Give us this Day our “Daily Bread”

Happy Sabbath and Lord's Day (or weekend, if you prefer) to everyone. We have started Spring Break here in Burnsville. And Ohio State and Wisconsin both got knocked out of March Madness, leaving us with no Big-10 teams in college basketball's final tournament. But all is good in our home this day – everyone is healthy, bills are paid, relationships are good, and if it weren't for my oldest two daughters learning to drive (Asia is set to take her driver's license test, and Maggie her permit test), I would be at real peace with the world. Which brings me to today's topic the Lord's Prayer.

This isn't such a big jump in topic as you may think. I like to regularly pray the Lord's Prayer, after I read in the early Christian writing called the Didache (written around 150 AD) that we should pray the Lord's prayer three times a day (Didache 8:3). In today's post I wanted to talk about the Fourth Petition in the Lord's Prayer that we be given this day our "daily bread". In our men's group we discussed Martin Luther's description of what is meant by "daily bread", and here is what Luther wrote:

Fourth Petition – Luther's Small Catechism - Give us today our daily bread.

What does this mean?

God surely gives daily bread without our asking, even to all the wicked, but we pray in this petition that he would lead us to realize this and to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving.

What, then, is meant by daily bread?

Daily bread includes everything that we need for our bodily welfare, such as food and drink, clothing and shoes, house and home, land and cattle, money and goods, a godly spouse, godly children, godly workers, godly and faithful leaders, good government, good weather, peace and order, health, a good name, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like.

Martin Luther makes the claim that "daily bread" covers not only our food, clothing and home, but also the weather (?), health, peace and order, good government, good friends, etc. So I wanted to see why Martin Luther makes such a broad description of what is meant in the Fourth Petition in the Lord's Prayer for our "daily bread" (Matthew 6:11). Here is what I found (all verses are from the ESV):

Food:

Psalm 132:15 (for Zion) I will abundantly bless her provisions; I will satisfy her poor with bread.

All Food - Genesis 3:19 (ESV) ¹⁹ By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return."

And meat, and all that they craved; - Numbers 11:18-19 (ESV) ¹⁸ And say to the people, 'Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, and you shall eat meat, for you have wept in the hearing of the Lord, saying, "Who will give us meat to eat? For it was better for us in Egypt." Therefore the Lord will give you meat, and you shall eat. ¹⁹ You shall not eat just one day, or two days, or five days, or ten days, or twenty days; and, Psalm 78:27-29 (ESV) ²⁷ he rained meat on them like dust, winged birds like the sand of the seas; ²⁸ he let them fall in the midst of their camp, all around their dwellings. ²⁹ And they ate and were well filled, for he gave them what they craved.

Who provides food for all living creatures? Job 38:41 (ESV) ⁴¹ Who provides for the raven its prey, when its young ones cry to God for help, and wander about for lack of food?

(Do not worry) Matthew 6:25-27
For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? "Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life?

Matthew 6:31-32
Do not worry then, saying, 'What will we eat?' or 'What will we drink?' or 'What will we wear for clothing?' For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.

Clothing: Genesis 28:20-21 (ESV) ²⁰ Then Jacob made a vow, saying, "If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, ²¹ so that I come again to my father's house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God,

Deuteronomy 8:3-4 (ESV)
³ And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. ⁴ Your clothing did not wear out on you and your foot did not swell these forty years.

Matthew 6:28-29
²⁸ And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, ²⁹ yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

God provides whatever there is a desire for - Psalm 145:15-16 (ESV) ¹⁵ The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in due season. ¹⁶ You open your hand; you satisfy the desire of every living thing. (this looks to include food, shelter, job, love, companionship, friendship, etc.)

For he who walks in righteousness, a promise of defense, food and water, and peace - Isaiah 33:15-16 (ESV) ¹⁵ He who walks righteously and speaks uprightly, who despises the gain of oppressions, who shakes his hands, lest they hold a bribe, who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed and shuts his eyes from looking on evil, ¹⁶ he will dwell on the heights; his place of defense will be the fortresses of rocks; his bread will be given him; his water will be sure. (See, Isaiah 32:15, 17-18);

Food for our children:

Psalm 37:25
I have been young and now I am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his descendants begging bread.

