, and then the gift of eternal life as the greatest gift from God the Father (Matthew 6: 25-34). And the object of God’s gift of eternal life has been portrayed for us in what is called the “theme verse” of the Bible: John 3:16.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

In John 3:16, the object of God’s love (and the gift of eternal life) is Jesus Christ our Lord. And who is Jesus Christ?  The eternal son of God who was born of the virgin Mary and became fully man without sin, in order to accomplish the salvation of God’s children by a death on the cross (John 1:14).

You see, my friends, without John 1:14, the eternal word of Christ (which was Christ Himself) becoming flesh (by the power of the Holy Spirit but through a human virgin birth) there would not be John 3:16. There would not be the man Jesus Christ as the gift of eternal life on whom people believe and have everlasting life. In theology, the virgin birth, through which Jesus Christ took human flesh and became fully man— “The God man”— is called Incarnation.  And, as you now can see from the connection we just made between John 1:14 and John 3:16, your entire salvation and final glorification depends on the Incarnation of Jesus Christ.

 Hence, when people (particularly true followers of Christ) commemorate the historic birth of Christ in Bethlehem by ignoring and neglecting the worship and proclamation of the preexistent divine Word (Logos) (John 1:1-2) which was Jesus Christ Himself- the light of the world, by just dwelling on the sentiments and characters of Christmas such as Angels, Shepherds, a baby in a manger, exchanging of gifts, partying, it will be a Christmas without the real Christ, who can satisfy your deepest need in life (forgiveness and everlasting, uninterrupted joy). All the temporal elements of outward Christmas festivities will never give and secure this for you.

 In order to clarify what I mean by this further, let me quote what Paul said about Christ, who was the greatest gift of God the Father, in relation to other things that we want and should enjoy here on earth. “He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” Romans 8:32.

Let me unpack this wonderful reminder verse from Paul briefly.  First, because God so loved the world, He did not withhold Himself from letting His only begotten son Jesus Christ leave His heavenly home and glory to be born from a poor virgin from Nazareth. He let Him grow as any other child in the world grows up and fall into the hands of wicked men (whom He created by the power of His word) and let them crucify Him on a tree as a blasphemer in their sinful opinion. But in the eternal plan of His Father, He delivered the people of God from the power of Sin and eternal death. 

For that reason Paul said God the Father did not spare His son but gave Him up to death on the cross.  So His birth (Incarnation) was a journey to the cross, and the cross was the greatest manifestation of God’s love for you. But then, interestingly enough, Paul adds something else (a bonus from God, if you will) which actually is attached to the Father’s greatest gift, who was Christ.  The additional advantage (benefit) that Paul mentioned was “all things”, which meant with Christ, God graciously gave us the other things that we possess and want, to enjoy them for our happiness in this short life that the Lord gave us here on this earth.

And the “all things” of Paul includes all the things that you have at your disposal to be enjoyed and cherished all the time, including during holidays as you are having now— Christmas.  But the point I am making, with the help of Paul, is that you, as you celebrate the birth of Christ, can’t separate all these things from Christ (through whom you have them from God) or exalt them as more valuable and abiding than the Christ of Incarnation.

Remember, God the Father, through and with his Son Jesus Christ, gave you all things that you have in life— family, friends, job, time, resources, knowledge, festivities— for you to celebrate and enjoy them by making Jesus Christ, who was born, lived, died and was resurrected for your sake, the focal person and reason of all that you do in life, including celebrating Christmas. Keep the exhortation of the Apostle Paul in mind as you remember and celebrate the birth of your Savior with family and friends.

“So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” 1 Corinthians 10:31.

Will your festivity this month ignore the Creator and His greatest gift for you, eternal life through the incarnate Son of God, or elevate the Christ of Incarnation above all other things that you will do with your family and friends? I am earnestly praying that we all will do the latter, for the glory of God and as our testimony for Christ, who is our greatest and main reason for Christmas.  

