The world is not “off the rails.” God’s plan is unfolding, just as He intended. And in this we have hope. Join us as we examine Ephesians 1:3-10 and consider God’s eternal, unbreakable, and effective plan to save us from the power of our sin.
Tag Archives: Associate Reformed Presbyterian
12/01/2024 | “Compare and Contrast” | Ephesians 2:1-3, 12
The true story of Christmas recounts how God rescues men from sin, self, and Satan. But the story only becomes compelling when we realize our desperate condition. Until we grasp how bad we are, we cannot see how good the good news is. Join us this season as we walk through the Westminster Shorter Catechism, Questions 19-23, and consider, ‘why and how Jesus became man in order to save us from ourselves.’ Listen to “Compare and Contrast” from Ephesians 2:1-3, 12.
11/24/2024 | “Good Hearing” | Mark 4:21-34
How good is your hearing? Are you a careful listener? A selective listener? Are you tuning in to God’s Word? Or tuning Him out? Whose words do you trust? What measuring cup are you using to scoop God’s Word into the mixture of your life? Join us as we examine Mark 4:21-34 and consider what it looks like to have good hearing.
11/17/2024 | “Fruitful” | Mark 4:1-20
Is your spiritual life growing, bearing fruit & scattering seed for others? Do you know the Sower’s attentive care & the Seed’s life-giving power? Are you like receptive soil? Or has hardness, fear or distraction prevented you from growing fruitfully? Join us as we examine Mark 4:1-20 and consider the gracious Sower, the life-giving Seed, and the receptive Soil that bring fruitful life.
Who Is This?
We live in a world awash with outrageous claims and inflammatory statements. Faced with the daunting challenge of distilling fact from fiction, we may be tempted to believe everything or nothing. But among all the outrageous claims, what if there is life giving truth? What if there is truth we cannot live without?
No man made more outrageous claims that Jesus Christ. He shocked the men of his hometown, by claiming to be the Messiah. He challenged the religious leaders to point out a single one of his sins. He pushed the limits with his disciples, commanding them to love enemies and offer unlimited forgiveness to offensive brothers.
Jesus’ own disciples struggled to understand who he was and what he came to do. From time to time, glimpses shone through their own preconceived notions of Him. In a poignant moment, as they were crossing the Sea of Galilee, a furious squall sprang up and threatened to sink their small fishing boat. Half of Jesus’ disciples grew up on these tempestuous waters, fishing with their families from their childhood, yet even they were convinced that they would not survive the trip. They woke Jesus, who was asleep in the back of the boat.
They did not ask him to save them – for what miracle working teacher was a match for a force-ten gale? They only asked, “don’t you care that we are about to die?” Jesus stood up in the boat and with a word, brought the waters from tempest to mirror. These seasoned seamen were almost speechless. The only thing they could say of Jesus was, “who is this?” They perceived that there was much more to Jesus than even their imaginations could anticipate.
What about you? When someone mentions Jesus, what comes to mind? Religious revolutionary? Social justice warrior? Ethical teacher? Failed Zionist leader? Founder of a yet another world religion? Who is this Jesus? For many he is a caricature, influenced by pictures you have seen or by clichés which permeate our cultural ideas of “the historical Jesus.” Or perhaps you remember him from a collection of anecdotes or parables you heard as a child in some Sunday School. Just who is Jesus?
No claim of Jesus was more outrageous than his claim that “I and the Father are one. He who has seen me has seen the Father.” Jesus did not claim merely to be God’s servant, or God’s prophet. He did not claim to be “a son of God,” but “The Son of God.” Despite the best efforts of Arian heretics to erase Jesus’ claims to divinity, the Scriptures claim pervasively and decisively that Jesus is fully God and fully man. Men who seek some value in Jesus as a mere man and moral example, but disbelieve his outrageous claim to deity must face C. S. Lewis’ scathing critique.
A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else He would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. – C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity.
Jesus did not come to point out the way, the truth, or the life, but to be the way, the truth and the life. This demands that he be fully human and fully divine.
Who is Jesus? Our seasonal displays of a baby Jesus in a lowly cattle stall show only his humanity. But in the opening chapter of his gospel, John pulls back the curtain to reveal “the rest of the story.” You think you know who Jesus is? Come and find out as we examine John 1:1-5, 9-14 and grapple with what our forefathers expressed in the Westminster Shorter Catechism.
Q21: Who is the Redeemer of God’s elect?
A21: The only Redeemer of God’s elect is the Lord Jesus Christ, who, being the eternal Son of God, became man, and so was, and continueth to be, God and man in two distinct natures, and one person, forever.