Spiritual Life-
Matthew 7:11 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!

 

OK, and here is where it gets really good. Check out these promises:

(All sufficiency in everything so that we may do good deeds) 2 Corinthians 9:8
And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything; you may have an abundance for every good deed;

(All needs) Philippians 4:19
And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

Psalm 23 – The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want… (also peace, see Psalm 23:2-3).

(Relation with God/A.S.K.) - Matthew 7:7-11 "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened for you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. 9 Is there anyone among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you then, although you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!

(Our prayers are heard and answered) 1 John 5:14-15 - And this is the confidence that we have before him: that whenever we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us in regard to whatever we ask, then we know that we have the requests that we have asked from him.

Matthew 6:8
Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

Psalm 84:11
¹¹ For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.

(Seek His Kingdom) Luke 12:30-31 (ESV)
30 For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them. 31 Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you.

 

(God's Grace gives all things – which means we don't deserve it) Romans 8:32 (ESV)
³² He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

(All sufficiency is given so that we may be generous) 2 Corinthians 9:8-11
⁸ And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. ⁹ As it is written, "He has distributed freely, he has given to the poor; his righteousness endures forever." ¹⁰ He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. ¹¹ You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God.

 

And now three verses to take away with you this week – Proverbs 30:8-9 (ESV) ⁸ Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, ⁹ lest I be full and deny you and say, "Who is the Lord?" or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.

2 Corinthians 1:20 – all the promises of God find their Yes in Him.

Ephesians 3:20-21 (ESV)
²⁰ Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, ²¹ to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

CONCLUSION: Yes, Martin Luther correctly described the portion of the Lord's Prayer asking for our "daily bread" as very broad. It includes for believers not only food, clothing and shelter, but our protection, blessing on our children, everything we need, including relationship with the Creator of the Universe. And God provides for our needs so that we can be generous with those in need around us. The Lord's Prayer is an amazing prayer, so let's get out there and pray the Lord's Prayer and place our trust that what we pray for will be given. Amen, /s/Tom Wolff

Repent

Another world crisis in Japan this week, with the 9.0 earthquake and tsunami, and the massive loss of lives and destruction of property. My hope is that America steps up and provides the great amount of support and aid, as we did in Haiti. The string of recent tragedies is growing impressive - In just the past decade, we've had the attacks of Sept. 11, the tsunami in the 2004 Indian Ocean resulting in at least 130,000 deaths in Indonesia, Hurricane Katrina, the global financial crisis, the revolutions taking place in the Arab nations, a global flu pandemic, the earthquake in Haiti, the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and devastating floods in Australia and New Zealand. Now, Japan has been hit with a triple whammy of earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis. In this post, I want to talk about what our response should be to these tragedies. Let's get started.

The people of Japan need help. There is a great deal of loss of life, with some entire villages lost. The loss of life, the loss of the means of making a living, the fear of nuclear fall-out and disease, even the basic necessities of food and water for the displaced, all of these require a response. So besides our empathy, what should we do to help? Of course, as Christ-followers we start with prayer for the people of Japan. But what next? Here are a few snippets that I borrowed from Pastor John Piper that he wrote on his Desiring God blog, starting with the idea of love: Therefore, love commands, "Weep with those who weep" (Romans 12:15). We need to feel the enormity of what has taken place the heartbreak of this tragedy.

Then comes aid. We want to help relieve human suffering—all of it, especially eternal suffering: So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith (Galatians 6:10)… Love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 5:43), and if you are to love someone then their physical needs must be a primary focus for us all. If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink (Romans 12:20).