A very blessed and joyous Christmas to you all!

In the love of the great Shepherd!

Your Pastor and friend,

Zecharias

From the Pastor’s heart

Your Sunday OR God’s Sunday?

It is common for people to make a reference to Sunday as a day of their own. We often hear people say “This is my Sunday and I just want to enjoy it for myself.” But the question that I want you to join me in asking and reflecting upon this week is, can a truly Bible-believing and worshiping Christian claim Sunday as a day of his own, to be spent according to his own personal preference or liking? In other words, is Sunday as a day (the whole day) yours or God’s? Of course, all days have been created by God (Genesis chapters 1 & 2) and they all are God’s gracious gift for all people whom God created here on earth.

But among all the seven created days of the week, there is one specific day that the Lord God appointed and preserved to be consecrated (set apart) by His redeemed people for public worship in the Church.  I know every time the issue of dedicating one specific day in a week for the purpose of worship comes up, many contend hastily and zealously to make an argument that God must be worshiped every day, not just once in a week on a Sunday. Personally, I can’t agree more with anyone who makes that case. God should be worshiped and glorified by all His children every day and all the time (1 Corinthians 10:31).

But I also want people to understand and appreciate God’s appointment of one specific day of the week, which is Sunday or “the Lord’s day”, for holy worship, and also both physical and spiritual rest for his own people based on the will and teaching of God Himself in his word, not based on man’s independent interpretation and notion.  So let’s do that. After delivering the people of Israel from the bondage in Egypt, God gave them the Ten Commandments to serve them as a perfect reflection of God’s character and standard of their holy living before the Lord. And as the Israelite (and you and I) learned from God’s holy Word, the first four commandments of the moral law teach us how to love God, largely, how to love him in worship on the day of His choosing. You see, it is very important for you to understand the fourth commandment in the term and spirit that God Himself prescribed or dictated it in his Word.

What does the fourth Commandment say?  “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy” (Exodus 20:8). It was a clear command on and for God’s worship by his delivered people.  At the giving of this command on worship, the Lord was addressing the people of Israel as one assembly (gathering) to remember one day out of the seven days in a week in doing one thing: in setting apart (setting aside) the day to be part of the gathering of God’s people in the temple (God’s house) to praise and worship the Lord, and to do that by resting from all the physical labor that they were doing during the six days of the week (Exodus 20: 8-11) for the spiritual refreshment of their souls.

So you see, the first aspect of Sunday which really should sink into our minds, is the fact that Sunday is a day of worship, the personal property of God, something the Lord gave to his people as a gift for them to gather together, to praise and declare his glory with acts of worship.  Even God the Creator Himself, “the one who never becomes weary and never dies”, had to rest on this day.

But why did He rest? He did not rest because He was tired and was in need of relaxation after six days (Isaiah 40:28) but to enjoy the completion and beauty of His handiwork on the created universe (Genesis 2:1-3) and set an order (ordinance) for His people to enter into physical and spiritual rest on this day, in order to take a delight in the finished work of God’s creation and redemption worship.  That, my friend, makes the Sunday a creation and redemption order to be continued, starting from the day it was created to eternity.

There are people today who argue that God’s people are no more bound by the fourth Commandment because Christ came to fulfill it— and the whole Law— for us so that we will not be condemned by not doing it. Yes, my friend, Christ indeed has fulfilled the law for us to satisfy the demands of the Law for perfection in the sight of God. As Paul beautifully puts it in Galatians 4:4-5, “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.” So Christ kept the law for us, to rescue us from God’s condemnation of us by the law, and trust in Christ alone for our justification.  The death of Christ on the cross, which was the satisfying of the demand of the Law, was never meant to make the moral law, including the fourth commandment, useless or irrelevant to today’s day of worship.

