Target, Transgenderism, and Beyond: Some Conservative Proposals

As I survey the current conversation on gender identity, Target bathrooms, etc., I want to share a few thoughts. Transgender bathrooms aren't really the issue. For me as a Christian minister, the problem is with trying to break down God's design for gender as our individual reflection of Him. Note, the thoughts that follow are largely inspired by conservative evangelical thinkers, for example Dr. Albert Mohler, whose clear thinking and engagement with the news of the days through the lens of the Christian worldview, has shaped my own thoughts as of late. Those who know me will not be surprised at my conservatism.

For some time now, it has been increasingly clear that every congregation in this nation, and engaged Christian, will be forced to declare itself openly on a host of issues related to biology, sexuality, and gender, whether it is homosexuality, LGBT issues, or specifically transgenderism. 

That this moment of decision and public declaration will come to every Christian believer, individually, should be clear by now. For me, the issue is a binary. A Christian (or a church) will recognize transgenderism (or same-sex relationships, etc.), or he/she (they) will not. 

In other words, a congregation will teach a biblical position on the sinfulness of same-sex acts, or it will affirm same-sex behaviors as morally acceptable. Ministers will perform same-sex ceremonies, or they will not. 

Transgender rights is but the next phase of a gay rights revolution which has been underway for some time. Transgender is the “T” in LGBT, but it is not a sexual orientation. It describes those whose perception of their gender identity does not match their biological sex.

Whereas transgender used to be considered a condition to be remedied, advocates are telling us that is no longer the case. Recently, the American Psychiatric Association removed it from its list of disorders with the expressed purpose to remove the stigma from the condition. Indeed, as Time magazine has argued, we seem to be at a “tipping point.” Just as homosexuality has been mainstreamed, so advocates seek to mainstream transgender rights as well.

The public consequences of normalizing transgenderism are upon us. School systems across the country are beginning to allow boys who identify as transgender to make use of girls’s restrooms and locker rooms. 

The state of New Jersey, where I live, has made it illegal for licensed counselors to help a child embrace a gender identity that matches his sex. Medical professionals recommend sex-change surgeries for some transgender persons, and some parents are pursuing surgeries for minor children who experience conflict between their gender and bodily identity. Medicare has lifted its ban on sex reassignment surgeries. The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) has at different times seen majority support in both houses of Congress and would make it illegal for employers to make personnel decisions based on gender identity—a measure that would restrict the religious liberty of Christian employers.

The transgender revolution presents us with a moment of ministerial urgency. 

As Christians, we have the privilege and responsibility to love our transgender neighbors and to minister the gospel to them. We also need to come alongside brothers and sisters who are trying to walk faithfully with Christ while feeling deep conflicts over their gender identity.

The severing of gender identity from biological sex has implications beyond those who identify as transgender. The gender revisionists are telling us that it is wrong to raise our little boys to be little boys and our little girls to be little girls. Instead, we are told, gender norms should be treated as fluid and unfixed. To teach otherwise is to trade in oppressive gender roles that have little relevance to the modern world.

For all of these reasons and more, Christians are going to have to meet the transgender challenge as a matter of great pastoral and missional urgency. We must be clear about what the Bible teaches and be faithful to live that message out in a culture that is increasingly out of step with biblical norms. 

First, we must recognize that all persons are created in God’s image and are made to glorify Him (Gen. 1:27; Isa. 43:7). However, we note that the Fall of humanity into sin and God’s subsequent curse have introduced brokenness and futility into God’s good creation (Gen. 3:1-24; Rom. 8:20). For that reason, there are those whose experience of this brokenness includes a perceived conflict between their biological sex and their gender identity (Rom. 8:22-23).

God’s good design for gender identity should be determined by biological sex and not by one’s self-perception—a perception which is often influenced by fallen human nature in ways contrary to God’s design (Eph. 4:17-18). We must affirm God’s original design to create two distinct and complementary sexes, male and female (Gen. 1:27; Matt. 19:4; Mk. 10:6) which designate the fundamental distinction that God has embedded in the very biology of the human race. These are the  distinctions in masculine and feminine roles as ordained by God as part of the created order, and these distinctions should find an echo in every human heart (Gen 2:18, 21-24; 1 Cor 11:7-9; Eph. 5:22-33; 1 Tim 2:12-14).

As Christians, we should invite all transgender persons to trust in Christ and to experience renewal in the gospel (1 Tim. 1:15-16); and we should love our transgender neighbors, seek their good always, welcome them into our congregations as they repent and believe in Christ, and spur them on to love and good deeds in the name of Christ (2 Cor. 5:18-20; Gal. 5:14; Heb. 10:24). We should regard our transgender neighbors as image-bearers of almighty God and condemn acts of abuse or bullying committed against them.

But we should also condemn efforts to alter one’s bodily identity (e.g., cross-sex hormone therapy, gender reassignment surgery, etc.) to bring it into line with one’s perceived gender identity. As Christians, we should oppose steadfastly all efforts by any court or state legislature to validate transgender identity as morally praiseworthy (Isa. 5:20).

Notably, some Christians will want to exercise their freedom to advocate politically on this issue. For those Christians who are comfortable with such advocacy, they should commit themselves to pray for and support legislative and legal efforts against transgender advocacy and normalization.

Other Christians, sharing a conviction against political involvement, should commit themselves to praying for our nation and the moral confusion of our times.

In the mean time, we should call on our churches to commit to guard our religious liberty to teach and preach the Bible’s message about sex and gender; and we should teach and model for our own children the Bible’s message about manhood and womanhood.  

Our love for the gospel and urgency for the Great Commission must include declaring the whole counsel of God, including what God’s word teaches about God’s design for us as male and female persons created in His image and for His glory (Matt. 28:19-20; Acts 20:27; Rom. 11:36).

Soli Deo Gloria.

On Christian Zeal

Fritz von Uhde 1848 – 1911 "Walking to Emmaus"

Henry Saulnier headed up the ministry of Chicago’s Old Pacific Garden Mission from 1940 to 1986, where he was a bundle of compassion and whirlwind of activity. Even into his 80’s, Saulnier endured increasing arthritic pain to work late into the night at the mission. During Gospel meetings at invitation time, he regularly hobbled up and down the aisles of the mission auditorium, tenderly placing an arm on the shoulders of sin-ravaged men, nudging them to go to the prayer room for personal counseling to receive God’s pardon and a new life in Christ.

What kept him going? How did he motivate others? He once summed up his philosophy of Christian work in one unconventional sentence: Work like the blazes, but give God the glory.

What Mr. Saulnier had was Christian zeal. 

