Christ Church

A Mind to Work (Joint Outdoor Worship Service Part #1)

Grace Sensing on

INTRODUCTION

We live in the ruins of Western Christendom. The walls of once great Christian nations and civilizations have been breached by new pagan hordes. But God in His kindness has done something remarkable here locally in Moscow. He has given us a mind to the work of rebuilding the walls of Christendom. And He has done this in such a way as to cause a spotlight to be shone on this work. People have noticed us building. 

So what are we to think of all this? And what we are to do? The simple answer and exhortation is to remain faithful at your stations. Keep your mind to the work.

The Text: “So built we the wall; and all the wall was joined together unto the half thereof: for the people had a mind to work” (Neh. 4:6)

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

This comes in the midst of God’s people being mocked for their work under Nehemiah, rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. Their enemies are angry, and they are trying to stir up trouble. They say the Jews are weak and feeble. They say they will not accomplish much. And they say the Jews will certainly not reestablish worship. And whatever they do accomplish, it will be worthless and flimsy and collapse again. And in the midst of that opposition, Nehemiah prays that God would hear these taunts and turn their attacks back upon their own heads. And armed with that prayer, the Jews built the wall, and they made good progress in building the wall, and the people had a mind to work. 

Broadly speaking, our central tasks can divided into three areas: keeping short accounts, honest/diligent labor/study before the Lord, and worshipping like you mean it. 

KEEPING SHORT ACCOUNTS

In order to keep our minds to the work, we must have clear minds. And the only way to have clear minds is to have clean hearts. Jesus says that before you talk to your brother about the speck in his eye, first remove the log in your own eye. Then you will see clearly to help your brother. Sin gums up the gears of everything. Sin is like mud on your windshield. Sin is like walking in the dark. Sin doesn’t allow you to see clearly or think clearly. One of the great lies of the Devil is that sin is just the way things are and there’s nothing really to be done about it. The lie is that since everyone sins, normal life is just full of darkness. 

But the gospel says that is not true. The gospel says that God sent His Son into this dark world in order that we might have light. The gospel says that it is possible for sinners to walk in the light with God and have fellowship with one another. 1 John 1:7 says: “If you walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin.” How does the blood of Jesus cleanse us from all our sins? “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 Jn. 1:9). It is possible to walk in the light. It is possible to have a clean heart. This is what we mean by keeping short accounts. 

This is how you don’t allow sin to accumulate in your hearts or lives. If you have two houses on the same street, both with large families, and one is clean and tidy and the other one looks like a bomb went off, the difference between the clean house and the dirty house is that in the clean house they pick up. The clean house family has dirty dishes and dirty clothes and spills just like everybody else, but they do the dishes and the laundry, and they clean up the spills. The dirty house ignores the messes, tries to hide them in closets or under the rug, despite the awful smell permeating the house. So this is how you can have a clear mind: have a clean heart and stay in fellowship with your people. 

HONEST AS A HUGUENOT

In the 17th century, it was common say, “honest as a Huguenot.” We want to cultivate the same kind of reputation in all our labor. This means no lies and complete sobriety. The truth is the foundational currency of value. A good name and honesty and integrity are even more valuable than the gold standard, bitcoin, or however you’re trying to stave off inflation. The most damaging form of inflation is the inflation of truth. The shysters in the ancient world shaved and clipped coins: do not clip the truth, do not shave the truth. The righteous man swears to his own hurt and doesn’t break his promises. Let your yes be a “yes” and your “no” a “no.” A mind to the work, is an honest mind to the work. Liars have to constantly keep track of their lies, but truth-tellers sleep well at night. And wherever you have not told the truth, go make it right, even if it hurts. That’s the only way to have a mind to the work. But every brick you lay in your family or in this community under pretense or hypocrisy or theft, hoping no one will find out about your lies, is a brick that has no integrity. It would be far better to confess it now, so we can repair the damage now than in six months or six years when the damage is even greater. 

