By Jacob Tanner - Posted at Place for Truth:

Along the banks of the Lycus River in the Roman province of Asia sat the city of Thyatira. It was a city of wealth and extravagance, acting as a commercial hub for a thriving dyeing and textile industry. It was most well-known for its purple cloth, which was highly sought after and desirable.

Some evidence in Scripture suggests that the church of Thyatira was likely founded by Paul. In Acts 16:13-15, Paul and his companions are outside the city of gates of Macedonia, near the river, sharing the gospel. While there, they encounter a woman named Lydia from Thyatira and she responds in faith to the gospel:

And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to the riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together. One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul. And after she was baptized, and her household as well, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.” And she prevailed upon us.

So, Lydia has faith in Christ and is baptized, with her household following suit. Paul and his group then stay for a time with her and her family. It can be assumed that, during that time, Paul and the other would have taught the household of Lydia about the truths of the Christian faith. With such giants of the early church being involved in the founding of the church there, one would imagine that Thyatira would not merely be a strong church, but a doctrinally rich one.

Yet, by the time that Jesus has the Apostle John write his seven letters to the seven churches, we see that things within the church of Thyatira are spiraling. The letter starts off with a strong reminder of who Christ is and the authority with which He writes to the church: “And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: ‘The words of the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze’” (Rev. 2:18). As wonderful and beautiful as the dyeing and textile industry of Thyatira may have been, none of it could compare with the glory of Christ’s fiery eyes and feet like burnished bronze. His eyes of fire represent His coming in judgment; as Isaiah 66:15 says, “For behold, the Lord will come in fire, and his chariots like the whirlwind, to render his anger in fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire.” His burnished bronze feet represent both the glory of His being resurrected (His foot was bruised at the Cross, but He did not stay down [Gen. 3:15]), and His suffering alongside His saints.

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Also posted at the Morning Studies blog.

Direct Link:

• What is Man?: Origin of the Soul

Series Link:

• What is Man? | SermonAudio

Also posted at the Morning Studies blog.

Posted at Reformation Scotland:

The shape of people’s lives tells you what’s important to them. They must believe that certain things matter, based on where they focus their attention and where they spend their energies. From the little interest they pay to other things, even if they notionally concede their importance, it becomes clear from the absence of any practical impact or consequences in their lives that they don’t really believe in them at all. Over a couple of generations, we have as a society successfully insulated ourselves from meaningful concerns about God and our eternal destiny. In his preaching, the young Covenanting preacher James Renwick points out five things the majority of people simply don’t believe in, as far as anyone can tell from their lives. Yet their failure to reckon with these realities is a terrible mistake. In the following updated extract, Renwick goes on to outline five practical responses that we should be encouraged to make on the basis of really accepting the existence of the one living and true God and the availability of salvation.

Five realities we disregard

Beloved, there are five things that are little believed by the most part of this generation.

God

The first thing that is little believed by the world is the being of a God. This is apparent by the little fear of God that is in the land. O, if you knew and believed the being of a God, you would certainly fear Him more!

Heaven

The second thing that is little believed by the most part of this generation is that there is a heaven, a place of rest for the souls of the godly. If they did, there would be more labour and diligence to get it for their dwelling place, and there would be more holiness in you, and hungering after it, so that you would enjoy the pleasant inheritance that is above, where the service of God cannot be interrupted and marred by spiritual or temporal enemies, as it is often here below.

Hell

The third thing that is little believed by the most part of the world is that there is a hell, a place of torment, where the souls of the wicked go to after death, even a place of endless torment where there is no mitigation of the pain for evermore.

O friends! If this were believed, people would make much more effort to avoid this place. You would not carry on entertaining idols in your hearts as you do. You would not comply with the sinful courses of the time as you do. There would not be such a compliance with these slaves of the enemy, neither would there be such a running in to them, if you believed that there was such a place as hell, where all impenitent sinners must receive what their sins justly deserve through all eternity.

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Also posted at the Morning Studies blog.

Description:

American Evangelical Christianity is in crisis. The story of how it got here is an important part of this series but there are several reasons so many evangelical Christians are discontent and looking for something else, something with historical roots, with a sense of tradition, with a sense of transcendence, with reverent worship, and with a deeper view of the sacraments. It is the conviction of the Heidelberg Reformation Association that the answer to the longing for more lies not in Rome or in the Eastern Orthodox traditions but, as it were, in Geneva. In this series we will explore the history, theology, piety and practice of Roman Catholicism and the Eastern Orthodox traditions, and we will compare and contrast those two traditions with historic Reformed theology, piety, and practice.