We all have some idea of what zeal is, for to a certain degree we are all zealots. The question is not whether we are zealous but what we are zealous for. Zeal runs in our veins for what we love and against what we hate. We so passionately love some things, such as family, careers, and houses, that we are willing to make considerable sacrifices for them. Conversely, we hate oppression, a bad political decision, or gross injustice. Zeal is a two-way street of “for and against.”

But the Christian isn’t simply called to generic zeal. What is missing today in churches is godly or sacred zeal. William Fenner (1600–1640) wrote, “Zeal is the fire of the soul.… Every man and woman in the world is set on fire of hell or of heaven.… Zeal is the running of the soul. If thou be not zealous for God, thou runnest away after the things of this world.”

Wrong kinds of zeal

1. Counterfeit zeal looks one way while pursuing something else. It is the hypocritical zeal of Jehu who, in 2 Kings 10:16, boasts about seeing the glory of the LORD, but really has his eye on his own gain in the kingdom. 

2. Blind zeal is what Romans 10:2 describes as pretending to honor God without truly knowing Him.

3. Turbulent zeal is bitter envy or jealousy (James 3:14).

Right kinds of zeal

True zeal is the divine grace that inclines all affections for God. There are many branches upon which this root bears fruit and many marks that indicate its true nature. These include the following:

1. God-centered zeal. Because the author and object of zeal is the living God, the zealous Christian has a fervent love for God and craves His presence.

2. Biblical zeal. In contrast to the false zeal for God that Paul refers to in Romans 10:2, sacred zeal is according to knowledge, meaning it is confined by the rules of Scripture. Thomas Brooks (1608–1680) wrote, “Zeal is like a fire: in the chimney it is one of the best servants, but out of the chimney it is one of the worst masters. Zeal kept by knowledge and wisdom, in its proper place, is a choice servant to Christ and saints.”

3. Self-reforming zeal. Thomas Brooks said zeal “spends itself and its greatest heat principally upon those things that concern a man’s self." Beginning with a sincere examination of self is crucial for it prevents the damnable error of hypocrisy.

4. Active zeal. Having knowledge of God, whom we love, we are zealous in devoting ourselves to the duties required of us in the gospel.

5. Consistent zeal. The bodies of cold-blooded animals take on the temperature of their environment. Warm-blooded animals have bodies that strive to maintain a steady temperature. The zealous Christian is a warm-blooded creature, resisting both the lethargy of cold heartedness and the fever of fanaticism.

6. Sweet and gentle zeal. Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758) said that we must learn what it means to be a bold warrior for God from the Captain of all God’s armies: Jesus Christ. Christ boldly spoke against sin, hypocrisy, and false teaching. Yet, Edwards reminded us, when Christ was surrounded by enemies like “roaring lions,” He showed his strength “not in the exercise of any fiery passions; not in fierce and violence speeches,” but in “patience, meekness, love, and forgiveness.” Jonathan Edwards wrote,

As some are mistaken concerning the nature of true boldness for Christ, so they are concerning Christian zeal. ’Tis indeed a flame, but a sweet one; or rather it is the heat and fervor of a sweet flame. For the flame of which it is the heat, is no other than that of divine love, or Christian charity; which is the sweetest and most benevolent thing that is, or can be, in the heart of man or angel.

What do we do is our Christian zeal is lagging?

1. Pray for grace to rightly understand the need for Christian zeal.

2. Pray for grace to be motivated rightly for Christian zeal.

3. Pray for grace to be humbled by your lack of zeal for Christ and His glorious kingdom.

The Value of God's Promises

We never face any life-situation for which God has not supplied specific promises that give us mercy and grace to help in time of need. The old Puritan Thomas Watson put it very quaintly in a sermon to his little congregation in England on Sunday, August 17, 1662: 

Trade much in the promises. The promises are great supports to faith. Faith lives in a promise, as the fish lives in the water. The promises are both comforting and quickening, the very breast of the gospel; as the child by sucking the breasts gets strength, so faith by sucking the breast of a promises gets strength and revives. The promises of God are bladders (flotation devices) to keep us from sinking when we come to the waters of affliction. O! trade much in the promises; there is no condition that you can be in, but you have a promise.

J. I. Packer comes round to the same point in his book Knowing God:

In the days when the Bible was universally acknowledged in the churches as “God’s Word written,” it was clearly understood that the promises recorded in Scripture were the proper, God-given basis for all our life of faith, and that the way to strengthen one’s faith was to focus it upon particular promises that spoke to one’s condition.

A promise, of course, is a declaration that one will do something. The promises of God reveal his particular and eternal purposes to which he is unchangeably committed and upon which believers can totally depend. Of course, these promises are made in the context of covenant, and are conditional upon obedience on the part of believers. So, what are the value of God's promises? This question can be answered by considering God Himself.

1. God's promises are irrevocable

God's promises are irrevocable because He is absolutely trustworthy:

      "God is not man, that he should lie, 

      or a son of man, that he should change his mind. 

                  Has he said, and will he not do it? 

      Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?" (Nu. 23:19)

"...in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began..." (Titus 1:2)

"For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, saying, “Surely I will bless you and multiply you.” And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise. For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation. So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us." (Heb. 6:13-18)

God's promises are irrevocable because He is unchanging

      The LORD has sworn 

      and will not change his mind, 

                  “You are a priest forever 

      after the order of Melchizedek.” (Ps 110:4)

“For I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the LORD of hosts. But you say, ‘How shall we return?’ (Mal 3:6–7)

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures."  (Jas 1:17–18)

God's promises are irrevocable because He has the power and will to fulfill His promises

      so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; 

      it shall not return to me empty, 

                  but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, 

      and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. (Is 55:11)

God's promises are irrevocable because He is faithful in keeping all His promises

"Not one word of all the good promises that the LORD had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass." (Josh 21:45)

“And now I am about to go the way of all the earth, and you know in your hearts and souls, all of you, that not one word has failed of all the good things that the LORD your God promised concerning you. All have come to pass for you; not one of them has failed. 15 But just as all the good things that the LORD your God promised concerning you have been fulfilled for you, so the LORD will bring upon you all the evil things, until he has destroyed you from off this good land that the LORD your God has given you, 16 if you transgress the covenant of the LORD your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them. Then the anger of the LORD will be kindled against you, and you shall perish quickly from off the good land that he has given to you.”  (Josh. 23:14–16)

"Blessed be the LORD who has given rest to his people Israel, according to all that he promised. Not one word has failed of all his good promise, which he spoke by Moses his servant." (1 Kings 8:56)

      Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, 

      and your dominion endures throughout all generations. 

