vassal of the King

Join us this Sunday night at Christ Fellowship Bible Church as we study the biblical period of the Messianic Kingdom. We will look at a number of elements that will characterize this important area of study. This is a very neglected doctrine in theological studies and the future hope that we as believers have of "reigning with Christ" on earth during the Kingdom should encourage us and energize us with hope and expectation! See you this Sunday at 4PM at CFBC!

Richard Baxter provides six helpful points on the husband and wife's roles to each other. Duties of a husband & wife to each other: 1. Entirely to love each other … and avoid all things that tend to quench their love. 2. To dwell together, and enjoy each other, and faithfully join as helpers in the education of their children, the government of the family, and the management of their worldly business. 3. Especially to be helpers of each other’s salvation: to sir up each other to faith, love, and obedience, and good works: to warn and help each other against sin, and all temptations; to join in God’s worship in the family, and in private: to prepare each other for the approach of death, and comfort each other in the hopes of life eternal. 4. To avoid all dissensions, and to bear with those infirmities in each other which you cannot cure: to assuage, and not provoke, unruly passions; and, in lawful things, to please each other. 5. To keep conjugal chastity and fidelity,

The Use of the OT in the OT — “The LORD is my Strength & My Song” By: Geoffrey R. Kirkland Christ Fellowship Bible Church The Biblical Texts Themselves: Exodus 15:2 (MT & Eng)  עָזִּ֤י וְזִמְרָת֙ יָ֔הּ וַֽיְהִי־לִ֖י לִֽישׁוּעָ֑ה זֶ֤ה אֵלִי֙ וְאַנְוֵ֔הוּ אֱלֹהֵ֥י אָבִ֖י וַאֲרֹמְמֶֽנְהוּ׃ (“Yahweh is my strength & song. And he has become my salvation. He is my God and I will praise Him; the God of my Fathers & I will exalt Him.”) Isaiah 12:2 (MT & Eng)  הִנֵּ֙ה אֵ֧ל יְשׁוּעָתִ֛י אֶבְטַ֖ח וְלֹ֣א אֶפְחָ֑ד כִּֽי־עָזִּ֤י וְזִמְרָת֙ יָ֣הּ יְהוָ֔ה וַֽיְהִי־לִ֖י לִֽישׁוּעָֽה׃ (“Behold God is my salvation. I will trust and not be afraid for Yahweh, the LORD, is my strength and song. And he has become my salvation.”) Psalm 118:14 (MT & Eng)  עָזִּ֣י וְזִמְרָ֣ת יָ֑הּ וַֽיְהִי־לִ֗֜י לִֽישׁוּעָֽה׃ (“Yahweh is my strength and song. And He has become my salvation.”) Examination of Specific Texts: The earliest occurrence of the phrase “my strength and song and He has

Here is how John Piper connects the dots (in commenting on how Jonathan Edwards connected joy & suffering together): Yes, becoming a Christian adds more trouble to life and brings persecutions, reproaches, suffering, and even death. Yes, there are overwhelming sorrows. But the pursuit of infinite pleasure in God, and the confidence that Christ has purchased it for us, does not contradict these sufferings, but carries them. By this joy and this hope we are able to suffer on the Calvary road of ministry and missions and love. "For the joy that was set before him" Jesus endured the cross ( Hebrews 12:2 ). He fixed his gaze on the completion of his joy. That gaze sustained the greatest act of love that ever was. The same gaze-the completion of our joy in God-will sustain us as well. The pursuit of that joy doesn't contradict suffering, it carries it. The completion of Christ's great, global mission will demand suffering. Therefore, if you love the nations, p

The Drama in the Home Everybody loves Bill. The consensus is that his perceived spiritual maturity and humble servant’s heart have been an encouragement to many. When he isn’t running his moderately successful engineering firm, he volunteers for his local church. The pastors love him and usually include him in their quarterly planning retreats. There is one problem however. Bill’s wife, Mary, cannot stand him. No one knows this, but Bill. She has been living with a low-grade animosity toward him for nearly 20 years. The only reason she has not left is because of the stigma of divorce and what it would do to their kids. Mary’s issue with Bill is that he is a hypocrite and her assessment is spot on. Bill is a self-absorbed religionist, who has learned how to manage the gap between who he really is and the person he presents himself to others . The problem for Bill is that he cannot maintain his hypocrisy in every context of his life. His home is the one place where he