Remember what our Lord Jesus Christ himself said in the gospel, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the prophets, I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them”, which means not to tell you to ignore and treat them as non-existent, but to do them as the expression of your honor and worship to Him, your Creator and Redeemer. The phrase “Do not think” is highly important. It meant, do not assume or have your own human conviction that it is the case. Listen to what I have to say about why I fulfilled the Ten Commandments for you.  It was for the purpose of freeing you from their condemning power, and you should, not involuntarily, but gratefully embrace them to use them to present a living and pleasing worship to God the Father.

We see this being reiterated by our Lord Jesus Christ Himself when He said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” Did He then mean, “Show your love for me by keeping my commandments, but hey, about that fourth commandment on the Sabbath? No worries, you don’t need to be concerned or feel obligated about it because it’s no longer binding.” No, that was not what Jesus meant. But He meant, “Express the love that you have for me by keeping all the Commandments, and when you do all of them, including the one on public worship on Sunday, it will never be burdensome.”

“For this is the love of God, that we keep His Commandments. And his Commandments are not burdensome.” So you see my friend, to have a high regard for and acceptance of the Commandments of God but with the exclusion of the fourth Commandment, or with a low view of that one, would be a misunderstanding of the relationship between the gospel and Law. Because in the gospel, believers are united with Christ by faith as one body to declare the praise of God the Father in worship, and then live out their Christian life for the glory of God by loving and keeping His Commandments.

Now let me bring you back to the true aspect of Sunday as a day of Worship in our day or in the New Testament Church. To build upon what I started earlier, unlike the other six days of the week on which we are free to work, earn our living and enjoy all the things that the Lord has given us for ourselves through our leisure time and recreation in a way that honors God, Sunday is the personal property of God that the Lord gave to His people as a gift to enter into His spiritual rest and blessings through a day of worship. And this is not the teaching and call of the Old Testament only. But even the New Testament points us to this day as a creation and redemption order to be continued as God’s unchangeable law, that requires the observance of a day of rest for the purpose of worship and ministry in harmony with the teaching and practice of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is also known as the Lord of the Sabbath.

Keep this in mind, you and I are not Lords of the Sabbath. It is not us who do whatever we want to do on a Sunday, but the Lord Jesus Christ himself in our midst. As worshipers, we benefit from all that He does for us as the Lord and the owner of the day (Matthew 12:5-8).

In the New Testament we see the seventh day of the Week (Sabbath) continue as the first day of the week (the Lord’s Day) because it was the day on which Christ was raised from the dead to finish the work of our redemption (Acts 20:7, 1 Corinthians 16:2). That makes this day the order of creation and redemption, the day of rest. Not just rest, but rest in order to worship the risen Lord the whole day.

God’s rest on the seventh day is the pattern for our own Sunday (day of worship). Just like the Lord, we are to cease one day a week from our worldly labors and enjoyment to celebrate our accomplished redemption, as we all together, through a public worship of God’s people, look forward to its completed application in the eternal Sabbath (rest) that is waiting for us in heaven.

“So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fail by the same sort of disobedience.” (Hebrews 4: 9-11)

Beloved, what we do in the house of the Lord every Sunday is a foretaste of what is waiting for us in heaven. However, many struggle, and, heaven forbid, disobey the command of God to make it to church on a Sunday to worship God.  That’s why the writer of the Hebrews used the term “Let us therefore strive to enter that rest” because the Israelites were having a hard time in sacrificing their own pride and worldly pleasures to enter into the day of rest through Christ’s finished work of salvation in worship which was the foretaste of heaven.

The writer’s exhortation in Hebrews 10:25, “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”, was to show believers the strong connection between the Christian Sabbath here on earth and the one that we will have in heaven, in perfection and with Christ physically, and to urge all of us to continue growing into a worshiper of God, through a faithful attendance to the worship of God in the visible local Church and the benefit of the ordinary means of grace.

Well then, what about you, my friend? What do you think after reading this article from your Pastor’s caring heart? Is Sunday yours or God’s? Are you spending your Sunday on pursuits of God’s choosing or your own preference?  In the love of Christ and through this article, I would like to encourage you to reflect on your own personal understanding and conviction of the Lord’s Day, and how it should be sanctified by you for God’s worship for the purpose of doing what is pleasing to the Lord concerning this day.

