(Canada lynx)

Iain Duguid writes:

In the Old Testament, ḥesed is a central theological term. It is a key attribute in the Lord’s self-description in Exodus 34:6–7, as well as an obligation that is placed on all of His people in Micah 6:8. Yet because there is no exact English equivalent, it has proved hard for Bible translators to render it accurately. In various versions, it appears as “kindness,” “faithfulness,” “mercy,” “goodness,” “loyalty,” and “steadfast love.” In what follows, we shall explore how love and loyalty are combined in this one word.Normally, ḥesed describes something that happens within an existing relationship, whether between two human beings or between God and man. In human relationships, ḥesed implies loving our neighbour, not merely in terms of warm emotional feelings but in acts of love and service that we owe to the other person simply because he is part of the covenant community. God’s people are to do justly, to love ḥesed, and to walk humbly with their God (Mic. 6:8).

An example of this that radically redefines the boundary of the community of obligation is the parable that our Lord Jesus told about the good Samaritan (Luke 10:30–37). A good neighbour had an obligation to help a community member who was in trouble. Yet this obligation to show ḥesed was repudiated by the priest and the Levite, who passed the wounded man on the other side of the road. In this instance, the true neighbour was the Samaritan who “showed mercy” to the stranger (v. 37). Not coincidentally, the Greek word for “mercy” is the same one normally used to translate ḥesed in the Greek Old Testament.

Similarly, ḥesed can describe loyalty to one’s obligations to God. This includes faithful actions toward other members of the covenant community, for how can we say that we love our covenant Lord if we ignore His commands to love our fellow vassals (1 John 4:20)? The person who is ḥasid (from ḥesed) is loyal to his God and appeals to the Lord to show him similar faithfulness in return (Pss. 4:4; 32:6). The name Hasidim has thus been ascribed to the strictest Jews in contemporary Judaism.

Yet the most precious use of the word ḥesed in the Old Testament is as a description of what God does. Having entered a covenant relationship with His people, God bound Himself to act toward them in certain ways, and He is utterly faithful to His self-commitment.

Psalm 136 explores what the Lord’s ḥesed means in its broadest possible terms, for each line concludes with the words: “his ḥesed endures forever.” Because of the Lord’s ḥesed, He created the universe, and He rules it daily through His providence (Pss. 136:5–9, 25). Because of His ḥesed toward Israel, He redeemed them out of Egypt and brought them through the Red Sea and the wilderness into the Land of Promise. For the same reason, He hurled the Egyptians into the sea and struck down the Canaanite kings before them (vv. 11–21). Both His deliverance of His people and His destruct ion of their enemies are aspects of the Lord’s faithfulness to His promise to make Abraham a mighty nation, blessing those who bless him and cursing those who curse him (Gen. 12:1–3).

Even when His people sin against Him and face the consequences of their sin, they may still appeal to the Lord’s ḥesed, as the writer of Lamentations does in the midst of the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC. Surrounded by the evidence of the Lord’s faithfulness to judge wickedness, rebellion, and sin, he casts himself on the unchanging character of God, affirming, “The ḥesed of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness” (Lam. 3:22–23).

In Psalm 23:6, the psalmist declares that the Lord’s goodness and ḥesed will pursue him all the days of his life. The word pursue normally describes the action of pillaging armies and covenant curse, but the psalmist is convinced that instead of the covenant curse he deserves, the Lord’s faithful love and goodness will hunt him down relentlessly instead.

The fullness of the Lord’s ḥesed is seen in the cross: there the true ḥasid, Jesus Christ Himself — the only human ever truly to be loyal to the Lord and to His neighbour in every aspect of life — was treated as the covenant breaker and cursed for sin so that we who are unfaithful might be clothed in His faithfulness and thus redeemed. In this way, God’s original covenant purpose to have a people for His praise was faithfully accomplished.

The Lord’s ḥesed will never let us go. In the midst of life’s trials and tragedies, we may cry out to our loving Lord in confidence that nothing in all creation can ever separate us from the loyal love that chose us before time began, is sanctifying us in the present, and will faithfully bring us to our eternal home (Rom. 8:28–30).

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from http://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/loyal-love-hesed/

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A man once approached Martin Luther announcing that he’d become a Christian. Wanting to serve the Lord, he asked Luther, “Now what should I do?” (as if to ask, “Should I become a pastor? Or a missionary? Or a monk?”).

Luther asked him, “What do you do now?”

“I’m a cobbler (shoemaker).”

To the man’s surprise, Luther responded, “Then make really good shoes and sell them at a fair price.”

