What's New at Cross Reference Library?

The Gifted Sophomores - Three High-School Sophomores—A cheerleader, a nerd, and a jock—rescued from the rubble of an earthquake. Miraculously healed of their injuries, then gifted with mysterious powers. 

One can see into the hearts of others.

One has feet that carry him to people in need.

One can’t stop talking about the Lord.

Before the earthquake, they weren’t even friends. Now, working together for Christ, they’re an evangelical dream team. But what will happen to their ministry when their brand-new gifts suddenly vanish? 

Vicious Cycle -  When fifteen-year-old Lance Covington finds an abandoned baby in the backseat of a car, he knows where she came from—she’s the newborn daughter of a meth addict he’s been trying to help. But when police arrest him for kidnapping, Lance is thrust into a criminal world of baby trafficking and drug abuse. His mother, Barbara, looks for help from Kent Harlan—the man whom she secretly, reluctantly loves and who once helped rescue her daughter from a mess of her own. Kent flies to her aid and begins the impossible work of getting Lance out of trouble, protecting a baby who has no home, and finding help for a teenage mother hiding behind her lies. In this latest novel of suspense and family loyalty, bestselling author Terri Blackstock offers a harrowing look at drug addiction, human trafficking, and the choices that can change lives forever. 

Lion of Babylon - Marc Royce worked for the State Department on a variety of clandestine assignments—that is, until personal issues led to his dismissal. When Alex Baird goes missing in war-torn Baghdad, State comes calling again. Alex is an intelligence agent—and a close friend of Royce. Three others have also dropped out of sight—a nurse, an aid worker, a wealthy young Iraqi. Are these cases linked? Rumors circulate about a kidnapping conspiracy, yet both American and local officials refuse to pursue it. Blocked at every turn, Royce eventually unearths a trail of secret encounters between sworn enemies. What he discovers could transform the course of rivalry and reconciliation throughout the Mideast. As the human and political drama escalates, can one man summon the courage to make a difference?

How Do We Determine What To Preach? - 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, Tyson Lambertson, John Mulholland and Jon Simpson.

Jon Simpson
We've been discussing preaching. And some of the, maybe letting you behind the scenes a little bit as to how we determine how to preach and what to preach on, and hopefully giving you a little insight into that. Sometimes people wonder how pastors come up with what they do and there's different opinions on styles of preaching. Be it topical or expository. Should you preach through a book of the Bible? Can you preach on a topic? We kind of talked about that a little last time, so we wanna discuss a little bit more maybe how we determine what to preach on in a given year, kind of how we lay that out and what influences those decisions. So, John, how do you kind of look at that in your church?

John Mulholland
Well, like I said last time, for us it's more expository in nature than the topical piece. Try and manage that Old Testament, New Testament piece. So, then we kind of look at, what haven't we gone through? So if a book of the Bible is gonna kind of guide our primary thinking, what haven't we talked about? So are we preaching through, are we teaching through things that we haven't talked about before, and what does that look like? But also just you know, knowing what's happening in our church body. Tyson, you know, you talked about praying and listening to the Holy Spirit, and certainly those things are a huge part of that because of what God is teaching us and wanting us to talk about. A lot of those conversations too, come from staff meetings of like, "What are we kind of," without actually asking the question, "What are we seeing, feeling, hearing from our church body?" But just like being in tune with our other pastors who are connected to small groups and serving teams. Like, you know, "What are we thinking that we see?" And then we set up that calendar, we do operate on a yearly calendar. Usually by October I start getting antsy, cause we want to know what we're gonna teach on in the year. So we're about a year ahead on our teaching. So I would say prayer, discernment of the Holy Spirit, and then just conversations and awareness of what's happening in our local church body of what we kind of feel like we need to teach on.

Tyson Lambertson
I think that's great. You have to pray, be aware of what the Holy Spirit's doing and where you're wanting to take your church as far as the discipleship model or the method where you want to take the scripture. And if you connect that to your small groups and how that works, if you do your small groups in conjunction with your sermon series and all those. So one of the benefactors that I have is, I have a very intelligent wife. Her name's Tammy and she's very in tuned with the Holy Spirit and helps guide how we preach, what we preach, when we preach it. And gives me some feedback on, I'll say, "Hey, what do you think about doing the book of 1 Corinthians or doing a topic on marriage?" or something along those lines. And she'll say, "Yeah, you know, I think that should wait, maybe we can fit it here. This would be better." So just listening to the Lord and listening to my wife and really being sensitive to what's happening to our people, that in the life of our people is so, so important.

John Mulholland
Yeah, and I think a big thing, an advantage, you know, a window that we have into the lives of the people that go to our churches, like social media. What kinds of things are they---

Tyson Lambertson
That gets dangerous.

John Mulholland
It can get dangerous. But what kinds of things are they talking about? So like for, you know, last year we went through---

Tyson Lambertson
Loving your enemies.

John Mulholland
Yeah, we went through the book of Revelation last year, because I just have this sense that people are thinking like, "Oh, you know, we're living in the end times, it's the end of the world," all that kind of stuff. So let's tap, maybe tap into that angst that people are feeling and hopefully coach and guide them through what scripture has to say on those things. How about for you? How do you decide?

Jon Simpson
So one of the things I do throughout the year, I am trying to listen to the Holy Spirit and watch, as you said Tyson or you guys have said, what's going on in the church? What are issues and stuff that we're dealing with or that I see happening in their struggles maybe? And then just the culture at large, what are the issues that are happening in our culture around us? That, you know, because we're so connected to the world it seems like we feel personally connected to something that happens on the other side of the globe, you know, if there's a tragedy. So I think that is what's happening in the world and what the are issues there. And so I kind of take that all together and just let that sort of ruminate in me. I feel like God at times gives me, whether it be a book of the Bible or whether it be, you know, a particular issue to address right? And so just like I said the last series I was in, The Lies That Satan Tells Us. Well, through the last year, I just felt like I was watching, and of course it happens to me, but I see it happen to people where they're believing a lie that the enemy is interjecting. And I see it happen and honestly it makes me angry because it always leads to destruction right? So I'm like, "I want to address that, you know, that's an issue, that's a problem that I see in the world." So then it's like, you know, figuring out, where does the scripture speak to that? And what does the Bible say and how do we? So I think that is kind of what guides me. I've always, since I was a church planner I was coached to do a year, you know, plan that year out. So I always try to go in January. If I have a team, I take some of my team and we just pray over it and talk about, and ask God, seek God, and then look at our church and all that stuff, and try to plan out a year. And you know, 2020 was kind of encouraging, cause that was my first full year here. And of course I went out away in January with Ken, our worship pastor, we figured out, kind of planned the year out. And then as COVID hits, as stuff happens, you know, things just fell in place. Where it's like I had, you know, I did a series on, you know, Fear Less, I think it was, and then I came right after everything kind of was blown up. And it was like, just very timely, I felt like God had really led and it made me feel like, "Okay, God, you're with me in leading this church, you know, and trying to prepare people, cause I know it's not me." But that's where I really trust God to, you know, lead that way and give us the right stuff to address. And so anyway, it's a year out and it's looking at that and then yeah, whether it's a book of the Bible or whether it's, like I said, an issue or a topic, and then just trying to deal with that.

John Mulholland
Now you said a second ago, you said, "Well, that's where you get into trouble," so how do you like, when we see like---

Jon Simpson
Yeah.

John Mulholland
I see the people at Mitchell Berean are really wrestling with they're believing lies. The people at The Rock are doing this, the people at Westway are doing that. Like how, that getting into trouble, explain that. As a pastor, I know what you mean by that. So how do you tackle some of those things without it being, cause this is something I wrestle with. Do you tackle some of those things without wanting it to be like, "I'm looking at you cause I saw what you posted on Facebook last night?"

