The Anointed One

THE ANOINTED ONE

Read Isaiah 61:1-3

Read Isaiah 61:1-3

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me. Isaiah 61:1

The last of the Songs of the Servant is the greatest of all, in my opinion. I say this because it is the only one quoted by the lips of Jesus Himself. When Christ launched into His public ministry, He first preached in His home synagogue in Nazareth. The text He chose, the text for the synagogue reading of the day, was Isaiah 61:1-3. You can read about this in Luke 4:14-30.

This final song of the set of five presents Jesus as both the “anointed” (i.e., the Messiah; Christ) and as a preacher of the Gospel. Puritan Thomas Goodwin once commented: “God had only one Son, and He made Him to be a preacher.” Our anticlerical attitudes may buck at this truth, but it is hard to argue with Christ’s own assessment of His ministry, mission and message in life. Immediately after the sermon in the synagogue, Jesus clarified His calling for us:

And when it was day, he departed and went into a desolate place. And the people sought him and came to him, and would have kept him from leaving them, but he said to them, “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well; for I was sent for this purpose.” (Luke 4:42-43)

In this passage, Christ sets forth the three facets of Gospel ministry. We see them in the three sets of couplets, each containing two infinitive verbs (i.e., two statements each beginning with the word “to”). These are the three obligations of Gospel preaching.

First, we are to preach the forgiveness of sins (61:1), in particular “to bring good news to the poor” and also “to bind up the brokenhearted.” The parallelism of the Hebrew poetry here explains what Christ means. Those poor––both in spirit and in society––are the brokenhearted of the earth. These are the people spoken about in Christ’s Beatitudes (Matthew 5:3-11). These folks always respond more eagerly to the Gospel than do the healthy, the wealthy and the socially upscale. Perhaps we evangelicals are going after the wrong crowd––the affluent and comfortable suburbanite. Jesus trafficked among the poor: prostitutes, lepers, tax gatherers, Roman officials and mercenaries—the uncouth, unclean and uncool.

Second, we must preach the freedom from sorrow (61:2)––“to proclaim liberty to the captives” and “to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.” Jesus has in mind here the Year of Jubilee (Leviticus 25:8-12). This was a 50^th year (a Pentecost) in which all debts were cancelled, all slaves were set free and all land was given a rest. It was a time of favor. Paul alludes to this when he speaks about Gospel mission: Please read 2 Cor. 6:1-2.

This favorable time of the Gospel dispensation offers us freedom from sin: its penalty, power, pollution, patterns, and finally, its presence (Galatians 5:1, 13). There is a joy that should mark Gospel proclamation––a spiritual jubilee!

Third, we are duty bound to preach the “foundation of social order” (61:2b-3). How? By preaching “to comfort all who mourn” and “to grant to those who mourn…the oil of gladness.” The Gospel does have social implications because God’s redemptive work forms the foundation for a new social order—a Gospel society. We can see this in the way the Gospel changed the West while the rest slept in misery’s darkness. We see it now as the Third World is being transformed by the Gospel, and as the New World (The City of God) appears on the horizon.

The Gospel is glorious and the Gospeller—Jesus Christ—is the Hero of it all! Slowly, but surely, He is completing His mission. Through the Spirit in the Church, He is “preach(ing) the good news of the Kingdom of God to the other towns” of the earth. Praise God the Father and Author of the Gospel, God the Son and Preacher of the Gospel, God the Spirit and Enabler of the Gospel for the new world order they are bringing about through their Good News—a new forgiveness, a new freedom and a new foundation for a better world!

PRAYING FOR THE PCA

CEP: Given the difficult financial challenges, pray for wisdom in CEP in making decisions regarding training and resources.

CC: Pray for the leaders of the Enrollment Management division: Rodney Miller, Dean of Records; Brad Voyles, Dean of Students; Brenda Rapier, Financial Aid Director; Roy Heintz, Athletic Director; Tom Schreiner, Director of Auxiliary Services.

MNA: Pray that God will encourage first generation Korean churches to engage in more second generation multiethnic church planting. Pray also for Korean Ministries Coordinator Henry Koh, as he works in leadership development with the second generation leaders.

PCAF: Pray that God will provide for the PCA Foundation’s own operational financial needs for 2009.

RH: Pray that the Lord will pour out His Spirit with such a blessing upon Ridge Haven and the PCA that there will not be room enough to contain it. This includes revival, conversions and new levels of commitment, faithfulness and service that are worthy of the price that has secured our justification, sanctification and glorification.

The Suffering Servant

THE SUFFERING SERVANT

Read Isaiah 52:13-53:12

Read Isaiah 52:13-53:12

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Isaiah 53:4

The fourth Song of the Servant is the one from which the whole group receives its title: Songs of the Suffering Servant. In each of the songs, there is a progressive revelation of the Servant’s suffering that climaxes in the fourth (and what many believe to be the last) Song of the Servant. This passage (Isaiah 52:13-53:12) is considered one of the most magnificent chapters in all the Bible. Martin Luther wrote that this passage “ought to be written on parchment of gold and lettered in diamonds,” and then memorized by every Christian. The Puritan Thomas Manton said that this passage “may rather be called the Gospel than prophecy.”

The passage is wonderfully constructed like a “sandwich.” It comprises five stanzas: 1 and 5 speak of Christ’s glory; 2, 3 and 4 describe Christ’s suffering. Hence the “sandwich” structure of Glory—Suffering—Glory. Or, better yet, Heaven—the Cross— Heaven again.

First, Isaiah tells us about the prosperity of the Messiah. Not apparent to all (v. 14) but true nevertheless, this suffering servant will baptize (“sprinkle”) many nations. The Hebrew could also read “startle” the kings of the nations. Why? Because the unassuming suffering servant would turn out to be the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

But for a season, it would look quite the contrary (53:1-9). He would come from a very unspectacular background: carpenter’s home, Nazareth, poor folks, common stock. “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (John 1:46). Then, he would be homely, even unattractive. He would not fit the picture in our minds of the conquering hero. As much as a handsome ladies’ man and stud that David was, this Son of David would be the opposite. Third, Jesus would not be esteemed or honored among the Who’s Who of society. He was not held in high regard by most men. He would suffer, almost like a criminal. And He would not display any of the political power, personal charisma or privileged authority you’d expect in a Messiah. In fact, he’d be like a lamb led to slaughter. His weakness in the hour of testing would be…well frankly, quite an embarrassment to his family and disappointment to his followers.

But, to everyone’s surprise, the portion of his reward from God would be incredible (53:10-12)! He will be numbered among the great and enjoy the spoils of God’s warfare. In fact, he will be exalted above every great name. His name will become the name!

Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Phil 2:9-11)

This is Isaiah’s description of “the way of the cross.” This is the way of salvation. And what Christ saves us by He saves us to. His atoning life of sacrificial service calls us to a life of that same suffering, sacrifice and service. The privilege of being redeemed is the honor of serving Christ.

I remember when I was a young military officer, a Colonel said to me once: “Ross, a career in the Army can be explained this way: a lifetime of thankless service sandwiched between the glory of commission and retirement.” That is one of the reasons I chose to exit the Army after two years of service. But, lo and behold, I have entered another warfare, as an officer in another army. Now, my life is a life of thankless service sandwiched between justification and glorification. But what a glorious life it is! It is the life of my Master. And, in the end, the benefits are worth the difficulty…glory!

PRAYING FOR THE PCA

AC: Give thanks to the Lord for the PCA and for the vision and calling He has given to so many who serve the Lord through the Committees and Agencies of the church.

CTS: Pray that God will provide funds to cover all of Covenant Seminary’s operating expenses, student scholarships and other needs, so that this ministry may continue to be productive—by His grace and for His glory. (The Seminary’s fiscal year ends on June 30, 2009.)

MTW: Praise God for the recent graduation of over 20 church planters and evangelists serving in South East Asia, who have completed our theological training program over the past three years. Pray that the Lord will protect and sustain them as they encounter much discouragement, opposition and trials. Pray also that their ministries will bear much fruit for the Kingdom.

RUM: RUF seeks to reach students for Christ and to equip them to serve. The Lord is gracious in allowing his children to advance the Kingdom. Pray that this ministry will be kept humble and dependent on the Holy Spirit. Pray that in all decisions and actions, the Gospel of Jesus Christ will be in-working and out-flowing.

RBI: RBI’s purpose is to help PCA employees achieve financial security. Pray that the staff will stay focused on the Core Values and that the Strategic Plan will help RBI to better serve the denominational needs.

Qualified To Redeem

QUALIFIED TO REDEEM

Read Isaiah 50:4-9

Read Isaiah 50:4-9

The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are taught. Isaiah 50:4

In this third Song of the Servant, Jesus is portrayed as the Great Disciple. In fact, this is how the New American Standard Bible translates verse 1 of this song: “The Lord God has given me the tongue of disciples.” And this little song shows us the qualifications necessary for one to be the Redeemer of mankind. If we were advertising for the job of Savior, what would we be looking for? God tells us in this second autobiographical Servant Song.

First, the Servant must possess a humble mindset. Please read Isaiah 50:4-5.

He must be characterized by four marks of a true disciple. First, he must be a learner, willing to model his life after God’s Word and Will. Second, he must be an encourager; one who uses words not as weapons but as balm for other weary souls. Third, the Servant must be a teachable man willing to change, grow and be shaped by One wiser than he. That is, he must be a good listener. Fourth, obedience must be the hallmark of the servant’s life. For this is always the preeminent qualification of disciples: They do what the Master commands. Obedience marks discipleship as genuine.

Second, the servant must possess a resolute spirit. He cannot give up if things get rough. He cannot quit if suffering results from discipleship. Please read Isaiah 50:6-7.

