A LAMENTATION FOR REALITY

What a year we have all been through! COVID, riots, the election, conspiracy theories on the right and left, racial animosity, defunding the police, wildfires and hurricanes—tension is high and trust is low. It all feels a bit unreal, which caused me to ponder what the Bible teaches about reality. What is real and how can I know? Is God real, does the Bible give a true depiction of reality? These important questions can only be answered, affirmatively or negatively, by faith. If God is real and the Bible is true, then we become privy to knowledge that we could not otherwise possess. Not least among these truths is that God is a moral Spirit and the universe He created is both spiritual and moral. Further, the spiritual and moral have primacy over the merely physical and natural. To say this differently, the spiritual and moral are in a very important sense more real than the natural world which we all experience through our reason and senses. They are more real because the natural world that we currently experience is merely temporary and will be done away with. But the spiritual and moral world, which underpins the natural world transcends time and space, being itself eternal. When the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. Because this is so, the church has long understood that her first allegiance is to that spiritual and moral reality, even, and especially if, that reality came into conflict with the secular world around her. This formed the backbone of the Christian worldview for centuries. Further, in our earthly lives, we are citizens...

Whose Job is the Ministry / Owning our Priesthood

The Apostle Peter tells us followers of Jesus Christ in I Peter 2:9 that we “are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation…so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” The Apostle John instructs us “He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father.” Revelation 1:6 What is the Priesthood to which the Apostles refer?  Do I view myself as a priest of God?  If I am a priest, what are God’s expectations of me? Join with us in reading and considering the teaching in the attached Ministry in the Marketplace book “Who’s Job is the Ministry?” where these and other pertinent questions we as men of God should understand and be ready to answer. The book “Who’s Job is the Ministry?” will be, in part, the underlying support theme for the Ministry in the Marketplace Zoom Webinar on January 16, 2021.   It is suggested reading in preparation for the webinar. Click on the image cover below to download a free electronic copy or click on this link to order your hard...