                  [The LORD is faithful in all his words 

      and kind in all his works.] (Ps 145:13)

"Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful." (Heb 10:23)

Being Obedient to God

Robert Kupferschmid was an 81-year old man with no flying experience. However, due to a tragic emergency, he was forced to fly an airplane. 

Some years ago, he and his pilot friend, Wesley Sickle, were flying from Minneapolis to Indiana. During the flight, the pilot slumped over and died at the controls. The Cessna airplane began to nose dive and Kupferschmid grabbed the controls. He also got on the radio and pleaded for help. 

Flying nearby were two pilots who heard the call. There was a nearby airport and the two pilots gave Kupferschmid a steady stream of instructions for climbing, steering, and – the scariest part – landing the plane. The two experienced pilots circled the runway three times before the somewhat and inexperienced Kupferschmid was ready to attempt the landing. Emergency vehicles were called out and ready for what could be an approaching disaster. 

But as Kupferschmid brought the plane in, the nose nudged the center and bounced a few times before the tail hit the ground and the Cessna coasted down the runway until it ended up in a patch of soggy grass next to the runway. 

Amazingly, Kupferschmid was unhurt. How did he do it? This pilot listened and followed the instructions of the experienced pilots as if his life depended on it – and of course it did.

Imagine what would take place in our lives if we listened to and obeyed the Word of God with the same earnestness? 

I believe God expects obedience from His children. I am not saying He is not with us when we are disobedient, but I do believe the Bible teaches that when we are obedient, God's promise to be with us becomes an ever-increasing reality in our lives. When we are obedient to Him we are much more able to recognize His presence than at times when we are disobedient.

When I consider the life of Joshua (Josh. 1:1-9), the successor of Moses, I realize there were two primary ways he was obedient to God.

First, he was obedient to God's word. 

Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. – Joshua 1:7 (ESV)

Joshua and Israel's victory depended on their adherence to the Word of God, and this is just as true today. God calls upon us to search His Word — let it be that which counsels us, the food of our souls, and the sword with which we face our enemies.

Second, Joshua meditated upon God's word.

This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night... – Joshua 1:8a (ESV)

It is by meditation that we really make this Word our own. Meditation allows us to digest God’s truth. In my experience, mere intellectual acquaintance with the letter of Scripture does us little good. It is only as you weigh carefully what God has revealed that you will gain spiritual power which will enable you to rise above your difficulties and triumph by God’s grace.

A Biblical View of Temptation

The biblical idea of temptation is not primarily of seduction, as in modern usage, but of making trial of a person, or putting him to the test; which may be done for the benevolent purpose of proving or improving his quality, as well as with the malicious aim of showing up his weaknesses or trapping him into wrong action. ‘Tempt’ in the KJV means ‘test’ in this unrestricted sense, in accordance with older English usage. It is only since the 17th century that the word’s connotation has been limited to testing with evil intent.

The idea of testing a person appears in various connections throughout the Bible.

1. Men test their fellow human beings, as one tests armour (1 Ki. 10:1; cf. 1 Sa. 17:39; māsâ both times), to explore and measure their capacities. The Gospels tell of Jewish opponents, with resentful skepticism, ‘testing’ Christ (‘trying him out’, we might say) to see if they could make him prove, or try to prove, his Messiahship to them on their terms (Mk. 8:11); to see if his doctrine was defective or unorthodox (Lk. 10:25); and to see if they could trap him into self-incriminating assertions (Mk. 12:15).

2. Men should test themselves before the Lord’s Supper (1 Cor. 11:28: dokimazō), and at other times too (2 Cor. 13:5: peirazō), lest they become presumptuous and deluded about their spiritual state. The Christian needs to test his ‘work’ (i.e. what he is making of his life), lest he go astray and forfeit his reward (Gal. 6:4). Sober self-knowledge, arising from disciplined self-scrutiny, is a basic element in biblical piety.

3. Men test God by behavior which constitutes in effect a defiant challenge to him to prove the truth of his words and the goodness and justice of his ways (Ex. 17:2; Nu. 14:22; Pss. 78:18, 41, 56; 95:9; 106:14; Mal. 3:15; Acts 5:9; 15:10). The place-name Massah was a permanent memorial of one such temptation (Ex. 17:7; Dt. 6:16). Thus to goad God betrays extreme irreverence, and God himself forbids it (Dt. 6:16; cf. Mt. 4:7; 1 Cor. 10:9ff.). In all distresses God’s people should wait on him in quiet patience, confident that in due time he will meet their need according to his promise (cf. Pss. 27:7–14; 37:7; 40; 130:5ff.; La. 3:25ff.; Phil. 4:19).

4. God tests his people by putting them in situations which reveal the quality of their faith and devotion, so that all can see what is in their hearts (Gn. 22:1; Ex. 16:4; 20:20; Dt. 8:2, 16; 13:3; Jdg. 2:22; 2 Ch. 32:31). By thus making trial of them, he purifies them, as metal is purified in the refiner’s crucible (Ps. 66:10; Is. 48:10; Zc. 13:9; 1 Pet. 1:6f.; cf. Ps. 119:67, 71); he strengthens their patience and matures their Christian character (Jas. 1:2ff., 12; cf. 1 Pet. 5:10); and he leads them into an enlarged assurance of his love for them (cf. Gn. 22:15ff.; Rom. 5:3ff.). Through faithfulness in times of trial men become dokimoi, ‘approved’, in God’s sight (Jas. 1:12; 1 Cor. 11:19).

5. Satan tests God’s people by manipulating circumstances, within the limits that God allows him (cf. Jb. 1:12; 2:6; 1 Cor. 10:13), in an attempt to make them desert God’s will. The NT knows him as ‘the tempter’ (ho peirazōn, Mt. 4:3; 1 Thes. 3:5), the implacable foe of both God and men (1 Pet. 5:8; Rev. 12). Christians must constantly be watchful (Mk. 14:38; Gal. 6:1; 2 Cor. 2:11) and active (Eph. 6:10ff.; Jas. 4:7; 1 Pet. 5:9) against the devil, for he is always at work trying to make them fall; whether by crushing them under the weight of hardship or pain (Jb. 1:11–2:7; 1 Pet. 5:9; Rev. 2:10; cf. 3:10; Heb. 2:18), or by urging them to a wrong fulfilment of natural desires (Mt. 4:3f.; 1 Cor. 7:5), or by making them complacent, careless and self-assertive (Gal. 6:1; Eph. 4:27), or by misrepresenting God to them and engendering false ideas of his truth and his will (Gn. 3:1–5; cf. 2 Cor. 11:3; Mt. 4:5ff.; 2 Cor. 11:14; Eph. 6:11). Mt. 4:5f. shows that Satan can even quote (and misapply) Scripture for this purpose. But God promises that a way of deliverance will always be open when he allows Satan to tempt Christians (1 Cor. 10:13; 2 Pet. 2:9; cf. 2 Cor. 12:7–10).

