vassal of the King

Join us for CFBC's Super Study . Friday, Dec 30th @ Pastor Geoff's house | 7-9pm. Our topic is: Is the Bible Really Sufficient for All of Life? Bring your questions for a time of discussion & examining God's Word to see how God's Word speaks to various issues. Five particular areas of how God's Word is currently being attacked will be the primary focus of the time. Join us; bring your friends; and your questions. It will be recorded and you'll be able to listen to & download it from our church website .

Let's take heed to this text of Scripture which God gives to His people: Zechariah 8:16-17 16 'These are the things which you should do: speak the truth to one another; judge with truth and judgment for peace in your gates. 17 'Also let none of you devise evil in your heart against another, and do not love perjury ; for all these are what I HATE ,' declares the LORD."

Can anyone guess where this picture was taken?

Hear this exhortation from the 18th century but it is certainly just as relevant now as it was then: "It is to parents that the injunction is delivered, "thou shalt teach these words to thy children diligently, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thy house," and, "bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." No pastoral attention should be intended, nor can be adapted, to supersede or interfere with this solemn parental obligation. But the pastor should labour to the uttermost to urge and keep the parents of his flock up to the right discharge of their duty. There are few of us who are not sorrowfully convinced that little is too be expected from our sermons in the pulpit, or our instructions in the class-room, while all our endeavours are so miserably counteracted by the neglect of domestic instruction, and the want of parental solicitude. It is not intended to justify pastoral neglect by advancing the obligations of parental duty, for p

From James Smith (mid 19th. century): Jesus loved, labored, suffered, bled, died, rose, ascended, and intercedes--to save His people from their sins! He is the perfect husband who . . . brings us into marriage-union with Himself, provides for all our necessities, and assures us of His unalterable love! He gives us . . . His arm to support us, His fullness to supply us, His name to entitle us, His robe to cover us, His angels to guard us, His Word to assure us, and His Heaven to be our habitation at last! Now this must launch us to Ephesians 5:25ff where we learn that, as husbands, we must strive to love our wives just as Christ loves His own . How are YOU doing with this kind of shepherding, kind, selfless, protective, God-centered husbanding?

From a pastor to the men of his congregation. I think it is absolutely right on. ==================== Men, I can’t believe how ridiculous this is, but I am writing tonight to urge you to take your families to church on Sunday, December 25th. Before it is a holiday, before it is a family gathering, before it is anything else it is a Sunday: a day set aside by God himself to worship. It is a day that your elders have called the church together to worship. It is a day that you should be actively planning to take your family to church. There is no excuse, not one, for not taking your family to church on Sunday. There may be some of you who will be out of town; find a church and take your family there. There will be some of you who are in town; you know where and when we meet. There is no reason for missing church on Christmas Day. In fact, a good argument can be made that of all the days to worship God, we should worship on Christmas Day. If we do not you are telling your fam

2 Timothy 4:2 — preach the word; be ready in season and out of season (κήρυξον τὸν λόγον, ἐπίστηθι εὐκαίρως ἀκαίρως) Amos, the prophet from Tekoa in Southern Israel, was called by God to prophesy doom and judgment upon the people of Northern Israel because of their social injustice, false & idolatrous worship, and wickedness. He just warned Israel through visions (ch.7) that God would come and severely judge His people. Then in 7:9 Amos said that the high places will be desolated, the sanctuaries of Israel will be laid waste, and God will rise up against the house of Jeroboam with the sword. A prophet named Amaziah then went to King Jeroboam II and said that Amos has conspired against him (7:10, 11). Then Amaziah the prophet responded to Amos and said: Amos 7:12-13 — Then Amaziah said to Amos, "Go, you seer, flee away to the land of Judah and there eat bread and there do your prophesying! "But no longer prophesy at Bethel, for it is a sanctuary of the king and a royal r

( sorry about the kids sticking out their tongues; who taught 'em that?? )

As of yesterday afternoon, our family made a transition in our life & ministry. After a decade of being in LA, a new ministry opportunity opened up to serve as pastor of Christ Fellowship Bible Church in St. Louis. After packing the moving truck, getting our car shipped, renting a car, and a two-day R&R at a beach-house, we all finally arrived in St. Louis last night where my parents happily met us & drove us to their house. Today we go to our rental house which, in God's providence, is very close to the church we'll be meeting at so that we can have a walk through with our property manager. Then the moving truck arrives so we can unload everything. I'm still working on my sermon for this Sunday but the text is on 2 Timothy 3:16-17—one of the most important texts in all of the Bible. Elizabeth and I are excited to church-plant, ready to see God's power at work in ways that we never anticipated, expectant of many trials and hardships, and an overwhelming com

" You hate all workers of iniquity !" Psalm 5:5 "It is not a little dislike--but a thorough hatred which God bears to workers of iniquity. To be hated by God is an awful thing. O let us be very faithful in warning the wicked around us, for it will be a terrible thing for them to fall into the hands of an angry God!" Charles Spurgeon "What a vile thing is sin, which makes the God of love and Father of mercies--into an enemy to His creatures; and which could only be purged by the blood of the Son of God!" Thomas Adams "Not only the work--but worker of iniquity also becomes the object of His hatred." William Gurnall "Those whom the Lord hates, must perish. What is more due to such impenitent sinners, than hatred? What is more proper than wrath--since they treasure up wrath? Will He entertain those in the bosom of His love--those whom His soul hates? No! Destruction is their portion. What is that which Christ hates? As Christ hates iniquity, so

You know the story. Daniel 2 recounts the historical situation where King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon requested that the "wise" men of his empire reveal the dream and the interpretation that was troubling him. Obviously, they couldn't do it. So the King's order remained. All the wise men are to be killed because of their inadequacy to fulfill the King's command. But Daniel heard about this and went before the King and asked for some time so that he may make known the interpretation of the King's dream. Then the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a night vision (2:19). *NOTE* the very first thing Daniel did was to pray to the Lord and acknowledge God's utter sovereignty. He did not (first!) run and tell the king so as to save his life. He could have (and, perhaps, many of us would have done that). But he rather took the time to pray and acknowledge that it was God who revealed the dream and its interpretation. In Daniel's prayer (2:20-23), some amazing

From John Stott: It is God himself who in holy wrath needs to be propitiated, God himself who in holy love undertook to do the propitiating, and God himself who in the person of his Son died for the propitiation of our sins. Thus, God took his own loving initiative to appease his own righteous anger by bearing it his own self in his own Son when he took our place and died for us. There is no crudity here to evoke our ridicule, only the profundity of holy love to evoke our worship. (John Stott, The Cross of Christ , 175). What infinite mystery to the grace & mercy of God upon such sinners like you and me!