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Bible Reading in the New Year

“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”–Psalm 119:105


Looking back at 2022 I encourage you to consider the goodness of the Lord in answered prayers. A significant part of contentment and giving thanks relates to perspective. Perspective often relates to considering the past and what the Lord has brought us through. One of the major problems with hard-hearted unbelieving Israel in the Old Testament related to how quickly they forgot the past work of the Lord. Let us not be this way. A great point of reflection and topic of conversation at the end of a year relates to thinking back over the year, and how the Lord has answered prayer or directed your life in some good, yet unforeseen, way. We quickly forget the Lord’s work in the past. This New Year’s Eve, think back and recount the goodness of the Lord in 2022. Do this with family and friends and give glory to God!

Looking forward to 2023 I encourage you to first set spiritual goals for the new year. Each year the tyranny of the urgent presses in. The agenda of this treadmill is set by the pressing priorities of an unbelieving world. The greatest commandment of the Lord is to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. To obey this command, we must make time for the Lord. We will make time for what has the first place in our affections. The urgency of daily pursuits will sap ALL your time if you don’t proactively cultivate a love for Christ in the soul.

Though there are many valuable and important spiritual disciplines in the Christian life, none is more foundational than Bible study. Bible study leads into prayer, actions of obedience, evangelism, life in the local church, and worship, but all of these will quickly become debased without Bible study. The Scriptures are both living and fixed.

They are living in that they are the inspired Word of the Lord ministered to our hearts by the Holy Spirit. The living nature of Scripture meets us where we are and is used by the Holy Spirit to change us. We are first changed by learning the good news of salvation by grace. We stop trying to earn favor with God, and instead receive salvation by faith giving thanks for the mercy of Jesus. We are changed by learning who God is, then seeing ourselves in light of His holiness and glory. We are changed by understanding what the moral will of God is. The Bible reveals to us how we ought to live in the new ways of Jesus.

The Bible is also fixed in that it does not change. In this way it’s like a north star of constant direction in the swirl of pressing cultural change. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The goal of Christianity is not to keep relevant to cultural shift, but to stand firm in unchanging Christ-like character.
Do you read the Bible constantly? Have you ever read all the way through the Bible? Do you have a plan for reading the Bible? The Bible is a book. Books have direction, plot, and cannot be properly understood by opening them at random and reading a few sentences. This is the danger of typical devotional books. They essentially open to a random place in the Bible, read one verse, give you a few thoughts, and close the book. I would strongly argue that you could do this “verse picking” for your whole life and never come to a clear understanding of who God is because you have never really read the Bible.

Many people are intimidated by the Bible, find the Bible boring, or get bogged down in less devotional sections. A few points of direction for 2023.

One, go to RedeemerVA.org and navigate to the resources tab, then to the Bible reading plans page. Choose a plan and print it out. By having a plan you will make systematic progress. The goal here is not to check a box or keep to a strict timetable, but to make systematic and accountable progress in daily and prayerfully reading God’s Word.

Second, always stop and pray before you read the Bible. Ask the Holy Spirit to illuminate the Scriptures. May the Holy Spirit open your eyes to see wonderful things in the Bible that you have never see before. This will focus and prepare the posture of your heart to receive a word from the Lord.

Third, don’t get bogged down in the tough and less devotional places. When you hit the genealogies, the counting of tribes, and lists of woes read enough to see what is there, but keep turning the pages to get to the next narrative section. Later in your spiritual growth you will begin to see why these sections are present, but often these “dry” parts keep people from reading many very important and powerful Old Testament books

Fourth, read a paper Bible when possible. Mark your Bible. Underline parts that are meaningful to you. When you come across places that you don’t understand or offend you, write a question mark in the margin in pencil. As you grow in your understanding of The Lord Jesus many of those marks will be erased, but many will also remain for the ways of the Lord are higher than our ways. Do not expect to master the mind of God on your first pass through the Bible.