We meet Sundays at 10:30 am on the square in Pottsville, Arkansas right next to historic Potts’ Inn for worship. Get directions here or contact us for more info. Or join our livestream on YouTube.
The Plan
Pipe tobacco and yellow legal pads. My father was never without either. He did nothing without an outline. In large, block script he detailed his plans to do anything he intended. Even after leaving home, I would receive outlines of his travel itineraries in the mail. He was not an impulsive man. He carefully analyzed his intentions and all expected consequences. And only after putting the plan on paper would he act. And without a doubt, I am my father’s son. I, too, outline my approach to everything. I attempt very little without a plan and an analysis of all its contingencies.
In this, my earthly father resembled my Heavenly Father. God is no trouble shooter. He is not unaware of anything that comes to pass. In fact, He “foreordains whatsoever comes to pass, according the counsel of His own will, for His own glory.” He is the ultimate planner. Man’s fall was not an unexpected turn. God is never held captive or contingent to any of the free actions of his creatures. He not only knew all that would happen. But he purposed it.
Everything that happens contrary to his prescribed will is by no means contrary to his decreed will. He always intended to deal with the world according to grace. And the means by which he bestows that grace is not through an unfallen mankind in Adam, but to a redeemed mankind in Christ. Isaac Watt’s metrical paraphrase of Psalm 72 says it well.
Where He displays His healing power,
Death and the curse are known no more:
In Him the tribes of Adam boast
More blessings than their father lost.
In Christ redeemed mankind can boast more blessings than Adam ever had. That is a remarkable statement. This is what God planned for us always. Time and time again we are told in Scripture that God has purposed grace in Christ, “from before the foundation of the world.” Even in its fallenness, and sin, and sorrow, this world with its promise of redemption, regeneration, and renewal in Christ is the “best of all possible worlds.” Nothing has gone amiss with God’s plan and purpose. There is no waste, no “gratuitous evil” in God’s economy. The world is not “off the rails.” God’s perfect and gracious plan is unfolding, just as He intended it. And in this we have hope. He is the God who does all He pleases, and all He promises.
The first chapter of Ephesians is a literary masterpiece. In one long breath, Paul extols the amazing beauty and richness of God’s grace to those who are ‘in Christ.’ The Ephesian church faced severe crises internally and externally. False teaching and persecution were leading many to ‘abandon their first love.’ So, God pulls back the curtain to show them the truth of their situation ‘in Christ.’ In a city that boasted one of the wonders of the ancient world in the Temple of Diana, it was actually the church that housed the great treasure of God’s grace – a grace that was rooted in God’s sovereign and eternal plan to save.
And this is good news. Our sin and rebellion is nothing so novel, so unexpected that it is outside God’s plan and power to save. There are no surprises or unexpected circumstances that thwart God’s efficacious love for us in Christ. You are not beyond hope. Even if your situation seems hopeless. Our forefathers expressed this hope in a series of questions and answers called the Westminster Shorter Catechism. There we find this great promise.
Q. 19. What is the misery of that state into which mankind fell?
A. All mankind by their fall lost communion with God, are under his wrath and curse, and so are made liable to all the miseries in this life, to death itself, and to the pains of hell forever.
Q. 20. Did God leave all mankind to perish in the state of sin and misery?
A. Out of his mere good pleasure, from all eternity, God chose some for everlasting life, and he entered into a covenant of grace to deliver them out of their state of sin and misery and to bring them into a state of salvation by a redeemer
Join us this Lord’s Day as we examine Ephesians 1:3-10 and consider God’s eternal, unbreakable, and effective plan to save us from the power of our sin. We meet Sundays at 10:30 am on the square in Pottsville, Arkansas right next to historic Potts’ Inn for worship. Get directions here or contact us for more info. Or join our livestream on YouTube.
Compare and Contrast
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But what does this mean? Is appearance everything? Are the glamour magazines to be believed? No, beauty comes in many different shapes, sizes, and proportions. God has made everything (and everyone) beautiful in its time. The discerning eye finds beauty in every form. We know this instinctively. Yet, we don’t believe it about ourselves.
Our fallenness has given us a creaturely discontent with the Creator’s genius. But who are the most beautiful people you know? And why are they beautiful? Is it the proportion of their face, their coloring, or the shape of their features? No, their beauty appears by contrast — kindness when others are cruel, resilience in the midst of adversity, joy when sorrow is the order of the day. Their beauty radiates through contrast not conformity. God delights to create beauty through contrast.
He created a world of contrasts. Contrasts which give, even this fallen, groaning, creation a beauty that leaves poets speechless. He began with light and made a world responsive to it. Light creates color and contour, clarity and, yet, concealment. Lighting gives everything perspective. And changing light reveals new aspects and insights in the familiar. Lighting and contrast are foundational to visual beauty. Artists are use lighting and shading to breathe life into their work.