There appears here a reference to Christ’s passive and active obedience. Verse 6 points to the passive courage of Jesus Christ and His surrender to the passion of His atonement. They graphically predict the humiliating abuse Jesus forebears in Pontius Pilate’s palace. Verse 7 points to Christ’s active pursuit of the cross. Isaiah speaks of the Servant who would “set [his] face like flint” in doing God’s Will. Luke tells us that Jesus “set his face to go to Jerusalem” (Luke 9:51). Servants of God are resolute in purpose: They will do God’s Will, come what may.

Thirdly, the Servant must possess a clear conscience. He is unafraid to stand before both God and men and be judged. Please read Isaiah 50:8-9.

This means that Christ (and Christians) are both accountable to others while ultimately judged by God. The test of time will prove the sincerity and the service of a servant of God (v. 9). Paul would put this truth before us in different words. Please read 1 Cor. 4:1-5.

Only the Gospel can transform selfish people into servants of Christ. Its power changes their hearts and their lives: The proud become humble, the insecure become teachable, words are no longer used as self-defensive weapons but to give grace to others, cowardliness is overcome by courage, a staying power appears where before we quit too easily, and, perhaps greatest of all, we are conscientious toward others but no longer slaves to their approval. Our consciences rest with God in Christ.

Servants are not born; they are made. And it is the grace of God that does the reno-vation––sinner to servant. “Behold, the Lord God helps me” (v. 9). Indeed He does. He saves us, and He saves us to serve Him.

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. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of him

self more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each

according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. (Romans 12:1-3)

PRAYING FOR THE PCA

CEP: Pray for CEP to be effective and missional in communicating the Kingdom perspective throughout all of the training and resources.

CC: Please pray for our international students, missionary kids and all diversity studentswho often face cultural challenges in their transition. Pray that Covenant, and especially those who work closely with the Cultural Diversity Program, will provide an environment that is open and comfortable, while celebrating and mirroring the varied texture of the world God has created. Pray that students can build relationships, gain support and encouragement, and experience true fellowship which looks out for one another while fully engaging and serving in the greater Covenant and Chattanooga communities.

MNA: Pray for Network of Portuguese Speaking Churches Coordinator Renato Bernardes, and for the churches in the network. Pray that the network will be strong in advancing God’s Kingdom through planting churches with a broad multicultural vision. Pray also that plans for their annual gathering in August will result in an event that is a great encouragement and time of equipping for the participating churches.

PCAF: Pray that God will be glorified in the day-to-day work and activity of the PCA Foundation and that the staff would be encouraged by their calling and be effective in ministry.

RH: Pray for increasing opportunities to serve individuals, families, PCA congregations, presbyteries, committees and agencies, including additional RUF groups, CEP, WIC, youth and children’s ministries, MNA, and MTW regional retreats and training opportunities.

Christ’s Autobiographical Song

CHRIST’S AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SONG

Read Isaiah 49:1-6

Read Isaiah 49:1-6

“But I said, ‘I have labored in vain.’” Isaiah 49:4

The second Song of the Servant is different from the first one. It is autobiographi-cal––the Servant speaks for Himself and about Himself. H. C. Leopold comments, “Some have suggested that the Servant, whoever he may be, is in reality telling the story of his life (Volz). Our approach to the problem of identity of the Servant is that he is in the last analysis none less than the Messiah”³⁰ I agree, and so in Isaiah 49:1-6, Jesus talks about the three phases of His life

His years of solitude (49:1-2)

His years of suffering (49:3-4)

His years of significance (49:5-6)

In His youth, adolescence and young adulthood, Jesus Christ, the Servant, was “hidden” by God from the world, in order that He might develop into the Savior of mankind (49:1-2). These hidden years of Christ are alluded to by only five verses in the Gospels: Luke 3:39-40 and Matthew 2:23 and 2:51-52. These were years of financial poverty, social obscurity, political oppression, sorrows of life in a fallen world and sinful family, and a myriad of human disappointments. Jesus suffered in all things like us. But these were also the years of self discovery and development, when Jesus slowly but surely came to grasp the full measure of His Messianic calling. In Luke, chapter 2, when Jesus visits the Temple in Jerusalem for His bar mitzvah, He comes to realize more fully his atoning life. When He sees the endless sacrifices and the river of lamb’s blood that flows from the altar of God, He realizes that He is the Lamb of God who will take away the sin of the world.

This forms the second part of this second Servant Song: The Years of Suffering (49:3-4). The sadness of these years almost overwhelms the Servant. He begins to muse: “has it been for nothing that I endured all I did to reconcile God and His people?” “No!” He answers. First of all, in the Suffering Servant, God is glorified (49:3). Luther was right. God is never more glorious than when He is in Christ dying on the cross to reconcile and redeem the elect. As well, “justice” is due the Servant. There is that ever-popular prophetic word mishpat; the idea of God’s perfect order installed on earth. (“Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”) God cannot let His faithful servant go unrewarded.

Thus, the third part of the song: The future significance of the Servant’s life and mission (49:5-6). God “honors” Christ. His life will impact mankind more than any other person in human history, and His mission of suffering will transform the world. He will restore the people of God to divine favor. He will bring an end to all false religion. He will gather the elect together in the Church. He will bring the nations to salvation. And He will restore creation to its intended end…glory!

The One who suffers for God will be glorified by God. First the cradle, then the cross, and finally the crown. Such is the way of God, the way of the cross, the way of the Gospel life. We who suffer now will rejoice in the Kingdom yet to come. Christ knows our sorrows and sufferings; He has gone through them Himself. His promise to us is sure: “Suffer now for My Father; share My glory in the future…with Me.” The Suffering Servant offers hope to all God’s servants.

PRAYING FOR THE PCA

AC: Ask the Father, by His gracious Spirit, to enable the staff of the Stated Clerk’s Office to serve the Church in wisdom and godliness as they handle a wide variety of needs and requests by PCA members and others. We need the wisdom and fruit of the Holy Spirit to be able to serve his people.

CTS: Pray for Brad Anderson, Covenant Seminary’s vice president for advancement, as he and his staff nurture relationships with Seminary friends and supporters, recruit promising new students to our pastoral training program, and seek new ways to walk beside and support our alumni as they engage in ministry.

MTW: Pray for strong missionary marriages, families and spiritual lives.

RUM: Much of the summer is spent equipping the staff of RUF. Please pray for the various training sessions held during the summer months. Pray that this time of learning and fellowship will be centered on the Gospel and leave the staff encouraged and strengthened. Pray that the instructors will be well prepared and able to communicate the goals and philosophy of ministry to the new staff members.

RBI: Gary Campbell, Mark Melendez and Harry Cooksey travel to Presbyteries, churches, conferences and schools to make presentations to those in leadership positions, as well as church and organization employees. Pray for traveling mercies and effective communication of PCA employee benefit plans. Also pray that those opportunities will continue to open.

The Servant’s Justice

THE SERVANT’S JUSTICE

Read Isaiah 41:21-42:4

Read Isaiah 41:21-42:4

Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights.

Isaiah 42:1

There are five wonderful poems in the Book of Isaiah that are known as “The Songs of the Servant.” They were first named as such by Bernhard Duhm in 1892. Duhm designated four servant songs: 42:1-4; 49:1-6; 50:4-9 and, the most famous, 52:13-53:12. Many other Bible scholars see a fifth servant song in Isaiah 61:1-3. There are four “Canticles of Christ” in Luke: the Magnificat by Mary, the Benedictus by Zecharias, the Gloria in Excelsis by the Angels, and the Nunc Dimittis by Simeon; all of them foretelling the life of Jesus Christ. So too, there is a similar set of songs in Isaiah; all of them predict the Messianic ministry of Jesus Christ, God’s Servant.

Service to God is the theme of Isaiah. Both Israel and a mysterious “Suffering Servant” are seen throughout Isaiah’s message as “the Lord’s Servant.” We know this mysterious servant to be Jesus Christ. We know this because both the Gospels and the Apostolic writings reference these servant songs in Isaiah as prophecies that point to Jesus Christ and His redemptive mission.

This week we will look at these five Songs of the Servant to close out our 50 Days of Prayer. It seems that Israel was not a very good servant of God, despite being called “My servant” by God 14 times in Isaiah. Service to God is measured by three things: faith, obedience and righteous living. Israel failed on all three counts. What the people of God needed was one who would come, fulfill their duty to God for them, and set before them the model of a servant life. This is what Jesus Christ did. And these servant songs are quoted by Matthew, Luke and John to point to Jesus Christ. The essence of Christ’s life and ministry was that of service. This Jesus clearly states: “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).

In the first of these Songs of the Servant (Isaiah 42:1-4) the nature of the Servant’s life and ministry is set forth; it will be a life of “justice” (mishpat), a word used three times in the four verses and three sentences that make up this song. “Justice” (mishpat) carries with it the root meaning of “to govern” (shapat). This first Servant Song explains the three facets of Christ’s gracious government. The three basic meanings of mishpat have to do with the three functions of any good and balanced government: judicial, legislative and executive.

First, the Servant will render for God a just decision in a court case brought by God Himself against Israel. That case is set out in Isaiah 41:21-29: Israel worships false gods (idols), and they are guilty for doing so. The Servant (Christ) will render for God the judicial settlement that no god but God is real, and that the only way to know this true God is to behold Him in His Son, Jesus Christ (Isaiah 42:1). This is exactly what Jesus told us Himself: “And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3).

Secondly, the Servant will reveal God the King’s law (42:2, 3). His legislative duty is to show forth God’s proclamation (His euangelion or good news; a decree of a king) in Himself. As the Word made flesh (John 1:1-18) Jesus reveals God’s new law: the Gospel. This is first and foremost in Jesus’ earthly ministry (See Mark 1:14-15).