In the love of the great Shepherd!

Your friend and Pastor!

Zecharias

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N.B After reading this article, if anyone of you would like to have more discussion with me on this subject, my Thursday counseling times are open for you all or we can pick another time that would work for both of us to meet and talk.  

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Have you ever wondered about why God commands His people to worship Him? Is it because God is needy? Does worship mean the gathering of God’s people to add to God’s glory and praise that He lacks or doesn’t have?  To ask the question directly and in a different way, is worship doing God a favor?

The answer, of course, is no.  According to the Scripture, God is a self-sufficient God (Acts 17:24-25) and does not stand in need of any creatures which He has made to derive any glory from them (Job 22:2-3)

Hence, when His people worship Him they don’t make Him more glorious than He is already. Man cannot make God glorious, for He is not capable of any additional glory because He is infinitely glorious in Himself. “If you are righteous what do you give to him? Or what does he receive from your hand?” Job 34:7.  Again, the answer is nothing, because God gets no advantage to Himself by the best works of men.  If that is true, why then does God demand worship from His people? If He doesn’t get any advantage from the worship of His people, then why worship? And what happens in worship?

First, God’s people worship God because God is worthy to be worshiped. The moment a person is saved by grace and through faith in Jesus Christ alone, the salvation (new spiritual life) that he receives in his life produces the worship of God inside of him.  In other words, the reason you have been saved is worship.  Wasn’t that what the Lord did after he delivered his people Israel from the hands of the Egyptians? Following their redemption, He commanded them to worship Him— and Him alone (Exodus 20:1-7).

It was the same in the New Testament. In 1 Peter 2:5 we read, “You yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” So you see, both the Old Testament and New Testament shows you that the reason why God saved you was to worship him. To leave (forsake) all other false gods, including yourself and your worldly desires, and worship him over all other things. The only difference was, in the Old Testament the people offered to Him bulls as a sacrifice of their worship, but now the sacrifice of worship of God’s people is the praise of their lips to God in Christ Jesus. We see that reality in Hebrews 13:15, where the writer said, “Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God that is the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.” Therefore we worship God because, as our Creator and Redeemer, He is worthy to be worshiped by us and also the Scripture commands us to worship him.

Let me share two portions from the New Testament that attest to this reality about worship.

1. John 4: 23-24, “But the hour is coming, and is now here, when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth”

This is what our Lord Jesus Christ told the Samaritan woman. And what was it that our Lord was instructing the woman about worship?  That God the Father seeks or desires people to worship Him, and the way He wants them to worship Him is not through the sacrifice of an animal or based on a special place, but in spirit and truth. That means through a true spiritual worship that excludes the worship of false gods, worshiping God in a wrong form not prescribed in His word, and with a wrong attitude of heart.  True spiritual acts of worship are acceptable in the sight of God and are done in the knowledge of what the Holy Spirit teaches about who God is and how He must be worshiped, and the truth of who Christ is (Christ being the way, the truth and the life).

2. Romans 12:1, “ I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship”

Here Paul teaches and exhorts believers not to offer an empty and superficial worship to God, but true and renewed inner spiritual worship which is not conformed to the things of this world.

Everything that I have been pointing you to so far makes worship the number one priority of a true follower of Christ.  Scripture calls for worship as the priority.  That’s why your salvation made you to a worshiper of God. Every Sunday that you join the gathering of God’s people for worship, you declare the glory and majesty of your heavenly Father to your own life and the world around you.

In worship God meets with you to bless you with His favor, protection and leading. But remember, your motive for worship should not be to get something from God, but to declare His glory over all things.  That’s why Jesus said, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33)  And what does seeking the kingdom first mean? It means to put God and all his spiritual blessings for you first and above all things in life.