Tyson Lambertson
So one of my pastor mentors said this to me, "That God always calls you to a place to do a work in you first, and the other, second." More times than not, my sermon series are on something that I've been struggling with and I'm going through. And the minute I preach it, the minute I say I'm gonna preach it, I'm going to deal with that situation a week before or week after, a month before or a month after, there's something that God's doing in me. So what is God doing in me that He can do a deep work in me so that I can give it away? Because other people are struggling with it, we're human, we all have similar issues, similar problems, similar things. And so staying on topic, not trying to curtail it to somebody, who just done you wrong. And so next Sunday you're gonna preach to that person in that pew. I think that gets you in trouble, that's what I meant.

John Mulholland
So you said, "God's doing your work in me," and I would come back on that too, and say, "There have been things that I've read in scripture." And be like, "Oh man, this would be really good like at some point this would be a really good series," whatever that looks like. How much of you, do you bring into like your Sunday morning? Like how much of you, do you bring into that? Like how much do you talk about, maybe something you struggle with or something you're wrestling with or like your own---

Tyson Lambertson
Yeah, I think there's definitely a balance and I think authentic leadership is so important. Authenticity allows you to be at a level with everyone else, that I am human. And I think where we've gotten in trouble with pastors, is being above humanity. Being something above, and we're not, we're human. We all have sinned, we all have fallen short of the glory of God. And so I think there's a point where we have to be vulnerable, but how vulnerable can we be from the pulpit? When that vulnerability should probably be with some trusted, what I would call my life team. These are issues that I need to discuss with them, not to the public where it's gonna be all over Facebook, YouTube, and social media. You know what I mean? So there's that balance. I think there's that line that could be crossed. But we all need to realize that we're all sinners, we've all fallen short to the glory of God and we need His help. So personal stories, those type of things, I think there's tastefulness and I think there's things that cross the line.

Jon Simpson
Yeah, I think for me, what I'm very cautious about is that in my struggles, which I think it's important to be vulnerable. People need to see that, how we help lead people is for them to see how we wrestle through things and how we struggle with stuff, like that's leadership. I think you go, "I've struggled through this, but this is what I've discovered. This is how I've tried to follow scripture, and this is what scripture says." But I'm careful, like I'm very concerned that I, in any of that, it's sort of a counseling session for me to share, you know, my hurts, my issues. So I don't want that, that's not helpful to anybody. At the same time, I think it's important to let people in and see, you know, Paul said that, his weakness is what he gloried in, because where he was weak was where God was strong. And so he said, I celebrate my weakness and I think it's important to go, "Hey, I'm weak, like I have weak areas or I've struggled through this and this was hard," you know? And so, I think part of it for me is that it's not something that I'm personally wrestling. Like if I've worked through it and I've kind of, you know, gotten through that issue, then I think I can help others and lead them through that. But I also, I don't know, when I was younger, it was a lot of my personal life illustrating things. And I don't do that as much now, to me more now it's like, the principles inside of a point. Like, how do you get through something? Or how do you think through it? That's where I'm interjecting what I've learned or what I've experienced or what the scripture says.

Tyson Lambertson
And I don't know if you guys ever seen the meme, "If you're a pastor's kid, anything that's said can be used in a sermon," those types of things. I really try to watch how I speak about my children. I'll use funny stories and stories that would keep them in a good light. I don't want to use the stories that would tear them down or my family or anybody for that matter. But I do think there's this authenticity that people need to be able to reach out and say, "Oh, he's human too."

John Mulholland
Yeah, when I was in student ministry, and I was like coaching someone who was new coming onto our student ministry team, we would talk about like, be appropriately transparent. You know, there's a level and I think relationally, you know, I'm really grateful that Anne and I have had the opportunity to be in some really great small groups our entire Christian life. But especially since we've been here in Scottsbluff. So we've been able to share things with small group that certainly I would never share from the front. But it's always interesting for me when we share things and people's response to that. Like I had someone once in small group say, "Oh man, I always thought the pastor and his family was this." So to sit in small group and hear this, is really, and it wasn't, "This is shocking." And it wasn't like, "I'm rejecting you because it's shocking." But just people don't really, I think struggle with the concept that the people who are their pastors are human beings and wrestle with things.

Tyson Lambertson
And I think that's because of the series that we're in from the ashes and the devastation that we experienced in the last 10 months. I'm grieving and there's no better person to minister, to people who are grieving than one who's grieving. And so there's some of that identification and being able to connect personally with our own struggles, our own grief, our own mourning. So I think, I think authenticity is so important.

Jon Simpson
Well, thanks again for joining us for another session here. Hopefully this has been encouraging to you and maybe insightful.

What's New at Cross Reference Library? Love Never Fails

Love Is - What would it take for someone to live out the Bible’s “Love Chapter” as literally as possible? In a radical attempt to shake up a life that felt unlivable, Kim Sorrelle set out on a yearlong experiment. Using 1 Corinthians 13 to the letter, Kim journeyed past her comfort zone into places and among people she never anticipated. From irritating employees to sexist short-term missionaries to a group of profoundly kind nuns, she shares her many unexpected encounters in a charming voice full of rueful self-reflection and comical commentary. But this is more than a social experiment. It’s an invitation to join Kim on her journey to understand the nuance and power of true love in action even as it fundamentally transforms your life. 

A Confident Mom -  As moms, we often doubt our ability to be the mom we want to be. Unpacking powerful lessons, biblical truths, and practical tools, bestselling author Renee Swope will help you take a deep breath of God’s grace and show you how to:

• Exchange the exhaustion of constantly correcting your child’s bad habits with meaningful and creative ways to connect with their hearts.

• Discover positive and encouraging daily practices that will help you notice and nurture your child’s character and unique God-given design.

• Let go of performance-based living and learn how to pursue relationship-driven parenting.

Discover simple ways to give your child what they need most through the power of heart-centered and character-focused parenting. This book will transform your perspective of parenting and change the way you see yourself as a mom and as a child of God. 

SMART Love - What would happen if you applied the game-changing principles of emotional intelligence to your most important relationship? Smart Love is a system for understanding both your own and your spouse’s emotions, managing those emotions, and walking hand in hand through situations when emotions run high. Through personal inventories, you’ll discover where you are strong and where you need improvement, and each section includes practical action steps you and your spouse can take to implement what you’ve learned. 

In the month of February, the month of love, it only makes sense that we bring in new books about love! While we have a lot of Romance novels among our fiction books, some readers may wonder what some of those characters did wrong or what they did right in their relationships. Personally I do find myself wondering that same thing, being since misunderstandings are a famous source of conflict in most Romance novels. In SMART Love the authors David and Jan Stoop shine some light on how to more easily prevent those misunderstandings. Both being certified counselors, the Stoops dedicate their lives to helping married couples work through their conflicts. And with that experience, they decided to use this book to explain their acronym: 

Self-awareness of your emotions

Managing your emotions

Accountability to yourself, your spouse, and others

Reading the other person’s emotions

Together in the land of emotions

And together they explain how this method has helped them and how it works for so many other couples. So while SMART Love deals with the mental idea of love, Love Is explains love as it is presented in 1 Corinthians 13. “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.” Author Kim Sorrelle goes into why patience is good, why envy is one of the seven deadly sins, and even why kindness is always the best medicine. Finally, the other book I read was A Confident Mom, which comes from the perspective of a mom who was pretty discouraged while raising two rambunctious boys. She even had a day where she was ready to turn in her motherhood letter of resignation. But then she read a newspaper article where the purpose was to encourage parents to “look for the gold in their children instead of focusing on their faults.” After that, she prayed to the Lord asking for help in finding those good characteristics in her children. And sure enough, Renee threw away that letter of resignation and was able to strengthen the love she had for her sons as the gold inside their hearts had shone through. So come on down to the Cross Reference Library at KCMI and check out these love-stricken books.

Analyzing Popular Sayings: "Follow Your Heart."

Art by Amanda Cass

“Following your heart” is a spiritual concept. It’s not talking about your literal physical heart that pumps blood, but an intangible abstraction representing our truest nature. “The heart” is who we are at the core of our being. 