Thirdly, His executive function will establish a just order, a God-ordained government, known as the Kingdom of God. This is the third meaning of mishpat: a society under righteous and just law and order (42:4). The very ends of the earth (“the coastland”) wait for this government to make right all that is wrong and do justice where injustice has reigned for millennia. Of course, this pressing forth of the Kingdom of God and its Gospel government is the very essence of Gospel missions (Matthew 24:15). Edward J. Young comments on this law that changes the world:

This law refers to this servant’s teaching or doctrine which the servant will give

to the world. The content of this teaching is simply the Gospel itself.²⁹

This first Song of the Servant is a restatement of a wonderful promise given earlier. Please read Isaiah 9:6-7.

In a year when a new president takes office––one whose election has left America with mixed feelings about “the time for change”––it is comforting to know that all three branches of God’s government––judicial, legislative and executive––are in the competent hands of The Servant: Jesus Christ the Lord.

PRAYING FOR THE PCA

CEP: Pray for CEP staff and regional trainers as they work with local church leaders in equipping them with a kingdom framework for disciple making.

CC: Please pray for students, faculty and staff as they travel off-campus to locations throughout the world for study abroad and missions opportunities, including Break on Impact missions trips, May Term study abroad programs, and summer internships. Pray that they will learn to appreciate a new culture and be able to navigate cultural barriers. Pray that they will graciously interact with their hosts and share the good news of the Gospel with those they meet.

MNA: Pray for Dony St. Germain, Haitian Ministries Coordinator, for wisdom and strength as he oversees the planting of healthy, worshipping, and evangelizing Haitian churches both in the United Sates and Haiti. Pray also that the various short term opportunities available in Miami will attract many volunteers and be a blessing to the community.

PCAF: Pray for the men who will serve on the PCA Foundation’s Committee of Commissioners, that they will have a heart for and an understanding of the work and services necessary to help financially support God’s Kingdom, and that they will make wise and proper decisions regarding business referred to General Assembly.

RH: Pray for Administrative Assistant Christy Mitchell, as her responsibilities include helping the Guest Services Manager, the Ministry Director and the Executive Committee.

In Heavenly Places

IN HEAVENLY PLACES

Read Daniel 10:1-21

Read Daniel 10:1-21

The prince of Persia withstood me for twenty-one days. Daniel 10:13

In his letter to the Church in Ephesus, the Apostle Paul informs the saints about the reality of spiritual warfare and the nature of the opposition the Church and each Christian faces:

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. (Eph. 6:10-12)

These spiritual forces in the heavenly places (i.e., the spiritual realm of angels and the invisible but real dimension of the cosmos) wage a war against the Kingdom of God on several fronts. They harass and oppress individual believers, they attempt to deceive and discourage the Church and they lead astray the nations of the earth.

Angelology (the study of angels) has long debated over whether or not believers have assigned to each of them a “guardian angel.” Historically, the Church has believed this is so. I hold that view. We know that Churches have angels assigned to guard and preserve them. These angels are mentioned in Revelation 2 and 3. The word “messenger” in most English texts is really the Greek word angelos, rendered either “angel” or “messenger.” The English Standard Version translates it literally (“angel”), and is one of the few English translations unafraid to render the Greek in that manner.

In Daniel 10, we meet an even more startling revelation about angels. It appears that powerful angels––both holy and fallen––are assigned to nations by God to preserve them and by Satan to pervert them. In a massive vision that spreads from Daniel 10:1 to the end of the book, the prophet learns that “the prince of Persia” grappled with a heavenly messenger until Michael, the archangel, who is also the guardian of Israel (12:1), came to break the stalemate and release the messenger to speak to Daniel (10:10-14).

The Scripture seems to allude to some order of rank, power and glory among the angels. Lucifer, the devil and Satan, was a cherub in the angelic ranks, the “Son of the Dawn” or the “Day Star,” as he is called in Isaiah 14:12. Michael, the archangel, is the commander of the heavenly ranks of angels (Revelation 12:7). Then came the cherubim to carry the throne of God; followed by the seraphim to guard the throne of God; then “rulers” (principalities), “authorities” (powers) and “cosmic powers” (forces) seen in Ephesians 3:10 and 6:12. Last in line would likely be the “messengers” (like Gabriel and the “man” of Daniel 10), the “angels of the churches” (Revelation 2 and 3), and “guardian angels” especially of children, and the ones who aid us unseen or unknown (Hebrews 13:2).

Here is the sobering reality of life: As we pray, worship, work, witness and go about our daily lives as God’s people in the world, angelic forces fight all around us––from the White House, to your house of worship, to the nursery in your home. God’s heavenly forces are there to protect and preserve you, to strengthen and encourage you, and to push forward the Kingdom of God against evil’s spiritual forces.

The first Psalm in the Bible (Exodus 15) calls God “a Warrior” (in the ESV “a man of war;” Ex. 15:3). And with the Lord of Hosts (armies) goes forth the legions of angels from Michael to the guardian of the crib. We are not in this alone. Greater is He who is in us than he who is in the world, and great is His army of heavenly watchers He sends to our aid. Praise the Lord for our powerful friends in heavenly places!

PRAYING FOR THE PCA

AC: Pray for the Administrative Committee office staff: Bob Fiol, Assistant to the Stated Clerk; Angela Nantz, Operations Manager; Sherry Eschenberg, Meeting Planner; Priscilla Lowrey, Documents manager; Susan Cullen; Monica Johnston; Peggy Little; Ashley Cloud; Carla Schwartz; and Jeanne Dunham. Ask that in the day-to-day work of the Stated Clerk’s office each will demonstrate the mind of Christ.

CTS: Remember Covenant Seminary graduates serving as missionaries and church planters around the globe, especially those in areas that are actively hostile to Christianity, and pray that they will reflect the character of Christ in all they do, drawing many to eternal life in Him.

MTW: Pray that God will continue to bless and protect new believers, protect them from false teaching and cultural pressures, give them courage in persecution and bring them to maturity as disciples

RUM: Please pray for the RUF groups that continue holding meetings during the summer months. Pray that this unique opportunity to minister will be a time of fellowship and learning for those who remain on campus.

RBI: A number of our PCA churches have limited financial resources for providing benefits for their pastors and staff. Please pray that these congregations may be able to adequately supply their pastor’s compensation and benefits, especially during the difficult economic times.

A Prayer For Revival

A PRAYER FOR REVIVAL

Read Daniel 9:1-19

Read Daniel 9:1-19

We have sinned and done wrong, and acted wickedly and rebelled. Daniel 9:5

There are many prayers for revival in the Old Testament; prayers by Solomon, Ezra, Nehemiah, Habakkuk, the Sons of Korah and others. But no prayer for revival is as glorious as Daniel’s prayer in Daniel 9:1-19. The old prophet, now in his eighties, is in Babylon in 539 B.C., during the inauguration of a new administration: the rule of Persia under Darius the Mede (Cyrus). Daniel realizes that Jeremiah’s prophecy that had shaped the life of him and his three companions (now probably all dead) was about to be fulfilled. Please read Jeremiah 29:10-14.

So Daniel does what God said he should do: He seeks God’s face in earnest prayer for his own people. What is so wonderfully unique about Daniel’s prayer is the way he shapes his thoughts. He is able to summarize the seventy years of captivity under four grand thoughts.

First, Daniel states that it was the sin and rebellion of God’s people that caused this traumatic captivity. In particular, the people refused to listen to God’s prophets again and again. Their rejection of God’s word became their national sin.

Please notice that Daniel prays in the first person plural: “We” have sinned, done wrong, rebelled, acted wickedly and broken the covenant. Daniel includes himself in that “we.” He personally takes responsibility for the corporate sins of his ancestors: “for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers” (7:16). Daniel does not stand apart from his nation’s sins.

Second, Daniel acknowledges that God has ever and always been faithful to His Covenant. His love, mercy and loyalty to Israel are unquestioned. The Covenant had been broken by the Church but never abrogated by the Church’s God. God is faithful even when His people are not.

Third, Daniel remembers Deuteronomy 28-30 and Moses’ warnings that the Covenant carried with it both blessings and curses. The lawgiver had told the people that someday they would fall to ruin because they spurned the Covenant of Grace. Daniel admits that the people of God got what they deserved. They had been forewarned.

Fourth, Daniel asks God to forgive, revive and restore the people to faith and to return them to Jerusalem and the promised land for one reason: “Delay not for your sake, O My God, because your city and your people are called by your name” (7:19). It is primarily for God’s glory that Daniel asks God to complete His word and fulfill Jeremiah’s prophecy. The nations will see it and will honor God for His faithfulness to both His promise and His people.

I used to meet monthly for lunch with the late John Reed Miller, a true churchman and the retired minister of First Presbyterian Church in Jackson, Mississippi. My day for lunch with him was, like clockwork, the third Thursday of every month. And every time I dropped him off at his Belhaven apartment after lunch, he’d take me by the hand and say to me: “Mike, the church will not see revival until the people of God take responsibility for the corporate sins of America.” It was like a mantra––every month the same profound reminder.

How does the Church do this? Look to Daniel’s example. First, humility: We pray not in anger, self-righteousness or frustration about “those dirty pagans.” We pray as broken people who say, “Lord, these are our sins! Why, 78% of all abortions are by Church people. Racism is rife in our congregations. Our marriages end in divorces by the same percentage as the world. We have sinned with our fathers and with our neighbors.”

Second, we intercede for our people. We ask for forgiveness, for reviving, for reformation, for restoration to favor and for a release from captivity to our culture. We ask God to deliver our double-minded souls from the things we love about Babylon.

Finally, we ask God to refine and repolish His glory in us. His name we have drug through the American mud, especially for the last 70 years since the Roaring Twenties. It is time, we think, for God to rise up and reclaim His honor in our land, the honor we sacrificed to the gods of this age.

