The martyrs bear witness to Christ AND they also bear witness to humanity of their killers. With the prayer for forgiveness they say to their enemies "you are not monsters, but sinners in need of forgiveness." This is where the Christian martyr is different than the Islamist one... the Christian martyr desires the salvation of his enemies, the Islamist desires their destruction. The Christian at prayer is the Christian who prays "forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us." 

What follows below is some reading material regarding divorce and Jesus' responses to the Pharisees in Mark 10 and Matthew 19. I'm happy to have further conversations about these topics as you'd like, just send me an email at redeemingfamily@gmail.com

These are some of the biggest lessons I have learned as one who has been a member of 2 different church plants (both outside the CRC) and am part of a planting church in the CRC (currently planting a Chinese-speaking church in Ada).

Guest post by Cole Jeffrey. This was originally a discussion held within a facebook group. It is reposted with Cole's permission. We at Redeemingfamily hope you find this a helpful resource as believers faithfully following Christ in a pornified moment in world history. We thank Cole for his thoughtful engagement on this topic and pray the Lord blesses him as a husband, father, and representative of Christ. 

1. God works! (Genesis 1:1, Genesis 3:21)

1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
3:21 The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.

Work is something that God delights to do (Psalm 74:13-17).

74:13 It was you who split open the sea by your power; you broke the heads of the monster in the waters. 14 It was you who crushed the heads of Leviathan and gave it as food to the creatures of the desert. 15 It was you who opened up springs and streams; you dried up the ever-flowing rivers. 16 The day is yours, and yours also the night; you established the sun and moon. 17 It was you who set all the boundaries of the earth; you made both summer and winter. 

This is part 2 of our series on Building the Covenant Family. To read part one, click here. Instead of obeying the owner and builder of the magnificent dwelling, our forebears rebelled and tried to take ownership. God comes into His garden and finds Adam and Eve hiding. He pronounces curses to Adam that his work will be tough and fruitless. Eve’s childbearing will be extremely painful, the serpent is to crawl on stomach forever and in vs 19: we read the punishment promised if they disobeyed: “By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return.” and then they are driven out of God’s house, Genesis 3:23-24. 

Would it surprise you to know that the very first construction site in the Bible is found in Genesis chapter 1!? Verse one says, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”  Every building project must have a good set of blueprints to guide the builders in the construction.   We see in Genesis 1:1 that God is constructing a house to dwell and rest, for the purpose of fellowship with His image bearers. The remainder of the chapter is God following His blueprint as He builds His permanent palace home alluded to in Isaiah 66:1-2.

Sometimes there are so many promises of God that we could lose count or have trouble following exactly which promises a biblical writer is referring to. Thankfully, the Apostle Paul cites exactly what he is referring to by quoting from Leviticus 26:12 and Isaiah 52:11. In these two passages, we see some extraordinary promises amid humanly impossible circumstances

I found this book a little disappointing compared to some of Johnson’s other novels. Maybe that’s just because I’m not a huge flower-lover, and most of the book revolved around gardening. But on a more positive note, this book is different than what you’d usually expect of a WWII novel. Instead of telling the story of a girl in a Nazi camp, or a tale of refuge children, The Blossoming Summer tells another side of the story, which I don't think I've ever seen in another WWII novel.

What gets lost in all the chapters and versification is the sense of rhythm to this story. By reading each of these stories as separate instances or distinct accounts, the organization (through chapter and verse) actually teaches something in itself. Whether this teaching is original or true to the divine intent of the passage is something that must be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. I'm not saying that chapters and verses are evil in themselves or ought to be removed from our Bibles. I am saying that in some instances, chapter and verse ought to be ignored for the purpose of further reading and continuation of a story or original flow that was intended by the author and has been preserved by Divine oversight.

Last weekend, I had the opportunity to meet, listen to, and speak with a few people about who Jesus is and why He matters. The context was at a local pride festival. I'm very thankful for the leaders who helped organize the group to go down. I'm also very grateful for the security at the event who were hospitable and firm in their duties.

Peter very plainly puts forward the call for Christians to submit, to obey, to honor, and respect authority. What does this word “submit” mean? Plainly, it means to obey. To do as we are told. So Peter puts forward this ethic, but it shouldn’t sound like a new ethic. This shouldn’t sound like a new command to us, but rather a reiteration of a long standing principle present in the lives of many God fearing believers, both of Old Testament days, and New Testament days. Submission to authority, obedience, in general is a good thing.

All that said, I'm firmly opposed to online "churches". I am not opposed to online communities, groups, ministries, outreaches, evangelism, teaching, bible studies, prayer meetings, etc. We used all those (and I still am active in using many of these things) for various (I believe) God glorifying purposes. Those individual things unto themselves are activities, and they are not a church as classified, defined, and spoken of in the scriptures - as our seminary theologian at Synod spoke to (that the NT use of the word for church is a gathering of people together) and summarized in our confessions.

Peter says that the growing church needs to rid themselves of malice, slander, envy, hypocrisy, and deceit. He then says to be like babies. This is different than what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3:1-3:

 “Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ. 2 I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. 3 You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans?”

Peter is writing to different churches in different regions, all of which are currently or will be suffering persecution. He says to get rid of these things. This is what it's going to look like to grow; they must get rid of some of these things and crave something else.

Christians are genuinely different. We're called to be different. In 1 Peter 1:13, we see that we are called to prepare our minds. He says to prepare your minds for action. This is a part of our call to holiness. Be self-controlled, so our minds are not to be obsessed, absorbed, or overcome by the things of this world. That our minds and the things that we think about, the things that we put in front of our eyes to read and consume, and then think on.

Sure enough, like a quest giver, Peter is going to equip believers, the elect exiles in the dispersion, and equip us for this incredible journey of faith that God has started us on. Peter wants us to be prepared for the dangers that are ahead on this journey and Peter wants us to look forward to the destination, to the place that we are going to eventually arrive.

As Christians, we all know that we should pray and that we should evangelize. But as people in the Reformed tradition, we also believe that God will surely save those whom He has chosen. So then we wonder… can our prayers actually change the number of people God has chosen to save? Can our prayers really change God’s will?

Family worship is simply a time to come together as a family to read the Word of the Lord and to worship Him. Today, we want to give you a glimpse at the simplicity of family worship and some guidance to help you start family worship in your home.

We worship together as a community of faith at a local church. This is where we gather together. We don't go to Jerusalem anymore to worship. We now worship God in spirit and in truth wherever it is that we go. In fact, wherever it is that two or three or more are gathered, the Lord is there. God's people in the Old Testament worshipped on their journey to worship. Our lives, even as New Testament people, are the same. We live our lives out, worshiping on our way to our eternal home of worship. We don't go to one physical place now to worship, but on the other side of death, we go to eternity. To forever be in God's presence, to have no distractions anymore, and to worship. Eternity will be fellowship and communion with God perfectly.