The advice to “follow your heart” has saturated our culture. It advises everyone that they should do whatever their emotional desires tell them.

But does this advice fit the reality we live in? 

That all depends on whether or not the heart is a positive, trustworthy force.

Let’s take a look at what the Bible has to say about the heart:

At first glance, the Bible leaves us with a pretty grim image of what dwells at the cores of our beings. We are all born with a sin nature, which means we have the natural inclination to want to defy God’s design.

Jeremiah 17:9 ESV The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

Matthew 15:19 ESV For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.

Numbers 15:39 NIV You will have these tassels to look at and so you will remember all the commands of the Lord, that you may obey them and not prostitute yourselves by chasing after the lusts of your own hearts and eyes.

Jeremiah 22:17 ESV But you have eyes and heart only for your dishonest gain, for shedding innocent blood, and for practicing oppression and violence.

Sin nature makes hearts evil and untrustworthy. Sometimes our hearts can be so misguided that following them is sabotaging our lives.

The heart also likes to play the blame game. Even when it’s our own fault that bad things happen, an unwise heart will refuse to take responsibility for its actions and will blame God for the natural consequences of our choices.

Proverbs 19:3 ESV When a man's folly brings his way to ruin, his heart rages against the Lord.

Fortunately, this is not everything the Bible has to say about hearts. We may be born with a sin nature, but thanks to Christ’s sacrifice on the cross we can put that sin nature to death.

1 Peter 2:24 NASB and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.

Romans 6:6 NASB knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;

Galatians 5:24 NASB Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

Just as faith in Christ’s death pays for our sins and brings us into God’s family, faith also gives us the ability to walk with God throughout this life. With God’s help, our hearts can be trained in wisdom, and cultivated into a more trustworthy and helpful force.

Psalm 51:10 ESV Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

Proverbs 23:19 ESV Hear, my son, and be wise, and direct your heart in the way.

Proverbs 3:5-8 ESV Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD, and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones.

Proverbs 4:23 ESV Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.

Ecclesiastes 10:2 ESV A wise man's heart inclines him to the right, but a fool's heart to the left.

Psalm 119:11 ESV I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.

Proverbs 28:26 ESV Whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom will be delivered.

Psalm 19:14 ESV Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

When we turn to God and let Him guide our hearts in wisdom, he is able to help us through life and work all things for our good.

Romans 5:5 ESV And hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

Romans 8:28 NIV And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 

Psalm 73:26 ESV My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

Psalm 37:4 ESV Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

The Bible makes it clear that this world is plagued by sin. If we are honest with ourselves and really do the work of digging deep down into the choices we make and why we make them, it becomes obvious that at our core, we are sinful. Our very natures are tainted by sin. This means we can’t always trust what our hearts tell us. What we want for ourselves may be selfish and is often misguided. 

This doesn't necessarily mean that everything we want is bad, it just means we should be wary of trusting our hearts blindly. If we seek out the guidance of the Holy Spirit and study the Bible to gain wisdom, we can make better choices.

---

This series of blog posts titled, “Holding on to Reason”, is named after Amanda’s favorite C.S. Lewis quote: “Faith is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted, in spite of your changing moods.”

Click here for more things written by Amanda Hovseth.

The Sin of Pride and How Do We Control It? - 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 the question this morning, "Can you address the sin of pride? How do we get a grip on it?" So like I said, I think this is a sin that probably to some degree, we all struggle with.

Gary Schick
Amen and proud of it!

Ben Poole
Yeah, we're proud of how much humility we have! Pride is a hard one, because it can come off almost so innocently and how do we address that in our own lives? What is pride? What does the Bible have to say about pride? And so I think there's a lot that we could dig into in our short period of time. So Gary, why don't you open this up with some thoughts?

Gary Schick
I think there's also confusion based on how you use that word pride. I mean, I think there's a, what we use in our language as a healthy pride, you know? Taking pride in your work, healthy self-esteem, this is I guess what you call a right and proper, appreciation of doing your best. But what the Bible's talking about with pride is actually, self-esteem out of balance, it's self to the extreme, you know? Just the first thing that comes to my mind, that I remember learning in the old King James as a kid, the word from Proverbs, "Pride cometh before a fall." And of course, probably the greatest example of that is Satan himself, which taking from some things in Ezekiel and Isaiah, it appears that he was at one point the highest of the angels. So a healthy pride would've been, "Wow, God has placed me here. What a wonderful thing!" But that wasn't enough, he wanted to place himself above God. And that's what we do when we sin pridefully. C.S. Lewis, I believe in Mere Christianity, calls pride the cardinal or root sin. The sin that is basically at the base of all other sins, where we want our own will above what God has asked of us. That takes a certain unhealthy focus on self and an unhealthy view of yourself, kind of putting yourself in the place of God. So what's the cure to that? Well, Jesus, of course, is the cure to everything and how do we come to Jesus? We have to humble ourselves. You know, when I talk to kids about the 10 commandments, I remind them that there's two sides to every commandment, you know? Thou shall not kill, well what is that? You know, don't murder, don't kill, but what's the opposite of that, that we should be doing? We should be valuing life, you know? Honor your father and mother and respect authority. So what's the opposite of that? Don't disrespect authority. We can go through all 10 commandments. Well similarly, in the cardinal sins, there's also their counterparts, cardinal virtues. And you know like, the opposite to hate perhaps would be love. The opposite to pride would be, I believe humility. And interestingly some of these great thinkers, C.S. Lewis I think, I think he got it right, pride is at the root of all sin. Another great thinker Andrew Murray, in a book on humility, actually calls humility, let's see if I can find it, "The highest virtue and the root of every virtue." You know, Jesus modeled humility and everything. He said, "The son of man came not to be served, but to serve," He humbled Himself. In Paul's letter to the Philippians he said, "Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus, who being in very nature of God did not consider equality with God something to be grasped but made Himself nothing. Taking the very nature of a servant, He humbled himself then became obedient to death, even death on to the cross. And God has exalted him to the highest place that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow every tongue confessed that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father." So Jesus, in His total obedience to the will of the Father exemplifies a healthy humility in all of its ways. And what does the scripture say to us? "Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God and in due time He will lift you up."

Ben Poole
Yeah, this is such a huge topic, and I think that a lot of what you talked about, even what C.S. Lewis said is so true. That pride really, from my perspective, is selfishness, "It's about me." And as Christians it's everything but about me. It's supposed to be about God and about others, and that should be our hearts desire. So I just kind of looked this up. There's so many different places you can look on different topics of the Bible. One of them is openbible.info, where you can type in different themes and it'll put out, you know, like the first hundred verses of that topic. Well so I put in pride just to see, and there's well over a hundred verses that talk directly about pride and pridefulness and the sin of it. A lot of them are found in Proverbs, which is a book of wisdom, which I think we ought to be reading in pretty regularly. I just wanna read a few of these: Proverbs 11:2, "When pride comes then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom." Proverbs 16:18, "Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall." Proverbs 29:23, "One's pride will bring him low, but he who is lowly in spirit will obtain honor." Jump to the New Testament, because this is also talked about in the New Testament, one that's I think really impactful, it comes out of James. That I think sometimes we don't like to talk about some of these things, because it's unpopular, uncomfortable. But this is what James 4:6 says, "But he gives more grace. Therefore Scripture says: God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble." So one thing that I strive for in my own life is, if there's pride what position is that placing in me in my relationship with God?

Gary Schick
And others.

Ben Poole
And others especially, you know? And so that realization that if I'm allowing pride to settle in my life, this is a real sin, and if I'm allowing it to settle, what does that mean? That I am in opposition to the will of God. To consider that is detrimental to the Christian to think, "I'm placing myself at odds with God." I don't know anyone who's a Christian who wants to be at odds with God. And to lose maybe the blessing of God because of selfishness and pride. And so we strive to be humble and what does that look like? And there's so many things that we could talk about there, but---

Gary Schick
Jesus.

