Wade's Weekly Word

When we begin to share Paul’s perspective, we will then begin to pray his type of prayers and be moved to also share his praise. For doctrine should lead to doxology as well as to duty. When we start praying “God Big Prayers” like these that Paul prayed in his prison epistles, life will become worship, and we will bless God constantly for having blessed us so richly in Christ, and pray fervently for God to bring in “the fullness of the times” so that “He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth - in Him.”

The resurrection of Christ is not only an historical event, celebrated once every year, it is an experiential life and power that all believers are meant to live and operate in everyday!

History backs up the claim that George Washington was the first President of the United States. In like manner, history backs up the reality of Jesus’ resurrection. Now the question is this: what will you do with such information? Some will try to ignore the event. Some will try to dismiss it. Others will acknowledge the factual nature of the event and bow their knees in surrender to the only Savior of sinners and worship Him as their risen Lord. It is my prayer that you will do the latter.

In the 1870’s DeWitt Talmadge preached a sermon titled, “The Ballot Box”. His eschatological view of the future was not one of optimism or pessimism, but one filled with “gospel hope”. As he continued in his ballot box sermon, he shouted, “We cannot live under any other form of government than that under which we are living. The stars of our flag are not the stars of thickening night, the stars sparkling amid the red bars of mourning cloud. Let the despotisms of Asia keep their feet off the Pacific Coast! But the tyrannies of Europe keep their feet off the Atlantic Coast! We shall have in this country only one government, and on this continent only one government. At the south, Mexico will follow Texas into the Union, and Christianity and civilization will stand in the halls of the Montezumas, and if not in our day, then in the day of our children, Yucatan and Central America will wheel into line of dominion. On the north, Canada will be ours, not by conquest, for English and American swords may never clash blades, but we will simply woo the fair neighbor of the north, and she will be ours, and England will say to Canada, “You are old enough now for the marriage day. Giant of the West, go take your bride.” Then from Baffin’s Bay to the Caribbean there shall be one republic, under one banner and with one destiny - a free, undisputed, Christianized American continent. God grant it. Amen!

On the History Channel Show, Forged by Fire, a pattern is presented by which the person must forge a weapon or sword in a short period of time. I thought about what happens next. Starting with raw material, the steel is beaten thoroughly, put in the fire, stretched, shaped, molded, conformed, and then tempered to harden and strengthen it. Then I realized that this is how believers are built up in the most holy faith!

There is more to a good confession than the one we are to make when we have sinned against God or others. All confessions fall into two basic categories: confessions of faith and confessions of sin. Confessions of faith are akin to oaths of allegiance. They are public acknowledgements of fidelity to God, and to the truth which God has revealed. They are declarations of unqualified confidence in Christ, and of surrender to His service. Confession of faith implies joining one's voice harmoniously to the voices of others, in common affirmation of belief.

In Ephesians 1:3, Paul said that we have been “blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus.” Like Mary, we are “highly favored” by God, and “uniquely blessed” by Him. The descriptive phrase, “all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus,” suggests the size, the substance and the storehouse of our blessings. What an inventory!

Covetousness is so serious because it precipitates ruin of the soul by installing an idol in our hearts. Paul will say, in reflecting on the tenth commandment, “Covetousness is idolatry” Colossians 3:5. Why? Because idolatry is about worship and worship is simply about value. Worship is our response to what we value most.

In pre-Nazi Germany, many Christians were under the false assumption that they had to go along with whatever their civil rulers demanded. For decades before the rise of Adolph Hitler, German Christians were subjected to arguments like the following from pastors and theologians: The Gospel has absolutely nothing to do with outward existence but only with eternal life, not with external orders and institutions which could come in conflict with the secular orders but only with the heart and its relationship with God.

Philip Schaff, a noted church historian, writes: “The Reformation of the sixteenth century is, next to the introduction of Christianity, the greatest event in history. The Reformation was, at its heart, a recovery of the true gospel of Jesus Christ, and this restoration had an unparalleled influence on churches, nations, and the flow of Western civilization."