As a follow up to the Bible study from John 1 in the last two blog entries, I'd like to pose a few questions for us to consider:

Are you following Jesus?
Are you like Andrew and John, willing to leave your previous master and pursue Jesus?  These men were willing to leave a lot of things behind - their fathers, mothers, friends, their business, their reputations, and their comforts.

Or do you hear the introduction, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” and then go on about your business?  How many times must the introduction be made between you and Jesus before you will be willing to follow?

I do want to remind us that if we want to follow Jesus we must count the cost. Remember the words of Jesus in Mark 8:34-38:

And he called to him the crowd with his disciples and said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? For what can a man give in return for his life? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

One of our church members shared in Open Time a few weeks ago that she was reading Fox’s Book of Martyrs.  Do you know how these faithful followers of Jesus died?  Church tradition tells us that humble Andrew was hung on an X-shaped cross.  Peter was hung upside-down on a cross.  We really do take our freedom to be known as a follower of Jesus for granted in this culture.  But will you follow if it means having to leave your job because your boss is asking you to do something unethical?  Will you say good-bye to friendships when you discover that your peers want to pull you into rebellion and into sin that you know is against the will of God.  Will you stay quiet and deny that you know Jesus when folks around you laugh and mock the foolish religious folk who believe that God created the world, the unenlightened nature of those who believe that Jesus came back from the dead, and those silly simple people that hold on to the hope that Jesus will return as a King.  Are we truly willing to deny ourselves, to think of others as more important than we are?

What are you seeking?

Imagine Jesus turning around to ask you this question, “What are you looking for?”   What is most important to you?  Where are you looking for satisfaction?  What is your source of fulfillment? What offers you the greatest source of meaning?  Is your answer a what or a whom?

While we were studying this text together, my wife pointed out what a wonderful thing it is that Jesus provides such a great model for us.  He is always seeking the will of the Father.  He says, “Not my will but the Father’s will be done!”

Every heart has its object.  If your heart is not set upon Jesus Christ, it is set upon something else – something that is not Christ!  Are you seeking a religious experience?  Do you find your satisfaction in community, in family, in your job, in the house that you have established, in the reputation that you have built?  Are you seeking popularity, respect, honor?  Would you be satisfied if you were wealthy, if you were powerful, if you were known by others as a wonderful smart entertaining person?  If you seek to find Jesus, to follow him, He will answer!  Seek and you will find Him!

Matthew 7:7-11 says, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

Where are you staying?

Where is your safe place amidst the storms of life?  Are you abiding with Jesus?  Do your anxieties, work woes, family troubles, health problems, and financial challenges pull you away from the joy of salvation the peace that staying with Jesus can bring?  Yes, we do live in this world and we must deal with the very real difficulties of the brokenness and fallen nature of this place.  We are aliens and strangers here.  This is not our true home.  Ultimately we will be reunited in full with Jesus and will abide with Him without distraction.  But let us take encouragement from the Word, from the time that we can spend in the throne room of God because of our relationship to Jesus.  May we abide with Jesus more and more each day.  Remember, when we call to Jesus to ask Him, “Where are you staying”, He responds to us, “Come and See!” 

Who are you bringing to Jesus? 

As members of the church many of us have publicly committed to bringing a lot of young folks to Jesus.  Are we keeping that commitment by building relationships with them, checking in with them, teaching them in Sunday school, and spending special time with them?

Who do you need to bring to Jesus?  I would challenge you to think of a friend at school, a person you work with, a neighbor, a family member that you can once again find time to love.  Let them know by your actions that you are excited about your relationship with Jesus, the Christ.  Share with your brothers and sisters in Christ how we can pray for you as you relate to this person.  Talk to us about how you can lovingly and wisely represent Jesus in the midst of others.  Let us pray with you that our God and Father in His infinite mercy will use you to bring others to Jesus.

Is your name written in the Lamb’s book of life? 

Does Jesus know your name?  I love that immediate recognition that Jesus gives to Peter.  “I know you, you are Simon, son of John.”  When we see Jesus face to face, what a great joy it will be for him to call out our name!  How horrible for Him to say, “ Depart from me, I never knew you”.

This passage really is an introduction to Jesus, the Christ.  As John says, “Behold, The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”  Are you seeking Jesus?  Jesus is inviting you to come and see!  He wants you to abide with Him.

I’ll close with a reading from the book of Revelation where John writes these words of encouragement to the exiles, aliens, and strangers that are looking forward to that new city where we will be united with Christ.  This is what lies ahead for those who follow, for those who seek, for those who abide with Him:

Rev 21:22-27  And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life.

Blessings to you ~ Steadman

As we look at the events discussed in the first chapter of the Gospel of John we need to place them along the timeline of Jesus life.  Where we pick up reading, John the Baptist has already baptized Jesus and has given witness to the Holy Spirit’s anointing of Jesus in the opening verses of Chapter 1.  We know from the other gospel accounts that Jesus has just recently gone into the wilderness for his 40-day fast where Satan tempts him.  The Gospel of John picks up with Jesus having returned from his 40-days in the wilderness and John the Baptist is called upon to give testimony as to Jesus’ identity. 

We read in chapter 1, verse 29 and following John the Baptist’s witness regarding Jesus. This is the Ultimate in Introductions!  Imagine being asked to introduce someone very important – in this case, the most important person in history!  This is what John the Baptist is called to do and in the following verses we find his introduction to Jesus, the Christ.

The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.’ I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel.” And John bore witness: “I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.” John 1:29-34

This passage is directly related to The Purpose of John.  John is a book of signs; a book dedicated showing the true identity of Jesus as the Christ.  John tells us explicitly what his purpose is before closing his book:

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. John 20:30-31

The writer of John is concerned with answering the question:  Who is Jesus?  Who is he historically?  What is the truth about his identity?  Each encounter with Jesus focuses in to answer this question.  Here are a few of the answers given here in this portion of Chapter 1

• Vs 29 – The Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
• Vs 34 – This is the Son of God
• Vs 36 – John the Baptist repeats his testimony – Behold the Lamb of God!
• Vs 41 – We have found the Messiah (which means Christ or the Anointed One)

Jesus will invite those who follow Him to come and see for themselves exactly who He is.  Come and See!  It is interesting to note that after spending some time with Jesus his followers are quick to identify Him as the Messiah, the Son of God and this takes place before he has performed his first miracles in their midst.  The Wedding at Cana is discussed in Chapter 2 but here in Chapter 1 we see their early faith.  After his followers identify Him as the Son of God, the King of Israel, Jesus says to Nathanial in Chapter 1 verse 50… “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree, ‘do you believe?  You will see greater things than these!”  He has yet to display His glory and His power.

