Lenten Devotional – Day 32

Q. 86. What is faith in Jesus Christ?

A. Faith in Jesus Christ is a saving grace, whereby we receive and rest upon him alone for salvation, as he is offered to us in the gospel.

“But we are not among those who shrink back and so are lost, but among those who have faith and so are saved.” (Heb. 10:39)

Faith comes not from intellectual conviction, but from an open, trusting "yes" to God’s invitation to loving unity. Of course, without intellectual conviction, the mind will not instruct the will to say yes. Even so, faith opens one to realms that the mind cannot know. - Nuggets from the Stream of Life from "Caring for the Self, Caring for the Soul," by Philip St. Romain.

  Practice is the best evidence of faith. Because Abraham had faith in God, he left his own country. Because Moses had faith in God, he refused to stay in the luxury of Pharaoh's palace, choosing instead to suffer with God's people (Hebrews 11:25-26). Because others had faith in God, they were stoned, sawn in two, executed by the sword, mocked and tortured, thrown in prison, and forced to wander about in animal skins, poverty and torment (Hebrews 11:32-38). — Gerald R. McDermott, Seeing God: Twelve Reliable Signs of True Spirituality (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1995), 221.

  A businessman was asked to tell what his personal faith meant to him. He reached back to his boyhood experience. He recalled walking with his father one day, having to reach up to hold on to his hand. After a while he said, "I can't hold on any longer, and you'll have to hold on to me for a while." And he remembered the moment when he felt his father's hand take over. That, he said, was the way it felt to him to have faith in God. And that was precisely an act of grace.

  It is important that Christians not let grace become a universal principle or ideology. It is the grace of God of which the Bible speaks. Not the grace of some abstract principle of justice or love or acceptance. As God's grace, and not some principle of grace, God is the one who determines what it will be and where it will go. "God ... called us with a holy calling, not according to our work, but according to his own purpose and grace" (2 Tim. 1:9 NRSV). "But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ's gift" (Eph.4:7 NRSV).

Lenten Devotional – Day 17

Q. 23. What offices does Christ execute as our Redeemer?

A. Christ, as our Redeemer, executes the offices of a prophet, of a priest, and of a king, both in his estate of humiliation and exaltation.

“Since, then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin.” (Heb. 4:14-15)

The prophet was an individual who said No to his society, condemning its habits and assumptions, its complacency, waywardness, and syncretism. He was often compelled to proclaim the very opposite of what his heart expected. His fundamental objective was to reconcile man and God. Why do the two need reconciliation? Perhaps it is due to man’s false sense of sovereignty, to his abuse of freedom, to his aggressive, sprawling pride, resenting God’s involvement in history. - Abraham J. Heschel, The Prophets

  Mike Horton of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals says, We're raising our children to become atheists by turning Christ into little more than a football coach. ... I think it competes with His role as Savior if this is the primary message that people are getting. I don't think that Christianity is preventative. Christ has His three offices, prophet, priest and king. And certainly a prophet tells us how we should live as well as being a priest who lives in that place and fulfills the obedience that we couldn't deliver on. And a king rules us, but that's very different from simply giving us helpful hints on how we might be able to live a more fulfilling life. - Jamie Lee Rake, Door Interview: Mike Horton, The Door, March-April 1999, 20.

  “An enduring contribution is Calvin’s treatment of the work of Christ as mediator between God and humanity as expressed in a threefold office of prophet, priest and king. This tied the work of Christ to the covenant history of Israel in that prophets, priests, and kings in ancient Israel were all “anointed.” Christ as “prophet” is the teacher of perfect doctrine who conveys “perfect wisdom” to us. As king, Christ reigns over the church and enables us to pass through the miseries of the world with the assurance that “our King will never leave us destitute, but will provide for our needs until, our warfare ended, we are called to triumph.” As priest, Jesus Christ is our “everlasting intercessor” who through his death has “washed away our sins, sanctifies us and obtains for us that grace from which the uncleanness of our transgressions and vices debars us.” Jesus’ sacrifice was a willing self-sacrifice – not the demand of a wrathful or vengeful “Father-figure.” Jesus Christ was both “priest and sacrifice.” Jesus Christ was both “priest and sacrifice.” These biblical roles of prophet, priest, and king are ways of understanding what Jesus Christ has done. They link his work with God’s work in ancient Israel.” – Donald K. McKim, “Introducing the Reformed Faith”, p. 94.

Lenten Devotional – Day Eight

Q. 9. What is the work of creation?

A. The work of creation is God’s making all things of nothing, by the word of his power, in the space of six days, and all very good.

“By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible.” (Heb. 11:3)

The gospel life isn't something we learn ABOUT and then put together with instructions from the manufacturer; it's something we BECOME as God does his work of creation and salvation in us and as we accustom ourselves to a life of belief and obedience and prayer. - Eugene Peterson in Leap Over a Wall, quoted in Christianity Today, March 1, 1999, 64.

  Words, words, words. Our society is full of words: on billboards, on television screens, in newspapers and books. Words whispered, shouted and sung. Words that move, dance and change in size and color. Words that say, "Taste me, smell me, eat me, drink me, sleep with me," but most of all, "buy me." With so many words around us, we quickly say: "Well, they're just words." Thus, words have lost much of their power.

  In our world words have lost their power to create much other than confusion and frustration, but in scripture and in our answer today for question #9, God’s word has the power to create.

  Still, the word has the power to create. When God speaks, God creates. When God says, "Let there be light" (Genesis 1:3), light is. God speaks light. For God, speaking and creating are the same. It is this creative power of the word we need to reclaim. What we say is very important. When we say, "I love you," and say it from the heart, we can give another person new life, new hope, new courage. When we say, "I hate you," we can destroy another person. Let's watch our words. - Henri J.M. Nouwen, Bread for the Journey: A Daybook of Wisdom and Faith (HarperCollins: 2006), 11.

  In a Time magazine article called "What was God thinking?" (November 14, 2005), Eric Cornell says, "Let me pose you a question, not about God but about the heavens: 'Why is the sky blue?' I offer two answers: 1) The sky is blue because of the wavelength dependence of Rayleigh scattering; 2) the sky is blue because blue is the color God wants it to be. My scientific research has been in areas connected to optical phenomena, and I can tell you a lot about the Rayleigh-scattering answer. Neither I nor any other scientist, however, has anything scientific to say about answer No. 2, the God answer. Not to say that the God answer is unscientific, just that the methods of science don't speak to that answer.