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State of the Church 2025 (CC Downtown)
Christ Church on January 8, 2025
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State of the Church 2025 (Christ Church)

Christ Church on

INTRODUCTION

There is a sense in which we are living in quite an unusual circumstance, in quite an odd set-up. In many ways, our church community has never had it so good. We are a growing, industrious lot, grateful for the blessing of God, and the general disposition of our community is in fact quite a cheerful one. At the same time, and in the same community, there are hardships, difficulties, and significant afflictions. Some are coping with widowhood. Some have severe medical challenges. Others have to deal with the fact of having been wronged, or treated roughly, by a brother in the faith. Still others are managing the long-term challenges of elder care.

Think of a woman who lost her son in the waning days of World War 2 . . . and then three days later Germany surrendered, and her entire city erupts in joy. There is a real difference between misery spread across everyone, as in a time of famine or flood or other disaster, on the one hand, and individual affliction in a time of prosperity on the other.

I bring this topic up because many of us have been in this position, and I anticipate more and more of us will need to navigate this reality as well. And so long as it continues, this will need to be done individually . . . for the most part.    

THE TEXT

“For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God” (Romans 8:18-19).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

In order to deal with this peculiar sort of affliction, we need to remind ourselves of the scriptural emphasis when it comes to any sort of affliction. Paul calls these afflictions “the sufferings of this present time” (v. 18). In talking about this, he gives us his own personal calculation when he says, “for I reckon.” He says that there is a glory coming, a glory that is going to be revealed “in us,” and when he sets that glory alongside our present sufferings, his conclusion is that they were not even worth setting alongside one another. The afflictions are in us now, and the glory will be in us then, and the former will be completely swallowed up by the latter. He then addresses how that future reality is to be a comfort to us now. That will happen—that day when our sufferings cannot be compared to our glory—when the sons of God are manifested. In context, this is talking about the day of resurrection, the day when our identity in the risen Christ is made fully apparent to the world. The comfort comes in the fact that this hope before us is something that we wait for with an “earnest expectation” (v. 19). Having that hope before us as an earnest expectation gives us something to hang onto in the time of our distress. “There will come a time when I won’t even be able to remember this.”

THE NATURE OF THIS SORT OF AFFLICTION 

Those who are in the midst of this kind of suffering need to recognize a few things about it and need to take good care to guard their hearts against maudlin self-pity or resentment. Remember that in the very nature of pain, it will be isolated and lonesome.

• A big part of this is found in the nature of the case, and there is no need to find fault with others. While it is true that “no one else knows what this is like,” it is also true that they are not supposed to. God did not assign this to them.

• As God offers comfort in the midst of the trial, do not clutch at it like a drowning swimmer. Take on the comfort gratefully, as a diligent student, and put it in your notebook. “Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God” (2 Cor. 1:3–4). You are not just being comforted, you are being trained.

• You are living in the school of hard gratitude. Now this gratitude in the midst of affliction is not a happy happy joy joy sort of thing, not at all. What did Jesus do when He picked up the bread that represented His body, and He took it in His own hands and tore it. What was He doing at that moment? He was giving thanks (Luke 22:19). This is why we are instructed to give thanks in all things (1 Thess. 5:18), and for all things (Eph. 5:20). This is a hard-headed gratitude, not a hard-hearted and sullen ingratitude.

• Just as there is a sense in which the affliction is yours alone, so also is the wisdom and the sanctification and the blessing that comes from it. You alone know the plague of your own heart, correct? “What prayer and supplication soever be made by any man, or by all thy people Israel, which shall know every man the plague of his own heart, and spread forth his hands toward this house . . .” (1 Kings 8:38). This means that you alone can know how God ministered to you there.

HELP FROM THE OUTSIDE

Having urged those who are going through this sort of trial to learn how to bear their own burden (Gal. 6:5), it is now time to remind everyone else to bear one another’s burdens (Gal. 6:2). This is not either/or, but rather both/and, and it is the part of wisdom to know and understand when and how this is to be done.

• Look for ways to provide practical help—meal trains, school pick-ups, financial support, or child care. The chances are  pretty good that you are far more eloquent with your hands than you are will your words.