Direct Links:

• Rome, Constantinople, or Geneva (2)

• The Heidelcast - YouTube

LORD’S DAY 41

108. What does the seventh commandment teach us?

That all unchastity is accursed of God;1 and that we should therefore loathe it from the heart,2 and live chastely and modestly whether in holy wedlock or single life.3

1 Lev 18:30; Eph 5:3-5; 2 Jude 22-23; 3 1 Cor 7:1-9; 1 Thes 4:3-8; Heb 13:4

109. Does God in this commandment forbid nothing more than adultery and such like gross sins?

Since our body and soul are both temples of the Holy Spirit, it is His will that we keep both pure and holy; for which reason He forbids all unchaste actions, gestures, words, thoughts, desires,1 and whatever may entice thereto.2

1 Mt 5:27-29; 1 Cor 6:18-20; Eph 5:3-4; 2 1 Cor 15:33; Eph 5:18

Source: Heidelberg Catechism - Westminster Seminary California

“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me; Thy Rod and Thy Staff they comfort me” - Psalm 23:4

Sweet are these words in describing a deathbed assurance. How many have repeated them in their last hours with intense delight! But the verse is equally applicable to agonies of spirit in the midst of life.

Some of us, like Paul, die daily through a tendency to gloom of soul. Bunyan puts the Valley of the Shadow of Death far earlier in the pilgrimage than the river which rolls at the foot of the celestial hills.

We have some of us traversed the dark and dreadful defile of “the shadow of death” several times, and we can bear witness that the LORD alone enabled us to bear up amid its wild thought, its mysterious horrors, it’s terrible depressions.

The LORD has sustained us and kept us above all real fear of evil, even when our spirit has been overwhelmed. We have been pressed and oppressed, but yet we have lived, for we have felt the presence of the Great Shepherd and have been confident that His crook would prevent the foe from giving us any deadly wound.

Should the present time be one darkened by the raven wings of a great sorrow, let us glorify God by a peaceful trust in Him.

Source: Daily Devotional | SermonAudio

Source: Psalm 23:4 (Knowing-Jesus.com)

Source: Psalm 46 KJV - Bible Gateway

Source: The Word For The Day

By Dr. Barry Waugh - Posted at The Heidelblog:

At the end of the first part of this article, it appeared that the continuation of the seed of the woman God promised in Genesis 3:15 beyond Judah’s generation was at risk. Two of Judah’s three sons—Tamar’s husband, Er, and her brother-in-law Onan—died at the hand of the Lord for wickedness. Judah promised the last son, Shelah, to Tamar to fulfill the levirate once he matured and thus continue the godly line. The trouble is, Judah’s character, as seen in Genesis 37, was shown to be doubtful given the opportunism and greed he demonstrated in usurping Reuben’s role as family leader when Joseph was sold into slavery. At this point, the actions of Judah and Tamar are crucial for continuation of the godly line. What would happen next?

As the years passed and events unfolded, it became clear to Tamar that despite Judah’s assurance that Shelah would fulfill the levirate, it was not going to happen. What she did next is surprising. When Judah’s wife died and his period of mourning was over, Tamar decided to take action regarding having a son for Er. It was sheepshearing season, and Judah would go to Timnah to visit his sheepshearers and direct their harvest of wool (Gen 38:12). In the Canaanite culture and religion in which Judah lived, sheepshearing was a time of celebration that included men making use of the services of cult prostitutes. Tamar took off her widow’s garments, then dressed like a cult prostitute and covered her face to conceal her identity.[1] She left her father’s house and sat near the entrance of a village named Enaim (38:14). The location was strategic because Tamar knew Judah would be passing by on the way to the sheepshearing.

As she expected, Judah came along the road. He saw her and wanted lie with her (38:15–16). It does not speak well for Judah that Tamar could be so sure her father-in-law would lie with her and pay for services rendered, does it? Had such promiscuity become his practice because of the influence of his Canaanite wife and the Canaanite society? As they negotiated their encounter, Tamar asked for payment, and Judah promised her a goat. But she wanted more than a promise; she wanted something tangible to prove her case (38:17). Judah gave her his signet, cord, and staff; all three of these items were unique to him (38:18). These items might be likened today to a key fob engraved with the owner’s initials, a signed business card, or a monogrammed piece of clothing. Judah and Tamar went into the tent together. After their encounter was over, she went back to her father’s house and put her widow’s garments back on as though nothing had happened. Now, again, she would wait.