When God calls you to Christ, he doesn’t ordinarily call you to leave the “vocation” (calling) you already have – if it’s lawful. Nor do you need to justify that calling for its “spiritual” value or evangelistic usefulness. He calls you simply to pursue your calling with new God-glorifying goals, motives, and standards – and with a renewed commitment to perform your calling with higher aims and greater excellence.

One way you reflect and image your Creator is by being creative right where you are with the talents and gifts he’s given you. God himself says, “Each person should remain in the situation they were in when God called them” (1 Corinthians 7:20). As you do this, you fulfil your God-given mandate to let your light shine in your unique “vocation” and “station” for God’s glory (see Matthew 5:16).

This means that those of us who are church leaders actually make a huge mistake when we limit a person’s “ministry” to ecclesiastical activities – preaching, Sunday school teaching, helping in the nursery, working with the youth, accompanying the congregational singing, and so on. We need to help God’s people see that their calling is much wider than the time they put into church matters. By reducing the notion of calling to the exercise of spiritual gifts inside the church, we fail to help our people see that calling involves everything we are and everything we do – both inside the church and outside the church.

A while back, Os Guinness addressed the question as to why the church was not having a larger impact in our world when there were more people going to church than ever before. He said the main reason was not that Christians weren’t where they should be. There are plenty of artists, doctors, business owners, lawyers, factory workers, etc. who are Christians. Rather, the main reason is that Christians aren’t who they should be right where they are.

“Calling,” he said, “is the truth that God calls us to himself so decisively that everything we are, everything we do, and everything we have is invested with a special devotion, dynamism, and direction lived out as a response to his summons and service.”

Bloom where you’re planted – where God has planted you.

Justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone is the heart of the Protestant Reformation, the hinge on which everything turns. It has to do with how we answer the question, “How can we be right with God?”

There are some key points to remember. The first is that justification is an act. It’s a once-for-all verdict–a declaration on God’s part of something about us. We’re guilty before him, but in justification he declares us to be something other than guilty. He declares us to be righteous.

How? God pardons our sin, and accepts us as righteous. How God can do that? After all, we’re still sinners right? How can he declare us to be something that we’re not? The answer is that it is not our righteousness that he counts, but Christ’s. He clothes us with Christ’s righteousness through imputation. A double imputation, actually. He imputes our sin to Christ – he counts it as his – and he imputes Christ’s righteousness to us – he counts it as ours. So Christ’s righteousness involves both his passive obedience (dying on the cross to pay for our sins) and his active obedience (obeying God’s law completely to purchase admission to heaven for us).

We receive all his righteousness! How? Through faith alone in Christ alone. There’s nothing that we do to earn or deserve God’s favour. It’s his free gift which we may receive through coming to Jesus in faith. This is what gives us great hope that we are accepted by God. Not because we’ve done better this week but, because he accepts us in Christ. He loves us for Christ’s sake!

This is a truth we can mediate upon day after day. Keep thanking God for his great love for us in Jesus and the work of the Holy Spirit in drawing us and giving us the gifts of faith and repentance.

FINDING THE RIGHT CHURCH
A Guide for Those Searching for a Church Home

“One of the most difficult challenges in our day is to find a solid church—where the gospel is powerfully and clearly proclaimed every week,where the worship is reverent and substantive, and where the people have a genuine love for each other”

So says Dr. Michael Horton, co-host of the White Horse Inn radio broadcast, author of Putting Amazing Back Into Grace).
Are you facing this challenge right now? What should you do?

Determine to find it

First of all, keep in mind that the Lord does intend for you to be actively involved in a local church. Really, this is not an option for Christians. On the one hand, you need the church and the “means of grace” that God has entrusted to her in order to convey the Lord Jesus Christ and his saving blessings to you. On the other hand, the church needs you and the “gifts of grace” that God has entrusted to you in order to serve and bless the brothers and sisters whom Jesus has loved and for whom he has shed his own precious blood. (For more on this, see Why Join A Church?). Bible studies and other informal affairs are very valuable, but they can never substitute for the church with its corporate worship, ministry of the Word and sacraments, and shepherding care. Moreover, the church is the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, the place where he manifests his saving rule (Mt 16:9; 18:18), outside of which there is no ordinary possibility of salvation. Determine to find a local church home.

If the Lord has guided you to live in a certain place, then you can expect that he has a church that is right for you in that area. It may not be all that you’d wish for in a church. It may not be exactly like the churches you have enjoyed in the past. But it will be the right one for you at this time. It may even be that one reason the Lord has put you where you are is to strengthen a church where it is weak.

[Indeed, believers do well to make finding a church home an important consideration before they determine to move to a particular location.]

Focus your search

Determine to go with the right motives. If your primary concern is to find a church where you can sit back and have your needs met, then you will inevitably be disappointed. But if you go to the church in order to give to the Lord your grateful worship and to share his love with the people there, then you’re on the right track.