Closely related to honest work is sober-minded work. We are community that celebrates, and that means it is common to attend a dinner or a party with wine or beer or scotch. The Bible says that God gave wine to make the hearts of men glad, and Jesus turned water into wine for His miracle at the wedding in Cana of Galilee. We want to be the kind of people who would gladly enjoy Christ’s miracle. But the Bible is equally clear that drunkenness is sinful, harmful, and utterly disastrous. We want to continue to build a culture of true Christian joy and celebration, but that joy is clear-headed and sober-minded, not tipsy, not buzzing. 

CONCLUSION: WORSHIP LIKE YOU MEAN IT

At the center of all our labor is worship. And that means coming before the Lord honestly. If we are to be truly honest about our sins and truly honest in all our labor, we must fundamentally come before the Lord in complete honesty. God already knows everything. He sees through all our excuses, all our blame-shifting, all our hypocrisies. And those who humble themselves and come in the righteousness of Jesus Christ are most welcome, and the Spirit comes and blesses them and sends them from God’s presence with joy and vigor. 

This is what we mean by worship like you mean it. Worship in faith, believing that the God of Heaven really lifts us up into His presence. That as we sing and pray and listen and eat, the gates of Hades are being shaken – that everything that cannot stand is being broken down, so that only those things that can remain stand firm.

Read Full Article

Meditating on Mt. Zion (Troy)

Grace Sensing on

SERMON TEXT

Joshua 1:8

INTRODUCTION

What are the spiritual disciplines in this great religion of ours? Prayer is usually the first to come to mind. To watch God work through the vehicle of answered prayer is one of the great experiences of a believer. We should cling to it like a butterfly to a flower in the wind. Martin Luther said, “To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.” E.M. Bounds said, “Prayer should not be regarded as a duty which must be performed, but rather as a privilege to be enjoyed, a rare delight that is always revealing some new beauty.” Which is why the consistent charge here at Christ Church Troy has been to be spiritually disciplined about prayer. What about Bible reading? Like the Jews who gathered their manna from off the ground, we turn to the pages of scripture to have our portion for the day. And what the Lord has for us will vary: sometimes conviction, sometimes a proverb. There is chastisement and warnings. There is comfort and blessing. There is cloak and dagger, characters who prefer the shadows. And there is Jesus who teaches the inverse, “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men.” John Wesley said this about daily Bible reading, “I want to know one thing—the way to heaven; how to land safe on that happy shore. God Himself has condescended to teach the way; for this very end He came from heaven. He has written it down in a book. O give me that book! At any price, give me the book of God!”

A BIBLICAL DEFINITION OF MEDITATION

I would like to provide a working definition of biblical meditation. Biblical meditation is a deliberate act of contemplation where a focus is maintained on an object for a period of time. Consequently, the caliber of the meditation is determined by the virtue of the object. There is a prayer that the Psalmist makes in Psalm 19 and Psalm 104. He says, “Let the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight. May my meditation be pleasing to Him.” The verse contains an implicit assertion, that what you meditate on, may not please God. When Johannes Kepler, a German scientist in the 17th century, was asked how he was able to make such incredible discoveries about planetary motion he said, “I was merely thinking God’s thoughts after him.” And that is exactly what this meditation business is all about, syncing up our minds with God’s. Now in the definition I provided, I mentioned that meditation requires an object. We’re going to see that the scope of this singular object can be broad and the time period can be of varying lengths, but the Bible does tell us what it is we should focus on when we meditate.

THE OBJECT OF OUR MEDITATION

Joshua 1:8 says, “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.” Notice these four things in the verse. First, anything you say should be guided by the Bible, influenced by the Bible, filtered through the Bible, or a quotation of the Bible. Second, anything you think should be directed by the Bible, supported by the Bible, and controlled by the Bible. Third, the reason why you speak biblically and think biblically is so that you will do things that are biblical. Do you remember Luke 11? Jesus walks by and a woman in the crowd shouts to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed!” And His reply was, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!” What good is your theological knowledge if you don’t do anything with it? James says, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” Paul says, “For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous.“ And lastly, if you speak, think, and act biblically then you will have prosperity and success.