My friend, is this what you do every Sunday?  Seeking the worship of God above all other things that you do from Monday to Saturday?  Is your heart’s desire every Lord’s day to call the Sabbath a delight (Isaiah 58:13), to be with God’s people morning and evening in the business of worshiping the Lord, and giving Him what is due to Him?

Your Pastor’s heart wants to encourage you read this article on the importance and priority of worship for prayer, reflection and action where action is needed.

In the fellowship of the good Shepherd!

Zecharias

Dear Redeemer family,

“When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream, then our mouth was filled with laughter and our tongue with shouts of joy; then they said among the nations, the Lord has done great things for them. The Lord has done great things for us, we are glad” Psalm 126:1-3

Are the words of the Psalmist written above part of your thinking, reflection and joyful response to the Lord this week?  Like the Psalmist in the words above, are you glad? Maybe some of you are saying, “Why should I be glad? Is there any specific reason why I should join the Psalmist in gladness this week?”

Yes there is!  This week we as a local Church, Redeemer Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Atlanta, GA, are commemorating the 50th anniversary of the formation and organization of our local Congregation as a Congregation of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church in the Presbytery of the South East.

As we celebrate this milestone in the life and history of Redeemer, we are also celebrating the loving, powerful and preserving work of God’s grace over the spiritual journey of Redeemer as a Church for the past 50 years.  As the history of the Apostolic Church and all the Churches that follows its footsteps would confirm to us, the spiritual pilgrimage of Christ’s Church often involves trials and tribulations for the honor of the name of Christ and the sanctification and strengthening of the saints in it. In the past 50 years, the Lord has been pleased to accomplish many good things through the ministry and testimony of Redeemer in Atlanta area and Presbytery level. But along with those joyous and fruitful days, there were those days and times of hardship and spiritual turbulence that the Church went through. Nevertheless, as you as the body of Christ went through the fiery trials which shook your existence as the Church, the Lord protected and preserved you and your unity as members of Christ’s body through His Word and Spirit. As the Lord through his Prophet Isaiah promised you in Isaiah 43:2, “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and through the rivers, they shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you”, He indeed was with you all individually and as a Church. He is indeed a Covenant-keeping God and for that he must be honored and celebrated by His people.

For the Psalmist in Psalm 126:1-3, the reason for his celebration and gladness was the hand of His sovereign God that delivered him and the people of Israel from their sins and was still saving and strengthening them through their strenuous Christian pilgrimage.  It was for that gracious and loving heart and hand of God that the Psalmist suspended other things he was doing, or planning to do, to direct his mind and heart to celebrate the goodness of God on his own life on the Assembly of God’s people.

Would you do the same thing this weekend as we all are joining our hearts as a Congregation to celebrate the hand and love of God which created us as a Church and preserved us thus far through good and rocky times to continue as a Church?

Be here at Redeemer, and with your fellow sojourners in it this weekend, as we will acknowledge and celebrate the lovingkindness of God on the occasion of the 50th Anniversary of Redeemer OPC!

Happy anniversary and looking forward to celebrate with you all!

In the love of Christ!

Zecharias

THE MERCHANT TEACHES US TO PUT OFF ALL ELSE SO THAT WE MIGHT OBTAIN THIS ONE PEARL OF GREAT PRICE
“Who…went and sold all that he had, and bought it.”

In the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord tells us that if our eye offends us pluck it out. While he is not literally saying to remove our eye that sins, so Jesus is not literally telling us to sell everything we have, leave all worldly possessions to others and take him. We know this from many other portions in Scripture – “If any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.” (I Timothy 5:8).

But just as there is a very real spiritual truth in the Sermon on the Mount so the meaning here is very truly spiritual and may in fact become physical if the Lord wills. We must, like Paul, count all things as loss if we are to gain Christ. Christ is not received partially with the things of the world. We cannot have God and mammon. We cannot hold on to the pearl of great price and the pearls of low price hoping that the combined value will get us something greater. Jesus Christ shares his glory and honor and riches with no one else. Our hopes, joys, love, strength, peace, and refuge must be in Christ alone and Him crucified, dead, risen, and ascended up into heaven. The merchant in this parable understood this clearly. All in the Kingdom of Heaven have put off all else and obtained this one pearl.