Ben Poole
Its really yeah, what did Jesus do? He gave His life for others and we're called, you know, and I think about this even as husbands. You know, as we are to lead our family and Ephesians says, "Husbands, you are to love your wives." How? Like Christ loved the church. What did Jesus do to love the church? He gave Himself up for the church. That's how we lead our families is a sacrificial way that we would give up ourselves for the people that we love.

Gary Schick
And others, if you're in any kind of a position of power or authority, how do you view and treat those that are under your care or leadership or direction? Do you demand or do you serve? Do you lead by example or do you lead by authority and position? I tell you what, pride not only puts us out of balance, but putting us in the place of God. When we are not that, we're just vice Regents in this creation who rule under Him. But it also dries up everything that we desire, it's a love killer. Let's not forget 1 Corinthians 13, "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered." It's not proud, not self seeking. You know, in a way that definition kind of spells out what pride is. It's wanted itself, to put it in the Old King James, it puffs itself up, it puts itself first and ends up ultimately, last and alone. A lonely place to be.

Ben Poole
So you're listening to this and we're talking about pride, and you know, we don't have a whole lot of time left, but I just kind of wanna look into how do we get that? How do we get a grip on it? How do we really address, as you did touch on that, kind of at the beginning, what's the anecdote for this? Jesus. And we say that, but I wanna put some meat on that. What is that gonna look like? And I think part of it is, maybe you don't know if there's pride in your life or not. One thing that I do and I try to do regularly in my own prayer time with God is, "God, if there is sin in my life that I'm not aware of, would you help me to see it so that I can truly repent for from that?" And that's where it comes to, is this heart of, "I do not desire to be proud I want to be humble. So God, would you show me in my life where I have the sin of pride?" And then go to God in prayer and truly repent and give that up to God. And then through your daily life, I'm kind of a practical person, so I think about throughout the day, you know, one of my struggles as a Christian is anger, you know? And so I have to be really hands on with that, and really address that. And when I see a situation that I'm struggling with, that I want to be angry, I'm aware of it because it's on my mind. And I think pride or any other sin can be that way. It's in our mind, we're thinking about it and we're trying to stop Satan from having that foothold in our life that we can, "No Satan, you are not welcome here. I'm not allowing this to take place, I'm sticking with team Jesus here. You know, and I'm gonna go a different path." And sometimes, and I think pride especially, that can be really hard. Where to have that understanding that we to be like Christ and have that same mindset. That was not an easy thing, even for Jesus to do, you know? He really, you know, I think about the sacrifice He gave for the world. I mean, He was so stressed out physically as a human, nearly to the point of death already. That sweating blood was a real thing that took place, and it means that your body was so distraught that it's near death from the stress. And so I'm not saying that that's where we're at, but I'm understanding that God is full of grace, thankfully, and He sees that. But we need to understand that we're not called to live this easy life, the stress-free life. We're living a life of sacrifice, but for the glory of God.

Gary Schick
Yeah, and you know, I think of the beatitudes, and they focus on humility. And, you know, the very first, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, theirs is the kingdom." So a confession to God, "Lord, you know what, pride, It is at the core of my sin, the old sinful nature. And I can't fix that, so I just ask you to do what I can't, make me aware." We have to humble ourselves to come to Christ and we need to continually humble ourselves to say, "And Christ do your work in me." I think focusing on the virtues that come from a Christ-centered life, you know, the fruits of the spirit, praying for those and focusing on those. I think, again Paul's words in Philippians finally brought us "Whatever is true, noble, right, pure." Friendship building, well spoken, virtuous, praiseworthy, think about these things. And then, you know, I think there was some real wisdom in old Martin Luther. He would actually pray through the 10 Commandments and he'd just say, "Lord, where is something else God, in my life besides you? Where have I misused your name? Where am I, you know, not respecting others? Where am I lusting? Where am I coveting?" Where, you know, he would work through, and then finally don't ever forget the greatest, "Lord in what ways am I failing to love you and my neighbor?" God will show you the pride in places and the places of sin in your life. When you do the work to declare your need for Him, when you put your focus on the virtues, and when you physically pray through the Commandments, and let Him do the weeding. Don't be so proud that you think you can do this by yourself.

Ben Poole
Yeah, and I think I wanna close with that before we pray out of here, but I kind of give it as a warning, but kind of just a realization. If you're gonna pray to God, which you should, and you're asking Him to reveal some things, or show some things, be prepared to listen. You know, be prepared to listen and then be obedient because He's not gonna lead you down a path that He doesn't want you on. He's gonna lead you down the right one, but we need to be able to hear, listen, and obey.

What's New at Cross Reference Library?

When Angels Fight - Leslie King was only 15 years old when she was trapped in a life of prostitution. She became one of the thousands of sex-trafficked individuals in the United States, often invisible to “regular” people who know nothing of the seedy underside of that life. Sold by men who promised love but delivered only heartache and caught in drug addiction to escape from the pain, Leslie’s life offered little future hope. Then God spoke. And Leslie answered his call, putting all her trust in God to deliver her. She got clean, got off the streets, and started rescuing other prostituted individuals. Today Leslie is a passionate and heroic advocate for trafficked women and girls in her community and across the country. More than a gritty, no-holds-barred deliverance story, When Angels Fight also includes stories from those Leslie has encountered in her work—police officers, judges, and other advocates and activists. Leslie also arms you with what you need to fight alongside her to make a difference in your own community. Walk this hard road with her, and you’ll grieve, you’ll be empowered—and you’ll never be the same. 

Twelfth Prophecy -  Life is fraught with danger in the village of Sychar in first-century A.D. But for Abigail, the Samaritan woman, the danger lies not as much from the ever-present Roman soldiers but from the rabbi and the people of Sychar. A woman of renowned beauty, whose reputation was tarnished at an early age, Abigail is pregnant … and the father is not her elderly husband, Zakane. While protecting her lover’s name, believing he will spirit her away, Abigail is imprisoned, then nearly stoned by her neighbors. She’s befriended by the beggar Leah, but even the beggars, the lowest of the low, don’t want her around. Abigail longs for love, kindness, a home for her soon-to-arrive baby … and forgiveness for her anguished soul. The answers will come from the most unlikely places. 

The Copper Scroll - On June 1, 1956, the New York Times broke a story that captured the imagination of the world. Another Dead Sea Scroll had been found, unlike any before it, describing unimaginable treasures worth untold billions buried in the hills east of Jerusalem and under the Holy City itself. In the years that followed, scholars came to believe that THE COPPER SCROLL COULD BE HISTORY’S GREATEST TREASURE MAP, one that could not only lead to the treasures but pave the way to the building of the Third Jewish Temple. But the scroll’s code has never been broken, and experts from all sides warn that any effort by Israel to rebuild their Temple in Jerusalem would unleash a war of biblical proportions. Now, exactly fifty years after the Copper Scroll was unveiled, New York Times best-selling author Joel C. Rosenberg takes you on his most exciting and heart-pounding ride yet. 

• Saddam Hussein is gone.

• Yasser Arafat is dead.

• A New Iraq is rising. 

Now White House advisors Jon Bennett and Erin McCoy find themselves facing a terrifying new threat triggered by an ancient mystery.   

As I look back, I sometimes wonder what God had in mind. My childhood wasn’t peaceful, safe, or calm as I experienced trauma after trauma. Yet I also see God’s hand.

— Leslie King

What is the Israel of God? - 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 and Brad Kilthau.

Brad Kilthau
And Gary, as one of these questions were sent in by our listeners, it reads this way. It says, "Can you explain what Paul is talking about in Galatians 6:16 when he talks about the Israel of God," and I'm gonna read that verse. And then I'm gonna turn it over to you, Gary, and to see what your thoughts are. But the verse reads this way, "And as many as walk, according to this rule, peace and mercy, be upon them. And upon the Israel of God." And this term, Israel of God, seems to have really got a hold of our listener who is asking about what this means.