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Part One: 

• Judah And Tamar And The Seed Of The Woman (Part One) | The Heidelblog

Direct Link:

• What is Man?: Unity of Race

Series Link:

• What is Man? | SermonAudio

Source: Daily Devotional | Crosswalk.com

 Posted at Reformation Scotland:

Our moment in history is not marked for its optimism or positivity. Commentators on a range of cultural phenomena and from across the social spectrum discuss how things are only getting worse. Wherever we look, public services, consumer affairs, the creative industries, there is a sense that standards are in decline and have been for decades. Even upheavals in the political domain are less a sign of insightful new plans for workable improvement in people’s lives than a risk-taking turn to extremes born of a sense that there is nothing much really left to lose. Embittering the disappointment is the failure of our society’s myth that things are on an upward trajectory and can only get better. Even as Christians, we are often tempted to resentment and ask angrily why we have to put up with this when things were never this bad in the past. Without necessarily doubting that things have got worse over time, Alexander Nisbet reflects on why Ecclesiastes teaches us not to start asking, “What is the cause that the former days were better than these?” (Ecclesiastes 7:10) Misery comes from sin, and difficulties are an opportunity to depend more fully on the Lord. Redemption in Christ Jesus provides us with a hope for the world to come that lasts through and beyond the miseries and disappointments of this world. In the following updated extract, Nisbet urges us to avoid the response of frustration with our circumstances in providence and to take God’s way of contentment through self-abasement and heavenly wisdom.

The main aim of the Preacher in Ecclesiastes 7 is to reveal more about the way to true happiness and contentment, and to point out some remedies to the vexations which are incident to this life.

The question not to ask

In verses 9–10, the Preacher dissuades us from two things which are far contrary to the grace of patience. “Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry: for anger resteth in the bosom of fools. Say not thou, What is the cause that the former days were better than these? for thou dost not inquire wisely concerning this.”

The Preacher warns us against the very first sudden motions of anger or revenge against oppressors and the instruments of trouble (v.9). To have anger “resting” or being cherished in the heart is the habitual and allowed frame of those who are void of the saving knowledge of Christ. They are the ones who cherish angry feelings, and think over in detail all the ways they have been wronged, and feed on the contemplations of possible ways of revenge. They have no reluctance or grief about such a vengeful spirit, whereas, although a child of God may be assaulted with the impulse to revenge, yet he gives these impulses no permission to rest peaceably in his heart.

The Preacher warns us also against sinful quarrelling against the Lord for apparently making times more troublesome, and burdens heavier, than they used to be. This only indicates ignorance of the true state of times, foolish presumption in finding fault with His wisdom, and unbelief of his sovereignty. “Say not thou, ‘What is the cause that the former days were better than these?’ for thou dost not inquire wisely concerning this.”

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Description:

American Evangelical Christianity is in crisis. The story of how it got here is an important part of this series but there are several reasons so many evangelical Christians are discontent and looking for something else, something with historical roots, with a sense of tradition, with a sense of transcendence, with reverent worship, and with a deeper view of the sacraments. It is the conviction of the Heidelberg Reformation Association that the answer to the longing for more lies not in Rome or in the Eastern Orthodox traditions but, as it were, in Geneva. In this series we will explore the history, theology, piety and practice of Roman Catholicism and the Eastern Orthodox traditions, and we will compare and contrast those two traditions with historic Reformed theology, piety, and practice.

Direct Links:

• Rome, Constantinople, or Geneva (1)

• The Heidelcast - YouTube

LORD’S DAY 40

105. What does God require in the sixth commandment?

That I neither in thought, nor in word or look, much less in deed, revile, hate, insult or kill my neighbor, whether by myself or by another;1 but lay aside all desire of revenge;2 moreover, that I harm not myself,3 nor wilfully run into any danger. Wherefore also, to restrain murder, the magistrate is armed with the sword.4

1 Gen 9:6; Lev 19:17-18; Mt 5:21-22; 26:52; 2 Prov 25:21-22; Mt 18:35; Rom 12:19; Eph 4:26; 3 Mt 4:7; 26:52; Rom 13:11-14; 4 Gen 9:6; Ex 21:14; Rom 13:4

106. But does this commandment only speak of killing?

In forbidding this, however, God means to teach us that He abhors the root of murder, namely, envy, hatred, anger, and desire of revenge;1 and that all these are in His sight hidden murder.2