Blessings to you ~ Steadman

Our cell group from Covenant Fellowship met this evening at another family’s home to sing praises, study the Bible, and pray together in this weekly smaller church meeting.  One of our elders taught tonight from the Gospel of John, chapter 21, verses 15-19.  This passage follows the section in John that describes the details of Jesus appearing to seven of His disciples at the shore of the Sea of Tiberius after His resurrection. 

We looked at the way in which Jesus condescended to Peter in order to restore the relationship that had been broken by Peter’s denial of Jesus just prior to the crucifixion.  Three times Jesus asks in various ways if Peter truly loves Him and three times He gives Peter different instructions for caring for the church as a follow up to Peter’s response.  Jesus closes with a prediction about the way that Peter’s life will come to a close.  In summary, Jesus is telling Peter that he will never again deny Jesus as Lord.  Peter will face the same fears and circumstances that led him to deny Jesus before and yet in the future Peter will endure to the end. 

The next verse simply says, “And after saying this he said to him, ‘Follow me.’” John 21:19

It struck me that these were, of course, the same words that Jesus had cried out from the shore of the sea a few years earlier when he called Peter and his brother to leave their family business and start a new service at His side.  Nearly three years earlier Mark records these words of Christ, ‘And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.’” Mark 1:17

What an encouragement it is that Jesus does not call us to follow Him only at the outset of our walk, at the beginning of our discipleship.  Though we stumble, though we fall, though we fail to identify ourselves with Him fully in the course of our walk, He that began that good work in us is there calling us again and again to come and follow Him.  Our redeemer beckons us to press ahead restoring us to Himself and spurring us on in the Way.  May we hear His call whether it be for the first time or whether we are hearing it again after a season of spiritual challenge.  Look to Jesus and hear His words, “Follow me.”

Blessings to you ~ Steadman

I’ve been reading a Psalm and a passage from the Gospel of Luke each morning recently.  I was struck this morning by the incredible connection between the words of Psalm 8 and a passage in Luke chapter 12.  I’ll include these here for your convenience.

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?  Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. (Psalm 8)

Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.  And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried.  For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you.  Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys.  For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. (Luke 12)

I love those words from Jesus, “fear not little flock”.  That is exactly what the church amounted to at the time that Jesus was speaking to the new members of the Kingdom.  It was a handful of people who had all sorts of fears and anxieties about their lives.  Although the headlines of CNN have been plastered with news clips about ‘the church’ for weeks as the world has witnessed  the move from one papacy to another in Rome making the flock of Christians seeming huge and important in many ways, I think we are, indeed, still a little flock in many ways.  The reminder of the heavens, the enormous moon that rose full over our earth on Saturday night (quite a sight here in Greensboro) and the host of stars, puts our frail lives quickly in perspective.  We are but specks of dust in an enormous universe, and yet God, in His mercy and love, cares for us.  Luke records for us the Son of God speaking to a scared and unsettled crowd of believers reassuring them that the God of Heaven desires to give to them the Kingdom.  What a marvelous reminder to those of us who are pleased to be named among this little flock.  May our hearts be found at rest in Him and as our fears are put at ease, may we indeed care for those in need.

Blessings to you ~ Steadman

Today was the meeting of First Presbytery for the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church.  We met at a local church and during the course of the day there were 3 sermons given by various students of theology.  The sermons were a real blessing.  One of the sermons addressed the topic of revival using the text of Nehemiah to formulate the necessary condition of heart in order to prepare ourselves for revival.  I took time tonight to go back and look a few passages in Nehemiah and Ezra and was struck by the details of this passage:

While Ezra prayed and made confession, weeping and casting himself down before the house of God, a very great assembly of men, women, and children, gathered to him out of Israel, for the people wept bitterly. And Shecaniah the son of Jehiel, of the sons of Elam, addressed Ezra: “We have broken faith with our God and have married foreign women from the peoples of the land, but even now there is hope for Israel in spite of this. Therefore let us make a covenant with our God to put away all these wives and their children, according to the counsel of my lord and of those who tremble at the commandment of our God, and let it be done according to the Law. Arise, for it is your task, and we are with you; be strong and do it.” Then Ezra arose and made the leading priests and Levites and all Israel take oath that they would do as had been said. So they took the oath.  (Ezra 10:1-5)

These events were certainly the product of a specific time in history.  The giving up and putting away of foreign wives and their children were important for the purification of God’s people at a time when they were literally returning to God from having incorporated themselves into foreign cultures and the worship of foreign gods that were part of that culture.  Despite the unique circumstances I find it incredible to think that these men were willing to give up their wives and their children in order to fully repent before the Lord.  In the passage above, Ezra came before the house of the Lord weeping in front of the people and casting himself down on the ground.  A covenant was made with the Lord and the men of Israel took the incredible step of separating themselves from the women that they loved and the children that were a product of their union in order to be made right before the Lord.  Their sins were certainly great sins but it is important to recognize that their repentance was significant repentance. 

How do we respond when we are made aware of our sin?  What would you be willing to do in order to make things right between yourself and a Holy God?  Thankfully, as members of a new covenant, we have a redeemer.  We recognize our sin and turn to Jesus in repentance and we are covered by his blood.  May our turning to Jesus, who gave up His life that we might be saved, not be an action that we take lightly.  May our turning from sin be like the putting away of a wife or a child – a significant and serious step of repentance.  May we whole-heartedly turn from our sin and turn our eyes upon Jesus.

Blessings to you ~ Steadman

In every generation there are similar temptations and common sins.  We need to remember that there really is nothing new under the sun.  Sexual sins, violent acts, abuse of drugs, and all sorts of evils surround us.  Pride, greed, envy, anger, lust, gluttony, sloth – the seven deadly sins – are always lurking in the background and there are agents of evil that can lure us into the path of these sins. 

The book of Proverbs introduces the theme of wisdom in the opening chapter.  The book begins by suggesting that the young person should listen to the way of wisdom and immediately following the writer dives into a warning.  “Do not give in to sinners who will entice you.”  These verses may look like a narrow warning focused on the concern of being drawn into violent acts that would result in murder and stealing.  However, the book of proverbs covers all the types of sin that we have mentioned in this blog entry.  The message is simple - agents of evil will try to entice you and when this happens we must not give in or else our very lives can be taken away.