The New Testament philosophy of temptation is reached by combining these last two lines of thought. ‘Trials’ (Lk. 22:28; Acts 20:19; Jas. 1:2; 1 Pet. 1:6; 2 Pet. 2:9) are the work of both God and the devil. They are testing situations in which the servant of God faces new possibilities of both good and evil, and is exposed to various inducements to prefer the latter. From this standpoint, temptations are Satan’s work; but Satan is God’s tool as well as his foe (cf. Jb. 1:11f.; 2:5f.), and it is ultimately God himself who leads his servants into temptation (Mt. 4:1; 6:13), permitting Satan to try to seduce them for beneficent purposes of his own. 

However, though temptations do not overtake men apart from God’s will, the actual prompting to do wrong is not of God, nor does it express his command (Jas. 1:12f.). The desire which impels to sin is not God’s, but one’s own, and it is fatal to yield to it (Jas. 1:14ff.). Christ taught his disciples to ask God not to expose them to temptation (Mt. 6:13), and to watch and pray, lest they should ‘enter into’ temptation (i.e. yield to its pressure) when at any time God saw fit to try them by it (Mt. 26:41).

Temptation is not sin, for Christ was tempted as we are, yet remained sinless (Heb. 4:15; cf. Mt. 4:1ff.; Lk. 22:28). Temptation becomes sin only when and as the suggestion of evil is accepted and yielded to.

The Puritan William Gurnall said, "The Christian’s armor decays two ways: either by violent battery, when the Christian is overcome by temptation to sin, or else by neglecting to furbish and scour it with the use of those means which are as oil to keep it clean and bright."

Helmut Thielicke in his book Between God and Satan calls temptation the ‘mad mirage of the heart’ because it offers us what we desire at the expense of reality. Satan’s temptations are temptations because they look beneficial to us. And easier. And less costly. And, frankly, not bad at all. Blind to temptation, we love to make our own bread. Mindful of our own egos, we supply our own needs if God seems slow or neglectful. Forsaking kingdom costs, we applaud ecclesial celebrities who peddle the most popular proofs of God’s power for a world addicted to the sensational. And our knees bow easily to worship tiny idols like style and preference, consumer satisfaction and a good reputation.

What do we do today? We pray:

‘Our Father who is in heaven,

Hallowed be Your name.

‘Your kingdom come.

Your will be done,

On earth as it is in heaven.

‘Give us this day our daily bread.

‘And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

‘And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. 

For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.’

God's Faithfulness and Our Trials

Have you thought about God's faithfulness in the midst of your trials? Or have you further considered how you normally view the trials that come into your life? Consider the following:

In 1851, an English missionary named Allen Gardiner was shipwrecked with a number of other people on a little remote, uninhabited island off the bottom tip of South America. They all died one at a time; he was the last one to be alive before he died. He kept a journal and they found the journal next to his body. The last entry in the journal cited Psalm 34:10, “Young lions do lack and suffer hunger.” Now here’s a man dying of hunger. “But they that seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing.”

The very last thing he wrote in his journal was essentially this, “I am overwhelmed with a sense of the goodness of God.” Here’s a man dying of starvation. Here’s a man far from home. His body is broken. All his hopes are dashed. His last words are, “I am overwhelmed with a sense of the goodness of God.” 

Now let’s think about this incident for a second. How do you and I ordinarily come to the conclusion that God is good? It’s when things are going well for us, right? When life is blossoming. When the money and health is there. When things are going the way you want. 

But here is something quite different. Everything in this man’s life had gone wrong, yet he was in contact with the goodness of God. He was overwhelmed with a sense of it. He knew the goodness of God in spite of life’s circumstances and as a result, he could face with poise anything that happened. How is that possible? Let's consider a few things about trials.

1. IN OUR ULTIMATE TRIAL, GOD HAS ALREADY PROVEN FAITHFUL IN JESUS CHRIST

“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” (Romans 5:1–3, ESV)

What happens to make a person a Christian—a child of God? First, the gospel is made known to him—the historical fact that God sent his Son into the world to die for sinners and to rise from the dead triumphant over death and hell for all who believe in him. The Holy Spirit opens the heart to see that Christ is trustworthy and more to be desired than all human treasures. When that faith happens, we are justified before God. The Spirit of God unites us to Christ so that his death becomes our death, and his life becomes our life. God laid on him the sins that we performed, and God laid on us the righteousness that Christ performed. In our ultimate trials - separation from God because of our sin - God has already proven Himself faithful in Jesus Christ. The proof of that is that God makes us Christians. Paul says in Romans 5:1 that we have peace with God and says that we now stand in grace and says that we rejoice (and ought to rejoice) in the hope of the glory of God. In fact, the glory of God and our enjoyment of it is the goal of justification by faith. This is where all of Christian life is moving.

2. IN THE CHRISTIAN LIFE, THERE WILL BE TRIALS, AND GOD WILL WORK IN THEM

Now, I’ve just said that because of God’s faithfulness, salvation comes to the Christian’s life. But something else comes to your Christian life too, namely, trials and tribulations. We must learn to see that these trials are meant for our benefit. This is what verses 3–5 are about. Paul says that trials have a gracious and purposeful place in the Christian life and that we should therefore rejoice in them.

Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 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 5:3–5, ESV)

Now, when I say that trials have a purposeful place your life and you should rejoice in them, I don’t take this lightly or say it easily. Christians around the world have been and are being subjected to the most difficult challenges, illnesses, and even death. I don’t say this lightly.

But, it is important to remember that when Paul says we should rejoice in our trials he is not speaking as a spectator, but as a fellow-sufferer. Paul’s sufferings in the service of the gospel were long and hard. Paul experienced a whole array of distresses and weaknesses and sicknesses and difficulties. But in 2 Corinthians 12:9, Paul said, 

“[Christ] has said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.’” (2 Corinthians 12:9, ESV) 

Paul’s sees his sufferings as reasons for rejoicing for he knows that in them all of Christ’s power is at work. What does this mean for YOUR trials? It means your trials are tests to your faith and are the context where Christ’s power will show up in the greatest measure in your life. It could be trials from loss of health, broken relationships, job troubles, natural disasters, verbal or physical assaults, or simply everyday inconveniences from traffic jams to plumbing problems. Anything that makes life harder and threatens your faith in the goodness and power and wisdom of God is a trial. The important thing to remember is that trials are normal, not abnormal. Jesus called those who would follow him to count the cost and expect trials and persecutions, so we can expect suffering along the path that leads to glory.