“The Church will not see revival until the people of God take responsibility for the corporate sins of America,” and until it begins to pray for America like Daniel prayed for Israel.

PRAYING FOR THE PCA

CEP: Pray that God will enable CEP to continue to help churches develop a strong PCA men’s ministry.

CC: Pray for the continued safety and security of our campus, especially with so muchcampus violence in the past few years around the country.

MNA: Pray for Leadership and Ministry Preparation (LAMP), led by Brian Kelso, for their learning sites and for the students and their families as God continues to move them through the LAMP program.

PCAF: Pray for the PCA Foundation’s Board of Directors, that their focus will continue to be on helping to financially support God’s Kingdom.

RH: The continuation of Ridge Haven’s services depends on the number of people we serve. Just as an increase allows us to expand ministries and services, so also do decreases hinder our ability to maintain equipment, facilities and sufficient staff to do the job. Pray that all will be done in such a way as to bring all glory and honor to the Lord.

The Kingdom Of God

THE KINGDOM OF GOD

Read Daniel 7:1-28

Read Daniel 7:1-28

And to him was given dominion, and glory, and a kingdom. Daniel 7:14

The seventh chapter of Daniel begins the second half of the book of Daniel, and is the first of a series of visions about the history of Israel in the world from the Babylonian Empire to the Roman Empire, and beyond––to the end of time. At this pivotal point in the prophecy, there appears a vision of the throne room in heaven. The book of Daniel turns on this axis: The Vision of the Ancient of Days (God the Father) and the Son of Man (Jesus Christ) ruling their eternal kingdom.

It is the sad mark of a declining nation and a failing culture that great leaders cannot be found. I do not want to sound unkind or censorious, but when I think of our truly great presidents, I think of mostly men of the past. Let me illustrate. While voting this past year, I stood in line with an older couple behind me and a woman my age with her 22-year-old son in front of me. We all got to talking and the man behind me said, “Name the four greatest presidents of the United States.” I chose George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan. The older fellow, a Democrat, chose Lincoln, FDR, Truman and Jack Kennedy (all Democrats). The woman my age, also a Democrat, could only name two: Kennedy and Carter. And the young man said, “I can only think of one: Bill Clinton.” (Of course, he could only remember two presidents in total: Clinton and George W. Bush.)

I thought to myself, “How did we go from such unanimity about the greatness of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln to the frustration we seem to have about more recent presidents?” I wish I had a nickel for every time someone has said to me, “Pastor, I’m just not excited about voting for either candidate in this election.”

Daniel sees a vision of a succession of powerful, violent, frightening beasts, each representing the Gentile powers of the ancient world: Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome. His vision comes in the first year of Beshazzar’s co-regency with his lackluster father, Nabonidus. Gone were the glory days of Nebuchadnezzar––perhaps the greatest ruler in all of antiquity.

It could have been very discouraging to see these visions of the fall of Babylon, Cyrus and the Persians, Alexander and his divided kingdom and the decadent Caesars of Rome. But God gives Daniel a vision within a vision that lifts his heart in hope. Please read Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14.

Here Daniel sees what no other man in history saw, other than Christ. He actually saw God the Father on His heavenly throne and Jesus standing before that throne. He was granted the privilege to see God give to Christ the Kingdom of God, and with it the kingdoms, nations and peoples of the earth. Daniel calls the pre-incarnate Son of God, the “Son of Man” (7-13). This would be Christ’s favorite title for Himself, especially in the Gospel of Luke. This title speaks not of Christ’s humanity, but rather of His dominion, ownership and judgment of all mankind.

Jesus said to him, “You have said so. But I tell you, from now on you will see

the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of

heaven.” (Matthew 26:64)

What encouraged Daniel was what should encourage us. Because we are “in Christ” by faith (Galatians 2:20) and are united to Him forever (Colossians 3:1-3), then the Kingdom of God, Christ’s Kingdom, belongs to us. This is the climax of this great vision.

And the kingdom and the dominion

and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven

shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High;

their kingdom shall be an everlasting kingdom,

and all dominions shall serve and obey them. (Daniel 7:27)

History can, and will, get pretty rough. The times will be increasingly unsettled. The kingdoms of the world will go from bad to worse. And world leadership may well decline until a company of fools controls the governments of men. But God sits on the throne. The scepter of heaven is in the able hand of the heavenly prince Himself. And the Kingdom of God is marching forward, unabated and right on schedule. Soon our day of triumph will appear as Vaughan Williams wrote in his hymn, “But now there breaks a yet more glorious day, the saints triumphant rise in bright array. The King of glory passes on His way!”

PRAYING FOR THE PCA

AC: Pray that the Lord will provide all those associated with the General Assembly countless opportunities for witness to the lost, encouragement to fellow brothers and sisters and praise to the Triune God, and that each person will use every opportunity to His glory.

CTS: Please pray that the many students who come to Covenant Seminary from distant lands will feel at home and that the Seminary community will be blessed by the unique cultural and geographical perspectives these students bring to their studies, ministries and worship.

MTW: Pray that all MTW staff would serve with hearts full of love and joy in Christ.

RUM: Please pray for the new Reformed University Fellowship (RUF) groups that will begin in the fall of 2009. Pray that they will be used to spread the Gospel of God’s grace on the campus, reaching students with the transforming power of God’s Word as it is taught in these groups.

RBI: RBI employees meet together every Monday morning for Bible study and prayer. Please pray this will be a rich time of spiritual insight and fellowship.

Eyes For The Kingdom And A Voice For God

EYES FOR THE KINGDOM AND A VOICE FOR GOD

Read Daniel 5:1-30

Read Daniel 5:1-30

You have been weighed in the balances and found wanting. Daniel 5:27

It is truly amazing how many English-American idioms come from the Book of Daniel. When people are put through great tests and trials we speak of them being “in the fiery furnace.” If a person is to go into an environment full of tension, opposition and hostility, we say he’s “in the lion’s den.” When we acknowledge human frailties we say they have “feet of clay.” And if everyone can see the end of something and its inevitable demise, we say, “The handwriting is on the wall.” Of all the stories of Daniel, chapter five is my favorite. It is the most poignant, full of drama and pathos. At no time in the book is Daniel as heroic as he is in the courtroom of the king, interpreting the hand of God writing on the wall of the palace.

Here is the chronology of events: Nebuchadnezzar II, who loved and admired Daniel, had died in 562 B.C. He was succeeded by Amel-Marduk, Nergal-Sharezer and Labashi-Marduk, his sons, who ruled from 562 to 556 B.C. (a mere six years). In 556 B.C., Nabonidus usurped the throne and in 550 B.C. he made his son, Belshazzar, co-regent with him. On October 6, 539 B.C., the Medes and Persians, under the command of Darius the Mede, came into the city through an aqueduct in the wall and captured the city of Babylon while Belshazzar partied in a drunken orgy. Babylon fell without a fight.

It appears that Daniel had been forgotten by Nabonidus, put away in retirement (for he would now be in his eighties), and seldom if ever consulted on state issues. Indeed, Belshazzar seems to not even know who Daniel is. It is the queen mother (Beshazzar’s mother) who remembers Daniel and sends for him.

Now, an aged Daniel, wise, sober and godly, stands before a young court of drunken Babylonians. The contrast could not be more dramatic. The hand of God had written on the wall of the banquet hall: “Mene, Mene, Tekel, Parsin.” Literally, “numbered, numbered, weighed and divided.” Here is the sober meaning:

• Numbered, numbered: Written twice to emphasize both urgency and shortness of time. The days of Babylon had been numbered and would soon come to an end.
• Tekel: Weighed as in a balance or scale, and found to be wanting, lacking, too light-weight. Babylon lacked the substance to remain a world power of dominance. They failed to measure up to the task of dominion.
• Peres: Divided. That night Babylon would fall and would be divided between the Medes and the Persians.

Daniel’s fearless deliverance of this word of divine judgment illustrates two things. First, Daniel was old and ready to die and be with God. He feared not what a drunken king and raucous court might do to him. Second, and of more importance was this: Daniel had eyes for the Kingdom of God, a vision he had received eleven years earlier (7:1). And his voice still belonged to the Ancient of Days, even after 66 years of public service. Daniel loved God, he loved the Kingdom of heaven, and he loved Babylon, his adopted home. And the best way to serve the best interests of Babylon was to speak for the King of heaven about the Kingdom of God.

Each Christian bears this same responsibility. The days of our nation are numbered. We are closer to the end than to the beginning of the American Hour. Our culture is being weighed by God, and the more godless it becomes the more the scales tip against her. We are a divided people, with divided hearts, who someday may well be divided among the nations. It is my humble opinion that this is already taking place––not militarily, but economically, as the nations of the world buy up our land, our businesses and our banks. We are slowly but surely coming under the control of other nations.

We must speak out for God, His co-regent, Jesus Christ, and this eternal Kingdom. Numbered: They shall reign forever and ever. Weighed: Christ has been placed on the scales of time and been found more than sufficient for the salvation of mankind. He lacks nothing. Divided: The Kingdom of God is dividing the wheat from the chaff and gathering the elect of God from all the nations, while it unites the world in a City whose architect and builder is God. The handwriting is on the wall. Who will help our neighbors read and understand its message?

PRAYING FOR THE PCA

CEP: Give praise for the Women’s Advisory Sub-Committee, WIC Trainers, PresWIC and local women’s leadership. Pray that the Lord will guard their hearts and sustain them as they pour themselves out In Kingdom service.

CC: Above all else, please pray that Covenant College will stay true to its mission to prepare students to serve the church and the world as courageous, biblically grounded, Gospel-centered agents of Christ’s transforming truth and grace.

MNA: Pray that the MNA approved Church Renewal Resources will be truly helpful and well-utilized by our churches.

