Today’s headline article in our local newspaper prods me to consider writing a new 95 Theses.

It will be a 95 theses on marriage which is defined as between one man and one woman for life.

Stay tuned.

1.  To have another creature who completes you – a gift given to you by the Creator.   Let us thank the Creator for His marvelous design.  Both the male and female reflect His image.  Where you are lacking, your spouse fills those areas where you are not equipped.  God has created men and woman for unique roles.  Thank God for your spouse and all those very important differences.

2.  To be able to live in an earthly relationship of purpose—marriage is a picture of an unbreakable, all-loving, unending relationship with Christ.  There are ten thousand marriages in Idaho Falls.  The Lord has placed in this city a gospel imprint just by the vast number of all these marriages.  Do you and your spouse have a mission statement and purpose for 2013?

3.  To have a companion whom God will use for your sanctification – this marriage partner will reveal your areas of selfishness.  Marriage is a calling on a daily basis to share fully your thoughts, your feelings, your bodies, your time, and your resources for the honor and betterment of the other.  We are all naturally very selfish people.  Marriage is a divine tool for exposing and rooting out selfishness in those very personal areas of our lives.  God’s intention is to make us more and more like His Son, Jesus Christ.

Some joys related to marriage

1.  Someone who knows everything about you and still loves you.

2.  Unchanging love in the midst of sickness, discouragement, and struggles.

3.  Love bubbling up through smiles, hugs, and laughter.

4.  A special connection that no one else shares.

Does your marriage need some troubleshooting?  Consider some of these questions.

1.  Husband, is your wife secure in your love?  Wife, is your husband lifted up by your respect?

2.  Are you praying together?  Pray continuously for one another.  Pray together during your shared times of pleasures: nice meals, naps, sex, walks in the woods, vacations, etc.  And of course, pray together over the problems and trials that you face.   Pray each night in bed.

3.  Are you taking the time to problem solve?  Communication is vital and doing it the right way.

4.  Do you rely upon the gospel of Jesus to take care of the sin in your marriage?

5.  Who do you look to for fully satisfying your needs?  Jesus or your spouse?  Don’t put your family in the place where only God should be.

Some final questions for you and your spouse to talk about

1.  What do you most appreciate about your marriage?

2.  What prayer has God answered for you and your spouse?

3.  What is a central issue where you and your spouse are seeking together the wisdom of God?

4.  What are your top five Bible passages on marriage?

5.  How might God be leading you and your spouse to serve Him through the local body of Christ?  Which sick people in the church family does He want you to visit?  Whose faltering marriage does He want you to encourage?  Which children does He want you to invest your time and love?  How has He called you to evangelism and discipleship?

Our King heals:

“And suddenly, a woman who had a flow of blood for twelve years came from behind and touched the hem of His garment.  For she said to herself, “If only I may touch His garment, I shall be made well.”  But Jesus turned around and when He saw her He said, “Be of good cheer, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And the woman was made well from that hour” (Matthew 9:20-22).

Has He healed you in any way?  Give Him glory.

Our King calls:

“But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd.  Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few.  Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest” (Matthew 9:36-38).

Has He called you to labor in the harvest field?  Give Him your labor.

Our King is hated:

“And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake.  But he who endures to the end will be saved. . . . Whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light; and what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops.  And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.  But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both the soul and body in hell. . . . And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.  He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it” (Matthew 10:22, 27, 38-39).

Will you die for Him?

Our King has a family:

“But He answered and said to the one who told Him, “Who is My mother and who are My brothers?”  “And He stretched out His hand toward His disciples and said, “Here are My mother and My brothers!  For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother” (Matthew 12:48-50).

Are you in this family?

Coming up this week, read Matthew 13:31-Matthew 17:27 . . . 1) What encouragement do you find from Jesus’s parables?  2) How does Jesus minister to you when you are afraid?  3)  Like the Canaanite mother, where can you be the little dog who is full of faith in her Master?  4) Do you think that Christ will build His Church in Idaho Falls?

Conviction in the Heart.  Was your world rocked this week by what you read?  If not, what did you read?  What did you hear from Jesus?  Who among us remains unscathed from the sinful scandal in our hearts?  I underlined Matthew 5:28, 5:37, 5:39, 5:44, 5:48, 6:2, 6:6, 6:15, 6:17, 6:19, 6:25, 7:1, 7:3, etc.  I might as well have been led out into the sagebrush desert west of town and be plugged full with a magazine round from a Sig P250 9mm.  The Sermon on the Mount crumples my stubborn individualism faster than any other words I might hear in a given week.  Wow.