Identify the most likely congregations. These may come from websites, personal recommendations, newspaper ads, or the yellow pages. Contact churches and talk to someone (e.g. the pastor) who has a good feel for the church and its ministries, and ask direct questions about the issues that are of concern to you—view of Scripture, view of worship, commitment to evangelism and missions, opportunities for children, etc.

Once you identify the most likely candidates, visit them. Don’t make snap judgments. Keep in mind that one visit is hardly sufficient to gain a fair impression of a church. At least three or four times will be necessary in most cases.

Approach each congregation with a spirit of open expectation. Don’t be a “nitpicker.” Try to look at each church’s particular strengths. Seek to identify with that congregation’s style of responding to God. As a World War II era song puts it, “Accentuate the positive.”

Look for marks of a healthy church

Look for “marks” or indicators of a healthy church, such as:

Is it Christ-centred? Does it focus on Jesus as God incarnate, who became flesh, lived a perfect life on our behalf, died in our place and rose again, victorious over sin and death? Does it exalt him as Saviour and Lord, the only Mediator between God and man? Does it pursue him—not only ideas about him, but him personally—as the centre of everything—our hope, our help, and our comfort?  Does it do so in the context of a balanced emphasis on the Triune God—God the Father working by God the Son through God the Holy Spirit?

Is it devoted to God’s Word? Is there faithful teaching and preaching of the Word of God? Does that teaching and preaching explain and apply what the Bible itself actually says? Is there a commitment by individuals and the congregation as a whole not only to learning the Bible, but also to living it, obediently submitting to its authority?

Do Baptism and the Lord’s Supper play prominent roles in the life of the church? Are both regarded as tools that God graciously uses to bear witness to and help his people rather than as tools that we use to bear witness to our own faith and to stir ourselves up to greater faith and obedience? Are both regarded as signs that are personal but not private; signs that involve not only the individual but also the church?

Does it give priority to God-centred worship? Be wary of churches that seek to entertain. Look for a balanced exercise of the biblical elements of worship and an atmosphere of both reverence and rejoicing. Is the worship service just an empty form? Or is the “liturgy” an instrument for the active working of Jesus Christ by his Holy Spirit through his Word? Is it a genuine meeting and engaging of the Triune God with his people?

Is it nurturing? Devotion to God produces a loving, caring fellowship where people support, encourage, and edify one another through personal relationships and educational ministries.

Does it show commitment to evangelism and missions? The proclamation of the gospel message in the world is a major interest of a healthy church. It is not chiefly concerned with its own maintenance and survival.

Major in the majors

Remember that no church will perfectly exhibit all of these characteristics. Each and every congregation is at best a “jar of clay” made up of sinful human beings (see 2 Corinthians 4:7). Don’t flatter yourself by thinking that a church with shortcomings is beneath you. In God’s sight, perhaps your shortcomings are worse than theirs.

Beware of churches whose primary commitment to Christ is overshadowed by disproportionate stress on a secondary identity such as Presbyterian, or Baptist, or Bible-believing, or orthodox, or evangelistic, or charismatic, or liturgical, or whatever. These distinctives are often important, but they are not all-important. (See When Preference Becomes Precept )

Seek to differentiate between the “marks” of a true church and your own personal tastes and preferences. Such matters as style of worship, leadership personalities, organizational procedures, outreach programs, methods of nurture, types of music, and emphasis on certain doctrines—although they are important considerations—are not as important as the matters mentioned above. Remember what Alistair Begg says, “The main things are the plain things; and the plain things are the main things.”  Don’t be guilty of a common mistake—“majoring in the minors and minoring in the majors”—insisting most upon what’s less important and insisting least upon what’s most important.

Remember that your choice of a church will always involve trade-offs. You will choose to tolerate certain undesirable features in order to be a part of what seems more crucial. It’s completely unrealistic to expect to find a church where you agree with everything.

I once heard Dr. Billy Graham give this wise counsel,

“If you ever find a perfect church, by all means join it.
Just remember that the moment you do, it will cease to be perfect.”

Involve yourself

When you do find a church to join, commit yourself wholeheartedly. Don’t be tentative, thinking that if things don’t turn out according to your expectations then you will leave. Church membership is a bit like marriage—disagreements and disappointments are normal and are to be worked through in the context of the Lord’s love.

Seek to build strong relationships with the people in general and the church leadership in particular. Don’t be passive. Take the initiative if necessary. Don’t be impatient. This takes time.

Give honest encouragement to church leaders whenever you can. Pray regularly for them and let them know you’re doing so. When you observe something that needs improving, offer your help to those responsible for that area of church life.