• Job’s friends did well, at least initially. For the first week, they were silent. Where words are many, sin is not absent (Prov. 10:19). Be genuinely wary about volunteering that you “know what it’s like.” You probably don’t, and even if you do, they probably already know that.

• You are there to provide sympathy, which is not at all the same thing as untethered empathy. There have been many comforters who have been little more than well-cushioned stumbling blocks.

• Don’t overpromise and then underdeliver. “Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a broken tooth, and a foot out of joint” (Proverbs 25:19).

ESCHATOLOGICAL ORIENTATION

And so we return to our text. All of us who are Christians are anchored in and with the same hope. We share that one hope, and we share it all the time. Our current afflictions are not worth comparing to the realization of that hope. But at the same time, these afflictions, which will dwindle to nothing at that day, are certainly weighty enough for us now. They are plenty heavy in the moment. And so remember, these are afflictions with feet. They work through the body at different rates of speed. They do not happen to all of us, all at once. They come, first to one, and then to another. When they come to us, it is to remind us of our hope—who is Christ. When they come to our brother, it is to remind us of our hope—who is Christ.

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State of the Church 2024

Grace Sensing on

INTRODUCTION

As you might know by now, the tone coming out of Moscow has gained a little bit of notoriety. For good or ill, this reputation shows no signs of going away, and because you are likely to be fielding questions about it, I thought that it would be good to use our annual “state of the church” message to help you sort through the relevant issues. 

THE TEXTS

“And sent messengers before his face: and they went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him. And they did not receive him, because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem. And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did? But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them. And they went to another village” (Luke 9:52–56). 

SUMMARY OF THE TEXTS

The basic lesson we should take from our text is this. Just because it is biblical . . . doesn’t make it biblical. As I learned from my father, there is always a deeper right than being right. James and John were nicknamed “sons of thunder” by the Lord (Mark 3:17), meaning that they were almost certainly hot-blooded. When a Samaritan village denied lodging because they were Jews on the way to Jerusalem, the two brothers appealed to the example of Elijah. When he had sent a message to King Ahaziah that he was not going to recover from a fall, the king sent an armed guard of fifty men to arrest Elijah, and Elijah called down fire from heaven and consumed them all (2 Kings 1:10). The king dispatched a second troop, and the same thing happened (2 Kings 1:12). The third captain was a great deal more polite—having seen what happened to the first two bands. This is the same Elijah who had summoned fire from heaven to consume the sacrificial altar on Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18:38), followed up by executing all the priests of Baal. So the prophet Elijah was no buttercup, and James and John had a biblical example to point to. But Jesus said that they had wildly misjudged the two circumstances—and they had particularly misjudged the nature of the mission that Christ was on. Christ had come to save, not destroy. It is not enough to “have a verse.” 

THIS KNIFE CUTS BOTH WAYS

If there is always a deeper right than being right, then this must apply to every kind of “right.” Not just the right that has hard lines and straight edges. This also applies to the right of being kind, or generous, or sacrificial. C.S. Lewis once commented on a woman who was the sort of woman who lived for others, and you could tell the others by their hunted expression. Maybe he was afflicted by this sort of thing himself because he even wrote a poem in the form of an epitaph about it:

Erected by her sorrowing brothers

In memory of Martha Clay.

Here lies one who lived for others;

Now she has peace. And so have they.

Is it possible to bestow all your worldly goods to feed the poor, and have no love, no charity (1 Cor. 13:3)? It certainly is, and that profits nothing. Was Judas concerned about the poor when Mary anointed the Lord’s feet with spikenard? Judas was the treasurer, and was concerned about the extravagance (John 13:29). And he said that it was for the poor (John 12:5), but his motives were clearly mixed (John 12:6). It is the White Witch who is concerned about conspicuous consumption, remember. “What is the meaning of all this gluttony, this waste, this self-indulgence? Where did you get all these things?”

And there have eras when the saints were prone to miss the deeper right through a zeal to be hard line. That really is true. But to assume that this is the error of our age is to waver on the threshold of a serious delusion.