The Sermon on the Mount is a well-known passage in Idaho Falls.  But Oswald Chambers warns us, “Beware of placing our Lord as Teacher first instead of Savior.  That tendency is prevalent today, and it is a dangerous tendency.  We must know Him first as Savior before His teaching can have any meaning for us or before it can have any meaning other than that of an ideal that leads to despair.  Fancy coming to men and women with defective lives and defiled hearts and wrong mainsprings, and telling them to be pure in heart!  What is the use of giving us an ideal we cannot possibly attain?  We are happier without it.  If Jesus is a teacher only, then all He can do is to tantalize us by erecting a standard we cannot come anywhere near.  But if by being born again from above we know Him first as Savior, we know that He did not come to teach us only:  He came to make us what He teaches we should be.  The Sermon on the Mount is a statement of the life we live when the Holy Spirit is having His way with us.”

Co-dependency on God.  I would suggest to you that the Sermon on the Mount purposely should drive us (all of us) to helplessness, which is a very difficult position for self-reliant, independent, religiously competitive folk like us in Idaho Falls to accept.  Oswald shares, “As long as we have a conceited, self-righteous idea that we can do the thing if God will help us, God has to allow us to go on until we break  the neck of our ignorance over some obstacle, then we will be willing to come and receive Him.  The bedrock of Jesus Christ’s kingdom is poverty, not possession; not decisions for Jesus Christ, but a sense of absolute futility, ‘I cannot begin to do it.’  Then, Jesus says, ‘Blessed are you.’ That is the entrance, and it takes us a long while to believe we are poor.”

Five years ago, Eugene Peterson, devoted about thirty pages of devotional commentary on the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13) in his book, Tell It Slant.  Think of the simple request to the Father, “Give us daily bread.”  Eugene muses, “Praying for bread acknowledges need.  We are creatures who are interdependent in this huge and intricate marvel of creation, where everything and everyone is related and in touch with everything and everyone else.  When we pray for bread we make a decidedly un-American declaration of dependence.  We don’t have it within ourselves to be ourselves.  We renounce the silly pretentiousness of posing as a self-made person.”

Corpse brought to Life.  But will people of the Kingdom in Idaho Falls pray in the New Year 2013?  Eugene adds, “Prayer is the core of the Sermon on the Mount teaching.  It is located at almost the exact center of the Sermon.  It holds the Sermon together and animates it.  A kingdom-of-heaven life consists of things to do and ways to think, but if there is no prayer at the center nothing lives.  Prayer is the heart that pumps blood into all the words and acts.  Prayer is not just one more thing in an inventory of elements that make up a following-Jesus, kingdom-of-heaven life.  Prayer is the whole heart.  If there is no heart doing its work from the center, no matter how precise the words, no matter how perfectly formed the actions, there is only a corpse.  It may be a very lovely corpse.  The embalmer’s art, especially when the embalmer knows his or her Bible, works wonders with appearances.  But dead is dead.  R.I.P.”

Quite frankly, among the most unusual people, things come to life in Matthew 7-9:  a leper, a centurion, a mother-in-law, demon-possessed men, and a paralytic.  In 2013, look for some of the King’s work among the helpless fringe in Idaho Falls.  This is the King’s territory for magnifying His glory.

Coming up this week, Read Matthew 9:18-Matthew 13:30 . . . Are you a laborer among the Kingdom harvest in Idaho Falls?  Do you know of anyone else whose works and words compare to the King described in these chapters?

This New Years’ Eve, some of my family spent time with me in Rexburg, Idaho as we brought in the New Year 2013.  I noticed a book that one of my sisters read and had recommended to my other sister.  So I picked it up and browsed through the pages.  Apparently, the volume is loaded with pithy quotes.  The author, Ann Voskamp, published One Thousand Gifts in 2010.  As I think of our 2013 Berean Challenge in Idaho Falls concerning reading through the New Testament, I appreciate how Ann integrates the written Word with the living Word and encourages us to use this lens as we interpret our world filled with suffering.  She writes,

“To read His message in the moments, I’ll need to read His passion on the page: wear the lens of the Word, to read His writing in the world.  Only the Word is the answer to rightly reading the world, because the Word has nail-scarred hands that cup our face close, wipe away the tears running down, has eyes to look deep into our brimming ache, and whisper, ‘I know.  I know.’  The passion on the page is a Person, and the lens I wear of the Word is not abstract idea but the eyes of the God-Man who came and knows the pain.