Gary Hashley
Well to start with, we should begin with that statement about, who follow this rule. And if you look at what Paul's been talking about, he's talking about, that salvation is found in the Lord, Jesus Christ. He talks up in verse 12 about the cross of Christ, and he talks later about not boasting in your flesh. But he emphasizes the need for faith, and we know that it is faith that saves. And so the rule he's talking about is the truth of the gospel. It's not like, you know, "Do this physical act, bring an offering, whatever, and you're saved." Or you know, I'd say, "It's not be baptized and you'll be saved or take communion and you'll be saved," but it's believe on the Lord, Jesus Christ and thou shall be saved. But yeah, the part that the question entails is the last three words, Israel of God, question being, what is he talking about when it comes to the Israel of God? And part of this hinges upon another word, just prior to that, which seems like a word you don't pay a lot of attention to, it's just a connective word. I'm reading from the ESV, the English standard version, "Mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God." We've talked in the past on this program about the inspiration of scripture and that we believe in the verbal plenary inspiration of scripture. Verbal, we believe the actual words that were written down by Moses or by Isaiah or by the apostle Paul, the very words they wrote, God superintendent, that those were the words that they used. Plenary has to do with the fact that all of the words, not just some of the words, not just the ones that seem like spiritual words, but all of the words were inspired. And we always like to make sure we give this little explanation. And that is in the original theological term, the original autographs or the actual copy that Isaiah wrote or Ezekiel wrote, or Matthew wrote or Paul wrote. Well in this particular verse 16 of chapter six of Galatians, "Mercy, be upon them, and upon the Israel of God," it's just a little three letter Greek word, Kai. And the question being, how is that to be translated? Because that word technically can be used in more than one way. If you have a New International Version that you like to read from, the word you find isn't 'and' it's 'even.' So it would be read, "Mercy be upon them, even upon the Israel of God," making that the same, but my ESV and the New American Standard and others, "Mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God." So that makes a whole change in how you would understand that. Is it them even the Israel of God or them and the Israel of God? And I must say that I agree with the scholars who did the New American Standard and who did the English standard version. That the context and all makes sense, that it's 'and' be upon them 'and' upon the Israel of God. So there are those who say, "Well, you know, what are we talking about here? Are we talking about the Israel of God being everybody who knows Jesus? Are we saying the Israel of God are Jewish people who've come to truly know Jesus as their personal savior? Or are we talking about the Israel of God is the church today? And saying then that the church now is Israel, that the Israel of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the Israel of crossing the Red Sea and at Mount Sinai. And the walls of Jericho falling down and the Israel with a king like David and a king like Solomon, that they were totally thrown away by God. And the church today is slipped into that spot. And we are now the Israel of God, thus saying the promises to Israel now are promises to me, promises to you if you know the Lord Jesus as savior. So if you go along with the NIV, "Mercy be upon them, even the Israel of God," you might come to the conclusion. Then we're talking about Israel of God, are believers in the church age. And we are now Israel, but I would go along with those who say, we're talking about mercy be upon them and upon the Israel of God. And if you remember, there's a spot in Romans where the apostle Paul says, "You know, not everybody who is a blood descendant of Abraham, is a spiritual descendant of Abraham." That there are those who are Jews simply because of their genetics, but there are also those who are children of Abraham in the sense that they are also not only just genetically Jewish. But they are people of faith, like Abraham was a man of faith. So that there are Jewish people who come to know the Lord, Jesus Christ, and even today with Israel set aside and Gentiles grafted in, as Paul wrote in Romans, to the faith. Yet there are Jewish people coming to faith today, and yet someday it says all Israel will be saved. But right now there are Jewish people who realize Jesus is Messiah putting their faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. So my conclusion is, and I'm not sure where Brad's going because we didn't discuss this before we started. But my conclusion is, he's talking about those who are Gentiles, who know Jesus, them and upon the Israel of God, Jewish people who have come to know the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal savior from sin. So it makes a difference. Is it the word 'and' or is it the word 'even' Bradley?

Brad Kilthau
You're gonna find Gary, that my thoughts on this are not anywhere away from what you're sharing. I mean, we're pretty much on the same thought. Kind of, when I was reading through this and thinking about what to share with our listeners about the Israel of God, that is shared in this verse. You know, it seems like in the church, we've always tried to categorize people who come to our worship services. And one of the things I found, is that years ago the Methodist church registers once contained three columns of people who would attend their worship services. You could either be considered a seeker or one who's saved or one who is sanctified. And so they would actually make this register and put your name in one of those columns after you attended church on that Sunday. So I guess it kind of, they must have had some special insight into the heart of people that other people don't have. But, you know, there's obviously always been this thought to categorize people, and I think this is one of the things that's being addressed here in the church of Galatia, by the apostle Paul. And I think he's addressing these legalists who are trying to put something upon the congregants of the church. And the argument I think that they were trying to express here is that, they had a form of legalism that had to be done in order for a person to go into heaven. And so these Judaizers, as we would call them in Bible school, I think had two columns. They had those who were legalists and going to heaven, and those who were not legalists and weren't going to heaven. They were trying to force these legalistic things upon the people. And I think it's very clear, is when you look at verse 15 it says, "If we're in Christ, neither circumcision or uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation." And so he was getting after these Judaizers who were always trying to put their rituals upon the Gentiles, and especially the Jewish ritual of circumcision. And so I believe this term is really the apostle Paul, who's kind of putting the leather to these guys, and he's making a charge against them for their false teaching. Their doctrinal deviation, their unworthy motive, because I think their motive that Paul's getting after here is really bragging rights. And that's really the motive of what most people would do when it comes to legalism, is they put legalistic requirements upon people, so they can brag. And I don't know, maybe the picture here is that when these Judaizers returned to Jerusalem and they got up in their missionary conference meetings and they got to stand up in front of all the people, they could say, "Well we traveled far and wide, and we've got all of these scallops to show for our efforts," or something like that, I don't know. But you know, it's really a great warning in application, I think for us as ministers and those who serve in the ministry today. And it's a challenge for us to make sure that we keep the gospel pure, but also that we keep our motives pure in the ministry. It's very tempting for those in the ministry to get together, have bragging sessions about the statistics that are going on in their church. And you know, sometimes we'll tip our hat obviously and say, "Well it was God, it was the good Lord that made it happen." But then we get to sit back and dwell in the limelight for ourselves, and we have to be careful that we don't fall into this. And the truth is, no one can really escape this temptation fully, because pride is one of those tender boxes that just so easily can go off in the heart of people on this side of eternity. Cause right now we are not perfectly conformed in the image of Christ, that will not happen until we get to heaven. And so we have to have this antidote, I think for this poison of pride, and that is, you know, self crucifixion of the flesh. We have to do that everyday and make sure that our motives are never prideful. And you know, I think it's kind of ironic that we're talking about this right now too, at this time of the year, because we have our church annual meetings that usually come up at the fiscal part of the new year. And we make up our annual reports and we got to be careful that we don't make these reports into bragging about our churches, or bragging about our self efforts, or bragging about these statistics that we have. We've got to make sure that we keep pride out of the ministry. And so I think that's what Paul's done here, is he set the stage in these verses with addressing these Judaizers in the church at this time. And he's saying, "Guys, there's only two categories, but there's these two categories are this way. There is the new creation, and there are those who are trying to add on to their old religion, adding salvation onto their old religion." We know that those are part of the new creation we're a new creation in Christ. We're totally new, and it comes about by faith alone in Jesus Christ. But there are always those who seem to want to add onto their old religion. That is, "Well, we'll believe in Jesus, but we're gonna keep our old rituals and our old religion. And that has to be done too, and they make the two try to come together." Now we have to make sure that we are part of the new creation because it's only about Christ and it's only about Him and His work. This new creation, it's not an improvement, it's not an addition to our old, but it's something entirely new. And so I think when he uses this term, the Israel of God, he's trying to point out something to these Judaizers. And he's trying to very pointedly say, "I'm talking about those who put their faith and trust in Jesus," not only as a Gentile and a Jew, which is the general church, but he's making an address to the Jews are born by nature, and a birth of being a Jew. And those who also accepted Jesus Christ as their Messiah. That's the Israel of God, Jews who are saved. And so again, he's taken a leather to those guys who are trying to obscure the gospel here, because the true is, as he shares here. There's no real peace and mercy for those who want to walk under the law, there's only peace and mercy for those who are part of the new creation and that's through Christ and Him alone.