“My son, if sinners entice you, do not give in to them. If they say, "Come along with us; let's lie in wait for someone's blood, let's waylay some harmless soul; let's swallow them alive, like the grave, and whole, like those who go down to the pit; we will get all sorts of valuable things and fill our houses with plunder; throw in your lot with us, and we will share a common purse" my son, do not go along with them, do not set foot on their paths; for their feet rush into sin, they are swift to shed blood. How useless to spread a net in full view of all the birds! These men lie in wait for their own blood; they waylay only themselves! Such is the end of all who go after ill-gotten gain; it takes away the lives of those who get it.”  (Proverbs 1:10-19)

All of us should heed this warning and choose our peers carefully.  This has an impact on the job environment that we will choose, the restaurants we frequent, our choice of schools for our children, whether we will live in a particular neighborhood, attend a certain church, or allow our kids to hang out at some of the most popular spots (malls, parks, theaters, and parking lots).  I think heeding this warning has the greatest impact on how we parent.  After all, Proverbs is written to the young person making choices as they grow up.  The decisions we make during these formative years have an incredible lasting effect on our lives.  We need to give serious thought to how we will intervene in the life of our children when we see the influential peers around them, when we see the people who are enticing them towards evil.  For a season we have the ability to shelter and guide our children and then we most believe and hope that the wisdom that we have instilled in them, the way in which they should go that we have imparted to them, and our prayers for their future will see them through the years of temptation to follow.  May the Lord protect us all leading us not into temptation but delivering us from evil.

Blessings to you ~ Steadman

I’d like to share a blog entry based on the message that I was honored to deliver at the funeral of Michael L. Miller Sr.  In addition to a number of other Scriptures used throughout the service, the following passage was the focus of the funeral homily.  I hope that the family members were encouraged by this message and I hope that those of you dealing with grief, loss, and the reality of death will also be blessed.

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died. For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will by no means precede those who have died. For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel's call and with the sound of God's trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air; and so we will be with the Lord for ever. Therefore encourage one another with these words.

The title of this blog comes from the last words of this passage – “Encourage One Another with These Words”.  When our family or friends suffer a great loss, we need to talk about the loss, we need to talk about the grief that occurs when we experience the death of one that we love.  It is also important that we gain a renewed and greater understanding of the hope that we have because of Jesus.

I want us to focus on the message that Paul shares with us just in the first and last verses of this passage.  There’s a lot here – I simply want us to take away with us the message of hope that we can share with each other as a means of encouragement.

First, we need to be informed – knowledgeable of the Good News so that when one of our loved ones dies, our grief will be seasoned with hope.

Second, the last words that Paul shares with us here is that we should encourage one another with these words.

Notice that Paul isn’t telling us that we have no cause for grief.  Our grief is real and it is appropriate.  Remember that Jesus himself wept at the news of the death of his dear friend Lazarus.  Those who stood near by him said, “See how he loved him!”  When we lose a dear friend or relative to death, we experience a real pain and our tears in response to this pain are necessary.  Someone is missing amongst us and our grief for this loss is real.

What is the Good News that gives us hope in the midst of our grief?  Paul says, “Since Jesus died and rose again, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died.”  Friends and family members, through Jesus, death is not the end.  We have hope because Jesus overcame death.  Though he died, he rose again on the Third Day.  In another month we will celebrate Easter – that time on our calendar when we remember that the stone was rolled away and that our Lord came out of the grave overcoming death.  He was seen by the women at the grave, by his disciples, by a crowd of 500.  It is in this historic truth that we have hope.

We have the Gospel, the good news that Jesus defeated death with His own resurrection.  In Corinthians we read, “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” “Where, O death, is your victory” Where, O death, is your sting?”  Thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Our grief after the death of a dear friend is appropriate but because we understand the truth of Scripture our grief is not like that of the world around us.  Many in our world believe that death is the end – how sad and hopeless, how empty to think such a thing.  We have hope because of our Risen Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Jesus was the first born of the resurrected. 

Jesus tells us in the Gospel of John…
"Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.  In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.  And you know the way to where I am going."  John 14:1-4

Jesus is the first to be resurrected but those in Christ will also be resurrected – Not with bodies troubled by disease, decay, and sickness.  Those in Christ will be resurrected with perfect bodies, whole and complete as God wants us to be.  We look forward to a day, a great day, when there will be no more sin, no more tears, and no more death.  This is our hope in the midst of our grief.

The second thing that I want us to consider is the phrase at the end of this passage.  Why does Paul say that we should, “encourage one another with these words”?  Why are these words shared with us?  Surely it must have been because they saw the need of hurting people, the pain that their friends were experiencing.  Paul, Timothy, and Silas know the need for encouragement amongst their friends at Thessalonica and they want these words of hope and comfort to be shared with those in need, those facing the loss of a loved one.  God in His love has protected these words and delivered them to us here today.  He is a God of comfort, a God of mercy, a God of love and His desire is that we know the good news found here in His Word so that we might find comfort in the midst of our grief.

I believe that these words are also an encouragement to us for another reason.  When we lose a family member or friend to death, it is often a time for us to consider the frailty of our own lives.  Not only do we have hope in the midst of our grief, we have encouragement, the assurance of everlasting life when we come to Jesus who is the way, the truth, and the life.  Jesus died for us, for our sins and we look to the cross, to the empty grave, and to the expectation of his return in faith and find purpose and meaning for the life we live.  We are called to live a new life in Christ and my prayer is that we would see every day as an opportunity to serve Him, to live as Christ lived.

If you have recently lost a loved one to death, my desire is that you will find comfort in these words…that we would encourage each other with these words.  Jesus is coming back!  “God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 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.”  (Philippians 2:10)

There is good news here in I Thessalonians…The King will return!  “The Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel's call and with the sound of God's trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first.”  On that great day the brokenness of this fallen world will be set right.  Those in Christ will be united with Him and reunited with the saints who have gone before us.  What good news we have in the midst of our sorrow, what a great hope we have in the midst of our grief.