BUT WE MUST RESIST OUR OWN TEMPTATIONS, NOT THOSE OF OTHERS

Godly satire should come from within a worshiping community of orthodox and faithful Christians, only some of whom are called to it (Eph. 5:21). The satire should arise from the language and categories of Scripture (2 Tim. 3:16-17). Those exercising these gifts should warm and affectionate relationships with family. No close member of his family should flinch when he walks into the room (Col. 3:19, 21). The practice should continue a long and worthy tradition, and there should be broad acquaintance with that literature. There needs to be an instinctive knowledge of the quantitative difference between satire and scurrility. There may not seem to be a logical difference between 37 lashes and 42 lashes, but Scriptures say there is (Dt. 25:1-3).

There is a qualitative difference between the two also. This is a matter of timbre and tone. No mechanical rules can be set down for it, but it is a very important distinction to make (Heb. 5:14). These weapons should not be entrusted to anyone too young (1 Tim. 3:6). The whole point is to target lack of proportion, not to exhibit lack of proportion (Matt. 23:24). What effect is all of this having on those who aspire to fighting Amalekites with a chain saw (2 Cor. 11:1)? Is the satire coming from a community that has long experience in letting love cover a multitude of sins (1 Pet. 4:8). 

This requires a courageous disposition, not a bullying one. Lawful satire is leveled at targets that know how to defend themselves, and that will defend themselves. As King Lune of Archenland put it, “Never taunt a man save when he is stronger than you: then, as you please.” And if a man is too proud to humble himself when he has sinned (Jas. 5:16), then he is too proud for this calling. Man’s anger does not advance God’s righteousness (Jas. 1:20). Anger, even when it is righteous (Eph. 4:26), is like manna and goes bad overnight (Eph. 4:27). This should never proceed from “little man syndrome,” where a man has something deep inside to prove, usually to his father. We must be free, completely free, of envy (Jas. 4:1-6). Envious satire is brittle satire, and not very effective.

The target should always be arrogance, not weakness, and, as far as possible, reserve his arrows for the former. There must be a general knowledge of church history, which will dislodge the very provincial notion that the current rules of academic etiquette are somehow binding on all generations of the Church. Scripture is the norm, not our current traditions. We must love to sing all the psalms that God has given us (Eph. 5:19). Nothing serves like the psalms if the goal is to nurture and restore a vertebrate church. We must never get stuck on one speed (Ecc. 3:1-8). All satire, all the time, would be tolerable for about forty-five minutes. We must learn as a community to really hate what is evil. The fear of God is not only the beginning of knowledge, but it is also defined as the hatred of evil. “The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate” (Prov. 8:14). And last, we must all grow in our love for what is good (Tit. 2:14), motivated by a love that yearns to defend what is noble and right, or weak and defenseless, and never be motivated by a bitterness that seeks to bite and tear (Gal. 5:13-15).

A BODY LIFE THING

Some people assume that if you move to Moscow, you are committing yourself to making fun of everybody, all the time. Not a bit of it. We are the body of Christ, and here, as with everything, each part of the body does what it was fashioned to do. So the eye doesn’t have to do what the ear does. But the eye needs to be committed to the ear, and should expect the ear to have a completely different outlook. But the whole body is Christ.

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The State of the Church 2024 (CCD)

Grace Sensing on

INTRODUCTION

This year, for my State of the Church message, I want to take a 30,000 ft. view. The church at large is beset with great danger to moral compromise. However, locally, we should not think ourselves impervious to the onslaught which is attacking the church of our Lord Jesus. We live in perilous times, and I want to summon our local congregation to look at the perils which surround us, and to take heed.

THE TEXT

But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication. So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate. Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.

Revelation 2:14-16

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

This letter to the church of Pergamos requires a bit of context. It was a city north of Ephesus. The Lord Jesus tells them that they dwell where “Satan’s seat is (2:13)”. The church had held fast to the name of Jesus, and did not deny the faith, even though it cost the life one of their number (Antipas). Jesus refers to Antipas as “my faithful martyr” which the same title given to Jesus in the prologue (1:5). Pergamos held shrines to a few false deities: most prominently Dionysius & Asklepios. The cult of the former included ecstatic partaking of fertility rituals and frequent intoxication. The cult of the latter had a temple full of tame serpents; the sick would often be laid in this temple for the night, with the belief that the serpent’s touch would bring healing and revitalization. Seat of Satan indeed.