Gary Hashley
And, you know, there are those who differ on this. I love reading Bob Utley's commentaries and he says, "It is, the church is the Israel of God." And I'm not gonna break fellowship because I don't agree with him, but I think it's not simply talking about the church. In fact, another author talks about the fact that, you know, Israel of God, that if we say this time, the word Israel of God refers to the church, this author says, "But the other 65 occurrences of the term, Israel in the New Testament refer to Jews." So why would there be 66 times? The word is there 65 times, it refers to people who are genetically Jewish, and one time that it's the church. I mean, I used to teach in Bible college that, if the plain sense makes common sense, seek no other sense. And if 65 times is talking about national Israel, those who are Jewish by blood, that is probably talking about those who are Jewish by blood here, put their faith in Jesus.

What's New at Cross Reference Library?

Kiss - Let me tell you all I know for sure. My name: Shauna. I woke up in a hospital bed missing six months of my memory. In the room was my loving boyfriend—how could I have forgotten him?---my uncle and my abusive stepmother. Everyone blames me for the tragic car accident that left me near death and my dear brother brain damaged. But what they say can’t be true—can it? I believe the medicine is doing strange things to my memory. I’m unsure who I can trust and who I should run from. And I’m starting to remember things I’ve never known. Things not about me. I think I’m going crazy. And even worse, I think they want to kill me. But who? And for what? Is dying for the truth really better than living with a lie? 

Burn - Janeal has long felt trapped in her father’s Gypsy culture. Then one night a powerful man named Salazar Sanso promises her the life she longs for—if she will help recover a vast sum of money tied to her father. When the plan implodes, Sanso and his men attack the gypsy settlement and burn it to the ground. During the blaze, Janeal is faced with a staggering choice. The impact of that moment changes her forever. As her past rises from the ashes, Janeal faces a new life-or-death choice. And this time, escape is not an option.  

Obsessed - Stephen Friedman is making a good living in good times. He’s just an ordinary guy, or so he thinks. But one day an extraordinary piece of information tells him differently. It’s a clue from the grave of a Holocaust survivor. A clue that makes him heir to an incredible fortune…a clue that only he and one other man can possibly understand. That man is Roth Braun, a serial killer who has been waiting for Stephen for thirty years. Roth was stopped once before. This time nothing will get in his way. Known worldwide for page-turning, adrenaline-laced thrillers, Dekker raises the stakes in this story of passion, revenge, and an all-consuming obsession for the ultimate treasure. 

Being scared. Horror book and film fans love experiencing that feeling. But when it comes down to people like me, and I’m practically a wimp, the idea of a bloodthirsty psychopath running the streets with a butcher knife or even making ridiculous demands of their victims, always makes me uneasy. In many of those books, the characters rarely ever have any hope or any awareness of a loving God. And that is how author Ted Dekker is different from other authors who write Thrillers. Beneath all the fear, occasional blood, and bloodthirsty psychopaths Ted Dekker makes sure to slip a deeper meaning into all of his books. He keeps his Christian values embedded in his work, but also makes it a challenge for his readers to try and look for that hope and love. In the selections Kiss and Burn the main characters both feel like outsiders in their own families. When Shauna loses her memory, she is constantly wondering if she really did want to hurt her brother in that crash, or if everyone was just accusing her wrongly. All while in the beginning of Burn, Janeal is realizing that the Gypsies make their living by conning people out of their money. In both scenarios they find themselves doubting what they believe in (or even what they might have believed, in Shauna’s case). Through their constant struggle, Shauna and Janeal hope for something better for their lives. Something to put their faith in, that won’t leave or forsake them. Wouldn’t it be great if they realized that they have a Father that cares about them a thousand times more than their earthly fathers did? Maybe they wouldn’t have felt so scared and alone for a majority of their stories, if they had known that unfailing love. In Obsessed Dekker’s challenge is for us to ask ourselves, “What obsession lies deep within each character? What are the pros and cons of these obsessions?” According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary, the word obsession means, “A state in which someone thinks about something constantly.” For example, the character Roth Braun was obsessed for thirty years over getting the journal back. The journal that gave him the power he desperately wished to wield in his violent way of life. With that in mind I have my own challenge for whoever is reading this post. Ask yourself these questions, “What is my obsession, and is it good or bad for my life? More importantly, do I think about Jesus constantly? Is what He did for me on the cross forever a reminder in my life? Am I obsessed with my faith, and does it show?” Please come on down to the Cross Reference Library and check out these heart-racing novels.

Do I have to keep the Law to keep my Salvation? (Eternal Security and the Book of Galatians)

“I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh?”

— Galatians 3:2-3 NIV

Many Christians feel they have to consistently follow a to-do list like the Ten Commandments or God will take away their salvation. They live in constant fear that they will inevitably make a mistake and God will cast them away. 

The Jewish Christians in Galatia were being tempted with this same mentality. They had grown up in the Jewish culture where they had to follow all the laws and traditions set in place in the Old Testament. And even though they had accepted Jesus as the Messiah, they were struggling with the idea that they no longer had to follow the Mosaic Law in order to be right with God. 

In Galatians 1:6-9 Paul explains the reason he is writing to the churches of Galatia:

Galatians 1:6-9 (NIV) I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse!

These verses bring up two questions: What is the Gospel Paul preached? And, how were people perverting that Gospel?

What is the Gospel Paul preached?

The answer to this question is thoroughly illustrated in the Old Testament and repeated over and over again throughout the New Testament, but Paul also answers it in Galatians 2:15-16:

Galatians 2:15-16 (NIV) …a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.

(For more information about the Gospel see: “How can I explain the Gospel to my friends?” and, “How does God decide if we’ve been good enough to get into Heaven?”)

How were people perverting the Gospel?

The Galatians were being told by false teachers that in order for the Gentiles to truly become and stay children of God, they would need to start following the Jewish traditions which include, but are not limited to, the Mosaic Law.

Let’s take a look at how God used Paul to address this issue:

Paul starts Galatians off by giving his credentials. He reminds them that he used to be one of the best at following the Jewish traditions and laws.

Galatians 1:13-14 NIV For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers.

There was nobody more zealous about Judaism than Paul, nobody with more bragging rights. But then Paul met Jesus on the road to Damascus and everything changed (Acts 9:1-19; Acts 22:6-21; Acts 26:12-18). Paul was shown the truth of the Gospel that day and he accepted Jesus as the Messiah. Then God sent him into the world to preach among the Gentiles.

Acts 26: 15-18 NIV “Then I asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’

“‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,’ the Lord replied. ‘Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen and will see of me. I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’

In Galatians 2 Paul begins to address the Galatians’ desires to enforce their old traditions by using circumcision as an example from the Jewish covenants (Genesis 17:10-13). He explains that not even Titus (a Gentile and fellow preacher of the Gospel) had felt compelled to get circumcised (Galatians 2:3). Paul goes on to explain that the idea that Gentiles who had accepted Jesus as their Savior needed to also be circumcised, came from false teachers.

Galatians 2:4-5 NIV This matter arose because some false believers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves. We did not give in to them for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you.

Paul is saying that Christ’s sacrifice on the cross gives believers freedom from their sins and from the conviction of the Law. If they allowed themselves to be put back under the rules of the Law it would be like becoming slaves again.

Paul goes on to explain that forcing Gentiles to follow the Jewish Laws and being ashamed of them for not following the Laws, is hypocritical. 

Galatians 2:11-14 NIV When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.

When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?

Paul was claiming that the Jewish Christians knew that salvation comes through faith in Jesus and that they no longer had to follow the Law. Yet, they were still shamefully holding the Gentiles to the standard of the Law.