Blessings to you ~ Steadman

Last week I read a passage of Scripture to my boys that proved to be a lesson for both them and me.  We have been reading the opening chapters of Joshua and we came to the place where Joshua instructed the people to prepare to cross over the Jordan River and move into the Land of Canaan.  When the people came to the river it was overflowing its banks and presented a barrier that at first looked impossible to traverse.  What seemed impossible for man proved to be a moment of instruction from the Lord.  Joshua listened as God told His people exactly what He wanted them to do.  As the Ark of the Covenant was carried into the river, the water was parted much like the Red Sea was in the time of Moses.  These are the next verses we read:

When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the LORD said to Joshua, "Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe, and tell them to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan from right where the priests stood and to carry them over with you and put them down at the place where you stay tonight."  So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe, and said to them, "Go over before the ark of the LORD your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, 'What do these stones mean?' tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD . When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever. (Joshua 4:1-7)

The lesson that my boys took away from this story was that we need to be obedient and follow the Lord’s instructions.  We need to listen to His Word and follow it because, when we follow the Lord, He takes great care of His people.  For me, I saw the need for me, as a father, to stack up some stones in the course of my life.  I need to have some place markers, testimonies that my boys will see and ask me about.  “Why do we live in Greensboro? How did you meet Mommy?  How do our bills get paid?  Where did you learn to teach the Bible?”  These are all questions that I hope my boys will ask when they see the stacked stones of our lives – our home, our marriage, our finances, our study of God’s Word.  Each of these are testimonies to the Lord’s goodness, to miracles that have taken place in our midst.  Like the children of Israel that stacked stones they brought out of the River Jordan, we need to set up reminders for the sake of our children that point to the love and care of our Lord.

Blessings to you ~ Steadman

Last night I read my children a paraphrased version of an event found in the Old Testament book of Numbers.  Here are the key verses that the paraphrased children’s version drew upon:

They traveled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea, to go around Edom. But the people grew impatient on the way; they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the desert? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!" Then the LORD sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died. The people came to Moses and said, "We sinned when we spoke against the LORD and against you. Pray that the LORD will take the snakes away from us." So Moses prayed for the people.  The LORD said to Moses, "Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live." So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived. (Numbers 21:4-9)

As is my custom, when I finished reading to the boys, I asked a few questions to make sure they understood the story and to make sure they listened well enough to have heard the message from the Bible.  I’ve heard a number of preachers use this passage as a parallel to what God did for all of us when He allowed His son to be lifted up on the cross that ‘whosoever would believe in Him should be saved’.  My last question to my five year old was simply, can you think of any other place in the Bible where something was lifted up on a wooden pole in order to save the lives of the people?  My son quickly answered, “That’s what happened to Jesus”.  It was such a blessing to see how easy it was for my child to connect the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross with the saving grace of the bronze serpent that Moses lifted up in the desert.  We have all been bitten by the venomous and deadly poison of sin and we are all going to die.  People are dying in their sins all around us.  God has seen the problem of death and sin that trap the world He created and in His mercy He has provided a way out, a way through.  There is Jesus, lifted up for the entire world to see and all we have to do is accept the gift of salvation – to look with repentant faith upon the person of Jesus – and our lives will be eternally spared.  I praise God for the faith of my son and I pray that the world around us will recognize the problem of death and sin and look to Jesus, our means of salvation, our bronze serpent in the midst of this desert place.

Blessings to you ~ Steadman

Paul calls our presentation of our bodies as living sacrifices our “spiritual worship.” “This worship of God has a remarkable breadth.  It encompasses hymns, prayers, and spiritual exhortation, all of which Paul valued and explicitly advised to be cultivated.”[1]  However, it is not only acts of singing and exhortation that please the Lord.  We are accustomed to a new generation of worship.  We are taught that our singing on Sunday morning is our sacrifice and our worship.  Songs include lyrics such as, “We bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the Lord”.  It is important to remember our sacrifice is not the sacrifice of ages past.  Samuel reminded Saul during a period of history when animal sacrifice was a key element of fulfilling the law of God that the sacrifice of animals was only to illustrate what God truly desired from His people.  “And Samuel said, ‘Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.’”  (1 Samuel 15:22)  Our ultimate act of worship and sacrifice must include obedience.  “According to Paul, the worship of God which truly corresponds to God’s nature and will includes the bodily act of obedience.  Only when they really serve God with their soul, understanding, heart and hands, in other words, always and everywhere, will the Christians do justice to their creator and the merciful God who saves them.”[2]  Because we are self-serving and disobedient outside of Christ, we must present ourselves fully and give up our struggle to take back what is no longer ours.  We must give up our desire to do what is outside of the will of God or other than what He would have from us.

   Obedience to God requires a new understanding of how we are to live in the myriad of situations that this life presents.  It is for this reason that Paul spends the remaining portion of his letter describing carefully the ethics of the Christian life.  “The task of ethics, thus defined and directed, becomes both serious and impressive, for it lies wholly beyond this world.  It admits of no retreat.  It rules out an obedience affecting only the ‘inner’ life of the soul or of the mind.  In the light of ‘critical’ ethics, ‘inwardness’, ‘soul-fulness’, ‘thought-fulness’, are seen to be either—when regarded from below—merely higher function of the body, in which case no distinction can be drawn between higher and lower function that is sufficiently clear to admit of the latter being simply left behind in disobedience; or—when regarded from above—the new man in Christ whence comes precisely that disturbance from which the old man of the body has no means of escape.”[3]  We have a new purpose in Christ and an ability to obey that flows from the mercies of God.  “We live lives of obedience and love because of the gospel of the God who in Jesus Christ enters into right relationship with the ungodly and therefore calls us into a right relationship with one another.”[4]  For this reason the life of the Christian should stand apart, not only because we are called to be sanctified, to be holy, but because our act of obedience is something that should be complete.  We are new creatures with a new will having sacrificed on the alter our old selves.  Anything short of a radical change fails to grasp the response that Paul is calling for here.  “What behavior could be more foolish than the behavior of those newly-converted men who, after their conversion, leap to embark with confidence upon an adequate moral life?[5]  The church that preaches the moral life rather than the life remade in Christ is falling short of the response due the good news of the gospel. 

   There is only one way to truly define the type of obedience to which we are called.  Our obedience is an act of total repentance.  The sacrifice of our bodies is the sign of a truly repentant heart. “Repentance is the ‘primary’ ethical action upon which all ’secondary’ ethical conduct depends and by which it is illuminated.  Repentance is—the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is the will of God, even what is good and acceptable and perfect.  And so we are brought back to thought. Yes, repentance, as the ‘primary’ ethical action, is the act of rethinking.  This transformation of thought is the key to the problem of ethics, for it is the place where the turning about takes place by which men are directed to a new behavior.”[6]  We repent and turn our lives to the scriptures to seek understanding about how we are to live going forward.