1 Prov 14:30; Rom 1:29; 12:19; Gal 5:19-21; Jas 1:20; 1 Jn 2:9-11; 2 1 Jn 3:15

107. Is it then enough that we do not kill our neighbor in any such way?

No: for in condemning envy, hatred, and anger, God requires us to love our neighbor as ourselves,1 to show patience, peace, meekness, mercy and kindness towards him,2 and, so far as we have power, to prevent his hurt; also to do good even unto our enemies.3

1 Mt 7:12; 22:39; Rom 12:10; 2 Mt 5:5; Lk 6:36; Rom 12:10, 18; Gal 6:1-2; Eph 4:2; Col 3:12; 1 Pt 3:8; 3 Ex 23:4-5; Mt 5:44-45; Rom 12:20

Source: Heidelberg Catechism - Westminster Seminary California

"I the LORD do keep it; I will water it every moment: Lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day"
- Isaiah 27:3

When the LORD Himself speaks in His own proper person rather than through a prophet, the word has a peculiar weight to believing minds. It is Jehovah Himself who is the keeper of His own vineyard; He does not trust it to any other, but He makes it His own personal care. Are they not well kept whom God Himself keeps? 

We are to receive gracious watering, not only every day and every hour "but every moment." How we ought to grow! How fresh and fruitful every plant should be! What rich clusters the vines should bear! 

But disturbers come; little foxes and the boar. Therefore, the LORD Himself is our Guardian, and that at all hours, both "night and day." What, then, can harm us? Why are we afraid! He tends, He waters, He guards; what more do we need? 

Twice in this verse the LORD says, "I will." What truth, what power, what love, what immutability we find in the great "I will" of Jehovah! Who can resist His will? If He says "I will," what room is there for doubt? With an "I will" of God we can face all the hosts of sin, death, and hell. O LORD, since Thou sayest, "I will keep thee," I reply, "I will praise Thee!"

Source: Daily Devotional | SermonAudio

Source: Psalm 45 KJV - Bible Gateway

Source: Psalm 45:1 KJV (Pinterest)

By Dr. Barry Waugh - Posted at The Heidelblog:

The book of Genesis is the book of beginnings. It recounts God’s inspired and authoritative record of the very good beginning of the heavens, earth, plants, creatures, Sabbath, and man as male and female; it also provides the miserable events of Satan’s temptation of Eve, then Adam, the fall, and curses on Satan, the ground, creatures, and our first parents and their seed. Derek Kidner observed, “The man and the woman have been sold a false idea of evil, as something beyond good; of wisdom, as sophistication; and now of greatness, as greed.” The glorious garden of Eden would no longer have Adam and Eve walking its paths in intimate fellowship with God because their sin resulted in the fall and ensuing eviction without reentry. What a situation! Was there any hope for Adam and Eve and those coming from them by ordinary generation who share guilt for the first sin?

Along with the curses resulting from the fall is God’s covenantal promise that one would come from the seed of the woman to bruise Satan’s head at the cost of his own bruised heel (Gen 3:15). This promise required a single line of successive generations beginning with Adam and Eve, then terminating with Jesus the Messiah, the Christ. Why do genealogies have such a significant part in the Old Testament? The central reason is that they show the succession of generations from the first parents to Christ, and they provide documentation for God’s fulfillment of his promise to Abraham that he would beget many nations and the sons of Jacob would inhabit the land of Canaan. The seed plot extends from the curse to the Christ, including a central but unexpected occurrence within the sequence associated with events surrounding Judah and his daughter-in-law Tamar, as recounted in Genesis 38.

But before considering the Judah–Tamar narrative, some insight from the chapter preceding Genesis 38 is required to provide context. It tells of Jacob’s son Joseph, whose dreams revealed he would come to rule over his brothers and father (Gen 37:5–8, 10–11). As we would expect, the family did not receive well the message of these dreams. There are few individuals who would savor being ruled by a child or a sibling. Even though Jacob loved Joseph more than any of his brothers and showed that love by giving him a fine robe with many colors (37:3), he found Joseph’s dreams offensive, as did the brothers, because it meant they would come to bow before him. The brothers were intensely jealous of Joseph and loathed him, so when Jacob sent Joseph to visit the brothers pasturing the sheep, they saw him coming from a distance and conspired to kill him (37:18–21).