Charles Spurgeon said, “The second greatest earthly blessing that God can give us is health. The greatest? Sickness.” Spurgeon suffered from regular bouts of what he called “the black dog” - depression. To him it was a gift because it tested his faith.

Thomas Watson said, “The sickbed often teaches more than a sermon.”

3. WE CAN REJOICE IN TRIALS BECAUSE WE STAND IN GOD’S GRACE AND WE KNOW THE TRUTH

Now Paul says in Romans 5:3 the most astonishing thing about trials: “Rejoice in them.” REJOICE IN TRIALS. How in the world is this possible? The answer from verse 2 is that we are…standing in grace. 

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. (Romans 5:1–3, ESV)

By God’s grace, God’s omnipotent power to help us is given to us though we don’t deserve it. Grace produces an indomitable joy in a great test of affliction. The omnipotent power of grace is the key. We stand in this grace. But here’s the thing. This grace does not work like magic. It works through truth. Grace opens the eyes of the heart to truth and inclines the heart to embrace it and live by it. Now, what truth am I speaking about? That is what the rest of this text is about. 

“…we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 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 5:3–5, ESV).

There are three truths that Paul wants us to know and meditate on. These truths concern how grace will change us into peaceful, joyful people who rejoice in our afflictions.

1. Trials brings about endurance.

If something happens in your life that is hard or painful and by grace your faith looks to Christ and to his power and his sufficiency and you don’t give in to bitterness and resentment, then your faith endures. It becomes stronger. It’s stronger the way tempered steel is stronger: it takes more to break it. Trials are like the fire that tempers the steel of faith. That’s the first truth that grace uses to make us into joyful people who rejoice in trials. The second truth is this:

2. Endurance brings about proven character.

Paul uses a Greek word here which means “proven.” When you go through trials, and your faith is tested, and it emdures, what you get is a wonderful sense of authenticity. You feel that your faith is real. And it is real. James assures us of a similar truth in his great letter,

“Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial, for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love Him” (James 1:12).

So this is the second truth that God’s grace uses to make us into the kind of people who rejoice in trials: endurance brings about proven character. The third truth follows from it:

3. Proven character brings about hope.

How does “proven character” bring about hope? One of the great obstacles to a strong hope in the glory of God is the fear that we are hypocrites—that our faith is not real or that we just inherited it from our parents or we’re just a bunch of fakers. One of the purposes of trials is to give us victory over those fears and make us full of confidence as the children of God. So God takes us through hard times to temper the steel of our faith and show us that we are authentic. And Paul says that the more we experience trials and we endure them by standing in God’s grace, the greater will be our hope and we are sustained through it all by God’s powerful grace. So you see, times of trial becomes times of triumph for the believer.

The picture above shows an emperor moth - a truly beautiful moth from a group called the Royal Moths. A young student in one of my labs once found a cocoon of an emperor moth and took it home to watch it emerge. One day a small opening appeared, and for several hours the moth struggled but couldn’t seem to force its body past a certain point. 

Deciding something was wrong, the student took scissors and snipped the remaining bit of cocoon and the moth was able then to emerge easily. As it did the student saw that the moth’s body was large and swollen and the wings were small and shriveled.

But he expected that in a few hours the wings would spread out in their natural beauty. He waited. He waited some more. But he was disappointed that they never did. Instead of developing into a creature able to freely fly, the moth spent its days dragging around a swollen body and shriveled wings. He brought it to me for help.

Sadly, I explained to him that the cocoon was expressly designed to create a struggle for the moth. You see, the struggle necessary to pass through the cocoon is God’s way of forcing fluid from the moth’s body into the winds so they can be inflated. My student’s “merciful” snip was, in reality, a cruelty. The moth would never fly.

What is the point of the story of the moth? Sometimes, the struggle is exactly what we need. And God will be faithful to us in the midst of our trials. As you pray and reckon your life in Christ, don’t count it strange when trials and afflictions come. They will come. But rejoice and exult in the love of God to use them to temper the steel of your faith and confirm in your heart that you are indeed the child of God through faith. 

Crisis Counseling for Ministers: Thing to Consider with Cases Involving Major Illness and Injury

I've been working through James D. Berkley's Called into Crisis: The Nine Greatest Challenges of Pastoral Care (Carol Stream, IL; Dallas, TX: Christianity Today; Word Books, 1989). At the end of each chapter is a "Quick Scan" section where a minister can quickly consult some considerations when facing a pastoral crisis. Here are the considerations from the book when a minister is facing situations involving major illness and injury.

MAJOR ILLNESS AND INJURY

Immediate concerns:

1. Allow the medical personnel to do their work unimpeded.

2. The shock of sudden illness or injury affects not only the patient but all those around him or her. If you can’t get to the patient immediately, minister to the family.

3. Timing is important; get to the people as quickly as possible.

Keep in mind:

1. People with terminal diseases probably know it. Our failure to talk about it doesn’t shelter them; it isolates them. Whether now or later, they need to talk about it.

2. The adjustment to a new (and often inferior) body image can be a great crisis for illness or injury victims.

3. People need to grieve their losses or approaching death. The five stages of grief—denial and isolation, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance—can be expected in both patient and 

loved ones. These are normal, acceptable, and even therapeutic.

4. Hospitalized children need opportunities to be victors over the oppressors of pain, loneliness, and fear, to be recognized for little victories and significant steps.

5. With children, although hospitalization is traumatizing, it often is no indicator of future emotional difficulties.

Things to do or say:

1. Provide emotional and social support for the hospitalized and their families. Transportation, meals, baby-sitting, companionship, help with bills—all are part of the crisis response of caring churches.

2. Help patients sort the probable results of their injury or illness from the irrational or overstated fears, and then help them decide how to cope with impairment.

3. Give patients human touch, control over their situation, someone to talk with about what they want to talk about, the sense of being important.

4. Offer realistic hope. Help build the will to live.

5. Listen to the person who is ready to talk about death. Help her put life and faith in order so that death becomes a natural transition to real life, not a dread doorway to terror.

Things not to do or say:

1. Do not normally withhold information from the patient. In extreme circumstances (for instance, a car accident where a family is killed except for a lone member fighting for life) it may be prudent to time the release of all the details, but normally people have the right and the need to know the facts.

2. Do not make light of the adjustments an injured person may have to make to a new body image.

3. Do not talk about a patient in his presence—even one in a coma—as if the person were not there.

4. Do not give patients a sense of abandonment. Let them know when they can expect to see you, and make every effort to visit regularly.