Though the church had held steadfast to the name & faith of Jesus in prior persecutions, the Lord holds their current compromises against them. Past faithfulness is no guard against future compromise. Their foremost compromise is holding the doctrine of Balaam (2:14), which is summarized as a stumblingblock of idolatrous syncretism and participating in sexual fornication. The Lord also rebukes them for toying with the Nicolaitin heresy, which He hates (2:15). He summons them to repent of this compromise, or else face the two edged sword of His mouth (2:16, Cf. 2:12).

Those who repent in faith––and thus overcome (1 Jn. 5:5)––will partake of hidden manna, and will receive a white stone with a new name. This white stone was used in Roman culture for a few purposes: victory in the various gladiatorial games, acquittal in court, and a ticket into the feasts halls & celebrations (2:17).

THE DOCTRINE OF BALAAM

The saga of Balaam (Num 22-25) is returned to a number of times throughout Scripture, and is held up as a warning to God’s people. But it is not Balaam’s attempted curses which are the focal point of the warning; in fact Joshua notes God’s preserving mercy to Israel by turning Balaam’s attempt to curse into blessings “Then Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose and warred against Israel, and sent and called Balaam the son of Beor to curse you: but I would not hearken unto Balaam; therefore he blessed you still: so I delivered you out of his hand. (Jos. 24:9-10).”

It is not the presence of a false prophet who might try to curse Israel which is presented as the danger to Israel. God turns the curses of His peoples’ enemies into blessings. However, what is a danger to them is Balaam’s counsel/doctrine to Balak. Moses retells the story with a warning, “Behold, these caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass against the LORD in the matter of Peor, and there was a plague among the congregation of the LORD (Num. 31:16).” We’ve already noted the Lord Jesus’ warning by John’s hand, but Peter & Jude warn of similar danger in Balaam’s doctrine:

  • Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness […] For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error. While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage. (2Pe 2:15, 18-19).
  • Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core (Jde 1:11).

Both Peter and Jude accompany their warning against being enticed by Balaam’s doctrine by citing this Proverb: “Whoso boasteth himself of a false gift is like clouds and wind without rain. By long forbearing is a prince persuaded, and a soft tongue breaketh the bone (Pro 25:14-15).” Collecting all this together, we should see that the NT uses Balaam as the archetypal false teacher. But Balaam’s doctrine is not laid out like a logical argument, but it is presented as a temptation to visceral indulgence. And the most potent and poisoning indulgence is that of sexual sin.

The temptation to theological compromise is more often than not preceded by sexual sin. The logical arguments for some false doctrine flow out of a need to provide justification for behavior. We often say that theology comes out of your fingertips, which is true. But it is also a fact that we often find ways to internalize a theology which justifies what our fingertips have become fond of clinging to. The systematic theology of justifying sin follows the sin itself. Excuses are the battlements which a compromised heart erects to defend its precious.

BALAAM’S STUMBLING-BLOCKS

You live in a sea of the flotsam and jetsam of sin. You and your children are surrounded by enticements to forsake the clean water of the Word to drink the sewage of Balaam’s doctrine. The soft tongue of sensual enticement will break your bone unless you put up bulwarks of living faith.

Pornography – You must not take a passive posture when it comes to protecting yourself and your family from the pornification of our culture. As Chesterton once said, “Pornography is not a thing to be argued about with one’s intellect, but to be stamped on with one’s heel.” It is not necessary to frequent the skeevy part of town to come across it. Your newsfeed, your Spotify playlist, your favorite Netflix show, and the Super Bowl halftime show are channels whereby you are being slowly worn down to be indifferent to the Moabite temptresses in the tents of Israel.