A TIME AND A PLACE

Third, let us comment on meditation regarding time and place. When it comes to time, there is no time limit restricting mediation. Psalm 1:2 says, “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.” Psalm 119, “Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day.” But interestingly, there does appear to be a special connection between night time and meditation. Listen to these verses, “My eyes are awake before the watches of the night, that I may mediate on your promise.” “Let me remember my song in the night; let me meditate in my heart.” “When I remember you upon my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night, you have been my help.”

CONCLUSION – THE METHODOLOGY OF MEDITATION AND THE BATTLE FOR OUR MINDS

I will grant to you that perhaps no other generation in history has had to contend with more distractions than we have. Isaac did not have to deal with an algorithm that is designed from the ground up to keep you scrolling. Whether it’s social media or video games, we’ve got a problem. Jamie Griesemer, a lead game designer for Bungie asked this question, “What makes a video game addictive and can you deliberately design that? The secret of great game design is creating a repeatable gameplay loop to hook players. This loop needs to be the central activity the players engage in and it also needs to be flexible enough that it can be applied across the entire length of the game.” And so software development firms are now hiring PhD psychologists to help them perfect the timing. Achievements, treasure chests, and in-game loot are all carefully delivered to the player at the right time in the right amounts to maximize the game’s addictive property. And it’s working. In 2005, a 28-year-old man from Beijing died after playing the game World of Warcraft for several days straight. In 2015, a 24-year-old man from Shanghai played for 19 hours straight, he collapsed in an internet cafe and could not be resuscitated. In 2014, a 38-year-old man committed suicide after struggling with his addiction. This world wants to enslave your mind. Instead of carefully curating and selecting what we consume, we let the algorithm tell us what to focus on. And the future will continue to supply more and more amusements to vie for our attention. Because of this, our need for meditation has never been greater.

Read Full Article

On Loving the Standard (Biblical Child Discipline in an Age of Therapeutic Goo #9)

Grace Sensing on

INTRODUCTION

The chances are pretty good that over the years you have heard me say something like this. You task as parents is not to get your kids to conform to the standard, but rather to get them to love the standard. This may seem straightforward and simple, but there are actually layers to it. As we pursue this, we turn to the greatest commandment in the Bible, which is where we find the authority to say things like “love the standard.”

THE TEXT

“Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments, which the Lord your God commanded to teach you, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go to possess it: That thou mightest fear the Lord thy God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command thee, thou, and thy son, and thy son’s son, all the days of thy life; and that thy days may be prolonged. Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it; that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as the Lord God of thy fathers hath promised thee, in the land that floweth with milk and honey. Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates” (Deuteronomy 6:1–9). 

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

This passage is where we find the greatest commandment in all of Scripture. We know this on the authority of the Lord Jesus Himself (Matt. 27:36-40). Now God gave Israel all His laws and statutes, in order that they might live them out in the land (v. 1). Doing this, they would fear the Lord, keep His word, from grandfather to grandson, through lengthened days (v. 2). Hear and do, O Israel, that you might prosper (v. 3). Then we come to the great Shema, hear, O Israel. The Lord your God is one (v. 4). You shall love the Lord your God with all that you have and are (v. 5). These words must be taken into the heart (v. 6). From the heart, you are to teach them diligently to your kids—all the time (v. 7). Bind these commandments to yourself (v. 8), and post them on your house and gates (v. 9).   

LOVE CAN BE TAUGHT

The first thing to take away from this passage is the understanding that love is a thing that can indeed be taught. But it cannot be taught by people who do not understand it themselves. Those who would teach this love to others must have it first themselves. Before you teach it to your children, you must be doing it yourself. Love the Lord your God with all your heart (v. 5). The words of His commandments must reside in your heart (v. 6). From the heart, it flows to the mouth, and from the mouth to the environment of the entire home. 

Religious instruction of children must not be pro forma or perfunctory. You are not ticking boxes, but rather nurturing souls, starting with your own.