“How does the Word read the world? (p. 87). . .

“Without God’s Word as a lens, the world warps (p. 91).

Brothers and sisters, as we go into 2013 with all its uncertainties, victories, trials, celebrations, heartaches, and laughter let us be anchored in the fact that there is a reigning King and an eternal Kingdom with which we are a part of.  The opening of our New Testaments announces that there is a Savior and that God is with us!  Presently, I am sitting here on a Saturday afternoon at ijump off of Hitt Road in Ammon, Idaho.  Kids are bouncing, flipping, and laughing.  Life is good.  It brings big smiles to me when I see pure joy on the countenances of these young people.  But we all know life has twists and turns that are very bad.  Thank God for the coming of the King who makes all things new.

In the midst of corrupt earthly kings, skewed religious traditions, community apathy, and even horrific acts of violence (Matthew 2), there is Jesus.  Our responsibility is to repent before our Creator.  And as He calls us to be His disciples, we are to forsake all and follow Him.

These kids at ijump have abandoned themselves completely to the fun of the moment.  They are caught up in the excitement.  Other desires diminish.   It makes me think of John and James standing before Jesus in Matthew 4.  Their careers and earthly family became secondary in the presence of the King.

This King will demand everything of you.  You will discover this in the book of Matthew.  Join me in this adventure.  And remember “He will never leave you nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5).

Coming up this week, read Matthew 5:27-9:17 . . .

• How do you act out the beatitudes of the Kingdom of Heaven in the kingdom of America?
• In the Sermon on the Mount, where do you find that you fall short of Kingdom character?
• Take some time this week to worship God with the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13).
• How do you carry out the battle against sinful worry and fear?
• Jesus says, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice” (Matthew 9:13).  How do you apply that to your ministry in Idaho Falls?

A theme verse for the Bereans in 2013 is Romans 12:1.  It is a famous verse which will provide a undergirding foundation for our church motto in the new year, Berean Baptist Church:  Your Pathway for Service.  Perhaps you have the verse memorized.  It has been translated a number of ways from the Greek:

1. Parakalo oun humas, adelphoi (I beseech therefore you, brothers) Dia ton oiktirmon tou Theou (through the compassions of God) Parasteisai ta somata humon (to present the bodies of you) Thusian zosan hagian to theo euareston (sacrifice a living holy to God well-pleasing)Tein logikein latreian humon (the reasonable service of you) – Koine Greek
2.  “I beseech you therefore brethren, by the mercifulness of God, that ye make your bodies a quick sacrifice holy and acceptable unto God which is your reasonable serving of God.  And fashion not yourselves like unto this world:  But be ye changed in your shape, by the renewing of your wits that ye may feel what thing that good, that acceptable, and perfect will of God is” (Tyndale New Testament, 1534, modern English and including verse 2).  Tyndale adds in the margin, “True serving of God is to bring the body into the obedience of the law of God.”
3. “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.” (27, NKJV)
4.  “And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you.  Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable.  This is truly the way to worship him.” (NLT)
5. “Asi que, hermanos, os ruego por las misericordias de Dios, que presenteis vuestros cuerpos en sacrificio vivo, santo, agradable a Dios, que es vuestro culto racional” (Spanish)
6. “I urge you, then, brothers, remembering the mercies of God, to offer your bodies a living sacrifice, dedicated and acceptable to God; that is the kind of worship for you, as sensible people.” (New Jerusalem Bible)
7. “I plead to you, therefore, my brothers, by the mercies of Elohim, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, Set Apart and acceptable to Elohim by a rational service (of Him).” (Aramaic English New Testament) Note – this translation came from  15 Hebrew words.
8. “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” (ESV)
9. “I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.” (NASB)

In considering this verse, you must first meditate on the reasons for your service – God’s mercies.

Notice that the mercies are plural, not singular.  The Triune God is full of tender mercies.  Rivers flow with the riches of compassion.

• “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God” (II Cor. 1:3).
• “Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of the one accord, of one mind” (Phil. 2:1).
• “Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.  But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection” (Col. 3:12-14).

Mercy is God’s love for you and me when we were poor and needy and helpless.  We reflected the pagan and religious sinners of Romans 1-2.  According to Romans 3, there is no difference among any of us.  We were and are all sinners.  But God’s mercy stepped in.

