Ravenous Sheep

An excellent article about shepherding by RC Sproul, Jr. of Ligonier Ministries.

I had already failed my first test in becoming a gentleman farmer. Three years and roughly 200 chickens produced eggs for my family at a rate of roughly $1… each. A few years had passed though since my experiment in folly, and I was ready to try again. I purchased three recently weaned lambs, set up portable fencing on my land and became a shepherd.

Things went rather smoothly, until they didn’t. Two weeks into the experiment I looked out into my field and saw a third of the fencing was down. I raced outside to find two of the lambs safe and content, still eating grass. The third also had not run off. No, she had managed to turn the downed fence into a straight jacket. She had gotten herself hopelessly entangled, was on her side and kicking about wildly, tangling herself all the more. I remember grabbing one of the rubber “posts” and pushing the pointed metal end into the lamb’s side, trying to pin her down so I could begin to untangle her. She just kicked all the more. I was sweating, frustrated, and a smidge frightened, and screamed to this little one, my voice echoing across the valley, “Be still. I’m trying to help you.” That’s when I learned what it means to be a shepherd.

Most of us have a rather distorted, city-fied understanding of sheep. We remember from Sunday School that picture of Jesus, smiling as He carried that smiling lamb, the one, over His broad shoulders back to the 99. We never stopped to ask how that one managed to get so far away.

Now the world is full of failed shepherds. Some fail by confusing shepherding with bullying. Most fail by being hirelings, by just not caring. There is, however, a reason why sheep need shepherds, on earth, flesh and blood shepherds. Because sheep are sinners too. They don’t just wander off out of ignorance. They jump over fences to get at what has been forbidden them. They close their ears to the voice of the Master and follow their own downward path. They hide when they sense a shepherd has come for them. And when cornered they will hiss, bite and kick. Worse still, so often after being carried back to the flock they run off again. Some are so anti-shepherd it’s hard to tell if they’re even sheep at all. Whenever I am blessed to visit another’s pulpit I always try to work this nugget into my address. I tell the gathered saints- “The hardest thing about being a pastor is not being poorly paid. If that needs to be fixed and you can, please do. The hardest thing about being a pastor isn’t the long hours. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t call when you are in the emergency room. It does mean if you have a theological question at 9:30 Saturday night, try to wait until after Sunday service to ask. The hardest thing isn’t the lack of respect in the church and the world over his calling. If you can help there, please do. The hardest thing about being a pastor is the pain of watching the sheep you love banging their heads against the wall until their wool is like scarlet.” The hardest thing about being a shepherd is the pain of loving the sheep.

This, though, is the calling of the shepherd. Jesus repeatedly told Peter the implication of his love for Him- feed, tend, feed His sheep. He didn’t say the sheep would joyfully receive their food. He didn’t say they would return the shepherd’s love. He didn’t say they would run to you joyfully when you call them. He said to tend them, and to feed them, to love them. Feed them the Word. Love them. And know that the Great Shepherd of the sheep promises to turn the bloodiest of fleece into the whitest of wool, for them, and for you.

 

Love Thy Neighbor?

"My neighbor seems like a nice guy but suffers from muddled thinking. The other day he came over to see me and said he was overextended financially, had maxed out all his credit cards, and wanted to know if I could lend him some money. I told him that I usually didn't lend money to non-family members but asked how much he needed. When he said a "few thousand" I immediately told him no."

Read more at American Thinker.

(Thank you to Patrice Lewis for sharing this article on her blog Rural Revolution.)

Can We Be More Merciful Than God?

Scott T. Brown of NCFIC,  April 18, 2012

My fellow elder Dan Horn, in speaking about church discipline said this: We need to consider the nature of authority, love, justice and mercy. Our understanding must start with the fact that we can never be more loving than God, more just than God or more merciful than God. When we look at the texts of scripture on church discipline, it is easy for us to lean toward our own view of what is merciful, rather than trusting that following the commandments of God is always the most merciful and loving act. Christians always must bear in mind what the Lord requires of us, but to do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with our God (Micah 6:8). We also need to keep in mind, that if we do not fulfill the responsibility of the authority that we are given, we are showing hatred, not love (Proverbs 13:24).                        
 