My friends, if you put all aside to gain Christ, your treasure is very great. It will never be taken away, and you will never find anything greater. If you do not gain Christ, the pearl of great price, though you have the whole world it is already lost. It is in the present good for nothing. For if you die and go to hell what good is anything now? But if you have Christ today, you shall have Him always, He will be your guide from this life through death and to eternal life. For this is Eternal life, to know God the Father and Jesus Christ whom He hath sent. Put all else aside, do not rest, do not stop, do not be content until you have Christ, are found in Him, and have in Him life Eternal. When the merchant found Christ, the pearl of great price, he sold all and bought the pearl. He is no fool who sells that which he cannot keep to buy that which he cannot lose. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.

“Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.”

Ben Stahl, Elder

THE MERCHANT’S EXCHANGE RESULTED IN MORE RICHES AND TREASURE FOR HIMSELF THAN WE CAN EVER FULLY COMPREHEND

Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.

God speaks to us in ways that we can understand. He speaks here of a man buying Christ. It can be understood as losing all for the sake of gaining Christ. One thing the rich man lacked, to sell all his goods, give it to the poor, and follow Christ. This was a commandment too high for the rich man for he was very rich. He would not follow Christ on account of His riches. The Christian is one who has parted, can part, will part, counts himself as parting from all earthly things to gain the heavenly. And if this can be considered an exchange, that which the merchant receives is a treasure and riches more than can ever be comprehended.

In the fall of 2017, the corporation well known to us as Amazon reported its revenues and profits for the quarter to investors. The next day, the stock price of Amazon rose more than $120 per share. This is when Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, is said to have made more than $6 Billion. He is one the merchants of the world look to as a model of success. They too want to make their billions like Jeff.

Mr. Bezos’ wealth can be measured. While he has much money, his wealth is quantifiable. You can add up his houses, stock, cash, and all his assets, subtract his liabilities, and determine his economic value.

In contrast, the poor looking Christian in the Kingdom of Heaven who drives a typical car, eats out but rarely, and must drive long distances rather than flying, has treasure that is so great it cannot be qualified. For how can you quantify that which cannot be purchased? How can you quantify that which is eternal? How can you quantify a gift that gives no end in satisfaction? The merchant sacrifices all in this life to gain all in Christ Jesus. What an exchange. What riches for the merchant!

My friend, at the end of II Corinthians 5, the Lord says that Jesus has been made sin for us. Jesus who knew no sin has been made sin for us so that we who knew nothing but sin might be made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. Has there ever been exchange like this? He who is holy, harmless, and undefiled took upon Himself all of the Christian’s sins, paid for those sins, suffered death for these sins, and gave to worthless sinners His righteousness of infinite value. Are you partaker of this great exchange my friend? You who have already believed? Do you see the treasures you have in your pearl? Fret not at the wealthy of the world – you are of far more worth than one of them – for you have that which is eternal. That which they have shall soon leave them.

Ben Stahl, Elder

THE MERCHANT FOUND A PEARL OF GREAT OBJECTIVE VALUE
Though the world hates it and denies it, ridicules and mocks it, nevertheless, the pearl is of greatest value.

“Who, when he had found one pearl of great price…”

It is a modern phenomenon to interpret that which we read by the feelings that the words bring to our minds. The impact of this in relation to the Bible in particular is that a generation is coming to age with an exceptionally low view of God’s Word. It is not the solid rock on which we stand, and which addresses all areas of faith and life, but rather it is the shifting sand of man’s feelings that change from day to day. It has become for many a mystery book that changes whenever it is opened depending on the life experiences we have had that hour and the life experiences with those playing the game with us.

