Provision

“I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.”
Psalm 81:10 

             
What an amazing verse! This verse points to the absolute dependence of Israel on the Lord when they were brought out of slavery in Egypt. The Lord delivered them from slavery into complete dependence upon Himself in the desert. Most of Israel hated this condition and complained against it constantly. The purpose of this dependence was for the Lord to glorify Himself through providing for the people in a way they knew it was the action of God in their midst. The picture is of a hungry person standing and looking up, opening their mouth, and waiting for the Lord to fill it. That’s dependence! The way the Lord met this need for a generation in the desert was by providing daily bread – manna (Exodus 16, Numbers 11, Deuteronomy 8, John 6).
             
This verse was the lifetime theme verse of a passionate Christian named George Muller. The life and ministry of George Muller has had a profound impact on my life. Muller ministered in Bristol, England during the mid to late 19^th century. He is most well known for his orphan care ministry. Bristol was an industrial town struggling through the late industrial revolution period. There were an abundance of orphans and few social ways to care for them. Muller, and his wife Mary, felt moved to do something about this problem, but did not have the resources to help. The short of it is that they prayed and started to take in orphans one at a time. They specifically did not solicit people for funding but took their needs to the Lord in prayer. They took the posture of Psalm 81:10, for the purpose of seeing God glorified through answered prayer and provision. Muller expressly wanted the hard-hearted non-Christian culture of late industrial England to experience provision that could only be explained through the actions of God. The hope was that provision for these orphans would glorify God by God providing for their needs in a profound way.
             
Over his long ministry, more than 10,000 orphans passed through the ever-growing orphan ministry at Bristol. The stories and fame of the Lord miraculously providing for needs also spread. Over time, through walking by faith, every need was provided for and God was greatly glorified. To quote Muller, “Now if I, a poor man, simply by prayer and faith, obtained without asking any individual, for the means for establishing and carrying on an orphan house: there would be something which, with the Lord’s blessing, might be instrumental in strengthening the faith of the children of God, besides being a testimony to the consciences of the unconverted of the reality of the things of God. This then was the primary reason for establishing the orphan house. I certainly did from my heart desire to be used by God to benefit the bodies of poor children…with the help of God to do them good for this life.” So, by not soliciting funds, while creating real need, Muller wanted to magnify the glory of God through real provision from a real God.
             
At Redeemer Bible Church, the elders have long ago adopted this same stance. As we together pursue local church ministry, we do not solicit funds for the work of the church. We take our needs to the Lord in prayer and ask for the Lord to provide. We actively want the secular unbelieving world of our time to see something radically different and God-glorifying through the financial provision of our church. We open our “mouths” and ask the Lord to supply. This posture requires walking by faith but continues to be the most incredible display of God’s reality.
             
This Sunday (during the member meeting) we will vote on the church budget for 2024. It is only a work of the Lord that all of what is contained in that budget could possibly have come to pass in just over four years! It is an amazing joy to know that over the past year we have taken our needs to the Living God and He has abundantly provided!! It’s also a joy to know that every dollar that has been given has been given freely and from a cheerful heart. Over the past year – by faith and through prayer – all the needs of two churches (Redeemer Spotsy Village and Redeemer Stafford) have been abundantly provided for. We have always run a major budget surplus as a result of generous giving. This abundance has allowed us:

• To fund the adoption of multiple orphans
• To underwrite most of the expense of many people going on foreign mission trips
• To expand into and renovate a new children’s ministry area
• To cover the benevolence needs of those in and around the church (major medical bills, needed home repairs, mortgage help in tight times, etc …)
• To give substantial funding to the Cooperative Program to help fund the International Mission Board, NAMB church planting, the SBC seminaries, and SBC disaster relief
• To expand our part-time staff to expand ministry offerings
• To pay for the design planning of a new church building and save $1.5 million toward building the new building!!
• To carry zero debt as a church

 
This is the provision of the Lord!
 
To close out, let me remind you all clearly that the Lord doesn’t want or need your money. Purely by the word of His power, the Lord Jesus can accomplish anything He chooses. The Lord instead calls for you to worship and love Him with all your heart. It is a far more meaningful action to love a person from the heart, than to give them a few dollars when they know you don’t care about them. Millions of people take this posture with God. He is not fooled. To love the Lord with all your heart, will displace your love of this world. May the Lord be glorified in Redeemer Bible Church. May we overflow with a love of God and the keeping of His commands. May we long first to reach the world with the gospel and sacrificially meet real needs. May we not love the world nor the things of this world.
             
