Any good leader will tell you that you want both form and freedom in an organization. The form without freedom approach sucks all of the life out of the room. Yes, the table is set perfectly. But the spirit of this dinner is such that all you can hear is the clinking of forks on plates amid those deafening silences. Everything is indeed in its place. But you should have seen the lash employed to make it so. In the face of this error, the libertine in us wags a finger and insists that freedom will be championed and all of that crusty form forsaken. But the freedom without form approach results in mom cooking no dinner, dad bringing home no bacon, and little Johnny throwing the steak knives at his sister’s door.

So form and freedom together is the target. But hitting that target is not simply a matter of balance. The goal is not 50% form and 50% freedom, as if you were cooking some soup putting in a dash of one or the other. After all, if you only have 50% form, then you’re left with 50% disorder, and only 50% freedom means 50% slavery. Yes, form and freedom must go together but in a way that you are entirely free and entirely formed. You’re looking for 100% form and 100% freedom. Our LORD said, “if the Son sets you free you will be free indeed” (John 8:36). And the same God said, “Be ye perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48).

This is not easy, of course, and we might want to echo the disciples who once said to our Lord, “This is a hard saying, who can hear it?” His reply to them at that time is fitting to this teaching as well. He said, “It is the spirit that quickens; the flesh profits nothing” (John 6:63).

Jared Longshore – July 7, 2024

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As we all know, the fourth commandment is a wonderful blessing from God where we are commanded to rest and worship 1 day out of the week as we remember our redemption in Jesus Christ. But what’s striking about this commandment is that the majority of these two verses is devoted to exhorting those in authority not only to rest, but to GIVE rest. The commandment is quickly stated and then God focuses on giving instruction on how this is to be done. 

Those who have children, those who have servants, we can compare that to having employees, and those who govern any institution, whether it be family or business, are to make sure that those under their authority get to rest. So not only is this an opportunity to be blessed yourself by resting on the Lord’s day, it is an opportunity to bless those around you by giving them rest as well. 

This means that as husbands you ought to be looking for ways to make sure your wife rests on the sabbath. This could mean striking a deal with your wife that you will take care of the dishes, dinner & diapers on Sunday. Or not lingering late into the night at a social event on Saturday night ensuring tired, squirmy, babies on the sabbath. 

This means as mothers you ought to govern the household with the Lord’s day in mind, taking advantage of the day of preparation to free up time for rest and worship on Sunday for your children. 

Now of course, things will happen. Your Ox may be stuck in a ditch more than a few times and it’s important not to be legalistic about these things, but with that said, we should strive to obtain the blessings available for us in obeying these commands. Not because by doing these things we earn salvation, but because by doing these things we get to delight in the salvation wrought for us by God Himself.

Jeremiah Jasso – June 2, 2024

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Psalm 37:25a doesn’t make its way onto many Hallmark Cards: “I was young & now I am old.” You are aging. Your body isn’t infinite. Very soon your earthly sojourn will be done. Aging is inevitable. This being the case, it’s imperative to make Moses’ prayer yours: “Teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom (Psa 90:12).” 

Paul tells young Timothy to flee youthful lusts. Elsewhere, he gives different warnings to aging saints.  Both older men and women are summoned to sobriety (Tit. 2:2-3). Older men are admonished to be patient, while older women are explicitly given a warning against drunkenness and being busybodies. 

Aging comes with temptations to grumbling, resentment, and regret. Life never adheres to youthful daydreams. Providence socks you on the jaw. Sin brings hard consequences. Others wrong and fail you. Thus, Paul’s stress on patience & sobriety. Older men are tempted to become impatient with youthful zeal, or else grow despondent and long for death in despair. Older women can become intoxicated with wine or pills or romance novels, seeking escape from their duties, regrets, or pains. 

Scripture paints another picture of aging righteously: “They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing (Ps. 92:14); When I am old and grayheaded, O God, forsake me not; until I have shewed thy strength unto this generation, and thy power to every one that is to come (Ps. 71:18).” Notice that combination of steadfast faith and undiminished fruitfulness in order to pass on both material and spiritual provision to future generations.

The chasm between aging righteously & unrighteously is found in that wonderful word: faithfulness. Faithfulness demands an object of faith and only the everlasting arms of Christ are strong enough to hold you steadfast through each year and enable you to truly age gracefully.

Ben Zornes – June 30, 2024

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As our society continues to stumble head over heels into the sexual abyss, we must be aware of the central play being run on us. It is not merely a cultural revolution. It is not merely an attempt to send our legal order base over apex. It is ultimately an attempt to unman man. We face an ontological anarchy that would erase the imago dei, if it could. Alan of Lille, the twelfth century French theologian, once said, “Large numbers are shipwrecked and lost because of a Venus turned monster, when Venus wars with Venus and changes “hes” into “shes” and with her witchcraft unmans man.” Alan was not referring to transgender surgeries, but homosexual practice. Such practice is itself a transgender activity as the active sex degenerates into the passive sex and man is turned woman.

Sodomy is fruitless, resulting in hollow wombs. It attempts to abolish man. By removing woman from the equation, man is stripped of his glory. His glory is discarded as entirely irrelevant. Men who engage in homosexual practice, then, are both misogynists, hating their glory, and effeminate, trying to be man’s glory.

Our answer to the work of this monstrous Venus is to put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Christ came to deliver us from sexual corruption and constitute a new humanity. This involves men acting like men, leading, providing, sweating, protecting, and bearing the glory of God as they sacrifice themselves for their wives. And this involves women bounding around like that woman from Proverbs with more fruit than she has baskets, and more children than she has rooms, as her husband comes home to discover, not only has she purchased a field, but she has vines from the Rhone valley coming in on Tuesday, oh, and for dinner she’s turned the leftovers into Turkey Tetrazzini.

This new humanity is a pleasing aroma, and the prophets of Baal had a better chance of calling down fire on Carmel than the rainbow revolution does of snuffing it out. 

Jared Longshore – June 30, 2024

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“But I say to you who hear: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you” (Lk. 6:26–28). 

These are the words of Jesus of Nazareth, and they have rightfully undergirded Christian ethics ever since he first spoke them. And so this morning, I want to encourage you in two specific ways regarding our Lord’s command to love your enemies. 

The first is this – you should live in such a way that you have enemies. Too many Christians think that Christ’s words mean that we should not have enemies. That something has gone terribly wrong when we receive opposition. But this is simply not the case. All the way back to the Garden, enemies have risen against the Lord and his Anointed. And if we are united to Christ, if all that is His is ours, then His enemies by necessity must be our enemies. As Jesus said, “A servant is not greater than His master. If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you” (Jn. 15:20). 

The second item of note is this – after rightly acknowledging your enemies, you are to love them in all sincerity. True love is not simply a vague feeling tucked away in the recesses of your heart. Rather, it is an inward disposition outwardly displayed. Love is concrete. Love can be touched. And here Jesus gives three tangible ways for you to love your enemies. You are to do good to them, bless them, and pray for them.

As Pastor Toby works through the Book of Acts, we have a great example of what this love looks like in the life and ministry of the early church. Consider the first martyr, Stephen, who prayed for his enemies as they stoned him to death. Or the Apostle Paul, who takes beating after beating, never returning evil for evil but relentlessly continuing to preach the gospel. 

Of course, their ultimate example, and ours in this, is our Lord Jesus. What enemies did He love? He loved you and me. And how did He demonstrate that love? He laid down His life – He did good to us – in order to make us His friends.

Shawn Paterson – June 30, 2024

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