• “justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 3:24)
• “Blessed are those who lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man to whom the LORD shall not impute sin” (Rom. 4:7-8)
• “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:1)
• “the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Rom. 5:5)
• “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8)
• “When we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son” (Rom. 5:10)
• “where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 5:20-21).
• “But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life” (Rom. 6:22)
• “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Rom. 7:24)
• “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1)
• “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.  Moreover whom he predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified” (Rom. 8:29-30)
• “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” (Rom. 8:35)
• “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God with is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:38-39)
• “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes” (Rom. 10:4)
• So here comes the doxology at the conclusion of Romans 1-11:  “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!  How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!  ‘For who has known the mind of the LORD?  Or who has become His counselor? Or who has first given to Him and it shall be repaid to him?’  For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen” (Rom. 11:33-36).

Start now by purchasing a journal so that you may keep a record of God’s daily mercies in your life.

Así que, Hermanos, os ruego por las misericordias de Dios, que presentéis vuestros cuerpos como sacrificio vivo, sano, agradable a Dios, que es vuestro culto racional.  Romanos 12:1

¿Qué quiere decir, “que presentéis vuestros cuerpos como sacrificio vivo” a Dios? Pablo habla de su experiencia personal, habiendo sido golpeado con varas, casi se ahogó, y por fin murió por la mano de los romanos.  ¿Se trata de eso aquí?

Creo que no. Porque fue golpeado sin querer, estuvo en las manos de sus opresores. No optó a ser apedreado tampoco. No, Pablo aquí nos pide que presentemos nuestros cuerpos—lo cual es una cosa voluntaria, y no algo que nos haya forzado hacer otras personas malas ni es lo que algunos llaman “destino.”  Sino que es una ofrenda voluntaria a Dios. Creo que lo que Pablo quiere decir aquí tiene que ver con las obras de la carne. Someter nuestra carne a Dios voluntariamente lucha contra lo espiritual. ¿Cuáles son algunas obras carnales?

1. Encuentro una lucha hirviendo dentro de mi cuando estoy tentada a ser impaciente. My hermana fue tentada a expresar frustración y enojo a su esposo con Alzheimers recientemente cuanto descubrió su abastecimiento de tres meses de sacos para la basura, su esposo los había colocado sin darse cuenta en la basura. Siempre podemos optar, decidir—a dejar que Dios nos de paz interior y paciencia, o expresar nuestra naturaleza carnal. Es un asunto de nuestra voluntad.
2. Cuando alguien me ofende, y siento justificada a no perdonar. Pues, Dios  exige que lo perdone. Que perdonemos como Jesucristo nos perdona a nosotros.  Dios nos ha dado libre albedrio para decidir si vamos a guardar rencor o someterlo a El.
3. Cuando no van bien las cosas cuando paso por malas rachas, y las cosas contrarias ocurren, quiero quejarme.  Hace unos meses, mis vecinos me despertaron a medianoche, gritándose, borrachos, e hicieron un hueco grande en la cerca de atrás. Tenía que decidir si iba a quejarme con “qué mala es la gente,” o regalarles un tratado cristiano. (La próxima semana se mudaron)
4. Cuando trato de expresarme, pero la gente no me presta atención o me interrumpa porque obviamente, no me respetan o no tienen la bondad de escuchar. Eso me da cólera, pero puede responder con entendimiento, sin juzgar sus motivos, y el deseo de escuchar a ellos o guardar rencor y hacer lo mismo a ellos.
5. Cuando algo me domina, que sea ese chocolate que tengo que comer o muero, Ju otra obsesión que domina mis pensamientos, hay un conflicto entre lo carnal y lo espiritual. Digo eso porque hay muchas personas que no tienen control de si mismo. Puede ser enojo expresado que le traspasa el corazón de otra persona como puñal. Si uno no controla tu lengua, dice Santiago, esta persona se engaña. Puede ser una prenda de ropa colgando en una tienda—que tengo que tenerlo. Puede ser un deseo de dominar una conversación o atraer atención a mí todo el tiempo. O hablar de mí, mí, mí sin tener interés en otras personas. Todas estas cosas son de la carne, carnal, y no del espíritu.
6. Puede ser un miedo o un deseo sexual que domina. En todos esos casos tenemos el remedio, hermanos. Tenemos que dominar en el nombre de Jesucristo, y tomar cautivos los pensamientos errantes que no doblan la rodilla al Señor. Y en un acto supremo de negar a la carne, nos colocamos en el altar de sacrificio, de muerte, que es nuestro culto racional.
7. ¿Es difícil? Claro que sí, pero cada cosa pequeña que le damos a El tiene galardones tremendos, tesoros en los cielos, y paz interior aquí.  A veces voy a visitar a varias viudas que conozco, porque sé que están solitarias, necesitan saber que todavía alguien las aprecia, que son personas de valor aunque la tercera edad les haya quitado la belleza, la salud, su confianza, su motivación, y muchas veces se han muerto sus amigas. Un día se me ocurrió que podría visitar a una señora de 87 años que vive cerca de mí. Pero aquel día, estaba muy interesada en un libro que leía, y además hacia mucho frio, como un grado. No quería salir de mi casa, sino estar donde me sentí cómoda y con calor. La carne quería que escuchara a ella. Por eso me puse el abrigo y sombrero, y salí a visitarla. Era incomodo pero que placer tenía esa viuda al verme. Una cosa pequeña. Pero algo agradable a Dios.