PCAF: Ask that the Lord will bless the work of the PCA Foundation’s Administrative Assistant, Joan Henry, and the Accounting/Administrative Assistant, Jim Standridge, and that they will be encouraged as they provide vital assistance to the Foundation.

RH: Pray for the Lord’s provision for Ridge Haven and all the families desiring to send children to camp.

The Bottom Line

THE BOTTOM LINE

Read Daniel 3:1-30

Read Daniel 3:1-30

But if not, be it known to you, O King, that we will not serve your gods. Daniel 4:18

Few stories are more famous in all of Scripture than the story of the three Hebrew children in the fiery furnace. Along with the creation story, Noah’s Ark, the Exodus and Daniel in the lion’s den, this story is learned by every child at the start of Sunday School or the earliest Vacation Bible School. And why not? It is perhaps the most heroic of all stories in the Old Testament. Though the story is well known, perhaps the bottom line of the tale is not.

We live in an age of unbridled pragmatism. The motto of modernity is this: Only do what works. Translated: “If it benefits you, it’s o.k.; if not, then forget it.” We have experienced our present economic collapse precisely because this pragmatism and its effects have come home to roost. Want a big home? Buy it! Can’t afford it? Get it now and hope that later it will sell for more. Can’t make the payments? Walk away from it, and let someone else clean up the mess. Too much credit card debt? Default on payments and then go get another card. Marriage no longer fun? Get a new wife; or better yet, have several, but don’t marry any of them. Feeling the urge to have sex? Do it! Use the pill; if that fails then just pay $400.00 for a “pregnancy termination” (It’s your right to choose!). Religion necessary for the kids? Shop around: the children’s ministry is great at First Baptist; the youth group is best at New Directions Church; and VBS is a knockout at Covenant Presbyterian. Carpool the kids from one to another on Sunday mornings. When they outgrow these things, forget going to Church. Hey! It works for me!

But what happens when God, Jesus or the Christian faith doesn’t work out? You tithe, but God does not bless your finances? You say “No!” to premarital sex, but you’re still single? You do the upright thing at work but get passed over for promotion? You rear your children in the faith, and they walk away from Christ in college? What happens when following Christ doesn’t work out as it should?

Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah answer that question for us. In their magnificent response to the king’s challenge, they set the bar at the level it should be for people of faith in Christ. Please read Daniel 3:16-18.

Three verses. Three sentences. Three answers. Three truths.

1. We don’t need to answer to men what God will and will not do. God knows. We don’t. If you ask me, “Why hasn’t this worked out like God said it would?” I need not answer you. God can speak for Himself.

1. God is able to do whatever He wants, and doing the supernatural is no problem for God. In the end, one way or another, God will work for us, and He will deliver us from evil and bless us. Now or in eternity.
2. If God’s ways don’t work out as we’d like or as we’d planned, so what? Good or bad, blessings or not, we will never forsake God, deny Christ or turn from the Holy Spirit. To die in faith is better than to live in pragmatism.

This is all so…so…un-American! Things are supposed to work out for our good (Romans 8:28). God is supposed to bless those who follow Him. Christ is supposed to answer our prayers—in the affirmative. And the Holy Spirit is supposed to make our faith successful so others will believe in Jesus! Who wants to follow a God who gives us no guarantees?

Answer? Those who love God do. Job answers for all of us: “Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” (Job 2:10). As the Scripture says elsewhere: “Is it not from the Lord that both good and ill go forth?” We don’t like this answer, but it’s true. Grace does not always work the way we like it to. But love works this way: We are loyal to God even if He “doesn’t work.” And He is loyal to us, His people, because we never do for Him all we should. Job learned from the pain and disappointment what Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego learned in the furnace: “Though he slay me, I will hope in him; yet I will argue my ways to his face” (Job 13:15). This is the bottom line of living faith.

PRAYING FOR THE PCA

AC: Please pray for Roy Taylor, Stated Clerk, and John Robertson, Business Administrator, that they will handle with wisdom, insight and discernment the many different issues and questions that come to the Office of the Stated Clerk each week.

CTS: Pray that all Covenant Seminary students will gain an even greater passion for God’s world mission and that the Lord will bring forth much fruit from the various short-term mission trips in which students, faculty and staff participate.

MTW: Pray that the growing mercy ministries of MTW will open many hearts to the Gospel, allowing us and our national partners to bring the love of Christ into otherwise resistant areas.

RUM: The Universities today are alive with conflicting ideas. Please pray that Reformed University Fellowship will effectively help college students to understand the authority of Scripture, the ministry of the Spirit and the means of justification and sanctification. Pray that our students will be rooted in the life-giving Scriptures as they engage with the world.

RBI: The Ministerial Relief Ministry has contact with pastors who are without a ministry call. Pray that their needs will be met during the transition and that the Lord will direct them to a new field of service.

Stewards Of God’s Mysteries

STEWARDS OF GOD’S MYSTERIES

Read Daniel 2:1-49

Read Daniel 2:1-49

But there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries. Daniel 2:28

In 601 B.C., King Nebuchadnezzar had a troubling dream, just about the time that Daniel and his three young colleagues finished their training at the diplomatic school in Babylon. The King was troubled by the dream, and so he assembled his seers and magicians (“the Chaldeans”) and demanded that they do two things; first, tell him what dream he had; and second, interpret that dream for him. He was tired of their empty flattery, their formulaic interpretations and their lies (2:9). He wanted the 100% blunt truth.

Daniel prays to God for wisdom and insight, and God reveals the dream to him. His Psalm of praise to God is the highlight of this chapter. Please read Daniel 2:20-23.

The interpretation Daniel receives from God was this: The large statue of a man was an image of successive world kingdoms. The golden kingdom was Babylon with King Nebuchadnezzar as its sterling head. The silver kingdom was the Medo-Persian kingdom of Cyrus and his successors. The bronze kingdom was that of Alexander the Great and his Greek Empire. And the iron kingdom was the Roman Empire of the Caesars––one that was so vast and variegated that it would eventually become part iron mixed with clay, due to mixed marriages (2:43). Thus it was strong but brittle and would eventually collapse. A cor-nerstone––Jesus Christ––cut out of a mountain would fall on the Roman Empire, shatter it like dust, and then would grow into a great mountain swallowing up all the kingdoms of the world. This is the Kingdom of God, ruled by Jesus Christ, and foretold in the Scriptures:

Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heav

en, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord

and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.” (Revelation 11:15)

As we read Daniel’s interpretation, we are forced to ask ourselves, “Where in this vision are the nations in which we live?”—The British Empire, the American Nation, the Soviet Block, the European Common Union? The answer is obvious: We are part of the last Empire. We are extensions of Rome. Commentators increasingly agree that the empires and states from the Holy Roman Empire of the Middle Ages to modern states all derive their laws, structure, basic culture and military prowess from Rome.

Please note: Each Empire becomes less precious in the type of metal, from gold to iron, but stronger in composition. Meaning? As nations and kingdoms progress through time, there is both a degradation in morality and righteousness in government and a strengthening in power and endurance. Hence, there is a great contrast between the kingdoms of the earth and the Kingdom of heaven. The empires of men experience not a rise upward to glory but a decline downward to dishonor and disunity. Technology makes the world empires stronger; sin makes them more decadent. Conversely, the Kingdom of God starts out small––just Jesus alone––but it grows until the Mountain of God fills the earth and subdues all the peoples with the Gospel.

With what can we compare the Kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown on the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth, yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade. (Mark 4:30-32)

Let us teach our young people three things, the very things we must first know in order to pass on to them. First, that the mysteries of God (revelation) are of more value and more true than the information of CNN, the Internet or the Drudge Report. Second, America is part of Rome and a great-grandchild of Babylon. America will never be the Kingdom of God. We must love America and serve it, as Daniel did both Babylon and Persia. But America can never be our first love or our last hope. Third, we must develop eyes to see the Kingdom of God, as Jesus told us to do in His Kingdom parables (Matthew 13:10-17, 34-35, 51-52).

Paul likens all true Christians to Daniel. He reminds us that we too are given these great mysteries of the Kingdom of God to know, understand, interpret and share with others. And on our stewardship of these mysteries we will be judged.

This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the

mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found trust

worthy. (1 Cor. 4:1-2)

PRAYING FOR THE PCA

CEP: Pray and support the annual Women in the Church Love Gift offering. CEP is the 2008 recipient. The love gift will go to disciple the next generation with the strength and clarity of the biblically Reformed faith. May we be found faithful––Psalm 71:17-18.

CC: We are grateful for the Board of Trustees as they generously give of their time and energy to support the college. Pray for their leadership in this role. Please also pray that the Lord will lead potential Board candidates to the college so that we may continue following the path He has laid out for us.

MNA: Pray for all of our churches to grow in their calling to evangelism, community outreach and deeds of mercy.

PCAF: Ask that the PCA Foundation’s Administrator, Valerie Tidwell, will be encouraged and given Godly guidance as she oversees the day-to-day operations of the PCA Foundation office.

RH: Pray for the safety of all guests! Though we make every effort to provide for the safest experience possible, we need the Lord’s protection from human error, equipment failure and weather-related problems, as well as His provision for traveling mercies. Pray for the Lord’s grace for wise decisions.

An Uncompromising Life

AN UNCOMPROMISING LIFE

Read Daniel 1:1-21

Read Daniel 1:1-21

But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself. Daniel 1:8

We will spend this week’s devotions in the Book of Daniel (my favorite book of the Old Testament). Daniel divides itself into two parts and two languages. Part one (chapters 1-6) contains stories about the experiences and exploits of Daniel and his three friends: Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. The stories in part two (chapters 7-12) are all about grand visions of world history from Babylon to the Roman Empire, and the future Kingdom of God. The book uses Hebrew in 1:1-2:3 and Chapters 8-12. But in Daniel 2:4-

7:28 the language switches to Aramaic, the court language of Babylon. Why? Most likely because these middle chapters address issues of universal scope and significance, and not just things peculiar to Israel.