"Ruled by Love Far More Than by Fear"

from Scott Brown of NCFIC

Here is the testimony of John G. Paton of the spiritually sensitive manner in which his father disciplined his children:

"The very discipline through which our father passed us was a kind of religion in itself. If anything really serious required to be punished, he retired first to his closet for prayer, and we boys got to understand that he was laying the whole matter before God ; and that was the severest part of the punishment for me to bear! I could have defied any amount of mere penalty, but this spoke to my conscience as a message from God. We loved him all the more, when we saw how much it cost him to punish us; and, in truth, he had never very much of that kind of work to do upon any one of all the eleven—we were ruled by love far more than by fear."

What Does It Mean to Be a Man?

I found a wonderful quote of what it means to be a man in Doug Phillips' book, "The Little boy Down the Road". It is found in the chapter entitled, "The Rise and Fall and Rise of Motherhood in America" on page 160.

"To be a man, you must care about women, and you must care about them in the right way. You must care about them as being worthy of protection, honor, and love. This means genuinely appreciating them for their uniqueness as women. It means recognizing the preciousness of femininity over glamour, of homemaking over careerism, and of mature motherhood over perpetual youth. But when women are reduced to soldiers, sexual objects, and social competitors, it is not merely the women who lose the identity given to them by the Creator, but the men as well. This si why the attack on motherhood has produced a nation of eunuchs---socially and spiritually impotent men who have little capacity to lead, let alone love women as God intended man to love woman--as mothers, wives, sisters, and daughters."

“If man had not sinned, he would always have ruled with wisdom and love; and, if the woman had not sinned, she would always have obeyed with humility and meekness; and then the dominion would have been no grievance: but our own sin and folly make our yoke heavy.” - Matthew Henry

Biblical Submission and How Godly Women Do It

"There are many paradoxes in the Bible:
~the last shall be first... ~the greatest of all is the servant of all... ~if you lose your life, you will find your life, to name a few. And submission is another one of these paradoxical things.

Some people think submission implies weakness, doormat-ishness. Actually, the reverse is true: submission is hard and it takes great strength of character. It's not the weak women who submit
respectfully, it's the strong ones. In submission we find strength and favor with God.

Isaiah 30:15 “For thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel,
"In repentance and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength."

Psalm 33:18 “Behold, the eye of the LORD is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy.”

1Timothy 1:18-19 “…wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith”

Knowing we have obeyed, we have a clear conscience. Letting someone else in control makes it seem we have no influence over anything. Submission gives us great influence with our husbands. It's our best hope to win our husbands when they are in error. Your motive is not manipulation of Him but obedience to God. You obey regardless of husband’s response.

These two things will help us submit: 1. taking every thought captive to Christ's submission and obedience to His father's will. 2. realizing that our hope is in God to bring His will to pass and make all things work together for good for us. "

Here is an excerpt from a night of teaching by Victoria Botkin. To read the entire article, go to the Seppi Blog.

They also have notes from her other nights of teachings, "All About Eve"
and "All About Love"

What Happens When You "Fall" in Love?

This morning, my daughters and I were listening to a sermon they talked about Biblical love and what it is. You always hear, from the world's perspective, about "falling" in love and "falling" out of love. Marriages starting and stopping because two people fell into and out of love. But what does God say about love? While we were talking about the world's view, I asked them, "What happens when you fall?" My youngest daughter said, "You get hurt." I said, wow, you are so right. Anytime you FALL, you get hurt. And falling in love you will be no different, you will get hurt. God says that love is an action. If you LOVE someone you will be

"...patient, kind, not envious, not boastful, not proud, not rude, not self-seeking, not easily angered, you will keeps no record of wrongs, you will not delight in evil but rejoice with the truth, you will always protect, always trust, always hope, always persevere."

So you see, there is no room for "falling" in and out of love with someone. Thank you, Hannah, for your insight.

My Brother

I only have one brother and he is very special to me in a lot of ways.

My brother is in the Navy and I am glad he is. He tells us so many stories about places where he has been and what he has seen. I say that he is the best the storyteller in the world.

He is a very kind and loving brother I could not ask for a better brother. He is one that can make people of all ages from baby's to the elderly laugh. My brother is very encouraging, one time I didn't know how to figure out a math problem and he helped me and then it was very easy.

