What Does It Mean To Be God's People? - Ask the Pastor

You can listen to Ask The Pastor every weekday at 9:00am MST on 97.1FM Hope Radio KCMI! You can also listen and subscribe to Ask The Pastor in your favorite podcast feed. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Amazon Music and most other podcast services.

This edition of Ask the Pastor features Pastors Gary Hashley, Tim Hebbert and Brad Kilthau.

Brad Kilthau
Our question today is one that's very extensive and we'll try to get through it as quick as we can. There's a lot of subject matter to cover, but the question is, "Often 1 Peter 2:9-10 is quoted in the church about who we are as believers in Christ. But being chosen or called a Royal priesthood or a holy nation or His own special people is really hard to comprehend for some of us. And so could you guys explain a little bit of the meanings of those titles?" So I'm gonna just take the first one if you don't mind and then I'll let you guys take the other ones. Maybe mine's a little easier, I don't know. But when we get into verse nine of 1 Peter chapter two, the apostle Peter identifies the church, that is believers, as a chosen race. And as I was looking at this in the context of scripture, of course, when you go back to chapter one, verse two, Peter already told us that we are the elect, according to the foreknowledge of God, the father. When you start bringing up the subject, obviously of being the elect, that's a very controversial subject. And it has a lot of problems within the church and there's a lot of divisiveness, but I think if we look at it in light of what Peter already wrote in 1 Peter chapter two, when he said "We are the elect, according to the foreknowledge of God, the father," that clears up a whole lot of things. That means that before God created the world, that he chose us in accordance with His omniscient knowledge, which includes all of our free choices. And when I look at this, I know there's those who stand on one rail as compared to the other rail, free choice or God's sovereignty. I don't see that in the Bible, I see both rails running to heaven as has been shared in some of the commentaries that I've read in past years. And what I see it as is, really it means that God doesn't violate our free will, even though He is sovereign, even though His will is going to be done perfectly, He doesn't violate our free will. He doesn't force anyone into His heaven, kicking and screaming, not wanting to go. We do know that God didn't create us as robots, He doesn't wind us up and we walk around as a programmed robot and loving Him. In fact, I love what C.S. Lewis said some years ago, he said, "Without choice, you cannot have true love." And I think that's something we have to always keep in mind when we think about the sovereignty of God, and also our free choice is, if there's ever gonna be real love, there always has to be choice. And we know that even in our own personal relationships, there can't be true love between a husband and wife, unless there's a choice to love one another in that relationship. But then on the other side of things, we know that God is in the eternal now. That means that He's not limited to time, He's not limited chronologically like we are. I know for myself, I can't even operate unless things are chronologically put into order. And I think this is one of the problems that we come up to with this debate, is that many people wanna make God think like us. They try to make God limited, they try to make God finite, they try to make God in a box. And that is not our God, our God is eternal, our God is infinite, our God is necessary, and our God is the first cause. We have to remember that God's above space, time and material universe that we live in, He's not bound by it. And therefore in His order to determine who's elect and His omniscient knowledge of our free choice, they run together. In fact, some of the commenters that you'll study on these passages of scripture will tell us that those two are coextensive. In other words, God's sovereignty does not outreach our free choice, they run together. There's not one more powerful in the way God does things over the other. So since God has transcended again over time, space and material, universe, He's not limited to the ways we are. In time and chronologically again, He exists in eternal now that means that God can look into the future just in the same accuracy as we can look in the past. In fact, I love what Norman Geisler wrote in his book that I read just recently, called Free But Chosen. And he talks about how often he'd be out, giving lectures and there would be a football game at home, and he wanted to watch the game, but he couldn't get home to watch it. So his wife would record the game and then he would go home and watch the game, the film. And what he said is, "Of course the game would always end up the same way on the film. I mean, you could watch it over and over and over again, the play, the players, the referee calls, everything was always the same. It was fixed, you couldn't change it. But the day they played that game, the players all had a choice in which way they ran, what play they ran as the game was played." And I think we can look at the same way of our life, is we are players in the game of life. We have a free choice, even though God has His will determined of what's gonna happen in the future. But I think we have to keep in mind the consequences of our choice, understanding that you and I, we will always absolutely be held responsible for our choices. Our choice of accepting the Lord or rejecting the Lord, that is determining our eternal destination. God has always projected Himself before all men that He exists. As we know in Romans one and two, and God has always shared that He is there. And if man would reach out and pursue that light, God will give more light until eventually it accumulates to that gospel, bringing that person to the knowledge and understanding of our lost condition and our need for Christ. It's not a case of if we see God or not, the Bible tells us all man sees God, but the Bible also tells us it's man's choice to accept or to reject Him. So I guess what I'm saying is we are responsible for our decision to accept or reject the Lord. But at the same time, God has in His foreknowledge accepted us according to the choice, obviously that we've made to accept or reject Him too. So the chosen race, yeah. We either choose God or we suppress the truth and walk away from Him. So that's one of the ways I would try to, in a nutshell, try to quickly explain why we are called a chosen race. And so Tim, I'm gonna hand off the next one to you a Royal priesthood.

Tim Hebbert
You know, guys, I think this is a passage of scripture that all Christians need to read more than once, maybe once a week, remind ourselves of who He's called us to be in Him. So when Peter's writing this letter and he refers to the church as God's chosen, as a Royal priesthood. For the Jews anyway, he's hearkening back to something that they would've understood from scripture, all the way back in Exodus, 19th chapter. Moses has led them out of Egypt, two months into the journey they make a stop at Mount Sinai, and it says this, "Exactly two months---." This is chapter 19 verse one of Exodus, "Exactly two months after the Israelites left Egypt, they arrived in the wilderness of Sinai after breaking camp in Rephidim. They came to the wilderness of Sinai and set up camp at the base of Mount Sinai, then Moses climbed the mountain to appear before God. The Lord called to him from the mountain and said, 'Give these instructions to the family of Jacob, announce it to the descendants of Israel. You have seen what I did to the Egyptians. You know how I carried you on Eagles wings and brought you to myself. Now, if you'll obey me, keep my covenant, you will be my own special treasure from among all the peoples on earth, for all the earth belongs to me.

Tim Hebbert
And you will be my kingdom of priests, my holy nation. This is the message you must give to the people of Israel." God's intent for His children, that He delivered from Egypt is that they just wouldn't be a band of followers, but that they would be king priests, Royal priesthood that would declare to the world who God was. They were to be the on earth, living example of what happens when you follow the king of the universe, they struggled to do that. And so what Peter's telling us, I think in this passage is, "Okay, we're the new Israel, that's our calling now. That calling that he gave the nation of Israel so long ago, he's calling on his church now to take up that mantle, to be my Royal priesthood, to be the king priest, if you will, here on earth, declaring to the world who I am. And whenever I read this passage, I think of growing up as a kid, when my dad was leading song service at church, that was back before worship teams, right. We'd do a couple of hymns and invariably, his favorite chorus was Child of the King, oh yes, oh yes I'm a child of the King. And this is the phrase he loved the best, "His Royal blood now, flows through my veins." And I think we forget that we get worn down in the day to day minutia of life. And yes, we love Jesus, yes we're following in as best we can, but we forget He's calling to a higher purpose. He's called us to live a Royal life, just like He did. And that's what I get from that. but I'm gonna turn it over to Gary, cause he's gonna talk a little bit about, what does it mean to be a holy nation?

Gary Hashley
You know, there's a lot of confusion today over the role of Israel, the descendants of Abraham through Isaac and Jacob and Jacob's 12 sons. And today the church, which is comprised of yes, descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who've put their personal faith in Jesus Christ, as their savior, and those of us who aren't Jewish. I remember on the way home from church one Sunday after hearing this term circumcision and uncircumcision in a sermon, you know, I asked my dad what all that meant. And he says, "Well, if you're uncircumcised, it's referring to you as a Gentile." What's a Gentile? How do you know if you're a Gentile? He said, "If you're not a Jew, you are one. If you're not a Jew, you are a Gentile." And so what this isn't saying as I look through the entirety of scripture, it's not saying that we, as the church today have totally replaced Israel in God's purposes, in God's plan, in God's prophetic realities because you know, we are not Israel. Though we are still a chosen people, we are still a holy nation. Kenneth West does great work with Greek, and I don't know a lot of Greek, but I love to know guys who do know Greek. And Kenneth West says the word nation is the translation of a Greek word, meaning quote, "A multitude of people of the same nature." It doesn't mean that we're of a nationality as a nation, as the Jewish people are a nation, but that we have this commonality in Jesus Christ. We have this new nature in Jesus Christ as His followers. The word holy means set apart, set apart for His service. And so let me quote, Matthew Henry who says, "All Christians, wheresoever they be, composed one holy nation. They are one nation collected under one head agreeing in the same manners and customs and governed by the same laws. And they are a holy nation because they are consecrated and devoted to God renewed and sanctified by His holy spirit." So it doesn't matter what nation we belong to physically, as in whether we are of the United States or we are of Bolivia, or we are of Brazil, or we are of Russia, or we are of China. We are a special people to God, and we're special people, not because of the land we live in or the boundaries of our country, but because we are all followers of Jesus. As we used to sing as children, "Red and yellow, black and white, they're precious in His sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world." And as His children, through faith in Jesus, no matter the color of our skin, no matter where our ethnic background goes, we are His people. We're a holy people, but we're set apart for Him. And I love what Warren Wiersbe says, because in the old king James, it says we're a peculiar people. And I remember as a young person, peculiar was not something you wanted to be, because we think of strange, we think of weird. But Warren Wiersbe said it so well he said, "It doesn't mean odd, it means refreshingly different. That there's something about us that when the world looks, it's refreshingly different." And if we read a little farther, Peter in verse 12, just a couple verses later says, "Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable so that when they speak against you as evil doers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation." Peter says, "We are chosen, a chosen people, a chosen race, a Royal priesthood, a holy nation." And the whole purpose of that in God's scheme of things is to have a way to glorify Himself through people who are refreshingly different. And if the world wants to look for something to complain about, something to pick at us about, all they can find is we live a wonderfully different lifestyle that is respectful and kind, and honorable and ethical. And that just like with Daniel, when said, "They went to look for some reason to accuse Daniel, the only thing they could find was he prayed a lot." And so they worked against him because he prayed a lot. So what a joy to be a part, no matter where we live on the planet, as followers of Jesus. We are God's nation. Does He still have a plan for Israel nationally? Yes, He does. I believe fully. We didn't replace Israel in that sense, but we are His people in a very special way.