But when a tragedy took place in the Israel of Jesus' day, Jesus made sure that we keep our eye focused on one thing - repenting. In Luke 13, Pontius Pilate murdered some Jews offering animal sacrifices – the worshipper's blood was mixed with the blood of the sacrifices. And near this same time, a Tower in Siloam fell and killed 18 people. Jesus discussed these two tragedies, one tragedy because of man's evil (Pontius Pilate's murder) and the other a tragedy an evil from nature (the tower falling from maybe even caused by an earthquake?) A person's natural response to tragedy is to try and make sense of it all, by blaming these people – perhaps they were ungodly. Or they were worse sinners than us. Or they were just really bad people, and so they deserved this judgment. And through this kind of rationalization, we see these victims of the tragedy deserved it, and because we are better than they are, we do not deserve to be hit with this kind of tragedy. But Jesus would have none of this. Don't think they were worse sinners than you, he teaches in Luke 13:2 and 4. Instead, our focus needs to be on our own shortcomings – Repent, or you will also likewise perish (Luke 13:3 and 5). Whenever we see tragedy, we need to look at ourselves and see where we need to repent. Here are a couple of verses dealing with repentance:

Mark 1:15 (ESV)
¹⁵ and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel."

And,

Acts 3:19 (NIV)

Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord,

Repent because the Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and turn to God so that your sins may be blotted out. These are the messages that need to sink into our hearts, as we see these tragedies. And this is the message we need to proclaim to the world as we provide aid to the victims of the tragedies. Repent. The world needs hope right now, and our hope is in Jesus. /s/Tom Wolff

Healing -1 Year Anniversary

Happy Ash Wednesday to everyone. This week I am celebrating the one year anniversary of the healing of MRSA that took place on March 7, 2010. It (MRSA as an active infection) has not returned since I received prayers that Sunday night at Hosanna Church. Praise God who is the Lord of miracles. Here is my March 13, 2010 blog post describing what happened:

Praise God Who is a Living God, and Who cares about our troubles. Today's post is my testimony of a healing that has taken place, all glory to God:

I have been battling MRSA / drug-resistant staph for several years. It came back again this past February, with an infection on the back of my left calf. I had three lumps, one of which was opened up by a surgeon at my Clinic. The Clinic's physicians put me first on one anti-biotic to treat the infection, and then a second anti-biotic. The second anti-biotic helped a bit, but by the time the prescription ended a week ago Friday, my left leg was already swollen to one-third again the size of my right leg. Last weekend I was discouraged, and I felt crappy / nauseous, with an upset stomach. The swelling was increasing, and I know from my previous experience with MRSA, that once my leg swells and the lumps appear, that in short order the lumps will spread and grow in size quickly.

So I went last Sunday to our Church (Hosanna in Lakeville) and attended the Alpha course of which I am a table leader. I went to the Leader's prayer meeting beforehand, and the Alpha Facilitator asked if anyone had a bad week, and when no one else raised their hand, I raised my hand. Approximately eight other Alpha leaders came around me to pray for me. All I said when they asked what they could pray for me was "health". And they prayed for my health.

That night I felt fine, but I didn't think anything special happened. But something strange happened. I kept going to the bathroom. And going, and going. I had previously scheduled an appointment for this past Tuesday with an Infectious Disease Specialist to take a look at my MRSA, and get me on the right medicine to fight my leg infection. But by this appointment my lumps were gone. The swelling of my left leg was gone. And after examining my whole body, my doctor said that "there was no active infection" in my body. The MRSA was gone!

God healed me by answering the prayers of those friends, and family who prayed for me. He also answered the prayers of those Alpha leaders who prayed for me this past Sunday. I love seeing God's miraculous answer to prayer, and I want to sing His praises for what He has done to help me. Thank You Lord for healing me through the answer of prayer. In Christ's name I give this testimony, Amen.

Abiding in Jesus

Good morning to everyone. We had an exciting day yesterday, where Elijah, our 9 year old son had his first communion. Hosanna did a great job with its teaching on what communion (the Lord's Supper) means. Two things stuck with me from yesterday's teaching – first, they brought out the connection between Jesus' instruction of the wine and the bread given at communion, with the Jewish celebration of the Passover. They gave each table (there were about 70 children taking their first communion) yesterday the items to celebrate the Passover, including the unleavened bread, and some juice. But the one item that made Elijah's stomach turn was when they took parsley and had the kids dip it in salt water as an example of the "bitter herbs" which they use at Passover to remember the bitterness of the Jews 400 years of slavery in Egypt. He did not like that taste! The other thing that was interesting to me at the first communion church service was that our worship leader dressed up like Jesus and he gave a short homily on the Lord's Supper. I liked that because we are told of Jesus' presence in the bread and the wine, and this really helped me to grasp this.