Let’s go forward into 2024 continuing to attempt great things for God, while expecting great things from God! Let’s live in complete dependence on the Lord, and yet without fear or complaint. Only the Lord knows what next year will hold.
 
May the Lord Jesus be glorified in His church,
Pastor Vic

Thanksgiving
 

“Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good;
For His steadfast love endures forever.”
Psalm 118:1
 
“Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving;
Make melody to our God on the lyre.”
Psalm 147:7
 
“When He had given thanks …”
(The pattern of Jesus giving thanks to God before eating a meal.)
Matthew 26:27 / Matthew 15:36 / John 6:11
 
“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
 
“Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen!”
Revelation 7:12 

             
Thanksgiving is such an important virtue, expressed constantly in Scripture. Thanksgiving is a gateway to joy and hopefulness. Thanksgiving is the antidote to despair, covetousness, and anger. Thanksgiving is directly related to contentment. Contentment is the virtue of being satisfied in your heart with what you have. A content person gives thanks, a discontent person is not truly thankful and has a heart slipping toward covetousness.
             
As a Christian, we recognize that Jesus is the object of our thankfulness. When we give thanks, we give thanks to God for His gracious providential supply of our needs. God knows what we really need. God knows, even more than we do, that our greatest need is spiritual life and spiritual development in the soul. If a person has every material thing this world can offer, but dies in rebellion to God, they will be judged forever for their sins. In giving thanks to God, we first give thanks for what God has done to send Jesus as Savior, and that we have heard and believed the good news of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.
             
The steadfast love of the Lord is not seasonal or regional. Let us give thanks to the Lord Jesus, for His steadfast love endures forever – through every season of life and region of the world. We are to give thanks in all circumstances. It is God’s will that we focus on thankfulness no matter the circumstances of life. Thankfulness does not begin only when a person enters a certain economic status of life. The world is full of unthankful and discontent wealthy people. The world is also full of discontent ungrateful economically poor people. What makes the difference is the salvation of Jesus Christ. Our hearts will only ever be at rest in Jesus. When we come to believe in the salvation of Jesus, we begin to understand the personal love of God toward us, and our faith begins to increase that God will supply what we need, as we need it. As we learn to rest in the good providence of God, our heart of thankfulness increases.
             
As we grow in Christ, we also grow to value what God cares about more than what this world cares about. Our modern world is consumed with advertising. This advertising works into every nook and cranny of our lives to create discontent with everything we have. Advertising uses every personalized metric available to cause you to feel ungrateful and discontent with the car you drive, the house you live in, the clothes you wear, the shoes you walk in, even the way you appear as a person. The fix, of course, is to buy their product. We know in our heart that this will not fix the problem. The solution to this cycle is to, “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” Matthew 6:33. This speaks to giving Jesus the priority in all aspects of your life. As you do, thanksgiving will grow in your heart and the things of this world will dim into their proper place.
             
Last, Jesus walked in the habit of giving thanks before meals. Over and over in the Gospels we have recorded examples of Jesus giving thanks before meals. This has become a basic pattern of Christian living, but one that is often taken for granted. I encourage you to walk in this pattern, but with intention. Give thanks in prayer before every meal, but take a deep breath, slow the frantic pace of life, and truly be thankful to God for His provision. This pattern works to ingrain thankfulness into the daily pattens of life.
 
Giving thanks in all circumstances,
Pastor Vic

The Chosen
 

“For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures …” 1 Corinthians 15:3
 

             
I am often asked my opinion of “The Chosen” video series. Now in its fourth season, I feel it’s time for a response to the church.
             
My overall response to this series is that it represents historical fiction. What is historical fiction? One of my favorite books is the historical fiction, Killer Angels by Michael Shaara. It’s a brilliant book that follows the civil war battle at Gettysburg from both sides, however, it does so by recounting the events as a narrative story. It reads like a novel. It makes the historical characters come alive. It creates anxiety at critical junctures of the battle, sympathy with the hard decisions, and tears over all the death. It takes a major historic event in the life of our country and makes it very personal. Shaara helps the reader connect with individuals in this enormous battle. When you finish the book, you feel like you lived the battle. It’s powerful. However, when it was written in 1974 it did not win any prizes for history – it won the Pulitzer Prize for FICTION.
             
Killer Angels was a work of fiction, because the words written about Lee, Grant, Longstreet, etc. were not really spoken by them. The events mostly took place as they are written, but the details of the planning, movements, and fighting are made up by the author as an interpretation of what happened. The book was well received because it is accurate to the facts and seems to be very close to what happened – but is not what actually happened. There is no problem with historical fiction when it comes to bringing alive everyday history, but this is more complicated when applied to the Bible.
             