What's New at Cross Reference Library?

The Beirut Protocol - Marcus Ryker has spent his whole life protecting others, first as a Marine, then as a Secret Service agent, and finally as a clandestine CIA operative. But this time it’s his own life that’s in danger. When a routine advance trip along the Israeli-Lebanese border goes horribly wrong, American operatives are ambushed and captured by a rogue Hezbollah special forces team. For the White House, it’s a nightmare scenario. If Marcus and his colleagues are tortured and executed on live television, the president will have no choice but to embroil the American people in yet another war they have no stomach for and likely can’t win. Marcus now faces a life-or-death battle, and the odds of survival are narrowing by the hour. Escape seems impossible Rescue is a quickly fading hope. All Marcus has to rely on is his training, his experience, and his faith. 

The Auschwitz Escape - As the Nazi war machine rolls across Europe, young Jacob Weisz is forced to flee his beloved Germany and join an underground resistance group in Belgium. In occupied France, assistant pastor Jean-Luc Leclerc and his wife find themselves the accidental organizers of a relief movement involving their entire town, as Jews from all over Europe arrive at their door, hoping for shelter from the growing political storms. As World War II rages, both men find themselves in a living nightmare. When a rescue operation goes horribly wrong, Jacob ends up trapped in a crowded, stinking cattle car on a train to southern Poland, while Luc is arrested and beaten by the Gestapo for helping Jews. Both men are sentenced to hard labor at Auschwitz. There they will be pushed to the very limits of human endurance … and beyond. The Protestant pastor and the Jewish freedom fighter seem an unlikely pair, yet these two are chosen to risk one of the most daring and dangerous feats imaginable—escape from Auschwitz. Their task is to get beyond the fences, evade the Gestapo trackers, and make it to the Allied forces, where they must reveal the awful truth of what is happening in Poland before Fascism overtakes all of Europe. The fate of millions hangs in the balance

Operation Joktan - Nir Tavor is an Israeli secret service operative turned talented Mossad agent. Nicole le Roux is a model with a hidden skill. A terrorist attack brings them together, and then work forces them apart—until they’re unexpectedly called back into each other’s lives. But there’s no time for romance. As violent radicals threaten chaos across the Middle East, the two must work together to stop these extremists, pooling Nicole’s knack for technology and Nir’s adeptness with on-the-ground missions. Each heart-racing step of their operation gets them closer to the truth—and closer to danger. In this thrilling first book in a new series, authors Amir Tsarfati and Steve Yohn draw on true events as well as tactical insights Amir learned from his time in the Israeli Defense Forces. For believers in God’s life-changing promises, Operation Joktan is a suspense-filled page turner that illuminates the blessing Israel is to the world.

Where Does The Sanctity Of Life Come From? - Ask the Pastor

You can listen to Ask The Pastor every weekday at 9:00am MST on 97.1FM Hope Radio KCMI! You can also listen and subscribe to Ask The Pastor in your favorite podcast feed. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Amazon Music and most other podcast services.

This edition of Ask the Pastor features Pastors Ben Poole and Gary Schick.

Ben Poole
So, like I said, we're gonna continue in our discussion. We have a few questions that we'd like to cover, but I'm just gonna start with this next question. "We use the term, sanctity of life. What does that mean? Is it right to use this term? And if so, where does this sanctity come from?" So Gary, what are your thoughts on that?

Gary Schick
Well, you know, it's a great question. And sanctity is one of those, you know, 50 cent, well, I guess we live in an inflated world, $300 words. But you know, it's a kind of a pricey word that we're not sure really what it means. Basically it means, to be holy, to be set apart, to be sacred, these are all ways of translating the basic meaning of that. And so what we're saying is, that human life is very precious in the eyes of God. We are, as the scripture tells us, Genesis chapter one, "In the image of God, He created them, male and female. He created them." So we are created by God in God's image. And of all the rest of creation, go back and read to Genesis chapter one. It's a beautiful chapter, great place to start the year. As we enter this new year, all life, all creation is precious, God made it. And we should have a care for it, but above all human life is unique in that we reflect the image of God. And so that's why there's such a priority on life, and with sanctity of life Sunday, this is something that has come about. Since the advent of Roe v. Wade, bringing attention of Christians to the sacredness and the specialness of life, right from conception, right from the womb. We talked a little bit about scripture on that you know, "You created my inmost being, you knit me together in my mother's womb," Psalm 139. In Job, it actually talks about how Job reflects on how God actually caused his conception. So yes, there's a physical process involved, but there are no human mistakes. You know what? I've talked to people, I spoke with somebody this week, just basically said, "You know what, all my life, I felt like I was a mistake." And I don't think they were even referring to conception, it's just the way this world treated them. And you know what good news it is when we discover that the Bible tells us the truth about ourselves, it doesn't deny sin or evil. These are real, I've heard people to deny that too. No, these are real, but you are still precious in God's sight. Jesus died for your sin, Jesus died to save you. And so, right from conception, life is precious. We need to protect it we need to honor it, we need to treat it as sacred. We need to make ready for it to come into the world, but at the same time, you know, I'm just gonna touch on this real lightly, cause I don't want any fuses blowing. But unfortunately this has become a kind of a politicized issue, and you know, there are basically two parties out there. I don't have to know what they say or say what they are. One of them, at least in its platform stands for life, and the other one seems not to. I just wanna caution us all, that when we say we're pro-life biblically, that means womb to tomb. And unfortunately one side is really good at saying, "We need to protect life in the womb." And the other side is actually better at saying, "And we want to care for that life once it's out of the womb." And as Christians, we need to speak to both parties, we need to say to the one, "Yes, thank you. This is precious from conception, but guess what, what is it that's pushing people toward those hard decisions? How can we help them care for this life once in the world?" The other side, "Thank you for your care for the life that's in the world, by the way, it's in the world even when it's in mama's tummy."

Ben Poole
Yeah, a hundred percent!

Gary Schick
And so that's as far as I wanna go with that. And I think whatever, and I do know Christians of both political persuasions, whatever party you're in, stand for all sides of life within it, stand for the biblical concept of life.

Ben Poole
That is such a powerful statement you made. And I know we don't wanna, you know, pop a cork with anybody, or blow a fuse. But that's speaking truth, plain and simple. And I was thinking about the sanctity of life and why, which actually, kind of coincides with the last question. Why do we seem to place more value in the life of animals than we do on humans? And man, we see that, honestly, I've thought about that even in movies, you know, the dog dies and everybody's, you know, crying, but a person dies and it's like, well, maybe they had it coming, you know. And we just have this kind of a twisted view in the world, but why do we consider human life a sanctity? And I think it goes back to that Genesis one in creation, that we were created in the image of God, but even later at the crucifixion. Jesus didn't come to live this perfect sinless life to become sin for animals. Animals don't sin, they are just animals. We are the ones in need of being saved, because we sin and we mess up and it's because of what God had done. And sending His Son Jesus to save us is really what I think sanctifies us. In life and why we believe life is so precious, and you know, I've really struggled with, you know, people talking about, babies in the womb are not alive and I can't grasp it. My wife is pregnant right now, she's due in March and so right about now is really when, you can really start feeling the baby move. And just the other day my wife said, "Come here, come here," and I mean, she was just kicking and punching and I mean, you could feel her moving and alive and active. And I personally just, I don't grasp how you can say that is not a living human.

Gary Schick
Well, and the reason that you would have to say that, is because if you were in the position of aborting, there's no anesthesia given to that child. There's brainwaves there, there's a heartbeat there, they feel, they even dream, they suck their thumb. And unfortunately, you know, we live in a world where people can abort right to the point of delivery. If it's still in the womb, we can still kill it as long as it's in there and cut it apart in the womb. Again, this might be a little graphic for some, but abortion is brutal. I mean, yes, they'll give maybe the mom, some anesthesia, but they treat the baby as if it was a non entity. With no feeling and just a clump of cells. I mean, even you talk about, you know, do we love our animals more? If we have to put our dog down, it's a horrible day, but we're gonna make that as painless for the puppy as possible. And yet here are lives that some of them are to term, and I think a lot of people would have a problem with that. It gets harder when you can't see it doesn't look like a baby yet, but where in that process, do you suddenly magically, you know, wave a wand over it and it becomes a person? You're there, your soul is there. And even the ancients believe this, I don't have them with me today, but I have some quotes from the earliest Christians saying that, "You know, all life is human from conception." Christians have just understood it because of what God's word says about this right from the beginning.