Onto today's topic – Abiding in Jesus and allowing Him to abide in us. Abiding in Jesus is one of Jesus' Commands to us, and is a pre-condition to believer's "bearing fruit". Here is Jesus' main teaching to us on abiding in our Lord:

¹ "I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. ² Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. ³ Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. ⁴ Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. ⁵ I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. ⁶ If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. ⁷ If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. ⁸ By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. ⁹ As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. ¹⁰ If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. (John 15:1-10, ESV).

Verse 4, above is the command to abide in Jesus, and to have Jesus abide in you. Abiding in Jesus allows us to bear much fruit (v. 5). We will be thrown away like a useless branch if we do not abide in Jesus (v. 6). Jesus' love for us is as much as the Father loves Jesus, and we are to abide in this love of Jesus (v. 9). And Jesus uses the analogy of a vine and its branches symbolizing what it means to "abide" in Jesus. The Greek word used here is meinate which means - "to stay, abide, remain" (Swanson, Dictionary of Biblical Languages).

Here are a few more ways Jesus draws out of what it means to abide in Jesus:

• Abide in My Word (John 8:31, John 15:7, above, 1 John 2:24);
  
• Abide in the Will of God to abide forever (1 John 2:17);
  
• He who keeps God's Commandments abides in God, and He in them (1 John 3:24a);
  
• By the Holy Spirit's living in us, we know that we are abiding in God (1 John 3:24b).
  

So what is my conclusion? Abiding in Jesus is important! Jesus commands it, and when we become His followers it is our pleasure to abide, or stay in Him. And do not miss the importance of love here. Verse 9 speaks of God's great love for His Son. And this same love is what Jesus has for us. The same love that God has for Jesus, is the love that Jesus has for us? It is a mind-blowing thought. But this is one of the ways (along with remaining in His Word, and unfortunately for us, obedience) that we can abide in Jesus, remembering His love for us. So my challenge for us during the start of Lenten season (Ash Wednesday comes up this week) is to think how much God loved Jesus, and what this means to us in remembering the amount of love Jesus has for you. So go out there and abide in Jesus, you followers of Christ!

Odds n’ Ends (20)

Here are some recent news stories that caught my attention:

1).    Hawaii State Senate Becomes First to Stop Legislative Prayer. Story here.
I like the headline: A Sad, Tragic, Dumb Day in the Hawaii Senate. Fearing a possible court challenge, Hawaii's state Senate has voted to silence the daily prayer offered before each session began — making it the first state legislative body in the nation to halt the practice. Then on February 23rd, they became the 7th state in the nation to legalize civil unions.

 

2).    San Francisco Proposal May Ban Circumcision. Story here. Self-described "civil rights advocates" say that a ballot proposition to ban circumcision is on track for gathering signatures, meaning that San Franciscans may vote on the measure this November. Tom's thought: Circumcision is the covenant that Jews have with God, showing that they are God's chosen people. Newborn males are circumcised at 8 days old and are thus "brought into the Covenant of Abraham" (Gen. 17:10-14). According to Wikipedia, 30% of males globally are circumcised. Wikipedia further says that it is widely practiced by Muslims. So San Francisco is willing to protect an 8 day old from being circumcised, yet if the child was only 9 days younger, it could be aborted? Does this make sense to anyone?

3).    London Ice Cream Parlor Sells Out of Breast Milk Ice Cream. Story here. Ewwwww.

4).    A Couple Global Warming Stories. A glacier on Peru's Huaytapallana Moutain shed half its surface ice in just 23 years, officials said Wednesday, reinforcing concerns of climate change's growing threat to fresh water resources. "Recent scientific studies indicate that between June 1983 and August 2006, the glacier has lost 50 percent of its surface ice," Erasmo Meza, manager of natural resources and the environment in the central Andean region of Junin, told the official Andina news agency. Story here.