Crisis Counseling for Ministers: Thing to Consider with Cases Involving Domestic Violence and Abuse

I've been working through James D. Berkley's Called into Crisis: The Nine Greatest Challenges of Pastoral Care (Carol Stream, IL; Dallas, TX: Christianity Today; Word Books, 1989). At the end of each chapter is a "Quick Scan" section where a minister can quickly consult some considerations when facing a pastoral crisis. Here are the considerations from the book when a minister is facing situations involving domestic abuse and violence.

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AND ABUSE

Immediate concerns:

1. Be aware of the potential for continued or more severe violence and abuse. The victim’s safety—and your own—are of primary concern

2. A victim should not stay in a situation where violence or abuse threatens. Pleas of “It won’t happen again!” are suspect.

3. Call the police for any violence or abuse in progress, and follow their instructions.

4. Do not promise strict confidentiality. You may not be able to keep the promise, either legally or morally.

Keep in mind:

1. Abused children won’t necessarily expect you to believe them. They may not divulge information harmful to the abusing parent.

2. Small children nearly never make up sexual abuse charges. They cannot make up something about which they know nothing.

3. Spouse abuse is rarely a chosen response. It is a response born in passion and frustration. Self-hatred and poor coping mechanisms often underlie the problem.

4. Spousal sexual abuse is not something an unconsenting spouse must bear. A spouse should not be violated sexually merely because he or she is married to the violator.

5. The presence of genuine guilt doesn’t necessarily indicate the end of a battering problem. Most batterers express remorse when anger subsides; many repeat their behavior.

6. Reporting abuse, as difficult as it is, must be done. Families will need support as they go to the authorities.

Things to do or say:

1. Secure the bodily safety of the victim.

2. Show love, concern, warmth. Remain unshocked by what happened. The victim needs to be able to relate the story without inhibition.

3. Listen for cryptic comments from children. Role playing, using anatomically correct dolls, and having them make crayon drawings are other ways to obtain information.

4. Remove the notion that “Christians never do such things.” All victims need to be believed, even when the accused is a Christian.

5. Help the victim and victimizer find specialized care.

6. Use a tape recorder with the permission of the victim. Tapes may well convince a skeptical parent or other authorities.

7. Report child neglect and abuse to the proper authorities. It’s required by law in most states.

Things not to do or say:

1. Do not assume an innocent parent was unaware of child abuse. Denial is common.

2. Do not castigate the abuser. You may lose the cooperation of the victim, who often loves the abuser anyway.

3. Do not ask a child “Why?” questions. They are not sophisticated enough for analysis of the problem. Stick to finding the facts.

4. Do not underplay the potential for continued or increased violence in domestic fights.

5. Do not reject offhand any report of abuse. Tend toward believing it first, and then seek to validate it.

Ode to a Cow

I recently was reading the Genesis account of creation and then later stumbled upon John MacArthur's reflection on cattle in his book, The Battle for the Beginning. Here is his reflection from pages 143–145 - an ode to the marvelous cattle of this world.

"...we begin with “cattle.” Common cattle are remarkable creatures. Their digestive system is a great wonder of creative design. Cows (in common with most ruminants) have four stomachs. Actually, it is probably more accurate to say that their stomach is a complex organ divided into four chambers. When a cow eats grass or hay, the partially chewed fiber passes into the cow’s first stomach chamber, called the rumen. There it ferments for one to two days. The presence of helpful bacteria in the rumen causes the fermentation, beginning the process of breaking down cellulose and converting it into simple sugars. This first chamber of the cow’s stomach is huge—holding the equivalent of nearly fifty gallons.

But when a cow drinks water (typically twenty–five to fifty gallons per day), most of that fluid bypasses the rumen and flows directly into the second chamber, the reticulum, where it is mixed with digestive enzymes and more fermentation bacteria. Meanwhile, peristaltic action (muscular movement of the stomach chamber) rolls the fodder in chamber one into little balls, and the partially fermented balls are then passed into the second chamber, where they are infused with the enzyme–saturated liquid.

Later, when the cow has leisure to ruminate, it will regurgitate those soggy balls of fiber from the second stomach chamber and chew them more finely before swallowing again. This is what Scripture speaks of when it designates the cow as one of those animals that chews the cud (cf. Leviticus 11:3). A typical cow spends about six hours per day eating and about eight hours per day chewing its cud.

The cud, after more chewing, is swallowed again, and this time, in a near–liquid state, it passes directly into the second chamber. The construction of the second chamber enables the chewed cud to be filtered. Smaller particles are permitted to pass into a third chamber. The larger particles that remain in the second chamber are regurgitated again for more chewing.

The third chamber is called the omasum. There, excess liquid is reabsorbed into the cow’s system and the thoroughly chewed cud is compacted while its chemical composition is broken down even more by the digestive process.

The thoroughly refined food then passes from the third chamber into a fourth, called the abomasum. This chamber works much like the stomachs of other mammals. It secretes strong acid and digestive enzymes, completing the digestive process. From there, nutrients pass into the cow’s blood system, sustaining the cow and providing vital nutrients for milk production.

This remarkable design enables the cow to enjoy a nutritious meal from a simple manger of hay, something that is impossible for mammals not equipped with multichambered stomachs capable of digesting cellulose.

It is a wonderfully efficient design, converting cellulose, which we cannot digest, into edibles—milk, cream, butter, cheese, and a long list of dairy products. The average milk cow produces more than five thousand quarts of milk each year. One cow can therefore supply milk for nearly sixty people. Cows are prodigious eaters, and one cow will also produce up to ten tons of manure in a year, returning vital nutrients to the pasture. In some cultures, the manure is even used as an efficient fuel for cooking food.

Cattle have exceptionally keen hearing and olfactory senses. A cow can smell scent up to five miles. Their cloven hoofs enable them to gallop long distances, even in marshy terrain. They are suited to almost every environment and thrive as well in the cold of Canada as they do in the heat of Florida.

And they are as useful as they are durable. Almost every part of the cow can be used for food, including the cow’s bones and hoofs, which can be boiled to extract collagen for making gelatin. The hide makes durable leather.

The cow seems to have been especially designed to serve the needs of humanity. Fully domesticated and easily bred, they can live almost anywhere people can live. They can graze on a wide variety of wild plant life and therefore are relatively inexpensive to feed and maintain. They are God’s gracious gift to humanity.

Crisis Counseling for Ministers: Thing to Consider with Cases Involving Sexual Misconduct

I've been working through James D. Berkley's Called into Crisis: The Nine Greatest Challenges of Pastoral Care (Carol Stream, IL; Dallas, TX: Christianity Today; Word Books, 1989). At the end of each chapter is a "Quick Scan" section where a minister can quickly consult some considerations when facing a pastoral crisis. Here are the considerations from the book when a minister is facing situations involving sexual misconduct in others (or even themselves).