Galatians 2:15-16 NIV “We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.

This, of course, leads to the following question: “If we don’t enforce the Law, are we encouraging sin?” Paul foresees this question and explains:

Galatians 2: 17-21 NIV But if, in seeking to be justified in Christ, we Jews find ourselves also among the sinners, doesn’t that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not! If I rebuild what I destroyed, then I really would be a lawbreaker.

For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!

Does refusing to hold ourselves to the standard set by the Law make us sinners? No, we already were sinners, the Law simply pointed out our sin. It is impossible for humans to follow the Law perfectly, which means following the Law was never the path towards Salvation. The Law was only there to show us how far we had fallen and to convince us we needed help. The Law was set in place to lead us to Christ. 

Furthermore, after the Law leads us to Christ, we are meant to be done with it. It has finished its job and cannot help us with our walks with God. We are meant to live our Christian lives by faith and grow in our walks with God through grace. The Law brings guilt and shame, but God wants us to use grace and faith to follow Him.

Galatians 3:1-14 NIV You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh? Have you experienced so much in vain—if it really was in vain? So again I ask, does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard? So also Abraham “believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”

Understand, then, that those who have faith are children of Abraham. Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.” So those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, as it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.” Clearly no one who relies on the law is justified before God, because “the righteous will live by faith.” The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, it says, “The person who does these things will live by them.” Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.” He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.

Our salvation and the lives which follow are BOTH accomplished through faith in Christ, not through works of the Law. Christ rescued us from the curse of the Law, He does not want us to bring that curse back into our relationship with Him. All He wants is our faith.

Paul explains further by pointing out in Galatians 3:15-22 that God’s promise to Abraham came before the Law anyway. And since it came before the Law it was not replaced by the Law and it is not dependent on the Law. 

Galatians 3:17-18 NIV What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise. For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on the promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise.

God always keeps His promises, and nothing we do could cause God to break a promise. God is not so weak or feeble of character that we as humans can stop Him from keeping His word.

Galatians 3:23-29 NIV Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.

So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

Just like Abraham before us, it is faith that makes us righteous. Being under the law made us slaves to the law, but Christ took our place by being born under the law and defeating the law. Jesus freed us from slavery and made us children of God. 

Galatians 4:4-10 NIV But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.

Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods. But now that you know God—or rather are known by God—how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable forces? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again? You are observing special days and months and seasons and years! I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you.

Once we accept Jesus’s payment for our sins we become adopted as children of God. Trying to obey the law after becoming saved through faith, is like inheriting a tax-exempt, amazing new home which you could have never afforded, but deciding to go sleep out on the streets again until you can earn enough money to buy the house for yourself. This would be foolish and prideful. Christians are children of God and God wants us to confidently live under the “roof” and security which He has provided. Why would anyone want to go back to how life was before becoming a child of God?

Jesus suffered and died so that we could be free. If we foolishly decide to keep trying to be made right with God by obeying the law, we need to understand that we will be made responsible for keeping the entire law, and that is impossible. 

Galatians 5:1-6 NIV It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.

We cannot rely on both Christ’s sacrifice, and on following the law. Grace cannot be earned, it is the unmerited and freely given favor of God. Trying to follow the law, is trying to earn God’s grace. It is illogical and foolish to try to earn something which, by its very nature, is given to those who are unable to earn it. If we insist on earning our own way to Heaven and to being sanctified we are turning down God’s grace, alienating ourselves from Christ. And without Christ, we will fail. 

John 14:6 NIV Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

God’s grace, given to us through Christ’s sacrifice, is the only hope we have at being accepted by God and we attain this acceptance by faith, not by works.  

Trying to follow the law doesn’t make anyone righteous, all it can do is point out how terrible we are. Jesus set us free from the guilt the law brings. We should live our lives basking in that freedom, grateful that we will not be judged by God for how inadequate we are at following the law.

Paul finishes up his letter to the Galatians by claiming the only reason people were insisting on following the law was so that they would look good outwardly to other humans. He says they were scared of being persecuted for relying on Christ’s sacrifice and just wanted to disguise themselves to look more like the world around them. 

Galatians 6:12-15 NIV Those who want to impress people by means of the flesh are trying to compel you to be circumcised. The only reason they do this is to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ. Not even those who are circumcised keep the law, yet they want you to be circumcised that they may boast about your circumcision in the flesh. May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is the new creation. Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule, even to the Israel of God.

When the book of Galatians is read in context as one complete letter, it is obvious that God does not want Christians to place themselves back under the law. The law was fulfilled by Christ’s sacrifice on the cross and its only job in the lives of Christians was to point us to Christ for salvation. Trying to follow the law after we have accepted Christ’s payment for our sins will only stunt our growth as Christians. We cannot grow in grace, faith, and love if we are living under fear, shame, and judgment.  

1 John 4:18 NIV There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

Hebrews 4:16 NIV Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. 

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Recommended Reading: “Disciplined by Grace” by J.F. Strombeck, “This insightful and practical book demonstrates that the Christian life is to be lived the same way it began at salvation―all by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ.”

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This series of blog posts titled, “Holding on to Reason”, is named after Amanda’s favorite C.S. Lewis quote: “Faith is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted, in spite of your changing moods.”

Click here for more things written by Amanda Hovseth.

How Were The Scriptures Written? - 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 last week, if you tuned in, we were talking about different ways people interpret scripture and how it came to those who wrote it down. And we kind of came to a point near the end of our discussion, talking about where the Bible came from, and how that works out into our lives. How can we trust it? Do we take a blind faith to what the Bible says about all these different things? How do we know that the scriptures are true? And so we thought, at least for this week and maybe more, we'll just see where the conversation takes us. But talking more about how we got the Bible and how that plays out into our lives. So I'm gonna hand it over to Gary.

Gary Schick
Well, and yeah, I thought it was a fun conversation last week and you know, the scripture gives us some hints. I mean, like I mentioned last week in Peter's letter, he talks about how people did not just basically write down whatever they wanted, they were carried along by the holy spirit. And we talk about where Paul writes to Timothy, "All scripture is God breathed, it comes from God." So this is what scripture says about itself, but how do we know it's true? And so I just wanted to dwell on that a little bit today because yes, we take God's word by faith, but it is not a faith without evidence. It is a well-founded faith. It is a faith that basically to my mind, it takes more faith to not believe the scriptures than to believe them. And I say that for several reasons, there is both internal evidence in the Bible that shows me that it really is truly God's word and there is external evidence. And so I just want to click off some of the evidences for scripture. First of all, if the Bible really is God's word, what would we expect? We would expect that it actually claims to be so, right? And no kidding. The Bible does claim to be so, over and over again, there are phrases like, "The word of the Lord came," or "The Lord said," and these are things that don't just happen now and then. This kind of, "The word of the Lord came," or "The Lord says," shows up no less than 3,808 times in the Old Testament alone.

Ben Poole
That's impressive.