   Having experienced this repentance our natural response is to desire to serve the Lord.  “It is through their service to righteousness that Christians belong entirely to their Lord.  In turn, their Lord has the right to demand from them this all-encompassing service.”[7]  We are told to consider the interests of others higher than our own interest and to serve others as Jesus Christ taught us to serve by His example.  This service is our obedient response at every turn.  “Worship is the way we live, not what we do on Sunday morning … We worship God, says Paul, be giving ourselves in sacrificial service to our Lord.  We are to serve him every day, every hour, every minute.”[8]  The life of the Christian is set apart by this pattern of living.  It becomes a defining characteristic and a trait that makes for good ambassadors of Jesus Christ.  “The verse ‘Do not be conformed to this world’ could just as well be translated ‘do not be conformed to this age.’ That is, ‘Live as citizens of the new age of faithful obedience.  Be who you really are.’”[9]  If our response is to glorify God because of what He has done for us there is no better way than to faithfully serve Him.  “What God’s will turns out to be is what is ‘good and acceptable and perfect.’  If we obediently live lives that are good, acceptable and (moving toward) the perfect, we will discover that those are the lives that serve God’s kingdom, that worship and glorify God.”[10]  We must live as kingdom people having been brought into relationship with the king.

   Paul speaks of our need to resist against being conformed to this world or this age.  Instead we are to live as members of a new kingdom and a new world.  “Paul’s scheme divides all of history into two eras, the one ‘before Christ’ and the one ‘after Christ’ … It is this grand salvation-historical scheme that informs Paul’s passing reference to ‘this world [age]’ in verse 2.  Though ever-present, pressing in on us from every side, that age must not ‘press us into its mold’ … remembering that we belong to the new age Christ inaugurated, we must seek to live out the values of that new age, allowing the Spirit to transform our innermost thoughts and attitudes.”[11]  Recalling this membership of the new kingdom requires a remaking of our minds.  The world constantly pushes distractions of every kind in our direction and we must be cautious how we respond to the temptations of entertainment, lust, and even idleness.   “What are we feeding our minds? … Our job is to cooperate with God’s Spirit by seeking to feed into our minds information that will reprogram our thinking in line with the values of the kingdom.”[12]  In order to stay the course and to live the obedient lives of service to which we are called, we must actively undertake the transforming of our minds.  Just as the exhortation that Paul provides to us personally is to be taken seriously at the individual level and the corporate level, we need to take the exhortation to renew our minds to the teaching of the church.   “If renewing the mind is as important as Paul says, then the goal of ministry should be to form Christian minds in people.  This will require preaching that goes beyond teaching people what is right and wrong and that inculcates a worldview in people.”[13]  The work of the church is to teach both the good news of the gospel and the obedient life that is our reasonable act of worship in our effort to reflect the truth to which we have been called.

Blessings to you ~ Steadman

Paul preaches, “present your bodies as a living sacrifice”!  Again, the modern reader has little experience to draw upon to help them understand what this could possibly mean for their lives.  We are no longer a people who participate in the traditional rituals of temple offerings.  Paul was not speaking to a group of people who partook of these old world sacrifices either. “In the Hellenistic period, the educated pious turned away from the course and bloody sacrifices in the temples, considering it to be more appropriate to honor in the Spirit the invisible, spiritual deity.  Their prayers were thus the ‘spiritual’ or ‘reasonable’ sacrifice which truly corresponded to the nature of God.”[1]  God requires more than just the act of sacrifice and in the scriptures He makes His priorities clear.  Consider the words of the Old Testament prophet, Micah:

With what shall I come before the LORD
and bow down before the exalted God?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
with calves a year old?
Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams,
with ten thousand rivers of oil?
Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
He has showed you, O man, what is good.
And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.  (Micah 6:6-8) 

God is calling us to a new motivation and a new form of sacrifice. “We give ourselves to God as his sacrifices when we understand his grace and its place I our lives.  We offer ourselves not ignorantly, like animals brought to slaughter, but intelligently and willingly.  This is the worship that pleases God.”[2]  We are no longer called to a sacrifice of something that is dead.  Paul is calling us to living sacrifices. “[Living] refers to the nature of the sacrifice itself:  one that does not die as it is offered but goes on living and therefore continues in its efficacy until the person who is offered dies.  ‘Holy’ is a regular description of sacrifices; it implies here that the offering of ourselves to God involves a being ‘set apart’ from the profane and a dedication to the service of the Lord.  Such a sacrifice is ‘well pleasing to God.”[3]  In our sins we are double-minded with hearts that seek both to serve God and to serve ourselves.  The response to the mercies and grace of God is one of sacrifice by which we put away our self-worship and set ourselves apart for the sole purpose of worshiping God.  “To sanctify something means to separate and prepare it that it may be presented and offered to God.  This is more precisely defined in the conception of sacrifice.  The exhortation which is grounded upon the mercies of God and is directed towards men is summed up in the demand that men should present their bodies—that is, their concrete, observable, historical existence—as a sacrifice.  Now, sacrifice means surrender; it means an unconditional gift; it means the renunciation of men in favor of God.”[4]  Our sacrifice is personal.  It requires us to not only give up one of our belongings but to give up completely.  We must cease the life that we have lived and turn to a new life in Christ.  The very first response we have in this new life is to respond with praise and thanksgiving.  “The Spirit-filled hymns and thanksgivings of the pious on the earth are also the most perfect offering that can be presented to God.”[5]  The first response we have is one of worship even in the act of putting to death our selves. 