Ben Poole
Yeah. So with this, I just was thinking, maybe you're hearing this and you're like, you are struggling with this decision or, you know somebody that is, "Okay, what do we do about that? Where do we go? What are the resources? We don't really wanna send them to the hospital." Or you know, you've heard things about certain organizations like planned parenthood, which I don't think we have one real close by here, I'm not sure. But in town here, we do have a Christian pregnancy center, it's called Options Pregnancy Center.

Gary Schick
That's the place to go.

Ben Poole
Here in Western Nebraska, it's a Christian organization. They're, I'm just gonna throw this out there, 1308 avenue B, suite B. They're on avenue B next to, I believe it's Nexus Mechanical Shop. If that is a resource, you need, seek them out. They are there for you and want to help you and just love you through this time.

Gary Schick
And you know, for those who find themselves in a pregnancy situation, and they're just saying, "But I can't raise this child." I just want you to know my family is so grateful to two families out there that we don't even know, that we adopted our children very, very young from, one of them a little older, one of them just a few months old. And I'll tell you what, we honor those moms and those biological fathers. We pray for them and we're grateful for them because our family would be incomplete without all of our children, adopted and otherwise.

Ben Poole
Absolutely. Both of our older girls are adopted, and so I know that there are so many families that would gladly support you in that decision, if that's what you chose. But I want to jump in, in just the last few minutes because a lot of times I think a lot of, young ladies especially, feel like, "I've made this decision, now everybody's looking down on me." Or, "I don't know if God can forgive me." And so one of the questions that came in was, is abortion the unpardonable sin? And you know what, there's probably some people that would say yes to that. And I'm gonna go ahead and say no.

Gary Schick
And the Bible says no.

Ben Poole
And the Bible says, no, too.

Gary Schick
We support you in that.

Ben Poole
So, we are here for you, but I just want to just maybe close with this thought. That whether you've had an abortion or are thinking of it or feel like maybe that's your only way out, God absolutely still loves you. And you are never so far from His grace that you can't come to God. And He is there to receive you and to welcome you into His arms, which is way better than anything in this world can offer. What are your thoughts on that, Gary?

Gary Schick
Well, you know, I mean, yeah, for those who are at a crossroads, I just beg you to call one of us, call Options, and find out your options. But for those, for whom the moment has passed and you're looking back at it and saying, "You know what? It was a hard moment in life, but I took a life and now what do I do for the rest of my life?" That is hard. It is not the unforgivable sin. Jesus in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the place where this comes up is, the Pharisees were basically saying Jesus in the miracles He performed had an unclean spirit. And He's like, "You know what? You can be forgiven any sin, including blasphemy against me," Jesus said. You know, against Jesus. But He said, "Whoever blasphemes against the holy spirit will not be forgiven." What was the holy spirit? He was giving testimony that Jesus is the Christ. And so if you turn against the witness of the spirit, you are rejecting Jesus. And as long as you reject Jesus, you can't have salvation, cause Jesus is salvation. So as long as you reject the witness of the spirit, that Jesus is the savior, that's where you get forgiveness. As soon as you come to Jesus, all sin is forgiven, and it is really as simple as that. Does that mean that there are no consequences? Well, of course not, there's always consequences. And so, you know, again, for those who may be considering abortion and you're in a tough place, realize that you will get past this day of your life, you will get through this. But if you take that life, you can never undo that, and so forgiveness absolutely. Consequences to your life and even your potential ability to have future children, it can mess up a womb when you do this. You might be cutting off all life from your womb, and so I just wanna caution people about that. That, yeah there's forgiveness, but we don't walk into it and say, "Well, I'm gonna go ahead and do this and be forgiven and it's all okay." There's still some things to carry from that. And again, for those who are on the other side of it, well then it's a question, "Okay, so now how do we go on from here?" But never walk into a situation saying, "Well, I'm gonna do what I know is wrong and I'll be forgiven anyway." But yes, forgiveness is there.

Discussing Abortion - Ask the Pastor

You can listen to Ask The Pastor every weekday at 9:00am MST on 97.1FM Hope Radio KCMI! You can also listen and subscribe to Ask The Pastor in your favorite podcast feed. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Amazon Music and most other podcast services.

This edition of Ask the Pastor features Pastors Ben Poole and Gary Schick.

Ben Poole
All right, so if you are not aware, January in the Christian world, more so, is known as, "Sanctity of human life month." There's a particular Sunday where we celebrate it in churches. This year's January 23rd. So be aware of that, just something that we can celebrate, and share the truth of God's love for all people. So this morning we got some questions that came through on this topic and I'm sure to some degree, it's a touchy topic for many people and probably some would disagree, but we want to do something a little bit different this morning. But in leading up to what we're gonna do, I just wanted to share a couple of, or a few of these questions that came out and then, have a little bit of discussion time. And we're gonna read some scripture as well. So first, "Does the Bible say anything about abortion?" And secondly, since we just celebrated Christmas, consider where we would be, if Mary had aborted the savior. And then thirdly, "Is God pro-life or pro-abortion? So obviously, some pretty, pretty deep questions, if we really start to consider them. And we're gonna get into some discussion, but first we wanted to, as we come to the close of this year and the beginning of a new year, we thought of a scripture fitting kind of around this, but also maybe a breath of fresh air.

Gary Schick
Yeah, we both turned to it together. I'm like, "I'm thinking let's read Psalm 1:39," and you're like, "I just opened to that." Which is really, if you're talking the life question. You know, the sanctity, the holiness, the preciousness of life from the womb. This is the chapters. But it's also a great place to end the year and begin the year.

Ben Poole
Yes, I agree. So Gary, why don't you start us off?

Gary Schick
Yeah, I'll take the first half, and then you take the second. Psalm 139, for the director of music of David, a Psalm, "Oh Lord, you have searched me and you know me, you know, when I sit and when I rise, you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down, you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue, you know it completely oh Lord. You hem me in behind and before, you have laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, to lofty for me to attain, where can I go from your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there. If I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the Dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there, your hand will guide me. Your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, surely the darkness will hide me, and the light become night around me, even the darkness will not be dark to you. The night will shine like the day for darkness is as light to you."

Ben Poole
Man, that first half is beautiful. Just amazing. So we're gonna start in verse 13 and close out this chapter, "For you created my inmost being. You knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts oh God. How vast is the sum of them? Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I wake, I am still with you. If only you would slay the wicked, oh God. Away from me you blood thirsty men. They speak of you with evil intent, your adversaries misuse your name. Do I not hate those who hate you oh Lord, and abhor those who rise up against you? I have nothing but hatred for them, I count them my enemies. Search me oh God and know my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there's any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting." That's a beautiful Psalm and really listening to David's heart here is just so pure and raw. And I remember actually just reading this, we actually talked about kind of that last bit of that chapter a while ago, addressing that issue. But what you see is this, I mean, David was called a man after God's own heart. Even in his sinfulness, even in his struggles, he had this amazing relationship with God. And he talks about this idea of life and creation of life. And it's not simply science that builds a human in a womb, it's God knitting us together. It is knowing our life from beginning to end before the beginning happens. And so we see this really beautiful picture, I see, of a God who loves life.

Gary Schick
Yeah, and God's connection to life from beginning to end. I mean, the beautiful part of the beginning about, "You know, no matter where I am. You know, I could go to the far side of the sea, no matter where I go you're there, you are with me. Your eye is on me and was with me and on me from the time you were putting me together in the womb Lord." And I think that these are verses that, for the pro life movement, have been significant in our understanding of what life is, where it begins and how precious each of us are. And what makes it great for this moment at the end of this year, as we move into the next is just to say to our listeners, "Hey, don't know where this year has brought you in your personal life, but just know this, you are under a watchful and loving eye. The Lord who formed you in the womb, you are precious to Him. And He's there, He's carrying us through."

Ben Poole
Yeah, you know, we were talking before this. There's a lot of talk, especially now, even in the last years about abortion. And almost this fight between pro-life and pro-choice, and it's easy to get into a fight, it's easy when you believe your right to argue your point. I've struggled with this myself, cause I believe we should be pro-life and I enjoy arguing, but I've also learned that, we're not gonna lead people to Christ by arguing with them. We're gonna lead them to Christ by loving them. I met a guy who was part of a Christian organization, and was leading this huge event. And he was talking about his wife who worked at a pregnancy center that was pro-life, and it was right down the street from an abortion clinic. And a lot of people were picketing and standing outside and yelling at the women that were going in, and really claiming to be Christians, but not really showing the love of Christ. And this guy's wife decided one day, she had this heart for these women. She bought dozens of roses and she walked over there and just started handing out flowers to these women that were there. Telling them that she loved them, that God loves them, and not preaching at them, not beating them over with scripture or telling them their sinning or anything like that. She just wanted to love them, and through that women came over to the pregnancy center and made different decisions to have their children. And so I believe simply from what we just read. Among all the other things, God is absolutely pro life, He creates life.

Gary Schick
Life is what He does.