May the Lord open His word to you in 2023,
Pastor Vic

Christmas 2022

And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call His name Jesus. He will be great and called Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to Him the throne of His father David, and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.”
Luke 1:30-33

“I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like the son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him. And to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him; His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.”
Daniel 7:13-14
 
“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulder,
and His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of His government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forever more. The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will do this.”
Isaiah 9:6-7
Merry Christmas to you all! This is a special year in that Christmas morning falls on a Sunday morning! A special time to gather and worship Jesus our Lord. Let us be reminded that Christmas is about the incarnation of Jesus Christ and the inauguration of the coming of the Kingdom of God. These are important Christian realities that we need to understand. Incarnation means “in flesh.” At Christmas we don’t celebrate the beginning of Jesus Christ, but Jesus Christ, the Son of God, humbling Himself and being born as a baby. The prophet Isaiah proclaims this coming of Jesus with the name Immanuel, meaning “God with us.” Jesus Christ is the eternally existing second person of the trinity. He does not begin with His divine conception in Mary. By His mercy, great love, and according to the determined will of God the Father, Jesus is born in flesh to live amongst us and begin His Kingdom that will never end.

The Christmas season is accompanied in America by wonderful family gatherings, feasting, lights, and gift-giving, but we must strive to keep our focus on Jesus. As Christians, we must press to keep our focus on the glorious salvation by grace alone that Jesus accomplished for us on the cross. Jesus must never be reduced to one of the pantheons of Christmas season characters, but ever be exalted in our hearts as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. We must see the Immanuel – God with us – as the fulfillment of the promise of God to send His Son as the Savior of the world. It is Jesus who has begun a work that will never end.

People often struggle with the sin, death, brokenness, and corruption of this world. It is through the salvation of Jesus that people are being saved out of this world. It is through the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit that new birth comes to our hearts, and we are made new passing from death to life. It is this salvation that began to be accomplished when Jesus was born into this world. This salvation was announced by angels at its beginning and at its completion. A salvation that proclaims Jesus as King. He who was born into complete humility is now exalted in glory! His name is great and the work He has begun with His first coming, He will certainly complete in His second coming.

This Christmas exalt Jesus to the first and highest place in in your heart. He is a merciful Savior and a mighty King. He is a Wonderful Counselor, and He is coming on the clouds to call His people to Himself. Make this a practical reality by leading in prayer at family gatherings, read scripture at family gatherings, and be a spiritual leader by piling the family in the car and joining others to worship Jesus our Savior on this Christmas morning!

May joy, peace, and hope overflow in your home this Christmas,
Pastor Vic

Lottie Moon

Lottie Moon Christmas Offering

Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Matthew 28:19

As Christmas is fast approaching it is time to remember the sacrificial mission work of one of Southern Baptist’s early female missionaries. She was a pioneer in many ways but most important was her love for our Savior and the people she was called to minister. Lottie Moon was passionate about people knowing Christ. She didn’t hesitate to speak her mind. If you have been around Baptist churches, you have heard the name, but maybe you don’t know the story behind the name. This is a summary of Lottie Moon’s beginnings in Albemarle, Virginia, and her missionary work.

She was born Charlotte Digges “Lottie” Moon in 1840 to a family of affluent tobacco farmers in Albemarle County, Virginia. In December 1858 she dedicated her life to Christ and was baptized at First Baptist Church, Charlottesville, Virginia.

Lottie attended Albemarle Female Institute, the female counterpart to the University of Virginia. In 1861, she was one of the first women in the South to receive a master’s degree. She stayed close to home during the Civil War but eventually taught school in Kentucky, Georgia, and Virginia.

Edmonia Moon, Lottie’s sister, was appointed to Tengchow, China, in 1872. The following year, Lottie was appointed and joined her sister there. Lottie served 39 years as a missionary, mostly in China’s Shantung province. She taught in a girls’ school and often made trips into China’s interior to share the good news with women and girls.