Quizás lo único que Ud. puede regalar a Dios hoy es algo pequeño. Pero cuenta. Importa. Una vez hace tres o cuatro años estuve con la Doña Teresita. Se sentía frio, y yo también, pero sabía que Dios quería que sacrificara mi suéter temporalmente. Me lo quite, y se lo di a ella. Una cosa pequeña, pero nuestros días se componen de piezas pequeñas, de selecciones pequeñas, de decisiones donde podemos  ofrecer nuestros cuerpos como culto racional. No desprecien la cosa pequeña.

“La persona más pequeña que Dios podría haber colocado en los brazos del mundo era un bebé.

El pueblo más insignificante donde podría haber colocado ese bebé era el pueblecito de Belén.

El lugar más repugnante en ese pueblecito donde podría haber colocado ese bebé estuvo en un pesebre.

Pero, Ojo, Mundo, que al estimar esa cosa pequeña, que no confundas tamaño con importancia; porque lo que ocurrió en Belén, se ve no sólo a un bebé, sino el mayor regalo de Dios a los seres humanos.

No confundas tamaño con importancia. Lo que sacrificamos a Dios, aunque sea pequeño, importa a Dios, lo ve todo y puede usarlo para su gloria. Amén

1. You will come face to face with Someone who is much bigger than you and the One whom you can’t control.  A Being who is perfect, infinite, trinity, and dangerous.  You are in for the adventure of your life.  Very dangerous but very good.
2. You will learn about the one Hero.  Not batman or Ironman, but the God-man.
3. Light will be thrown on the status of your culture and your world.  This is not too hard to understand and accept.
4. You will be taught the truth about yourself.  Much more difficult to believe.  The Bible is a straight shooter in the hands of the Hunter.  Yes, it will be very uncomfortable for you at times.  It will be up to you to humble yourself, turn from yourself, and surrender to the Rescuer.
5. In fact, you will be told to die to yourself.  But it is in death that you find life.  Do you believe in the cross?
6. You will be shown the way beyond an American business (and Wall Street) to a spiritual Body.
7. The Bible speaks of grace gifts and how to utilize these for the glory of God.  Are you ready to learn and serve?
8. The Bible is the only book that is living and infallible light.  You don’t have to stumble along; you were not originally created to do that.
9. The Bible is our trustworthy source for what happened in the beginning, eliminating the mindless speculation.
10. Surprise.  Surprise.  Surprise.  And the Bible lets you know how everything is going to end.

Bonus – You will see my semitic name with rich Hebraic roots.  It’s Elon.  Through the Bible, (1) I have found where I came from, (2) what is my purpose, and (3) where I am headed.

1. They start to read their Bibles but then they don’t have enough discipline to finish.
2. They find the Bible boring.
3. They think that the Bible is full of contradictions and/or morally offensive.
4. They have a hard time making the Bible relevant; the daily Bible reading entry doesn’t meet their needs.
5. They read a portion of the Bible and wonder what in the world it is talking about.
6. They think they are too busy in the morning or on work break or during the evening to read.
7. They have read the Bible and don’t feel the need to read it again.
8. They are too sad to read.
9. They are too mad to read.
10. They think they are too bad to read; they don’t want to be shackled with the laws in the Bible.