In 605 B.C. Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon took captive the young royalty of Israel and carted them off into Babylon in what was the first of three waves of exile (605, 597, and 586 B.C.). Daniel and his three friends would have been mere teenagers at the time of their deportation to Babylon (“youths,” v. 4). You can imagine the trauma and trials of four young men, uprooted from their homeland, demoted from princes to servants, witnesses to the death of family and destruction of their homes, and forced to become Babylonian instead of Jewish.

But these four young men were a cut above the rest. The tragedy of these events brought out in them a living faith in God. I remember that after Hurricane Katrina destroyed the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, our Governor, Haley Barbour, told his fellow Mississippians that the tribulations of that storm would bring out the best in some and the worst in others. He was right. Daniel and his three friends rise to the challenge.

They decide to live on the razor’s edge of commitment to God. First, on the one side, they would follow God’s Word given through Jeremiah. Please read Jeremiah 29:4-14.

They chose to live in Babylon, serve the Babylonian king, seek the welfare of the Babylonian Empire and love the Babylonian people. We have every reason to believe that these four young men married Babylonian girls, gave their children Babylonian names and entered into family and friendships with Babylonian people. They did as God commanded.

But second, on the other hand, they refused to become Babylonian inside––in their souls. They refused to eat meat, delicacies and wine of the royal palace because it would “defile” them. How so? First, it was not clean and not kosher; it violated the Levitical code. Even beyond that, these foods and drinks were offered to idols. To eat them was thus idolatry in a vague form. But the primary reason was this: To eat the fine foods of the kings’ palace would have seduced and ensnared their souls and led to their complete enculturation. Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah chose to be holy––to be “set apart” for God. Only in this way could they live with and love the Babylonians and serve as missionaries who would lead their family and friends to saving faith in God.

Two young men of our time have chosen to be Daniels. Their names are Alex and Brett Harris, brothers and the sons of Joshua Harris, Senior Pastor of Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, Maryland. At age 16, these two young men chose to be different from all other teens. They tell their story in a fascinating little book: Do Hard Things: A Teenage Rebellion Against Low Expectations. Their experiences led to a web-site called “Rebelution”––from “rebel” and “revolution.” Alex and Brett write:

We’ve been motivated by a simple but very big idea. It’s an idea you’re going to encounter for yourself in the pages ahead. We’ve seen this idea transform “average” teenagers into world-changers able to accomplish incredible things. And they started by simply being willing to break the mold of what society thinks teens are capable of.²⁸

Daniel and his friends chose to “do hard things” because they saw their young manhood as the launching pad for the rest of their lives. What a launch it was, and what an impact these four boys had on their people, their time and their world. They did hard things. They lived holy lives. They had heavy responsibility. And in it all Christ used them for the Kingdom of God. Where are the likes of these young men today?

PRAYING FOR THE PCA

AC: Join us as we thank our Father for the service of Wayne Sparkman, Director of the PCA Historical Center in St. Louis, MO. He records and chronicles the faithfulness of the Lord to His people in the PCA as he has been tasked by the Assembly’s Administrative Committee.

CTS: Pray for Jay Sklar, Covenant Seminary’s associate dean of academics and director of the Master of Theology (ThM) program, that God will grant him wisdom and grace as he works with students seeking deeper understanding of God’s Word and more effective ways to teach and communicate the beauty of that message to others.

MTW: Pray for the children of our missionaries as they make continual adjustments back and forth from the U.S. to the field. Pray for wisdom for their parents and mentors to assist them through these difficult transitions.

RUM: Many of our interns and Campus Ministers have experienced great suffering and loss over the last year. Pray for those who have lost unborn children and family members, battled with cancer and chronic illnesses, and those who have encountered heart breaking family struggles. Pray that the grace of the Lord will be abundant in their daily lives and the abiding love of their Heavenly Father will sustain them through these difficult times. . RBI: The RBI leadership developed a Vision Statement that states, “To glorify God by helping our ministry partners achieve financial security.” Pray RBI can bring glory to our great God by fulfilling this vision statement.

The Deceptive Heart

THE DECEPTIVE HEART

Read Jeremiah 17:1-13

Read Jeremiah 17:1-13

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? Jeremiah 17:9

American Evangelicalism is uniquely known for its emphasis on individual faith. It was the American evangelical who invented the idea of “a personal relationship with Christ.” There is, you know, no such phrase in the Bible. I will be foolishly bold to insinuate that, indeed, there is really no such concept in Scripture.

Certainly, our faith must be more than the rubrics and rituals of a formal religion. Going to Church does not make a true Christian. But the converse is true as well. God does not make true Christians who don’t go to Church. Our idolatrous lust for independence, our resentment of both authority and structure, and our fear of conformity––all crass American traits––have combined to create a spiritual anomaly: A “born again” Christian with a personal relationship with Christ but no religion, who is baptized but not a Church member, or a Church member but not “active.” Can this be so? Can we really be one with Christ and not His church? Can the Holy Spirit really live in us but our faith be inactive? Can we be born again, baptized but not belong to a congregation of saints? The answer is “yes” in American Evangelicalism, but “no” in the Bible.

Jeremiah addresses this very issue. He locates the problem in the human heart. And he states that we indeed can be personally spiritual but spiritually lost at the same time. You see, our penchant for “Just Jesus and Me” is dangerously deceptive. Why? Because the heart––that place Jesus is supposed to live when we “ask Him into our heart”––cannot be relied upon to adequately guide us in our Life with God.

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (17:9). Because that is obviously so, “asking Jesus into our hearts” doesn’t do a whole lot of good, does it? No, what is needed is to become engrafted into the people of God, the Church. I am not speaking about the Invisible Church, that doctrine all evangelicals believe. I am speaking about a visible, real, local body of professing believers who gather in a building on a street corner somewhere to worship, work and witness together. I’m talking about the Tenth Presbyterian Church on Spruce Street in Philadelphia PA, or the New Zion Lutheran Episcopal Church on High Street in Columbus Ohio, or the Saint Phillips Episcopal Church on Church Street in Charleston SC.

You see, it’s the flesh-and-blood people in such local churches who keep our deceitful hearts honest. How so? When our heart says to us, “You’re really a committed Christian,” one of the elders from Tenth Presbyterian will call to see why you haven’t been in worship services in the last six months. No one from the Invisible Church is going to do that. When our heart tells us, “You really are a loving person,” a postcard from New Zion will show up in the mail reminding you of your turn to keep the two-year-old nursery this coming Sunday. Jesus doesn’t send out postcards. And when your heart tells you, “You’re really a very giving person,” one of the vestry members at St. Phillips’ will send you a reminder that you’re behind on your pledge to the Church this year. The Holy Spirit doesn’t send out notices.

Yep, a personal relationship with Jesus is really quite easy. It’s so nice to have Jesus in our deceptive, inscrutable little hearts. What’s tough is to live among other saints who know that your heart is as rotten as theirs, and perhaps worse apart from the communion of the saints. Life in the local church keeps the heart honest. And for that we are both resentful and thankful, but always needy.

PRAYING FOR THE PCA

CEP: Pray for the annual Leadership Training Conference and the General Assembly programs and seminars to be rooted in the Gospel and to encourage and strengthen PCA women.

CC: Pray for our alumni in their many and varied walks of life, that they will seek first thepriorities of Christ and His Kingdom and use the gifts God has given them to serve His Church with excellence and passion. Please pray for the Alumni Executive Committee as they engage the alumni community in prayer, admissions and fundraising opportunities for Covenant.

MNA: Pray for MNA Ministry to State Director Chuck Garriott, and that the weekly and monthly gatherings in Washington DC and in other state capitols will be used to bring many to Christ.

PCAF: Pray for God to encourage the staff to think outside the box to see ways to advance God’s Kingdom.

RH: Pray that PCA churches have a renewed vision for the expansion of Ridge Haven, and that we may meet the great need for Presbyterian and Reformed camp and conference resources throughout the country. Such a vision will allow us to complete Ridge Haven Southeast and possibly begin work on Ridge Havens Northeast, Central and West.

The Children Of Our Fathers

THE CHILDREN OF OUR FATHERS

Read Jeremiah 31:27-34

Read Jeremiah 31:27-34

The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge. Jeremiah 31:29

When I was in college, my parents shook their heads in discouragement and befuddled amazement at us, their children known as the Baby Boomers. We wore bell bottoms, had long hair, protested the Vietnam War, shut down college campuses, and then all went out and became Republicans who ushered in the Reagan Revolution. Now, our ways have returned to us.

We Baby Boomers, now in our 50s and early 60s, shake our graying heads at our kids, the Millennials. They wear jeans with holes in them, have short and spikey hair, dislike the War in Iraq, voted Democratic in their first election and brought “Change to America” by putting Barak Obama in office.

It seems that things make no more sense today in 2009 than they did when I was in college in 1968. Think of it: The Baby Boomers were part of the greatest evangelical resurgence in history, the most “religious” generation in American history to date. Yet on our watch Roe vs. Wade paved the way for abortion on demand, divorce reached a peak in American history and same-sex marriages became legal in some states.

Now, after we’ve reared our kids in evangelical churches and kept them in church daycare, Vacation Bible Schools and youth groups from pabulum to puberty, all we have to show for it is the rising “new atheism,” and young evangelicals who think global warming and the economy are more important than abortion and homosexuality!

Case in point: In the Fall of last year, buses in London carried signs that read, “There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.” American buses in Washington D. C. answered in kind last Christmas: “Why believe in a God? Just be good for goodness sake!” Even Santa Claus would be offended at the lifting of the lyrics from his song for such blasphemous tripe! Is this the world we Campus Crusade for Christ Baby Boomers built?