When she set sail for China, Lottie was 32 years old. She had turned down a marriage proposal and left her job, home and family to follow God’s lead. Her path wasn’t typical for an educated woman from a wealthy Southern family. God had gripped her with the Chinese peoples’ need for a Savior.

For 39 years Lottie labored, chiefly in Tengchow and P’ingtu. People feared and rejected her, but she refused to leave. The aroma of fresh-baked cookies drew people to her house. She adopted traditional Chinese dress, and she learned China’s language and customs. Lottie didn’t just serve the people of China; she identified with them. Many eventually accepted her. And some accepted her Savior.

Lottie wrote letters home detailing China’s hunger for truth and the struggle of so few missionaries taking the gospel to the 472 million Chinese in her day. She also shared the urgent need for more workers and for Southern Baptists to support them through prayer and giving.

She once wrote home to the Foreign Mission Board, “Please say to the [new] missionaries they are coming to a life of hardship, responsibility, and constant self-denial.” Disease, turmoil, and lack of co-workers threatened to undo Lottie’s work. But she gave herself completely to God, helping lay the foundation of what would become the modern Chinese church, one of the fastest-growing Christian movements in the world.

Lottie frequently sent letters back home detailing Chinese culture, missionary life, and the physical and spiritual needs of the Chinese people. Additionally, she challenged Southern Baptists to go to China or give so that others could go. By 1888, Southern Baptist women had organized and helped collect $3,315 to send workers needed in China. Lottie Moon died at 72 — ill and in declining health after decades of ministering to her beloved Chinese.

In 1918, Woman’s Missionary Union (WMU) named the annual Christmas offering for international missions after the woman who had urged them to start it.

Today’s China is a world of rapid change. It’s home to 1.4 billion individuals – one-fifth of the world’s population. Village dwellers flock to trendy megacities with exploding populations. It’s very different from the vast farmland Lottie Moon entered in the 1800s. But one thing hasn’t changed: China’s need for a Savior.

Her legacy lives on. And today, when gifts aren’t growing as quickly as the number of workers God is calling to the field, her call for sacrificial giving rings with more urgency than ever.

Marriage–Communication

“Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.” Colossians 4:6
 
(This is part 4 in a series on foundations of a healthy marriage.)

              
Healthy communication is absolutely foundational to every strong marriage. If you cannot communicate with your spouse in a healthy way, frustrations turn into anger and conflict is created instead of resolved. Communication is partly verbal and partly non-verbal. As a husband or wife, what your words say need to match up with the non-verbal expression of your face and actions of your life. As Christians we are commanded to be gracious in our speech. This carries over from the fruits of the Holy Spirit of kindness and gentleness. When our communication tends toward harshness and anger something is wrong.
             
Below are ten basic practical steps to maintaining healthy and gracious communication in your marriage:
 

