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  "What will the owner of the vineyard do?"   (Mark 12:9) Somehow, Mark 12 slipped through the cracks on my reading and writing! Here's a catch-up... ============  PARABLE OF THE TENANTS (12:1-12) . Hearing this story, one would ask what universe these guys in the parable were living in. Where can you get away with not paying rent, and then thinking if you murder the heir you get to keep the property? And of course, that's the point: rejecting God's authority over us is crazy and self-destructive. It was a parable of the nation's leadership. But the Pharisees, the Herodians, and the Sadducees -- who didn't really get along, but now they have a common cause -- try their best to trick Jesus, and to trap him in something he says. It's hypocrisy, and not to mention, sheer folly, to think you're going to debate with Jesus on a peer basis .     BUT WHAT ABOUT... (12:13-27)? First, it's taxes: "Render...to God the things that are God's"...

  Bible reading for July 12 -- 13 July 12 -- Jeremiah 8 and Matthew 22 July 13 -- Jeremiah 9 and Matthew 23 ================    "...let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD." (Jeremiah 9:24) A BAND-AID ON CANCER (ch 8). The Babylonian invasion would be terrifying -- many would die, families would be divided, people carried off into captivity, and even ancestral tombs would be ransacked and exposed. The Babylonians would seek to eradicate Jewish history and culture. It was a severe judgment. One of the things that the people were saying was, "We are wise, and the law of the LORD is with us" (v 8). But they did not really love God nor practice his commandments . They lived in "perpetual backsliding" (v 5) and treated sin lightly. The prophets and priests were putting band-aids on their society...

Bible reading for May 3.  Numbers 10. "And whenever the ark set out, Moses said, 'Arise, O LORD, and let your enemies be scattered, and let those who hate you flee before you.'" (Numbers 10:35)  SILVER TRUMPETS. Two silver trumpets were made for calling the Israelites (or, sometimes just the leaders) together for worship, or to prepare to break camp and move, or to sound an alarm (a call to arms).  This speaks of the unity of God's people , gathered before the Lord and under his protection (1 Cor 15:52; 1 Thess 4:16; Rev 8:2). As well, faithful preaching and teaching is like a clarion call to the church and world (1 Cor 14:8). Biblical truth is distinctive, and should be sounded clearly, leading to worship, spiritual change, and confrontation with falsehood. Gresham Machen warned against losing clarity: "A deadly vagueness gradually affects the church's witness."   ARISE, O LORD!  We serve a God who acts.  Our God is not merely an unm...

"Government is indispensable for the church as a gathering of believers.  Just as a temple calls for an architect, a field a sower, a vineyard a keeper, a net a fisherman, a flock a shepherd, a body a head, a family a father, a kingdom a king, so also the church is unthinkable without an authority that sustains, guides, cares for, and protects it. "In a sense even more special than is the case in the political realm, this authority rests with God, who is not only the Creator of all things but also the Savior of the church.  As people of God, the church, under the new covenant as well as under the old, is a theocracy.  The Lord is its judge, lawgiver, and king (Isa. 33:22).  But just as in the civil realm God has granted sovereignty to the government, so in the church he has appointed Christ to be king.  Already designated mediator from eternity, Christ carried out his prophetic, priestly, and kingly office from the time of paradise, continued it in the days...

Heather Phillips / Unsplash No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money. (Matthew 6:24) "The little word serve is key to this verse. It isn’t sinful to have money and property, a spouse and children, and a house or home. But don’t let these possessions control you. Rather, make them your servants and be their master. Remember what people say about kind and generous individuals: 'They are masters of their money.' Money doesn’t control them, unlike a greedy miser who ignores God’s Word and everything else God wants. A miser would rather withhold a helping hand than let go of money. This kind of greed is the mark of tightfisted, childish, and insensitive individuals. That type of person doesn’t put resources to good use or even enjoy them. They ignore eternal treasures for the sake of money. They pursue their own selfish goals and neglect God’s...

Works done by unregenerate men, although for the matter of them they may be things which God commands; and of good use both to themselves and others: yet, because they proceed not from an heart purified by faith; nor are done in a right manner, according to the Word; nor to a right end, the glory of God, they are therefore sinful, and cannot please God, or make a man meet to receive grace from God: and yet, their neglect of them is more sinful and displeasing unto God.  ( Westminster Confession of Faith , 16.7) Dr. John Frame, in his excellent volume, The Doctrine of the Christian Life (Theology of Lordship series), explains below what goes into to making a "good work" before God.  (Relatively and humanly speaking, people may do good works toward one another, but the question here is, what is a good work before God, what kind of work is he is pleased with?)  He answers... "Note the three necessary ingredients: (1) a heart purified by faith, (2) obedience to God’s Wo...

"Covenant presence, then, means that God commits himself to us, to be our God and to make us his people. He delivers us by his grace and rules us by his law (so covenant presence presupposes control and authority; we have seen earlier that they imply presence), and he rules not only from up above, but with us and within us.   "Recognizing God’s lordship affects the way we understand the world. If God is in control of the world, then the world is under his control. If God is our supreme authority, then he has the right to tell us what to believe. And if he is present everywhere, our attempts to know the world ought to recognize that presence. The most important fact about anything in the world is its relationship to God’s lordship." (John Frame, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Christian Belief )

"You are my witnesses," declares the LORD, "and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me. I, I am the LORD, and besides me there is no savior. I declared and saved and proclaimed, when there was no strange god among you; and you are my witnesses," declares the LORD, "and I am God."   (Isaiah 43:10-12 ESV) "Recognizing God’s lordship affects the way we understand the world. If God is in control of the world, then the world is under his control. If God is our supreme authority, then he has the right to tell us what to believe. And if he is present everywhere, our attempts to know the world ought to recognize that presence. The most important fact about anything in the world is its relationship to God’s lordship... "Naturalistic thought believes that all persons in the world are the product of impersonal forces, and that they can...