Gary Schick
Yeah, I mean, I guess you could write a fictional book where in it you say, "The Lord said," so that doesn't actually prove that it's God's word. But if it's God's word, you would expect it to say so and tada, less than almost 4,000 times, 3,808 in the Old Testament, it says, God said. And then you have things like fulfilled prophecy. And I know there are other quote-on-quote scriptures in the world or books that claim to be scripture, but this is really unique to the Bible. Where you have, for example Micah 5:2, the Savior's gonna be born in Bethlehem and then you move onto Luke 2, Jesus is born in Bethlehem and we hear the story on how he gets there. Now Jesus has no control over where He's born. Did it just so happen that He was born in Bethlehem? And you know, that's gonna be of course the argument of people. Well, yes, there's some coincidental fulfillments. Oh no. Oh, over and over and over again in scripture, we read about these fulfillments and not just in Jesus' life. I mean, in the Old Testament, it's such a long book, I mean, it takes over 1500 years to write it. You have these early prophecies of other things that are gonna happen, and you read later on in the Old Testament how these things happen. And not just, sometimes they're within the same book, like the Lord said to the king, "You're gonna win or lose in battle today," and it happened that day. But there's other ones like, you know, when Jericho fell there was a prophecy about what would happen if anybody ever rebuilt it. And several books later, generations later, unrelated people later, it happens. And then in the life of Jesus, I don't have it right in front of me, but even for Him to have fulfilled a fraction of the number of prophecies that relate to Him, the statistics against it happening are gazillion to one. I mean, it's just impossible. And Jesus didn't fulfill a handful of prophecies about the Messiah, He fulfilled all of them. And there are many prophecies. So this one about fulfilled prophecy, that's kind of a big deal. And then you just have the, I guess you wanna say, the continuity of scripture. It really reads kind of like a story from beginning to end, and so what do you need to do that? Well, you need an author, right? I mean, whoever heard of a committee coming up with anything cohesive. And look at the Bible, we're not talking about a committee, we are talking about 40 different writers from all walks of life. Shepherds, kings, farmers, just all walks of life, they lived on three different continents, Africa, Asia, Europe. I mean, they were in different places. Three different languages over a period of 1,600 years with all the changes in people's viewpoint and understanding of how you do life over that kind of a period of time. And yet they come up with a single storyline, and it works from beginning to end. Forty writers, three continents, three languages, 1600 years. And in the Old Testament Christ is coming and in the New Testament He has come and He's coming again. And, you know, Hebrews 1:1-2 kind of talk about, you know, in the past our forefathers, you know, they got the word in various forms, but in our day, Jesus has come. And so we even see why this story has an endpoint because Jesus is the endpoint of scripture. And then God promises, His word is gonna accomplish what it promises. Isaiah 55:10-11, "My word will not come back forth," and it does accomplish. God promises His word will not pass away, Matthew 5:18. Matthew 24: 35, "And His word has not passed away." So there's a lot of internal evidence that God's word is a unique book, that it really is God's word, but then you don't even have to look in the Bible, you can just look at the Bible from the outside. You have the evidence of history, it's not just the Bible that talks about the person of Jesus. There are Roman historians who were not Christians, who reference this man Jesus, who was crucified under Pontius Pilot. His followers said he was raised from the dead. So, you know, does it say one way or another whether Jesus rose again, we could go off, just have a whole conversation about proofs for the resurrection of Jesus. The evidence is, there is early historical evidence from outside of the Bible. Jesus lived, Jesus was a teacher and a healer, He was crucified under a specific Pontius Pilot. And His followers said, "Yup, He rose from the dead." There's sociological evidence, I guess you could call it, there's some things going on in Genesis that just seem weird to us. In terms of, what do you do if you can't have a child? And so Abraham does some things where his wife Sarah gives him her maid servant, and we would go, "Wait a minute." But that was actually common at that particular time in history that Abraham was identified with. We didn't know that until they started, archeologically digging up documents from the era of the Galileans, where Abraham grew up. And oh, some of this stuff that we never could figure out why this was happening it wasn't part of God's plan, but Abraham tried some things that were sinful, but it was common in the culture. And over and over again, the archeological evidence, archeology, you know, there's people would say, "Well, of course the Bible's not true. It says there's a town there and there's no town there." Archeologists start digging with a shovel, guess what they find, they find the town. So there's archeological evidence, there's historical sociological evidence, there's historical evidence. And then there's the manuscript evidence, you know, nobody questions, the writings of Homer, Aristotle, Socrates, or Plato. We have a handful of copies and they're very late. Like Plato lived here and the earliest copies from thousands of years later. We have from the New Testament, I mean, there's a scrap of John that's from, could have been written while John was still alive. We have thousands of copies over and over again, and you can put them all together and you know, is there an error or a change in spelling on a name or something here and there? Yeah. But has there ever been found anything that makes a difference in what we believe? No, probably the biggest question wasn't about the New Testament, it was for a long time about the Old Testament, because the oldest copy that we had of the Old Testament was a thousand years after the time of Jesus. I think it's called Leningrad Codex which is over in Russia. And so people would say, "Well, yeah, that's the Old Testament as we have it now, but what was it really like before Jesus?" Well, then they dug something up called the dead sea scrolls and these things go back what, 2 to 400 years before, or 200 years before Jesus. And so all of a sudden they're reading the Isaiah scroll and they're comparing it to the Leningrad Codex, more than a thousand years later. In a whole chapter, they may find one slight variation in a three letter word, and again, the meaning has not changed at all. And there's a reason for that, the Jews, true they lived in a day when they had to hand copy everything, but they had figured out how many letters were in every book of their Bible. And so they'd get, you know, finished writing the 150 chapters of Psalms, and then they would go back and count the letters, and if it didn't match upright, they'd crumpled it up and start writing over. They were meticulous. So there's the manuscript evidence, it hasn't changed. And then there's just the Bible's endurance in the face of opposition. People have tried to outlaw it, burn it, get rid of it. This book, we still have it, and I don't know about you, Ben, but I've heard about the many lives that the Bible's changed. And I lied, I do know about you cause I know you, I've seen how it's changed your life. I've seen how it's changing my life. This is a living book, this is God's word and it is alive and changing lives. I don't just believe the Bible's God's word because it says so, I believe it's God's word cause I know so in my own life, and then there's all this other evidence besides.

Ben Poole
Yeah, and I think that's really where it comes down to is, as a Christian digging into God's word will show evidence in your life of a life changed. I know for me personally, I would not be in any way who I am today without God's word affecting my life. It's what I love about Hebrews writers says, "Word is living and active and we read it." It's like growing up and I always heard, you could read one passage one time, read it another and you gained something else. I mean, there's always more to learn because the author of the scriptures is the creator of the universe, and He knows what we need in it. And I wanted to just kind of put some numbers out real quick that I was thinking about. When we were talking about these different writers of history that are taken as, how would I put it, secular gospel truth of whatever they were writing nobody questions.

Gary Schick
Or that they wrote it.

Ben Poole
Yeah, nobody questions Homer or Plato for fact. So since Plato lived, the closest evidence of his writing was found 1,300 years later. That's the closest they can come to. There are only seven manuscripts of anything he wrote. Seven, and it is taken as truth. Aristotle, another famous historian that we read about in school growing up. Closest manuscript to his original writings is 1,400 years, there's five copies.

Gary Schick
And they probably don't match up all that well, who knows.

Ben Poole
Right, they are what they call reconstructions.

Gary Schick
Okay, so that means, so they've actually gone in and changed things?

Ben Poole
Things have changed in what was being said. Now let's just look at the New Testament. The closest we come to the original writers is 100 years. Again, could have been while John was still alive in that one piece. There are 14,000 manuscripts.

Gary Schick
Yeah, tons of them.

Ben Poole
And they are all telling the same truth. The reason I believe that there's such an issue with the disbelief of scripture, is because this is Satan's playground. If he can get you to question the authority of scripture, in a lot of ways, everything else crumbles. And that's where we have to be so careful. So this is more than just numbers and we're trying to tell you, there's a lot of actual, physical proof that the scriptures are absolutely true. But you have to in some ways, you've got to investigate and invest into this to know it.

Gary Schick
Well, so confronted with that, are you willing to let the Holy Spirit come in and change your life? And that's, I think why we don't wanna believe it because, if this is true then wait a minute.

Ben Poole
Our life has to change.

Gary Schick
Yeah, I have to line my life up to God. I can't make God fit into my box, I have to fit into His picture. And you know what? That is painful at times. But as I look at where I'm at and where I've been and where I'm headed, I'm just like, "You know, and it's gonna hurt some more Lord, but keep making me more in the image of Jesus," because I don't wanna be who I was without Him. I don't even wanna be who I was five, six years ago with Him. And it hurts, but God, God is faithful, and His word is true. And, you know, you talk about how you keep getting more out of it. The meaning doesn't change, but the applications and the way it applies, you just didn't see it before. And there is just so much depth there, because of its true author, the Holy Spirit.