SEXUAL MISCONDUCT

Immediate concerns:

1. The emotional stability of victims and victimizers demands first attention. Deep pain, anger, or hurt are in play.

2. You may need to try to forestall permanent “solutions” (quick divorce, violence, rash acts) born in anger or despair.

Keep in mind:

1. Lies foster marriage dissolution. Truthfulness may hurt like an incision, but it begins the healing process.

2. Lust has its attraction. It needs to be replaced with something better rather than preached into submission. The shining possibilities of truly knowing God or deeply experiencing marital love offer hope.

3. Sexual deviations usually require more than volition to be healed. Much has brought the person to this place; much needs to be done to move him or her into proper relationships. Prayer, spiritual healing, and competent counseling will probably have to team up to effect a change.

Things to do or say:

1. Hear the story. Let it all come out. It’s probably been bottled up a long time.

2. Stand for righteousness, but in an inviting way that makes the right more compelling than the wrong.

3. In cases of infidelity, work with the couple if possible. If not, build up the will and emotional strength of the cooperative one to make that person prepared for the hard work of reconciliation, should it be possible.

4. Insist on the whole story being told to a spouse who knows any part of the infidelity. Buried secrets have a way of returning and destroying tentative new trust.

5. Use the power of prayer, Scripture, the sacraments, and great music to reach deeper than the intellect.

6. Radiate hope for the ability to make things right. Believe in the people even when they no longer believe in themselves.

Things not to do or say:

1. Do not denounce persons, only sin.

2. Do not neglect the seemingly strong party. Outward calm often masks seething internal emotions.

3. Do not allow confidences to be broken.

4. Do not expect easy resolution. Sexuality is a slippery creature difficult to capture and tame.

Crisis Counseling for Ministers: Thing to Consider in Marital Crises

I've been working through James D. Berkley's Called into Crisis: The Nine Greatest Challenges of Pastoral Care (Carol Stream, IL; Dallas, TX: Christianity Today; Word Books, 1989). At the end of each chapter is a "Quick Scan" section where a minister can quickly consult some considerations when facing a pastoral crisis. Here are the considerations from the book when a minister needs to help a couple facing a marital crisis.

MARITAL CONFLICT AND DIVORCE

Immediate concerns:

1. Assess the potential for physical assault. Should one of the spouses leave the premises? Might you be in danger when you intervene? If so, call the police.

2. Decide whether to wait to be asked to help or to take the initiative. Waiting may make you more effective, but it can also allow a situation to move beyond redemption.

Keep in mind:

1. Emotions will be high. Expect tears and anger. Emotions need to be vented in a controlled situation.

2. Two people, and usually a vast supporting cast, have caused this conflict. Rarely is there a true villain and victim. There are normally two sides to the story, both of which need to be heard.

3. Resolution of the problem will likely be a long process. For months and years they have built to this crisis; a snap resolution seems improbable. Crisis counseling can help them move from destructive to constructive modes of relating.

4. Your role is to open lines of communication, to help the couple hear and understand each other, to “translate” misunderstood communication and draw out the unspoken.

5. As long as each person’s focus is on what the other ought to do, the conflict will continue. When the focus turns to “what I can do to make my marriage work,” healing can begin.

Things to do or say:

1. Provide the opportunity for the controlled release of emotions, but disallow hurtful or spiteful attacks.

2. Let both parties know you are neutral. At some time talk separately with each person to get his or her unedited version.

3. Provide understanding of the issues involved. Point out options other than the drastic ones the couple may be considering, and help the couple work through those options.

4. Encourage the couple to talk with each other rather than at or about each other. Have them voice the things they would appreciate instead of saying what they don’t like.

5. Remind them of the covenant they made with God on their wedding day and help them rebuild their marriage around self-giving agape love rather than self-seeking feelings or expectations.

6. For those already divorced, help them rebuild their spiritual, emotional, and family lives with the loving care and Christian standards of the church supporting them.

Things not to do or say:

1. Resist the urge to designate villains and victims or to take sides. Although fault may not be equal, it takes two people to make a marriage crisis.

2. Do not assume the responsibility to patch up the marriage. Only the couple can rebuild their relationship.

3. Do not condemn. People with faltering or fallen marriages know their failures and are loaded with guilt.

4. Do not underestimate the potential for violence in a domestic quarrel. Use caution entering a marital fight in progress.

5. Be cautious of unhealthy attractions or dependencies that can form between you and a counselee.

Proof of Evolution That You [Can't] Find on Your Body"

Anatomist, biologist, and creation scientist Dr. David Menton responds to popular YouTube video ‘Proof of Evolution That You Can Find on Your Body’ (posted by VOX) from a biblical and scientific worldview. Are certain features like goosebumps, of the human body really just left over from our ancestors?

Why Christians Have to Talk about Hell

The clip below is taken from Russell Moore's address at the 2016 Driven By Truth conference hosted at SBTS:



For better understanding on the doctrine of hell, the following concise entry on 'Hell' from J. I. Packer's Concise Theology: A Guide to Historic Christian Beliefs, is particularly helpful.

The sentimental secularism of modern Western culture, with its exalted optimism about human nature, its shrunken idea of God, and its skepticism as to whether personal morality really matters—in other words, its decay of conscience—makes it hard for Christians to take the reality of hell seriously. The revelation of hell in Scripture assumes a depth of insight into divine holiness and human and demonic sinfulness that most of us do not have. However, the doctrine of hell appears in the New Testament as a Christian essential, and we are called to try to understand it as Jesus and his apostles did.

The New Testament views hell (Gehenna, as Jesus calls it, the place of incineration, Matt. 5:22; 18:9) as the final abode of those consigned to eternal punishment at the Last Judgment (Matt. 25:41–46; Rev. 20:11–15). It is thought of as a place of fire and darkness (Jude 7, 13), of weeping and grinding of teeth (Matt. 8:12; 13:42, 50; 22:13; 24:51; 25:30), of destruction (2 Thess. 1:7–9; 2 Pet. 3:7; 1 Thess. 5:3), and of torment (Rev. 20:10; Luke 16:23)—in other words, of total distress and misery. If, as it seems, these terms are symbolic rather than literal (fire and darkness would be mutually exclusive in literal terms), we may be sure that the reality, which is beyond our imagining, exceeds the symbol in dreadfulness. New Testament teaching about hell is meant to appall us and strike us dumb with horror, assuring us that, as heaven will be better than we could dream, so hell will be worse than we can conceive. Such are the issues of eternity, which need now to be realistically faced.