But as with all things God made, sensory experience has an analog with spiritual truth. Spiritual truth in scripture is often taught by way of contrast. The Bible tells the triumphal story of how God rescues us from sin, self, and Satan. But the story only becomes compelling when we realize our desperate condition. Until we grasp how bad we are, we cannot see how good the good news is. The Fall plunged us into irrecoverable ruin. And until we are convinced of this, we will never seek Christ and find redemption. The beauty of the gospel can only be appreciated in contrast to the ugliness of our condition apart from Christ. Our forefathers expressed it this way in the Westminster Larger Catechism.
Q. 27. What misery did the fall bring on mankind?
A. The fall brought on mankind the loss of communion with God and his displeasure and curse, so that we are by nature children of wrath, slaves to Satan, and justly liable to all the punishments of this world and that which is to come.
Q. 28. What are the punishments of sin in this world?
A. The punishments of sin in this world are either inward, as a blindness of mind, a reprobate sense, strong delusions, hardness of heart, horror of conscience, and vile affections; or outward, as the curse of God on the creatures for our sakes, and all the other evils that befall us in our bodies, names, states, relations, and employment, together with death itself.
Q. 29. What are the punishments of sin in the world to come?
A. The punishments of sin in the world to come are everlasting separation from the comforting presence of God, and very grievous torments in soul and body, without intermission, in the fire of hell forever.
Our condition is stark. Our ruin is total. Every faculty of our being, every dimension of our life, every moment of our existence from now until all eternity is utterly ruined. We go through life with a nagging sense of misery. We try to cover it with fig leaves – experience, pleasure, education, accomplishment, possessions. But we know, instinctively, the truth of what our forefathers said. But misery is not the last word.
The first chapter of Ephesians is a literary masterpiece. In one long breath, Paul extols the amazing beauty and richness of God’s grace to those who are ‘in Christ.’ The Ephesian church faced severe crises internally and externally. False teaching and persecution were leading many to ‘abandon their first love.’ So, God pulls back the curtain to show them the truth of their situation ‘in Christ.’ And to drive the point home, he reminds them of what life was like outside of Christ. And in this great contrast we find a clear and concise picture of our lost condition.
Join us this season as we walk through the Westminster Shorter Catechism, Questions 19-23, and consider, ‘why and how Jesus became man in order to save us from ourselves.’ This week we begin in Ephesians 2:1-3, 12 by examining the misery of the condition into which the Fall and our own sin have brought us. We meet Sundays at 10:30 am on the square in Pottsville, Arkansas right next to historic Potts’ Inn for worship. Get directions here or contact us for more info. Or join our livestream on YouTube.
Good Hearing
It was certainly not feminine mystique, but NaNaw exuded the mystery of a life, large-lived, unveiled to her grandchildren only in glimpses and curios. She was a woman of fierce intensity. Her soul-piercing gaze could freeze young hearts. She had a “yard-broom” made of long, thin branches, any one of which might in a moment be plucked out as a rod of reproof. But when she smiled, it was like the sun after rain.
Her décor was eclectic. A Japanese watercolor of Mt. Fuji. The ornately carved pump organ with its swirly chair. And especially her trunk, whose collection boasted her grandfather’s powder horn, a torn Confederate dollar, and bundles of cards and letters from my father and my uncles when they were mere boys serving their Uncle Sam at the ends of the world. Though ancient in my estimation, NaNaw was never frail. She was vigorous in everything except her hearing. Though, my mother often remarked that NaNaw couldn’t hear you if you were speaking to her but would hear you clearly from three rooms away if you were speaking about her.
Good hearing depends upon much more than the operational efficiency of our ear drums, middle-ear ossicles, cochlea, and inner ear. It is enhanced by other senses as well as our mindfulness. As anyone who lives near train tracks can tell you, it is easy to filter out routine sounds, no matter how invasive. We tune out and we tune in. When we hear our name in a crowd, we tune in. When we hear our mother tongue in a foreign land, we tune in. But as Charlie Brown’s teacher illustrates, we often tune out when listening to authority or criticism.
Good hearing requires more than sharp ears. It involves choice. And it involves commitment. It demands discernment. It is not limited to the point in time in which communication occurs. It requires preparation before. And reflection afterwards. It must hear both what is auditory and what is not. Consequently, in English we distinguish between listening and hearing.