COMMANDED TO LOVE

The fact that we are commanded to love does not take away from the nature of God’s grace. In his Confessions, Augustine once said, “Give what you command, and then command whatever you will.” Our obedience to this kind of requirement is entirely dependent upon the sovereign grace of God. 

“Therefore thou shalt love the Lord thy God, and keep his charge, and his statutes, and his judgments, and his commandments, alway” (Deuteronomy 11:1). 

“In that I command thee this day to love the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the Lord thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it” (Deuteronomy 30:16). 

The fruit of the Spirit, the working of His grace in our lives, maps very nicely onto the commands of God. What is the greatest command? Love (Dt. 6:4-9). What is the first fruit? Love (Gal. 5:22). It is the same thing all the way through—joy (Phil. 4:4; Gal. 5:22), peace (John 14:1; Gal. 5:22), longsuffering (Eph. 4:2; Gal. 5:22), gentleness (Tit. 3:2; Gal. 5:22), goodness (1 Tim. 6:18), faith (John 8:24; Gal. 5:22), meekness (1 Pet. 3:4; Gal. 5:23), and temperance (Tit. 2:2; Gal. 5:23). God gives us commands, and His Spirit grows obedience to those commands in us. Our responsibility is not to go obey Him on our own, and then bring that obedience back to Him, expecting some kind of a reward. No, we go in His grace, and we come back in His grace.

And we model for our children what this is like. As we walk along the road, we have them by the hand. 

Children learn by imitation primarily. “Therefore be imitators of God as dear children” (Ephesians 5:1). 

GOOD AND GODLY TEACHING

What does it mean to teach? It means to love your God, and the subject you are handling, in the presence of a student, whom you also love. It means to love God and your neighbor, and then to work out the problem together. 

This always brings us back to Jesus Christ. There is nothing worse, nothing more suffocating, than to be trapped in a Christless Christianity. Of course, this is not really Christianity at all, but there appears to be an abundant supply of this counterfeit nonetheless. A Christianity without Christ has no blood in it, no salt, no sap. 

But when Christ is present . . .? How would it be possible not to love the standard? “Great peace have they which love thy law: And nothing shall offend them” (Psalm 119:165; cf. 97,113, 163).

Read Full Article

Sexual Decorum in the Home (Biblical Child Discipline in an Age of Therapeutic Goo #8)

Grace Sensing on

INTRODUCTION

In some ways, this message will be like a lesson in firearms safety—one of the basic rules of firearm safety is that you should always treat all guns as if they were always loaded. We are all of us sexual beings, men and women, boys and girls, and as Christian disciples, we need to learn how to conduct ourselves accordingly, with propriety and decorum. 

THE TEXT

“Rebuke not an elder, but intreat him as a father; and the younger men as brethren; The elder women as mothers; the younger as sisters, with all purity” (1 Timothy 5:1–2). 

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

The apostle Paul is instructing Timothy on how to behave in an appropriate and pastoral way in the congregation of the Lord. The standards that apply in a decent household are used by Paul as the template for his instruction. The way we ought to behave in our households provides a pattern for how we should behave in the household of God. When a young pastor has to deal with folly in an older parishioner, he should not rebuke him, but rather entreat him the way you would plead with an aging father (v. 1). Younger men should be treated as brothers (v. 1). Older women should be regarded as mothers in Israel (v. 2). And then Paul comes to the sisters, where he tells Timothy to treat them as sisters. And how should sisters be treated? With all purity, with all holiness, with all comeliness (v. 2). This is necessary because every gun is always loaded.  

ARSONISTS AND FIREMEN

Given the times we find ourselves in, it is necessary for us to consider these things together. But in order for us to do so, I have to deal with a possible distraction first. As many of you know, over the history of our congregation, there have been various sexual scandals and pastoral snarls. And some of them have been kept in the public eye by our enemies for political purposes, over the course of decades. Because of this, some will want to say that we have no right to be talking about this subject at all. But if the protection of the church requires it, we have the obligation to address it.