Jeremiah answers our questions: He points to an old proverb and says, “The Fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge” (v. 29). In other words, “Fathers sin and the kids pay the consequences.” Not so, says Jeremiah, each generation is responsible for its own sins.

What pastors need to do for these young, independently minded and searching twentysomethings is to teach them the New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:31-34). The Gospel will answer the questions of the soul of our youth as it did those of the souls of their fathers in their youth. Life with God may look a little different under Obama than it did under Reagan, but it will still be grounded in the Covenant of Grace.

In the end, are things really that different? At Ohio State University, my philosophy professor held up a magazine one day and with great delight showed us the cover. It read: “God is Dead.” Now, our sons and daughters read books with the title The God Delusion. What’s new?

Jack Kennedy or Barak Obama, Vietnam or Iraq, Communism or Islam, pollution or global warming, the civil rights movement or the right-to-life movement––they all remind us of the truth that spans all generations. The only thing that makes sense out of life is this overarching and magnificent truth: “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (31:33).

So, confused Baby Boomer parents, listen to some of your own guitar prophets: “Teach your children well.” Teach them the Covenant of Grace…the Gospel.

PRAYING FOR THE PCA

AC: The General Assembly relies on a cadre of volunteers (local to Orlando as well as from across the country) to function smoothly and efficiently. Pray that we will have sufficient numbers as well as the experience levels needed to accomplish our tasks.

CTS: Pray for Dave Wicker, Covenant Seminary’s chief operating officer, as he and his staff continue to develop strong and lasting relationships with Seminary friends and donors; ask the Lord’s blessing on their ongoing efforts to raise funds to support the Seminary’s work.

MTW: “Living in Grace,” a discipleship training seminar originally designed for missionaries, is now available to PCA churches through MTW’s Spiritual Life Department. Pray that God will use this seminar to more fully ground His people in the power of the Gospel for daily living.

RUM: Please pray for the five RUF International groups as they reach out to share the Gospel with students from over forty different countries. Many of these students will return to their home countries after a year. Pray that they will be strengthened and equipped to live for Christ and participate in building the Church. Also, pray for these Campus Ministers as they daily strive to overcome their own culture to meet the needs of those in other cultures and to apply the Gospel to these students.

RBI: PCA Ministerial Relief provides for financial assistance to those who qualify according to need. Please pray that more churches will participate in the annual PCA Christmas Offering this year, as it is the source of this financial help. We praise God for a Church that cares about the needs of their servants.

The Guideposts Of God

THE GUIDEPOSTS OF GOD

Read Jeremiah 31:15-22

Read Jeremiah 31:15-22

Set up road markers for yourself; make yourself guideposts. Jeremiah 31:21

Perhaps the religious periodical that best illustrates the moralistic, therapeutic deism we spoke of yesterday is the popular magazine Guideposts, founded by Norman Vincent Peale, the father of “positive thinking.” Its monthly collection of feel-good stories, testimonies of nebulous faith on the part of celebrities and moralistic tales feed the pseudo-Christian faith of many Americans. The magazine takes its name from Jeremiah 31:21.

Ironically, the guideposts Jeremiah had in mind were a far stretch from the theology of positive thinking. What the prophet pointed to was the guidance of the ancient paths (“the road by which you went”). Jeremiah’s prophetic reasoning seems odd to us: The good way forward is found in the old ways of the past. This is the message we need in the Church today.

Stephen J. Nichols teaches at the Lancaster Bible College in Pennsylvania. His book, published this year, is titled Jesus Made in America: A Cultural History from the Puritans to “The Passion of Christ” (Intervarsity Press). Nichols was interviewed by Ken Myers on volume 92 (July/August 2009) of the Mars Hill Audio Journal. In that interview, Nichols spoke of American Evangelicalism’s love for innovation—newer is better, cutting edge is everything—and its constant need to reinvent itself and its message. Nichols thinks this desire to reinvent and remake Evangelicalism makes it highly susceptible to cultural movements and moods. He comments: “Sometimes we have a vision of the reformation that might need some correction here. As American evangelicals, we like to celebrate the reformation, and rightly so. But even the reformers, and in their sense of reforming the Church, were really not talking about something new but something that had been lost. They did not like to be called innovators or creators. They wanted to sort of get back to something that was lost. But I think that in American evangelical sensibilities being an innovator is something that we champion, something that we want to be.”²⁸

Historian Sidney Meade credited this weird American fetish for the new with what he called “America’s historylessness”––a lack of tradition and a loss of the value or importance of tradition. Jeremiah would not make a very good American evangelical.

The prophet calls the Church not forward but backward. Back to the old guideposts back to the ancient “highway” back to “the road by which you went” (i.e., the road you long ago travelled upon). What would these guideposts look like today, these road markers that point “this way” for the people of God? Let me suggest several to you:

• Sabbath-keeping: Putting God and Church back into our weekly schedules (and lives) with both morning and evening worship services, something virtually lost in the PCA.

• Community: Building a Church around relationships and shared lives rather than big buildings and programs.
• The means of grace: Focusing more on preaching, prayer, the sacraments and fellowship than on music (Acts 2:42).
• Ministerial Fellowship: Pastors getting together to pray and encourage one another and not compare or compete.
• Multi-generational communion: Building a congregation into a trans-generational family rather than catering to age groups with niche marketing techniques.
• Confessional: Rediscovering the ancient creeds and confessions rather than the latest pop-psychology or church-growth technique.
• Discipleship: Majoring on maturity rather than numbers; membership and not attendees; holiness over happiness.
• Local Impact: Planting churches in communities that will take “ownership” of a neighborhood and practice the theology of presence.
• Tradition: Old hymns, the church calendar and a reverence for things proven and rooted in history.

Impossible? I think not. As the American church reinvents itself to the point of no identity, these old guideposts and road markers will point the way back to authentic Christianity. As in Jeremiah’s age, it is only a matter of time before the saints desire to find the way back, to “return to these your cities.”

PRAYING FOR THE PCA

CEP: Praise God for CEP’s biblical training and resources that equip women in the church to mature in Christ. Pray for local churches to value these tools.

CC: Pray for the Advancement Office as we go about fundraising efforts, that we will promote a giver’s heart in our donors and in ourselves. We believe that God gifts some with financial resources and the means to support Kingdom efforts. Where Covenant College programs match the hearts of donors, pray that we will be clear; where they do not, pray that will encourage fellow believers to give to the cause that God has laid on their hearts.

MNA: Pray to the Lord of the Harvest to raise up laborers for Hispanic American Ministries in the PCA and that the rate of growth in number of churches with Hispanic American ministries will multiply rapidly.

PCAF: Pray that the Lord will encourage the PCA Foundation’s Business Manager, Mark Bailey, as he assists the PCA Foundation’s President with various administrative responsibilities, implements new information technology systems and helps keep the Foundation’s operations effective and efficient.

RH: Pray for the success of the capital campaign as it completes at the end of the summer.

The Highway Of God

THE HIGHWAY OF GOD

Read Jeremiah 18:13-17

Read Jeremiah 18:13-17

They made them stumble in their ways, in the ancient roads, and to walk into side roads, not the highway. Jeremiah 18:15

Here is the second time Jeremiah references the “ancient paths” (roads). He bemoans the fact that Israel’s idols have led them astray, even when these idols were incorporated into the old religion of Moses. This syncretism of Biblical and pagan ways confused the people of God, caused them to stumble badly and led them astray––down “side roads” and away from God.

Christian sociologist and professor at The University of Notre Dame, Christian Smith has insightfully dubbed American civil religion as “moralistic, therapeutic deism.” Many would be both shocked and offended by that assessment, but Professor Smith’s book and the result of years of research about American teenagers, their parents and their religion validate his conclusions. American preaching is moralistic. American theology is therapeutic. American religion is deism. We need to try harder to do good, aim at being happy and know that God is out there somewhere watching us at a distance. “God Bless America.”

What will offend and shock us even more is this author’s suggestion that Evangelicalism may well be devolving into moralistic, therapeutic deism. The shocker comes in this: The very people who thought themselves “Gospel preachers” seem to have warped that Gospel into a vaguely familiar American format. Here me out.

Moralism: There is an increasing reliance upon a few very popular preachers to the point that their opinions become Gospel truth. Their formulary statements, their books, their online sermons and their associations drive our preaching more than the Word of God does. Tell me, is it any worse to trust in the morals of Aesop’s Fables, the musings of existentialist Søren Kierkegaard or the mysticism of Dag Hammarskjöld than to take all your cues from today’s evangelical celebrities? Whatever happened to “Thus saith the Lord”––whether it was grace-based or not?

Therapeutic: Why must we turn everything in the Bible into our pursuit of spiritual assurance? Is not the Gospel about something larger than life, greater than self and lasting forever? Does a good sermon always have to “work”? (I ask, what does it mean when someone responds to the preached word with this: “No, that just doesn’t work for me?”) I have a thought I’d like you to consider: When Jesus and the Apostles preach the Gospel, they are proclaiming the reality that the Kingdom of God has come to earth, and that salvation is more about surrender to Christ and entering the Kingdom of God than about a person’s justification and adoption! Think about it.

Deism: It is possible to turn Jesus into the mirror of what we are rather than God incarnate, to such an extent that Jesus becomes everybody. Does this happen? You bet! To what else can you attribute this statement? “Well, that’s the Jesus of my parents. That’s not my Jesus!” The marvelous thing about Deism is that God is so far removed from us that we can make Him into our image, and He doesn’t care. Let’s be careful we don’t do this to Jesus Christ. We all live with two Jesuses––the one who really is and the one we’d like to exist. But only one Jesus is real.