The Gospel of Mark is the action gospel. King Jesus appears in glory and power. He demolishes the dominion of Satan. He proclaims the coming Kingdom of God. And though Mark often mentions Jesus’ teaching, he does not recount much of it. Only in Mark 4 and Mark 12 is the content of Jesus’ teaching recorded. And in both chapters, we read “and he began to speak to them in parables.” He commands his hearers and us to “Listen!… He who has ears to hear let him hear.” Then warns,
Pay attention to what you hear: with the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and still more will be added to you. For to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. -Mark 4:24-25
How good is your hearing? Are you a careful listener? A selective listener? Are you tuning in to God’s Word? Or tuning Him out? What are you choosing to hear? And whose words are you trusting? What measuring cup are you using to scoop God’s Word into the mixture of your life?
Join us this Lord’s Day as we examine Mark 4:21-34 and consider what it looks like to have good hearing. We meet Sundays at 10:30 am on the square in Pottsville, Arkansas right next to historic Potts’ Inn for worship. Get directions here or contact us for more info. Or join us on Facebook Live @PottsvilleARP or YouTube.
Fruitful
To till or not to till? That is the question. But it is not the only question. Is this plant a nitrogen feeder or consumer? What plants grow in together beneficially? What plants should not be allowed to cross-pollinate? And what about pest control? Marigolds or Seven-Dust? And where can the tomatoes go this year?
Making a fruitful garden is more art than science. Or perhaps we should say, more providence than skill. The timing and amount of early spring and late summer rains, the last and first hard freeze, and the median temperatures needed for the tomatoes to ‘set’ are all out of our control. A wise, older woman once counseled that a garden was planted 1/3 for the deer, 1/3 for the pests and 1/3 for you. And, even then, it was still up to the Lord.
The phrase “garden season” is of course a misnomer. Gardening is a year-round endeavor. In late fall you clear last year’s stubble and prepare the ground for the year to come. In winter you map out the crop rotation and purchase seeds. In late winter and early spring, you seed and tend the plants starts, filling every south-facing window. And of course, try to remember when it is time to put in the potatoes. By April the frosts are past, and the garden is in full swing as the sower ploughs in hope of a fruitful harvest and a full pantry and freezer.
Fruitfulness results from the attentive care of the sower, the quality of the seed, the preparation of the soil, and the Lord’s sovereign Providence. As is often the case, agricultural realities are apt analogies for spiritual realities. Jesus’ use of agrarian life to illustrate spiritual life is more than cultural relevance for his contemporary hearers. His teaching is meant just as much for us as for them.
Scripture often compares spiritual life to growing things. Psalm 1 compares the man who heeds God’s word to an everbearing tree planted by streams of water. In John 15, Jesus compares men to either fruitful or unfruitful branches. And goes on to say, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide.” And the author of Hebrews, quoting Deuteronomy 29:18, warns us to “See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no ‘root of bitterness’ springs up and causes trouble.” Paul speaks of the work of the Holy Spirit in believers as the fruit of the Spirit.
God has made us for fruitful, growing spiritual life. On the day God made man, He “blessed them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply…’” But perhaps no scripture passage speaks more about spiritual fruitfulness than Jesus’ first recorded parable, The Parable of the Sower. All the Synoptic Gospels include it, but in Mark we find both its fullest expression, and an explanation of Jesus’ purpose and method in using parables. And so, it is a parable but also a parable about parables.
Parables are not allegories. They have one central meaning. And it is not necessary to discern a distinct symbolism for every element of the story. One commenter famously noted that parables are “earthly stories with a heavenly meaning.” Commenters have long debated whether the Parable of the Sower is about the Sower, the Seed, or the Soils. Yet these three join together to teach us to live spiritually fruitful lives.
Are you fruitful? Is your spiritual life growing, bearing fruit, and scattering seed for the next generation? Do you know the tender, attentive care of the Sower, the life-giving power of the Seed? Are you like receptive Soil? Or has hardness, or fear, or distraction prevented the seed from growing fruitfully in you?
Join us as we examine Mark 4:1-20 and consider the gracious Sower, the life-giving Seed, and the receptive Soil that bring fruitful life. We meet Sundays at 10:30 am on the square in Pottsville, Arkansas right next to historic Potts’ Inn for worship. Get directions here or contact us for more info. Or join us on Facebook Live @PottsvilleARP or YouTube.
11/10/2024 | “Faith in God’s Providence” | Ruth 1:1-18
Providence means different things to different people. To some it is a sanctified word for luck. For others it is fate. For Christians, providence is God’s most holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing all His creatures, and all their actions. But can we trust it? Is it gracious? What does it mean for our prayer, relationships, finances, and vocation? Join us as our guest, Rev. Bill Holiman, leads us through Ruth 1:1-18 to consider “Faith in God’s Providence.”
Pottsville Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church 