As we do, just keep a few basic things in mind. Since this church was planted in 1975, the session of Christ Church has consistently acted in a biblical and honorable way with regard to the various situations that have arisen—not perfectly, but honorably. Second, an enormous number of lies have been told about us and it is often the case that the lies cannot be answered without betraying pastoral discretion and confidentiality. And we would rather be lied about than to expose any of you to the wolves. Third, it is clear that many of our critics have no idea what faithful pastors need to do. And last, some of our fiercest enemies are also carrying water for the pornification of America, the perverse grooming of drag queen story hours, and the pending legitimization of pedophiles—a.k.a “minor-attracted persons.” They are like arsonists critiquing the efficiency of fire fighters. While we are always willing to hear criticism, it would not be from the likes of them.       

 FATHER AND BROTHERS

One of the central obligations that the men of a family have is the protection of the household (Gen. 2:15), particularly of the more vulnerable members of that household (1 Pet. 3:7). Now if your first responsibility is the protection of your girls, then this begins with not being someone they need protection from. You are to protect them from snakes, and this begins with not being one.

Daughters and sisters grow up into women, a fact that is obvious to all with eyes in their head. The duty of the men in the house is to protect them by remaining warm, affectionate, and close—but not creepy close. As much as it is made fun of, there is a lot to be said for the Christian side-hug.

Third, you have a responsibility to behave like a gentleman (1 Pet. 3:7), treating the women in your house like ladies. There is a flippant and crass closeness that is also wildly inappropriate—innuendo or casual touching. Your home is not the locker room of your men’s rugby club.    

MOTHERS AND SISTERS

The women have a genuine responsibility in all of this as well. But because of feminist propaganda, we have come to treat those who believe in a woman’s moral agency as people who automatically “blame the victim.” This is ludicrous. Two things can be true at the same time—that thief ought not to have gotten into your car and stolen your wallet, one, and secondly, you shouldn’t have left your wallet on the dashboard with twenty-dollar bills sticking out of it. The thief should be arrested and prosecuted, of course, and all your friends should still call you an idiot. 

So there are two things that women should be prepared to do. One is that of comporting yourself in a chaste and modest fashion (Tit. 2:5). This begins with teaching little girls to “sit like a lady,” and it extends into the teen-age years, when their goal should be to adorn themselves in modesty (1 Tim. 2:9). The apostles of Christ do not call upon the young women to be cool, or fashionable, or “not dorky.” The goal is Christian modesty. The goal is NOT to be “not immodest.” Different things, different attitude altogether. You should not be asking yourself how short your shorts can be before you are definitely in sin, and then have your shorts be a millimeter longer than that.

The second thing that the girls of a household should be taught is the courage to be vocal about anything that makes you uncomfortable. The first level of this is preventative—getting people to back off. Tell your dad that you don’t like your brother coming into your bedroom like that. Tell your mom that you are too old to sit on dad’s lap. The second level is when pastors and/or legal authorities need to be informed and involved. This would be when anything of an explicit sexual nature has occurred. It is not your Christian duty to put up with that, or to make excuses for it, or to pretend that ignoring something is forgiveness. And incidentally, the same thing is true for boys. Do what you need to do, but do not enter into it lightly. You live in a time when false charges are too readily believed (Gen. 39:13-14), and so you should not play into that. But if it needs to be dealt with, then get the help you need to deal with it. 

BUT NEVER FORGET…

A topic like this is necessarily tawdry. But never forget that Christ came into a tawdry world, and He did it in order to suffer and die. And why?

“Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:9–11).

Read Full Article

Child Rearing and Checking Accounts (Biblical Child Discipline in an Age of Therapeutic Goo #7)


Grace Sensing on

INTRODUCTION

As with all checking accounts, it is important make deposits in the checking account of parental authority before attempting to write checks out of that account with an authoritative flourish in the signature. Like all checking accounts, there needs to be money in there. It is not reasonable to argue that you can’t be out of money because you still have some checks left.  

THE TEXT

“Train up a child in the way he should go: And when he is old, he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6). 