Ben Poole
That's what He does, that's who He is, He is light and life. And so I think we can come to that conclusion, but that does not mean that He's absolutely against those who are making decisions, because guess what I make sinful decisions too. And He's not against me, He is for me. And so I think that needs to be the heart of the Christian. As we come to this time of year, as we close out this year, we are people of life and light because we are followers of Christ. And Jesus didn't come just for the good people. He didn't come for the people who were righteous and holy already. He came for the sick and the needy and to call sinners to repentance. And that should be our heart's desire as Christians, is to love these people, no matter what they're going through. You know, we're talking about abortion okay, but that's a broad stroke that we can cast, is we are to love people, period. That's who we are, it's not our job to judge the world, that's already taken place. They're living in judgment, it's our obligation and our privilege to love the lost. And this is a month where we celebrate life. Maybe we can do that in a way where we take steps that may be different than what we've ever done before. By loving people in the mess they're in and sharing the gospel of Jesus.

Gary Schick
I one hundred percent agree. You know, it's been a grimier in certain ways. I think we're coming up on, who knows maybe by the time this broadcast will have crossed it, a million people having died of COVID. But you know, many more than that die of abortion. Abortion's the leading killer in this country, and if only that got the airplay that COVID has, right? So it's a tough subject, life is precious and of course it stirs deep feelings. And of course we understand that those who feel motivated to move toward abortion are, just by definition, they're in a tough place. But truly, God's love has a power to change minds, to move decisions in a new direction. And in fact, as we close out the year, as precious as biological life is, it is absolutely, Jesus came that we might have eternal life. And listeners, you are alive, you were born and you've made some terrible mistakes and you've gotten some things right. But you are like all of us, a sinner who Jesus died to save. You know, and you mentioned, Jesus, didn't just come for the good people. Good thing, cause we're not, we are all sinners in God's eyes. He is the good one, He is the one who is good. And yet He in His goodness, loves us right where we are regardless. That's the other side of it. We need to let people know, who are on the other side of this debate, that they are loved too and that their lives matter too. And it seems so obvious to me, to those of us on the pro-life side, "Hey, if I'm in a body, I know how precious that is. How could I ever take it on myself to deny another living person?" As Dr. Seuss would say, "No matter how small, a person's a person, no matter how small." But obviously there's a lot of blindness and darkness in this world, and God's love is what starts to open us up to even be able to hear His truth.

Ben Poole
Yeah, one hundred percent. We know that there's probably listeners that maybe have had an abortion. Maybe even considering it, or maybe you're in a situation where you ended up pregnant and you, from whatever happened, we want you to know that we love you. And God loves you no matter what, even if you've made that choice, you are not so far from God that you cannot be loved and given grace and mercy. And so we're actually gonna continue this conversation a little bit next week. Cause there's some other questions that come up that I think are really great questions. And maybe something that some of you, or you know someone that's struggling with this about, "Can I be saved after making this decision? Where do I stand with God?" So we want to give you some hope and some reason for joy, even in this situation and even in this topic. We know that sometimes we say things that we don't mean or are heard a different way. And so if you ever have questions about this or where we stand on this, feel free to reach out to us and just ask those questions. You can call into the radio station, you can ask the questions it's completely anonymous and we would love to answer those questions.

Great Authors in Cross Reference Library

What Are You Afraid Of? - For many people, worry, anxiety, and fear are constant companions: fear of death, fear of danger, fear of disease. And too often, these fears are crippling, keeping us from the life God has called us to live. But it doesn’t have to be that way, says Dr. David Jeremiah. As Christians, we have been given all we need in order to face down even the most frightening, unexpected, and overwhelming obstacles in life. In his new book, What Are You Afraid Of? Dr. Jeremiah explores the top ten fears that are holding so many of us back from the life God has called us to live and shares the supernatural secrets for facing down these fears with faith.

I Never Thought I’d See The Day! - Many people are blind to the destructive cultural trends of the day. At the same time, others see the dangers but are too quick to minimize the negative impact these trends are having on society. Then there are those who see the chaos all around them but believe that resistance to the prevailing culture is useless. In the middle of all this confusion, Dr. David Jeremiah issues a prophetic warning: “We must understand that we are in a war for the very heart and soul of civilization or the consequences will be catastrophic.” In, I Never Thought I’d See The Day!, Dr. Jeremiah identifies the nine major indicators of this looming disaster and then issues a strategy for turning the tide and equips us with the weapons we need for the battle ahead. Above all, he brings a message of hope that our “culture at the crossroads” can be put back on the right path. 

Where Do We Go From Here? - The more we look around today, the more it seems our modern world and contemporary way of life are hanging by a thread. We’re emerging from the pangs of a pandemic, yet society remains haunted by the specters of socialism, globalism, and cancel culture. The economy is in flux, the church is in decline, and Jerusalem once again sits atop the powder keg of global politics. What should we do now? How can we move forward as citizens of God’s kingdom even as the world teeters on the brink? In Where Do We Go From Here?, bestselling author and respected Bible teacher Dr. David Jeremiah shows us that the colliding crises in our culture are not isolated incidents or random misfortunes. They are as connected as a spider’s web. With each passing day, tectonic forces are pushing us closer to the end of history. Yet this is not a time for despair! Instead, this is a time to examine ever more closely the calm assurance of God’s prophetic plan. These pages will help you do just that by exploring ten current moments and movements in light of that plan. Each chapter highlights what’s happening, what Scripture says, and where we can go from here.

Who Were The Magi? - Ask the Pastor

You can listen to Ask The Pastor every weekday at 9:00am MST on 97.1FM Hope Radio KCMI! You can also listen and subscribe to Ask The Pastor in your favorite podcast feed. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Amazon Music and most other podcast services.

This edition of Ask the Pastor features Pastors Ben Poole and Gary Schick.

Ben Poole
All right, so our question this morning, or questions, I guess.

Gary Schick
There's about three of them here.

Ben Poole
Yeah, "Regarding the magi, who were they? When did they arrive in Bethlehem? Shortly after the shepherds or much later? If much later, why were Mary and Joseph still there and not back home in Nazareth?" So I know there's a lot of thoughts on this, and a lot of different interpretations on what happened and when it happened. And so, yeah, Gary, why don't you just kind of open us up with some thoughts?

Gary Schick
What a great topic for Christmas Eve, Merry Christmas, everyone. Yeah, so the magi, and they're such an intriguing topic, aren't they? I think we always want to know more about the magi and about the star and all of those things. In terms of, who were they, you know, if you watch the movies, I think, Jesus of Nazareth comes to my mind. You would kind of get the idea that they sort of met on the way from the three different corners of the globe. One from the east, one from Europe, one from Africa, and coming together and sort of finding their way to Jerusalem from some place like that. But really, most likely I think they probably came together from a location, because it specifically says that they came, you know, from the east. And I believe in that time there kind of, I guess what you almost might call a cast of priest, philosophers, magicians among the ancient Persians. May have been just kind of a phrase in general for such holy men or sages, philosophers, wise men, we might call them. And while their country isn't named specifically, you know, they state, when they get to Jerusalem, "We saw His star in the east." And I think we interpret that to mean, from the east, you know and, "We've traveled west to find Him." So Persia, Babylon, these would've been starting points and I think there's often even some thought that Daniel, as one of the wise men of the Babylonian empire, was kind of at the source of these people. But regardless of exactly who they were, you know, I think many Christmas cards that we've seen over the years sum it up well, "Wise men sought Him then wise men seek Him still." It's of course assumed that they were three, but that's because of the three gifts they brought: Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh. I mean, the scripture actually only tells us more than once, it could have been two, it could have been 20. But the point is again, not only that they were wise, but they also were representative. Whether they came from one place or----many of us Gentiles, people from the outside. Who, one way or another God alerted to come seeking the one who would be born king and to worship before Him. And I just kind of wonder if when they got there and kind of figured things out, they began to realize just what a special king they had come to. It wasn't that the king inherits palace that they were to find. Then of course, there's this question about when did they get there? And again, if you look at our nativity scenes, it's obvious, everybody showed up the first night. You know, there was a star hanging there, there were angels in the breeze and there were shepherds and wise men, and that fits really nicely at our little nativity sets and scenes. Of course, if you follow the traditional days, it's given that the wise men show up around what, January 6th, which I don't know about in your house, and in your church, but we are pretty much done with the Christmas carols and the Christmas decorations are down by then. So, but how do we know? Well, Luke's gospel is real specific, there was no room in the Inn, Jesus is born in a manger. Probably some kind of a cave-like structure just outside of the Inn or outside of town. But by the time the wise men come, or the magi come in Matthew chapter 2, they find Mary, Joseph and the child in a house. And so that's kind of our indication as to why, there's a period of time lapsing here. Also, although Herod doesn't actually ever hear directly back from the wise men after they've seen Jesus, he does know based on when they saw the star, to kind of figure something under two years old. Now in a way, that's a little bit unhelpful because does the star appear at the time of His birth and that's when they begin their journey or did the star come ahead of time and kind of provide? I mean, they could have showed up the same night as the shepherds, other than the fact that there's kind of these, these two statements. One, "He's born in a manger or placed in a manger and found by the magi in a house," which to me would indicate that they stuck around. And then the third question, "Well why don't they go right back to Nazareth, you know, family, friends, home?" Well, you've got to remember, they didn't have car seats for camels and donkeys in those days, you know what I mean. Traveling with an infant would've been difficult, and so it would just kind of make sense that once Mary and Joseph, and he had a very, he had a trade that he could practice anywhere, he was a carpenter. That they would kind of settle down until forced to flee by Herod's hunt for the baby. And of course, that's exactly what the scripture tells us happened.

