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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The natural state of sin, is that it wants to be hidden. From Genesis 4:7, “If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.” The Bible says that sin crouches in hiding. Like a predator skulking through the tall grass, sin wishes to ambush you when you least expect it. Its desired condition is to remain concealed, until it can pounce on you. We all have some self-awareness of our besetting sins, but they will always appear to us less significant than they actually are. One pastor put it this way, “We tell ourselves, ‘I’m not irritable; I just have high standards. I’m not ruthless; I’m just a sharp business person. I’m not stingy; I’m just prudent. I’m not obsessed with physical appearance; I just appreciate good grooming.’” So one way sin hides itself is through self-deception. We are the ones who say, “Here sin, crouch here by the door.” And then we’re surprised that it springs a trap on us from the hiding place we gave it. And after it bites us we try to protect it by hiding it again, “Don’t worry precious, I won’t let anyone know you’re here.” So we paper our sin over through lies, projection, fig leaves, whatever’s around. And the answer to this game we play, which is to be honest about our sin, is so unsavory, that we will do anything to hide our sin—including self-righteously judging others in an attempt to re-focus the spotlight on someone else. 

Consider the contrast between the Pharisees and the tax collectors. One group was shown grace by the Lord and the other was shown contempt. What was the deciding factor? Both groups contained sinners. Both groups contained grievous sinners. The difference was that one group had candor and was frank about their sin. Luke 5 says, “And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, ‘Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?’ And Jesus answered them, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.’” Jesus knows that the Pharisees should be lumped in with the tax collectors. Both groups are law breakers. But not only do the Pharisees fail to identify themselves as sinners, but they go a step further and point the finger, looking down their nose. They say, “Why are you eating with those dirty sinners?” 

We struggle with the same thing. Failing to be honest about our sin stumbles Pharisee and Christian alike. And criticizing others’ faults doesn’t absolve you of your own. John says, “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” So let us be honest with ourselves, cut the tall grass short and give sin no place to hide.

Daniel Namahoe – June 30, 2024

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