               This sacrificing of our bodies, though an act of worship, is not something that is done merely on some spiritual level.  Our sacrifice begins with something all-encompassing.  “Christians offer no bloody sacrifice on an altar; but they offer ‘spiritual sacrifices’ (1 Pet. 2:5), such as the ‘sacrifice of praise to God, which is the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name’ … In Rom 12:1, however, the sacrifice we offer is not some specific form of praise or service, but our ‘bodies’ themselves.  It is not only what we can give that God demands; he demands the giver.”[6]  How are we to understand what Paul means by “body” in this passage?  “According to Paul, the body is the existence bestowed upon mankind by God, in which the creatures of God live with and for one another.  Even if the flesh passes away the body will be resurrected … The creatures’ acts with and for one another will thus endure beyond death and the day of judgment.”[7]  This sacrifice requires a change at the very deepest level of being.  The motive and behavior of the Christian life is fundamentally different than that of the life lived in the world.   “It is the offering of bodily existence in the otherwise profane sphere.  Chrysostom comments:  ‘And how is the body, it may be said, to become a sacrifice?  Let the eye look on no evil thing, and it hath become a sacrifice; let thy tongue speak nothing filthy, and it hath become an offering; let thine hand do no lawless deed, and it hath become a whole burnt offering.’”[8]  This seems to be a once and for all sacrifice and yet it is not a one time action on the part of the believer.  “The sacrifice which they have to offer [is marked] by means of an ever-renewed, but never completed, return to His mercy and freedom.”[9]  We are continually returning to the altar of God because of His great mercies and yet we are forever changed by the moving of our hearts to heed the call of God and place our lives in line with Paul’s exhortation here. 

Blessings to you ~ Steadman

   For thousands of years it was common for people to bring an animal to the priest to be killed and laid upon an alter.  Children grew up with the understanding of sacrifice.  They witnessed their parents giving up one of their family belongings as an offering to God.  We have lost this sense of sacrifice.  Even in the modern church where tithes are faithfully placed in the hands of church treasurers for the purpose of paying the pastor’s salary, supporting the operating costs, and giving to missions there is very little correlation to the old world notion of sacrifice.  We do not see the signs of blood being spilt or smell the burning of fat or flesh.

   Paul’s epistle to the Romans has a centerpiece, a focal passage where the letter transitions. Living sacrifice is at the heart of this centerpiece.  The placement, meaning, and purpose of Romans 12:1-2 are critical to our understanding of the letter as a whole.  We read, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, 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 renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God--what is good and acceptable and perfect.”  (Romans 12:1-2) 

   The first eleven chapters of Romans represent Paul’s understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the grace that God bestows on the believer.  Having explained this good news to the members of the Christian church at Rome, Paul then turns his attention to the question of how the believer should live given the knowledge and experience of salvation.  “Romans 12:1-2 is one of the best-known passages in the Bible—and deservedly so, for we find here a succinct description of the essence of the believer’s response to God’s grace in the gospel of Jesus Christ.  It functions as the heading for all the specifics Paul will unpack in the subsequent chapters.”[1]  The life of the believer is redefined in response to salvation.  Life now has the purpose of glorifying God.  “The question Paul addresses in Romans 12:1-2 is, How do we glorify God?  That is, how do we worship the one from whom, through whom, and to whom all things are?”[2]  Paul begins by saying, “I appeal to you therefore” and, “‘Therefore’ must be given its full weight; Paul wants to show that the exhortations of 12:1-15:13 are built firmly on the theology f chaps. 1-11.”[3]  The passage of Romans 12:1-2 provides a transition from the groundwork of theology to the application of this theology for guiding the daily life of the believer.  “Paul’s gospel is deeply theological, but it is also eminently practical.  The good news of Jesus Christ is intended to transform a person’s life.  Until individual Christians own and live out the theology, the gospel has not accomplished its purpose.”[4]  It is the appeal of this central passage that turns our attention to action and response.

   What then is the nature of this appeal?  Is Paul pleading or preaching?  “In making this admonition, the apostle uses the same word in the phrase, ‘I now exhort you,’ that he used to describe his work of preaching in 2 Cor. 5:20.  Preaching the gospel and exhorting the church (Paraklesis) belong together for Paul.”[5]  Paul is not pleading but rather proclaiming what is the only response in the heart of one who knows the love of God.  “This is the meaning of the words:--I beseech you therefore, brethren.  Break off—all ye who follow my thoughts, worship with me, and are pilgrims with me—break off your thinking that it may be a thinking of God; … break off your knowledge of God, that it may be what, in fact, it is, the wholesome disturbance and interruption which God in Christ prepares, in order that He may call men home to the peace of His Kingdom.”[6] 

            We are being called to a response and we are being taught how to call the world around us into response.  The purpose of the Church is to take the gospel of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth and with the gospel comes this proclamation and exhortation.  “If, therefore, the Church is to be a place of exhortation, it must be a Church altogether aware of its final and indissoluble solidarity with this world of ‘dry bones’; it must be a Church which has set its hope upon God only.  When such a church embarks upon moral exhortation, its exhortation can be naught else but a criticism of all human behavior, a criticism which moves through every one of the 360 degrees of the circle of our ambiguous life.”[7]  Paul will use this lens of exhortation as he redefines the behaviors of all of those who are in Christ.

               If we are called to exhort, we need to be careful to search our hearts lest we suggest in our exhortation a judgment that would render us hypocritical.  And yet, in our fallen state, we find at every turn the evidence of our own shortcomings.  Paul must have been heavy with the truth of his own sinful nature.  For this reason, Paul begins his exhortation not with judgment but with grace.  How can we exhort, given our failures, if not from the starting point of God’s great mercies? We must begin with the mercies of God!  “Human exhortation, therefore, is justified only when it is seen to be void of human justification; that is to say, when it is grounded upon the mercies of God.”[8]  Paul turns immediately to the grace of God with, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God.”  It is grace that allows Paul to exhort. “Grace is sufficient to destroy the noxious assurance of men and to give them the status of the new man in Christ.  Grace is sufficient to awaken them from the sleep of righteousness, and to make of them men who have been sacrificed.”[9]  Each of us can find consolation and the boldness to proclaim the truth through this grace.  “Grace means not judging, because the judgment has already taken place.  Grace means the recognition that a bad conscience must be assumed in the daily routine of an evil world.  But precisely for this reason grace means also the possibility, not of a ‘good’ conscience, but of a consoled conscience.”[10]  In these opening words of this passage we find a wonderful summary and solid transition.  “All that Paul has written in the letter thus far may be summed up under the heading of the mercy of God in action.  Paul has just summarized that universal mercy of God (11:30-32) and expressed praise to God for it (11:33-36).  Now he calls Christians to respond.  The preposition ‘through” is better translated here ‘because of’ (TEV) or ‘in view of’ (NIV):  it indicates not the means by which Paul exhorts but the basis, or even the source, of the exhortation.”[11]  Having stated the source of his exhortation and looked at the placement of this passage, let us consider what we are being exhorted to do.