Withholding Intimacy – Paul teaches that sexual coldness in a marriage is a foothold for Satan (1 Cor. 7:5). Married couples must labor to maintain a robust bonfire of intimacy. Once more, according to Paul this is needful for both spouses. This requires masculine diligence to pursue, and feminine receptivity to being pursued. If this is ignored, Satan is given a seat at your family dinner table.

Abortion – The crushing weight of the crushed skulls of the unborn weighs heavily on our culture. It guides everything. The demons are chasing an entire generation of women who’ve slain their children. But the men who insisted upon the abortion of their sons and daughters, as well as the doctors that performed the sacrifice, and the magistrates who stand idly by are all haunted by the deep shame which God’s law places upon them. This explains the through the roof use of antidepressants, and mountain of mental illnesses.

Birth Control Pills – Less obvious, but just as damning, we’ve found minute ways of treating the blessing of children as a burden. Even Christian couples have found the ease of pharmaceutical regulation of their fertility to be very appealing. We have turned the womb of a woman from a haven for covenantal life into a chemical wasteland of disinheriting unborn heirs of the grace of life.

Surrogacy – A very pressing issue is coming rapidly into the norm. Not only have we turned the womb into a tomb, but we also have made possible the ability to make the womb profitable. Christian couples who struggle with conceiving a child should see the temptation to rent a womb as a profound abdication of faith in the God who opens the womb and grants conception. Surrogacy turns wombs into slave ships, and children into the slaves of the conceited vanity of so-called parents.

Sodomy – Within a short span of years our nation has embraced the mangled notions that sexuality is not just an attribute of our humanity, but it is our humanity. Thus, to condemn whatever indulgence someone’s sexuality desires is, in the demented thinking of our culture, the unmanning of the very person. But the exact opposite is the case. The judgement of God, according to Romans 1, is seen in being given over to mere impulse. To become utterly beastly. You and your family must practice self-control, in order to have any hope to overcome what we ought to refer to as the sodomizing of our society. This demands husbands to be vigorous, and wives to be virtuous, and demonstrate for their children the particular glory displayed in masculinity and femininity.

CONCLUSION

Rushdoony is worth quoting at length: “When men equalize good and evil, they hope with Adam to open up greater freedom to man, and to make life richer in its possibilities and actualities. But relativization is a two-edged sword: life, instead of becoming richer by the overthrow of moral law, becomes thereby on the same level as death, and no better. Nietzsche saw the consequences of this vaunted freedom and collapsed under its burden. Dewey could not explain why, having relativized all things, democracy should be held to have an especial value, or man’s freedom and dignity be prized. The anarchy of values leads only to the frenzied hatred of and war against all reality, because reality has become the epitome of darkness by its equalizing absorption of all meanings. In this sorry equalization, the theology of the modern church has had no small share.”

The battle which the church finds itself in is not unfamiliar to the people of God. From the days of Phinehas to the days of the church of Pergamum and down to our own present moment, Balaam’s doctrine appeals to our fleshly lusts first and only later do we erect a legal code to justify our sin. But the solution remains the same. Repent. The Sword of the Word does battle with the disciples of Balaam. Christ promises to the repentant both bread and a new name. No longer to be called Balaamites, but to bear the name of Christ. Have you been finding Balaam’s doctrine more and more fascinating? Have you dabbled in his ways? Have you been pining to hide under the shadow of Balaam’s clouds? Then beware. Turn away. Those are clouds without water. So to the church of the Lord Jesus in this year of our Lord, 2024, cling steadfastly to Christ and give no heed to our Balaams.

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State of the Church 2024 – On Hard Work & Holy Ambition (King’s Cross)

Grace Sensing on

INTRODUCTION

In our day, it is commonplace to hear messages on the need for work/life balance, the need for “me time,” and the dangers of workaholics, ambition, and stress. And I am convinced that 99% of it is a siren song for laziness, apathy, selfishness, and cowardice. 

The Lord created the world in six days and rested on the seventh day, and our Lord Jesus remade the world in three days and rested on the first day, re-affirming the Sabbath principle and transforming the first day into the Christian Sabbath (cf. Heb. 4:9-10). But the Kingdom of God is taken by a kind of holy violence, that is, great struggle and ambition (Mt. 11:12). 