Ben Poole
Yeah, that's really great information. And I know that, just reading up on it, there's so many different thoughts on the timeline. And I think that we can easily get caught up in those. I was just actually looking up approximately how far it is to walk from Nazareth to Bethlehem. And per Google, where all good things are found, obviously, it looks like about 31 hours of walking. So I know my wife had a baby a little over a year ago, I can tell you, she would not be in a rush to be walking 31 hours back home if that was the option. So I think that they probably stuck around and really invested in the health of baby Jesus, learning to be a family. Learning this new dynamic, because you gotta remember this, we see these beautiful portrayals of the manger scene and how beautiful it was. And having a baby is one of the most beautiful experiences ever, in my opinion, but it was still real life. It was still very real in changing diapers, and however they did that, whether it was cloth and hopefully some clean water and things like that. I mean, it was still very real, Mary had to heal after giving birth. I mean, it was real, it was messy, it was having a baby in a barn. I mean, just consider what that would've been like. And so, but going back to the magi, I think that I've looked into this and again, still a lot of theories on who these people were. Obviously were of wealth to some degree having Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh.

Gary Schick
Pricey gifts.

Ben Poole
Pricey gifts, which they also say probably helped take them into Egypt and to cover expenses and to give them a livelihood while they were on the run. But thinking about these guys, these Magi, whether they were simply just wise men, or even some say they were magicians, some have even said they were Kings themselves, they were royalty. And I really like that picture, and I'm not sure we can totally say one way or another, but I think the picture there is beautiful, nonetheless. That these grown men, full of wisdom and wealth and probably power, chose to follow this star to find a baby. I love my baby boy, but it would be super weird if someone came and bowed down in worship of a baby. But something in them knew this is someone different. This is someone worthy of our worship, this young child, whether he was a few days old or he was two years old. That they would come and bow down and worship a baby is powerful to me. What we know on the other side of this story, we know who Jesus is, we know the story, we know the outcome, we know why He came, but these guys followed a star. Knowing what the old scriptures had taught, that the baby would be born in Bethlehem and He would be the king of the Jews and they showed up in worship of Him. And I think it is just humbling, I guess, to me, to know that this is something powerful that maybe we forget sometimes. You know, we celebrate Christmas and we get a lot of different ideas and, in our culture, especially, you know, we get really wrapped up in consumerism and shopping and gifts and all these little things. And not that we're not taking our eyes off of Jesus, but I think the importance of why He came. I talked a little bit in my sermon on Sunday that, one thing that we have really ingrained as Christians is to help kind of keep our focus as "Jesus is the reason for the season." We hear that a lot, and I kind of challenged my church to say, "That's part of it." That's part, He's part of the reason for the season. But as we know what scripture teaches, Jesus didn't come for Himself. He came for you and me to be our savior. And so really, when we look at this from the magi coming, from Mary being obedient, to Joseph having to make a hard choice to even stay with her, all of these things, the point comes back to is, Jesus lives His life. As He goes to the cross, as He's resurrected from the dead, what changes is, Jesus isn't so much the reason for the season; you are. You're the reason for the season, you're the reason Jesus came to live among sinful people. And it is our opportunity and privilege and a great blessing that we can bring our gifts to Jesus. We can give our life to Jesus, we can give our worship to Jesus as our king.

Gary Schick
Amen. Give them the best we have, like they did.

Ben Poole
Yeah. And that's really what we're called to do, is to lay everything at the feet of Jesus, our life, our worship. And essentially we're to give up the promise of our salvation to Him and placing our eternity in His hands. And we get to live that out. And that's really what I think the world needs to hear. There's a lot that went on and a lot of hard things you think about. Herod and the decree he sent out. "Okay, I don't want to lose my place, and if I hear of another king coming up, baby or not, I want him dead." And you think about the pain and the suffering that ensued from that point on, for some time. And thank God, He has a greater plan than even a king on earth can do. And so we get the privilege to worship a living king for all of eternity.

Gary Schick
Well and you know, you talked about the hardness of life. You know, it could have been, I mean, we know the hard choice Joseph made. Maybe, you know, town in Nazareth didn't have that information, but they probably knew Mary was pregnant. And you'll notice that even when they do go back home, they only ultimately go back to Nazareth because they hear a son of Herod is in place. And so they decide not to be so close to Jerusalem and so forth, but you know, it could be, they were just kinda waiting for the gossip to die down. Even you know, as Jesus is an adult later, you know, isn't this Mary's son, you know, aren't His brothers, "And wait Mary's son?" They knew it's part of the story, they didn't know the whole story. And boy, that's the tragedy. As Christmas approaches the world still doesn't know the whole story. This is the son of God who came for us, came for you my listening friends. I hope that you receive the gift of Christ above all this Christmas.

How Do We Know Christ's Incarnation Is True? - Ask the Pastor

You can listen to Ask The Pastor every weekday at 9:00am MST on 97.1FM Hope Radio KCMI! You can also listen and subscribe to Ask The Pastor in your favorite podcast feed. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Amazon Music and most other podcast services.

This edition of Ask the Pastor features Pastors Gary Hashley, Tim Hebbert and Brad Kilthau.

Tim Hebbert
We're gonna jump into a Christmas question this week. This is the question, "During the Christmas season, there is a lot of mention of the incarnation. How do we know it's true, and is that really so important to be included in the Christmas story for us today?" And I guess I would answer, yes, to that second question. But, so what is the incarnation? Let's start there. The incarnation, I'll give you the definition of it, the proper definition from a biblical dictionary, "The act of grace whereby Christ took our human nature into union with divine person and became man. Christ is both God and man. Human attributes and actions are predicated of Him, and He of whom they are predicated is God. A divine person was united to a human nature. The union is hypostatical or is personal; the two natures are not mixed or confounded. And that confounded, I would say, or confusing, and it is perpetual." A simpler definition would be, that the God of the universe came into the world and took on human flesh. You know, Brad, as I was working through that, I remember one of our topics, one of the days, probably been five, six months ago. And you were the one that probably for the very first time got me to really think about this. Now when Jesus was resurrected, He was resurrected in bodily form again, and then He ascended into heaven and He took that bodily form with Him. Now that bodily form is not the same as what we have here. It doesn't age, it's not susceptible to anything, but He still bears all of the scars. I think, I agree with what you'd said that day, of what He went through for us at the cross of Calvary. So when He returns, we're gonna see those nail scar hands. We're gonna see the scars of the crown of thorns on His head and all those things. So as we walk through this today folks, I'd just ask you to think in those terms. There's a few passages I wanna share with you that the scripture talks about, "The divine Jesus coming in the form of man." The first one is probably the most obvious to all of us, and that's the first chapter of the gospel of John, verse 14 "And the word," capital W referring to Jesus, "Became flesh and dwelled among us. And we have seen His glory, glory as of the only son from the father full of grace and truth." The second chapter of the book of Hebrews, the writer says this, starting with verse 11, "Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters. He says, I will declare your name to my brothers and sisters in the assembly, I will sing your praises. And again, I will put my trust in Him. And again, He says, here I am and the children God has given me. Since the children have flesh and blood, He too shared in their humanity. So that by His death, He might break the power of him who holds the power of death--that is the devil." And one last passage, and this is from the Old Testament. This is one that any Christian that's gone to a Christmas Eve service has heard this passage. Isaiah chapter nine, and I'm just gonna read verse six, "For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon His shoulders. And His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father and the Prince of Peace." So Brad, how do we know it's true that Jesus was fully God and fully man?

Brad Kilthau
Well, that passage you just quoted from Isaiah, of course, that one's the classic one, talking about the incarnation. The first part talks about His humanity, and then it goes on into His deity and what His plans are in the future. But I think another way we can look at this is, to know that Jesus was fully God and fully man, is you separate the two, was Jesus fully God? You go to the classic passage that you would normally be in during the Christmas season and the gospels, and in Matthew 1:1-17 you got this whole long list of how 'A' begot 'B'. It's one of those lists that we usually skip over, cause we don't wanna try to stumble through the names. But when you get verse 18, you find there's a record account of a birth without a human father. And you find that Matthew carefully guarded the fact that Jesus was born of a virgin. He takes out the whole genealogical table of the Lord and he states when he gets to Mary, that Jesus was only born of Mary. In fact, in chapter one, verse 16, it has the words, "of whom," a pronoun, "of whom." And that indicates clearly in the original language that Mary only, not Mary and Joseph, was the one that had Jesus. And so the fact that Jesus was born only of a Virgin, that's very clearly showing that He is truly God. And then I think another one that's kind of clear that we often forget about is the betrothal between Mary and Joseph. I think that's very important in this miraculous event, because as we know during betrothal period, a man and a woman were, what we would call today, engaged. But to them it was a lot more serious than an engagement. In fact, to break off the betrothal there would have to be a creed of divorce to make that happen. And so also during that period of time, which sometimes is almost a year in length, the couple, the man and the woman could not come together sexually. And if they did, it was actually considered an act of adultery and it could even mean death, it was that serious. And so that tells you, there's not something secret going on here of Mary sneaking off with Joseph or something of that sort. This was a serious thing in that culture, in that day and time, the betrothal period. And so yes, when you look into scripture, it was the holy spirit who came upon Mary during that time. And the Bible says, "Came upon her and placed the son of God, the Messiah in her womb." And we know that even though a lot of people probably mocked it in that day, I mean if they saw a pregnant girl walking around, they would say, "You know, well, she did this, she sinned or whatever." And we know even Joseph didn't believe it to start with until an angel appeared to him in a dream that it was the miraculous work of the holy spirit to bring about the incarnation.