Blessings to you ~ Steadman

There is a contemplation in Psalm 8 that is worthy of our study and attention.  The writer does not merely lay out his praise before the Lord of hosts but rather begs for understanding in the midst of his consideration of God and the special place of relationship within which he finds himself.  How can it be that God would condescend to have intimacy with such a speck of dust as mortal man must be in comparison to the vast universe surrounding us?  We read, “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?” (Psalm 8:3-4)  In order to understand what this psalm is saying about the relationship between God and humanity we need to take a closer look at the passage in its entirety.  It is important to point out that, “The question is not merely, ‘what is man’?  It is not primarily anthropological but theological:  ‘that you are mindful of him.’  In other words, in view of God’s glory that has been set on the heavens, why does God preoccupy himself with mere mortals?” (Broyles, p.72)  God does, in fact, place humanity in a special place in relationship to Himself and to the world around us.

“Egocentric humans need not be reminded that we are the center of the universe, but we do need to be reminded that our place at the center is a surprise:  ‘what is man that you are mindful of him?’ . . . What is so helpful about this psalm is that it gives us reason to celebrate what we take for granted.”  (Broyles, p.72)  God genuinely cares for all of creation and has specifically chosen to extend significant relationship to humanity.  “This psalm reminds us that our supremacy in the natural world did not result form our own efforts or from something inherent in nature but from God’s deliberate choice.  The psalm takes a radial departure from ancient Near Eastern ideology by its declaration that Yahweh has made every human a king.”  (Broyles, p.72)  The question that becomes extremely important given our New Testament understanding of the Scripture as a whole is, although we are all special having been born into this human existence, are we all members of God’s kingdom?  Martin Luther interpreted Psalm 8 in light of the coming of Christ and chose to focus his interpretation and commentary of the psalm squarely on the relevance of the words in relationship not only to Creator God but also to the risen Savior, Jesus Christ.  Luther says,

The Lord is our Ruler, too, and His kingdom is established and founded from the mouths of babes and sucklings.  We entered it by Baptism, and we are called to it daily through Word and Gospel.  With David we also hope to come to where we shall see the heavens, the work of His fingers, the moon and the stars which He will prepare.  He won the kingdom with great trouble and anguish.  Now He is crowned with honor and adornment and has everything under His feet.  For this we give God our praise and thanks, but especially for the fact that He has brought us to a light and knowledge that does not sprint up out of human reason but out of Christ.  He is our Sun, who died for us and was raised from the dead, lives and reigns, so that through Him we might be saved.  To this end may God help us all.  Amen.  Glory to God alone.  (Pelikan, p.136)

May we take this meaning with us and remember that we are so special that God condescended to care for us even to the extent of sending His only son to die for us that we might live a life in eternal relationship to Him. 

Blessings to you ~ Steadman

We live in an era where the majority of religious Christian people have failed to live out the high calling of the moral law and have fallen into a pluralistic and relativistic pattern making it difficult to see the difference between those who call themselves Christians and those who do not.  Many modern Christians are guilty of replacing their love for others with a dedication to social and religious ceremony.  What does it take to please God?  This generation has answered this question with a list of dutiful answers.  “God should be pleased with me.  Have I not been in church each Sunday morning when I am in town?  Am I not a member of the Choral Society? Have I not given my fair share to the local United Way?  If God is not pleased with me, then perhaps He is asking too much.”  The minor prophet, Micah, writes during an era marked by striking similarities to this current age.  Although the issues of the ancient Middle East seem at first far removed from the problems of modern mankind in North America, a close look at the book of Micah provides us with an important and apropos message in the midst of our current day religious setting. 

Micah writes to a people who were apparently frequent in their acts of religious ceremony.  They were the equivalent of our regular Sunday morning churchgoers.  And yet their ceremony was no longer pure and distinct as a worship of Yahweh but was instead tainted and mixed with the worship practices of other religions.  These were people who were divided by social status.  Many were affluent, wealthy, upper-class citizens.  Like our society, there were the stories about prosperous business people distracted by the peace and positive economic times that surrounded them.  And yet, there were many poor and neglected folk who were often taken advantage of and routinely mistreated and cheated.  There is much that we can learn from a study of Micah.  In the sixth chapter of Micah (6:1-8) the author delivers a litigation speech that paints a clear picture of God’s true desire for His people.  Is God satisfied with routine religious ceremony or does God expect His people to live a life that proves their faithfulness through their acts of love and their commitment to the moral law?

The book of Micah was written during the reigns of the Judean kings Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah spanning the time from 742-687BC.  The author is identified as Micah, a prophet from Moresheth, and he delivers his message to Jerusalem and Samaria, the capitals of the divided kingdoms during a turbulent period of history.  “The mighty empire of Assyria held sway over the smaller states of the Near East.”  Micah’s prophecy describes the fall of the northern kingdom of Israel to Sargon II and the destruction of Judah along with its capital by the armies of Sennacherib.  These defeats resulted in the deportation of large groups of people from Israel and Judah that were taken into captivity.

            Micah addresses the moral depravity that has gripped the land during this time.  Israel and Judah have become like the rest of the world and are no longer identified as a holy people, set apart.  Instead they look like their enemies and have lost the ethical and moral purity that God demands of His people.  The land is characterized by oppression of the poor, corruption of justice, business and economic dishonesty, false prophesy and failure to heed true prophesy, greed, lack of communal care and order, and a failure to keep God’s commandments.  Micah speaks to this generation the word of the Lord prophesying both judgment and hope.

           The book of Micah is characterized by a movement between the prophecy of judgment and the prophecy of salvation and hope.  Micah reminds the people of their covenant obligations as well as the promises of God’s covenant obligations to them through Abraham.  There are reminders of the exodus and proclamations about God’s love for the nations.  Chief of all the themes of the book seems to be the moral and ethical reminders that accompany all the prophetic judgments.  Micah 6:1-8 presents the best example of these moral and ethical reminders.

This passage in Micah reveals to the people through the legal language of a lawsuit God’s case against Israel.  They have failed to be faithful to His commandments and to remember the redemption that He has provided throughout their history.  God uses Micah to remind them that He purchased them out of their slavery, He brought them out of the desert, He protected them from adversaries, and He delivered them into the land of promise.  Their sacrifices have sporadically been presented but what God desire is greater than sacrifice.  Micah 6:8 delivers the strong reminder that, “He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you?  To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”  This requirement is not something that is merely demonstrated through religious practice to God but is made evident in the way that people treat one another.  God requires a life that places a priority on the moral law.  Faith without works is truly dead.  They are to remember their God, His faithfulness to them, and be motivated to live an ethical and moral life that brings glory and honor to Yahweh.