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Part Two:

• Judah And Tamar And The Seed Of The Woman (Part Two) | The Heidelblog

Direct Link:

• What is Man?: Dominion

Series Link:

• What is Man? | SermonAudio

Posted at Reformation Scotland:

Christians, separated as they are from one another across a variety of denominations and splinter groups, nevertheless generally agree that more unity would be a good thing. While we value the spiritual oneness we have in Christ irrespective of different labels and groupings, Scripture is clear that this spiritual oneness should be reflected in visible oneness. We have to concede that divisions in the church not only harm our gospel witness to the world, they also hinder everyone’s spiritual progress and, even worse, disregard God’s requirement that His people should be one. So why does disunity persist? In a recent publication, James Durham identifies eight things that act as temptations to excuse or justify our ongoing separation from our brothers and sisters. James Durham’s work on church divisions is newly available in a fresh edition from Reformation Heritage Books, The Scandal of Church Divisions: Healing the Wounds of Schism.

When people are tempted to perpetuate divisions, what are the various factors which might make the temptation stronger and harder to resist, especially for ministers and elders?

Zeal for God Masking the Desire for a Reputation

Once people are invested in a cause, and their own reputation is at stake for taking sides, then their heatedness and tenaciousness can express itself under other appearances, perhaps under cover of zeal for God’s honor, or respect for the reputation of the ministry and the ordinances. It may not seem to be any personal credit or respect that motivates them but zeal and respect for the Master, as is insinuated when the disciples sought to be avenged by fire from heaven on the place that would not receive Christ (Luke 9:54), and also when they forbade some to cast out devils, even in Christ’s name, because they thought it was not for Christ’s honor (Luke 9:49).

Firm Conviction of the Rightness of Their Cause

The temptation to persist in a division is often accompanied with great confidence about the justness and equity of their own side and about the unreasonableness of their adversaries. There may be in part some good ground for this, where the controversy is some doubtful, disputable thing. How great confidence both Job and his friends had in their debate! Both sides frequently express the desire that God would decide the matter (confident that God would take their side), when in reality God did not fully approve of either of them in either matter or manner. Sometimes also there may be a persuasion which one side finds very satisfying, when yet it is not from God. This was likely how it was on both sides in Galatia, even when they were biting and devouring one another (Gal. 5:8). For we often find in experience that once a disputable thing has been argued about over a period of time, it will become palpably clear and altogether necessary to those who have argued for it. Commitment to the cause bribes the light and perverts even the wisdom of the just. Hence we see that the longer someone argues for something, the more confident they become about it, because his own arguments secretly prevail more with himself than reasons proposed by any others to the contrary can.

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Description:

Dr Clark concludes the series Have This Mind on the book of Philippians.

Direct Links:

• Have This Mind: Philippians (22)

• The Heidelcast - YouTube

LORD’S DAY 39104. What does God require in the fifth commandment?

That I show all honor, love and faithfulness to my father and mother, and to all in authority over me; submit myself with due obedience to all their good instruction and correction;1 and also bear patiently with their infirmities:2 since it is God’s will to govern us by their hand.3

1 Ex 21:17; Prov 1:8, 4:1; Rom 13:1-2; Eph 5:21-22; 6:1-9; Col 3:18-4:1; 2 Prov 20:20, 23:22; 1 Pt 2:18; 3 Mt 22:21, Rom 13:1-8; Eph 6:1-9; Col 3:18-21

Source: Heidelberg Catechism - Westminster Seminary California

"The LORD hath heard my supplication; the LORD will receive my prayer"
- Psalm 6:9

The experience here recorded is mine. I can set to my seal that God is true. In very wonderful ways He has answered the prayers of His servant many and many a time. 

Yes, and He is hearing my present supplication, and He is not turning away His ear from me. Blessed be His holy name! What then? Why, for certain the promise which lies sleeping in the psalmist's believing confidence is also mine. 

Let me grasp it by the hand of faith: "The LORD will receive my prayer." He will accept it, think of it, and grant it in the way and time which His loving wisdom judges to be best. 

I bring my poor prayer in my hand to the great King, and He gives me audience and graciously receives my petition. 

My enemies will not listen to me, but my LORD will. They ridicule my tearful prayers, but my LORD does not; He receives my prayer into His ear and His heart. 

What a reception this is for a poor sinner! We receive Jesus, and then the LORD receives us and our prayers for His Son's sake. Blessed be that dear name which franks our prayers so that they freely pass even within the golden gates. LORD, teach me to pray, since Thou hearest my prayers.

Source: Daily Devotional | SermonAudio

Source: Pin on Life/Faith (Pinterest)