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"Let Them Praise the Name of the LORD" - 17 March 2024

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  (From Psalm 148) Praise the LORD! Praise the LORD from the heavens; praise him in the heights! Praise him, all his angels; praise him, all his hosts! From the highest to the lowest, from the nearest to the furthest, may all come and worship you, submitting to you, praying to you, cherishing you as their greatest good and deepest joy. Therefore, we pray for you to give our missionaries assets and guide their achievements to this end. And we pray that you would reclaim and rescue those who are outside of Christ (…). Praise him, sun and moon, praise him, all you shining stars! Praise him, you highest heavens, and you waters above the heavens! Let them praise the name of the LORD! For he commanded and they were created. And he established them forever and ever; he gave a decree, and it shall not pass away . We pray for the earth that its vast resources will be replenished and maintained. Bring us rains and showers in ways and quantities that are most fitting. Settle the shaking, shifting

"Resolve: The Church That Endures Onward" Luke H. Davis. A Review

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  In a season of bad press, fallen leaders, naysayers, and kooks, how does one convey the positive side of the church’s story? Recently Luke H. Davis, teacher of ethics and Church history at Westminster Christian Academy in St. Louis, has given readers a new and final installment in his “Risen Hope” series that brings his account of the church’s story up to the present. In this 176-page softback, “Resolve: The Church That Endures Onward,” Davis takes on more contemporary Christian men and women to show how they dealt with evil and difficulties in their allegiance to the Lord Jesus. The book is written for teenagers but will be valuable for older adults as well.   The author covers a wide array of people from multiple continents and Christian traditions, to give a solid sampling of fidelity and endurance. He covers Sammy Morris, J.C. Ryle, Francis Grimke, C.S. Lewis, Benjamin Kwashi, and many more to give readers a quick tour from the early 19 th century to the late 20 th . Sprinkl

"O LORD, You Made Heaven and Earth..." - 10 March 2024

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  O LORD, you made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them ; you keep truth forever and execute justice for the oppressed. You give food to the hungry and freedom to the prisoners; you open the eyes of the blind and raise those who are bowed down; you watch over the strangers and relieve the fatherless and widow (Psalm 146).  It is to you we come! O LORD, you made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them , we pray for your whole Church on earth, including Solid Rock Christian Center, Alethia Temple, Christ Legacy Church, and Community Lighthouse Church . Fill her with all truth, in all truth with all peace. Where she is corrupt, purify her; where she is in error, direct her; where in anything she is amiss, reform her. Where she is right, strengthen her; where she is in need, provide for her; where she is divided, reunite her; for the sake of Jesus Christ your Son our Savior. The LORD shall reign forever, your God, O Zion, to all generations. Praise the LORD! O LORD,

Suspicion

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  [From my letter to my congregation sent out today, 6 March 2024] I find it interesting that Christian people were suspicious of Paul. In fact, there were individuals suspicious of Paul in the church at Corinth: “ I beg of you that when I am present I may not have to show boldness with such confidence as I count on showing against some who suspect us of walking according to the flesh ” (2 Corinthians 10:2). To recognize that suspiciousness was in the earlier church, and even more, it was a suspiciousness of Paul, causes me to pause when I find suspiciousness rising up in my own heart. “Maybe,” I think to myself, “I should be suspicious of my own suspiciousness.” Yes, I do talk to myself a bunch.   And so, I was quite fascinated this morning as I was reading “Spurgeon’s Lectures to His Students”. These are lectures he gave to young men who were studying to become Baptist and Independent ministers in the late 1800s. In Lecture 21, “The Blind Eye and the Deaf Ear,” he is encouraging

"Blessed Be the LORD! For He Has Heard..." (Psalm 28) - 3 March 2024

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  O Lord, we lift up our voices with the Psalmist (Psalm 28) and in the name of your Son, Jesus our Lord: To you, O LORD, I call; my rock, be not deaf to me, lest, if you be silent to me, I become like those who go down to the pit. Hear the voice of my pleas for mercy, when I cry to you for help, when I lift up my hands toward your most holy sanctuary. / O Lord God we pray for and with those who are bearing heavy strains from work or joblessness; from disease and disorder; from cracked up and crumbling marriages; from rocky and wrecked families; from darkness and depression; from agitation and anxiousness (…). Hear their plea and hear us as we join with them. Like the blind man who came to Jesus, the woman with an issue of blood who snuck up on Jesus, and the Canaanite woman who pleaded with Jesus on behalf of her daughter; may they hear you say “ Great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire ” and be refreshed and restored! Do not drag me off with the wicked, with the workers

"Give Us Life!" - 25 February 2024

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  Give us life, and we will call upon your name! Restore us, O LORD God of hosts! Let your face shine, that we may be saved (Psalm 80:18b-19)! Turn again, O God of hosts! Look down from heaven, and see; have regard for this (Psalm 80:14) your Church in all nations, for Heritage, and for Community Abundant Life Church, Covenant Community, Covenant Life, and Frontline Church. Turn to us and be gracious to us; give your strength to your servants and save the sons and daughters of your maidservant. Show us a sign of your favor that those who hate us may see and be put to shame because you, LORD, have helped us and comforted us (Psalm 86:16-17). Restore us, O LORD God of hosts! Let your face shine, that we may be saved! Consider, O God, those who do not know you or have broken faith with you (…). Change their hearts that they may confess Jesus as Lord and believe in their hearts you raised him from the dead, so that they may come to join with us in worshiping and serving you; Restore us, O

Union with Christ - An Application

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  (This was my weekly letter to my congregation on Wednesday, 21 February 2024) This morning in my devotional reading, I was working through 1 Corinthians 8. Though I’ve read these words a huge number of times over the years, today one verse caused me to stop and take stock.  Paul wrote, “ Thus, sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ ” (1 Corinthians 8:12). What struck me is a couple of things. First, in God’s saving work, we are – by grace alone – united (hitched, bonded, ingrafted) to Christ so much so, that what happens to us happens to him, and what is his becomes ours (think of Galatians 2:20, for example). As Sinclair Ferguson put it, “through union with Christ all that is his by incarnation becomes ours through faith” (“The Christian Life,” 110). Let that percolate in your heart for a while. Your fear, anxiety, tears, and so forth, he feels. And his “ Peace, be still ” is yours. Second, the way we treat one another, is