When my brother is away he always sends letters or calls us. Lately, he has been calling every week which is very nice.

He is a very happy person and I can not remember a time when he was not wearing a smile. When I get upset or am not wearing a smile around him he try's to make a sad face to make us happy again and it always works.

I love my brother a lot and do not know what our family would be like with out him.

My brother in his new suit.

My favorite picture

What to do in an Obama World

by Rev. Bart Martin
“When people accept futility and the absurd as normal, the culture is decadent.”
– Jacques Barzun[1]

When a young state senator from Illinois ascended the platform to give the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, many considered him a rising star in the Democratic Party. But even his zaniest fans could not have anticipated that, in four short years, Barack Obama would have made the leap from state senator to United States Senator, and from United States Senator to the President of the United States.

What does Barack Obama’s rise to power mean? For one thing, it means that the “absurd” has become “normal”: when a large proportion of younger “evangelicals” vote for a man who will help perpetuate the war against the unborn, decadence has obviously set it. For another thing, it means that modern conservatism—the conservatism of William Buckley and Russell Kirk, of Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan—is dead. As a matter of fact, it has been dead for a number of years: Election Day 2008 simply provided us the coroner’s report.

For we who consider ourselves “conservative,” it will do us no good to pine away for the glory of days gone by. We can’t re-live the Barry Goldwater campaign; we can’t call Ronald Reagan back from the dead—nor would we want to if we could.

What we Christians in America need to do is to rediscover what our vocation is: we are salt and light; we are strangers and sojourners; we are a nation of priests. This does not mean, as the pietistic Christian might take it to mean, that we are to withdraw from the public square, and simply build our own little Christian ghettoes while clutching our Bibles and waiting for the end of the world. No: the Scriptures call on the people of God to take dominion by being salt and light, to take dominion by being strangers and sojourners, to take dominion by acting as priests on behalf of the world. We are not called to withdraw; rather, we are called to engage the world, ruling as God’s co-regents.

But we have forgotten what it means to rule. We have confused the biblical mandate to “rule” and “take dominion” with the hackneyed imperative to “win the next election.” So what should Christians do in the world of President Barak Obama? How can we better prepare ourselves to be the vice-regents that God wants us to be? I would suggest three things:

1. Pray like a Saint Augustine
2. Know the times like an Edmund Burke
3. Love the law of God like a King Josiah

First, pray like a Saint Augustine. When there is an obvious need for a new reformation in the church, many Christians instinctively suggest that we need to go back and brush up on our theology. Absolutely, we must do so.

But whose theology should we turn to? The great Saint Augustine of Hippo should be topping our list. Augustine’s theology, as Peter Leithart put it, “is as big as reality, or bigger.”[2] Augustine’s theology is the perfect antidote to both ivory-tower bookishness and pietistic sentimentalism. Augustine wrote his theology in the white heat of battle and controversy: with barbarians storming the gates of Rome, Donatists infiltrating the Church, and Pelagians attempting to resuscitate a humanistic parody of the Gospel. Not a single paragraph of his theology is divorced from the real, tangible concerns of Christian living; not a single sentence is detached from his concern to build a Christian civilization. Every page of his theology addresses the flesh-and-blood realities that real Christians face in real life.

Moreover, Augustine’s theology is a prayed theology. What does this mean? It means that everything Augustine wrote was suffused with the real presence of God in the world. This is most evident in Augustine’s Confessions, the entirety of which is written in prayer form. But even Augustine’s other writings, which employ a different genre, are all bathed in prayer. Augustine realized, like few theologians since have realized, that true theology will always result in a deeper fellowship between God and man. If our theology fails to get us on our knees, if it fails to get us in closer fellowship with our Creator and Savior, and if it fails to equip us to take dominion in the name of King Jesus, then it is no theology at all, but simply a Gnostic pietism veiled in theological vocabulary.

Augustine laid a foundation for the Christendom which followed; when we learn to pray as Augustine prayed, we too might see a new Christendom in our day.