But for those of you who don't believe in Global Warming, check out the Wall Street Journal's article on a recent study showing that our weather is not getting more extreme: Story here. Some climate alarmists would have us believe that recent storms are yet another baleful consequence of man-made CO2 emissions. In addition to the latest weather events, they also point to recent cyclones in Burma, last winter's fatal chills in Nepal and Bangladesh, December's blizzards in Britain, and every other drought, typhoon and unseasonable heat wave around the world. But is it true? To answer that question, you need to understand whether recent weather trends are extreme by historical standards. The Twentieth Century Reanalysis Project is the latest attempt to find out, using super-computers to generate a dataset of global atmospheric circulation from 1871 to the present. As it happens, the project's initial findings, published last month, show no evidence of an intensifying weather trend…

5).    12 Year Olds Shown 'Brokeback Mountain' in School – No Emotional Distress Damages Awarded. Story here. Substitute teach Marnetta Buford showed the 'Brokeback Mountain' film in, of all things, a math class, allegedly after warning students that "what happens in Ms. Buford's class stays in Ms. Buford's class." She showed the first 44 minutes of the film, including the homosexual sex scene to her students. But the jury did not award the 12 year old 7^th grader any emotional distress damages, finding that the teacher's conduct was not sufficiently outrageous.

What Does Faith Look Like?

I wish everyone a happy President's Day weekend. Here in Minnesota we look forward to facing the latest 'snownami' expecting to see another foot of snow - yikes. Today, as I am reading through the Holy Word contained in Second Chronicles, I thought I would briefly talk about faith. More specifically, the faith of Judah's King Jehoshaphat described in this Book as he faced the battle of his life. I hope that the way he faced his challenge is helpful for us all.

So here's the scene described in Second Chronicles – Judah, which is the southern portion of the nation of Israel which includes Jerusalem, is going through a faith 'Revival'. After Solomon's ungodly son Rehoboam takes the throne, Judah is blessed with three Kings in a row who are faithful and God-fearing. These Kings are described in 2^nd Chronicles chapters 13 through 20: Abijah, Asa and Jehoshaphat. All three were faithful and obedient to God. And they all have amazing stories of their own. But in today's post I want to focus on the major challenge faced by Jehoshaphat during his reign.

King Jehoshaphat is an interesting study. He allied himself with Israel's King Ahab (2 Chron. 18) and later King Ahaziah (2 Chron. 20:35-37), even though they were described as being wicked and ungodly. He also drove out the Asherah from Judah. And he set up judges throughout Judah to resolve disputed cases. His invocation of the judges shows his strong faith: "Consider what you do, for you judge not for man but for the Lord. He is with you in giving judgment." (2 Chron. 19:6) But I want to focus on his faith when he learns that a massive army has formed to take over Judah.

King Jehoshaphat learns in 2 Chronicles 20 that a great "horde" from the Ammonites, the Moabites, and Meunites were marching against him. Now in chapter 17, we see that Jehoshaphat had built forts and supplied cities in Judah, and that he had hundreds of thousands of men in his army. But when Jehoshaphat learned of this great army amassing against him, he was still "afraid" (2 Chron. 20:3). And here is where we can learn from the faith of this great King, his first response to this news is to declare a nationwide fast and then he led his nation in prayer to God.

King Jehoshaphat's prayer in verses 6 though 12 is amazing. He reminds God that this land was promised to Judah by God, and that these pagan armies were going to take it over (v. 11). He also reminds God that Israel wanted to destroy these nations before but God did not let them do this (v. 10). He concludes his prayer by assuming that there was no way to militarily defeat this great horde, but they still sought God's help, not knowing what that help would look like. I love how the prayer ends in verse 12:

We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon you.

 

Sure it could have been easy for Jehoshaphat to put on a brave face, and say that his armies were going to win against impossible odds. But reality faced him. He knew this was a battle that he could not win. How many times have you faced a challenge where you can't even imagine what God's answer to prayer would look like? Where you don't even know what to ask for? If you are like me, I don't know how to pray in those situations. But nowI am going to start using Jehoshaphat's model, and in situations where the odds look impossible, I want to just pray that I don't know what to do, but our eyes are upon You, Lord God. Rather than trying to articulate exactly what I want or need in a situation, or what I should pray for someone else who was unsure of what to do when faced with this kind of trouble. I want to have the humility enough to be able to pray – I don't know what to do, but my eyes are upon You.