And I think we need to be paying attention to the angel of the Lord when he revealed to Joseph that this son or this child inside of Mary was God Himself. There's something clear in the angel's message, because the angel told Joseph the sex of the baby, the name of the baby and the mission that the baby would carry out. And then of course on this side of things, we can look back and see exactly that was the truth. The baby was a male baby, His name, as we would say it in our language, Jesus, and His mission was fully carried out and that is to save His people from their sin. And so it was a spiritual work, it wasn't of a human father to bring about this conception. Something that never happened in the history of man, something that'll never happen again in the history of man. Jesus was born, He was fully God, and He was always God. As it says in Micah 5:2, "He is of the everlasting," as we look in that passage of scripture. So Jesus' personhood didn't start through this miraculous work of the holy spirit, when Jesus was born here on the earth. The Bible tells us clearly that He existed from eternity past. Absolutely He did, as we know, Jesus created the world that He was born into, when we studied that through the scriptures. And then you can look at the life of Jesus to see that He's fully God. The miracles that He performed when He empowered His disciples to do miracles; the transfiguration. And then you think about raising Himself back to life after the death on the cross. You think about His ascension up into heaven before eye witnesses. Definitely, He absolutely is God. And then the question is, "Okay, so maybe He's fully God, but can He be fully man?" Well, you got to keep in mind, He had a human mother, Mary, which produced a Mary substance, a complete human in nature, a body, soul, and spirit. And in knowing this, we can stand why the angel and his conversation to Mary described the one who being born, as the holy one. And I guess when you study that in the original language, the holy one in Luke 1:35, it indicates that Jesus was supernaturally conceived and Mary gave birth to Him as a human being. But Mary did not give Him His personhood and did not give Him His divine nature. So He was born as a human, He was a male child, but He already existed as the second person of the Trinity. I guess I just need to say that to you guys, because when we're thinking about this broadcast, I know that there are some who have had the thought that Mary is the mother of God. And that's been said often, and that is totally not true. Jesus existed in eternity passed and He existed way before Mary was ever born. Also some of the humanity things of Jesus: He shed tears, He felt real pain, hunger, and thirst during that time of temptation in the wilderness. He ran out of human strength, just like you and I would, He grew from a little baby to being a boy, to being a man. People could feel Him, they could touch Him, they could embrace Him. In fact, He was even able to be beaten, as we know, as He went to the cross and murdered and butchered and hung on a cross, that's got to have a human body for that to happen. So, Gary what are your thoughts on the incarnation?

Gary Hashley
Well, the part of the question that I was asked to think about and prepare for is, "What does the incarnation do for us today?" Brad, you hit on a very good point, Bethlehem isn't where Jesus started. Jesus has always been who He was, the second member of the Trinity from eternity passed, but He became flesh incarnation. If you go to the store, you buy Chili Con Carne, Chili with meat, Chili with flesh. Incarnation; Jesus took flesh to dwell among us and John, one of the disciples, writing in 1 John about Jesus, says, "We've heard, we've seen, we've looked upon, our hands have handled." And he's talking about Jesus that, "We heard Him speak, we saw Him with our eyes, we looked upon Him, we actually touched Him because He was real. He had a real human body, He always had been the spirit. The second member of the Trinity, He became flesh to dwell among us," John says. And the question is, "Well, what does that do for us today?" Well, I sat down and came up with five quick thoughts. One is, if Jesus really became a man while still being God, we talked about that, but if He really became a man, we can know God in a personal way. Because just as the disciples talked with Him and laughed with Him and ate with Him and walked with Him, we have in Jesus, one, we can know God who is spirit, but we can know Him in a personal way. The daily bread back in 2006 included, "God can exact nothing from man that He's not exacted from Himself. He has Himself, gone through the whole of human experience. From the trivial irritations of family life and the cramping restrictions of hard work and lack of money, to the worst horrors of pain and humiliation, defeat, despair, and death. When He was a man, He played the man. He was born in poverty, died in disgrace and thought it well worthwhile." Through Jesus we can know God, in fact we can't know God without Jesus. He said, "I'm the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the father but by me," so we can know God in a personal way and we can know that God understands our every need. Hebrews 2 talks about the fact that He suffered, and He's able to help those who are being tempted. He's able to help us in our need because He became one of us, just without sin. But He had every other attribute of humanity that we have, Brad talked about it: He got hungry, He got thirsty, He got tired He ate, He slept. So yeah, He understands our every need, He knows what it is to be tired. He knows what it is to be hungry, He knows what it is to have people walk away and feeling lonely. The third is, we have a helper for our every need. Hebrews 4 talks about the high priest, talking about Jesus, and says, "In Him, we can find grace to help in time of need." He's always there to help because He came to be among us and to be one of us. And we can know that He can help us in our time of need. The fourth one is, we have a perfect atonement for our sins. It says in 1 Peter, "He bore our sins in His body on the tree," He could not give His flesh for us if He didn't have flesh, and He could not give His blood for us, if He didn't have blood. And if He wasn't incarnated, if He hadn't left heaven to come to this earth and become flesh, there'd been no flesh and there'd been no blood to give for the atonement for our sins. And then lastly, we have a model to live our life after, 1 Peter 2 talks about Jesus and says, "He left us an example so that we might walk and follow in His steps." So because Jesus came, we can know God in a personal way. We can know that He understands our needs, He's there to help when we have needs. He's the perfect atonement for our sins, and we have a model to live our life. And all of that is part of the wonder of the fact that Jesus was born.

Discussing Great Hymns of the Faith; "O Come All Ye Faithfull" - Ask the Pastor

You can listen to Ask The Pastor every weekday at 9:00am MST on 97.1FM Hope Radio KCMI! You can also listen and subscribe to Ask The Pastor in your favorite podcast feed. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Amazon Music and most other podcast services.

This edition of Ask the Pastor features Pastors Mike Clement, David Clement and Michael Gleb.

Mike Clement
We've been looking at some of the hymns that are more familiar, they're older hymns, and they've passed the test of time. And I picked out one for us to look at today, it's a Christmas hymn. This is, you know, the end of November, we're coming up on Christmas. And, you know, years ago we had a lady that came, actually it was a woman and her daughter. And they played the Vibraharp, the Marimba and piano, they had all kinds of neat stuff. And they said they were from the Seattle area and they were hired by shopping malls to play Christmas music. And the comment was made, because Christmas music is not allowed in public schools any longer, many people miss the Christmas music. And they were hired just to play music in the malls, it was kind of interesting. Anyway, the hymn that we're gonna look at is, Oh, Come All Ye Faithful. And we were talking a little bit about the fact that a lot of hymns have good rich theology, and that was something that the hymn writers used to really focus on. It wasn't just to sell song, and it wasn't just to become popular. They wanted to communicate a message, and they wanted that message to be a biblical message. And there's a line in here every time I sing it, it kind of gets me, and now I gotta find it. It's in the second stanza, the second stanza says, "God of God and light of light begotten, low He abhors not the virgins womb." And there's a fascinating concept that, you know, the Lord Jesus Christ was the second person of the Trinity, the creator of heaven and earth, and in the book of Hebrews, it says, "He humbled Himself and became obedient even to the death of a cross." But He humbled Himself to actually be in the womb of Mary, and that's just an incredible thought. And then it goes on, it says, "A very God begotten not created." There are those that reject the full deity of the Lord, Jesus Christ, the idea that Jesus is equal with God, the father, and equal with God, the son. In fact, we had a lady in our church who went on a vacation with some of her sisters, they're all grown. She said they were on the beach in California and one of them turned to her and said, "Sandy, you go to church, don't you?" She said, "Yeah, I do." And the gal said, "Did you know that Jesus was God?" And Sandy said, "Uh, yes, I did." She said, "Well, I knew He was good, and I knew He taught things. I knew He healed people, but I didn't know He was, God, I just found that out. And there are some people that reject the full deity of the Lord, Jesus Christ. And those that do, oftentimes will use the phrase that we find in John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son," and they kind of hang on that. See, Jesus was begotten, He was created, and so He was not eternal and He was not God. Now that term begotten, is not talking about origin, that is a position, that is a designation that, begotten. In one of the Psalms, it says that the father declared Him to be the begotten, He made Him the begotten. And so, this actually is underlying the full deity of the Lord, Jesus Christ. He was not created, He was begotten, He was declared to be the Son of God. So this is a great Christmas hymn, any thoughts on that guys?

Michael Gleb
You know, a great deal of Jesus' ministry was convincing people that He was God. I mean, honestly, you go look at the life of Christ, and I spent time when I first got to Torrington Baptist, just going over the life of Christ and miracles and His travels. I'm forgetting the other things, but I spent a great deal of time in some of those important passages. And it struck me that He just spent a great deal of time convincing the Pharisees, Sadducees, and others that were lost that He was His own personal deity. And so yeah, I mean, not created, not a created being like you and I are. And by the way, in Genesis, we know full well in the account of the creation, and there's a plurality there that's mentioned, I can't remember what verse, I don't have it in front of me.

Mike Clement
There's a number of places right in the beginning. "Let us make man in our own image"

Michael Gleb
That's right, "Let us make man," yeah, absolutely. But that's one of the things that struck me about the life of Christ, was when I was going back and somebody had asked me, a while back, what would I teach somebody that's struggling with salvation? And I think I had mentioned that because it was heavy on my heart and I was thinking about it and maybe even preaching through it was, that Jesus is God. I don't know why I said that at the moment, but there was some other reasons.