Second, know the times like an Edmund Burke. Burke was the great Member of Parliament in the late eighteenth century who witnessed many tumultuous changes in England and Europe: the American War for Independence, Britain’s unsteady relations with India, the French Revolution, and the Napoleonic War which followed.[3] He was a modern man of Issachar (1 Chron. 12:32). What set him apart from other capable men his age was his commitment to “permanent things” in an age of revolution. As Russell Kirk says of Burke,

He foresaw in the Age of Reason a scheme of innovation which was designed to turn society inside out, and he exposed this new menace to permanence with a passion of loathing that exceeded all his invectives against Tories and nabobs. For the great practical spokesman of the Whigs knew more of the wants of mankind than did all the galaxy of French economists and men of letters.[4]

You would not know it by talking to “conservatives” today, but Edmund Burke is the intellectual father of modern conservatism. All Christians who wish to see a return of genuine, robust conservatism would do well to re-acquaint themselves with this master. Burke can teach us how to see through the illusions of propaganda; Burke can teach us how to expose the shallowness of sound-bite dialogue and bumper-sticker slogans that displace rigorous thought.

Most importantly, Burke can teach us how to fight today’s battles, not the battles of yesteryear. As Burke said in his magisterial Reflections on the Revolution in France,

Wise men will apply their remedies to vices, not to names; to the causes of evil which are permanent, not to the occasional organs by which they act, and the transitory modes in which they appear. Otherwise you will be wise historically, a fool in practice.… It is thus with all those, who attending only to the shell and husk of history, think they are waging war with intolerance, pride, and cruelty, whilst, under colour of abhorring the ill principles of antiquated parties, they are authorizing and feeding the same odious vices in different factions, and perhaps in worse.[5]

Satan is a master of disguises. If we desire to understand the times and expose the works of darkness in their current forms, we need to have our minds properly trained. Edmund Burke remains the best tutor in this regard.

Third, love the law of God like a King Josiah. Our day is both similar and dissimilar to the early days of Josiah’s reign. It is similar in that, like Josiah’s early days, there is virtually no memory of God’s law in our land; it is dissimilar in that, unlike Josiah’s early days, there are millions upon millions of copies of God’s law scattered all over our land. Josiah, when the Book of the Law was found, heard it and immediately tore his clothes; we, on the other hand, have in our possession the same Law, but rarely bother to read it and never consider allowing it to tear our hearts.

The Law of God is perfect, modern Christians have said, but it’s not very useful. Modern Christians have treated the Law of God like that old professor emeritus that some universities keep around campus: you wouldn’t think about sacking him, but you’re also not going to take him very seriously. Likewise, no modern Christian would dream of suggesting that Deuteronomy, for instance, should be ripped out of their Bibles, yet their ignorance of Deuteronomy is palpable.

It is high time that we once again be able to sing with sincerity what David, Josiah, and our Lord Jesus Christ sang: I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart (Ps. 40:8). We have a mandate to disciple the nations; but if our own lives, our own families, and our own churches are not conformed to the Law of God, we have nothing to offer the world.

Elections are important; politics is one of the many areas that must be brought into submission to Jesus Christ. But before we think about how we are going to influence the next election, we have work cut out for us. Let Saint Augustine and Edmund Burke and King Josiah guide us as we navigate ourselves through the many challenges of the Barack Obama presidency.

Endnotes:[1] Peter Leithart, Against Christianity (Moscow, ID: Canon, 2003), 47[2] Russell Kirk, The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot (Washington, D.C.: Regnery, 2001), 16.[3] Kirk, 23.[4] Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France (London: Penguin, 2004), 248–249

About the author: Rev. Bart Martin, B.S., U. S. Military Academy, M.Div., Reformed Episcopal Seminary, is an Ordained Deacon in Reformed Episcopal Church, Chaplain and Instructor of Theology at New Covenant Schools in Lynchburg, VA, and Minister-in-Charge of New Covenant Reformed Episcopal Church. He has a wife, Kristie, and four children, and is lamenting yet another Philadelphia Eagles NFC Championship debacle.

Article posted January 22, 2009

How Could You Celebrate Christmas Differently?

Watch this video to see how you could change the way you celebrate Christmas.

What Does God Expect of Women?