We’re headed down a dangerous side road, I fear. God is calling us back to the highway, away from moralistic, therapeutic deism to Biblical discipleship in Jesus Christ. We may well be at a crossroads. Stop. Read the signs. And proceed with caution.

There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death. (Proverbs 16:25)

PRAYING FOR THE PCA

AC: Pray for the continued ministry of the print magazine byFaith. Pray that it will serve to connect people, churches, events and missions of the PCA through the proclamation of the Gospel. Pray that Editor Dick Doster and his staff will exercise wisdom in handling the many details associated with the magazine.

CTS: Pray for the students in Covenant Seminary’s Master of Arts in Educational Ministries (MAEM) program, that they will minister well to children, youth or adults, and that the Spirit will use their ministries to raise up strong disciples of Jesus Christ.

MTW: The MTW StreetChild Ministry was especially close to the heart of Paul Kooistra’s wife, Jan, who went to be with the Lord in April 2008, and the new StreetChild home in Bangelore, India, will be named in her honor. Please pray for funds to complete the property purchase and build the ministry center.

RUM: Pray for the RUM Permanent Committee members as they oversee the ministry. Pray that as new members join this year, they will quickly grasp the work of RUM and continue the vision with unity and focus.

RBI: Pray for the Service Center Representatives at RBI as they interact with our pastors, staff and PCA churches and organizations. Pray for wisdom, guidance and strength for Myra Davis, Sybil Pullen and Harry Cooksey as they answer questions and administer benefit plans.

The Rise And Fall Of Great Nations

THE RISE AND FALL OF GREAT NATIONS

Read Jeremiah 18:1-12

Read Jeremiah 18:1-12

Can I not do with you as this potter has done? Jeremiah 18:6

Years ago someone gave me a book by the title of The Rise and Fall of Great Powers, written by Paul Kennedy. The book was an historical review of the mistakes in economics, international policy and military expansion that brought one great nation after another to ruin. The thesis, of course, was that America was on that same trajectory from greatness to decline.

On December 22, 1641, one of the Divines of the Westminster Assembly mounted the steps of St. Margaret’s Church, Westminster, and delivered a sermon to the House of Commons. His text was Jeremiah 18:7-10. The title of his sermon was “England’s Looking Glass.” His thesis was simple, derived from the pages of the Old Testament: “Sin ruins kingdoms.” He was, as the English say, “Spot on”:

Righteousness exalts a nation,

but sin is a reproach to any people. (Proverbs 14:34)

As Edmund Calamy of London preached, he set before the Parliament of Oliver Cromwell a simple truth: Repentance was more crucial to the blessing of a nation than good public policy, military victories or the best men in government. One historian commented on the puritan preacher’s intent:

As Calamy preached, he emphasized the importance of repentance in their tumultuous times. He boldly claimed God’s sovereignty over nations. That morning, Calamy sought to apply his teaching to the Church, to the nation as a whole, and to Parliament in particular, because he believed that Parliament was the representative body of the kingdom. This representation was not so much to represent the people’s rights before the king as to represent its responsibilities before God. Therefore, repentance and reformation should start with them. The seventeenth-century parliamentary preachers had grasped that the greatest need for any nation was reformation according to God’s Word. When they had the ears of some of the most powerful men in the country, they preached not so much about policy as about repentance.²⁷

Jeremiah 18:1-12 is as true today as it was six centuries before Christ. And its message is just as valid for America as it was for Israel. It asks our PCA pastors a probing question: If President Barak Obama invited you to speak to the Congress during his State of the Union Address, what would you preach on?” I must admit, my first tendency would be to speak on the sanctity of life, the integrity of gender, the honor of marriage, the freedom of religion or the protection of our nation from violence, crime and war. After all, these are the first five ethical themes in the first four chapters of Genesis. But as I reflect a bit more, I think I agree with the Westminster Divines who preached to the English Parliament on a regular basis in the 1640s and 1650s.

Repentance is what we all need. For if sin is a reproach to any people and if righteousness truly does exalt a nation, then repentance is the message the preachers of any land need to carry to their people. Here is the glory of it all: We who are PCA pastors do not have to wait and hope to be invited to Washington D.C. to speak to a few hundred congressmen, senators, judges and administration officials. Every Sunday we speak to literally thousands of Americans. And we preach under the auspices of One who is greater than the President of the United States. We have the privilege and the awesome responsibility to speak for God to God’s people on behalf of the nations. As such, there can only be one repeated theme that we preach week after week. It is the message of Jesus Christ Himself:

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel

of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand;

repent and believe in the gospel.” (Mark 1:14-15)

PRAYING FOR THE PCA

CEP: Please pray for Women’s Ministries Coordinator Jane Patete. Pray for godly wisdom and direction in leadership to PCA women. Pray for Cindy Bennett, Assistant to the Coordinator. May the Lord equip and encourage her in this Kingdom ministry.

CC: Please pray for Chaplain Aaron Messner as he oversees all aspects of Covenant’s chapel program.

MNA: Pray that churches will recruit volunteers easily for English as a Second Language ministries, led by Nancy Booher, and that ESL workshops will reach the nations that God has brought to our doorstep.

PCAF: Pray that God will be encouraging to and provide safe travel for Randy Stair as he visits local churches, presbyteries, donors and prospects to present our services.

RH: Please pray for the Lord to surround each staff member with encouragement that will keep everyone going when the responsibilities are overwhelming and the rewards few.

The Ancient Paths

THE ANCIENT PATHS

Read Jeremiah 6:16-21

Read Jeremiah 6:16-21

Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths. Jeremiah 6:16

There is a hauntingly beautiful literary image that the prophet Jeremiah uses three times in his great prophecy. It is the picture of “ancient paths” (6:16; 18:15; 31:21). The mental image is of an old, forgotten, forsaken highway that is no longer in use and is now overgrown with underbrush. It remains where it has always been, but it is hardly visible anymore.

In the state of Mississippi there is one of the least known, but most lovely, of all of American’s national parks: The Natchez Trace Parkway. It is a two-lane road stretching from Natchez, Mississippi, to Nashville, Tennessee. The speed limit is 50 mph (and strictly enforced). There are no signs, no commercial buildings, other than historical cabins and old inns), and no private homes on the Natchez Trace. This road follows an ancient Indian pathway made by the Natchez Indians prior to Europeans coming to North America. The old Trace is never more than a few yards from the blacktop highway. To stop, walk down onto the Old Trace and stand there is a wonderful thing…a step back into ancient history. I used to get in my car, get on the Trace, set the cruise control at 50 mph and ride for hours––going nowhere, praying, thinking, unwinding with God in the car with me. My wife and I often rode up and down the Trace, talking and praying together.

There is something annoying, even grating to the soul, about modernity. I have heard it called “the arrogance of the modern.” It’s the idea that anything old is inferior and all things new are better. It’s stupid. This arrogance of the modern causes Americans to be afraid to grow old, to be enamored with youth, to make their children idols, to be imprisoned to whatever is trendy, to crave the latest fashion and to worship and rely upon new technology. I’ll let C. S. Lewis explain the root of this insanity.

It may spring from the belief that human history is a simple, unilinear movement from worse to better—what is called a belief in Progress—so that any given generation is always in all respects wiser than all previous generations. To those who believe thus, our ancestors are superseded and there seems nothing improbable in the claim that the whole world was wrong until the day before yesterday and now has suddenly become right. With such people I confess I cannot argue, for I do not share their basic assumption. Believers in progress rightly note that in the world of machines the new model supersedes the old; from this they falsely infer a similar kind of supercession in such things as virtue and wisdom.²⁶

There is no logic to this disdain for the old. There is no good reason for thinking God’s Word is no longer relevant or His ways are not beneficial to us. Listen to Jeremiah:

Thus says the Lord: “Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient

paths,where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls.

But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’” (Jeremiah 6:16)

Pure and simple: “We will not! We don’t want to! No one else is doing it. We will not walk in your ways. We will not pay attention. The answer is ‘No!’ We refuse to obey.”

And yet, the ancient paths are still there. The old ways that the old folks used to tell us about––a life with God at the center and not man, a life that was concerned more with spiritual growth than technological progress. We need only walk off the highway of modernity a brief distance, and we’ll find ourselves on an old trace that was once the ancient pathway.

There is an irony about modernity. The more people experience “the latest in modern advancement,” the more they yearn for something ancient, deep down in their souls. Somewhere, in the back of their minds they know that not all those ancient people were stupid and going nowhere. Modernity lives with this unsettled apprehension: The old ways slowly led us to God, while our modern highways click along at an ever-increasing pace of change and excitement. The only problem is this: We’re not quite sure where we are headed and why we’re in such a hurry to get there.

PRAYING FOR THE PCA

AC: Please petition our heavenly Father to grant generous giving and the increased participation of each of our churches in financially supporting every General Assembly Committee and Agency. These gifts enable the various arms of the General Assembly to carry out the ministries committed to us.

CTS: Pray for pastors, alumni and others who seek to enhance their understanding of Scripture through Covenant Seminary’s continuing education opportunities, such as our intensive 24-hour classes or Lifetime of Ministry course offerings.

MTW: Pray for the Church in Africa, which is facing issues of HIV/AIDS, political and religious upheaval, and internal strife in many countries. Ask God to strengthen His Church, open hearts to the Gospel and grow His Kingdom.

RUM: Please pray for the training of student leaders while on campus and the ongoing ministry they will have in the church in years to come. Ask God that He will enable Campus Ministers and staff to teach students how to minister to those around them in the campus community.

RBI: Please pray for Mr. Scott Schanen and Mr. Ross Walters, Jr., as the newest members of the Board of Directors for RBI. Pray the Lord calls these men to seek His face and equip them to carry out His Kingdom’s work as they serve on the RBI Board.