The Bible is God’s word. At Redeemer we believe in the plenary verbal inspiration of the original manuscripts of the Bible, and that Scripture has been faithfully preserved to our day. ‘Plenary verbal’ means that all the particular words of the Bible were written with divine intended purpose. The Bible does not generally convey God’s works, purposes, and will – it specifically conveys God’s works, purposes, and will. The Bible is made up of books long recognized as revelation from God, written by human authors, but inspired by the Holy Spirit. The Bible has authority in our lives, given by God to progressively reveal the character, nature, commands, and works of God in the world. These things culminate in the Gospels -four accounts of the life and ministry of Jesus the Christ. It is very important to recognize that there is no deficiency in the Bible or the gospels. It’s wrong to say, “If only these had been written differently, we could know God better!” They are written perfectly to convey a maximum understanding of both the person and works of Jesus Christ.
             
Our day is almost completely video oriented, believing that more can be conveyed by video than the written word. I do not agree with this for many reasons and would encourage you to read the powerfully convincing work “Amusing Ourselves to Death” by Neil Postman on this subject. What must be recognized is that Jesus could have come during this age of YouTube and iPhone. If He had come during our day, the internet would be covered over with millions of videos of His miracles, His teaching, and His face full of grace and truth. But Jesus choose not to come to us in this age. Instead, Jesus was born in a time when the most particular language that ever existed was in use – Greek. This language was highly developed, highly specific, and used to convey very specific truth to us about Jesus and the Gospel. There is no substitute for the written word in conveying clear truth. There is no substitute for Scripture when teaching truth about God – and the truth is what we must care about in the end.
             
Video is great for entertainment, but Jesus did not come to entertain. The authors of The Chosen, like the author of Killer Angles, must take liberties with the characters (including Jesus) to have the stories connect in an unbroken, entertaining, emotionally compelling movie narrative. The positive here relates to how the writers and staff have really done a great job in casting most of The Chosen characters, and the presentation brings them alive and makes them real. For people who have never been exposed to the Bible these depictions help them grasp the reality of the Gospel stories. The casting of Jesus is masterful. The actor who plays Jesus is powerful and compassionate, well-spoken and yet an everyday man. He’s seems to me very close to what Jesus may have been like during His ministry. These are the positives of historical fiction.

However, we must recognize that this is still a fiction. Great liberty has been taken as the seasons progress to create a narrative flow that links the sometimes unrelated stories in the Gospels. These liberties create events, words, and character representations that are from the creative mind of the staff, not the Bible. One that particularly concerns me is the “autistic” (?) presentation of Matthew. I’m not sure where this came from, but it has the power to shape an entire generation’s view of Matthew, and it has no bearing in the Bible narrative.

My concluding thoughts. If watching this series helps you connect better with the reality of the Bible characters, then I believe it can be helpful. It is good and helpful to think about how Bible events worked out in the lives of real people, because they were real events. I believe this series helps people with that visualization. This is the role of historical fiction. However, you must not think that watching an episode of The Chosen is equivalent to reading a chapter of the Bible. The Chosen is fiction, the Bible is Scripture.
We must not encourage the lost to watch fiction and expect them to come to salvation. We ourselves, and those we are evangelizing, must read and come in contact with Scripture. There is no substitute for reading and studying the Bible to understand God and draw near to the real presence of Jesus. The Chosen, as entertainment, will lift you up to an emotional place that is reached through the production purposes of the producers. But the Scripture will take you to a real place of salvation, to the place of truly partaking in the divine nature (2 Peter 1:3-4).

We have precious little time in this life. This series will come and go, as did the Jesus Film. It will be helpful to many, but it will never substitute for the Word of the Lord in Scripture which will carry on forever in truth and power. I press you to spend your time in the Scripture. Be excited about God’s word more than a mini-series. Love the Lord with all your mind by training your mind away from the entertainment culture we live in. Love the Lord by seeking Him as He has revealed Himself to us – through Jesus, the Logos, the word of God made flesh (John 1).
 
May the word of the Lord work powerfully in our hearts,
Pastor Vic

The Evil of Abortion
 

“You shall not murder.” Exodus 20:13

 
I have been deeply disturbed this week by the political outcome of campaigns run most passionately on a platform of ensuring the “right” to kill unborn children up to the point of full-term pregnancy. Let me remind you of a few very important realities that often are lost in the noise. First, we never have the “right” to do what God has declared is wrong. The taking of innocent life for the sake of personal convenience, shame, career enhancement, or embarrassment is murder – and murder is a basic foundation of morality. This is not a political issue, it is a moral issue. Murder is a condition of corruption in the heart that flows out to destroy others (Example of Cain – Genesis 4).
             