Here are some very helpful resources to inform your thinking on biblical (" nouthetic" ) counseling . INTRODUCTORY ARTICLES Is There Any Difference Between Biblical Counseling & Christian Psychology? by John MacArthur and Wayne Mack. This is a very helpful, brief, and compelling overview showing the vast differences between biblical/nouthetic counseling and the so-called Christian psychology methods. What Distinguishes Biblical Counseling from Other Methods? by David Powlison In this blog entry, Powlison shows how biblical counseling is fundamentally different than other methods because the view of God, man, sin, hope, and change are all vastly different. The Mandate for Biblical Counseling by Paul Tautges There are helpful resources here, quotes, definitions, and he draws the link (rightly so!) between discipleship and biblical counseling. We Are All Called to Counsel In this blog, Jeremy Lelak argues that every Christian is called to counsel one another

Excellent reminder from H. A. Ironside: "If you are afraid that perhaps the love of money is getting a hold on your soul, start giving some of it away and see how you feel! If you feel really glad then you are still safe, but if it almost breaks your heart then it is time to get down on your knees and pray to be freed from this sin of covetousness! It is going to ruin you unless you are delivered from it."

Biblical Counseling is a theological and ministerial task. The mission is to make counseling an enterprise that is centered on Christ, based on His Word, and located in the local church. In other words: counseling cannot be neglected by pastors nor by local churches. It is centered on Christ, based on His Word, and located within the context of the local Church. So then, every Christian who is theologically informed and biblically saturated, while devoted to prayer and trusting in the Spirit, is competent and able to biblically counsel others. From: Heath Lambert, The Biblical Counseling Movement after Adams , 23.

Why is integrating Scriptural truth with discovered, scientific (psychological) truth is misleading; The Misnomer So-called "Christian Psychology" Integration is virtually impossible. Christian psychology sets aside the historical-grammatical method of interpreting Scripture and replaces it with a hermeneutic centered on pathology. Such a hermeneutic views man not as a sinner but rather as a victim whose victimization has left him with deeply buried feelings of anger and inferiority, which in turn cripple his life through “dysfunctional” behavior. This approach sees man’s fundamental problem as ignorance of himself and his psychic injuries, rather than deliberate disobedience to and ignorance of the living and true God. Man’s primary need becomes esteeming himself more highly, rather than dying to self and living for God through faith in Christ (Romans 6:8-14). It is upon these two premises, adopted from humanistic psychology, that “Christian” psychology has built its co

Many folks who read this blog may find themselves actively involved in churches all around America — and perhaps the world. A text that so helpfully clarifies the role that Christians should have in the lives of others is 1 Thessalonians 5:14: "And we encourage you, brothers, to admonish the unruly, encourage the faint-hearted , bear with the weak; be patient with everyone." Here is a very fitting reminder of some specific ways that YOU can encourage a particular group that is often prone to being "faint-hearted" — pained, distressed, crushed of spirit: Here's another person or set of people that we need to be encouraging, and those are our pastors and our spiritual leaders --the elders, the deacons, the church staff members, and their wives. We have come into an era today where it is so hard to be in a position of spiritual leadership because the "in vogue" thing is to criticize. And all around us we're seeing the wreckage of churches

I received this question from some ladies in church last night: Why is it that Exodus 3.2 says that "The angel of the LORD" appeared in the burning bush & then later in the account it equates the angel with God? The same thing also is recorded by Stephen in his sermon in Acts 7 . Can you help clarify this? I responded in an email & thought it may be helpful to post it here as well. Who is the Angel of the Lord in Exodus 3.2 in the Burning Bush Narrative? The Biblical Texts: Exodus 3:2-4   2 The angel of the LORD appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not consumed.  3 So Moses said, "I must turn aside now and see this marvelous sight, why the bush is not burned up."  4 When the LORD saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, "Moses, Moses!" And he said, "Here I am." Cf. Acts 7:30-34 where the in