Peace is already but peace is not yet.

This morning in my OT reading a verse really caught my attention. It lay right in the chronicles of the men of valor who joined with David at Hebron to make him king after the death of Saul. The scriptures say this:

1 Chronicles 12:33 (ESV)
33 Of Zebulun 50,000 seasoned troops, equipped for battle with all the weapons of war, to help David with singleness of purpose.

Israel had a new vision and hope, the man who had lead out the armies and brought them in under Saul had now, by the providential hand of God, been rightfully placed upon the throne. There was a celebration and anticipation in the air of Hebron that day. A new dawn for the nation. Could this be the man who will make the land their own? Would he be the king that God would use to establish his kingdom in this earth? I can imagine the heart of a young Israelite boy asking his father that day, "Is he going to bring peace, so you don't have to go to war anymore, daddy?"

Hope spurs in us a desire to rejoice even when times are tough. Later in that same passage the scriptures say,

1 Chronicles 12:38-40 (ESV)38 All these, men of war, arrayed in battle order, came to Hebron with full intent to make David king over all Israel. Likewise, all the rest of Israel were of a single mind to make David king. 39 And they were there with David for three days, eating and drinking, for their brothers had made preparation for them. 40 And also their relatives, from as far as Issachar and Zebulun and Naphtali, came bringing food on donkeys and on camels and on mules and on oxen, abundant provisions of flour, cakes of figs, clusters of raisins, and wine and oil, oxen and sheep, for there was joy in Israel.

There was joy in Hebron that day in spite of the bleak situation of the Philistines pending attacks and the long rode of war ahead before the peace.

Here is story from John Piper's book God is the Gospel that will help illustrate.

Imagine American prisoners of war held behind barbed wire in a camp with little food and filthy conditions near the end of the Second World War. On the outside of the fence the captors are free and go about their business as though they don't have a care. Inside the fence the captured soldiers are thin, hollow-eyed, unshaven, and dirty. Some die each day.

Then somehow a shortwave radio is smuggled into one of the barracks. There is connection with the outside world and the progress of the war. Then one day the captors on the outside of the fence see something very strange. Inside the fence the weak, dirty, unshaven American soldiers are smiling and laughing, and few who have the strength gave a whoop and throw tin pans into the air.

What makes this so strange to everyone outside the fence is that nothing has changed. These American soldiers are still in captivity. They still have little food and water. And many are still sick and dying. But what the captors don't know is that what these soldiers do have is news. The enemy lines have been broken through. The decisive battle of liberation had been fought. And the liberating troops are only miles away from the camp. Freedom is imminent. (pg 20-21)

The interesting part of the story in Israel... the fighting continued and led to peace but it did not last. The hope in King David was good, and he did lead the nation well, but he did not have the power to usher in everlasting peace. That was for the Son of David who would reign forever, Jesus Christ. Freedom is imminent for Christ followers, believers in the Prince of Peace, King Eternal.

Peace is already, but peace is not yet.

There is still work to do and battles to be fought. What would it look like if there were 50,000 seasoned troops, equipped for battle with all the weapons of war, to help the King with singleness of purpose...?

What is a Christian to think about Cremation?

I know this is an odd question to ask, but it is one that came up between my wife and I as Pastor David was teaching through Revelation at the Creek. It is no wonder this article caught my attention. If you are interested take a look:

The Empty Tomb and the Emptied Urn
What the wounds of Jesus can — and can't — tell us about our resurrection bodies.
Russell D. Moore

I inhaled as I stepped behind the pulpit, ready for a fight. It was a sermon series on the end times, and I knew there'd be controversy. I looked out at the elderly man in the fourth pew with his Scofield Reference Bible in tow, the woman in the back with her John Hagee book on the Middle East crisis, the teenager in the front with the Left Behind video game on his computer at home. more

Why the SBC? Thoughts from Stetzer for Baptist 21

Who's sin do you see?

I was once told by a mentor of mine that the key to reaching people from other religions with the gospel is not knowing their religion well, but knowing mine even better. As I think about the church and specifically the students I work with, I can’t help but think the same holds true for our witness as a body of believers. But the perspective is different; the focus is not on just what we believe, but whether we really live what we say we believe.

People, including students in our group, and myself at times, tend to notice the sins of others far quicker than they see their own. Jesus talked about this when he said in the book of Matthew:

Matthew 7:1-5 (ESV)1 “Judge not, that you be not judged. 2 For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. 3 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.

Revival will not come when we are so busy seeing others sins that we do not deal with our own. Think about this quote from Kevin Wax on his blog Kingdom People written in the likeness of the Screwtape Letters by CS Lewis. Here the demon Wormwood gets advice from his Demon Uncle:

At the local church level, I am convinced that the more you blind the people to their hypocrisy, the better off we will be in the long run. Make sure their temperaments run towards judgmentalism and not repentance. You can do this by keeping them focused on the sins of the increasingly decadent culture (by the way, aren’t the new developments delightful?). As long as the Baptists focus on the actions of those in our territory, they are less apt to repent of the actions of those in their pews and pulpits.

Perspective? Focus? Maybe the best way for us to begin to see change in the culture is to know our own sins better than theirs, to deal with our sins and grow in passion for Christ. And then we will impact culture with the gospel truth in word and dead.

Be careful to point out others faults when you haven’t even dealt with your own. The Word of God should be preached to self before it is ever preached to others.

You must truly love God before you can rightly love people as He.

May I listen to my own words,
Pastor Dave

A Must read from Dr. Alvin Reid

We Have Reached a Tipping Point on betweenthetimes.com