David Clement
Good, yeah. Well, interesting thing, you know, oftentimes when we think about this song, when we sing this song, we kind of get the idea of being on the hillside. Maybe with the shepherds and the beckoning that we feel, but really the angels didn't beckon the shepherds to go. It was the shepherds that said, "Come let us go, even unto Bethlehem and see this thing, which the Lord has made known unto us." You know, but the idea that we kind of get that picture in our mind as we sing the song of the Bethlehem, Jesus being born there and being invited to go and worship Him. We maybe even think of the wise men that came. But anyhow, the invitation is to us today still, you know, we're not in the first century, we're not in Bethlehem. But the invitation is not to literal Bethlehem, not to the birthplace of Christ but the idea of, what did Christ come for again? You know, and really when you take the time to sit down and look at good hymns of the faith, if you would. Whether it's a Christmas hymn like this is, getting you in the holiday spirit, whether it's like some of the other ones that we've talked about, you see the plan of salvation laid out. You see the truth of God's word intermingled throughout the whole hymn and that's where you see where the power of these hymns come from. Is the fact that they do have rich doctrine in them, they do have the word of God interwound in throughout the stanzas and the choruses of the song. And so that's where they get their validity, if you would. But just this invitation, not just for them, not just for those shepherds, not just for the people at that time, but it's true to us today. The idea of, come, let us adore Him, let us worship Him as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Mike Clement
In most hymn books, in many hymn books I should say, in the very beginning there's sort of a, like a table of contents. And you can find, "Okay, here are where the Christmas hymns are located, here's where the Easter hymns are located, here's where the patriotic hymns are located." They're usually bunched up like that. And in many, in the very beginning, here are the worship hymns. And that actually tends to be a small section of most hymn books. Most hymns and I'm talking about older hymns too, most hymns are testimonial, and there's nothing wrong with a testimonial hymn. The one that we looked at before is testimony, "Years I spent in vanity and probably caring not my Lord was crucified, knowing not it was for me He died on Calvary." A testimonial hymn is talking about my relationship to the Lord, but a worship hymn is Him. It's Him, it's me worshiping Him. I've been in some services, not in our church or your church, but I've been in some services where they have a praise and worship time. And frankly, the first time I saw that, it was like, "Okay, we're all gonna stand up and we're gonna praise and worship the Lord." And so for 10 minutes everybody stood and sang, and then praise and worship time was over, "Now, we're gonna do something else." And that bothered me, the whole service should be worship, the whole service should be praise. In fact, when I came home, the next bulletin I did, I redid the whole thing. Praise, worship in song, worship in reading scripture, worship in taking the offering, worship in testimonies, you know, the whole thing. And it's true, kind of had a bur under my side, but the whole idea of, let's adore Him. Somebody commented once on prayer, that many people's prayers sound like a McDonald's prayer, with a gimme gimme here and a gimme there.

Michael Gleb
Almost rhythmical in a sense too. It's like, yeah, it's exactly right.

Mike Clement
In fact, many of us have spent not nearly enough time just worshiping God in prayer. There've been times when I've gone to prayer and said out loud, "Lord, I don't need to learn anything, I'm not here to learn anything, I'm not here to get anything, I just want to be close to you." In the course of this, "Oh, come let us adore Him, oh come let us adore Him, oh come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord." Now there's a great big sidetrack path down there that is beckoning, and I'm not gonna go down too far. But there has been some reaction to the Lordship of the Lord, Jesus Christ. There was a book that was written a number of years ago, and out of reaction to that book came the concept of Lordship salvation. Which says, "When you come to Christ, if you're not sincere and give Him everything, then you're really not saved." And I understand that, that actually is a reaction to the book, which the book did not teach. What I find in scripture is, saving faith also produces other things. Saving faith produces repentance, saving faith produces submission, saving faith produces a desire to please the Lord. And I think that's what scripture--

Michael Gleb
Sanctification, yeah.

Mike Clement
Yeah, and I think that's what scripture means when it says, "Any man be in Christ is a new creature." All things are passed away, all things have become new, but here is this encouragement to come and just adore Him. I love the preaching of the word and I enjoy preparing messages and getting ready to open up God's word and share it with the people. But we have had some times when we've had just an unusual testimony time in the church. I mean, people are sharing how God has touched their heart and used them. And not just prayer requests, but I'd be sitting on the platform with my notes and I'm starting to scratch stuff off, cause there's not gonna be enough time for this and not enough time for that. And there actually was a couple of times when I just folded my notes and let it go.

Michael Gleb
That's good.

Mike Clement
The worship atmosphere was so rich that I just didn't feel comfortable.

Michael Gleb
Yeah, Can I add to that?

Mike Clement
Sure. Yeah, go ahead.

Michael Gleb
You know, at the very beginning we talked about, you know, not a created being and then it comes in, "Oh come let us adore Him, oh come let us adore Him." The scriptures tells us, "They, that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. So, you know, there's a lot of worship, so-called, that really is not worship, you know. And right type of worship, because there's not the truth that backs it up, you know? And there's a doctrine of Jesus Christ, there's a doctrine of the word of God, and they, that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. So these things are beautiful. There is a time that it can connect to our emotions and connect to our spirit, but it has to be based in truth.

Talking About Messianic Prophesies - Ask the Pastor

You can listen to Ask The Pastor every weekday at 9:00am MST on 97.1FM Hope Radio KCMI! You can also listen and subscribe to Ask The Pastor in your favorite podcast feed. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Amazon Music and most other podcast services.

This edition of Ask the Pastor features Pastors Kiley Callaway, John Mulholland and Jon Simpson.

Jon Simpson
And we are gonna take on the topic, since it's Christmas time and near Christmas, we thought it'd be appropriate to look at some of the messianic prophecies from the Old Testament specifically about Jesus. And so we're going to look at a couple of different passages from the book of Isaiah. And the first passage is found in Isaiah chapter 42, and it's the first four verses, so I just want to read those as we get started here. Isaiah 42:1-4 goes this way, "Look at my servant whom I strengthened. He is my chosen one who pleases me. I have put my spirit upon him. He will bring justice to the nations. He will not shout or raise his voice in public. He will not crush the weakest reed or put out a flickering candle. He will bring justice to all who have been wronged. He will not falter or lose heart until justice prevails throughout the Earth."

John Mulholland
I have one more little section there, does yours have it? "Even distant lands beyond the sea, will wait for his instruction."

Jon Simpson
Oh, I do it's on the next page. Thank you for catching that.

John Mulholland
I was like, "What Bible are you reading?"

Jon Simpson
It's the Bible that cuts out part of it. Right, so what is the main theme that you guys see here in this particular prophecy about the Messiah?

John Mulholland
Justice, He's going to bring justice.

Jon Simpson
Yeah, so as we think about the topic of justice, how does that connect today? What kind of justice does he, do you think is being referred to?

John Mulholland
So the people are in exile and he's giving them a future hope. He's telling them that whomever, you know, this person, this Messiah, whoever this person is that's going to come is going to bring justice. So in their minds, they would think that He's going to deliver them from their exile. So short term, I think we could be thinking about how we would translate that to us. We hear things like this and maybe our default switch then too is short-term. Like I'm thinking of maybe how something's going to be restored in my life today or whatever. I think that's the short answer to your question. I'm like, how do we apply that? I think we think short and think we're going to experience these promises today. Just like they thought they were going to experience those promises.

Jon Simpson
And justice, I mean, the kind of understanding of what justice is, is to make things right. Would you agree with that simple definition? So the Messiah is going to come to make things right. And yeah, because they're in the time of suffering in Babylon, then they are looking for an immediate release to that. And for things to be made, right for them as a nation.

Kylie Calloway
They always thought He was coming to make things right. But not in the way that He meant.

Jon Simpson
Yeah. So they're looking for a savior to get them out of the persecution they're under, to make things right.

Kylie Calloway
Looking for something tangible, wouldn't you say? Something that's like a kingdom that He was going to set up.

Jon Simpson
Yes, yes. And interestingly enough, they're looking for that in Isaiah's time. And they're also, the nation of Israel was looking for that when Jesus came.

Kylie Calloway
Looking for something external, something they can see or touch.

John Mulholland
Well, and even in the first chapter of Acts before Jesus, you know, ascends, the question the disciples ask is, "Are you now going to bring your kingdom to the Earth? You came, we saw all these miracles, you died your back." What I say, when we talk about this at Westway is, "Like they had their, Make Israel Great Again, hats on. They're ready to-

Kylie Calloway
Build Back Better.

John Mulholland
Yes, yes, exactly. We're here, you're ready to do this, and I think that's what these people are looking for. So I would argue, because that cycle has existed since this time, as evidenced by the situations that we just talked about. We have that same mindset, like, we're ready for immediate relief.

Kylie Calloway
We're ready for the king to get the kingdom ready to go.