  1. Respect your spouse and treat them with kindness. You speak in a careful and self-controlled way to people that you respect. You speak with kindness toward people that you love. You should both respect and love your spouse, resulting in the type of communication listed below.
  2. Really listen: When you really listen to someone you pay attention and want to hear what they have to say. Really listening considers the merit in what the other person has to say. This means not interrupting the other person because what you have to say is more important. This means you are not formulating a counter-response while they are talking. You can’t listen and jump to a conclusion before the other person has finished their thought. Listening is related to patience and friendship. Interruption and retaliation are related to competition and adversaries.
  3. Assume the best: Many occasions arise each week where something happens, and we only know part of the story. In every such situation with your spouse you must assume the best. You must begin by trusting your spouse and assuming that there is a good explanation for whatever you don’t know about the situation. Love is hopeful in all things (1 Cor 13:7). The opposite is to assume the worst of your spouse. This is the attitude of distrust we develop with our enemies.
  4. Don’t bring up past forgiven sins: If your spouse has asked for forgiveness and you have granted forgiveness, it should not be brought up against them again. You must ask God for the self-control to not drag your spouse back into the mud they just got free of. In an ungodly way, it can feel satisfying to strengthen your position by undercutting your spouse, but none of this is of Christ. We seek to reconcile with our spouse, not defeat them in a battle of words and accusations.
  5. Don’t undercut or barb: To undercut or barb is to make negative and hurtful comments that imply what you want without clear communication. These side comments are not made to be helpful, but to insult and “remind” a person of their problems. Instead, if you have a struggle or grievance with your spouse, speak and listen in a kind way that has the opportunity to lead to reconciliation and peace.
  6. Do not raise your voice: “The anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God” James 1:20. When you raise your voice with your spouse, anger has come upon you. Yelling at your spouse may make you feel self-vindicated in the moment, but nothing of the Lord will come from it. You should never yell at your spouse. The non-verbal of raising your voice overwhelms anything true or helpful you may say. It’s literally lost in the noise.
  7. Try to have good timing: Work to bring up difficult subjects at a time conducive to resolution. It’s not wise to bring up difficult subjects when your spouse is dead tired, holding a crying child, just in the door from work, late for an appointment, or for whatever reason is not in a place to have an unhurried conversation that could resolve the issue.
  8. Avoid “always / never” in conflict resolution: Overstatements do not help resolve conflict. Overstatements work to categorize the entire person as a problem. Instead, work to isolate specific instances of struggle or sin, so the offending person can ask forgiveness and work to correct a specific problem.
  9. Stop texting when the communication turns negative: It is impossible to resolve conflict by text. When communication turns negative, you must talk by phone or in person as soon as possible. Both spouses need to reach agreement on this before the angry texts start flying. One spouse or the other must identify that the communication has taken a negative turn, and state that they need to call or meet.
  10. Seek resolution: Never give up on each other. Seek resolution and reconciliation because of love and your marriage vows. Apathy and division are not acceptable in Christian marriage. Work the problems out with healthy communication and prayer.

I encourage you to put these basic principles in a place where you will be reminded of them often, then pray for self-control and love to abide by them.

Lord, help us to speak with grace and kindness,
Pastor Vic

Marriage–Forgiveness

“Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgive one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”–Ephesians 4:32
 
(This is part three in a series on fundamentals of Christian marriage)


Focusing on fundamentals always strengthens the foundation of any important relationship or activity. The fundamentals of Christian marriage are love, service, and forgiveness. Let’s examine forgiveness.

Every marriage consists of two sinners. No matter how wonderful your spouse is – they are a sinner and so are you. An enduring and happy marriage is not about the magical meeting of two people that are “perfect” for each other. There are people that share more in common and those that have less in common, but both are still sinners that will have to forgive each other to endure in happiness. However, the primary reason that a husband and wife forgive one another is not to preserve the happiness of marriage. As Ephesians 4:32 states plainly, we are to forgive others because we have been forgiven all our sins by God. When we put our faith in Jesus Christ and ask for the forgiveness of sins, by the grace of God extended to us, our sins are forgiven (1 John 1:9). This is unconditional grace. This is what it means that our salvation is by grace alone through faith. It is a strong New Testament theme that we must forgive others because we have been forgiven by God. We cannot have grace extended to us and not extend grace to others. Jesus taught this clearly by the parable of the unforgiving servant – Matthew 18:21-35.

In this Christian mandate to show grace and forgive because we have been forgiven, surely the first person that we should forgive should be that person that we have the nearest relationship to – our spouse. However, the old proverb is often true that familiarity breeds contempt. We spend the most time with our spouse and so have cause to find fault with them. We know more about them than any other person, so we have the most visibility to spotlight their sin.

It’s important to ask the question, “What is forgiveness?” Forgiveness has specific language and goes through a specific process. Forgiveness is much more than just telling another person, “I’m sorry.” True forgiveness results in relational reconciliation. True forgiveness brings two people that were separated by relational distance back together in happy fellowship. For this to happen, the offending person must go to the person they wronged and say, “I’m sorry for (what I said or did). Will you please forgive me?” It’s essential that no excuses or blame-shifting be attached to this. This statement is a statement of personal culpability. This is a statement that you were in the wrong, and through confession are seeking reconciliation on your part. This then gives the spouse the opportunity to show grace and extend forgiveness. This process allows for true reconciliation instead of stuffing hurtful grievances into an emotional closet that will eventually burst open and can shatter a relationship.

