Evidence of a Regenerate Heart

“We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers.”
- 1 John 3:14

“Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.”
- 1 John 3:14-16

“Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;”
- 1 Peter 1:22-23

“In his Farewell Sermon to the Northhampton congregation, he (Jonathan Edwards) admonished his parishioners not to think of themselves as Christians unless they ‘fervently love all men, of whatever party or opinion, and whether friendly or unkind, just or injurious, to you or your friends, or to the cause and kingdom of Christ.’”
- Quoted by Gerald McDermott in One Holy and Happy Society, p. 109

“Love is the supreme manifestation of the new life, so much so that any one who fails to manifest is shows that he has never entered into the new life; ‘he abides in death’.”
- F.F. Bruce, The Epistles of John, p. 96

Dear Christ Our Redeemer Family and Friends,

How do we know that we are a Christian? We know we are a Christian by our trust in Christ alone as the satisfaction for our sins, but is that all? Are there objective criteria pointing to saving faith? To be sure there are certain propositional truths that we must believe, but are there other ways we can perceive the evidences of saving faith? Too often we relegate saving faith to the cerebral. If we just believe these certain propositional truths we have assurance of our salvation, but God’s will revealed through His Word is much more particular. The Apostle John records one way to recognize saving faith is in the evidence of love we have for our brothers and sisters. When the gospel takes hold in our heart our affections are changed from being primarily self-focused to being primarily others-focused. A true Christian loves other Christians and looks for ways to express that love to them. They are members of the same family and there is familial love evident between them. There is a grace-given effusion of love welling up within the Christian that is to be poured out in affection for others. Because the love of God has been poured out upon us in Jesus Christ we have been given new life and a new nature to love one another. The Christian cannot help it; love is part of his new DNA. Love is demonstrative. Love forgives. Love shows mercy. Love meets needs. Love protects. Love doesn’t keep score. Love serves. Love is longsuffering. Love bears burdens. This is the way that everyone knows we belong to Christ; we love one another.

I am grateful to be part of a church where the evidence of regeneration in genuine love is manifest. You are His disciples, because I’ve seen it.

With much affection, Dan

Gender Blending, Marriage Confusion, and Profound Mysteries

“For the first time in its history, Western civilization is confronted with the need to define the meaning of the terms ‘marriage’ and ‘family.’”
- Andreas Kostenberger, God, Marriage, and Family, p. 25

“…Paul saw that when God designed the original marriage He already had Christ and the church in mind. This is one of God’s great purposes in marriage: to picture the relationship between Christ and His redeemed people forever!”
- George Knight, Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, p. 176

“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”
- Genesis 1:27

“Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.”
- Romans 1:24-25

‘"Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.’
- Ephesians 5:31-32


Dear Christ Our Redeemer Family and Friends,

It seems like lately the news is full of controversy regarding the roles of men and women and marriage. There is so much confusion. From polygamist unions to Star Trek’s Sulu’s same-sex union, you simply can’t escape it. Perhaps you’ve seen the recent reports about the ‘man’ in Central Oregon about to give birth. And certainly you’ve heard about the State of California’s recent ruling on same-sex marriage. This week the state has begun issuing same-sex marriage licenses and reportedly there is a back log of same-sex couples slated to be ‘married’. Here’s a legimate question - can a state declare a same-sex union to actually be a marriage? Marriage, as biblically defined, is the God-instituted union between a man and woman. What the state declares is something, but it is not a legitimate marriage. You may call a horse a zebra all day long (And you may even paint white and black stripes on it!), but it remains a horse. And no matter what sort of surgical violation a woman imposes upon her body, she is still a woman. And here’s news to somebody - men simply cannot bear children. We have to change the definition of ‘man’ to make it mean what it doesn’t in order to say that a man has given birth.

God has created both men and women, distinct and complimentary, but equal. No matter what language we use men are men, women are women, and marriage is the joining of one woman to one man. There is an important theological point to be made by affirming the convention of marriage as defined this way. Christ is the intended husband of one wife and she is not the same as he. The roles are distinct and complimentary. The marriage of Christ and His bride is a profound mystery, but this marriage is the model of which all other legitimate marriages are reflective. Men being joined with men and women being joined with women is not reflective of the model and therefore is not true marriage as these roles are not distinct, nor are they complimentary.

In all of the confusion, gospel-centered Christian marriages are important. These are not perfect marriages, but marriages where both men and women recognize the necessity of, and are dependent upon, the grace of God to reflect the model. In these marriages the glory of God is the goal. Within the church our marriages ought to reflect the profound mystery of Christ and the church. Availing ourselves of the grace of God the Christian marriage is a place where men demonstrably love, lead, provide and protect, and women support, influence, and nurture with a posture of loving submission. With all of the confusion around us the church should be the place with the greatest clarity and definition, because we’ve seen the model.

I’m thankful for your love for the church and for your desire for godly marriages that reflect the Savior and His bride. May God give us even greater clarity and desire for these things in the days ahead.

Dan

Proclamational Necessity

“…the gospel must first be proclaimed to all nations.”

-Mark 6:10

“…they continued to preach the gospel.”

- Acts 14:7

“Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!”