            Like the people of Israel and Judah we need to remember what God has done for us and live in loyalty to Him.  We need to demonstrate that we are His people in the way that we live one to another.  Instead of oppressing the poor and needy, we need to minister to them.  Instead of being a part of corruption, cheating, and dishonesty, we need to be a people who are willing to die for the truth.  Instead of being guilty of dishonest gain, we need to be willing to work hard for honest day’s earnings.  Instead of listening to false prophets, we need to heed the warning of God’s true prophets.  Instead of living lives characterized by greed and selfishness, we need to serve others with generosity and gratitude in our hearts to God for all He has done for us.  Micah calls us to live lives of kingdom people.  Indeed, the Messiah has come and the King will return.  We need to live as loyal subjects of the returning king. 

Blessings to you ~ Steadman

The Christian is called to a different life than the one we find to be most common.  If we live as we have been called to live people around us should notice a difference.  Unfortunately, these are not the ways that the world most often knows that we are Christians.  It is not because of a way of living and loving but rather because of where we go on Sunday mornings, bumper stickers we display, and the judgments that we place on the sinful lives around us.  Let us remember the words of Jesus and the words of Paul given to us as a reminder of how we are supposed to live.  May our behavior be unusual.  May we stand out in a crowd – even in a Christian crowd.  

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.  By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.  Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves.  Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.  Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.  You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.  Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.  Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.  Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.  But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness.  And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.  Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble.  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentle ness, and self control.”

Blessings to you ~ Steadman

Last year my father and I went hiking in the Smokey Mountain National Forrest. It was early Spring and still a little cool but we chose a South-facing trail that was warm in the sun. When my father and I hike we talk almost the entire time. It is such a blessing for a son to take a walk with his dad and just talk. This blessing reminds me that the Lord desires for His children to take walks and talks with Him and in doing so there is great reward. During the hike with my father I was really into the conversation and paying very little attention to the path that stretched out in front of me. All of a sudden I heard a buzz that sounded like an alarm clock going off. The noise was coming from the leaves just to the left of my foot. I looked down to see a six foot timber rattler just a couple of feet from my boot. We backed up and gave the snake plenty of room as he made his way across the trail and off into the woods. As we resumed our hike I couldn’t help looking more carefully where I placed my foot. Around every corner I was double checking to be sure that what I thought was a tree root was in fact a root and not another snake. In the Epistle to the Galatians 6:1-2 Paul says, “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” We must walk with care… carefully and diligently looking for the temptations that lie around every corner. Do you remember the passage in 1 Peter 5:8 where we are told, “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” In all of life’s little circumstances we need to be looking for how it is that we are tempted. 1. Recognize when we are tempted towards hatred, despair, strife, meanness, evil, and harshness… Recognize our temptation towards the Flesh. 2. Repent of any sinfulness – even our sinful inclinations – sins of omission and commission. 3. Redirect our actions to the way of the Spirit We must be sober-minded... temperate… able to see with Spiritual eyes – rather than oblivious, intemperate, drunken, dropping our inhibitions and just going with our natural, sinful inclinations. Think of the rattlesnakes of temptation that lie waiting to strike out there in the dead leaves the bushes, in between the rocks along the path that we walk. May the Lord help us to walk carefully. Blessings to you ~ Steadman

I recently preached a sermon from Philippians 4:12-13 where Paul says, “I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” For Paul, contentment was knowing that life was not conditioned by what could be taken away. Rather, his relationship to Christ put everything else in its proper perspective. He explains early in his letter to his friends at Philippi that, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” (Philip. 1:21) We need to ask ourselves, “What do we live for?” Do you live for success? To make good grades? For popularity? Do you live for your family? Where does your contentment come from? Is it found in your home, in your relationships, in your talents or abilities – as an athlete, as a parent, as an employee, as a student? If the answer is that you live for the upper-middle class dream that we are constantly being sold by our culture (the job, the house, the car, the kids, the vacations)… what happens when and if these things are taken away? As many of us know, jobs can be lost, houses sometimes have to be sold, cars can be wrecked, even the lives around us we charish the most are not imune to the consequences of the Fall. We need to be able to say with Paul, TO LIVE IS CHRIST! Are we Christ-sufficient? Do we lean on Jesus for the strength to endure being humbled, being brought low? Let us, like Paul, associate ourselves fully with our Lord who humbled himself even to the point of death - death on a cross! Let us remember that our citizenship is in heaven. We have a calling to serve others here in this world right where we live in this season… this is our time… but ultimately, we are strangers here, foreigners, visitors. We need to remember that contentment is knowing that life is not conditioned by what can be taken away. Rather, our relationship to Christ should place everything else in its proper perspective. So ask yourself, what do you live for? ~ Steadman

In John chapter 13 we are invited behind the door and into to the upper room where the disciples are eating their last supper with Jesus before he begins the hours of agony that will lead ultimately to the cross. We are upstream of the raging waterfall and the river is broad, the air is still quiet, and time seems to move more slowly. Jesus has time to teach, the disciples time to listen. They have been eating a meal together and talking. Has Jesus already instructed his followers to remember him in the breaking of bread and the drinking of the wine or is this still to come? John does not tell us. John recollects for us another meaningful moment that took place during supper. Their teacher and Lord gets up from the table in the midst of the meal and begins washing their feet. Then we find this passage… John 13:7-9 (ESV) Jesus answered him, "What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand." Peter said to him, "You shall never wash my feet." Jesus answered him, "If I do not wash you, you have no share with me." Simon Peter said to him, "Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!" Jesus is talking here about his coming death, about the blood that would be shed, about the cleansing sacrifice of his coming crucifixion. “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.” He is looking at his beloved friends, his followers, his sheep, and he knows that the only way that these dear ones will enter the Kingdom of Heaven is by way of the atoning blood that the Son of God would soon shed for all those that would be saved. Simon Peter had no real understanding of what Jesus was saying but his answer should be our answer nonetheless! Lord, cover us with the purifying power of your blood. Wrap us up completely in the protective cloak of your amazing love and cover our sins so that we can have a share with you, so that we can come into the presence of a holy God.