I have heard so many things over the years about what God expects of women, but unfortunately most of it was taken out of context from the Bible or was taken more from the world’s standard (feminism). I have been doing a lot of studying over the past four years of what God expects of me, why He created me and now I have decided to share it.
I will start with the beginning. Why did God create me, or why did He create women? In Genesis 2:18, 21-22, God said “Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone I will make him a helper suitable (corresponding to) for him.” “So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh at that place. And the Lord God fashioned (built) into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man.” So we see that the woman was created to be a suitable helper, she was equipped, prepared, perfect for supporting her husband in his work. And because God has not rescinded that purpose for creating women, we can reason that that is the still why women are being created, because it is not good for the man to be alone and he needs a suitable helper (help meet).
In Ephesians 5:22-24, we see that it says “Wives, be subject to your own husbands, (notice it doesn’t say you are to be subject to other men, just your OWN husband) as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Saviour of the body. But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything.” (Surely God doesn’t really mean we are to be subject to them in EVERYTHING, He must mean only in some things, or the things I feel like being subject to or just the things that I agree with, or, or, or…) We are also shown in 1 Corinthians 11:3, how God ordered humanity, “But I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of a woman, and God is the head of Christ.”
If that isn’t enough, it is also mentioned in Colossians 3:18, “Wives, be subject to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.”
We find in Timothy a lot about being a wife and women of the Lord. In 1 Timothy 2:9-14, it says “Likewise, I want women to adorn themselves with proper clothing, (does God REALLY care what I wear?), modestly (with modesty, bashfulness toward men) and discreetly (self controlled), not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly garments; but rather by means of good works, as befits women making a claim of godliness. (it doesn’t mean that we can’t braid our hair, but that we shouldn’t spend a good deal of our time doing our hair and making ourselves LOOK good, but we should spend our time and energy more on what we do for others, then with how our hair looks). Let a woman quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness. (Here again we see that submissiveness is complete, not partial, but ENTIRE.) But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet. For it was Adam who was first created, and then Eve. And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being quite deceived, fell into transgression.” 1 Timothy 3:11, says “Women must likewise be dignified (honorable, honest), not malicious gossips, but temperate, faithful in all things.” We also find in 1 Corinthians 14:34-35, “Let the women keep silent in the churches; for they are not permitted to speak, but let them subject themselves, just as the Law also says. And if they desire to learn anything, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is improper (disgraceful) for a woman to speak in church.”
Titus 2 is quite explicit on what God wants women to be doing and how they should act. Titus 2:3-5, “Older women likewise are to be reverent (holy) in their behaviour, not malicious gossips, nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, that they may encourage (train) the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their husbands, that the word of God may not be dishonored (blasphemed).” Is there any doubt that God wants women to be at home taking care of their husbands and loving them, loving their children, taking care of their homes and training their daughters to do likewise?
I have a long way to go, but I am understanding more and more what God expects of me and I am attempting to put into practice what I am learning from His Word and training others to do likewise.

What I love about my family

The greatest dad

I love my family very much. The things I love about my dad is that he is so funny, and he is so full of wisdom on history, math, computers, the Bible and so much more. He loves to spend time with us as a family. I love my dad for all the things he has taught me like, fishing, how to tell the good and the bad in all things, he has taught me how to draw, he has taught me to use my imagination and most of all he has taught me you can do just about any thing if you set your mind to, and most of all because he loves the Lord and his family.

I love my mom because she is a good cook, and because she loves babies and children. She has taught me to sew, cook, clean, knit, crochet, love babies and children, iron, garden, read, and to help the elderly. Most of all she has taught me to love God and to love my father.

Alicia is very kind and the things I love about her is that she can make you laugh even if she was not trying to make you laugh, she loves to read with me, play all sorts of things with me, she loves children and babies and they love her. Most of all becuse she is always singing.

I love my brother because he is always making us laugh at dinner and because he always tells us stores of all his adventures. Most of all because he is my only brother and he loves the Lord.

Nicole loves the beach, shells, writing stories and poems , she love astronomy and she loves to make you laugh and she loves animals, and most of all because she loves God.

Lita she is a very silly, cuddly dog who love her family, and loves being outside, she loves rocks, sticks and most of all her blue ball.

I love my family most of all because we all love the Lord and love to help others.