The Text: “Then came to him the mother of Zebedee’s children with her sons, worshipping him, and desiring a certain thing of him. And he said unto her, What wilt thou? She saith unto him, Grant that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on the left, in thy kingdom…” (Mt. 20:20-28).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

One time Mrs. Zebedee and her two sons came to worship Christ, and she asked for her sons to be given places of honor at His right and left hand (Mt. 20:20-21). Jesus gently corrected her, insisting that she didn’t quite know what she was asking for (Mt. 20:22), but His question in return did not utterly reject the request. He asked whether James and John would be able to endure the suffering that would be required for that kind of glory and authority (Mt. 20:22). When they replied in the affirmative, Jesus granted at least that – they would drink His cup and endure His baptism, but those places of authority were prepared by His Father (Mt. 20:22-23). 

While the other ten were upset with James and John for even making the request (probably envious that they had not asked first), Jesus did not rebuke the brothers but exhorted them all to give up every semblance of Gentile power-grabbing (Mt. 20:24-25). Instead, His disciples must be committed to the greatness that comes through long service and suffering (Mt. 20:26-27). This greatness is principally illustrated and accomplished by the suffering service of Christ Himself, who gave His life as a ransom for many (Mt. 20:28). 

HOLY AMBITION

Jesus does not say that desiring greatness and authority is wrong or foolish. Instead, He simply insists on two things: first, the only path to greatness is faithful suffering, and second, the results are in God’s hands. But if Jesus is the prime example, this does not mean that Christians should hope for minimal earthly impact or influence. Rather, if Jesus has been given the name that is above all other names through His obedient suffering, all Christians should seek to emulate that obedience to gain greatness under His name. For example, Paul says that he outpaced all the other apostles in his zeal for the kingdom, but it was God’s grace that enabled him (1 Cor. 15:10). It’s true that we ought rather be janitors in the Kingdom of God than dwell in tents of wickedness (Ps. 84:10), but that doesn’t mean our goal should be mediocre. Our goal should be to work hard for the King, enduring all trouble and difficulty gladly for His sake, and let Him use us where He will.   

FAITHFUL WITH LITTLE

In Matthew 25, Jesus tells the parable of the talents, praising the servants who invested what was given to them and doubled the master’s money: “well done, good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord” (Mt. 25:21, 23). But the servant who buried his talent in the ground and merely returned what was given is called wicked and slothful, his one talent is stripped from him, and he is cast into outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth (Mt. 25:26-30). And his most heinous sin is his view of the master as a hard and greedy man, which is why he is cast into Hell. But God is not hard and greedy; He is generous and bountiful. 

APPLICATIONS

We need Christians who know that their Father is a generous God who will give abundantly more than we ask or think – because He has already given us His son – and therefore, they study, work, and build with a holy ambition and deep, joyful expectation. 

The way God made the world requires the necessity of study and service first. There is a caricature of some of the younger generations (e.g. “Gen Z”) of a sort of entitlement mentality, insisting on easy, high paying jobs without proving your wisdom or worth. These are people who quit jobs after a few days or weeks because they are “hard” and they don’t feel very “appreciated.” This should be a completely foreign notion for Christians. We need young men hungry for vocations of leadership in politics and the corporate world. This is call for Daniels and Josephs, which is to say, these are paths of suffering, persecution, hardship, often with real leadership and authority, though only rarely with much temporal glory. 

This is why we have put such a premium on Christian education. But it is not enough to merely remove our kids from the public schools. We really do want our sons and daughters to be full of knowledge and wisdom, and this requires wisdom to know how to raise the bar while remember their frame. Related, while our sons and daughters are called to different vocations, this does not mean that our daughters need be less educated. Let us have wives and daughters as ambitious as Mrs. Zebedee and sons like her sons. 

We need young men hungry for pastoral ministry and missionary work. Jesus said that the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few (Mt. 9:37-38). It has always been the case, since at least the time of Jesus, that unbelievers are more eager to come into the kingdom than believers are to welcome them in. But there is a particular glory in the sacrifices of those who give their lives to proclaim the gospel because it imitates the life of the One who has received all glory and honor.

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