The concept of hell is of a negative relationship to God, an experience not of his absence so much as of his presence in wrath and displeasure. The experience of God’s anger as a consuming fire (Heb. 12:29), his righteous condemnation for defying him and clinging to the sins he loathes, and the deprivation of all that is valuable, pleasant, and worthwhile will be the shape of the experience of hell (Rom. 2:6, 8–9, 12). The concept is formed by systematically negating every element in the experience of God’s goodness as believers know it through grace and as all mankind knows it through kindly providences (Acts 14:16–17; Ps. 104:10–30; Rom. 2:4). The reality, as was said above, will be more terrible than the concept; no one can imagine how bad hell will be.

Scripture envisages hell as unending (Jude 13; Rev. 20:10). Speculations about a “second chance” after death, or personal annihilation of the ungodly at some stage, have no biblical warrant.

Scripture sees hell as self-chosen; those in hell will realize that they sentenced themselves to it by loving darkness rather than light, choosing not to have their Creator as their Lord, preferring self-indulgent sin to self-denying righteousness, and (if they encountered the gospel) rejecting Jesus rather than coming to him (John 3:18–21; Rom. 1:18, 24, 26, 28, 32; 2:8; 2 Thess. 2:9–11). General revelation confronts all mankind with this issue, and from this standpoint hell appears as God’s gesture of respect for human choice. All receive what they actually chose, either to be with God forever, worshiping him, or without God forever, worshiping themselves. Those who are in hell will know not only that for their doings they deserve it but also that in their hearts they chose it.

The purpose of Bible teaching about hell is to make us appreciate, thankfully embrace, and rationally prefer the grace of Christ that saves us from it (Matt. 5:29–30; 13:48–50). It is really a mercy to mankind that God in Scripture is so explicit about hell. We cannot now say that we have not been warned.

The Universe Had a Beginning

In this excerpt from his message at the Ligonier 2012 National Conference, Dr. Stephen Meyer tells the story of how Hubble showed Einstein that the universe was not eternal but must have had a beginning.

Genesis 1

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.

Then God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” God made the expanse, and separated the waters which were below the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse; and it was so. God called the expanse heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day.

Then God said, “Let the waters below the heavens be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so. God called the dry land earth, and the gathering of the waters He called seas; and God saw that it was good. Then God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit after their kind with seed in them”; and it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit with seed in them, after their kind; and God saw that it was good. There was evening and there was morning, a third day.

Then God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years; and let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so. God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; He made the stars also. God placed them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, and to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good. There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.

Then God said, “Let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the heavens.” God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind; and God saw that it was good. God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” There was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.

Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth after their kind”; and it was so. God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind; and God saw that it was good.

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Then God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you; and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to every thing that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food”; and it was so. God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

Listen Up: How to Get the Most Out of a Sermon

There are a great many books written about how to preach, but not so many written on how to listen to sermons. And yet, the primacy and importance of preaching is well known and attested in the scriptures. It pleases God to use preaching, by the power of the Holy Spirit, and the blessing of Christ, to shape and strengthen the faith of Christians and to oblige us to obedience.

It is very easy to slip into what Scripture calls “dullness of hearing,” to hear the weekly sermons without faith, and to see little or no moral fruit in our lives as a result. As Jesus makes clear, ultimately it is how we hear that reveals who we are (John 8:43, 47, 10:4, 27). Here are some practical helps for becoming a better sermon listener during corporate worship. 

Before the sermon:

1. If you feed on God's word during the week you will be better fed on Sunday. It's a simple principle - if you've kept your mind in the scriptures during the week, the mind (and heart) will be warmed and ready to better receive the word on Sunday. The opposite is true - if your mind has fasted from the scripture during the week, the mind and heart will be cold on Sunday, and not as apt to glean deeper truths from the word. Action step: be in God's word during the week!
2. Prepare your heart. Getting the most out of a sermon will not happen because the preacher injects the word into your heart and mind as you sit passively and unresponsively  - quite the contrary. It will happen as you prepare your heart for what you are about to receive. Fan your desire for the sermon on Sunday with preparation. Action step: By Saturday evening our thoughts should begin turning towards the Lord's Day. If possible, you should read through the Bible passage that is scheduled for preaching. You should also be sure to get enough sleep. Then in the morning your first prayers should be directed to public worship, and especially to the preaching of God's Word.

During the sermon:

1. Bring a Bible and use it during the sermon. In the church I serve, we use multimedia a lot and so it's not really necessary to use your Bible during the sermon because the scriptures are projected. However, I don't think this is necessarily a good thing. Oftentimes we pretend that we know the Bible so well that we do not need to look at the passage being preached. But this is a mistake. Even if we have the passage memorized, there are always new things we can learn by seeing the biblical text on the page. It only stands to reason that we profit most from sermons when our Bibles are open, not closed. Having your Bible open and using it helps check the preacher and his sermon work, too - like the Berea's (Acts 17:11). Also, it is very encouraging for a preacher to hear the rustling of pages as his congregation turns to a passage in unison. It tells him how engaged they are with the scriptures (a sign of spiritual maturity) Action step: bring and use your Bible.
2. Really listen to the sermon. Listening to a sermon--really listening--takes more than our minds. It also requires hearts that are receptive to the influence of God's Spirit. Something important happens when we hear a good sermon:God speaks to us. Through the inward ministry of his Holy Spirit, He uses his Word to calm our fear, comfort our sorrow, disturb our conscience, expose our sin, proclaim God's grace, and reassure us in the faith. But these are all affairs of the heart, not just matters of the mind, so listening to a sermon can never be merely an intellectual exercise. We need to receive biblical truth in our hearts, allowing what God says to influence what we love, what we desire, and what we praise. Action step: actively listen to the sermon with heart and mind.
3. Take notes. I provide our congregation with a sermon handout. It has all the scriptures I reference and the major points of the sermon. Sometimes, I even provide a discussion guide on the back for deeper consideration of the message. Taking notes, even if minimally done, helps engage the mind and active learning and listening. Action step: purchase a notebook to take regular sermon notes.

After the sermon:

1. Talk about the sermon with others. At lunch after corporate worship, share what you learned and what the Lord spoke to you through the sermon, with others. Action step: make the "processing" of the sermon a communal affair - perhaps with family or friends at the meal.
2. Put the sermon into action. Hopefully, the preacher has given you applications and directed some action for you that arose from the sermon. Reflect immediately after the sermon on how you might put this word into practice. Action step: consider this action during the remaining part of the Lord's Day and how to implement it on Monday.
3. Pray. Pray for the Lord's blessing on the word preached and how it has already and will further affect your life.  Action step: pray!