Christian forgiveness is an interesting and theologically rooted concept. When you confess your sins and God forgives you, does God forget your sins? The answer is – no. God is all-knowing. For the sake of Jesus Christ and because of him bearing the penalty of your guilt on the cross, your sin is accounted to Jesus and not to you. You are forgiven for Jesus’ sake and that sin is not counted against you. The process is similar in marriage. When we forgive our spouse, we don’t forget the sins. We know who they are and we know what they have done, but because of the grace shown to us we choose not to count those things against them anymore. 1 Corinthians 13: 5 declares that love in not “resentful.” In other translations this word is rendered more fully as “keeps no record of wrongs.” A resentful person is a grudge-bearing person that keeps a tight list of all the ways they have been wronged. This is the opposite of grace and forgiveness. This is a person that will never let you forget all the wrong things you have done and will weaponize those wrongs against you when needed to get the upper hand.

Resentful unforgiveness will destroy a marriage every time. If you choose to not forgive your spouse from the heart and continue to count their sins against them, a wedge will grow between you that will become harder and harder to reconcile. However, if you keep short accounts and quickly ask for and grant forgiveness – grace, love, and peace will thrive in your marriage.

Coming full circle, you must see that the forgiveness extended to you by Jesus comes from the root of God’s love for you (John 3:16). God’s forgiveness of your sins is not a thing of dry judicial duty. God’s forgiveness of your sins flows from His unconditional love for you. And so, it will be with your spouse. You will truly forgive them because you love them. “Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins” 1 Peter 4:8. Because of God’s love expressed to us in the grace of Jesus, we also express grace and forgiveness to our spouse because we earnestly love them.

Forgiveness is a fundamental of every happy marriage, and the ability to forgive flows from our salvation in Jesus.

Let us be tenderhearted and forgive one another,
Pastor Vic

Thanksgiving 2022

“Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.” —Colossians 4:2
 
“But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.” —1 Timothy 6:6-8
Thanksgiving is such an important and distinctly Christian holiday. It’s right and good to set aside a time every year to stop our normal activities to give thanks. I trust that yesterday was a such a time for you, your friends, and family.

Thankfulness is a Christian virtue constantly emphasized in scripture – from thank offerings in the Old Testament, to Jesus’s regular pattern of giving thanks in prayer, to constant commendations in the New Testament to live a life of thankfulness. Your heart of thankfulness reflects your belief in the goodness and faithfulness of God. If God is good and merciful, then it holds that what He provides for His children will be good. A good God provides good things for His children whom He loves. For this we should be thankful.

Does God’s goodness mean that He will give us all we want when we want it? Does any good parent give their children all they want whenever they want it? No! A child given their every desire when they want it is called a spoiled child. Children raised in this way become the most ungrateful people, usually demanding of others what is unreasonable to give. Receiving more does not equal a thankful or content heart. A godly parent will be generous, but also teach a child the virtue of self-control by reigning in their desires. Thankfulness and contentment are twin virtues that enable each other. A content heart can be thankful. A thankful heart can be content. God is good, generous, and merciful. He will provide your needs according to His good purposes for your life. As you follow after Christ Jesus, waiting on His timing and purposes in your life, may the Holy Spirit cultivate thankfulness and contentment in your heart.

We should recognize that due to the sinful nature of our hearts we are bent toward greed, covetousness, and discontent. We should pray for a thankful heart and ask God to help us by the Holy Spirit to be truly content people. I encourage you to cultivate Christian patterns of thankfulness in your life. Genuinely pray with thanksgiving before each meal (Matt 14:19, Luke 24:30, and many others) and make thanksgiving an intentional, regular part of your personal and family prayers (Philippians 4:6).

Let’s walk by faith in thanksgiving and contentment!
Pastor Vic