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

There is debate over whether this verse is given to us as a general proverb, or as hard-and-fast promise to parents that if children are brought up right they will never stray, or if the verse is talking about finding the right vocation for your child, and not talking about spiritual condition at all. 

It is not my purpose to settle that question, at least when it comes to this passage. The truth I want us to take from this passage, whatever it is talking about, is the general truth that it is easier to bend the sapling than it is to bend the full-grown oak. And when you bend the sapling, the results of what you have done are lasting results. 

Whatever the course you set for the child, that course will remain with him. Child discipline matters, in other words. What you do with your growing family is not a random roll of the dice. 

STANDING ON THE PROMISES

Allowing for various interpretations of Proverbs 22:6 does not mean that we are backing away from what we have previously taught about how Christian parents are invited to trust the Lord for the salvation of their kids. This is just a quick reminder—and for those who want to do a deep dive, there is the book Standing on the Promises. The first thing is that none of this is by works. We believe the promises of grace by faith alone, and this of course results in parental works. It is not driven by parental works. Christian parents are to teach their children to honor their parents (Eph. 6), and this is a command with a promise attached to it. Christian elders are supposed to imitated by the saints (Heb. 13:7, 17), and it is possible (and required) for Christian leaders to manage their homes in such a way as that their children are not lost or reprobate (1 Tim. 3:4-5; Tit. 1:6).

“Know therefore that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations” (Deuteronomy 7:9). 

THREE BASIC PRINCIPLES

A garden of yes: Remember the pattern that God established in the garden. He gave our first parents a world full of yes, and with one prohibited tree in the whole world. There was only one no in the garden of yes. Too many Christian parents function with a garden of no, and the occasional and very intermittent yes in the middle of all the negativity. 

With this, you are establishing a place of joy, peace and fellowship. When the fellowship is broken (as it is by sin), children who are accustomed to the harmony of ordinary life are eager to get back into fellowship. But if ordinary time is a time of dull chronic pain, punctuated by the occasional dramatic “scene,” causing acute pain, then this is not what you want. Your highest parental priority should be your defense of a climate of fellowship—which is only possible in and through Christ.   

Ascent to maturity: if you are applying the principle of our text, you bend the sapling when it is a sapling, and you don’t try to bend a trunk that is a foot in diameter. To change the illustration, you put training wheels on your child’s first bike. You don’t put training wheels on their mountain bike because “now they might really get hurt.”

Too many parents are indulgent when sin is little and sometimes even cute. But this is the time when you should be establishing your authority, storing that authority up when you will be needing to “write checks” on it. Do not indulge your little ones, and then panic when they move into secondary school with a decade of “little or no discipline” under their belt. Now they can wreck a car and kill somebody. Now they can get into dank porn. Now they can get pregnant, or get someone pregnant. Now they can seriously damage their prospects for life, and so the temptation is to rush in and put training wheels on their mountain bike.  

Child Rearing by Grace: We are saved by grace through faith, and not of works lest anyone should boast (Eph. 2:8-9). But while we are not saved by good works, we are most certainly saved to good works. This is the meaning of the next verse. “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10).

Trusting God for your kids is not a matter of “pedaling harder.” Compare it to the promises of God concerning answered prayer. We are given a number of astonishing promises. But we know they are not vending machine promises, if for no other reason than the Lord’s prayer for deliverance in Gethsemane (Matt. 26:39). At the same time, the promises must mean something. “And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive” (Matt. 21:22). “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you” (John 15:7). This is a place where we are invited to step into a place of trust, and when God enables us to do so, we can look to Him expectantly. It is same with your children.  

CHRIST ALL THE WAY THROUGH

The very best thing you can do for your children in the Lord is to be an “all-in” Christian. How does He call us to live? And remember that everything He demands from us, He is willing to pour Himself out in order to provide us with it. He writes those promissory notes in His own blood, remember. The second best thing you can do for your children in the Lord is to be an “all-in” husband, or an “all-in” wife. These are the good works you are called to. These are the good works that invite you into the way of peace.

Read Full Article