- 1 Corinthians 9:16

“I do it all for the sake of the gospel…”

- 1 Corinthians 9:23

“But our hope is that as your faith increases, our area of influence among you may be greatly enlarged, so that we may preach the gospel in lands beyond you…”

- 2 Corinthians 10:15-16

“…nothing could be more inconsistent with the nature of faith than that deadness which would lead a man to disregard his brethren, and to keep the light of (gospel) knowledge choked up within his own breast.”

- John Calvin, Commentary on Isaiah 2:3

“How many of us believe truly that but for the intervention of God in our lives we would be damned and lost?

- D. Martyn Lloyd Jones, Evangelistic Sermons, p. 2

“When we don’t sufficiently consider what God has done for us in Christ – the high cost of it, what it means, and what Christ’s significance is - we lose the heart to evangelize.”

- Mark Dever, The Gospel and Personal Evangelism, p. 28



Dear Christ Our Redeemer Family and Friends,

How important is the proclamation of the gospel to the life of the church? Can the church truly be the church without gospel proclamation? As I’ve begun to this recent study in Acts I’ve been amazed at how pervasive the gospel witness through proclamation was in the life of the early church. I’ve known this, but it has been reinforced in these days. Everything revolved around the proclamation of the good news. Both converts and enemies were made, people met from house to house, instruction was given, Stephen was martyred, people sold possessions, others were healed, demons were cast out, missionaries were sent, churches were planted, people were thrown in prison, and all because a message was proclaimed. This message was simple and yet it was like no other. It was a message of reconciliation and a message of incredible consequence. God became a man and was attested to by the miraculous. He lived for 33 years and then was crucified at the hands of wicked men and then He rose from the dead and was seen by hundreds, and He now occupies a place of authority. The gospel proclamation is one of good news resulting in repentance and forgiveness - turn from your sin and believe the good news of the gospel and your many sins will be forgiven. This message is the central message of the Christian faith and as such should be the central message of the church. The church must be the place of proclamation, both within her walls and outside of her walls. This is the only hope for sinful men and women, boys and girls. Where does that leave us? We have the privilege of making the gospel proclamation central and we must be the glad people that make the gospel known. Our lives are to be happily given to recounting and declaring the good-news message in every possible way.

Grateful for the good news proclaimed,

Dan

Baseball and Common Grace

Saturdays on the baseball field
And me afraid of the ball
Just another kid on camera day
When the angels still played in L.A.
I was smiling in living black and white.
Baseball cards and bubblebum
“I think there’s a hole in my glove.”
3-and-2, life and death
Swinging with eyes closed, holding my breath
I was dying on my way to the bench.
But none of it mattered after the game
When my father would find me and call out my name.
A soft drink, a snow cone, a candy bar,
A limousine ride in the family car.
He loved me…no matter how I played.
None of it mattered after the game
When my father would find me and call out my name.
Dreaming of glory the next time out
My father showed me what love was about.
He loved me…no matter how I played.
-Bob Bennett, A Song About Baseball

“That (God) pays any attention to us is entirely the result of his grace.”

- John Calvin, Isaiah III:474

“For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust.”

- Matthew 5:45b

“…do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?”

- Romans 2:4


Dear Christ Our Redeemer Family and Friends,

I’m writing most of this note from our daughter and son-in-law’s home in Nampa, Idaho. We left after service on Sunday and drove over to spend a couple of days with them. To our surprise and delight the COR family graciously sent us on our way with a gift basket and gift cards for our trip (Thank you for your kindness! We marveled at the mercy of God shown us through our COR family). While we’ve been here we had a day of incredibly beautiful weather on Monday. We went together to the Discovery Center (a fun science lab) in the morning, had a late lunch, and then went to Jackson’s (my grandson) baseball game on Monday evening, and then came back to their home for an incredible meal of rotisserie pork, corn on the cob, green salad and baked potatoes. As I was sitting and watching the game I was looking around at the other parents and grandparents and overhearing the chit-chat of family conversations. I could smell the combination of fresh mown grass, sage and juniper, and I could feel the radiant warmth of the sunshine as I relaxed in a lawn chair. I swung my granddaughter around between innings. It seemed as if everything was right in the world. I found myself thanking God for juniper and sage and sunshine and baseball and rotisserie pork and corn on the cob and family. I thought about the many times events like this had come and gone without my sense of the grace and kindness of God. The question is often asked, ‘Why do bad things happen to good people?’, when the more appropriate question should be asked, ‘Why do good things happen to bad people?’ Yesterday, at an Idaho ball field there was great grace, not in a special grace or salvific manner, but grace nonetheless in the kindness of God being shown to undeserving sinners. I’m finding myself praying that God would give me eyes to see grace in the ordinary. For me to have sat in the sunshine at a Boise ball field, innumerable and purposeful actions of a gracious God had to take place. Everything from sustaining the sun and the earth by the Word of His mouth, to photosynthesis and chlorophyll in the lawn, to the pungent fragrance of juniper, to the game being played by rules that everyone deemed equitable. Grace was evident. My grandson played well and they won their game. It was icing on the cake. We came back home to a wonderful meal and sat and talked and laughed and remembered God’s grace and kindness. Thank you Lord, for common grace, that really isn’t common at all.

Grateful for Uncommonly Common Grace,

Dan