Second, Christians must never stop bearing witness to the world that life begins at conception. Life is sacred to God. The conceived child is the beginning of a separate life. This process of conception through the sexual joining of a man and a woman, is how God designed new life to come into the world. Through medical technology we can see the tiny formation of a child in the womb, hear the heartbeat, and extensive prenatal care is given to support the health of unborn and prematurely born children. The narrative that an unborn child is a part of the body of a woman is both medically and morally absurd. A growing child is not medically equivalent to a tonsil or appendix or gall bladder, to be removed as the woman may see fit. The child has a heartbeat because it is a distinct human being. The “my body, my choice” narratives have one purpose, which is to dehumanize unborn children. It’s easier, morally, to kill someone you see as less than human.
             
This past week in Ohio, and for less direct reasons in other states, multitudes flocked to the polls to vote to ensure the right to kill their unborn children up to the point of full-term pregnancy. Various “week” bans were proposed in other states, but the new attitude in America is a sense of panic that laws will be passed that will prevent them from being able to kill their unborn children. Much could be said here. Let me focus on three points:

First, people do not spontaneously become pregnant. Often these narratives begin with a woman who “became” pregnant. What this means in all cases outside of rape, which is the vast majority of all pregnancies, is that the woman chooses to have sex. That sexual encounter led to a pregnancy. Abortion is the final enabler of pure sexual freedom. Abortion is the backstop of people being able to act as they please sexually without the consequence of a child. Sexuality is a moral issue not a political issue, spoken to with abundant clarity in the Bible. Sex was designed by God to produce children, and that design cannot be short-circuited without life altering consequences. Don’t be fooled. People that are passionate about abortion, are first passionate about complete non-Christian sexual freedom.

Second, the birth canal does not make a child become a child. Tens of millions of Americans seem to be at peace living with complete scientific and moral contradiction. In all states where late-term abortion is legal, hospitals exist that have neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) that work passionately to save the lives of premature babies, and other locations in the hospital where they intentionally kill pre-term babies. In our current situation, the mother holds this authority of life or death. It is a clear Christian doctrine, held as orthodoxy throughout the ages, that God holds the authority to take life. We are commanded not to murder. The child is a living being from the time of conception, and the intentional dismemberment of a child that could be taken to a different part of the hospital and be born to live a full life – is unquestionably murder. As Christians, we must never equivocate on the reality that the mother is not in place of God to determine life or death over her child. All who murder carry deep emotional and psychological scars. We live in a culture of death in modern America, and we wonder why there is so much deep anxiety and mental illness.

Third, children are a blessing from the Lord. As Christians we must never stop reminding ourselves of this reality. Children are a part of God’s purposes within marriage and work toward our sanctification. Children work powerfully in our lives to teach us patience, kindness, and unselfishness. Children teach us to sacrifice our own desires for the needs of others and to pray! All of this is the opposite of the modern secular American mindset of selfishness, pleasure seeking, immediate gratification, self-focused materialism, personal career building as most important, and self-sufficiency. Children are often seen as a drag to all these things, and such an impediment that by the millions, people make the choice to kill the child rather than submit themselves to God’s will for family and blessing.

In conclusion, we must stay focused on this issue first as an issue of the heart before God – not first as a political issue. Politics reflect the moral heart of the nation. Politics do not shape the heart of the nation. As the church, it is up to us to preach the gospel, teach the Bible, and by the work of the Holy Spirit, seek true heart change. As Christians we must maintain our passion never to kill our unborn children. As Christians we must love our children and embrace the sanctification and self-sacrifice necessary to raise them well. When we are faced with, or encounter others with unplanned pregnancies, we must have faith for the future and choose life. If it is truly not tenable to raise the child, there is no moral wrong in placing a child for adoption. As the church we must be willing to adopt children as needed. We must never let shame or fear of the future cause us to choose evil. The gospel of Jesus Christ is about forgiveness and grace. If you have chosen abortion in the past, do not choose it again. In Christ your shame can be forgiven and healed. By confessing your sin to others, you can come out from under the weight of guilt and walk in Christian freedom, forgiveness, and hope.

Lastly, as Christians we must be personally passionate about sexual purity and raise our children in these ways. We must celebrate and encourage self-control, celebrate and encourage appropriately young marriage, and passionately pursue intergenerational family support of younger generations by older generations. These things flourish in the family and are further strengthened in the local church. Let us not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good (Romans 12:21).
 
May the Lord preserve His church,
Pastor Vic