Jon Simpson
We're ready for things to be made right, and we can tell when things aren't right. And certainly the world is filled with people with different viewpoints on what is right and wrong. We live in a world that's diverse and people's view, you know, we talk about this. I talk about this often with people and the awareness that the battle we're in, in our country and in our world is a spiritual battle. And it always has been. And it's a war between, you know, what the nation of Israel stood for in a sense was to represent God in the world, reflect the character of God, the behaviors of God. And so today, I'm not going to wade into the position of Israel, but the church is meant to reflect that today. God's people, Christians, are meant to be a reflection of Him, but we're looking for justice to happen in our day-to-day life in the world we live in. And there's the constant influence of evil and the presence of evil is there, and we get to experience that and it hurts and we get wronged. I think you were saying before we started recording that, "Why are good people suffering?" So how does the justice, the Messiah is going to bring, play into that? Does it affect or touch our day-to-day life?

Kylie Calloway
Well, yeah, I mean, for me, I think it's that big Christian word, the justification. Though, they were looking for an external, a tangible, a touchable kingdom. You know, it's something deeper inside of us. You know, you said "To be made right." I don't think we're made right, I think we're declared right. According to the theological term justification. So there's nothing that we can do to make ourselves right. There's no amount of works to make ourselves right. It's just faith and that He came, that He died on the cross, and then because of the blood of Jesus Christ, He declares us righteous. And that's, to me the justice that I received, from the injustice of the sin nature that is upon me. That when He looks at me, He declares me right, or righteous.

John Mulholland
And I liked the way you described, like it's not simply an external thing that God is after, that Jesus is after, there's something else. And we can have all of those external things fixed, but there's still something wrong, and that thing that's wrong is me. And as we've gone through the book of Judges, like no matter how many times God sends a judge to deliver them from whatever situation they're in because of their own sin, and I know we're going to talk about that a little later in another session. But the fix is not the external thing, the fix is not, "I need food or I need this." I mean, it's not that those things are wrong to want, but that's not the thing, necessarily that Jesus is ultimately after. So this justice is not only an external thing, but that's the justification that you're talking about. It's what Jesus does to me, to my heart, so that when He sees me, He sees me through the lens of Jesus.

Kylie Calloway
I believe there is an external coming in the end times and new Heaven and the Earth being set up. I think that's where we have to live by faith and not by sight of what's going on and trust God, that ultimately He will bring the justice that we think of in America. That He will bring that to evil and those crazy things that happen to good people. I believe that time is coming, and I believe for this passage, is that's to me, is what he was talking about. That there is a justice coming, they just didn't realize it was Him dying on the cross for their sins.

Jon Simpson
Yeah, when it says, "He will bring justice to the nations," you know, He's not going to crush the weakest reed He's going to come with a sensitivity. He's not going to yell and shout, you know, He's coming with peace, which Jesus did come to bring peace to the world. And the peace was in the, specifically the Jewish nation in Jesus' time, when He came to the Earth, was looking for, you know, they were looking to get out from underneath the oppression of Rome. And they wanted peace as a country and the freedom to do their own thing and to control their own destiny. And they weren't able to do that. and so they were looking for, like we've said, a tangible, a real king that would establish a kingdom, or He would set things right for the nation. But the justice that Jesus really came to bring, as you said, was the, to justify us and to help make it so that we can be made right. And our sins, as you said, can be forgiven and the relationship between the human race and God can be restored.

Kylie Calloway
Right, and I think, for justice to happen, there has to be an ultimate judge, which God is. And I think that's why the Bible says, "There's no longer any condemnation and those that are in Christ Jesus." Because in the court of law, when I stand before Him, since I've been declared righteous by Him. Then I'm no longer condemned before Him, and that's the justice that I get to receive now.

Jon Simpson
And how powerful is that to be able to walk in a right relationship with God in the midst of injustice, that's going to happen to me in my daily life. I'm going to be treated wrongly by the people around me, the world systems against me, the enemies against me, and people are sinful and I'm sinful. I'm not going like, "Walking in this perfect world where nothing happens that's offensive or hurtful," is probably not going to happen. And I'm going to experience injustice in my tangible, real life. So how powerful is being justified before God, and to walk in that, does it have a relation to my day-to-day life? Or I get to experience the goodness of God in the midst of a sinful world, is there a connection there?

John Mulholland
Yeah, and I think that was you before, you know, you mentioned Micah 6:8, "No oh people, the Lord has told you what's good, He's told you what's required of you. Do what's right, love mercy, walk humbly with your God." We had a conversation in one of our small groups recently. You know, we look at the world and we see so much that's wrong with it, and we want justice, people want justice. This is a popular topic, people want justice. And as much as we want to see justice on that macro scale, which is going to come only through Christ, I think as Christians our responsibility is to bring and demonstrate and manifest what justice looks like in my own life. So if I see something I don't like, the fix is not, the fix may be addressing that thing, but the fix is addressing what's wrong in my heart that causes me to judge that thing that I don't like. Like, rather than being mad at someone or I'm frustrated with somebody because they're acting like a sinner, because they are, if it's somebody that's outside of Christ, why would we expect someone who's not a Christian to act like a Christian? I think the micro piece, the day-to-day for me is, to remember that I have been justified by Christ. Christ is doing a work in me and my responsibility is to manifest that justice to other people. To demonstrate the same justice that God did to those other people, which is recognize, you know, I hear, "Somebody oughta pay for that." Or there's a bad thing that happens, "Somebody's got to pay for that, that needs to be made right. And in the back of my mind, I just want to shout, "Somebody did pay for that, His name is Jesus." And how fantastically glorious is that reality?

Kylie Calloway
So we've received this, being declared right, by how? By faith in God's grace, because there what you're saying is, "We need to show more grace to these injustices and things that are happening to us." Which would then be the image of the father.

John Mulholland
Right, taking on, and so then we, this may be a little controversial, so then we don't shout. We don't raise our voice in public, we don't do the things that frankly, so many of the three of us see so much on social media. People in each one of our churches and other churches in town raising up this clamor, which is clearly not an accurate representation of who God is and what He would have us do.

Jon Simpson
Yeah, because we've been justified, made right freely by His grace, we don't have to force justice to happen in every situation. It's one of the things that is maybe not, maybe it's a little counter-intuitive, although Jesus lays it out clearly. The justice movement of our day does not offer forgiveness, nor show any grace, nor exemplify mercy. It's about punishment, it's about paying for things and if that's the world we're going to live in, we're going backwards. Because Jesus has offered us a way out of that, into a path of peace, where it's possible for us to have peace with each other, because we've been made right. Our sins have been you know.

John Mulholland
So when you show who you are, you'll know what to do.

What's New at Cross Reference Library? Amazing Grace

Showdown With Iran -  Bible prophecy expert Mark Hitchcock, PhD, is noticing a dangerous trend: the nation of Iran remains in the newspaper headlines for all the wrong reasons. In Showdown with Iran, he reveals why this rogue nation is so dangerous and how that connects to what the Bible says about what’s to come while encouraging readers to remain alert, aware, and hopeful as the end times near. He tackles questions such as:

• Does Iran plan to wipe Israel off the map?

• What does this mean for the future of the Middle East? 

• Where does Iran stand in Bible prophecy?

• What will be the role of the United States in Bible prophecy?

The warning of what will happen is not new. In the book of Ezekiel, the Bible records a multitude of predictions about the region then known as Persia as well as about the nation of Israel. These ancient prophecies foretell an end-time rise of Iran, as well as Russia and Turkey. But are the prophecies still unfulfilled today? Hitchcock is convinced Iran continues to play a central role in bringing about chaos in the Middle East. In Showdown with Iran, he explores the continued validity and accuracy of end-time prophecy and answers questions that will become increasingly relevant as the end times draw near. 

Lost in the Middle - The Bible never discusses midlife, just like it never discusses teenagers. Yet the Bible is able to address any of life’s experiences because it was written by the One who made them all. You will face things in midlife that beat at the borders of your faith, but you do not have to be lost in the middle of your story. You do not have to be paralyzed by regret, defeated by aging, and discouraged by the passing of your dreams. This middle period of life, which can seem like the end of many things, can actually welcome you to a brand new way of living. As is so often the case in your walk with the Lord, this moment of pain is also a moment of grace. 

The Next Jihad - News of Christians being killed overseas occasionally makes the headlines, but it’s rarely covered by mainstream media and often quickly fades away. While the world has been fixated on jihadist threats in the Middle East, terrorists from Nigeria to Kenya have had free reign to massacre on a scale far beyond that of terrorists in Iraq and Syria. Drawing from on-the-ground experience and personal testimonials, Rev. Johnnie Moore and Rabbi Abraham Cooper--two of the world’s leading advocates for religious freedom and human rights--explain what’s happening to Christians across Africa, why it matters, and what must be done now. 

Grace - We talk as though we understand the term. The bank gives us a grace period. The seedy politician falls from grace. Musicians speak of a grace note. We describe an actress as gracious, a dancer as graceful. We use the word for hospitals, baby girls, kings, and pre meal prayers. We talk as though we know what grace means. But do we really understand it? Have we settled for wimpy grace? It politely occupies a phrase in a hymn, fits nicely on a church sign. Never causes trouble or demands a response. When asked, “Do you believe in grace?” Who could say no? Max Lucado asks a deeper question: Have you been changed by grace? Shaped by grace? Strengthened by grace? Emboldened by grace? Softened by grace? Snatched by the nape of your neck and shaken to your senses by grace? God’s grace has a drenching about it. A wildness about it. A white-water, riptide , turn-you-upside-downness about it. Grace comes after you. It rewires you. From insecure to God secure. From regret-riddled to better-because-of-it. From afraid-to-die to ready-to-fly. Grace is the voice that calls to change and then gives the power to pull it off. Let’s make certain grace gets you.