So how does the story end? The Prophet Jahaziel received a prophecy from God – don't worry Judah, you won't even have to fight and you'll win the battle (v. 15-17). You would think that this Prophecy might be something hard to believe, but look at what the hero of our story does – he fell with his face to the ground, and worshipped God (v. 18). When King Jehoshaphat sent out his army the next day – here is what I am talking about when I say that this is what faith looks like, he put a praise and worship team at the front of his army, singing "Give thanks to the Lord for his love endures forever"! (v. 21) Now that is what real faith looks like – facing an impossible battle, receiving a Prophecy, and believing it enough that instead of relying on the strength of your army, you rely on the prophecy and lead everyone around you to praise and worship God even before the battle has even begun. The joy shown from this kind of faith is inspiring. And what happened as the battle begun? Sure enough, the enemy mob started fighting against each other, killed each other off, and as the Word of the Lord had said – Judah and King Jehoshaphat won the day.

Praise God for the people of faith around us, and in God's Word that give us hope that one day we can have faith like them. May God bless you with increasing faith this week. /s/Tom

Christian Heresy - Arminianism

Happy Valentine Day's Eve to everyone. I am blessed to have a wonderful woman as my wife, that is also my best friend, and who I continue to be attracted to, even after 18 years of marriage. I sometimes see at my work the pain of failed marriages, and the permanent scars that this causes in a person's life. So I count as one of my life's most important blessings the blessing of a happy marriage. Ok, so I have to share a quick story from this past week. This past week, my wife and I had a fight. It was so bad, that she told me to sleep on the couch, and when I did not, she slept on the couch herself. When I came home the next day, I tried to make amends by buying her chocolate, and making dinner for the family. But when I went upstairs to our bedroom, I was caught by a BIG surprise. Peggy was not home. But she pulled back the corner of the comforter on our bed, and there laying on the mattress was her wedding ring. I thought the message was clear, she had left me.

My initial reaction was one of anger – she would leave me over a simple fight? I was going to read her the riot act when she got home. How dare she! But as I thought about the pain of thinking she had left me, I thought that because I wanted her to forgive me for the previous night's fight, that I needed to unconditionally forgive her for removing her wedding ring. So when she finally came home I greeted her with a heart-felt hug and a kiss, and told her how glad I was to see her.

Now here's the kicker of the story – after the family ate dinner together, I sat down with her and I asked to see her hand. And the wedding ring was back where it belonged. When I asked her about why she removed her ring, she simply told me that she was retaining water, and removed it when she was sleeping. No message was intended, and she was not threatening to end our marriage. We laughed together when I explained what I thought when I saw the ring lying on our mattress. Anyway, just remember to not read too much into things, especially when it involves your spouse.

My topic today is to discuss a major Christian heresy – Arminianism. John MacArthur, perhaps the leading Protestant voice in America himself has ranked Arminianism as the third most important theological crisis that the North American Church is facing today. Article is here. So allow me to speak generally about this heresy, and perhaps we can learn together why it is so dangerous to today's Church.

Arminianism is a response to the hard to swallow John Calvin doctrine of pre-destination. Theopedia describes it as follows: Arminianism is a school of theology based on the teachings of Dutch theologian Jacob Arminius (1560-1609), for whom it is named. It is perhaps most prominent in the Methodist movement and found in various other evangelical circles today. It stands in contrast to Calvinism, with which it has a long history of debate…

The Arminian followers published something called a 'Remonstrance' which outlined these 5 Arminian beliefs of salvation:

1. On their own, humans can do nothing good;
   
2. Before the foundation of the world, God chose to save everyone who would freely choose to put their trust in Jesus;
   
3. Jesus died for everyone, but His death only redeems believers;
   
4. People can choose to reject God's attempts to save them;
   
5. Scripture does not clearly state whether believers can lose their salvation. (this summary is from 'Christian History Made Easy', Jones, p. 123.
   

The Calvinist response was to hold the Synod of Dort in 1618, which is where the Calvinist's articulated their 5 TULIP points of Calvinism. Arminianism was also condemned by the Synod.

I have previously been accused of being an Arminian, and so it is a topic I would like to spend more time learning about and discussing. So if anyone has any comments or explanations of Arminianism, I hope you will feel free to share them Thanks, and may God bless you abundantly this week. /s/Tom