Um. Wait. Ok. Technically, it's morning because it's before noon.
What I meant was, I'm doing this in the morning because I'm on vacation this week.
Kidnapped soldier revealed. This weekend the Taliban posted online video of Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl, taken prisoner nearly three weeks ago in Afghanistan. The 23-year-old Bergdahl was serving with a unit based in Fort Richardson, AK earlier this month when he vanished. He was serving at a base near the border with Pakistan in an area known to be a Taliban stronghold.
Please pray for this young man's release.
And now they're putting their heads together,
making plans to get rid of you.
6-8 Edom and the Ishmaelites,
Moab and the Hagrites,
Gebal and Ammon and Amalek,
Philistia and the Tyrians,
And now Assyria has joined up,
Giving muscle to the gang of Lot.
9-12 Do to them what you did to Midian,
to Sisera and Jabin at Kishon Brook;
They came to a bad end at Endor,
nothing but dung for the garden.
Cut down their leaders as you did Oreb and Zeeb,
their princes to nothings like Zebah and Zalmunna,
With their empty brags, "We're grabbing it all,
grabbing God's gardens for ourselves."
13-18 My God! I've had it with them!
Blow them away!
Tumbleweeds in the desert waste,
charred sticks in the burned-over ground.
Knock the breath right out of them, so they're gasping
for breath, gasping, "God."
Bring them to the end of their rope,
and leave them there dangling, helpless.
Then they'll learn your name: "God,"
the one and only High God on earth. (The Message)
"To remove from the minds of the godly all misgivings as to whether help is ready to be imparted to them from heaven, the prophet distinctly affirms that those who molest the Church are chargeable with making war against God, who has taken her under his protection: 'He that touches you, touches the apple of my eye' (Zech. 2:8). And, 'Touch not my anointed ones, and do my prophets no harm' (Ps. 55:15). God will have the anointing with which he has anointed us to be, as it were, a buckler to keep us in perfect safety. The nations here enumerated did not avowedly make war against him; but as, when he sees his servants unrighteously assaulted, he interposes himself between them and their enemies to bear the blows aimed at them, they are here justly represented as having formed an alliance against God. God having declared that every injury which is done to us is an assault upon him, we may, as from a watchtower, behold in the distance by the eye of faith the approach of that destruction of which the votaries of Antichrist shall have at length the sad and melancholy experience."
To put it simply...whoever attacks the Church, attacks God.
(Commentary from Heart Aflame: Daily Readings from Calvin on the Psalms)
"Law and Gospel"
Romans 3:21-31
21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it� 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
27 Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. 28 For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. 29 Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, 30 since God is one�who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. 31 Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law. (ESV)
Luther saw the Law as a "schoolmaster" to point out sin in our lives so that we would look to Jesus to save us.
We can see this in the first few chapters of Romans, where Paul "discusses the role of natural law in condemning Gentiles alongside Jews who face the same condemnation at the hands of the Mosaic law."
"In any case, the Lord's commandments serve both to make the non-Christian aware of his sin that he might trust in Jesus and to convict the Christian of his remaining sin that he might return to the cross repeatedly for cleansing, reaffirming his utter inability to save himself."
In our passage today, Paul affirms that the only way a sinner who is convicted by the law can be saved is by the imputed righteousness of Christ. We need the Law preached from the pulpit so that the Christian can be reminded of his need for the gospel, and so that any non-Christian who might be present "will learn that he is under the righteous judgment of the Creator and must therefore trust in Jesus."
However, and very importantly, the Law must never be preached without the Gospel! Should this happen, we reduce grace to works, to moralism, and also implying that people can, by their own effort, do the right thing. "Without the gospel, the Law is an impossible burden." That is a great statement.
"In No One's Debt"
Job 41:11
Who has first given to me, that I should repay him?
Whatever is under the whole heaven is mine. (ESV) (God speaking)
"We can never obligate God by our obedience or sacrificial service."
What?? You mean I can't work up "points" with God by doing good stuff??
Empatically, NO!
If we were to be perfectly obedient in all of our "Christian duties," we would still only be as those in Luke 17, who had to say, "We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty."
Consider traffic laws. If you always obey every traffic law, never run a red light, never speed, etc., do you get a reward for that? Of course not. You do not obligate the state in any way.
God is the Sovereign Ruler of the universe. He has the right to require perfect obedience from us. We owe HIM this obedience!
Paul said in Romans 11:35, "Who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?" The principle is clear: "God doesn't owe anyone anything."
I pray that the Church might experience your protection in the whole world. There are places where the Church is being persecuted daily, some losing their lives because they follow Jesus. I pray for their protection. I pray your vengeance on those who would attack the Church and, thereby, attack you. Avenge yourself in our world, Father! I pray that the Church in America would stop becoming complacent and start preaching the truth of the Bible instead of self-help philosphies!
I pray that you would constantly draw us back to the Law so that we can see how severe our need for the Gospel is! We need to know how desperately we needed Jesus. We need to be reminded of this daily. (This is yet another argument for the sequential reading of Scripture passages in our church.)
Finally, Father, I pray that we never slip into a way of thinking that you owe us anything! Nothing could be further from the truth. You will never owe anyone anything! We owe you, and we will always owe you. Yet, let that never become a motive for "good works," because we can never repay you. Plain and simple. In fact, Lord, I would think that any effort to repay you would be rather insulting. We cannot get "points" by doing good works. That is not the motivation. Let us work for you because you are our life. Let good works be our "fruit." The proof that we are children of yours.
Grace and peace, friends.