However, this poor treatment of the Scriptures does not in fact change what they actually are – the unchanging Words of the unchanging God. Though they may be despised, rejected, mocked, burned, and abused, the Word of the Lord shall stand forever and will still be used of the Spirit to pierce the hearts of men and lead to Salvation.

The Merchant in our parable has found a pearl of great value. The value however, is not a value that he feels should be applied to it. Jesus does not, say, when “he found a pearl that felt to him as if it should have great value…” Jesus says, “he had found one pearl of great price…” The value was an objective reality. The reality was not derived by the man’s emotions. It was objective due to the perfection of the Pearl itself. Because the pearl was what it was the value was very great. The merchant and his feelings had no impact on the value of the pearl.

Foolish men might pass by the pearl, see it even, touch it, hold it, consider it, ponder it, be offered it, and reject it. And yet, the pearl is still of great price.

Wicked men may mock the pearl, hate the pearl, seek to destroy the pearl, deny it is of any worth, and harm those who have it, yet the value of the pearl is in no wise diminished. The value of that which is perfect. The value of knowing God and eternal life in Jesus Christ is not derived by those who would know Him or those who would reject Him. The value of God is intrinsic. The value of God is an objective truth. Who is a god like our God? There is no God: I know not any. God is the Lord and there is none else. He formed the light and created darkness: He makes peace and creates evil. The Lord does all these things. He is a just God and a Savior and there is none beside me. (Excerpts from Isaiah 44-45)

My friends, this Jesus Christ who the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments bear witness is of great value in and of Himself. There is no other like Him. He is the Savior. And he tells us to look unto Him and be saved, for He is God and there is none else.

Will you listen to God today who calls you to look to Him in faith or will you look to the lost and dying world who tells you to reject the one and only God? Look to Him. His worth is objective; His glory beyond all comprehension. The merchant cared little what others thought about his find. Will you, like the merchant, take hold of Christ today? Or will you, like the fool, take hold of what the wicked say to value. Look to Christ and live, dear friend!

Ben Stahl, Elder

THE MERCHANT WAS SATISFIED WITH THIS PEARL FOR THERE WAS NOTHING ELSE THAT WOULD EVER SATISFY

“Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.”

Why is it that the Merchant does not keep looking for a better pearl? He found one perfect pearl of great price but why not keep looking? Perhaps he could find a larger perfect pearl. Or a perfect pearl that shared its glory with its owner? One of the dictionary definitions for “perfect” is “excellent or complete beyond practical or theoretical improvement.” The merchant is satisfied with the Pearl he has found because He knows with certainty that there will never be anything ever found afterwards that could improve upon the pearl of great price which he has acquired.

“Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined. (Psalm 50:2)”

“As for God, his way is perfect: the Word of the Lord is tried: he is a buckler to all those that trust in Him. (Psalm 18:30)”

The Lord Jesus Christ, our God, is without possible improvement. There is none greater than Him for all the Gods of the worlds are idols but He made the Heavens and the Earth. Power and majesty are before Him. Strength and beauty are at His right hand. Justice and Judgment are the habitation of His throne. Mercy and truth are His paths.

In the splendor, majesty, fear, and awe of such perfection, the Merchant has found satisfaction and peace in the Prince of Peace. There is none else that can or will ever satisfy the merchant for there is not event theoretical improvement of the perfect Pearl that He has found. When that which is perfect is found, than that which is imperfect shall be done away (I Cor. 13).

My friends, when Simeon beheld the Lord Jesus Christ in Jerusalem he did not put him down and said, ah well, I will look for another. No, my friends, Simeon acknowledged that now he could depart from this world in peace, for his eyes had seen God’s salvation. He did not need to see another. Simeon was satisfied with Jesus Christ for He was perfect. Will you this day, who have had a portrait of perfection laid out before you, respond as the Pharisees did saying, “Is this the Messiah or should we look for another?” Or will you rather, like Peter, say of Jesus, thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God?